But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise “ - Wednsday evening Study..Luke 5 - Notes

Luke 5........... A relatively brief but fascinating chapter..

A synopsis …

On the lake of galilee Jesus preformed yet another miracle and offered Simon Peter, James and John, (sons of Zebedee) the opportunity to follow him into discipleship.. The promise from Jesus was that he would make them fishers of men…It says And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him. They gave up their livelihood to follow Jesus.. 3 lowly fisherman who had a bad day fishing were revived and elevated in that moment and compelled to follow Jesus Christ.. to become henceforth fishers of men.. Never in their wildest dreams would they have dared dream such a thing could happen to them…

In Luke 5 , verses 12 -15 we are witness to the healing of a leper who was told..tell no man but go show yourself to the priest…and cleanse thyself according to the law of Moses… Confounding the priest once again as he is witness to the miracle of Jesus and cannot deny the healed man before him…

The man with palsy brought to Jesus by his friends was healed not of his faith but by the faith of his friends who brought him there.. An interesting point to ponder… We can impact the lives of others by faith in Jesus and loyalty and love for our brethren….

And then there is Levi the tax collector who is later to be call Matthew.. A man of means who left everything to include his friends, which were counted as few since tax collectors were hated.. Jesus chose a thief, and traitor to his people.. why???

And lastly in verses 36 -39 we are reminded that Jesus did not come to fit in or repair the Jewish Law.. As you cannot put new wine in old wineskins as they will burst Jesus does not seek to fit himself into the old system but to start anew… It is a beginning of a unforgettable journey in the quest to spread the good news ..the teachings of Jesus Christ… among Jews and Gentiles alike..

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I am frequently amazed by the people that God choses to do his bidding…To do his work…

I love watching the people, so to speak, the variety with which God builds his kingdom… For example look at the cast of characters in our little bible study here.. How different we are from one another..and yet with different backgrounds, different interests, from different parts of the world, the Lord saves us and brings us together to do a common work.. we are going to see , and begin with actually, the calling of Matthew the tax collector followed by the calling of disciples to become apostles in a work that is ahead of us this evening.. But I open with those remarks because I think specifically , not only of these disciples here, but those disciples of Jesus..

In my high school and in most other schools, in my day, there was a section in the yearbook for the most notable people.. those folks most likely to succeed.. I was not in that group.. In fact I may have made the page of least likely to succeed.. and it seems to me as though when we look at the Lord’s chosen ones they seem that they would be in that little slot also.. least likely to succeed…Its as though God went out of his way to select the most unsavoury , weirdest characters, especially when put together, ..A zealot and a tax collector in the same group??? They would draw blood.. Fisherman, some competing groups of fisherman from the same area ..

