By 
This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Sunday, August 31, 2025. We looked at Luke 5:27-32 together. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered 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.” (Luke 5:27-32)
The title of this sermon is the question “Who needs Jesus?” Is that a question you’ve ever been asked before?
I went to Christopher Newport University for my undergraduate degree, and from time to time at CNU we’d have street preachers show up. Some of them were pretty lousy, some were actually pretty good. Either way, the response was often the same: campus would be all abuzz with conversation. I remember overhearing lots of students say to each other, “Who needs Jesus? Not me. I want nothing to do with religion.” But sometimes, especially after those genuine street preachers, I’d hear Christian students join the conversation to take that question seriously.
Have you ever asked yourself “Who needs Jesus?” I want us to take that question seriously this morning, and by the end of this sermon, I hope it’s a question we’ll want to keep asking all through the Fall. We’ve got three points to work through this morning.
-
- Seeing our need
- Meeting our need
- Starting our mission
Seeing our need
If you’ve got a Bible on you, go ahead and open it back up to Luke 5, We’ll be looking at details in our passage as we work through it. The first thing I want us to see is there’s two very different groups of people who both have the same problem.
The passage opens and we’re introduced to Levi the tax collector. Those two details—his name and his job—actually tell us a whole lot about who this guy is. Levi is a strong Hebrew name, a patriotic name. Levi was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, most associated with the temple and religiosity and righteousness. You could imagine Levi’s parents wondering what he’d grow up to be: maybe a priest or a rabbi. Of all the things he could have been, he becomes a tax collector for the Roman empire.
I know no one likes paying taxes, but people in Jesus’ day hated taxes—and for good reason. When Rome conquered a land, they’d recruit locals to collect taxes on their behalf. They’d tell the collectors, “Alright, here’s how much tribute we need. We don’t care how much you collect as long as we get this number. And here’s a few soldiers to help you collect what you demand.” It turns out, betraying your nation and cheating your neighbors is a lucrative business. People like Levi would overcharge their community and keep the excess.
The passage doesn’t explicitly tell us that Levi was doing this, but he’s rich enough to throw a “great feast” in his house big enough to fit a “large company” of other tax collectors who he’s friends with…so it’s not looking good for him. That’s the first group: tax collectors.
We’re also introduced to another group, the Pharisees. These are the people Levi’s parents probably wished he would be like. You need to know: in the minds of the community, the Pharisees were the “Good guys,” both in the sense of good moral people and in the sense of being protagonists. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “main character energy”—these guys definitely thought of themselves as the main character in this story. They have the right opinions, they associate with the right people, they lead the right kind of lives. Think back to our Ten Commandment sermon series, these guys did their best to live all that out. So of all the people who hate tax collectors, Pharisees super hate them!
We need to see the extremes of these two different groups to appreciate what Jesus does here. As you might expect, at first the Pharisees associate themselves with Jesus. He’s a new young rabbi, he’s super popular, he’s even able to heal the sick by the power of God. But then, he calls Levi to follow him, and now he’s the guest of honor at a party with a bunch of these lying, no good tax collectors!
That’s when Jesus tells them this: “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.” (Lk 5:31–32)
Who needs Jesus? Sick people need Jesus. Sinners need Jesus. This little rebuke contains a seed of truth Jesus will grow through the rest of his ministry—and here’s what it is. First, Jesus recategorizes these two groups: those who know they are sick, and those who think they aren’t. Tax collectors and sinners know they’re “sick” because the Pharisees keep telling them they are! “You wicked traitors, you make me sick!” The Pharisees have no notion of needing forgiveness because in their mind they’ve never done anything wrong—and if they have, they’ve done all the sacrifices exactly how the law describes.
Then Jesus turns the heat up by saying that both these groups have the same problem. The truth is everyone is sick. Following the teaching of Jesus, the Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 14 which says “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Ro 3:10-12). He goes on to conclude “there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro 3:22–23).
If sin is a disease, we’re all infected. Levi and the tax collectors are unrighteous, that much is obvious But Jesus is helping us see that the Pharisees aren’t really righteous, they’re just self-righteous.
Why does this matter for us, living some two millennia later? We don’t have Roman tax collectors and Pharisees anymore, but we do still have the categories Jesus identifies. We still have people who know they are sick and people who think they’re not. We still have unrighteous people and self-righteous people.
