Order of Worship
1st of February 2026 | 10:30 (Espoo)
Our welcome team members will pass an offering basket during this song.
For information about giving online, please visit ucclife.fi/give or follow the QR code on the screen. You can also speak to our pastors or leaders for more information about giving and generosity. You can also ask the welcome team or any of our staff team members for more info on giving online.
A warm welcome to all, and especially to any visitors joining us today – if you’re new to our community please take a moment to fill out our digital visitors card or speak to us after the service!
If you have children, they are welcome to join our Sunday school classes!
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 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. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
Jesus doesn’t call changed people; his call is what changes them.
I. Jesus Calls a Sinner vv 27-28
II. Jesus Centers a New Life vv 29
III. Jesus Explains His Mission vv 30-32
If you believe in Jesus as your Saviour and King, you are welcome to the Table.
Please hold the elements until all have received; we will all take them together.
The bread is gluten free, the cup is alcohol free.
Intro
1. When Luke introduces Levi, he tells us exactly where he is and what he is doing. Why do you think Luke wants us to picture Levi sitting at the tax booth when Jesus calls him?
Into the Text
2. In verses 27-28, Jesus calls Levi without any discussion of repentance or change. What does that tell us about how Jesus’ call works?
3. Levi leaves the booth immediately. What would leaving that booth have cost him in real terms, both financially and socially?
4. Luke places Levi’s feast right after Levi’s call (v 29). What does that sequence show us about the connection between grace and joy?
5. Why are the Pharisees more disturbed by Jesus eating and drinking than by Levi’s sinful profession (vv 30-33)?
6. Jesus calls himself the bridegroom (vv 34- 35). What is Jesus claiming about himself by using that image?
7. What do the images of new wine and old wineskins (vv 36-39) tell us about trying to fit Jesus into existing religious habits or expectations?
Applying the Text
8. Levi leaves something concrete and visible to follow Jesus. What kinds of “booths” do people today tend to sit in that make following Jesus costly?
9. The religious leaders were uncomfortable with joy in this passage. Where do you see that same discomfort with joy or grace in Christian culture today?
10. Jesus says new wine cannot be contained by old wineskins. What happens to faith when people try to follow Jesus without letting anything actually change?
Order of Worship
1st of February 2026 | 16:00 (Helsinki)
Our welcome team members will pass an offering basket during this song.
For information about giving online, please visit ucclife.fi/give or follow the QR code on the screen. You can also speak to our pastors or leaders for more information about giving and generosity. You can also ask the welcome team or any of our staff team members for more info on giving online.
A warm welcome to all, and especially to any visitors joining us today – if you’re new to our community please take a moment to fill out our digital visitors card or speak to us after the service!
If you have children, they are welcome to join our Sunday school classes!
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 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. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
1. Jesus calls us to repentance (vv 27-32)
2. Jesus knew the times (vv 33-35)
3. Jesus enlightens (vv 36-39)
If you believe in Jesus as your Saviour and King, you are welcome to the Table.
Please hold the elements until all have received; we will all take them together.
The bread is gluten free, the cup is alcohol free.
1. In Luke’s gospel it is evident that Jesus clarified the purpose and mission of His ministry. What was the purpose and mission of His ministry? (Look at Luke 4:42-43, 5:15-16 & 5:31-32) How does Jesus’s purpose and mission affects your life?
2. Jesus displays His power and His divine attributes in healing the sick. But His purpose and mission shows that Jesus came not to bring physical healing but a spiritual healing. (Read Luke 5:27-32 & Ezekiel 36:25-27). The Spiritual healing (new heart, repentance) is the gift that Jesus gives us. In what ways has this spiritual healing changed your life?
3. Jesus calls Levi (Matthew) to follow Him. And he left everything to follow him. How this different from those in Luke 9:57-62? What is true or genuine repentance?
4. Read Romans 1:16, and Mark 2:14-15. Jesus reclined with tax collectors who followed him. This is unusual, even taboo, in the cultural context of the day. How do Jesus’s acts portray the power of the gospel in salvation (look at Luke 5:27-28)? How does this inform and motivate us to be missional?
5. Why are the Pharisees wrong when they accused Jesus about fasting and prayer? How does Jesus respond to and answer the Pharisees?
6. How did the early church fast and pray? (Read Luke 5:35, Acts 13:1-3). How can prayer and fasting help us as spiritual disciplines to follow Jesus?
7. Read Luke 5:36-39. How does Jesus’s parable help clarify the gospel?
Salvation is not possible with self righteousness. There is salvation when Jesus gives us a new heart, and with a new heart we repent from sin by the help of His Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Therefore do not mix the old and new. Put off the old and grow in the (new self) newness of life.
8. End with reading out loud Colossians 3:1-11, and praying together.