October 5, 2025 // Luke 5:27-32
APPLICATION: Read & watch/listen to Luke 5:27-32
Sermon Title: Come To The Table
Sermon Notes:
The Invitation to the Table vs. 27-28
The Call
The Command
The Compliance
The Celebration at the Table vs. 29
A Great Feast
An Honored Guest
A Lost Crowd
The Confrontation over the Table vs. 30
Their Disagreement
The Disengagement
The Mission of the Table vs. 31-32
The Physician
The Purpose
The Provision
Life Application:
Michael owned a small diner on the edge of town. It wasn’t fancy—just cracked leather booths, coffee that was too strong, and the smell of bacon that never left your clothes. What made the place different wasn’t the food, but the people. Folks no one else wanted around—ex-cons, addicts, the lonely, the poor—always seemed to find a seat at Michael’s tables.
One evening, a well-dressed church member walked in, looked around at the crowd, and shook his head. He pulled Michael aside and whispered, “Why do you let these kinds of people in here? They’ll ruin your business.”
Michael just smiled and said, “Funny—you sound like some of the Pharisees. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. If my place is good enough for Him, then it’s good enough for them.”
That night, a young man who had just gotten out of jail ate his first hot meal in months. Sitting there, he felt something he hadn’t felt in years—hope. Not because of the eggs and toast, but because for the first time, someone welcomed him without judgment.
Application:
In Luke 5:27–32, Jesus called Levi, a despised tax collector, to follow Him—and then went to Levi’s house for dinner with “sinners.” The Pharisees criticized, but Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Like Michael’s diner, our lives should be places where people far from God feel welcomed, not condemned. The church is not a museum for the perfect but a hospital for the broken. Jesus still calls people—no matter their past—to come, follow Him, and find healing at His table.
Digging Deeper:
A. Pharisees (5:17)
The teachers of the Law who opposed Jesus were comprised primarily of the Pharisees. They were the most influential of the three major Jewish sects (the other two being the Sadducees and Essenes). We first read of them in the second century B.C. They believed in a strict keeping of the Law, as interpreted by their own traditions. They were separatists who sought to avoid contact with unclean things and unclean people. The teachers of the law, or scribes, were professional students of the law, and most of them were Pharisees.
B. Tax Collectors (5:27)
When Jesus attended a banquet given by a tax collector, he created a stir among the Pharisees. Tax collectors were outcasts from respectable society. They were collaborators with the Roman government. Tax collectors had daily contact with all kinds of “unclean” people. The word sinners means the common people who paid little attention to the religious scruples of the Pharisees.[1]
Questions to Consider:
Prayer Time:
[1] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 82.
Sermon Title: Come To The Table
Sermon Notes:
The Invitation to the Table vs. 27-28
The Call
The Command
The Compliance
The Celebration at the Table vs. 29
A Great Feast
An Honored Guest
A Lost Crowd
The Confrontation over the Table vs. 30
Their Disagreement
The Disengagement
The Mission of the Table vs. 31-32
The Physician
The Purpose
The Provision
Life Application:
Michael owned a small diner on the edge of town. It wasn’t fancy—just cracked leather booths, coffee that was too strong, and the smell of bacon that never left your clothes. What made the place different wasn’t the food, but the people. Folks no one else wanted around—ex-cons, addicts, the lonely, the poor—always seemed to find a seat at Michael’s tables.
One evening, a well-dressed church member walked in, looked around at the crowd, and shook his head. He pulled Michael aside and whispered, “Why do you let these kinds of people in here? They’ll ruin your business.”
Michael just smiled and said, “Funny—you sound like some of the Pharisees. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. If my place is good enough for Him, then it’s good enough for them.”
That night, a young man who had just gotten out of jail ate his first hot meal in months. Sitting there, he felt something he hadn’t felt in years—hope. Not because of the eggs and toast, but because for the first time, someone welcomed him without judgment.
Application:
In Luke 5:27–32, Jesus called Levi, a despised tax collector, to follow Him—and then went to Levi’s house for dinner with “sinners.” The Pharisees criticized, but Jesus replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Like Michael’s diner, our lives should be places where people far from God feel welcomed, not condemned. The church is not a museum for the perfect but a hospital for the broken. Jesus still calls people—no matter their past—to come, follow Him, and find healing at His table.
Digging Deeper:
A. Pharisees (5:17)
The teachers of the Law who opposed Jesus were comprised primarily of the Pharisees. They were the most influential of the three major Jewish sects (the other two being the Sadducees and Essenes). We first read of them in the second century B.C. They believed in a strict keeping of the Law, as interpreted by their own traditions. They were separatists who sought to avoid contact with unclean things and unclean people. The teachers of the law, or scribes, were professional students of the law, and most of them were Pharisees.
B. Tax Collectors (5:27)
When Jesus attended a banquet given by a tax collector, he created a stir among the Pharisees. Tax collectors were outcasts from respectable society. They were collaborators with the Roman government. Tax collectors had daily contact with all kinds of “unclean” people. The word sinners means the common people who paid little attention to the religious scruples of the Pharisees.[1]
Questions to Consider:
- What does Jesus' call to Levi reveal about the nature of his mission and who is worthy of following him?
- How did Levi respond to Jesus' call, and what does his immediate action of throwing a party tell us about the nature of discipleship?
- What might Levi have had to "leave behind" to follow Jesus, and how does this challenge or encourage us in our own commitment to Christ?
- In verse 31, Jesus states, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. "How does this metaphor help us understand Jesus' mission?
- Who might represent the "sick" in our communities today, and in what ways can the church better reach out to them?
- What does Jesus' choice to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners reveal about his mission and his understanding of God's kingdom?
Prayer Time:
[1] Trent C. Butler, Luke, vol. 3, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 82.