OPEN: Leonardo da Vinci was once at work for a long period of time on a great masterpiece. He had labored long to create this work of art and it was near completion. Standing near him was a young student who spent much of his time with his mouth open, amazed at the master with the brush. Just before finishing the painting, da Vinci turned to the young student and gave him the brush saying "Now, you finish it."
The student protested and backed away, but da Vinci said, "Will not what I have done inspire you to do your best?"
APPLY: Last week we talked about the Andrew – how he came to Christ and how he, in turn, brought his brother Peter to Jesus. Among the things we learned in that sermon last week was
• in a survey of 300,000 church goers, ¾’s of them came to church the 1st time because somebody invited them.
• And that fewer than 3% of unchurched people will ever just walk into a church building.
This week we’re reading about another disciple and how he came to follow Jesus.
His name is Matthew, or (in the text we’re reading today) Levi. Matthew was - of course - the author of the Gospel of Matthew.
And church tradition has it that he spent about 15 years in Holy Land after Christ’s resurrection - working with the early church in Jerusalem. After which he went to Persia and perhaps Ethiopia, and it’s said he suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword.
Now, whereas Andrew and Peter had fairly respectable jobs as fishermen, Matthew was the only man whose job was absolutely despised by everyone.
He was a tax-collector.
The Gospels reflect the low esteem Tax collectors were held by twice comparing them to prostitutes, and eight times referring to sinners - and then saying that tax collectors were a separate special classification of a sinner.
These men were regarded as traitors to Israel because they collected taxes for the hated Romans. And not only were they seen as traitors, but also as thieves, because Rome only required a fixed sum but allowed the tax collectors the right to charge people any amount above that sum for their own pay… and sometimes they would charge exorbitant amounts. The people had to pay whatever the tax collectors demanded because these were the representatives of Rome.
Matthew was the only one of the 12 disciples who had this despised occupation.
Now along comes Jesus - walking down the road - and he stops right in front of Matthew’s table. And He says nothing more than: “Follow me.” Matthew jumps right up, closes shop and leaves everything to follow Jesus. In fact, he gets so excited about following Christ, that he holds a meal and invites all his friends (he ain’t got many)… to come and meet this Jesus.
That’s the story - now what can we learn from it?
1st, Jesus went LOOKING for Matthew
Jesus only had 12 disciples… close followers that would eventually become His apostles. These were men who would shepherds and primary builders of His early church. And here Jesus hand-picks Matthew to be one of those followers.
A lot of people wouldn’t have picked Matthew.
There are some congregations who only want ‘respectable’ folk coming to their church. In fact the Pharisees saw Jesus eating with Matthew and his friends and they were offended that a supposed rabbi would stoop so low.
But folks like Matthew were the people Jesus looked for. Not the folks who felt they were better than others, but those who were sick inside and who wanted to change their lives.
ILLUS: One man told about when he was a teenager, there was this very tough girl in town; a biker-type female who wore leather, swore like a sailor, loved to instigate fights, drink, do drugs, and generally, just scare off people with her frightening behavior.
“Admittedly, I was afraid of her because she had harassed and assaulted a friend of mine, and I had heard the stories of how she had threatened this guy, or hit that girl.
“Several years later, I met this same young woman in a restaurant I was working at. She looked so different, I didn’t immediately recognize her. It turns out she had become a Christian and said it had made a wonderful change in her life.
My mistake was that I wrongly assumed she could never be interested in spiritual matters…. I never made that mistake again. I should have known better; understood that with God, all things are possible! sermonfodder.com – 2/25/08
That rough hewn, profane, dangerous biker woman eventually came to a point in her life when she was ready to change.
And Jesus looked for Matthew… because He knew Matthew was ready to change.
That’s the 2nd thing we need to learn from this story of Matthew.
There are people out there that we just don’t think are interested… so we don’t invite them.
Lee Strobel once wrote a book where he described the Top Ten Beliefs of someone he called “Chesterfield Charlie.”
10. Charlie has rejected church, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has rejected God.
9. Charlie is morally adrift, but he secretly wants an anchor.
8. Charlie doesn’t understand Christianity, but he’s also ignorant about what he claims to believe in.
7. Charlie doesn’t just ask, "Is Christianity true?" Often, he’s asking: "Does Christianity
work and how can I experience it?"