The basis of God’s choice is out of 1st Corinthians ,chapter 1. This is the basis for God’’s choice.. Paul says “ You see your calling brethren, how that not many mighty, not many noble, after the flesh are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise “… ahhh Now these chapters make sense.. when I realized that that’s the basis for God’s choice…The foolish things of this world to confound the wise…Then I would say well Peter would be a good one for that….And so would Simon the Zelot..so would Thomas and James…and James and John.. throw them in as well..surely unlikely to succeed…the foolish things..the weak things confound those who are mighty..To use a term that I have used before the choices are counterintuitive… Not just here but throughout scripture…The Father of Faith..Abram….the father of those who believe and yet he had a lapse of faith..At least 2x it is recorded that he got scared and dared not believe…and yet God gives him the title Father of the Faith…To whom or whom was it that God chose to be the vocal representative of the children of Israel before Pharaoh…A man with a speech impediment….If God wanted them to depend on him and not rely on their own strength of which they were deficient…That’s indeed a beautiful thing.It certainly was a test in faith.A choice that would confuse and confound the wise man..Another one that comes to mind is a guy by the name of Gideon who was one of the judges of Israel ..He was so scared of the Midianites he wouldn’t thresh wheat on the hill , on the threshing floor, where the winds would blow and separate the chaff from the wheat…He was too scared that the enemy would see him that he threshed his wheat down below in the valley where the winepress was..The problem with that there was no wind down there to separate the wheat which is why the threshing floor was located on the hill to start with…You see you would throw up the wheat and the wind would blow the lighter chaff away and the heaver wheat would fall to the ground.. It was a natural separator…But what was is even funnier is that an angel comes and sees Gideon doing this and calls him a mighty man of valour…I don’t know if it was a joke or he was seeing the potential in him…But that is like the Lord, is it not, to see beyond what we are and visualize what we can become once he gets a hold of our lives.. and breathes into us and inspires us..and uses us by his spirit for his glory..That what he sees and this vision is supported all through the scriptures..If you think about it ,any great artist does that..A great artist doesn’t see a block of wood or stone..He sees the finished product in it..what it can become once his hands touch it.. So I believe this was the case with Matthew the tax collector , whose given name was Levi, ..He goes by Matthew in the book of Matthew but he is called by his birth name here in this chapter.. and he was also from the tribe of Levi…And Jesus comes and calls him.. Chapter 5 verse 27,”After these things he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office ..and he said to him follow me ..and so he left all, rose up and followed him.. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house.. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them..” He was a tax collector which means he was hated in those days.. Even now we dislike the tax man but then they had even more power in those days and there was not legal recourse against them since they were collecting at the behest of Rome… they were considered to be the scum of the earth.. But because he was called Levi we can infer that he had a religious background of some form or sort. I would guess from the tribe of Levi..so that maybe he was slated to go into the ministry as a Levite perhaps…But he took a wrong turn somewhere in the road and decided forget the ministry .. Thinking like many of us; I want to make a lot of money.. and the quickest way for Levi was to sell out to the Roman government.. and I can get my share.. But one day Jesus came into his life , and no doubt Matthew had already seen and heard of Jesus.. Jesus was working out of Capernaum where he lived…And there on that road the via Maris, the way of the sea that connects Egypt with Mesopotamia was the tax booth set up..So Jesus came by..saw him and said follow me.. Now he’s called Matthew the name Jesus gave to him.. It means the opposite of who he was as a tax collector.. a taker a robber, a thief.. Matthew means a” gift”….Jesus like a good artist saw the potential , what he was going to make him into..” I’m going to remake you and give you as a gift for my glory…this is a typical practice of Jesus to do AND HE WOULD RENAME MANY AS YOU KNOW.. James and John , sons of Zebedee, he renamed then Sons of Thunder.. He calls Simon ,Peter and Levi , Matthew….the gift.. he sees what he will be…

Referring to verse 29 Matthew through a great gathering in his house..He was a tax collecter so he probably made a lot of money and had an opulent lifestyle..and there were a great number of tax collectors.. He was a scoundrel who surrounded himself by scoundrels… and others who sat down with them”. And their scribes and Pharisees complained against his disciples saying ,why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Now honestly I don’t understand what the scribes and Pharisees were doing at this party to begin with…I’m guessing their either at the party or outside watching it happen ,. But it seems by the reading of that they’re at the party and I don’t know why they’re there…If I were Matthew I wouldn’t have them.. Maybe he wanted to have a little fun.. Maybe he wanted to mix a little bit because he knew that they hated the tax collectors so maybe he wanted to have a real fun time… Maybe thought I’ll just bring in the Pharisees in with the tax collectors and watch the sparks fly..I don’t know but the fireworks certainly happened…

