Today we’ll explore the story of a time Jesus became friends with someone unexpected:

After this Jesus 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. – Luke 5:27-29 ESV

Tax collectors were collaborators with the oppressive Roman government.  They were known for taking some off the top, or extorting and pocketing extra taxes from people.

People like that are usually careful about who they associate with.  They get to positions of power through taking advantage of others, by being crafty and independent, or using people for profit.

But there is something about Levi’s encounter with Jesus that changes all that.  After meeting Jesus, Levi has his coworkers over to dinner.  All the other collaborators and extortioners come to his place.  He knows what they’re like, maybe they will steal.  Or will they see some of his belongings, or family members, and use it against him in blackmail and extortion?

Why would he put himself at risk like that?

Because they suddenly matter to him more than just partners at work.

Because of Jesus, now they’re friends.  Not just obstacles or opportunities.  They are people he can feed and host.

The passage says Levi left everything and followed Jesus.  It clearly doesn’t refer to all his material possessions – he still has a house and means to throw a big feast.  This saying represents a spiritual about-face as he leaves behind his old way of life.

Research shows that vulnerability is key to friendships.  Levi does this, he leaves himself dangerously open to dangerous people.  He has them over and shares a meal with them.

This was even more significant in this culture – table fellowship indicated you were on the same page spiritually with others. You broke bread together, and legally became a religious fellowship.    Jews didn’t eat with non-Jews, for that reason.  Levi is Jewish, as is Jesus, but Levi is a Roman collaborator who would be dealing with non-Jews all the time, and regularly breaking the law by extorting fees from Jewish brothers.

We’ll learn more tomorrow about how people reacted.

Question: Why do you think Levi invites his co-workers over to supper with Jesus?  What’s he doing for them, for himself, and for Jesus?

Ryan Sim - February 24, 2014

Monday - A New Idea - Reset Sex and Marriage

Hi! Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan, you host for the daily challenges. These daily challenges are meant to help people explore what it means to follow Jesus even during our busy commuting lifestyle. If you've never looked into what that means in the first place, I'd really encourage you, check out our Christianity 101 course first. You can take it live in-person or through our mobile app; great introduction to the basic concepts of what it means to follow Jesus that we try to build on in the Daily Challenges. Every day and week, we follow a rhythm to help us, as one community, learn what it means to follow Jesus even when we're not physically together. Every Monday,we introduce the idea for the week. Every Tuesday, we see what the Bible has to say. Every Wednesday, we allow ourselves to be challenged in our thoughts. Every Thursday, we try to apply it and live it out in our lives. Every Friday, we take time to pray and reflect on the topic. Saturday is a day for rest and then Sunday is a day for community. We're going to start gathering together as one community soon. We just recently had a great baptism service and celebration where a number of our members came together in one place to worship God. We're going to do that more and more often over this year. So, stay tuned for some of our upcoming gatherings. We're in a series right now called, "Reset." We're looking at how deciding to follow Jesus resets everything in our lives. We've looked at a number of areas that it impacts. This week we're going to look at how following Jesus impacts our view of sexuality and marriage. Last week, we saw how following Jesus means we see the body and food differently, and how they are good things God created, but can be abused when used in the ways God didn’t create them to be used. We also saw how following Jesus means his Holy Spirit lives in us, which is why our bodies can be called a temple. This means we can’t pretend to own our bodies, as followers of Jesus, but instead need to show reverence to God’s presence in us by caring for these bodies, using them as their creator intended. This is going to be a helpful way to see our sexuality, as well. The passage from the Bible’s first letter to the Corinthians that we explored talked about food and the body as a temple, but Paul, the author, was not really making a point about food. He was using food as an example to show how the Corinthian Christians were abusing their gift of sexuality. He challenges them not to be distracted, and think that sex is the most important thing in their lives, nor their source of identity, comfort or security. He wants them to stay focused on God, and see all other things in life through that lens. He wants them to think of themselves as people on a journey with a purpose, which necessarily means they will be different than those around them who are not on the same journey. That’s hard in our world – particularly with sexuality, because we are a culture obsessed with sex, and it’s easy to forget there is more to us than biology! Some Christians or churches have responded by never talking about it, making it seem like sexuality and our bodies have nothing to do with God. But Paul takes neither approach; he says our bodies matter to God, because we matter to God. See attached video, or click here: https://vimeo.com/664454 Sex is clearly on people’s minds. One survey asked Canadians how often they’d like to have sex, more than half of Canadians polled said they’d like at least twice a week. 20% of men said they’d like sex every day, but only 3% actually experience it. There are some limits in people’s minds: In a Today’s Parent magazine survey, 82% of parents say sleep is more important than sex. The magazine readily admitted their sample was skewed heavily toward parents of young children, and primarily women. On that note, fifty-seven percent of U.S. women would choose their mobile device over sex, according to another survey. These represent some curious limits on how much sex people want, but God puts some serious limits on sex, that we’ll explore later this week. In the meantime, here’s a question to consider: Question: In what ways is our culture obsessed with sex? Think of commercials, businesses, events, etc. Does our culture place any limits on sex? Well, have a great discussion. Don't forget, we're reading the Bible in sync as a community. So, check our website or app to see what today's Bible reading is. Have a great one.

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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