Matthew | Luke 5:27-42

June 8th, 2025

As we think about our new venture into a the book of Matthew, the first gospel penned, we should remember that, as a believer, we carry two things into the world with us: the truth of Scripture, and our own testimony.  Yahweh arms us with these truths as we go out into life, and our testimony is how Yahweh makes this truth a reality to us, along with how He transformed us. The resulting fruit of our life as it's lived out, along with the gospel, equips us to go and take the gospel contained in this testimony, and preach it to others. We know the command in Matthew 28:18-20 (the Great Commission), that we are to go therefore and make disciples. If you want to interpret it correctly, it should be read, “As you are going, make disciples”.  We're to be going about in our lives, and as we're going about in our lives, we are making disciples. The Great Commission first and foremost arms us with doctrine, or the truth, as we proclaim the lordship of Christ (Christology is the doctrine of Christ as the Sovereign, reigning in His messiahship).  We should keep in mind that Christ Himself, in Matthew 28:18, states: “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’.” We take this Christology into the world, and only then are we grounded in our evangelism, along with the doctrine of the Trinity, as we are told to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We explain who planned redemption (Yahweh), explain who accomplished that redemption (Christ), and explain who applies that redemption (The Spirit). We teach the whole counsel of Yahweh (Acts 20:27). We teach them what Jesus taught his twelve in the upper room, that He (Jesus) is with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). There we have our eschatology, so we are to point them towards this eschatological hope, towards heaven.  We point them towards glory, and we ask them to come with us as we march in that same direction.  We're sustained by the presence of Yahweh through the Spirit in our lives, as we look forward to that future hope in Christ. So, we go into the world with these basic doctrines, these basic truths, along with our life as credibility that those doctrines are in fact true, and that they've transformed us, as evidence of Yahweh's sustaining grace. 

Pastor Ben states: “When I think about my own testimony, there's two passages of Scripture that stand out for me when I think about the way Yahweh reached into my life and saved me. One of those is Romans 5:8. You probably hear me quote that a lot because it's close to my soul, ‘But Yahweh demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ That's exactly where Yahweh finds us. He doesn't find us in righteousness. He doesn't find us in a place where we finally arrived in the goodness of salvation, where we’ve figured things out theologically, or where logically we've reached a certain conclusion in our minds about Him. He doesn't find us there. He finds us in the midst of our sin, and that's where He found me about the age of 17. I was angry over loss and suffering and injustice, and I had questions in my mind. I didn't necessarily question the existence of Yahweh. I questioned whether or not He actually cared. When I looked at the life I was living, I saw hypocrisy in myself and the church. I even saw Yahweh's hypocrisy when I read the Scriptures (There was much confusion in my own mind). I was raised in the church, but in that self-righteous despair, I found myself just standing on the edge of self-destruction. I had no idea the depth of the pit that I was in. I do now, and I praise Yahweh for His grace!  I had no idea where I was at in that moment. But Yahweh, who is rich in mercy, pierced through that darkness, and didn't wait for me to find him. Praise Yahweh He found me there, and interjected Himself into my life! He opened my mind and my heart to the truth, and the reality of the gospel. He gave me eyes to see, and faith to believe. He gave Himself to me, He loved me, and, as He loved me, the second passage that always comes to mind: 1 Corinthians 15:10: ‘But by the grace of Yahweh I am what I am…’. As I stand before you today, and if you have come to Christ it's the same for you…I assure you this isn't a unique special testimony to me,…I am what I am, and you are what you are, praise Yahweh! It is by the grace of Yahweh. and Him alone.” Just as this happened to me and you, it’s also what we will see in life of the disciple who pens the gospel of Matthew. 

In account we explore today, Jesus is entering into the life of somebody who's broken, who's despised, and who's spiritually bankrupt, and that man's name is Levi.  If you understand who and what Levi is, his was a vile name, because he had a hideous profession in the world's eyes. You may know him as Matthew, as that's what we better know him as, as Matthew, disciple of Christ. That name means “the gift of Yahweh”, and Matthew's own testimony is grounded and born in eternity past. Then, the moment that he stood up from that tax booth and he left everything behind, that's the moment that we understand Yahweh's redeeming work in his heart. So that's where we begin his story, to understand what Yahweh was doing in Levi’s life. 

