THE 12 APOSTLES OF JESUS: MATTHEW
Mark 2:13-17
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: THE FLY SWATTER
1. Marie walked into de kitchen & saw Boudreaux with a fly killer (Swatter). She axe him, “Any Luck?”
2. He said, “Yah, three males and two females.”
Marie exclaimed, “Mercy, how can you tell which ones are male and which ones are female?”
4. Boudreaux said, “Dat’s easy … three were on the TV remote and the other two were on the telephone."
B. UNPOPULARITY OF I.R.S.
1. One widow wrote in her return to IRS, “You took everything else. Why don’t you take him too?!” and she enclosed part of her husband’s cremated remains!
2. Another tax payer burned holes in his return and wrote, “Burn, baby Burn!”
3. Some cranky taxpayers use Band-Aids, needles, and even chewing gum to attach their W-2s.
4. One person included a picture of his posterior; another smeared blood on his return.
5. Another caused a stir by sending in a gun. The IRS was afraid it was booby trapped. It had a note which said, “This is the only thing of value I have left. Please sell it and apply the money to what I owe.” [Amarillo Daily News, 4/9/97].
C. REPUTATION OF EARLY TAX COLLECTORS
1. If you think you dislike the I.R.S., know that the Jews were the most vigorous haters of tax collectors of all times.
2. To the devout Jew, to pay taxes to Rome was to support the evil empire and pagan gods.
3. In the minds of most Jewish men, tax collectors were regarded as criminals, and if Hebrews, they were traitors. They were put in the same category with prostitutes, Gentile dogs and ‘sinners’ (Mt. 18:17; 21:31, 33; 9:10; Mk. 2:15,16;
Lk. 5:30).
4. Tax collectors were very similar to modern mobsters who demand protection money. They were usually looked upon as robbers. The Romans built a monument to a tax collector who was an honest man (they were so rare).
5. There were 480 synagogues for 90,000 people in Jerusalem; not one synagogue wanted a tax collector as a member.
6. Matthew, the tax collector, operated a toll-booth at a juncture of roads near Capernaum. Jesus invited this pariah to follow Him and become one of the 12 apostles. Let’s read the story.
C. TEXT
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax
collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:13-17.
I. THE CALL OF LEVI/ MATTHEW
A. CHANGE OF HEART
1. Did Levi just see Jesus once and take off following him? Probably not. He had probably heard Jesus and wanted to change.
2. Mark referred to him as Levi, which means, "He who clings” to old ways. But either the Lord or Matthew himself changed his name to Matthew, "the gift of Jehovah."
3. Jesus changed Matthew from a despicable tax collector to a faithful apostle. He changed Peter from "unstable as water" to the Rock. John was changed from a "son of thunder" to the "Apostle of Love."
4. Matthew never did forget his past. In his listing of the 12 apostles, only 2 get a sidenote: Judas who betrayed Jesus, and Matthew, who’d been a tax collector, Mt. 10:3.
5. HUMOR: “What is the difference between a tax collector and the taxidermist? The taxidermist leaves to hide.”
B. “NO, NOT HIM!” SAID PETER
1. There were 3 sets of brothers among the apostles: Peter & Andrew, James & John, and Matthew & James son of Alphaeus. All of them lived in Capernaum.
2. The first 4 brothers were fishermen. Matthew was the tax man who they regularly had to pay taxes to. Don’t you know there was bad blood between the honest Jewish fisherman & the hated tax collector, Matthew? Undoubtedly!
3. You can only imagine Peter’s reaction when Jesus called Matthew to be one of the apostles: "No! Not him!" It probably was the cause for severe soul-searching, discord, and tension.
4. A Pastor said, “During one VBS, over 10% of the kids accepted Christ for the first time. He said to one, "Now that you've accepted Jesus, you're a part of God's family."
5. The child’s comment was enlightening; “Ok, I’ll be part of God’s family, as long as I don't have to take out your trash!" How true that we often have to take on each other's spiritual trash!
II. THE PARTY FOR JESUS
A. MATTHEW’S FAREWELL FEAST
1. Lk. 5:29 says that Matthew threw a “great” or huge party FOR Jesus! Who else ever did that? He invited a ton of his friends to come meet Jesus and many of them followed Him!
2. Matthew wasn’t just saying goodbye; he wanted all his friends to know the great joy which had changed his life – Jesus! He was witnessing to them.
3. Most of the guests lived sordid lives and had unconfessed sin. For any conscientious Jew, association with them was wrong. Yet Jesus was there!
