Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 76 to 100 of 715 results

76. I Am Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... and the broken-hearted. He could bring peace -- shalom -- to His people." I began to wonder. What good is all my ill-gotten wealth, if everyone hates me, if I at last find myself in Hades? Here I was at this point. I had risen to the position of chief tax collector. I had it all. I became one of the richest men in all Jericho. I was going up the ladder, yet inside, I felt empty. One day, I heard that Jesus was coming here to Jericho. I determined to see Him. Alas, when I got there, the streets were crowded ...

77. An Encounter With Two Old Friends

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

... to dig up old records, I found another gentleman of the IRS to be congenial and completely human, tolerant of my ill-kept records, kind and even humorous. So I prefer to use the better term "publican" instead of tax collector, even though the publican collected taxes. The image of the tax collector in our time needs all the help it can be given, for if it is lawful to pay taxes, it is also lawful to collect them. Plainly Stated The lesson of the parable is plainly stated, that whoever advertises personal ...

78. Leave Your Calculator Home

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... A tax was payable for using the main roads, the harbors, and the markets. A tax was payable on a cart, on each wheel of the cart, and on the animal which drew it. A tax-collector could bid a man stop on the road and unpack his bundles and charge him well-nigh whatever he liked. If a man could not pay, sometimes the tax collector would offer to lend him money at an exorbitant rate of interest and so get him further into his clutches.” (3) We complain about the IRS, but they are sweethearts compared to the ...

79. Ready For A Change

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... hate . . ." "I was grieving with a heart full of pain . . ." "I was dissatisfied with my work, my family, but most of all my self, and then . . . Jesus came into my life." This was Matthew's story. It may be your story. Matthew was sitting there in the tax collector's office, prosperous but despised. And along came Jesus. AND WHAT DID JESUS SAY TO HIM? He said what Jesus says to each of us, "Follow me." Don't just study about me. Don't just admire me. Follow me. Rebecca Barlow Jordan tells a hilarious story ...

80. Matthew · A Changed Man

Luke 5:27-32

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... . He said that doctors came to help sick people and not people that are well. If Matthew was bad, Jesus said he could make him good just like doctors can make a sick man well. The three money bags in Matthew's symbol tell us that Matthew was once a tax collector but his work as a friend of Jesus made people think of him as a teacher and a disciple. The next time you get your friends together and have a party tell them about the party that Matthew once had and how the people ate and drank with Jesus. But ...

81. God Is a Mystery

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... world-famous balsam groves which sent off their fragrance for miles around seemed to lend a listening ear. Jesus had stopped under the tree that Zacchaeus had climbed and appeared ready to speak to him. What the People Expected The people knew that at long last this crooked tax collector was going to get a part of what he deserved. He was going to get the verbal tongue lashing of his life. He was going to be exposed for all the wrong that he had done and the grief that he had brought upon the people whom he ...

82. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... call such a man to follow him was scandalous in itself, for Levi was a renegade Jew. That is, he was one who deliberately chose to separate himself from the Jewish community and become a collaborator with the Roman occupation forces, serving as a tax collector. It was a way of getting rich, and we are familiar with the fact that principles and ideals are often compromised for personal gain. In the understanding of the Judaism of the time he had knowingly separated himself from the precepts of the covenant ...

83. Matthew - A Changed Man

Luke 5:27-32

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... . He said that doctors come to help sick people and not people that are well. If Matthew was bad, Jesus said he could make him good just like doctors can make a sick man well. The three money bags in Matthew’s symbol tell us that Matthew was once a tax collector but his work as a friend of Jesus made people think of him as a teacher and a disciple. The next time you get your friends together and have a party tell them about the party that Matthew once had and how the people ate and drank with Jesus. But ...

84. Sycamore Blues

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... talk about hiding “from” God –a completely futile endeavor that weakens us and deprives us of God’s healing and forgiving grace. Yet we all do it. Today’s scripture is about a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a big-wig tax commissioner for Rome. He’s not just a tax collector. But he’s the Big Cheese, the top of the heap, and he’s very, very rich! He’s got a LOT of money. He’s a billionaire. He’s part of the 1% of the 1%. But the thing is….we can pretty much know that not all of ...

85. Dinner With Jesus

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... 19:10). Let me explain what happened. By the time our meal was over, I was convinced that I had been wrong in what I had been doing all these years. Not the tax collecting, because somebody has to do that. There is nothing inherently wrong with being a tax collector. No, what I had done wrong was to seriously overcharge people, to cheat them for my own gain. It was stealing, pure and simple, and our law says "Thou shalt not steal." So I stood up beside the table and said that I was going to make restitution ...

86. The First Meal

Sermon

Robert F. Scott

... person, wanted to provide dinner for Jesus and his followers. But who would come? No good, upright, religious person would sit at table with Levi; that would make a good person un-good -- ceremonially unclean. Who were left? Levi's friends: the other outcasts -- tax collectors and sinners - already considered unclean -- were the only ones who would come to his banquet. Only the sinners would go to Levi's feast: that is, only the sinners and Jesus. The Pharisees saw it at once: if this man Jesus were truly ...

87. Proper 5

Matthew 9:18-26, Matthew 9:9-13, Hosea 6:1--7:16, Hosea 5:1-15, Romans 4:1-25, Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is doing something that "good" people would avoid doing. We teach children to avoid bad company because they could easily be influenced to engage in evil deeds. It is a reasonable question asked of the disciples by the Pharisees: "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" According to the text, the disciples had no answer. Jesus answered for them. It is a question we need to ask ourselves as Christians: Why do we (or do we?) associate with the criminal element of society? It is a fact that ...