To start, we are not going to consider what he wrote, instead we're going to consider first and foremost who he was, and understand who he became in Christ, how Jesus transformed him, and how his own personal experience of mercy comes out in his gospel. If you understand his testimony as we go through his work you're going to see who he was, and who he became, both woven into his gospel. We're going to start at a most unusual place, in the book of Luke 5 because Luke points out some details that Matthew does not in his own gospel, because of his (Matthew's) humility, as seeing himself as a gift of Yahweh. He quietly leaves it out in his own gospel. Luke, however, highlights those things, and it helps us really understand who Matthew is. 

We will begin, then, in Luke 5:27-32. We're going to have just a basic outline: a name, a man, a call, and a table, In doing so, we are not only to learn  about Matthew, but also reflect on your own testimony, whether or not you know Christ first and foremost, and then what Yahweh has done in your own life and where you find yourself today. The same Christ who called Matthew is the same Christ who called me, and He's the same Christ who calls you! 

As we all embark on this gospel, our prayer should be the following: “Father, we come before You, acknowledging that you call sinners to repentance, and we thank you, Yahweh, for that because that is where we all are. Before we came to know You, we were, by nature, children of wrath, as Your Word tells us. Father, we understand by our own conviction within our hearts, that our consciences were violated, and that Your Word affirms that, and, because of Your acting on us, we admitted that we were those children of wrath. We know that we were bent against you. Yahweh, we give thanks to You for finding us in that place, just like you found Your beloved disciple Matthew, so help us to understand him from Your eyes and from Your heart. Help us to understand him so we can understand the gospel better. As we understand this gospel better, Father, may that understanding equip us to do the work of the Kingdom, help draw others through the preaching of that truth to them, and watch You work by Your Spirit's power, as you redeem your children out of this world. In Jesus name we pray, Amen”. 

1. A Name (v. 27)

   A. Levi

In Luke 5:27 we have just a simple statement: “And after that he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi”. When we encounter Levi in the book of Luke, we encounter someone who we also understand to be Matthew. Luke brings us to the point of seeing this as a person named Levi, and if you know anything about Levi, Levi means “joined”, or “attached”. It doesn't mean joined or attached physically, although it does imply some of that, but rather it's relationally and emotionally attached. That's what the name Levi really means. It is that desire for connection relationally and emotionally that's reflected also in the origin of the name. The name Levi is first mentioned in Genesis 29:34, where we find ourselves in the drama of Jacob and his wives Leah and Rachel. If you remember, here we have Jacob, who wanted to marry the younger Rachel, but had been swindled into marrying Rachel’s older sister Leah first.  Once Jacob married both, Rachel struggled with being barren, but, by Yahweh’s design, Leah begins birthing sons for Jacob, but still found herself still as “unloved”.  By verse 34 she has given birth to the third son, which she names Levi, stating, “Now this time  my husband will be joined to me because I have borne him three sons.” Her hope, then, was now Jacob would be connected to her relationally and emotionally. Levi, then, becomes one of the 12 sons, the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Levi and his descendant’s  actions speak throughout Israel’s history, and we begin to understand the characteristics of the Levites, beginning in Genesis 34, with the violence at Shechem. 

In Genesis 34, we find the tragic story of what could be a normal day in the life of a young teenage girl, 13 to 15, and her name was Dinah, a daughter of Jacob and Leah. Living with her Jewish family but seeing the unfamiliar neighboring pagan women, she recognized that those people didn't live like the Jews.  She requests permission to go visit them and find out more about their lives, and she was allowed do so. Unfortunately, the Prince of that neighboring city, a young man named Shechem, saw her, and, being overcome by lust, raped and defiled her. Shechem talked with his father Hamor, and demanded to have this girl as his wife. Hamor approaches Jacob with a ridiculous request for him to give Dinah to Shechem as his wife, something that shouldn’t be considered given the prohibitions of Deuteronomy against intermarrying with non-Jews. While this interaction is going on, Genesis 34:14-15 indicates that, in part because of Jacob’s silence, Dinah’s brothers plot a revengeful deception against Shechem, Hamor, and the men of their village, as payment for their sister’s defilement. The brothers convince Shechem, Hamor, and the men of the village to be circumcised in return for Dinah, which occurs. Jacob’s sons, led by Simeon and Levi, avenge the rape of their sister by massacring these men during their recovery, plundering the city and even harming the animals. Jacob faithfully loved Yahweh, and Jacob knew that Yahweh would avenge for His own, therefore they shouldn't take that vengeance into their own hands. Although Jacob was angry with his sons, Simeon and Levi remain unrepentant, saying in verse 31, “Should he (Shechem) treat our sister like a harlot?” 

