Why is the Church Important?

All of us are probably familiar with the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. It’s a poem. It goes,

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.”

Today we would say that the king’s horses and men had a great dilemma as a result of this great fall. This egg-man was scattered and shattered and nobody could fix it. All the king’s horses were called. Today we would say that Humpty Dumpty had the White House, the Congress, the military and any other human power and authority you could think of trying to help. He was crying out, “I need help! I can’t fix what’s wrong with me! I’m all broken and scattered. I’m shattered!”

The tragedy of the story is that while he called on all human powers to try to bring him back together, they couldn’t. It would appear that Mr. Dumpty had no Biblically-functioning church available to help him. He didn’t hear about or know about Jesus in order to call on Him.

It’s one thing when it’s a character in a nursery rhyme when he can’t find the help he needs to repair his shattered world, even though he’s called on all the best that man has to offer, the highest authorities in the culture. But it’s another thing when it’s no longer a nursery rhyme, and it’s in the real world. When people find their lives shattered only to discover, as they attempt to call on all the king’s men, so to speak, and the human institutions of power and influence, that they can’t fix man’s deepest need and most difficult problem.

The reality is that we elected Trump, who is saying that he’s going to fix this and that. He may be able to fix some stuff, but nobody can fix what’s wrong with the human heart except Jesus Christ.

You need to believe that, because that is where the church comes in. The world would reject this, but we, as the church, are the most important institution on earth. The church, and only the church—you and me, not the building—has been commissioned by our Creator, by God Himself, to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). And then we are to share Jesus: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and “Make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).

The all-powerful God, in His sovereignty as Creator, King and Lord, has given to us the task of not only preaching the Gospel but making disciples, maturing believers to make the best use of their giftings and callings and spiritual potential, so they can go out into the world to preach the Gospel.

As the church goes, so goes everything else. God designed the church to be the epicenter of culture. The church’s strength—or weakness—is a major, determining factor in the success—or failure—of human civilization. When the church is strong, the culture is impacted positively, even if the powers that be in a particular place don’t realize that impact and attempt to disregard, discount or just call us a bunch of names, like “Bible-thumpers,” and mock us, persecute us and harass us. The culture deteriorates when the church is weak. Its influence deteriorates, and as a result, the culture goes along with it.

It is important to understand our importance, as the church of Jesus Christ, on our culture. Jesus called His people to be “salt,” to be “light,” to be “a city that is set on a hill” (Matthew 5:13-14). Understanding the nature of the church and our mission is even more important for spiritual reasons, because the purpose of the church is to fulfill our God-given task of maturing believers, who then can go out and reach the lost and make more maturing believers by preaching the Gospel.

And when the church is strong and its members recognize, through the teaching and preaching of the Word and its exemplification of that, their eternal purpose, then the church moves forward and grows. When the church is weak and people wander around in confusion and aren’t really clear about their calling and what their spiritual journey is in this life, or the reason we are left here on planet earth, then the culture is impacted negatively. We see that all around us presently.

My desire and prayer in our time together is to gain a greater understanding of what we are as the church and what our purpose is. Instead of being a bunch of Humpty Dumptys among Humpty Dumptys lying in ruins with no help and no hope, we will become greater, more impactful followers of Jesus Christ.

Why? Because God has called us to that. We are to reach the masses. We are to seek to restore those who have strayed away. Sort of being an “Amber alert” for anyone who is far from God. We need to have that on our radar. Jesus said that the reason He left heaven and came to earth was to find and rescue missing persons. Luke 19:10 says, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Is that what you are doing?

In our text we see that Jesus has already found His first disciples. The men He found to follow Him were four fishermen named Peter, Andrew, James and John. He invited them to follow Him and they did. He also told them that He wanted them to quit fishing for fish and to start fishing for men.

Now the question that arises out of that is, “What does fishing for men look like?” What kind of fish were they to go after, and how were they to be impactful in that endeavor? What the disciples were about to learn here shocked their system and upended their tradition.

Luke 5:27-32 says, “After these things, He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ 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. And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘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.’”

Jesus has already told His new friends what they are to do. And now here in our text, He models how we are to do it. How is that? First, we see here that we are to ask everyone to follow Jesus. How do I know that? Because it says in verse 27, “After these things…” After what? In context, it was after He had healed the lame man. And the Pharisees were always around to try to trap and discredit Jesus.

The story is that the friends of this lame man let him down on a stretcher through the roof of a house. They tore off the roof in order to do it. Jesus was preaching and this man comes down in front of Him lowered on a stretcher by his friends. I’m sure that would be an interesting thing to see in the midst of a church service. The house was so crowded they couldn’t get their friend in to Jesus. But they wouldn’t be stopped.

