I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
7 sermons cite this verse
… first person when he tells what he's doing. The healthy don't need a doctor, the sick do. And here he says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners. In other words, he says to them, you are here asking if it is permissible for me to do this, and I want you to know it is my purpose to do this. This is my reason for being here. I mix with sinners because they have a disease and I have a cure. That's what he's saying. Makes perfect sense. Why would I spend time with religious people? Why would I spend time with the folks who are so sure that they're in the right and they're fine? They never listen to me in any case. No, the people I've come to spend time with are the ones who know themselves to be in need. I've come to spend time with the sick and the sinners. He had not and he has not come to call those who believe themselves to be righteous, but to call those who are outcasts, who know that they need to be made whole. …
… It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Some years ago as a church, we took as a statement of purpose the ten words to see unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ. And we have tried as best we can to keep that before us, not simply by keeping it in print, but also in approaching all of the opportunities and responsibilities that we have as a church in light of the awareness of the fact that Jesus, in leaving his disciples behind, promised them the power and authority of the Holy Spirit so that they might go out into the world and proclaim the good news of Jesus, baptizing people, making disciples, and establishing the work of the kingdom. And as much as we pay lip service to that, we recognize that there is an inherent danger in thinking that just because that is the phrase that we are able to rehearse and repeat, that somehow or another that may actually be happening, when in point of fact it might not. And one of the great questions that is before us as a church is to look around and to see just how seriously we believe it is important for us to take the command of Jesus to go out into the world and to make disciples. In other words, we face the risk that after a relatively short period of time, the comfortability of being in the companionable relationships with one another may dim our vision, may dent our enthusiasm, …
… drinks with tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now get the flow of the text. It says in verse 13 that he went out again by the sea. He went out from where? He went out from the house he was in in the previous verses. Remember, he was in Peter's house, Peter and Andrew's house. It was a large crowd pressing together. It was so crowded that those four guys had to open up the roof to let down their friend who was a paralytic. After that healing, Jesus went out from there and went out to the Sea of Galilee. Not to get away from people, but to allow for more people to get around him without the constraint of four walls. And he did what he always did with people. He taught them. He gave truth to them. He preached the gospel to them. …
… And Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but I have come to call sinners to repentance. Write down number four today. Jesus sits with his mission. And I just love this because Luke is trying to get us to understand that Jesus was not a you guys come to me and let's talk. Jesus was a, I'll go to you and let's talk. And so Levi gets his life changed and he goes, what do I do to signal to the world that this man changed my life? He's thinking of it, and I just believe this. When God touches your heart, he opens your hand. If you get your heart touched, you get your hand opened. By the way, law of opposite. If you get your heart creased, your fists closed. If you get your heart broken, your fists closed. But when his heart got touched, his hand got opened. He said, I want to host and throw a party for Jesus, and I want all my friends to come meet the one that changed my life. …
… he's loving people who are unattractive annoying ugly offensive childish he's loving sinners i did not come to call the righteous but sinners jesus said and by loving them by loving us by loving you jesus embraces you in this mystery and makes you into something you couldn't be on your own. See, God's love is unconditional, but your life isn't. Your life, my life, grows and thrives and matures only under certain conditions, like how a child needs certain conditions, such as food, shelter, education, affirmation. So also, we need God's love. We need to know and trust that we are truly loved by God. But what if we reject God's love or try to replace it with something else. Or look at the scarred and defaced world around you. That's what happens. Take a deep look at yourself, at your own heart. That's what happens. If you could look into mine, you'd see a five-foot-tall, pudgy kid with pimples at a school dance next to basketball players and cheerleaders who don't even know he's there. …
… God does not receive the righteous. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." So that salvation comes not to religious self-righteous people, but to the very opposite, sinners. This is the foundation truth of redemptive history. So that's what's behind the story in chapter 19. Let's go back to it. Jesus has come south from Galilee, and it says in verse 1, He entered Jericho and was passing through. Because you entered Jericho in the Jordan Valley, about six miles north of the Dead Sea, and you went from Jericho up the mountain to Jerusalem, and it was Passover time, and And so there were large caravans of pilgrims coming down from Galilee and Perea and crossing the Jordan into Judea through Jericho, headed for Jerusalem. Jericho was called the city of palms. It was sort of the Palm Springs of Israel. It was well watered. Two springs were there, and the water was basically distributed through aqueducts. It was a wonderful city, we are told, with a wall around it and four massive forts on the wall. …
… I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew was a hated tax collector. Jesus went to his house to eat. It'd be like if you were to walk down the street today and saw Jesus in a pizza parlor having pizza with pimps and drug pushers. What's he doing in there with that crowd? I'll tell you what he's doing in there with that crowd. They're the sick ones and he's the physician. That's what he was doing with them. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This matter of submission. Should women submit to their husbands? Yes. Should children be submissive to their parents? Yes. But submission is not subservience. I've seen men take a principle and use it to beat their wives to death with it. Rather than building a house, it's a hammer that becomes a murder weapon spiritually. Did you know that Jesus is the head of the church? But all the time that I've ever been saved, he's never forced me to do one thing. …