Reading: Matthew chapter 9 verses 9-13.
Quote:
“Sign on door: "Gone out of business. Didn't know what our business was.”
That of course could never be said of Jesus Christ:
• He came for a purpose; he had an objective:
• And Matthew made it clear that Jesus has come to forgive sins.
• In these five verses, and in a very personal way,
• Matthew reveals how he had discovered that forgiveness first hand.
Jesus and Matthew (verses 9-10):
• In these verses this morning;
• Matthew actually records his own call to discipleship,
• And as he records his testimony, you will notice there is no exaggeration or boasting,
• But humility is very much a quality of his character that will shine through.
(1). An occupation (Verse 9a):
Matthew was a ‘tax-collector’.
• The main trade route from Syria to Egypt went through Galilee,
• And Capernaum acted as a tax station;
• It was a good station to be at, besides regular taxes paid by residents;
• Travellers had to stop, present their imported products to the tax official,
• And pay their taxes,
• Before they were allowed to go on.
• Matthew was apparently one of the tax officials working at this tax station..
• And each day he went to ‘the office’ or in his case the ‘tax-booth’.
These tax officials were very unpopular with the Jews (3 reasons why):
(A). THEY WERE DISHONEST.
• Often they were extortioners,
• Making themselves rich by taking too much money from their fellow Jews.
• The Roman government devised a system;
• To collect taxes as efficiently and as cheaply as possible.
• They did this by auctioning the right to collect taxes in a certain area.
• The man who bought that right was responsible to the Roman government for an agreed sum;
• Anything he could raise over and above that;
• He was allowed to keep as commission.
Tax-collectors were very fraudulent:
• Not only did they fleece their own countrymen,
• But they also did their best to swindle the government,
• And they made a flourishing income by taking bribes from rich people;
• Who wished to avoid taxes which they should have paid.
Ill:
When they asked John the baptiser, how they should live;
His reply was basically; “be honest!”
(B). THEY WERE TRIATORS.
• They were also hated because they were working for the Romans,
• Although they worked for them indirectly.
• Again the Romans contracted out to people like the Herod’s.
• He ran the region on behalf of the Romans.
(C). THEY WERE SINNERS.
• They were disliked because they ignored the Jewish laws.
• This explains why the Pharisees called them ‘sinners’ (verse 11).
Ill:
A sinner was someone who chose to live outside of God’s laws.
• e.g. If you worked on the Sabbath,
• e.g. If you did not follow dietary laws (ate pork).
According to Jewish law a tax-gatherer was excluded from the synagogue;
• He was included with things and beasts that were unclean,
• He was forbidden to be a witness in any case of law.
• In fact robbers, murderers and tax-gatherers were all classed together.
• On the social scale, tax collectors were on the bottom. (Even prostitutes had a higher social status).
(2). A challenge (verse 9b) “Follow me”.
• We have recorded in the gospels the calling six of the twelve disciples;
• Philip, Andrew, Peter, James and Matthew.
• To each of them, Jesus uses two key words to challenge them into action “follow me”.
• Note: would be disciples used a similar phrase “follow you” (chapter 18 verse 18-22).
The words “follow me” sound to us an incomplete invitation:
• If someone were to give you the same invitation to you and me;
• We would probably respond by asking; “Where are you going?”
It is interesting these men did not ask that question:
• The issue in discipleship is never WHERE we are going,
• But WHO are we going with?
• To be a disciple of Jesus Christ;
• Meant from now on you were caught up in his programme and live by his agenda.
• Discipleship is not about the fulfilment of the follower,
• It is all about the fulfilment of the master’s purposes.
When Jesus called Matthew:
• He called a man whom all men hated.
• Here is one of the greatest instances in the New Testament;
• Where Jesus has the ability and power to see in a man,
• Not only what he was, but also what he could be.
Ill: Gideon (“Mighty warrior”). Ill: Simon (“Rock”).
Matthew had some positive qualities. For instance:
(1). HE HAD COURAGE TO “SWIM UPSTREAM.”.
• He obviously possessed an inner strength to go a different direction than everybody else.
• He was definitely going a different direction than everybody else.
• At the very least, he had determination and grit.
• This was a quality Jesus had to admire.
(2). HE WAS DECISIVE.
• You can’t become a tax collector without being decisive.
• He didn’t vacillate.
• He didn’t do it to make friends.
• He was one of those that knew what he wanted and went after it.
(3) HE WAS SOCIAL.
• Although he was lonely to the populace, he apparently did have a group of friends.
• He did have good buddies which becomes evident in this story,
• And he freely invites them over to meet Jesus.
• Jesus probably saw that Matthew could be good company.
(4). HE DIDN’T TRY TO IMPRESS PEOPLE.
• Matthew was no snob.
• He was whom he appeared to be.
And it’s worth noting:
• That there are other people (religious leaders) in this story;
• That were more corrupt than Matthew.
• Because they were covering their unrighteousness with righteousness.
• Pretending to be what they were not.
