Party Time
Matthew 9:9-13
Introduction
What comes to mind when you hear the word party? Some mental pictures are good and some are not so good. Parties are places where people gather just simply to be together. Parties have the ability to bring people together like nothing else seems to.
There are a number of different kinds of parties that we might attend. We have parties for birthdays, Christmas, graduations, weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, New Year’s Eve and anniversaries. There are parties for sporting events like the Super Bowl and for little league games. Parties can be big or small, elaborate or simple. Parties do have one common thread that seldom we think about: a reason.
Almost every party that we might think of has a purpose if nothing more than getting people together. What would happen if we attached spiritual purposes or reasons to the parties we hold? Can parties actually be used to promote the gospel? The answer is yes.
The Bible is filled with celebrations and parties.
When the armies of Egypt were destroyed at the Red Sea
Israel celebrated when the Ark was brought back to Jerusalem.
When Nehemiah finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
The father celebrated when the prodigal son came home
If you have your Bibles, open them with me to Matthew 9:9-13. This morning I want to look how a changed man threw a party to celebrate and invited his friends to meet Jesus.
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and `sinners’?" 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew 9:9-13
Who was Matthew?
Matthew is one of the most interesting of the Twelve apostles because he seems the least likely to have been called by Jesus. Matthew would have been unlikely to be accepted even by the other disciples.
The Life Application Bible describes the central lesson from Matthew’s life in this manner. The gospel is not for people who already think they are good, it is for people who know they have failed and want help.ยจ p. 1735 (NIV Edition)
Matthew is another story of dramatic life change. Once Jesus called Matthew to follow him, a change took place.
Tax Collectors
Tax collectors were hated among the Jewish people for several important reasons.
1.) They served the Roman Government
Tax collectors were hired by the Roman government to assess the citizens of an occupied country on taxes. Romans hired locals to do this work to ensure that everyone was taxed.
Tax collectors were seen as traitors to their country and should be treated as such. Tax collectors were viewed as lower than unclean animals. Jewish people were more likely to socialize with a leper than a tax collector. Tax collectors were stripped of all their religious rights and were not permitted to practice the Jewish faith.
2.) They cheated people on taxes
Tax collectors were given no salary from the Roman government. Rome sent payroll shipments to pay the salary of the soldiers serving in foreign lands. Rome sent no payroll to pay the tax collectors. Instead, the Roman government allowed the tax collectors to add a percentage onto the taxes required by Roman to provide a salary. Rome did not provide a percentage for the salary but left it to the discretion of each individual collector to set their salary. Tax collectors could decide to tax the people whatever they wished.
Tax collectors often raised heavy taxes on the poor and used the threat of debtors prison to collect. The collectors would also accept brides from the wealthy to falsify tax records and lower their taxes.
3.) Spiritual Issues involved
Another issue with the tax collectors was also spiritual. Jewish people believed that their government was a theocracy meaning that God ruled over them. Jews believed that paying taxes to any other country was an insult to God. The tax collectors were seen as insulting God with their behavior.
Three different kinds of tax collectors
1.) Gabbai
Gabbai collected general taxes on various occasions and often collected lower amounts of taxes
2.) High Makhes
High makhes were wealthy enough to hire other men to collect the taxes for them. This often allowed them to save some face with the community. Zaccheaus would have been a high makhes.
3.) Lower Makhes
The lower makhes collected taxes on an almost daily basis on everything from income to property. The lower makhes often operated an office where they could watch the coming and going of the people to assess their taxes. For example, the lower makhes would watch each morning as the fishermen brought in their catch for the day. The makhes would assess the catch and write a tax bill that was immediately payable.
All tax collectors were despised by the Jews but the lower makhes were the most hated. Matthew was sitting in a tax booth when Jesus called him and gives good evidence that he was likely a lower makhes.
Matthew throws a party to celebrate his new life
1.) Matthew’s Party had a purpose
Matthew used the celebration to help his friends make a connection with Jesus. Matthew became the connection for those he knew to know Jesus. There was an intentional effort combined with immediate connection.
Matthew allowed his home to become the tool for outreach. Lost people rarely need to hear another sermon but instead need to see life change in action. Matthew brought his friends to see the new life he gained and to meet with Jesus personally.
Matthew invited not only Jesus but the disciples as well. Matthew saw the need to bring those who believed in connection with those who did not believe. Mixing the Christian with the non-Christian with the purpose of helping non-believers find Christ.
2.) Matthew’s Party Caused Problems
Make no mistake, Matthew’s friends were sinners just like him. Remember Jews would not associate with tax collectors because they were considered lower than animals. The Jewish leadership took issue with who Jesus and the disciples were eating with.
The problem was that there was a great deal of concern for spiritual appearances. The Pharisees wanted to be sure that religious people looked, behaved, and appeared like a good Jew. There would be no exceptions and there certainly was no room in the faith for people like tax collectors.
Who do we treat in our modern society like tax collectors?
Homosexuals
Drug addicts
Child molesters
The problem is simple without compassion the church and Christian become cold hearted to the pain and suffering around them. Lost people are also hurting people and are in need of the life changing power of Jesus.
3.) Matthew’s Party had a Possibility
There were no expectations placed on Matthew’s friends that evening to clean up their lives. Too many times people falsely believe that they have to clean up their lives before they can come to church. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Jesus never cleans His fish before He catches them and neither can the church. Our mission is to carry on the work and the purpose of Jesus. Matthew is an excellent example of this fact. Matthew was changed by the call of Christ on his life. The calling changed Matthew’s life that day but the change did not stop there. Matthew grew in his relationship with Christ. The same is true of lost people today. Jesus is calling for us to reach out to them with the possibility of them hearing the gentle call of Christ.
The Pharisees believed that God could not send revival on the nation of Israel because of the presence of sinners, like the tax collectors. They believed that God would not and could not work in the lives of spiritual broken people. Jesus shows us otherwise.
Listen to the words of Jesus one more time to see if you catch His passion for lost people.
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus desires for the church to be a hospital for sinners not a household of saints. Those who are already in the faith have found what they needed. The cure for the power and the problem of sin. The goal now is to share the cure with others dying in their spiritual condition.
Jesus is more concerned with the spiritual condition of broken people. Jesus came not to provide more teaching, not more understanding and not more rules. Jesus came to bring freedom to those in bondage, hope to those who are hopeless and healing to those who are hurting.
If this is why Jesus came, is it not also why the church exists? This church is here in Mount Orab, not because it was planted here but because God wants it here. Today, we have to catch a new spirit of the purpose of Christ. We need to catch a new vision for lost and hurting people. We need to adopt a hospital mentality to reach the hurting and the hopeless. Our motto should be: Broken lives mended here.
Conclusion
We learn some valuable lessons from the life of Matthew
1.) Jesus can call and use anyone He pleases
2.) The gospel is for imperfect people
3.) Everyone has the ability to reach out to others