I like friends like that. And we need to be friends like that; friends who care enough about people to go to any length to reach them for Jesus, to have His touch and heal them and to change their lives.

That’s what these friends did. And when the friends lowered him down and asked for Jesus’ healing, Jesus said, “Man, your sin are forgiven you” (Luke 5:20). That was it. Nothing else was to happen. The greatest healing is that of having your sins forgiven, because that guarantees eternal life.

Like Lazarus, you might think it’s great to be raised from the dead. That would be exhilarating, I’m sure. But Lazarus had to go back and die again. Yet the thing about salvation when you receive Christ and your sins are forgiven is that you are headed for heaven eternally. That lasts forever.

So this man’s sins were forgiven, and Jesus obviously considered that a healing. Then the Pharisees said, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21). Then Jesus straightened them out; He said, “Which is easier to say, ‘Yours sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…’ in other words, He is God Himself “…He said to the man who was paralyzed, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house’” (Luke 5:23-24). Then the man got up and walked out.

This is what had happened previously. Then in verse 26 of our text, it says that “They were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today!’”

So here Jesus does this miracle, and then “after these things,” He went out and saw a tax collector. They were thinking that this was just a normal day; He had done that healing, and they were probably scratching their heads and amazed as well. And the Pharisees were still dogging Jesus; they were still around.

But on their journey to wherever they were headed, the disciples and Jesus passed by a tax booth. I’m sure it was one they had passed by many times before. But unlike Jesus, they didn’t stop to consider the man in that tax booth. In fact, they didn’t much like the man in that tax booth. But Jesus approached things differently, because He looked straight at this man; Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, who would have despised Him previously, “saw” him. The word “saw” here is a strong word. It means “to stare at, to focus on deliberately.” In other words, Jesus didn’t just glance at the tax collector; He stopped and stared and focused on this man deliberately.

Have you ever felt before like someone was staring at you? You could feel them staring at you. I’m sure that’s the way Levi felt at this point. There is no question that Levi, with the popularity of Jesus being spread about, knew who He was. Then Jesus spoke to him, which is the last thing that Levi ever thought would happen. That’s because Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. And this was radical to His followers, to these disciples who were already with Him.

It was radical because in first century Palestine, the word “disciple” didn’t mean the same thing it does today. When we think about a disciple, we think of it as a student in a school who learns lessons from a teacher. But back then, it meant an intern. A disciple wasn’t just someone who would learn a skill and gather information; it was someone who learned a way of life. Jesus didn’t say, “Learn from Me”; He said, “Follow Me.” This would change Levi’s life. Jesus didn’t just want to change the way Levi thought; He wanted to change the way he lived.

And there was something even more amazing, both to Levi and the disciples. As a rabbi, Jesus would not have asked someone to follow Him. They would have to sign up and be assigned to and accepted by a rabbi. Students would ask the rabbi if they could become their disciple. And in order to follow a particular rabbi, in that day, you had to apply. You had to meet certain standards in order to be considered. You had to have a certain GPA and a good transcript. You were expected to have a thorough knowledge of the first five books of the Law. And you might even be asked to recite certain books to even be considered.

So the selection was intense and meticulous. It was pain staking. And rabbis wouldn’t just let anybody follow them and join their group; they wanted quality disciples, so they could become more popular. So they were looking for quality men.

Jesus did something, as a rabbi, that in that day was unheard of. Rabbis would never have done that nor thought about doing it. What Jesus did was to ask the men to follow Him; they didn’t have to apply. No application needed, just an invitation.

The disciples didn’t understand it initially, but they would eventually. What Jesus was doing with Levi was exactly what He wanted them to do—and us—with others.

The business of the church and the business of every follower of Christ is reaching out and discipling lost men and women. Our job, as we go about our daily lives, is to be looking for the lost and inviting them to follow Jesus. Why? Because we see here that everybody is invited.

And secondly what we see here in our text is that anybody can follow Jesus. If the fact that Jesus, as a rabbi and just randomly inviting people to become His disciples, was not enough to shock these poor fishermen, the next breaking of tradition was really going to blow their minds. The second thing we learn here is that we are to accept anyone willing to follow Jesus. The first commandment that Jesus ever gave to anyone was the simplest command He ever gave. It consisted of “Follow Me.”

Jesus’ method is strange to the traditions of the day. But what was even stranger than the invitation here was who He invited. Verse 27 says, “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.”

