Keith Battle - Divine Interruptions - Part 4

We’ve been in a series called «Divine Interruptions: Leaving Your Living,» and today is part four. If you’re with us for the first time, do not be alarmed; you won’t be lost at all. Each part can be followed independently, and there is a different focus in each segment. Therefore, having missed parts one, two, and three will not impact you negatively. However, if you would like to catch up on the material, you can visit our YouTube page or our church website to access the previous content whenever you have time; it’s available 24 hours a day.

To give you a brief recap of how this all started, we began looking at a passage in Matthew chapter 4, verses 18 to 22, when Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and saw two sets of brothers. I’ll provide the abbreviated version: He saw them engaged in their work as fishermen, making a living. While they were doing their job, Jesus interrupted them and said, «Follow me.» They left everything to follow Him. We spent the first couple of weeks navigating through that passage in Matthew 4:18–20, as well as Mark 1:16–20, which shares that story. We sought to find practical applications from these scriptures, and it was profoundly disruptive in a good sense, as many people part of this church and those who tune in feel similarly: «God just interrupted me; I feel like He’s calling me. I feel challenged to leave my living, to step out of my comfort zone, and do something I’ve been feeling called to do.»

We spent the first two parts of the series on this theme, and in part three last week, we looked at another person called to leave his living: Levi, whose story is found in Luke 5:27–32. In this passage, Levi was working as a tax collector when Jesus came by and told him, «Follow me.» He left everything to follow Jesus. I want to emphasize one more detail about that passage that I didn’t feel I highlighted last week. This week, we will focus on Luke chapter 5, the first 11 verses. The synoptic gospels—by definition, Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are called synoptic gospels. «Syn» means together, or the same, and «optic» means to see. This means that these three books of the Bible tend to present things similarly, and a significant portion of the content in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is very similar. Therefore, I don’t want to present only Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of the scene where Jesus begins recruiting His team. I also want to examine Luke’s account because he provides some interesting information that ties the whole story together.

But before we dive into Luke 5:1-11, where we will focus today, let’s start with Luke 5:27–32. This is where I want to revisit Levi for a moment. It says, «Later, as Jesus left the town, He saw a tax collector named Levi (who is also Matthew, by the way) sitting at his tax collector’s booth. He said to him, 'Follow me and be my disciple.' So Levi got up, left everything, and followed Him.»

This is where I want you to focus: «Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor, and many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’s disciples, 'Why do you eat and drink with such scum? '» Jesus answered them, «Healthy people don’t need a doctor; sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.»

Now, here’s what I want you to understand. For those of you who are still wrestling with the question: What is the point of me leaving my living? Can’t I just serve the Lord and honor Him where I am and try to do both? Some of you want to juggle this arrangement until you die, attempting to do a little of what you’re called to do and a little of what makes you money. Here’s something that might motivate you: there’s an evangelistic side to leaving your living. What does that mean? This is my first point: the evangelistic aspect. When Levi left his living and started following Jesus, he was later able to introduce his colleagues, the people he worked with and rubbed shoulders with, to Jesus. He held a banquet in his house where Jesus was the guest of honor. The whole purpose of inviting his so-called «scum» friends to this gathering was so they could meet the One who had changed his life. That’s the essence of evangelism—these people were exposed to Jesus in a way they would not have otherwise experienced.