Do you fit into one of these groups? Here’s a way to gauge yourself: what was your response to our prayer of confession this morning? When you read those words, did you think “Yep, that’s me. Impure thoughts and unclean lips? Got em. Wandering hearts and wayward deeds? Check.” Or did you instead think, “Nahh, that’s not really me. Nothing comes to mind. I’m a pretty good person and God knows it.”
It’s worth noting, being self-righteous isn’t exclusive to religious people. I think about my peers at CNU who believed themselves to be morally upright, “good people” without God—some even because they weren’t religious. I remember some conversations I had with classmates who said as a Christian my morals were outdated and they were going to be on the right side of history. That’s not an uncommon view today.
Maybe you hold that view this morning. If that is you, thanks for joining us! I’m glad you’re here. Let me invite you to consider this: It is possible to hold to non-religion with religious fervor and to be self-righteous by your own standard of righteousness. But if you were fully honest with yourself, have you perfectly lived out even your own standard? The truth is, none of us have kept our own standards, much less God’s! We’re all sick! And if we’re sick, that’s good news—because Jesus came to heal sick people.
Meeting our need
How does Jesus meet our need? First, by associating with sinners. Take a minute to appreciate that with me. Remember, the Pharisees had initially associated themselves with Jesus, thinking “He’s one of us.” In one sense, he is—he’s a rabbi, he loves the law, he teaches people to keep it. In another sense, he is far more—the most holy, most righteous individual ever to walk the earth; pure and perfect in every way; Jesus is God himself! But who does Jesus choose to associate with? The last people the Pharisees would be caught dead with!
Here’s the disconnect: the Pharisees assume that as righteous people, it’s their duty to avoid and to shame sinners. Jesus, as the Holy and Righteous One, sees his duty is actually to approach and to redeem sinners. Pharisees see themselves as judges: sitting up high on the bench, looking down on others, condemning guilty sinners. Jesus sees himself as a medic: running into action, getting down on his knees to hold and heal the sick.
So Jesus doesn’t avoid them, he becomes friends with them. He goes to dinner parties with them. Never compromising his morals to blend in with them. They know Jesus is righteous, but it’s an inviting righteousness. That’s the trademark of Jesus’ ministry: Jesus invites sinners into his righteousness.
At the cross, he does this in an ultimate sense. Later in Paul’s letter, he says “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:8). We noted this a few weeks ago, Jesus is crucified between two criminals with arms stretched open. That picture is perfectly representative of what Jesus is doing in his death. He associates with sinners who deserve judgement—the Pharisees aren’t wrong about that part—but rather than holding their sin against them, Jesus takes it upon himself and dies in their place.
The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus’ last words were “It is finished,” or translated more literally, “paid in full.” His death paid the full penalty of all his people’s sins—past, present, and future, all covered at the cross. With open arms he invites us to embrace him as our sacrifice, to trade our sin with his righteousness. That’s exactly what our assurance of pardon says, listen to what we read earlier: “he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
So how does Jesus meet our need? He first meets us in our need, then he cures our sickness by taking the penalty of our sin upon himself.
Finally, Jesus calls sinners to repentance. That’s what he says in our passage “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Friends, you need to understand this: there is no forgiveness without repentance. If you believe you are in perfect health, you will never to go to the doctor. We all have at least one friend or family member who’s like this. They haven’t had a physical in decades, avoid the hospital at all costs, and excuse every pain and sickness away “It’s just allergies, I’m just getting old.” That might work as long as you’re healthy, but if you’re sick, that mindset is a death sentence.
That’s the position we find ourselves in with sin. We’re all sick, this condition is 100% fatal, but it’s also 100% treatable if we go to Jesus.
What does this mean for us? If you don’t believe you are sick and in need of healing, if you don’t believe you are a sinner in need of mercy, we’re glad you’re here. I hope you find good community here and enjoy our worship and learn about God. But if I can just be really honest with you, this church has nothing to offer you. Christianity is of no benefit to you without Christ, and Christ came for broken, needy people. If you don’t think that includes you, you cannot understand the gospel. This church is a place for sick people, sinners who are in search of healing and forgiveness—and for those who have found them in Jesus.
