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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
As I point you today, to words of HOPE from God’s Word in the face of continual news from the global pandemic of COVID-19, may I offer you this weekend, these verses from Psalm 28. . .
“To YOU I call, O LORD my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if You remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.
Hear my cry for mercy as I call to YOU for help,
as I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place.” (Ps. 28:1,2)
Have you been calling out to God in these days of the global spread of Coronavirus COVID-19? What have you been asking of God, and what is your confidence that He is hearing your prayers? This Psalm opens with a desperate cry, and then closes with the confidence of God’s response.
“Praise be to the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.
The LORD is the strength of His people, a fortress of salvation for His anointed ones.
Save Your people and bless Your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever. (Ps. 28:6-9)
If there is nearly 1 Billion of us, people who have trusted in Jesus Christ for our salvation, and whom we follow as our Lord, oh my friends what a difference we should be making in our world nearly overwhelmed with fear, as we pray in confidence that our heavenly Father hears and cares, and as we receive His strength, His peace, and His guidance so we can make a difference in this time of global crisis.
May I share something I received from a friend who says it was written this week by a woman in NYC:
“We’ve all been exposed. Not necessarily to the virus, we’ve been exposed BY the virus.
Corona is exposing us. Exposing our weak sides. Exposing our dark sides. Exposing what normally lies far beneath the surface of our souls, hidden by the invisible masks we wear. Now exposed by the paper masks we can’t hide far enough behind.
Corona is exposing our addiction to comfort. Our obsession with control. Our compulsion to hoard. Our protection of self.
Corona is peeling back our layers. Tearing down our walls. Revealing our illusions. Leveling our best-laid plans.
Corona is exposing the gods we worship: Our health / Our hurry / Our sense of security / Our favorite lies / Our secret lusts / Our misplaced trusts.
Corona is calling everything into question: What is the church without a building? What is my worth without income? How do we plan without certainty? How do we love despite the risk?
Corona is exposing me. My mindless numbing / My endless scrolling / My careless words / My fragile nerves.
We’ve all been exposed. Our junk laid bare. Our fears made known. The band-aid torn. The masquerade done.
So what now? What’s left? Clean hands / Clear eyes / Tender hearts.
What Corona reveals, God can heal. Come Lord Jesus, have mercy on us.” (author unnamed)
How does your heart respond to these two ‘Psalms’? One written by David 3000 years ago, (Psalm 28) and one written by a modern day Psalmist, in New York City, in March of 2020? What does the Holy Spirit of God say to you this weekend, about your heart and your response to Corona?
These days we are traveling with Jesus toward Easter, now two weeks away. We’re in Mark chapter 2. Yesterday we were witness to a remarkable double-miracle in an overcrowded house, as a crippled man was lowered through the roof to Jesus, by friends who had great faith, that if they could only get their friend to Jesus, his life would be changed… and it was, dramatically and totally. For not only was the paralyzed man healed physically, and he walked out free from paralysis, but he was healed by Jesus spiritually, and he walked out free from his sin guilt! The eyewitnesses said ““We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:12)
Mark, Luke and Matthew all tell us that a few days later Jesus was again in this town of Capernaum and He approached a tax collectors booth. This tax collector is actually named… Levi son of Alphaeus. His name ‘Levi’ was highly revered among Jews, for the “Levites” were those who had from the days of Moses been privileged to care for the Tabernacle, (Numbers 3,4) and later the Temple. In fact Moses and Aaron we both Levites.
We can assume Alphaeus and his wife had given their son this name in hopes that he would dedicate his life to serving God and the people in a humble, God honoring way. You may remember Barnabas, the Apostle Paul’s friend, and traveling companion was a generous, kind, courageous Levite. (Acts 4:36,37)
But alas, this Levi had chosen the vocation that most disappointed and even shamed his parents, tax collecting. His tax collector booth here in Capernaum, indicates his district for taxation was his own Jewish people. He was employed by the Roman government but paid a very modest salary, because it was expected he would extort as much additional tax as he was able, and keep the additional for himself. Since a Roman military garrison was stationed at Capernaum, Levi had the support of soldiers, if a person refused to pay the tax Levi demanded from them. There is no place in Capernaum Jesus could have gone that day which would have caused more anxiety among the people, then the tax collectors booth!