Fast forward a few years, and Levi, now probably 23 to 25, is found participating with his brothers in the selling of the youngest brother Joseph into slavery. The older brothers were jealous of Joseph, you remember, as he had the coat of many colors and the favor of his father Jacob. They betrayed him, selling him into slavery and deceiving Jacob as well. Yahweh redeemed Joseph, as he became second in command in the pharaoh's Kingdom,  eventually reconciling with his brothers, including Levi.  At the end of Jacob's life, he (Jacob) gives an interesting prophecy and rebuke against Levi and Simeon, found in Genesis 49:5-7:  “Simeon and Levi are brothers; Their swords are implements of violence.  Let my soul not enter into their council; Let not my glory be united with their assembly; Because in their anger they killed men, And in their self-will they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is strong; And their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them amongst Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.”  Jacob's final words to Levi, then, are not ones of honor, but words of dishonor and judgment… judgment because of his anger and violence, his self-will and motives. Levi’s vengeance was wrong… it's just it's the wrath of men. His vengeance isn't Yahweh's vengeance, but his own. This is where we begin to see the grace of Yahweh that begin to work out in majestic ways. Fast forward another couple 100 years and we find ourselves at the foot of Mount Sinai.

At the foot of Mount Sinai, we have Israel worshipping a golden calf. We have Moses interceding on their behalf, as he comes down off the mountain he's in a rage because he understands what they've done. He understands what Yahweh wants to do, so in this moment Moses stood in the gate of the camp. Exodus 32:26-29 records what happens next: “… so Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.  And he said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the Yahweh of Israel, ‘Every man among you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother and every man his friend and every man his neighbor.’” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.  Then Moses said, “Be ordained today to Yahweh—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.” Moses, then, tells the sons of Levi, in essence, “You have been set aside now for Yahweh, not for your own anger, not for your own self vengeance, but for Yahweh's vengeance.”  Their zeal now is for Yahweh's holiness and Yahweh's righteousness and not their own. From that day forward they're set apart. They're consecrated as unto Yahweh. 

Similarly, we have recently announced Osvaldo becoming one of our elders. We're going to have a service where we ordain him, and where we lay hands on him, acknowledging that he's already been set aside for Yahweh's work. In so doing, we, as leadership and a church, to affirm him in his new role. This is similar to what's happening  with the Levites.

The Levites are set apart for Yahweh's work, so they became known as men who were extremely zealous for the Lord. These men knew no neutrality: they're either all in or they're all out. They sought for Yahweh's will above family relationships, because in the midst of their actions on behalf of Yahweh they killed some of their own family. They set aside their own national sentimentality for Yahweh's holiness and righteousness. Their loyalty was to Yahweh. So, with this faithful act, Levi, then, becomes the father of the Levitical tribe, and these people are now set apart as unto the Lord. We see this later in Deuteronomy 10:8, as Moses records that Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant. Also, we should remember that later the tribe of Levi’s inheritance was Yahweh himself, rather than land, an immense blessing. What a transformation! They go from bringing shame to their father, to their Heavenly Father giving them this blessing. Their spiritual role became protectors of the worship of Yahweh, mediators between Yahweh and his people. 

As we think about the Levites mentioned throughout Scripture, we find some notable ones: Moses, Eli, Phinehas, Ezra, and John the Baptist. Thinking about those men, we can begin to draw in the characteristics of the Levites, who they were, and what they represented. Some of their common characteristics of these men:  they were meek, they had power under control, they were humble, they were zealous, they were burdened (like Habakkuk with his oracle), they were burdened for Yahweh, they were disciplined, they were blunt, they were courageous, they were emotionally sincere, they were convicted, they were daring in the face of crisis, they were radical. Consider Phinehas: When Israel fell into idolatry and sexual sin with the Midianites, Phinehas got up from the tent of meeting, went over and drove a spear through the people who having intercourse, executing vengeance for a gross violation of Yahweh's righteousness. As a result, Yahweh sets aside his line: “Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his seed after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his Yahweh and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’” (Numbers 25:10-13) Yahweh said this is now who's going to intercede for your people, rather than Eli. 

If you think about Eli, it's really interesting because Eli was punished for passivity, but not the rest of the Levites. They were never timid. There were the ones who stood whenever other people bowed, they acted when others remained passive, and they spoke whenever others remained silent. This was the characteristics of the Levites. What we have learned about Levi is that Yahweh didn't take their fire and erase it. Instead , He consecrated it for Himself. 

