Summary 

Levi was sitting in his tax booth making sure people payed their taxes as Jesus traveled around teaching and healing.  Levi could not leave that tax booth unless he was called to leave it.  “Jesus, call me too!”  It is all about the Caller – the one we are called to follow.  And it is all about Matthew and you and me.  It is not so much about who and what we were or even who we are.  It is about who Jesus is calling us to become.  “Jesus, call me too!”  Call me to become the person you created me to be.  The person who will live his life with you and spend eternity in your home.

Transcript

It's a privilege to be here when Peter's away. Though being on the beach today doesn't sound so bad, does it? But I'm glad you're here. I'm glad we're here together. Last week, Peter preached about Jesus coming back to his hometown.


He had been traveling, doing a lot of different things. I'm going to touch on it a little bit as we go through the sermon. But he came back and he healed the paralytic that was lowered through the roof, possibly even Jesus own home and Jesus own house. He forgave his sins. And the people who were there said, we've never seen anything like this.
And he went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming and he was teaching. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me, let's pray. Blessed Lord, we thank you that you have come to save sinners and you have come to your own people, to those whom you have called from all eternity, to those that live right beside you and those who are all around the world, at the far end of the world, like we are from your home in Nazareth and Capernaum. And we thank you for bringing us to your word today.


Holy Spirit, apply the word of Christ to us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So that was a normal day. Jesus was there, but other than Jesus being there walking out from his home, it was a normal day and he was where he lived and he walked out and he saw Matthew doing so.
Throughout this, I'm going to use Matthew and Levi interchangeably. The scripture seems to use Matthew and Levi interchangeably. So I go back and forth. So whatever comes out is what comes out. But Matthew and Levi, I mean the same person, he had two names.

So Levi, the son of Alphaeus was sitting at his tax collector booth because that's what Levi the son of Alphaeus did. And, and Jesus walked out of his house and he walked down and he told Levi, follow me.
So Shelley and I moved back home just over two years ago after living at many different places, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, Indiana and Maryland for 35 years. We ended up buying the house that I grew up in in the Hummelstown area, just down the road from where Shelley grew up and the home her parents still live in in Hummelstown. And we bought the house from my sister who could. Who needed to move. The Culk house is part of a small four acre farm, you know, a mini farm with lots of outbuildings and she.

And things on it, there's a big pole barn, and there's an apartment building that my dad built for family members. And my cousin and his wife are living in one of the apartments in that building right now. So my cousin Chuck and I spend time together trying to keep things somewhat in order on this place. And I'm remarkably unqualified for keeping up all the things that my father made. And when we're working on different things, sometimes my cousin will say, he would do it this way, or he did this, or why did he do that?

And the reference to he is always understood. It is Donald P. Culp, my father. And why did Donald do this? Or how did Donald do this?
Or this is what Donald used to do. But it was he. And he planted every tree on there. It was a cow pasture when he bought it. Before I was born, he planted every tree, he built every shed. He kept all the junk that's still there, though actually, my cousin adds a lot to the junk. But in any event, the he is Donald. Is there a he in your life? Someone that ends up being referred to as he, or maybe she, and that's the person who looms large in your past or looms large in your present. And that's him, and that's her.

And there's a he and a she. And I don't know if Levi looked at Alphaeus, asked the he, Levi is the son of Alphaeus. We. We don't know what the father's names were of all the disciples, but we do know that Levi was the son of Alphaeus. And maybe Alphaeus loomed large, maybe Herod Antipas loomed large in his life because he worked for Herod.
And Herod was a king, and Herod collected taxes, and Levi worked for Herod collecting taxes. I would imagine he held a place of he in his life quite a bit in a lot of different conversations. Levi needed a new he in his life, and Jesus came and became the referent. He became he. Jesus is the one who called him into a new life.
Jesus is the caller. And as I read about the call of Levi, I can't help but think that Levi wanted Jesus to call him Jesus. Call me, too. You've called so many others. Call me too.