B. THE SON OF GOD WITH SINNERS
1. It was a strange gathering. God sitting down with sinners. Shouldn’t He have shunned them?
2. No, He “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Thank God, He’ll sit down with you and me too.
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. More than a century ago, two sportsmen were sailing along the coasts of Scotland. They anchored their yacht in the harbor of Iverness and went ashore to roam the beautiful countryside.
2. Soon they became lost. Darkness was approaching and they couldn't find their way back to the harbor.
3. They knocked at the door of the peasant’s cottage, asking for a meal and lodging for the night. The farmer eyed them with suspicion and sent them away.
4. Knocking at the door of a neighboring farm, the owner welcomed the strangers into his house. He sat down at a table laden with food. He gave them a bed and breakfast.
5. Only in the morning did he discover that one of the two was the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward V.
6. Imagine the shame and disappointment of the first farmer who closed his door against his King! This story begs the question. Have you opened the door of your heart to the King of Kings?
III. REACTION OF THE PHARISEES
A. SHOCKED THE RELIGIOUS CROWD
They thought that Jesus, as a prophet, was:
1. Endangering his reputation, or even
2. Risking defilement according to Leviticus Law .
3. Many times we think that street people or other "undesirables" as not of good enough "quality" to merit our witnessing to them.
4. But what were we in God's eyes? Less than nothing, yet he reached out to us!
B. ANSWER: A PHYSICIAN GOES TO THE SICK
1. "Why does your teacher eat with publicans and sinners?" Jesus’ answer, "They that be whole need not a physician; but they that are sick."
2. The divine irony was that the Pharisees thought themselves free from sin, so they didn't come seeking Jesus as a Savior, but rather out of curiosity.
3. Their wrong motive led them to criticize, judge Him and condemn Him.
4. But a tax collector or a prostitute knew they needed a Savior. Do you?
IV. WROTE THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
A. CERTAINTY MATTHEW WROTE IT
1. Since Matthew was a hated tax collector, it’s unthinkable that his name would have been attached to the first Gospel unless he’d actually written it.
2. Additionally, 17 independent witnesses of the first four centuries attest to the fact that Matthew wrote it.
3. It’s Jewish origin is spoken of by many early fathers – Papias (A.D. 135), Irenaeus, and Origen all said he wrote it in Hebrew and it was afterward translated into Greek, as early as A.D. 50.
4. Matthew has more quotations from and allusions to the O.T. than any other N.T. author. 4 factors are:
a. His tracing of Jesus’ descent from Abraham (1:1-17); b. his lack of explanation of Jewish customs,
c. the use of Jewish terminology (kingdom of heaven, Father in heaven) and,
d. his emphasis on Jesus’ role as "son of David" (1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9, 15; 22:41-45).
5. Even beyond the other Gospel writers, Matthew includes nine additional proof texts from the Old Testament to drive home his basic theme that Jesus fulfilled the O.T. predictions of the Messiah.
B. UNIQUE ORAL STATEMENTS OF CHRIST
1. Some of the most cherished statements of Jesus were reproduced from the memory of Matthew.
2. Matthew preserved the account of the flight to Egypt(2:1-15), the Sermon on the Mount (Chap. 5-7), 9 Parables (Wheat/Tares,13:24-30; Hidden Treasure/Pearl 13:44-46; Draw Net, 13:47-51; Unmerciful servant, 18:23-35; Two Sons, 21:28-32; the King’s Son, 22:1-14;10 Virgins, 25:1-13; 10 Talents, 25:14-30); Judgment Day discourse, 25:31-46, also Pilate’s Wife & washing hands, 27:19-24.
3. Matthew, who understood the grace of God more that many, recounted those things most close to his heart.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. In the life of Martin Luther is recorded this interesting experience. He saw, in one of the Roman churches, a picture "of the Pope, and Cardinals, and bishops, and priests, and monks, & friars -- all on board a ship.
2. They were all safe, every one of them. As for the common people -- poor wretches -- they were struggling in the sea and many of them had were drowning.
3. Only those were saved to whom the men in the ship were so kind as to hand out a rope or a plank. English Churchmen.
B. THE CALL
1. Matthew knew a Jesus who wasn’t aloof, who went to the houses of sinners, and called them his friends.
2. Maybe you’re one of those people who feel like God wouldn’t have anything to do with you, because you’re such a sinner.
3. Well, Matthew felt that way, and he found out that Jesus accepted him and called him to be one of his closest followers.
4. Jesus will receive/ accept you too. Let’s pray.
5. TRADITION OF HIS DEATH. He died a martyr in Ethiopia. The apostolic symbol of Matthew is three money bags which reminds us that he was a tax collector before Jesus called him.