So, when we read in Luke chapter 5 that Jesus noticed a tax collector named Levi, all of that history comes along with this name. Jesus, knowing the importance of his name, and the fact that Levi was not in the synagogue but a tax booth, simply tells him, “Follow me” (v. 27). 

B. Matthew

By contrast, in his own gospel. Matthew uses the name Matthew rather than Levi, and Matthew means “gift of Yahweh”. The reason that Matthew uses that name is because he understands the grace of Yahweh in a very specific way, and he wanted that to be conveyed to his readers. This reflects his humility. and reflects the gratitude he had for what Yahweh has done in him. Despite some written textual criticism proposing that Levi in Luke and Matthew in Matthew are not the same person, contextually and chronologically we know that they are one in the same. Matthew could have highlighted his Levitical name, but he didn't. Instead, he highlights his name Matthew. When Jesus finds him, he's not a favored man. He's a hated guy even though he has this Levitical heritage. 

2. A Man (v. 27b)

A. A Son

Mark 2 tells us that his father’s name was Alpheus, a common name only used in one other place in Scripture (James). We don't know exactly what the name Alpheus means, and don’t think the two usages of the name is connected to the same person. We do believe that Alpheus would have understood his heritage in order to name his son Levi. The Jewish historian Josephus in his work Antiquities talks about the importance of the Levitical lineage, and why Jewish people would name their sons Levi. The Mishna and the Talmud say the same thing, as do the Dead Sea Scrolls and other documents of the Qumran community, which maintained strict Levitical ideals. Given this, we can be quite certain that Alpheus most likely raised Levi within this faith-centered covenant-keeping tradition, raising him in the Torah. This is also why Levi aligning with Rome was so impactful: he's forsaking the synagogue, he's becoming ceremonially unclean. This deep heritage factors into what was going on, because he has walked away from all of that. It is within this tension within his own heart and mind as Christ finds him. 

B. A Servant

He is a servant, but he's not a servant of Yahweh…instead he's a servant of Satan, sitting in this public tax booth which would have been positioned strategically on major trade routes in Capernaum. Matthew, a son of the tribe called to serve the holy house of Yahweh, now was serving Rome, and doing so for profit and for exploitation, not for worship. 

It is also important to remember how the taxing structure worked in Rome.  Rome would collect taxes in a specific way called tax farming, and they would take these outer regions like Galilee and other areas where they they didn't want to be, and offer them to whoever could afford to buy the taxing rights, Jew or Gentile. Publicans, as they were called, could either be the owner of the franchise (e.g. Zacchaeus), or the one who manned tax booths (e.g. Matthew). Any amount collected above and beyond what was due to Rome the publicans could keep, therefore most took advantage of this arrangement to swindle the public. Thus, the whole system itself was just corrupt from beginning to end (think “mafia”), resulting in Matthew being vilified publicly. Scripture even aligns them with “the worst of the worst”. Pharisees even used “tax collector” as a byword for spiritual filth, as Jesus indicates in His parable in Luke 18:11 where He has a Pharisee proclaim, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector”. Anyone that's in a tax booth was despised by the Jews and Gentiles, as tax collectors weren't allowed to socialize with the Roman elites, seeing them as kind of this necessary nuisance in society. 

C. A Sinner

We know, then, that Levi was a sinner. He also had to be really clever, because you had to calculate instantly rates and fees and you had to have this mental sharpness and so they had this shorthand way of writing where they were able to collect a lot of details in a small amount of time (which is probably why the book of Matthew is longer than the other gospels). The Levites were also known as brilliant men, many of them scribes, teachers, and scholars. One can see, then, how Levi's natural temperament carried forward, but in a sinful state, and even unchecked by grace he could take those characteristics and use them for himself instead of for Yahweh. 

3. A Call (v. 27-28)

A. The Gaze of Grace

When Luke says that Jesus went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi, it actually means the He fixed his gaze upon him. He didn't walk by and glance. It's vision that interprets the object for what it is, and Jesus looks at Matthew, interpreting the object for what it was, and said “Follow me”.  Jesus saw Matthew not just as this despised tax collector, but as a gift of Yahweh. It brings to mind Romans 5:8, “But Yahweh demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. That's where He found Matthew. That's where he found this Levite in the midst of his sin, but doesn't leave him there. 