6. Charlie is no longer loyal to denominations, but he is attracted to places where his needs will be met.
5. Charlie isn’t much of a joiner, but he’s hungry for a cause he can connect with.
4. Even if Charlie’s not spiritually sensitive, he wants his children to get quality moral training.
3. Charlie is proud that he’s tolerant of different faiths, but he thinks Christians are narrow minded.
2. There’s a good chance Charlie would try church if a friend invited him.
1. Charlie doesn’t want to be somebody’s project, but he would like to be somebody’s friend.
In other words some of those folks that you may have written off a long time ago may be ready to be invited now.
ILLUS: Dr. Walt Larimore Focus on the Family Magazine November 2002 p. 18
Studies show that between nine and 26 significant relationships are involved in each person who makes a choice for Christ. Nobody can be all 25, but how could I be a significant one?
What’s he’s saying is – people often become Christians because they’ve interacted with as few as 9 people and as many as 26. If you invite someone to church- you might be 1st person to introduce someone to Jesus, or you might be the 26th … and you’ll get the privilege of baptizing them into Christ.
3rd thing we learn from this story is that every new person we bring to Christ has friends.
Matthew had friends… not many… but the ones he did have he wanted to share his new found faith with.
The problem for many Christians is that – once you’ve been in the church so long everybody you know is a church goer.
So… sometimes it’s worthwhile for us to be a little creative when it comes to reaching others
ILLUS: Joyce Gleave, an art teacher from Mustang, Oklahoma, had a burden for the spiritual welfare of the 600 students she taught in the public school. So while on a trip to the Holy Land, she purchased 600 tiny wooden crosses. But when she discovered that she would not be allowed to give the crosses to her students in the class room, her witnessing opportunity seemed doomed.
Instead of giving up, Joyce embarked on an ambitious project. Armed with her crosses and gospel tracts, she visited every one of her students in their homes - all 600 of them!
“Many parents were moved to tears that I cared for their child," she said of her visits.
Now, we’ve tried real hard here to be creative.
• Upward Football
• JAM program
• Food Pantry
• INVITATION CARDS (hand out invitation cards)
The whole idea is to meet people where they are.
ILLUS: J.K. Johnston said “Christ met unbelievers where they were.
He realized what many Christians today still don’t seem to understand.
Cultivators have to get out in the field.
• According to one count, the gospels record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people.
• Six were in the Temple;
• four in the synagogues and
• 122 were out with the people in the mainstream of life.
ILLUS: from Newsweek article on Religion and Street Gangs
A Pentecostal preacher by the name of Rivers moved into a gang neighborhood, and he sought out a local drug dealer... and that drug dealer gave Rivers a lesson in why God was losing to gangs in the battle for the souls of inner city kids.
"The drug dealer explained, ’I’m there when Johnny goes out for a loaf of bread for Mama. I’m there, you’re not. I win, you lose, It’s all about being there.’"
The Last thing I noticed here was that Jesus didn’t have to say much.
All He had to say was “follow me”.
Kind of like us saying “I’d like to invite you to worship with me.”
But what’s so novel about this exchange between Jesus and Matthew is Matthew responds immediately. He packs up his goods, and leaves everything to follow Jesus.
How come?
Well, Jesus did have the advantage of being God, but He has also told us that the same thing can work for us as well.
“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” John 16:7-8
You see - a lot of people believe that they need to “talk” others into becoming Christians.
Now, granted we should be able to give an answer to anyone who asks us why we believe, but that’s called “witnessing”.
In a court room there’s a witness stand
Does the judge sit in the witness stand?
Does the Prosecutor sit in the witness stand?
Does the jury sit in the witness stand?
Of course not!
God didn’t call us to be the judge or the jury or the prosecutor.
We don’t have to CONVICT anyone about God
That’s the Spirit’s job.
His (the Spirit’s) responsibility is to get right inside of the person and convince them:
• They’ve sinned
• They need to be righteous
• There is going to come a time of judgment
When Jesus approached Matthew… the Spirit had already been doing His thing.
Thus, when Jesus said “Follow Me” – Matthew was primed and ready.
CLOSE: Now, of course, the Scribes and Pharisees didn’t like that.
In their mind, the only folks who were going to get into heaven were the ones who didn’t sin (all that bad), who were already (self) righteous, and who were quite content to pass judgment on others.
But when Jesus came, He came to save those who had sinned a lot
Who could understand they weren’t righteous
And who felt the weight of God’s punishment.
Those are the only kinds of people that are going to get into heaven.
And because Matthew was so convicted of his sin… he held a great banquet
And when Jesus talked about going to heaven He told the parable of the great wedding banquet:
Matthew 22:2-10
"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
"Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
"But they paid no attention and went off— one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
"Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