Who is this great caller? It would appear that Matthew and Jesus were neighbors. Jesus was a carpenter in Capernaum, and he might have made repairs on the tax booth. You know, we don't know. But it seems like they were neighbors and had been neighbors for some time.
I'm not sure how long. But when Jesus walked Out of his house. There was Levi at the tax booth. Well, Matthew Levi was doing what he did, making sure that people paid their taxes. Herod Jesus went down to the Jordan river to be baptized by his cousin John.

And Jesus came out from the water and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. And he was led out into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan. And he came back and he called. He came back and he went back up to. Oh, no, actually in that area.

He called Andrew and Simon Peter, who were there with John the Baptist. So they were down, disciples of John the Baptist. He called them to follow him. John said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And Andrew and Peter thought, we're going to go with that guy.
And they did. They followed Jesus. And Jesus called Philip, follow me. Philip found Nathaniel, probably the disciple later named Bartholomew. Jesus started to perform miracles.

They went back up to Canaan and Galilee, and he turned water into wine at a wedding. Lots of water, big vats of water into wine. John. The Gospel of John tells us that he went back down to Jerusalem for the Passover. And that's when Nicodemus cme to him at night and said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, you must be born again. Whoever believes in me will have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him won't perish, will have eternal life. Jesus went back up to Galilee. On the way, he visited the Samaritan woman at the well.
The people of Sychar came to understand that the Savior of the world had come. Something the people in Judea weren't quite getting yet. But the Samaritans seem to be getting it. He's the Savior of the world, including the Samaritans. Who is this caller?
Back in Galilee, Jesus healed a royal official's son who was at death's door walking along the Sea of Galilee. He called the four fishermen to himself. Follow me. He cast out demons from a man in the synagogue. He healed Peter's mother in law.

He cleansed the leper. He healed a paralytic that was lowered through the roof. None of this was a secret. None of this was done in a corner. Levi knew about these things. He heard about these things. And this great caller had not called Levi.

Matthew wrote his own record of Jesus calling him. You know where it is in the Gospel of Matthew? It's not until chapter nine. Chapter nine, verse nine is where it begins after the Sermon on the Mount. Now I'M not saying that this was necessarily written chronologically.
Matthew doesn't claim to have written everything in chronological order, but it does leave an impression on someone. There were a lot of things that Jesus had done, a lot that he had taught, and Matthew was sitting at a tax booth.

We get the impression Matthew Levi was wondering, could he? Would he? Will he call me? Are you stuck in your life? Maybe you are stuck in something that's going on that you don't see any way out of. Do you want someone to call you to something better? Jesus is the one who can unstick anyone who is stuck. He can call you.

So Shelley and I like to shop at Ollie's because you can get good stuff cheap. It's a good place to shop for good stuff cheap. Like a $30 hardcover book for $4.99. And Shelley brought home a novel. Follow Me to Hell is the name of the novel.It's Tom Clavin's tale of Leander McNeely and his band of Texas Rangers who would stop at nothing in their pursuit of justice in the 1870s. Texas, kind of in the heart of the the Texas Ranger era. Leander McNally is one of the most revered figures in the Texas Ranger history. But he was only a captain for three years, and he wasn't some big, powerful man. He stood at 5 foot 5 and weighed 125 pounds.

But at least four of his men wrote tales about him and about their time with the Texas. With McNally's Texas Rangers. So he was a slight man, dressed like a dandy, brush jacket, duck pants, calfskin leather leggings, sometimes a beaver hat. But at the height of his career, he was so sickly that sometimes he could barely stand up, he could barely walk. In June of 1875, McNeely was preparing to lead his Rangers south across the Rio Grande.

Sounds like a really bad idea. But he was going to lead them south across the Rio Grande in pursuit of some bandits. And he told his men, boys, I may lead you into hell, but I'll get you out. If you do exactly what I tell you, I'll never send you into battle. I will lead you.
All I ask any man to do is follow me. George Durham, one of the younger, more impressionable men of the company, said, after that, only death could prevent me from following my captain. Captain McNally, how do you not follow someone like that? Someone who's going to lead you, not send you? He might lead you to death, but he's going to be there and he's leading you.

Jesus is the great caller. Matthew couldn't leave the tax booth. He was stuck. He was a tax collector. The Jewish people wouldn't let him do anything else.