Now.. to the Jews the act of eating a meal connoted real intimacy … You know the scripture in revelations chapter 3 verse 20.. Behold I stand at the door and knock,.If anyone will open the door and come in I will sup with them , eat with him and have the most intimate kind of fellowship together .. Because the belief is that if you eat some food, and I eat some food and you digest the food and I digest the food , its becoming part of our body ..We’re actually becoming a part of one another ..So to eat a meal together meant to share the deepest kind of intimacy..”why is your master and are you disciples sharing and having intimate contact with the worst of the worst..the scum of the earth..tax collectors.. people that sold out to the Roman government..and so it says , true to form..they complained….So why did Matthew throw the feast.. well.. t says that he threw it for Jesus…Sort of a fairwell meal and dinner for the sake of evangelism…It seems to me that Matthew wants to show his faith and show off his Lord to his friends…Hes leaving this lifestyle..leaving his friends..Leaving the area ..Hes going to be following Jesus..wherever Jesus goes…. The scribes and Pharisees would not have done that , of course…Compare Matthew’s style of evangelism to that of the scribes and Pharisees …Matthew wants to share his life with his friends.. How would they have done it…. Not at all…They did not think that gentiles, especially tax collectors , even jewish tax collectors.. people who had sold out to the gentile world system should be in your home breaking bread with you….So these folks did their evangelism by pointing a finger at the bad people…In truth it seems not a very effective way of evangelizing ….Matthew on the other hand.. I like it.. bringing people in..introducing them to Jesus…It is a beautiful style of evangelism…so Jesus answered them and said..”those who are well have no need of a physician…But those who are sick..I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance…Its an obvious point is it not? You can get saved like sick people get better. First you have to admit to a doctor that you are unwell…He then proceeds to treat you… As a sinner you admit to Jesus , the great physican, that you are in great need and you are in need of forgiveness and salvation. And he will dispence it to you freely by faith in him.. Then there are some people , maybe you can think of couple, their the kind that never like to admit their sick ..right?? how ru doing..fine fine..u feeling ok ..oh yes fine fine….. They never like to admit that there is something wrong with them…We have a name for these people..there called dead people eventually… And of course we have people who never like to admit their need to God.. We call them spiritually dead.. Paul said..” and you were dead in trespasses and sin…” Before there was a regeneration that took place ,that came through an act of faith , a work of god in your heart, .. Your faith causing the regeneration through the grace of God.. jesus said “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance..” See the gospel is not for people who think they are good , the gospel is for people who know they are bad.. Ever meet someone who say I can’t come to church because I am just too much.. hes a sinner’s sinner..or so he thinks… Well..brother you’re the one Jesus is looking for..the people who think their good enough can never even admit that they have a need… It only the unworthy ones, the down trodden, that person who knows that they are so worthless that god has forgotten them long ago… Their the one that Jesus came for !!! Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of god..”

Getting back to the feast the Pharisees said to him why do the disciples of John ( that would be John the Baptist) fast often and make prayers and likewise those of the Pharisees…but yours eat and drink…In the Jewish belief system fasting was not required except for once a year…That one day that it was required as to and I quote “afflict ones soul” was on the day of Yom Kippur the high holy day of atonement..However some of the more religious folk use to do it up to twice a week…On Mondays and on Thursdays ..Which were primarily done to attract attention to themselves in the market place…Remember the three pillars of Judaism where prayer, fasting and alms giving… but fasting was required but once per year…Jesus said “ Now is not the time for fasting it is the time for feasting .. But the time for feasting will be over and there will come a time for fasting.. Both are needed..

Ecclesiastes 3

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

We can harken unto Jesus choices. His reasoning for making these confounding choices. We can ponder how we fit into his choices as did Simon Peter and Matthew. His vision of the men that they would be allowed these men to be moulded in the way of Jesus.. It brings to mind Isaiah 64:8 “ But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”

We are thankful this evening Lord for the many blessings that has been bestowed upon us. We ask that like your disciples of old that we be moulded by your hand so that each day your vision of our very best selves will emerge more and more…We are grateful for the awareness brought about by the study of Luke 5 this week. We are grateful also for the scriptures and for our modest gathering and for the fellowship that we have together,each week. We pray for those in our midst tonight and those who could not be with us, who struggle either physically or spiritually that you give us strength and help us have the faith to accept your pathway for us. Help us Lord to walk in your example and allow your light to shine through us in our world…

We ask these things in Jesus’ name….

Amen