This past Wednesday night in the YouthRoom was powerful! We came to a short and simple passage that at first didn’t seem like it was going to impact us so powerfully, but it sure did.
Our text was Mark 2:13-17.
This is the passage where Jesus calls Matthew to be His follower. Now this Mark text along with Luke’s teach us that Jesus calls Levi here. But the parallel passage in Matthew clearly shows us that Levi was called Matthew too. Levi is Matthew and Matthew is Levi. They are the same person.
What is so powerful about this passage is that Levi is a tax collector. He is most likely, a fairly successful and prestigious man. So far, all the other disciples have been fishermen which tend to be uneducated common people.
This got us to thinking…Who can come to Christ? Are there any limits? Is anyone restricted from coming to Jesus in saving faith?
So I asked the youth…Can nerds be saved? Can preps be saved? Do you have to be smart to believe? Do you have to be able to read to believe in Jesus? Do you have to be a “good kid”? Do you have to be a “goody goody” to follow Jesus? Can an outsider be saved? Who can be saved? Who cannot be saved? What then does it take? Or who can be saved?
These are the questions we were discussing through this text in Mark 2.
After Jesus called Levi, they went back to Levi’s home and had dinner together with some of Levi’s friends who were also tax collectors and sinners. Of course, when the legalistic hyper-religious pharisees saw Jesus having dinner with sinners, they couldnt stand it. They went crazy.
They asked the question “Why does He eat with them?”
To which Jesus answers one of the most simple but powerful truths in the Bible “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
So to the youth, that’s who can believe…be saved… and follow Christ — sinners. Simple as that! Jesus didn’t come to find the godly. He didn’t come to find Christians. He came to find His lost people and then change their hearts. He came to save His people.
So we concluded in the YouthRoom by stating that the Gospel changes people. And anyone can be changed by the power of the Gospel.
I encouraged the youth with this…their youth pastor is not here in fairdale looking for the best kids. I’m not looking for the best-dressed, the prettiest, the most polite, the kindest, the most respectful, or the coolest. All those things are well and good. They just aren’t the focus of the Gospel. We at FBCF in the youth ministry aren’t looking for any of those things. Nope. We are looking all throughout Fairdale for the kids that God’s is saving and for the kids who want to know and follow hard after Christ.
Now, thats exciting! Who can come to Christ? Anyone. And I mean anyone! There are no restrictions. So, leave your old life, forsake your sins, and lets go follow Jesus!