• Matthew, on the other hand, was just who he was, and that’s it.
• What you saw is what you got!
Ill:
• Mark tells us his old name was Levi, the son of Alphaeus (Mark chapter 2 verse 14),
• Matthew means “gift of God”.
• This new name he was given,
• Apparently; to commemorate his conversion and his call to be a disciple.
(3). A response (verse 9c): “Matthew got up and followed him”.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking this was Matthew’s first encounter with Jesus:
• Matthew chapter 4 verse 12 & Luke chapter 4 verse 23;
• Tell us Jesus had made his home here in Capernaum.
• This town became his headquarters during what is called his ‘Galilean ministry’.
• He did miracles, attended synagogue, preached, this was now his home town(9:1).
• As a resident of Capernaum Jesus would have been required to pay tax,
• And would have visited the tax-booths on a regular basis.
Ill:
• Jesus told Peter to look into the mouth of a fish,
• To find money to pay his temple tax.
• Maybe Matthew noticed a difference in the way Jesus spoke and treated him,
• Compared to the other Jews of the town!
It is almost certain that Matthew had heard the teaching of Jesus:
• He would be aware that he spoke with a unique authority,
• And that his message was radically different from that of the Scribes and Pharisees.
• He may well have seen some of the miracles that Jesus had performed;
• And news would have reached him concerning how this Rabbi;
• Numbered amongst his friends men and women from whom;
• The orthodox good people of the day shrank in loathing.
Matthew had probably listened on the outskirts of the crowd to some of Jesus’ teaching:
• And no doubt his conscience was pricked,
• And he had felt his heart stir within him.
• Perhaps Matthew had wanted to leave his old life and his old shame and to begin again.
• But thought it was just not possible.
• So when he found Jesus standing before him;
• And when he heard Jesus issue his challenge;
• Matthew accepted that challenge and rose up and left all and followed him.
• He did what many of his own more respectable towns people would not do!
• Remember he was a native of Capernaum;
• And Capernaum would reject the Lord (chapter 11 verse 23).
Note:
• Matthew humbly says “he got up and followed Jesus”.
• Dr Luke informs us that it was costly for Matthew to follow Jesus
• Luke chapter 5 verse 28:
• “He left everything” (K.J.B. “Forsook all”.)
Quote:
What Matthew lost and what Matthew found:
• He lost a comfortable job, but found a destiny.
• He lost a good income, but found honour.
• He lost a comfortable security,
• But found an adventure of the like of which he had never dreamed.
• In Jesus Christ a man finds a wealth surpassing anything;
• He may have to abandon for the sake of Christ.
Note also:
What Matthew left and what Matthew took.
• He left his tax-collector’s table; but from it took one thing:
• Quote Alexander White of Edinburgh once said:
“When Matthew left his job to follow Christ, Matthew brought his pen with him!
Little did this ex-publican realise that one day use him to write the first of the four gospels.”
This is a great example of how Jesus can use whatever gift a man may bring to him.
• It is not likely that the others of the Twelve were handy with a pen.
• Galilean fishermen would not have much skill in writing or in putting words together.
• But Matthew had;
• And this man, whose trade had taught him to use a pen,
• Nowhere in the four gospels do we find a single recorded word that Matthew spoke,
• Yet in his gospel he gives us the words and works of Jesus Christ.
• He used that skill to compose the first handbook of the teaching of Jesus,
• And what a gospel that is!
Quote: Warren Wiersbe:
“The gospel according to Matthew” has been called by many Bible scholars ‘the most important single document of the Christian faith’.
Historians tell us that this book was the most widely read, and the most quoted in the early Church.
While all four gospels are important to us, it is not without reason that Matthew stands first.”
(4). A gathering (verse 10).
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house,
many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.
• Once again we see the humility of Matthew;
• Verse ten reads like it’s a little dinner party.
• Once again it is Dr Luke in his account who gives us the full story;
• He calls it “A great banquet” (Luke chapter 5 verse 29).
JESUS not only calls Matthew to be his follower;
• But he actually sat at table with other men and women like Matthew,
• With tax-gatherers and sinners.
• Jesus deliberately broke social and religious prejudices,
• And these verses are a perfect illustration of that.
Ill: Broadly speaking, in Palestine people were divided into two sections.
• There were the orthodox who rigidly kept the Law in every petty detail;
• And there were those who did not keep its petty regulations.
• The second were classed as the people of the land;
• Quote William Barcley:
“And it was forbidden to the orthodox to go on a journey with them, to do any business with them, to give anything to them or to receive anything from them, to entertain them as guests or to be guests in their houses”.
By spending time in the company with people like this;
• Jesus was doing something;
• Which the pious people of his day would never have done.
• His heart went out to the Matthew’s of the world,
• And in return Matthew’s heart went out to the Lord!
Proof of that is Matthews response, he wants others to find Jesus Christ too:
• He invited his friends to meet Jesus.
• Some of those friends were probably Gentiles.
• Matthew is too humble to play it up,
• But Luke in his gospel does.
