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Luke 5:27-38
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth.“ Follow me,” he said to him.And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind.Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for Jesus, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them.But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying,“ Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”Jesus answered them,“ Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”Then they said to him,“ John’s disciples frequently fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours continue to eat and drink.”So Jesus said to them,“ You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?But those days are coming, and when the bridegroom is taken from them, at that time they will fast.”He also told them a parable:“ No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old garment. If he does, he will have torn the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.Instead new wine must be poured into new wineskins.
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Mark 2:14-22
As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.“ Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him.As Jesus was having a meal in Levi’s home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.When the experts in the law and the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples,“ Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”When Jesus heard this he said to them,“ Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said,“ Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”Jesus said to them,“ The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast.But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast.No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
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Luke 19:2-10
Now a man named Zacchaeus was there; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd.So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him,“ Zacchaeus, come down quickly, because I must stay at your house today.”So he came down quickly and welcomed Jesus joyfully.And when the people saw it, they all complained,“ He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord,“ Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!”Then Jesus said to him,“ Today salvation has come to this household, because he too is a son of Abraham!For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
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Luke 6:15
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot,
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Mark 3:18
and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
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Matthew 10:3
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
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Matthew 4:18-22
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon( called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea( for they were fishermen).He said to them,“ Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people.”They left their nets immediately and followed him.Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then he called them.They immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.
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Acts 1:13
When they had entered Jerusalem, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James were there.
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1 Kings 19 19-1 Kings 19 21
Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen; he was near the twelfth pair. Elijah passed by him and threw his robe over him.He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said,“ Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, then I will follow you.” Elijah said to him,“ Go back! Indeed, what have I done to you?”Elisha went back and took his pair of oxen and slaughtered them. He cooked the meat over a fire that he made by burning the harness and yoke. He gave the people meat and they ate. Then he got up and followed Elijah and became his assistant.
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Luke 15:1-2
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him.But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining,“ This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
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Galatians 1:16
to reveal his Son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being,
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Matthew 21:31-32
Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said,“ The first.” Jesus said to them,“ I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God!For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe. Although you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.