It was radical enough that Jesus chose His disciples rather than having them choose Him. But when you look at the list of people that Jesus chose as His disciples, none of them would have been on the Who’s Who list or the launch team. There wasn’t a Biblical scholar among them. None of the 12 He chose were people who were unusual in the sense of necessarily being highly intellectual. These people who He chose, one of them being a tax collector—that was radical in the minds of these disciples.

There was a prejudice and a hatred people had for tax collectors; specially in this situation, against Levi, a Jewish boy who had grown to become one who was considered a traitor and was hated by the Jews and ostracized from his family. Tax collectors in that day had an unlimited authority to charge a tax in any amount they wanted. And it hasn’t changed a lot over the years, by the way. He could pocket the profit. And there was nothing that one could do about it. If you couldn’t pay your tax, the tax collector was authorized to loan you money at whatever interest rate he desired to charge. You could pay him back, but if you were unable to, he could take everything you owned, sell it and keep the proceeds for himself. It was the first case in history of taxation without representation. So we see here that Jesus went to this hated and despised tax collector, especially hated by the Jews.

Levi was a lost man. I’m sure when his parents named him, being good, Jewish mother and father, they had to disown him eventually. They had high hopes for this third son of Jacob’s namesake. Levi was from the priestly tribe. From the time he was born, no doubt this tax collector’s parents had high hopes for their son; that one day he would serve in the temple of the Lord as a priest. They intended, no doubt, for him to go to Bible college and seminary and to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps in that priestly line.

But we don’t know what happened; we’re not told how he ended up as a tax collector. Yet we are told that he came from a good home with good parents, who were good Jews. Somehow he got off track, this son of his parents.

And for any Jewish man to abandon his heritage and become a Roman tax collector was bad enough. But for one who was of the tribe of Levi, it was beyond comprehension. Levi was one who was spit on, harassed, mocked and threatened by the Jews.

So when Levi saw Jesus approaching in His rabbi robes, he probably thought that Jesus was going to say something sarcastic or curse at him. But how surprised Levi must have been when Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” And how surprised were the disciples that this traitor was invited to follow Jesus!

It’s interesting who the people are that Jesus calls to follow Him. His choice is amazing. When you look at the list of the 12 Apostles, you find, in Luke 6:15, “Simon called the Zealot.” So you have fishermen, a tax collector and a Zealot. A Zealot was on the other end of the spectrum from Levi, the tax collector. Simon was a freedom fighter, a terrorist. If you wanted to hire someone to murder Levi, it would be a Zealot. Simon would have been your man.

And in this band of brothers, it’s interesting that you’ve got a tax collector on one hand and a terrorist on the other hand. Not only does Jesus ask the least likely and the least lovely people to follow Him and bring them into the family; He even has a unique way of bringing them together.

Can you imagine the conversation? Jesus would say, “Simon, you’re a Zealot, a freedom fighter, a terrorist. You despise Romans and traitorous tax collectors. But will you follow Me?”

“Yes, Lord; I’ll follow You.”

Then He would say, “Levi, you’re a traitor, a tax collector. Will you follow Me?”

“Yes, Lord; I’ll follow You.”

“That’s great. Simon, you’re rooming with Levi.” Hasn’t God brought some interesting people together?

If you knew the background of everyone who sat next to you in church, you might move your seat. If you knew their criminal record or what was going on or where they came from, you’d say, “Wow! I can’t believe it!” You’d say that because God has changed them. Maybe you used to be a big thug, but now you’re a big teddy bear. Now you just hug people. If they knew what you were, they might back off.

I like the way God brings together people from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds. And by His Spirit, He brings life changes; we love one another, we pray for one another, we’re there for one another to care for one another.

So in our text we see that everyone is invited; no one is excluded. And anyone can follow Jesus. So we are to ask anyone, we are to accept anyone.

And third, we are to associate with those who don’t follow Jesus. Levi, the tax collector, left a well-paying job that would have set him up for life. And what he did after he left his job and followed Jesus was he decided to throw a party, verse 29. “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.” As a result of the change in Levi’s heart, he throws a party and invites the lost, the perverts, the messed up, the hated tax collectors, the dejected, the outcasts. Lost people usually hang out with lost people. So Levi decided because of what Jesus had done for him, he wanted to invite these guys out to meet Jesus.

That’s what we are called to do. When we accepted the call to follow Jesus, we weren’t called to isolation; we were called to association. We have been called not to avoid the lost but to go fishing for them. We are to seek them out, to find them, to invite them. Both by what we say and the way we behave, by our actions, we are to be those who invite them to follow Jesus. We aren’t to live like the lost, but we are to love the lost and reach out to them.

