Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and

others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their

sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Jesus

answered them, “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the

righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:29-32)

Why doesn’t God take us straight up to heaven once we’re saved? Why does He leave us here in a

world that rejects Him? So we can testify to others concerning God’s good news that He has made a

way to reconcile sinners to Himself through the redeeming work of His Son. Just as we were saved

upon hearing and believing the good news, so too others need to hear it from us so they may be

saved as well.

After Matthew left his life as a despised tax collector to follow Jesus, he wanted to share Jesus with

everyone he knew. So, he threw a banquet and invited the people he knew to his house to meet

Jesus. However, the religious leaders of the day complained that Jesus, a self-proclaimed rabbi,

would associate Himself with the kind of people who were at the banquet. After all, these were the

kind of people who were considered unclean by good and “righteous” people. 

Jesus plainly told them His work was to call sinners to repentance. He had no reason to call people

to repent who thought they were already in a right relationship with God. Although everyone needs a

savior, it’s only those God has awakened to their sin who will ever seek a savior.

Since Jesus has now ascended to the Father, God has seen fit to use His people to proclaim His

good news. The Apostle Paul declares: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved

(Romans 10:13). And after he explains the necessity of hearing the message preached, he

states: faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ

(Romans 10:17).

Let’s faithfully declare the truth about Jesus Christ as we have opportunity. But don’t think you are

personally responsible for the results. Only God can save. You have an important part to play in

declaring the good news, but only God can prepare a person’s heart to believe and personally trust

in it. We make the “outer call” while God makes the “inner call.” 

Just think of the amazing joy of knowing you had an important role in another person’s eternal

destiny!



By Jim Connell