88. Paying Taxes

Matthew 9:9-13

Illustration

King Duncan

... day I can call the IRS and get a voice that says, Sorry, that number has been disconnected.'" And there was that famous reply that boxer Joe Louis gave when a sportswriter asked, "Who hit you the hardest during your ring career?" His reply: "Uncle Sam." People don't like tax collectors. Things haven't changed as much as you think. Archeologists uncovered a 3,000-year tablet in Iraq. It had on it this inscription: "You can have a Lord, you can have a King, but the man to fear is the ...

89. Gentiles 'R Us

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... do you do? You sic the whole church on them. And if things STILL don’t change, even after the elders have raked them over the coals? You and the church should treat the one who has sinned against you as you would treat a Gentile or a tax collector. But be careful here! You should know by now how tricky Jesus can be. You have to watch him, especially when he gets that certain twinkle in his eyes. Sometimes Jesus will say something, even in a gospel as straightforward as Matthew’s, and you will think he ...

90. The Kingdom of God Is At Hand

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... who were the victims of the judgment of others. You might think about what people among us are victims of the judgment of others. The scribes and Pharisees, those who helped to shape society’s rules, were shocked by Jesus’ behavior. "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" they asked. The oppressors had their say. Then Jesus had his say. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners," Jesus said. Jesus stood on the side of the victims. That is a sign that the kingdom of God is at hand. (See ...

91. Wining and Dining with Jesus

Mark 2:18-22

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... occupying power. They often skimmed their profits off their neighbors. You can see why they were unappreciated! The Pharisees peered in the doorway and saw the kind of people with whom Jesus was eating and they were scandalized! “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners,” they asked. (Mark 2:16b) Now, “sinners” here does not necessarily mean persons guilty of moral turpitude. It also referred to those who did not keep all the ritual laws of the strict Pharisees. The same people who got angry ...

92. The Man in the Tree

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... human, isn’t it? The crowd sees Jesus eating with Zacchaeus and they begin to criticize. “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” They couldn’t know Jesus’ intent. They couldn’t know why he chose to visit Zacchaeus. True, Zacchaeus was a tax collector, but they couldn’t see what was really in his heart. You and I are often guilty of passing judgment when we do not know all the facts. Years ago Karel Capek wrote a short story with an intriguing concept of God. It’s about a murderer ...

93. License to Steal

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... have our needs met. The truth is we want God to remove our need and our neediness so that we won’t really need God anymore. Our prayers are uttered so we can return to our smug sense of self-sufficiency. But that’s another sermon. The tax collector in today’s text recognized that there was no neediness “grid” we can get off of. We are all eternally on the hook, from the moment we are born. Self-sufficiency is self-delusion. Nothing more. Nothing less. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the ...

94. A Small Man Who Was Given a Big Heart

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... up in that tree, And He said “Zacchaeus, you come down! For I’m going to your house today!” Zacchaeus is one of the most famous short men in all of history. Why? Because one day Jesus was passing through Jericho, Zacchaeus’ home town. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho and was quite wealthy. In spite of his wealth he wanted to see Jesus as he passed through town. Being a short man, however, he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree so he ...

95. A Lost Boy

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... means of securing their income. A rabbinic rule stated that one should not associate with ungodly people, so the rabbis would not even teach those they judged to belong to the class of sinners, which certainly included tax collectors. Yet here was Jesus (a Jewish rabbi) teaching a group of tax-collectors and sinners as if they were as acceptable as anyone else. This disgusted the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. This is the setting for today’s lesson. Jesus tells a parable with this particular ...

96. Lost and Found

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:11-32

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... ?) openness to Jesus on the part of some Pharisees (7:36; 11:37; 13:31; 14:1). Here, as usual, they are concerned with following the rules of purity, for which they themselves were responsible, rather than with helping people. For the same group set over against tax collectors, see also 5:29–30; 7:29–30. 15:4 Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep. This would be quite a large flock, indicating a relatively prosperous owner. A hundred sheep would probably be too many for one man to look after, so the ...

97. Amazing Grace

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... a slouch. Besides, have you ever tried to be humble? You can't. When it comes to humility, you either are or you aren't. The word ''humility'' is related to our word humus—earth, earthy. To be humble is to be close to the ground, near the bottom. The tax collector wasn't trying to be humble. He was humble. He wasn't acting like he did not know what to pray. He didn't know how to pray. He was down. Having defrauded his neighbors on behalf of the Roman overlords, he had much to be humble about. He was ...

98. The Fringe

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... .” God’s healing, God’s restoration and salvation, God’s cleansing power and presence is not restricted for a select few. Jesus is not selecting some and rejecting others. But the key to healing is through faith alone. Matthew the tax collector, along with his many tax collector friends do not fit the bill of acceptance with the Pharisees, but they are welcome in God’s kingdom. Jesus says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” The sun of ...

99. Who You Gonna' Vote For?

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Brett Blair

... make a change for Christ. Come Election Day, the day Zacchaeus was called down out of that tree, he had to make a choice. Let’s put it in Tuesday’s language: He has to cast his vote. Who will he vote for? I First, he could vote for the Tax Collectors. He could decide to continue his life as it always had been. This way he would retain his wealth, but what would it cost him in the end? Let’s take a look at some background to answer this question. Nothing in first century Judea was quite so hated and ...

100. The Calling of Levi

Mark 2:13-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... obtained in addition to the contracted sum with Rome was his to keep. The Roman system of taxation thus attracted unscrupulous individuals and virtually required dishonesty in order for a tax collector to survive economically. That Jesus would call as a disciple a tax collector, who was detested because of his collaboration with the Roman occupation and ritually unclean because of it, was no less offensive than his touching of a leper (1:40–45). This story repeats and reinforces the truth of 2:1–12 ...

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