Catch this scene: we have this big party going on with the most despised, low-life people, people who may be the scariest in activity in all of Israel, and Jesus is right in the middle of them. That is so important. We, once we get saved, tend to hang out only in the “holy huddle” of our Christian friends. How do you get to know people? Go to a restaurant with them. “But I’ve got my group.” We’ve got to stay out of that mentality. You’re never going to reach the loss if you don’t associate with them.

You may say, “I don’t see many people come to Christ as a result of my life.” Well, are you reaching out to people with the love of Jesus? Are you spending time with them? Are you praying?

Do you know who dislikes lost-people parties? Do you know who dislikes this kind of gathering? It’s the Pharisees, verse 30. “And their scribes and the Pharisees complained…” as a result of Jesus hanging out with these low-life tax collectors “…against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’”

Jesus gives them the message; He tells them why. Verse 31, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.’” The older we get in the Lord, we have to be careful of this Pharisee mentality, that we don’t allow this to be part of our life.

You can get religious, and there are religious people in every church. But they generally are the most judgmental people. Their attitude is, “How dare you ask us good people to hang out with or spend time with those bad people!” It’s because Jesus said they’re “sick.” They need help. And the religious fanatics in our text were further from God than those they thought were the farthest from God.

There are two types of people in this story. There were the people who thought Jesus was too good for them, and there were the people who thought they were too good for Jesus. The first group became His followers. The second group became failures. There is only one qualification to become a follower of Jesus: you have to realize you’re a sinner in need of a Savior.

How are you doing?
The number one reason why people don’t come to Christ is because they don’t realize that they’re spiritually sick. And it’s important that they realize that.

Many of us won’t go to a doctor when we’re sick. But if you realize you’re sick when you get sick, then you realize you need a doctor. And if you don’t want to get sick, you need a doctor. We need to be those who recognize that when we share with people, they need to see Jesus and see, in their own life, their need for Him. Many times when you talk to people about Jesus, their response is, “I’m a good person; I don’t need Jesus.” But they’re sick; they just don’t realize it. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Everyone. There’s not one person on planet earth who is not in need of a Savior, who is not a sinner.

And we need to live in such a way that they can see that. That’s why God has called us to lead holy lives, to be set apart, to become like Christ.

The bottom line is, who is invited to follow Jesus? Who are we to invite to follow Jesus while we’re out fishing? People make excuses. “Well, I have a sexual past.”

“You’re invited to follow Jesus. It doesn’t matter.”

“I have a jail record.

“You’re invited to follow Jesus.”

“I’ve been divorced.”

“You’re invited.”

“I’m a recovering alcoholic.”

“Guess what! You’re invited. Follow Jesus. He can fix that.”

“I’m a pothead, a porn addict or a hypocrite.”

“Great. You can follow Jesus too!”

“I struggle with same-sex attraction.”

“Guess what! You’re not excluded! You can follow Jesus.”

When you make the choice; He will change you. You make the choice, and He will change you. You don’t have to change to make the choice, because you can’t change. You need to be saved. You need to put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ.

And you need to understand what that requires. It first of all requires your confession; that you are a sinner. Then you have to repent.

I see that here in Levi. Verse 28, “So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.” Levi lost everything when he followed Jesus. It cost him. And it will cost you everything. But refusing to follow Jesus costs you more.

Think about this: if this man Levi had said “No” to Jesus, he most likely would have died a very wealthy man but gone to hell for all eternity. We would never have read about him. But because he chose to follow Jesus, He changed Levi’s name to Matthew, which literally means “gift of God.” Matthew went on to write one of the Gospels, and people today name their sons after him.

Have you discovered today that “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” human institutions, power and influence can’t fix your deepest problem and meet your deepest needs?

That’s where the church comes in; the church is the most important institution on earth. The church, and only the church, has been commissioned by the sovereign Lord to be His representative agency in history. We are to “Go into all the world,” and people need to see Jesus in our lives. And the best that this world has to offer you, compared to what Jesus has—Jesus gives us so much more.

So when it comes to the importance of the church, don’t let the world silence you; stand up and continue. “But nobody’s coming!” Keep preaching! Stand up; don’t shut up. And we’re to accept anyone willing to follow Jesus, so associate with those who don’t follow Him. Pray for them.

Pray for your loved ones. Talk to them. Invite them for the holidays. “The fields are…already ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). And we are to go preach and make disciples, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). You’ll never go alone in that task.