Perhaps they expected Jesus to confront Levi with his treason and his abuse of the people while he cheated them. I can only imagine their shock when Jesus simply said to Levi “Follow Me”, and apparently Levi closed his tax books, closed his office and out into the street he went, to “walk with Jesus”!
It appears they went to Levi’s house, and talked. Levi’s life changed that day, and he told his servants to make a big meal and invite his friends. The only friends Levi had were fellow tax collectors and others referred to as ‘sinners’. Mark says it this way: “While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and his disciples…” (Mark 2:15)
Do you remember the names of the others Jesus has thus far invited to follow Him? Andrew and his brother Simon Peter; John and his brother James; Philip and his friend Nathanael, and so now we meet a 7th man personally invited by Jesus to “Follow Me”, Levi, the tax collector. Jesus was personally selecting His traveling team, the men whom He would teach and train over the next several months, and to whom Jesus would entrust His mission after Easter and His return to heaven.
While we know the moment when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, we don’t have that detail with Levi, but we know his name became Matthew, and he is the author of the first book of the Bible New Testament. We have no record that he ever returned to that tax booth nor that he ever had any financial role among the disciples. Rather, he used his writing and record keeping skills to record the story of Jesus, written especially for Jews, for the purpose of proving Jesus was in fact their Messiah.
You’ll notice in Mark 2:16 Jesus once again receives criticism from Pharisees who had been watching all this. “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners’, they asked Jesus’ disciples. On hearing this Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” It’s important we understand Jesus was NOT suggesting the Pharisees or anyone else were healthy, sinless people, who didn’t need God’s sent Savior, but rather Jesus was saying He had come to help those who knew they needed a Savior and would respond to His help.
It’s the very same today isn’t it my friends? Do you know some people who have no need for God, no interest in Jesus? People who are content to walk through life finding their own way, pursuing their agenda, giving little thought to God, and confident they will do just fine without Him?
Perhaps you have seen some people humbled and frightened by Corona COVID-19 and the financial fall out, and now they are more interested in God’s help? The starting point with Jesus is what we see here… admitting my need for God’s help and willing to see Jesus as God’s answer to my desperate need.
A short while later it came time for Jesus to make His final selection of the rest of those men who would come to be known as His disciples. Mark 3:13-18 and Luke 6:12-16 give us this brief account. The crowds who gathered around Jesus continued to grow larger where-ever He went, and it was time to focus His attention on a select few, but who? Luke tells us Jesus did what Moses and others had done when needing God’s guidance. He went alone up on a high hill and spent the whole night in prayer, talking with His heavenly Father about His mission and who He should invite to form His team.
“When morning came He called His disciples to Him and chose 12 of them, whom He also designated Apostles: Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathanael (Bartholomew), Matthew, Thomas (the twin), James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” (Luke 6:12-15) From this day on, it appears these 12 were the men whom we know as the Disciples, and they spent almost every day of the next several months with Jesus.
The word ‘disciple’ means ‘follower’ or ‘apprentice’. Jesus was teaching them, training them, developing them into the men to whom Jesus would entrust the privilege of being “Apostles”, which means ‘called and sent ones’. These would be sent out by Jesus to tell His story, His Gospel message of Redemption to the world as His witnesses.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll walk with Jesus and these 12 disciples, toward Easter, and as we do, I simply ask you to consider the difference between the crowds of people who gathered to listen to Jesus speak and watch Him do amazing miracles, and these 12 who became His close friends and followers, and to whom He entrusted His mission.
In which group would you place yourself, my friends. Are you among the crowds, interested and watching Jesus when you have time, or are you among those who have heard and accepted His call to “Follow Me”, and you are seeking to learn all you can as you ‘walk with Jesus’? Are you experiencing Jesus doing His life changing work in you as you ‘walk with Him’ each day?
Oh Jesus, thank You for giving us the privilege of hearing Your call, following You, and learning from You!
Click to read today’s chapter: Psalm 28; Mark 2; Mark 3; Luke 6. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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