“The Call That Changes All”
(Matt. 9:9-13)
This morning I want to share something with you that’s very dear to the heart of God. As a matter of fact, it’s a message that He wants everyone here to listen to very carefully. It’s a message He wants everyone in this sanctuary to respond to. It deals with a calling. It deals with a call from God. Now, this may be a call that you are familiar with. You may have heard this call. You may have thought about this call and you may have ignored or put off the call. But it’s not just a call. The call I’m talking about is the most important call that there is. It’s the call to salvation!
Turn if you will, to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9. We’re going to be looking at verses 9-13. While you’re turning there, let me remind us that when we read from the word of God, we’re reading the truth that God has revealed to us straight from His Holy Spirit to our hearts and that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. These aren’t just words, they’re words that cut deep and as a result of that, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17).”
With that said, let’s look at Matthew chapter 9, verses 9-13. I’ve entitled this morning’s message, “The Call that Changes All” (Read/Pray).
This is one of the most heart-warming and touching scenes in all of the word of God. It deals with a personal testimony. It’s Matthew’s personal testimony. Imagine his sitting and writing about so many other experiences in other people’s lives throughout his Gospel. Now it comes to his own personal experience. Well, what do we know about Matthew? Not just a whole lot, to tell you the truth. We know that he was a tax collector, a publican. That says a lot about him right there. That’s enough to tell us that he was a person who was hated by everyone, especially his own countrymen. Here’s the reason why, tax collectors were mostly Jewish people who were doing the Romans dirty work for them. So they were looked upon as traitors.
I mean, they were collecting taxes for a conquering nation, for crying out loud. As you can imagine they were bitterly opposed, and they were so detested they were classified with the lowest of the low. Luke 15 verse 1 puts tax collectors and sinners in the same group. Prostitutes had a higher social status than them. That’s how much these guys were thought of. But you know what else made people hate the tax collector? Most of them were pretty well off while everybody else scraped just to get by. In a way they were working for themselves, so they could collect whatever someone was willing to pay and pocket all the extra for themselves. All the Romans wanted was what was required. But the tax collector thought, “Well, I might as well profit a little out of this deal.” So the people were taken advantage of.
As a result of this extortion, many of the tax collectors had a large house big enough to have a huge crowd for a banquet or a feast. You can imagine what kind of characters these guys were. They usually were very immoral people, unfair, money-hungry and worldly-minded. They cared about things. They didn’t care about people. And so was the life of a tax collector. In verses 9-13 there are 3 things I want to point out this morning and the first thing I want us to see is,
I. The Sinner who needed a Savior - Verse 9.
Now, you have to know what an average day in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is like in order to get the picture here. In the past 24 hours, He had finished the Sermon on the Mount, He healed a leper, He healed a Centurion’s servant, He had healed Peter’s Mother-in-law along with multitudes of others. He had calmed a raging storm on the sea, He healed two guys who were demon-possessed and been into it with the Pharisees.
Then the scripture says that Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting there doing what he does every day. And Jesus stops! He knew what kind of man Matthew was. He knew what he did for a living. He didn’t care if His reputation was at stake by being seen with this tax collector everybody else thought was the scum of the earth.
You know what this says to me? It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or what you’ve done, Jesus will take time for you personally. He’s no respecter of person good or bad! Aren’t you glad that when nobody else in the world cared or wouldn’t even give you the time of day that Jesus took time for you when you called on Him? What about those people out in the world that are looked down upon because of what they do? Do you think they don’t need a Savior? Of course they do!
Jesus knew the heart of Matthew, He knew his mind, his thoughts, his hurt, his pain, and you know what? I’ll bet Matthew felt lonely too. You know, the only friends tax collectors have are probably other tax collectors who feel the same way they do. Jesus knew that Matthew had a lack of purpose and meaning in life. He saw a life being wasted. He saw a man who needed a Savior, a Savior who could meet the every need of his miserable life.
Jesus not only saw Matthew, He called Matthew. Jesus walks up to this bitterly despised tax collector everybody else hates, looks him straight in the eyes and says, “Follow Me.” Now let me say something here; Jesus didn’t go up to Matthew and chit chat with him a little while and talk about the weather or ask him how it was going on the job, whenever the Lord Jesus Christ spoke He spoke with authority. And authority always gets our attention.