Do you think Zebedee would invite him to join the fishing crew? No, he was a tax collector. He was despised. He was by definition the sinner according to the Jewish rabbis. And in Jewish opinion, he was stuck.
He could not have left that tax booth. If Jesus didn't say, follow me, Jesus. Call me too. The calling of calling is all about the caller, all about Jesus. But it's all about Matthew and it's all about you.
And it's all about me as well. So who was this Matthew, one of the 12 disciples. There are three synoptic gospels. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Now Matthew, Mark, Luke, John is the one that's not the synoptic gospel.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all report on the calling of Levi. Mark calls him Levi, Alphaeus son. Alphaeus was probably a member of the church, someone they knew, and he was Alphaeus son. Luke says a tax collector named Levi. Ooh, that's kind of hard, isn't it?
A tax collector named Levi. Well, that's who he was and what he was named. What did Matthew say of himself in Matthew 9? He said a man called Levi, or no, a man called Matthew. He said a man called Matthew.
That's how he. A man called Matthew was sitting at the taxpayer. People label you and people classify you. Your parents have named you this and that. But who are you?

Who are you really? You know, some of us feel like nobody really knows who I am. You know, I don't know. Sometimes I think we think too much about who we really are. Maybe.
But who are you really? Jesus knows who you are. He knows who you are. And Jesus is the primary namer of who you are. And when Jesus calls you to himself, the primary name that he gives you is mine.
Jesus calls you and he says, you are now mine. You might have been a tax collector. You might have been a fisherman. You might have been a zealot. You might have.

Whatever you were, you are mine.

So I had my two year follow up nuclear stress test Friday. This was a rough week for, I don't know, I might seem a little scattered. I was working all nights this week, very annoying. Going in at 1.30am, working till 9am and then Friday they were putting radioactive dye in me and I was like, that was terrible. But while I was waiting for the nuclear stuff to work its way through my veins, I picked up a People magazine. And the People magazine had this article about a young man named Hudson. He was young quite a while ago. He's older now, but Hudson was the son of Cecil. Cecil had a temper. There was something about Hudson that Cecil didn't like.

When Hudson was 7, his father attacked his mother with a hammer.Hudson decided that he had to try to protect her. He was the oldest child and got thrown across the room. When he was 12, Hudson's mother asked him after a particularly bad event. His mother asked him, if he starts to kill us, can you kill him? Can you imagine?

And Hudson thought that through. And for four years he was working on that. There was a gun under his bed and thinking that through. But praise God, when he was 16, a terrible event happened. But he was rescued.
He was brought out of that, brought to a safe place, and he went on living. Said he escaped from the farm of Terror. You know, not every farm is someplace you want to stay. You know, we were very blessed, Shelly and me, with our parents, and I'm happy to be in the farm where I grew up. Some of you don't want to be anywhere near your home of origin. You need to be away from your parents. Some of us have lived a charmed life. Some of us are stuck in a charmed life and we need called to something different from all this charm. You know, the Lord calls all kinds and he calls us from wherever we're stuck and whatever is going on.

The great Anglican bishop JC Ryle in his commentary said, learn from Matthew's call. Nothing will be impossible for Christ. He can take a tax gatherer and make him an apostle.

Never despair of anyone's salvation. Pray, speak, work, do good to souls. When Jesus says, by the power of the Spirit, follow me, he can make the hardest, most sinful obey. The most stuck person in the world will get up and follow. When Jesus in the power of the Spirit says, follow me, it's all about the caller.

It's also all about you and me and Matthew. But it's not about where we were, where you were, where I was. It's about where the great caller is taking, taking us. It's about where he's taking us in union with Jesus Christ. Jesus will make you into a new person.
He is making most of us here hopefully into a new person. Right now he's working in us, taking us there. In Revelation, chapter two, the New Testament reading, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will be given some of the hidden manna. Doesn't that sound exciting?

Some of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone that no one knows except the one who receives it, George MacDonald. In a published sermon entitled the New Name, he said, the true Name. I'm sorry. Yeah.