B. The Authority of the Call

Instead, Jesus says, “Follow me”. In Arabic culture, students chose the rabbis, but when Jesus walked through the land He chose his students instead. Jesus’ call of Levi to himself paints a picture of Yahweh's sovereign grace and salvation, essentially calling him to unyoke himself from everything, walk away from everything, leave his booth, leave his livelihood, leave his worldly identity, leave his money, leave his security, leave everything. Think about the implications: If this venture with Jesus doesn’t work out, he could not just reinsert himself back into tax collecting again (reminiscent of Peter's attempt to return to fishing again after Christ is crucified). Levi’s departure was immediate and complete. He broke with his old life, and “burned his ship at the harbor”. This process is an early introduction to the concept of “taking up your cross and following Christ”. It’s a beautiful image of what that really means, to take up your cross and follow after Christ:  You leave everything (your identity, your life, everything) and follow after Christ while dying to self. That's how salvation works, the reality of what grace does in action. 

C. The Power of God

In the call of Christ, He always empowers one to respond in the way that Yahweh demands, and we see Levi responding in the same way. Grace awakened his heart, and he followed after Christ, not because of his own willpower, or not because he had the strength to do it. While it's his strength that took him to the tax booth, it was the miracle of Yahweh that pulled him out of that tax booth. 

4. A Table (v. 29-32)

A. Mission of Mercy

What is the first thing that Matthew does following his encounter with Christ? Verse 29: “And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.” When you are moved from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light, you can't help but celebrate, and you're going to find that as we go throughout Matthew. Your newfound freedom in Christ inspires you to want others to know about the grace that you have received. 

 Pastor Ben, again: “This is what happened in my own life: In the little sphere I ran in, one of the things I was excited about was going back into those friend groups and proclaiming to them that there's a God who loves them, but right now His love will result in wrath, and I don't want that for them.” 

B. New Life

Levi, who Yahweh calls, is now Matthew a gift of Yahweh. He was no longer his old self, but was now a new creature: he was meek, had power under control, humble. He is now a scribe of Yahweh. Matthew will record later Jesus saying that every scribe who's become a disciple of the Kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household who brings out his treasures new things and old (Matthew 13:52). Matthew, himself, fulfills this beautifully, because Matthew beholds the old things and the new things in a way that only Matthew can, and so over 99 times in his gospel, he will reference the Old Testament (more than anyone else). He does this for several reasons, with the main reasons being 1) that he wanted all the riffraff of the world to know Christ, and 2) he wanted his own people, the Jews, to know Christ, as he had a heart for them to love him (therefore he pulls in all of these Old Testament references so that they might understand what's new). Matthew, then, becomes this unique scribe of Yahweh, a scribe of the New Covenant, bringing forth these new truths and these new realities of Christ, along with the older teaching. Sadly, the Pharisees only see Jesus sitting at the table with tax collectors and sinners in verse 30, prompting Jesus’ response that it's not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. The scandal of Matthew's call is really the scandal of the gospel: Yahweh calls the unlikely and he gives us new names and then he sends us then back into those places of darkness as beams of light to shed that light to call other people to him. MacArthur comments that Matthew stands as a vivid reminder that the Lord often chooses the most despicable people of this world redeems them and gives them new hearts, and uses them in remarkable ways. 

Jesus, then, set his sight on Levi. He didn't see him as Levi. He saw him as Matthew, and that's the way Jesus sees people today. As a result, that's the way we need to see people too, not who we understand them to be, but who they could be by the grace of Yahweh. Every name in Scripture tells a unique story of the gospel, Those names declare identity, destiny, and purpose, but sometimes the same name carries tension. We see “Levi”, and we see “Matthew”, and we see the tension between someone who was, and someone who becomes. As we walk through the Gospel of Matthew, you'll see that it's more than a personal testimony…it's a preview of the Kingdom. That's why the Kingdom is the theme throughout the book of Matthew.  That's the heart of his gospel because it's the heart of Matthew. We should guard against clinically thinking that Matthew is writing this gospel because he is a Jew and knew about the kingdom historically.  Instead, we must remember that in Matthew, you have a Jewish sinner that was loved by Yahweh, found in a place he never thought he would be found, and recognized as someone who had a heart for Yahweh. In response, he writes this gospel, so that we all might come to know this King too, and be equipped to call others into His Kingdom, all the while recognizing that he did so at the eventual expense of his own life. Matthew was willing…how about you?