If you’re walking by two people, one of them works at Kroger and the other is a police officer and they both tell you to stop in the name of the law, which one are you going to listen to? I’ve got news for you; you’d better listen to the policeman. Why? Because he’s speaking with the authority that’s been given to him
You know throughout the Gospels that was one of the things the people caught hold of was that Jesus spoke like nobody else they had ever heard. He spoke with authority. You know why He did? Because He is the authority. Jesus said right before the Great Commission, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth.” I want to tell you something folks, when Jesus speaks, people react!
Jesus said to Matthew, “follow Me.” Well, what did He mean by that? Luke 9:23 says, “If any man would come after Me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow ME.” In a sense Jesus was telling Matthew, “Look, leave all this behind (this miserable life), and come follow Me, I’ll give you life.” And you know, I’ll bet Matthew was thinking the same thing I was thinking, “There’s got to be more to life than this.”
Another thing is this, who’s to say that Matthew wasn’t a little bit familiar with Jesus. It’s possible that he had heard of Him or even seen Him before now. We just don’t know. He may have even listened to some of the Sermon on the Mount. Of course that’s just speculation. But one thing we do know, Jesus’ command was very to-the-point, “Follow Me.”
Remember when Jesus said the same thing to James and John? He added, “And I will make you fishers of men.” I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Follow Jesus and be fishers of men. You catch em, He’ll clean em.” With Matthew there were no questions asked, no hesitations, no if, ands, or buts, no allowances, no half-heartedness, no delayed action. It was immediate and total commitment or nothing.
Matthew rose up from his collection table in obedience and followed Jesus. He did follow Jesus, but you know what Matthew didn’t do? He didn’t look back! He didn’t say, “What do you mean follow you? Don’t you see I ‘ve got a business to run here? What am I gonna live on? You know, he wasn’t forced to go with Jesus, he made a decision. And if you’re gonna follow Jesus, you have to make the same decision Matthew did!
This simple act of faith put Matthew’s name in the Lamb’s Book of Life for all eternity. Mark 8:35-36 says, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
If God saved Matthew, He’ll save anybody: the hated, the bitter, the lonely, the dissatisfied, the traitor, the thief, the immoral and the one who has no purpose or meaning in life. Matthew represents all of those! He was a sinner in need of a Savior. But not only that, the second thing I want us to see is,
II. The Sinner Who Introduced His Sinful Friends to the Savior – verses 10-11.
Well, evidently Matthew spent the remainder of the day with Jesus and when it came time to eat, Matthew says, “Let’s go to my house.” Now, this is something new to Matthew. He knows somebody who is genuine. He’s never met anyone like Jesus. He has a friend who won’t stab him in the back. He has a friend who won’t take advantage of him. He has a friend that’s not out to get him. He has a friend who has already shown him that He loves him just for who he is. Let me ask you something, ”are you that kind of friend?” I want you to know Jesus is!
I was in England working at a little church on a mission trip in 1984. And one of the ways we were able to evangelize was through what we called “home coffees.” The purpose of this was to get friends who had come to Christ to invite their lost friends who wouldn’t come to church, to come to their house for a morning coffee. They were told that a missionary from America would be there and many came out of curiosity I suppose. And there was a time of fellowship and breaking the ice, getting familiar with some of the friends there. Then we would either have a small Bible study or a question and answer period or some other form of sharing why we had come to England. It was a great tool in attempting to reach the lost in the community.
Well, this is kind of what Matthew did. After being with Jesus the rest of the day, he invited him to his house to eat and invited his tax collector buddies and others to come too. He was a hated man but you can count on this, he had a lot of lost friends that needed what he had found. Remember how it was when you first met Jesus as your Savior? How new it was? How refreshing it was? How you wanted to share that with somebody? I hope you did! Well, that’s the way Matthew felt. When you’re excited about something, it’s hard to keep it to yourself.
As a matter of fact, all the true apostles set a dynamic example in their early witness for Christ. A lot of times as new believers we tend to say, “well, I’ve got this new life now and kind of forget about our old friends.” I remember how it was for me. But I had to have some time to grow a little in the Lord before I went back to some of them. And I did but it was hard. All I could do was pray for them and plant some seeds and let them see the change in my life. Some of them became believers, but it took years of praying and sharing. Matthew wanted his friends to see the change in his life. You know what? He did the right thing! The Bible tells us to Let our shine before men in such a way that they see the change and it glorifies God. We need to shine before our lost friends. Let me ask you this – Do you?
