Intro:
Movie makers are famous for created stories of under achievers who become over
achievers
A)Movies
like the Bad news bears - It was a
story about a pathetic little league team
2.
They were snot-nosed, foul-mouthed, unorganized, and untalented on the field
3.
Most were not the kind of players that you would pick to be on your team { Losers
4. But they became champs
B)Of Course you have Rocky: The no body from So.
Philly who becomes the Italian Stallion
1)The
So Paw from So. Philly
C)We
resonate with that – because there is something inside of all of us – that wants our ordinary to become
Extraordinary
D)Something
inside all of us that longs to be great
Problem
is what we see in the movies – doesn’t happen to most of us in real life.
A)Can’t count the times –
school yard – counting down the last seconds – basketball – 5 4 3 2 1
HE WAS FOULED
B) I played Basketball from
8yrs on into High School
1)You know how many times I
made the game winning shot? ZERO
Great
in the movies – but not reality!
A)Here is the beautiful
thing though about the Church – about GOD’S TEAM
B)He has always been about
taking the ordinary and doing the extraordinary!
1)Misfits making them MIGHTY
C) David / Joshua / Gideon
/ Moses …. list goes on
That
is clearly seen in the type of men Jesus picked to be on His team
A)They weren’t the cream of
the crop – not men of great influence / or great affluence – not rich
B)Not men of great power –
not highly educated
1)No he picked a motely crew of under achievers
C)Fishermen who never caught
anything
1)Simon was a Zealot –
fought the establishment
D)But maybe the most unusual
of the disciples was Matthew – he was a tax collector
V.9 gives us a brief
description of his conversion
As Jesus passed
on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He
said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him.
Matthew was a man who served Rome by collecting taxes. An IRS agent
A) In those days a man could buy what they called a tax collecting
franchise
B) A franchise required
collecting a specified amount of taxes for Rome and anything collected beyond
that figure was kept as personal
profit.
C) Now no one
knew what the specified amount of taxes were except for the Roman officials
& the tax collector himself
1)
this enabled the tax collector to really jack up the taxes if he wanted to
& keep a larger profit for himself
(Practice permitted by Roman officials)
D)For
this reason the tax collectors were considered crooks & traitors by their
own people & were hated
1)
They were even more despised than Roman officials or soldiers.
E)So
that is what pp saw when they looked at Matthew
But
notice our text tells us that when Jesus looked at Matthew He saw not a tax
collector – but a man.
A)
He was a man created in the image of God
B) A
living soul with hurts, and problems, and sins, and fears- A man that Jesus had come to die for
C) Levi was probably used to people getting on him
for what he was
1)
When Jesus treated him as a man instead of as a tax collector, he took notice.
D) IS THERE A MATTHEW IN YOUR LIFE ?
1) Someone
everyone treats badly because they are bad
E)
Wonder what would happen if someone treated them like a normal person?
NOTICE
HIS RESPONSE :
A) It says that Matthew arose
up & followed Him!
B)
Luke 5:28 adds this remark – He left all arose and followed
1) That insight is
significant - He left all -
then He rose up and followed Him !
C) I believe that order is
significant & worth noting because we need to understand that there needs
to be a leaving before there can be a rising.
Now
I have watched many people who have been limited in ministry - or held back
& weighed down in their Christianity - no Joy
A) Because they were not
willing to leave something behind
B) For some it
was a secret sin - a “little compromise” Grey areas”
For others it was an attitude of bitterness & unforgiveness
C)
Some a fear / others a lack of trust or some misconception they have about the
Lord that is causing them to not truly rise up & follow
D)
Listen THE FREESEST PEOPLE ARE THE ONES
WHO HAVE LEARNED TO LEAVE THINGS BEHIND
E)
Can’t experience all that the Lord has for us until we are willing to do that
Heb.12 Therefore
we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
Jim
Elliot "He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep, to gain what he
cannot lose."
IS
THERE SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE THAT HAS BEEN KEEPING YOU FROM EXPERIENCING ALL
THAT THE LORD HAS
A)Something that He has been
asking you to leave behind - to lay aside & rise up to follow Him in a
deeper way - more committed ?
B) So you can Rise up & go higher in the Lord - deeper in your
walk
10
Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax
collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.
A)Now in Mark’s gospel we are told that this
little feast took place at Matthew’s house
B)Like Matthew wanted all of
his heathen tax collector friends to meet Jesus – Jesus went
1)Hanging with the sinners –
the religious leaders had a problem with that.
11
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your
Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
A) Most religious Jews, and especially the proud and self-righteous
scribes and Pharisees, could not conceive of socializing w/ such a group of sinners
B) The Jews of Jesus’ day used
the term sinners almost as a
technical term for people who had no concern or respect either for the Mosaic
law or rabbinic traditons
C) They were looked on as the vilest and most wretched and worthless of
all people.
1) Yet it was some of those
very people that Jesus and His disciples
joined at the banquet in Matthew’s house.
D)And Eating in that culture
was a radical thing - spoke of a oneness - of an acceptance
So
why would Jesus want to associate w/ such a crowd ? He answers that question
12 When Jesus
heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick. 13
But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did
not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
A)The scribes
and Pharisees saw Levi and his friends as condemned sinners,
B) but Jesus saw them as spiritually sick “patients”
who needed the help of a physician.
