Who Did Jesus Come For?
Matthew 9:9-12
Prayer
Have you ever sat back and looked at all God has done for you. I mean have you ever really taken inventory of the things God has done for us so that we may live on earth? The first thing we would need to put down is that He created the Earth specifically designed so that we could survive on it. He then created the grass, trees and animals so that we could have food to eat, clothes to wear, and shelter to live in. How wonderful is it that God so loved us that He planned everything out so that we could live here.
Today He is still doing it. We have our homes where we have a roof over our heads, places to sleep, places to enjoy our family and friends. We have food that we can eat and clothes that we can wear. All of this is Gods gift to us. It is given to us by our Lord and Savior that we may have no need to worry about our needs so that we can fully worship Him. Too often we get caught up in worldly events and things that we forget what is really important.
Illustration
A man dies. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates.
St. Peter says, "Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."
"Okay," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."
"That’s wonderful," says St. Peter, "that’s worth three points!"
"Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service."
"Terrific!" says St. Peter. "That’s certainly worth a point."
"One point!?!! I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."
"Fantastic, that’s good for two more points," he says.
"Two points!?!!" Exasperated, the man cries, "At this rate it’ll just be by the grace of God that I ever get into heaven."
"Bingo, 100 points! Come on in!"
Too often we say but preacher, I work had for what I have. Yes you do and you need to thank God for providing you with your job. But that is not all that God has done for you. God provided a way that we can have a relationship with Him. He through His mercy and grace sent His only begotten son to die for you and me on the cross. To pay mine and yours sin debt. A debt that not a single one of us could every hope to pay. That all we have to do is believe on Jesus have the faith that Jesus paid for our sin and follow Him as our Lord and Savior.
Man what great news but who exactly did Jesus come for. Wait now Preacher Jesus came for everybody. NO HE DID NOT. Jesus desires that none may perish but He did not come for everyone. Not all will answer His call. Jesus did not come to save everybody but only those answered His call to follow Him. Those who believe in Him for their salvation and who are willing to call Him Lord and Savior.
Jesus Himself said that many at judgment will say Lord, Lord I have prophesied and cast out demons in your name and He will say depart from me for I never knew you. You see what a misconception that needs to be rectified Jesus said not all who call on His name are saved. Many will use the name of Jesus but they want be His. So if Jesus did not come for everyone who exactly did He come to save? That is what the message this morning is going to be about so if you will turn with me to Matthew 9:9-12 and God’s word says 9And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. 10And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Here in this passage we find 3 types of people that Jesus came for 1. Those who will follow Him. 2. Those who are sick (sinners who know they are sinners and need a cure) and 3. Those who are unrighteous. This morning let’s look at these three. Notice that Matthew was sitting in his tax office. Maybe he was feeling bad because no one liked him. His society ostracized him because of his profession. Maybe he was lonely. But I feel sure he had already been thinking that there had to be more to life than sitting here and collecting taxes. I believe he was trying to figure out why his life seemed to be so empty. That he had all this stuff and yet nothing seemed to fill that void. Does that sound familiar today? Are some of you this morning feeling that very same way? That you have bought all the gadgets that was suppose to make you happy that you chased all the happiness that this world has to offer and yet still there is something missing. Can you sympathize with Matthew this morning?
Then I see Matthew sitting in his office. His heart is aching and he hears a voice that says Follow Me. Two little simple word but they are filled with great meaning. Matthew could have sat there and said I can’t right now, I have this report to do and I have to go and collect so and so’s taxes. I just don’t have the time right now maybe later and would he have missed out on that which would have filled his empty aching heart. Jesus did not come to save those who do not want to follow Him. Jesus came to save those who wished to follow Him. Matthew jumped at the call and followed Him. He did not hesitate he did not wait but he got right up and followed Him. Those two words are the key. We must follow Him if we are to be saved. To follow means to lead. Jesus is our leader; we are to follow His directions. In Saturday’s paper, I found a very special one, depicting a high school freshman as she prepares for a track meet. With shoulder length brown hair, she looks like most runners her own age, thin, focused, intent on the race ahead. Undistracted, her face turned downward, she holds one hand at her right ear. In the other, she carries a tiny radio attached to a fanny pack. Nearby her father, Matt McCarthy, speaks into a small transmitter.
Natalie McCarthy, the ordinary looking girl in the picture, sprints both the one hundred and two hundred meter dashes for her Steilacoom High School track team. It is her almost total blindness that makes her most extraordinary.
So, how does she do it? How does she line up with a group of healthy, sighted teens and dash for a finish line she cannot see? By radio.
Natalie runs with a single earpiece in her right ear. With her father’s voice coming through the tiny transmitter, she hears the course corrections he gives her from the sidelines. With nothing more than trust, and her father’s verbal directions, Natalie runs at full speed toward a goal she cannot see, with competitors she can only hear, over obstacles she can only imagine.
Hers is a perfect picture of our race with Christ. For us, the Holy Spirit directs our race. We face challenges we cannot see. We race for a goal we can only imagine. Though we don’t hear our coach through a radio earpiece, the Lord promises over and over that he will guide us in our race for the finish line. He will direct us. We will hear our Heavenly Father’s voice. We must trust, as blindly as Natalie does the whispering in our spiritual ears. We must trust and respond. Change course. Run the race. Your Father is whispering in your ear.
No longer are we alone stumbling through life blind. Our eyes have been opened and we have a guide to lead us through life to eternity.
Jesus came for the sick. Who are the sick? Those who have a disease as old as man. This is a disease that all humans have but a few of us can be cured but many will die because of this disease. Many refuse the cure because to them it is too simple to be effective. They run around looking for complex sophisticated cures all of which in the long run will fail and they will die. Others refuse the cure because they have bought into the lie that there is no disease. And they will die from it. Others will buy into the lie that there is no death just a progression from one life to another and on and on they to will die from this disease. This disease is sin the cure is Jesus Christ. When He calls follow me the cure is to get up and follow Him. The cure is the belief in him as your Lord and Savior. That He died for your sins on the cross.
And Jesus came for the unrighteous. He did not come for those who are righteous because they do not need are want him. He came for those who knew they were in desperate need of a savior. The righteous will say I have done this, this, and this and I have given to charity and helped the homeless and put money in the offering plate. I have done many good deeds. The unrighteous will simple say I am dirty and filthy there is nothing clean or good about me. Please help me. I am drowning please lift me out of the sea of sin. Peter’s experience of walking on water is a good example. As he took his eyes off of Jesus he began to sink. When we take our eyes off of Jesus we also begin to sink in the sea of sin of this world. Like Peter who called out to Jesus save me we to can call out to our savior and He will also reach forth and lift us from the sea of sin.
So what about you this morning is Jesus saying to you follow me? Have you heard those words? Are you sitting there with every muscle clinched tight to keep from moving? Is Satan telling you lies that you don’t need saving that you are a good person and God is a loving God and He would never send a good person to hell? Don’t believe it. Jesus is calling this morning. Is He saying this morning follow me? Are you going to follow Him this morning?
