Wednesday in the Word

Good morning, friends. Last night (Tuesday) was our bible class night. My husband/pastor had to go the mission so it was my turn to teach bible class. So, I am going to give you a few points from it on this Wednesday in the Word time.

We’ve Never Done It That Way Before!

Jesus Calls Levi (Matthew)

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that gathered around him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax-collection booth. "Come, be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.  15 That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.) 16 But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with such scum?"  17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor--sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough." 18 John's disciples and the Pharisees sometimes fasted. One day some people came to Jesus and asked, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?"  19 Jesus replied, "Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can't fast while they are with the groom. 20 But someday he will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 21 And who would patch an old garment with unshrunk cloth? For the new patch shrinks and pulls away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger hole than before. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine needs new wineskins."23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of wheat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "They shouldn't be doing that! It's against the law to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath."  25 But Jesus replied, "Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest), ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone, and then gave some to his companions. That was breaking the law, too." 27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. 28 And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!"

As we look at these passages a few things to...

1. The Pharisees (church people) were critical of Jesus because he was doing things that had not been done before. 
2. In these days and times God is calling us to go into places we have never gone before to get things we have never had. 
3. Make sure that when you fast you have a purpose
4. Healthy people don't need a physician
5. You can not put something new into something old. 
6. If we want God to pour out his spirit into our lives there are some things that we have to empty out so that God can fill us up. 

A few questions that we pondered 

1. Do you fix and mend or toss and replace? 
2. How did the Pharisees (church people) feel about Levi being called by Jesus? 
3. Who are you influencing to come to Christ? 
4. How mature does a person need to be to witness? 
5. What does the new wine represent? 
6. What do you want God to do for you as it pertains to doing things in a new way? 

Be blessed