C) Reminds us of the fact that although Jesus hated Sin – He loved the Sinner !!! came to die for
sin
D) Think for a moment – Some one you Know – that guy
is a Sinner –
1) A #1 HEATHEN – Picture in Dictionary
E) Know this: Jesus hates their sin – But He loves
the Sinner –
1) Died for the Sinner – wants to save the sinner
The Church is
not a Sanctuary for the perfect – but a hospital for the hurting.
Interesting Phrase: Go and learn what this means
A)Here He pens them to the wall with
their own Scripture. "Go and
learn."
B)And by the way, that little statement
go and learn is from the rabbinic writings.
1)You see it many many times in the
rabbinical writings.
C)The rabbi's used to use it as an
exhortation or a rebuke to persons who didn't really know what they should have
known. Go and learn, he says.
D)Go back to the books and come again
when you've gotten the information and learn what your own text says and he
quotes Hosea 6:6. "I
will have mercy and not sacrifice."
In other words, God says, "I am not concerned with
ritual. I'm concerned with a merciful heart."
A)Here they were, they crank out all the
little ritual, but they had no mercy or compassion or love for a sinner.
B)I
wonder if some of us don’t need to learn that
God
says: I desire mercy –
1)I
want the Church Youth group friendships to be a place where mercy is shown
Final note on Matthew: His real name was Levi
A) Levi meant “Joined”
B) Named after a son of Jacob, the father of one of the tribes of
Israel
1)
-A name associating him with his heritage
2)
-A name associated with the worship of God
The Levites served in the temple
C) But for this Levi – he
name spoke of someone who had joined himself w/ the Romans to exploit the
people of God –
Now
somewhere along the line – Levi came to be known as Matthew -
A) Matthew meant “Gift of
God”
B) The Lord was giving him a
new start
1)
And This former outcast would become a gift of God to others
C)The Tax man would become a
gospel writer!
Jesus is getting it from all
sides next V.14 Then
the disciples of John J THE B came to Him, saying,"Why do we and the Pharisees fast
often, but Your disciples do not fast?"
Now The OT prescribed only
one fast, the one on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement
(see Lev. 16:29, 31) ,
But
the Jews were always adding to the scriptures & Jewish tradition had come
to require fasting twice a week on and Mon. & thurs..
A)So the disciples of John
the B see Jesus and his disciples hanging out feasting – party – celebrating
B)What is up – suggesting –
If you and your disciples were really spiritual you would be fasting like us
C)You guys wouldn’t be so
happy -
15 And Jesus
said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be
taken away from them, and then they will fast.
In those days a
wedding would usually last 7days, & the bridegroom would choose his best friends to be responsible for the
festivities.
A)According to the Talmud, there is one time a man is
absolved of duty, even prayer: at a wedding ceremony.
B)The only duty a man had at a wedding ceremony
was to rejoice. Celebrate good times come on
By using this image, Jesus was saying to His
critics, “I came
to make life like a wedding feast, not a funeral.
1) ‘This is not the time to be fasting.’ This is a
time to be REJOICING
I don’t know when Christianity began being
associated with grumpiness, Drugery – Not real Christianity
A)Abundant
life – Can Christians dance? – Some can some can’t – no rhythm
B)Jesus
enjoyed himself – he enjoyed pp – He had a good time
C)Jesus
says the is a time coming when He was
going to be taken away from them – Cross
1)Then it
would be appropriate for them to fast – mourn
NOT NOW
JESUS PRECEEDS TO GIVE 2 ILLUSTRATIONS Stating how He had
come TO DO A NEW THING
16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk
cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the
tear is made worse.
There are those who
suggest that Jesus came to reform Judaism.
A) Jesus was illustrating that he had not come to
try & patch up the old religious system - can’t patch up the old
B) Can’t put a new patch onto old Levi’s - wash
stretch & tear
C)The problem wasn’t that the old system needed
fixed or patched –
1)It served it’s purpose – Reveal sin / need for a
savior
Jesus came to
do something completely new that was about man’s performance
A)But instead
it would be about His sacrifice!
B)The OC
called on man to perform – Obey 10 commandments –
1)Problem was
man couldn’t do that consistently
C)The answer
was not a patch on the old system
Not putting a
patch on an old coat
Jesus says It is not a patch that you need but a whole new
coat
A) Jesus does a work on the inside that affects your
life in every way - seen on the outside !
B) He didn’t come to patch up the old Rabbinical
system - Nor does He want to patch up your old life
1)He came to do a New thing & to give you a new
life !
In the 2nd illustration - He gives further
insight into how this takes place
17 Nor do they put new wine into old
wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins
are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are
preserved."
A) Wine was often stored in
animal skins that were specially prepared for that purpose.
B) Now Old wineskins would eventually dry
out and become hard , and if someone put
new wine into them, when the wine began to ferment
C)
they couldn’t handle the stretching & the expanding & they would crack
and burst open ,spilling the wine ... out.
C) The only suitable container
for new wine is a fresh wineskin.
That is what Jesus was
bringing – New Wine – a New covenant – His spirit but into transformed lives
A)Ezk 36
B)New Wine/ New skins – Message not do – but Done
C)New Wine – written not on
stones but on the heart
D)New Wine / Skins – Not
human effort – But HS empowering