The new name. The true name is one that expresses the character, the nature, the meaning of the person who bears it. I don't know if Matthew or Levi hit the nail on the head. I doubt it. I am 100% sure Dale does not hit the nail on the head.

The true name is what expresses the true character, the true nature, the meaning of the person who bears it. It's the man's own symbol, his soul's picture. In one word, the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man this name but God himself? Jesus Christ gives the new name.

He calls you to come be this person with this new name. This new person, a new name that only he knows. And he's going to give it to you, and it's going to be on a white stone, and you're going to. I just picture he hands you that white stone, and it pisses perfectly into the palm of your hand. And would you ever let that white stone come out of your hand? Why would that ever move from your hand? It won't move. It's a new name. It's what he's made you. When you get to heaven, when you get to glory, you are not going to be Jesus of Nazareth.

You're going to be conformed to his image, and you are going to be the perfect you with a new name. And it's on a stone and it's in your hand, and you're going to hold it forever. That's who you are. Who am I? 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer has an amazing poem, who Am I?
I'm going to read a little more. The end of it's in your bulletin, but I'm going to read a little bit more of it.

“Who am I?  They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a Squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.

Now you know Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison in World War II and ended up dying before the end of the war, being executed before the war.


Am I then really that which other men tell of me?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick like A bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath as though hands
were compressing my throat.
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for the words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Powerless, trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
faint and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I?
They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest,
O God. Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

It's what Jesus calls you. He calls you the first thing, the main thing. 

What's the main thing? This one is mine.

Jesus called me to. I've been using, you know, I'm a great speller. Ha, ha ha. I'm terrible at spelling, but I'm good enough to know that there's a T, O, O and a T, W, O and a T, O. Jesus called me too, also.
But Jesus call me too T, o. Jesus call me to something. Jesus. Jesus called me to follow you. That's what Jesus called his disciples to do.
He called the 12 disciples that they might follow him and that they might be with him, that he might send them on mission. So how are we called? We're called by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit working through the word of God, through the preached word of God, through the word of God, reading our Bibles at home in our prayer closets. I hope you're reading your Bible at home.

The Lord calls you through his word, by his spirit. Are you in the habit of acknowledging the Holy Spirit's presence with you? If you are a believer, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Acknowledge that Holy Spirit. Thank you for being with me.
Shelley and I were pointed in that direction some years ago by a pastor mentor who said, every morning when you wake up, say, good morning, Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is with you that day. He is with you every day. Donald Culp. My father had a habit when he was frustrated of saying, oh, Donald, you know, and oh, Donald. And I picked that up and I doubled down on that. 

And I often say, oh, Dale, you know, oh, Dale, what are you doing? Oh, Dale, why can't you do that? You know? Or oh, Dale. When I'm frustrated and I really got convicted of that, you know, I'm saying, good morning, Holy Spirit in the morning.

Then all day long I spend saying, oh, Dale. And it's like, so when I say, oh, Dale, I try to say, oh, Lord Jesus. Because it's not all about what I can't do and what I screw up and the mistakes that I'm making. It's about the Lord Jesus, what's the Lord Jesus doing?

How are you called? You know, each day the Lord is about something, and I try to start the day saying, lord, what are youe about today? Help me to see what yout're doing and be a part of it. Because it's not going to be the same thing every day. And the Lord is going to call you someday to something he hasn't called you to yet.

Maybe today he's going to call you to something he hasn't called you to yet. Lord, what are youe about? What are you doing in this world? Call me to be a part of what you are doing. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it. That's what each one of the apostles were called to. They were called to take up the cross to lose their own life, to save their life. In following Jesus Christ, he called the 12 together. He gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.

And he sent them out to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Oh my goodness. Raise the dead. Healed the sick.
Well, we're all called to what the Lord calls us to do. Not many of us are called to raise the dead, but some were and some did. One commentator wrote, he who called Levi still lives. He has the same power he had 2,000 years ago. And he knows the value of an immortal soul.
He desires salvation. He came to save sinners. There is no grace in the man who cares nothing about the salvation of his fellow men. Jesus called me to do something, to follow you into some work. And Jesus call me to be with you.