• All his former friends and acquaintances were there.
• It was a going away party.
Quote John Wesley:
“No man ever he went to heaven alone; he must either find friends or make them”.
Jesus and the Pharisees (verses 11-13):
Those Scribes and Pharisees had a particular view of religion:
(1). THEY WERE SELF-CENTERED:
• They were more concerned with the preservation of their own holiness;
• Than with helping a person struggling with sin.
Ill:
• They were like doctors who refused to visit the sick;
• Just in case they should be contaminated by some infection.
• They shrank away in fastidious disgust from the sinner;
• They did not want anything to do with people like that.
• Their religion was totally self-centred.
• They were much more concerned to save their own souls than to save the souls of others.
(2). THEY WERE NEGATIVE:
• They were more concerned with criticism;
• Than they were with encouragement.
• They were far more concerned to point out the faults of other people;
• Than to help them conquer these faults.
• When a doctor sees some particularly loathsome disease,
• Which would turn the stomach of anyone else to look at,
• He or she is not filled with disgust;
• They are filled with the desire to help.
• Our first instinct should never be to condemn the sinner;
• Our first instinct should be to help him.
(3). THEY PRACTICED A FALSE GOSPEL:
• They practised a goodness which issued in condemnation;
• Rather than in forgiveness and in sympathy.
• They would rather leave a man in the gutter;
• Than give him a hand to get out of it.
Ill:
• They were like doctors who were very much concerned to diagnose disease,
• But not in the least concerned to help cure it.
(4). THEY HAD MISSED THE POINT.
• They practised a religion which consisted in outward orthodoxy;
• Rather than in practical help.
• A man may diligently go through all the motions of orthodox piety,
• But if his hand is never stretched out to help the man in need, he is not a religious man.
(1). A question (verse 11):
“When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
And as we listen to the Pharisees:
• We discover that their language is calculated and designed to preserve the old order.
• There is a word for what the Pharisees are doing. It is called “triangling.”
• By avoiding direct contact with Jesus and talking to his disciples,
• The Pharisees attempt to form a triangle: Jesus, his disciples and the Pharisees.
• The purpose of the triangle is to form an alliance between two corners;
• Over and against the other corner.
The Pharisees are trying to shame the disciples away from Jesus.
• Note: how the Pharisees vent their bitterness and anger on the disciples;
• Why does “YOUR TEACHER” – in other words;
• How could you have chosen such a fellow to follow?
• The words are full of stinging reproof.
• This revealed the Pharisees ultimate object of disgust,
• Jesus himself.
To the Pharisees the behaviour of Jesus was shocking, well out of order!
• Because the Pharisees believed that to have contact with bad people defiled them,
• So how could Jesus have a meal with such people?
• Matthew’s invited guests were considered the scum of society:
• They were social and religious outcasts; worldly men, greedy men, money-hungry men,
• Men with stunted minds, they were hollow and empty men.
• And yet Jesus was also sitting there amongst them, eating & enjoying their company!
• Jesus, no doubt aware of the slur of the Pharisees,
• Gives his answer and shows the Pharisees that they had made two mistakes.
Question: What were the two mistakes?
Answer:
• (a). They had not understood the work of the Messiah correctly,
• (b). And they had falsely thought righteousness was only outward and ceremonial.
• To help the Pharisees to see these errors;
• Jesus said two things:
(2). He gave an illustration (verse 12)
ill:
He had come as a doctor.
• Jesus was not a fellow sinner, a comrade in evil;
• Quote: “birds of a feather flock together”.
• He was actually a doctor in order to cure his patients;
• Obviously he had to get close to them.
• A doctor is concerned for sick and needy people and he had come to help sinners.
• The Pharisees thought they were all right,
• But they showed no interest in those who had needs.
• Jesus implies that the Pharisees had been neglecting their duty.
Jesus’ defence was perfectly simple:
• He merely said that he went where the need was greatest.
• He would be a poor doctor who visited only houses where people enjoyed good health;
• The doctor’s place is where people are ill;
• It is his glory and his task to go to those who need him.
Ill:
• Imagine going to see your doctor--
• As he comes in to examine you
• Your cough starts in....
• He shrinks back, covering his mouth with his hand
• You explain that you’ve had the cough ever since you discovered this skin disorder
• Pulling back your pant leg
• Revealing a blackened growth oozing yellowish green...something
• Surrounded by reddened skin, broken open and bleeding
(3). He issued a challenge (verse 13).
• He used one of the religious leaders’ phrases,
• ‘Go and learn what it means’, and turned it against them.
• He quoted Hosea 6:6,
• That true religion must also be accompanied by mercy.
• The Pharisees were the opposite of this verse;
• Immaculate in their pattern of sacrifices, but devoid of love and compassion.
Jesus’ final words were meant to be a challenge.
• It is not those who consider themselves good,
• But rather those who are in desperate need, to whom the invitation to salvation is given.
He was saying,
“It is only those who know how much they need me,
who can accept my invitation.”