Starting our mission
So that brings us back to Levi. One of my favorite details of the passage is that Jesus just rolls up to Levi in the middle of a workday at his office. Levi’s just going about, doing his thing, wearing his Louis Vuitton while robbing his neighbors—when all of a sudden he comes face to face with perfect health. True righteousness. In that moment, there’s no hiding his sin. Levi sees his need crystal clear, and all it takes is two words to bring him to life: “Follow me.”
What does following Jesus look like? Two things: leaving everything and throwing a party. Let’s look at each of those in turn.
Repentance means “turning around,” it’s doing a 180* on how you live your life. In leaving everything, Levi leaves his cushy job and the power it gives him, he leaves the great wealth he had stolen, he leaves behind his unrighteousness. Friends, we have to do the same. If you are ready to follow Jesus, it’s time to leave behind your porn addiction or your alcoholism. It’s time to stop lying and gossiping. It’s time to cut out bitter resentment and hatred.
It also means you have to leave behind your self-righteousness. We noted earlier it is possible for non-religious people to be self-righteous, but we also have to admit, it is much easier to be self-righteous as religious people. The longer you’re a Christian, the more tempting this becomes.
Jesus’ plan for Levi wasn’t to turn him into a Pharisee. He wasn’t called out of unrighteousness to fall into the opposite ditch of self-righteousness, but to walk the path of freedom in Christ’s righteousness. Christians, we have to be super careful not to fall into that ditch. If you are a Christian, it is not because you were a good person who was smart enough to follow Jesus. It is because you were a wicked person who Jesus saved, you were a sick person who Jesus healed.
Self-righteousness as Christians can drive us away from “unrighteous people” just like the Pharisees. We can form our own comfy little communities free from all those bad people who don’t live like us or worship like us or vote like us. In our Christian bubble we can impress people with our Bible trivia and our prayers, which make us feel good. Do you have a community you’ve turned into a bubble? Is it this church? Is it your community group? I know we have a lot of families in here at private Christian schools and homeschool. Don’t hear what I’m not saying: private schools and homeschooling can be great blessings, there can be lots of good reasons to do that. But if your goal is to shelter your kids from non-believers and to avoid contact with “the world”, that’s the opposite direction Jesus wants you to move.
If we are to follow Jesus, we have to follow him into the lives of unrighteous neighbors. What might this look like? Let’s come back to Levi, look at what he does. He throws a massive party and invites all of his friends to meet Jesus.
Salvation is something worth celebrating. Do you feel that? Can I even get an “Amen” for that? If you are saved by Jesus is that not the most joyful, happy, exciting thing to have ever happened to you? How do you normally celebrate joyful, happy, exciting things in your life?
Earlier this week, I heard that one of our members who had been battling cancer received a clean scan. It made my heart so happy to hear she is now cancer free. I hope she can find sometime to celebrate with a party or dinner or something. I know some of us this morning have little earthly reason to celebrate—maybe your cancer is still there or your loved one has recently passed. Even in those the gospel gives us hope. It doesn’t make it easy, but it promises our sorrow is not final. Joy will come. For all of us in here, if you are a Christian, you have a reason to celebrate! Jesus invites us to invite others into our joy.
Back at our congregational meeting in June, we shared our focus for this coming ministry year being “seeking the lost and serving our city.” This Fall we’re aiming to integrate that into the whole life of our church. Next Sunday we’re starting a sermon series titled “Jesus Meets Us” which will explore Jesus meeting all different kinds of people—people like us and our neighbors—and offering them life. We want these sermons to be geared especially to friends you invite to church. All of our discipleship ministries have been considering the ways they might join the church in seeking the lost, whether it’s student Connect or Playdates in the Park or an ACE lecture on a Sunday night.
What will it look like for you to share the joy of your salvation with your neighbors? Hosting a party with your community group? Throwing a party to celebrate your Christian birthday (the day you committed your life to Christ)—and not just inviting Christian friends? Sharing your testimony, explaining why being a Christian is a source of joy? Investing in relationships with non-believers without hiding your desire for them to know Jesus?
Jesus doesn’t leave us in our sin nor does he turn us into Pharisees. He turns us into people like Levi who leave everything, follow Jesus, and invite others to celebrate salvation with him. I want this question to be at the heart of our church this season, “Who needs Jesus? Who do I know who needs Jesus?”
Take Note Of This 