Our text today goes on and it says verse 15. He was reclining at table in Matthew's house. And many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many of them who followed him. Matthew Levi prepared a rich feast. In one of the Gospels, the wording is a feast that was a rich feast.

It wasn't something that most people could afford. Matthew was probably the most wealthy of the disciples because he had been extorting money. No doubt because that's what you did when you were a tax collector. And he brought Jesus into his home to this rich feast with many tax collectors, many wealthy people, many sinners. And the Pharisees couldn't stand it. But Jesus said, I came to save sin, sick souls. I didn't come to call the healthy, I came to call the sick. I came to call sinners. Be with Jesus. After the resurrection, before Jesus ascended into heaven, Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee. The sons of Zebedee and two other disciples were gathered together. And Simon said, I'm going to go fishing. Because they could. They could go back to fishing. Matthew couldn't go back to the tax booth, but they could go back to fishing.

And they said, we're going to go with you. They went out, fished all night. Didn't catch anything. As the day was breaking, Jesus stood there on the shore. And the disciples didn't know it was him. And Jesus said, children, do you have any fish? And they didn't have any. He said, cast your net to the right side of the boat and you will find some. They did that, and they weren't able to haul the catch in. There were so many fish.And the disciple that Jesus loved, that would be John. This is from John. And John didn't call himself by name. He said the disciple that Jesus loved said to Peter, it's the Lord. When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment. For he was stripped for work. And he threw himself into the sea. Sea. And the other disciples came with a boat, dragging fish. And when they got to the land, they saw there was a charcoal fire in place and fish laid out on it, and bread. 

And Jesus said to them, bring me some of the fish that you have just caught. When Simon Peter saw John, bring me some of the fish that they caught. And they ate fish together on the beach. Does that not sound delightful? Christ had been crucified.
He came back to life. They saw him alive from the dead. And now they saw him again. And he had a fire there for them. He had a meal prepared for them. 

And they could add to the meal the fish that they had caught and be with him as a foretaste of what they were going to do forever. Jesus is calling you to be with him forever.
Peter saw John. 

Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep, feed his lambs, whatever. And Peter saw John and he said, lord, what about this man? What about that guy? What about John? Jesus said to him, if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?
You follow me. We don't know what the Lord is calling each one of us to in our lives day by day, but he's calling us to follow him. And he's calling us to be with him. 

There are different callings for you and me, different times in our life. I was not called to seminary until later in life. In 1998, we took our children and went to St. Louis to Covenant Seminary. And then I was a pastor until I was called back to flying again in 2016.
And since that time I've been in aviation. And also I'm also called to be ready to fill the pulpit. When Peter has to go to the beach with one of you, I wonder which one of you he'll go to the beach with next. I don't know. But anyhow, I'll try to be ready.
I don't know. I'll try. If they don't put too much of that poison stuff in me. I don't know. But Matthew followed Jesus immediately.

How is it with you and me? Are you ready to follow Jesus, what he's calling you to do now? He didn't put it off. He didn't wait. He didn't wait until the cross became too heavy of an idea and he could never do it.

Jesus called him. He got up and he went, may the Lord give us grace to do that. I want to end with one word for our older saints. Maybe someone here, maybe someone listening to the recording or online. Some of us have been with the Lord for many years. 

We have followed and we're ready, ready to go be with him. Jesus, you want him, Jesus, call me too. Maybe he's called your spouse, maybe he's called your friends and you're here and you just want to say, jesus, call me too. 

My brother, my sister, he's going to call you. Some of you think, why am I still here? There's nothing I can do. All I can do is pray. I would ask you, brother and sister, did you ever do anything more important than pray?

You can pray, you can be with the Lord and you can pray and you can be ready for when he calls you to be with him forever. Let's pray. Blessed Lord, we thank you for your calling. Thank you for that. It is an upward calling in Christ Jesus our Lord, that it's not just to take up our cross, though it is that.

Though it's not just to work for winning the souls of others, though it is that, but that it is a call to be with you and that it's a call to be with you forever with a new name that you know and that you're giving us and that you're making us to be. Help us each one to follow you in Jesus name. Amen.

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