In the midst of this motley crew of sinful people, Jesus and His disciples share a meal. But as usual, wherever Jesus went, the Pharisees were close behind, watching His every move, trying to find some fault, some way they could accuse Him. Finally, they grab one of his disciples and ask, “What’s He doing in there with those people? Doesn’t He know who they are, what they do?” Well, I want to tell you something right now to set the record straight before we go on any further, Yes, He did know who they were and what they did! And this needs to be pointed out too – the Pharisees weren’t in this house, they wouldn’t be caught dead with a tax collector or a prostitute or anybody else that wasn’t like them.
But Jesus went where the sinners were. He didn’t avoid them or shy away from them. As a matter of fact, He sought them out. He showed them that they were welcome to come to Him and that He cared for them. I’m sad to say that I’ve seen a lot of Christians act the same way the Pharisees did – accusing, critical, looking for fault in the life of somebody. Not really caring for people like Jesus would. Did you notice that the Pharisees didn’t accuse Jesus face to face? They grabbed one of His disciples, someone who was close to Jesus.
You know what I think they were doing? I think they were trying to plant doubt in the disciple’s mind, trying to turn them from Jesus, “Are you sure you want to run around with a guy like that? Look who He’s with?” You see the Pharisees had the mind set that many today have, “I’m more acceptable than them” or “I’m not like them” or “I’m better than them” or ”I’m not near as bad as them.” But the scripture plainly tells us that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” – and that includes you and me! Here’s one of the things I’ve seen in the years that I’ve been a Christian – the ones who seem to be the most “religious”
are the ones that are the most judgmental and point the most fingers. You know what? I hate to even use the word “religious”, I really do. Because do you know what religion is? It’s something that’s man made. It’s man’s way to try to get to God. It’s a bunch of do’s and don’t. That’s all it is. Christianity is a relationship with Christ and everybody needs the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Matthew brought his friends to meet Jesus. Now, we’ve seen the Sinner who needed a Savior and we’ve seen the sinner who brought his friends to the Savior. Now I want us to see,
III. The Mission of the Savior – Verses 12-13.
Jesus knew the hearts of the Pharisees and when He heard them say what He did to the disciples He sets the Pharisees straight about why He did what He did. Not that He had to explain Himself to them but What He said was probably heard by everybody in the room. He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” I love this statement Jesus makes because it’s almost like Jesus is giving the Pharisees a dose of their own medicine.
“You’re saying, don’t you know who your master is in the company of but don’t you know that a doctor is only for sick people and not someone who’s well?”
Now, Matthew’s Gospel was written to the Jews so there’s a couple of things he’s saying here.
1. Matthew is testifying that that he, the sinner, and his sinful friends were spiritually sick and needed the grace and mercy of God to make them whole. They needed a Savior. He believed Jesus was the Savior and that He came to save Him personally. And if you want to go to heaven, that’s what you’ve got to believe too! The second thing he shows us is this,
2. Jesus was warning those who think they’re so religious and more acceptable to God than others that just like you have to go to the doctor when you’re physically sick, you have to come to Him because you’re spiritually sick. Sin-sick, Sin is a sickness. It’s a sickness of the heart. And it is curable but it is fatal if left unchecked. How foolish it would be to have a disease that’s curable and not seek the cure. Folks, Jesus is the cure for a sin-sick soul!
But Jesus also gave this warning,
He said He came to have mercy and not lead people to make sacrificial offerings to Him, that’s not why He came. He came to show mercy to those who know they’re sinners.
And to those who know they’re sinners, Jesus calls to repentance. If a person doesn’t think he needs changing, then Jesus can’t help them. They’re in the same boat the Pharisees were in. But if a person recognizes they’re a sinner and wants to be changed, Jesus can lead that person to repentance and salvation.
Why did Jesus come?
1. He came to be where the spiritually sick are. “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10”).
2. He came to have mercy, not to gain sacrifice.
David said in Psalm 51, verses 16-17, “For you do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, you will not despise.”
3. He came to call people to repentance.
He said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3)
Folks, the self-righteous and the self-satisfied, those are the ones who don’t even listen for the call. They think their own efforts will get them to heaven. The scary thing about that is this, many churches are filled with people like this. Religious, but lost!
The call that changes all – The call to salvation. It changes those who hear and respond to the call and it also changes everything in your life from that moment on.
(Every head bowed and every eye closed, please)
The question I want to ask you is this, “What are you depending on to get to heaven?” Friend, if it’s anything other than the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you’re not going. But the good news is this, Jesus is tenderly calling for you. Do you hear Him as He knocks on the door of your heart?
He says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."(Matt. 11:28)
He says, “ If you’re thirsty, come to the water.” (Isaiah 55:1)
He says “Come, though you sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)
If He said it He’ll do it!
(Invitation)
