The Call of Discipleship | Matthew 9:9-13
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Good morning. Oh, man, we can do better than that, can't we? Good morning. Hey, let's have another round of applause for our worship man. Really into it this morning? They I think they did the greatest test today. I don't know. Well, you're gonna have to bear with me a little bit as I get a little sentimental, and lovey dovey. Is that okay? All right. When I was in college, Carolina, you had to walk pretty much everywhere back then. from class to class, there was. Occasionally I only had one guy, so my eight years as being a student who went along. But in my time, at my time, at Carolina, there was one time where I did have to drive, because I had a class at the back of the old calendar called Sam. And my next class was at the Business Administration, building the BA, which was back then like the extremes of the campus, you really couldn't walk that in 15 minutes, because it's like, uphill both ways, somehow. And so I would drive I drove that route. But most of the time, you could walk, you know, pretty much where you're, if you live on campus, and I remember my junior year, I had a route that took me from my residence hall, to one of my classes, and typically on your route to class, you'd see the same people on that route every day, because it's the same people going to the same classes. And sometimes you'd kind of get behind the same people, or you would see the same people intersections and that kind of thing. And I don't remember what class this was, or what particular class it was. So I guess it wasn't that important to me. But I always ended up on this one route walking behind these two girls. And they were like, probably always 20 I guess we were on the same time, you know, as we were leaving our dorm 2030 feet in front of me. And I was always walked behind them. And I remember thinking, you know, one of them was really cute. I remember thinking, Man, how do I how can I meet that girl? Oh, oh, worse, I'm getting choked up. Or even like a girl like that, you know, how can I meet a girl like that, right. And so now six months later, I'm listening to a band at an establishment in Colombia, and a friend of mine was in a band. And I looked across the room. And there was that girl again, sitting at one of those high table top tables, bars. Now she says she's with a friend. But all I remember was seeing her I thought she was by herself. And there she was, and no joke, a spotlight was shining on top of her. And like, she was the only and then all sudden, these this prom music played and like, you know, and I could just music, like the only person in the room, right? And I got up my nerve, and went over there and tried to kind of break the ice. Because I was like, This is my shot. This is my chance, right? This is like, Girl, I got it. I got it. This is how men think, by the way, right? So that girl so my friends were over there too. And she had friends and I was telling all these jokes and and using my best charm. And it was just like she was not interested at all. It was just falling flat. Right? My friends were laughing. They thought it was funny. But you know, I wasn't really trying to impress them. I just thought, Oh, well, that's my kids say I'll take the L and move on. And, and a few weeks later, I saw her again. And we kind of passed by each other. And she said Hey, and I said oh yeah. Hey, how are you? And I was just trying to kind of move on my way. But she kept talking to me. I was like, whoa, wait, what's this? Right? And there was a something different in her eye. And I was like, Well, you know, she had like, you know, sold us or something. I don't know what it was, but something different was in her eye and we got to talk and I was hooked. Right? I was hooked. And I told myself, I will follow this woman anywhere. Right and praise the Lord, I was able to convince her to marry me. And so but when the green when I got the green light, and she there was interest, you know, I thought to myself, Hey, I gotta I have to, I have to take advantage, right? I have to I have to make a decision here. And I was looking for a future wife there she was. Right? Today we're looking at a passage of scripture where Jesus calls more disciples. And when they have these encounters with Jesus, it's always interesting to see that they all just seem to just jump at the opportunity. light turns green and they go. You wonder why that is? Jesus shows interest in them. He says follow me. And they went. I didn't even have to think why because they were looking for something. They were looking for something that only Jesus can offer. Jesus laid out a path of discipleship to be made right with God. Today we're in Matthew chapter nine, starting in verse nine. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and follow them. And as Jesus reclined the table in the house Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician. But those who are sick, go and learn what this means. Desire, mercy, and not sacrifice, for came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Heavenly Father, as we come across this passage today, help us understand what it means as we, as we finish the series on following you. What it means to be a disciple of yours as we follow you, I pray that you would use my words to reflect your heart, the meaning behind what you gave your word, Lord, that they would be effective, that you would fill me with your Spirit in preaching. I would say what this congregation needs to hear that they would receive the word from you today, Lord, be with us today. And we ask these things, in Jesus name. Amen. Today want to give you three elements. We see here on following Jesus on the call discipleship. This is the last week we've been going through this series next week, starting a new series for the summer. And it's going to be on the sermon on the mount some parts of Matthew five through seven, which is a great section and so be doing that through the summer because May, even though it's not the summer feels like the summer, and we're gonna go through probably August, but that the Sermon on the Mount, so that's next week, but we're finishing up here, this idea of Jesus calling people to follow him. So the first thing I want you to see is that the call of discipleship is clear. The call of discipleship is clear, it's it's not fuzzy. It's not convoluted. It's not complicated. It's very clear to words, Jesus says, Follow me. If you want to be with me, if you believe in me, follow me. Verse nine. Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And Matthew, He rose, and follow them. Now, during Jesus's early days of ministry here he came across Matthew, also known as Levi, who was he? Well, Matthew refers to himself here and the third person, he only mentioned that he was sitting at the tax booth. What is that? Well, this fact, made Matthew, one of the most despised and hated men in his town. Matthew was what the Greeks called a public colony, he was a man who served the occupying power Rome, against his own people, as a collector of taxes, because it serves the occupying power against his own people. It has his first loyalty, which should have been with the Jewish people and community was not with them, it was with Rome. So we would call this today like a sellout or something right? Now, the nature of Matthew's job was first he could tax whatever he wished, as long as Rome got their share. So Ron could say, we need five or 10% of your taxes, but this is what we need, but there was no law as to what he could set the limit for. So you could see how tax collectors could very easily take advantage of people and make a fortune off the taxes of people. Maybe he says, this week, we need 7% of the taxes when they come in, and he says okay, so when you put on Assign 14% 20% Something within reason, and they don't know that what they're giving it to and Matthew takes the rest home. So people like Matthew, tax collectors, like Matthew, often swindled even the poorest of the poor, through their means of employment. And they made a fortune. And so they're often hated. They're often despised, they weren't trusted, because no one really knew if they were taken some off the top or if they were an honest tax collector with You can see the temptation to not be was huge. And he was even considered a traitor to his own people. And it also meant that he served Rome, even over his God. So Matthew, a Jew couldn't even attend to the place of worship, you'd be forbidden to even come into the synagogues to have any religious, any social contact with his fellow Jews, he probably felt that his career choice made him unforgivable. Took a job where he did well, but he probably wondered, cannot be made right with God. Even though I live this way. So when Jesus, who very clearly as he passed through, was in Matthew's mind, at least a rabbi asks Matthew to follow him, which is what the rabbi's would tell people when they would select students. He got up and he left it was his chance to possibly get back in with a religious person with a Jewish person to possibly get back in to some type of good grace with God. We're not sure if Matthew knew he was Jesus, or he was knew he was the Lord or he was God at this point. But he understood that there was a there was a route there back to God through this man. And he took it. He had this opportunity. And he left his job, his profession, and he followed. The call to follow Jesus is clear, he just needed a way out. He just needed a reason to quit what he was doing, even though it's profitable. The offer that Jesus gives everyone is clear. And the question is, will we follow him or not? John 14 Six says this. Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth. And the life No one comes to the Father. except through me. Jesus makes it very clear how discipleship starts. Uh, he is the only way to God, that He is the only way to be made right with God, that Jesus is the only way the only conduit to which you can have your sins forgiven. His way was to take the punishment for your sins, and so that you do not have to take what you are rightly earned. His death, His burial, his resurrection, absolves you from the guilt of your sins. And he's the truth. He's not a truth. Jesus, being the only way to God is not an opinion. He is the opinion. He is the truth. And he says that he is life. He gives life he becomes your life. And to follow Christ means Jesus is your life. Being a Christian is not just something that you add to your collection of activities, it is your life. And many people miss this, about following Jesus. So we get it, we end up with situations like this and Matthew seven. Jesus says, Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, winter, the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will my Father who is in heaven, that scares us here. When we read this. We think well, how do I know if I'm in? Well, I'll tell you in a second. But before we get there, just because you claim Jesus as your Lord, doesn't mean he is and doesn't mean that, that you mean that. Romans 10 says that if you confess with your mouth, your say, but also says you just can't just confess with your mouth, you have to believe in your heart. To truly believe in. Confession is not enough. You have to really mean what you say you know how this is you have you have conversations people every day when they say one thing, but they don't really mean that. You have to mean it. Look at John 316 Three thing. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him and then there's verse 18. Whoever believes in him. Belief is not condemned. Whoever does not believe this can They're not ready because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God, the call of discipleship is clear, you must believe you can say you're a Christian, but you have to truly believe in the work and Person of Jesus Christ. And that's it. You turn from your sins, you follow Him, and you believe it's clear. The call of discipleship is clear. But secondly, the call of discipleship is risky. It's risky. Verse 10. And as Jesus reclined a table in the house, behold, many tax collectors, many, not just one or two, many of these sinful swindlers and other centers came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Matthew was so excited about his new lord, about his new rabbi, his savior, Jesus, that He invited Jesus to his house, where all his other professional friends would be. Tax collectors did not have many friends. But they had friends amongst themselves, I'm sure and this is what they did. This was their, their culture together. Jesus knew who they were. He knew their reputation. And they knew who he was. And Jesus had a bad reputation of hanging out with, with people that typically you wouldn't trust or want to be known with. Look at Matthew level 19, the Son of Man came eating and drinking. And they said, look at him a glutton. In other words, he came and ate a lot of food. And so they said, he's a glutton, or he came drinking and they say, Oh, look, he he had some wine, he must be drunk, oh, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. This is the reputation that he had. But then he says yet wisdom is justified by her as a personification of wisdom, her deeds, in other words, making wise choices. We know they're wise based on the outworking of those choices. Wisdom is proven by what happens with those decisions. How can you wisely reach out the people who need to hear Jesus where it may appear? risky and try to think of a profession, that if you hung out with someone in this profession, people would be like, Why are you with them? Everything they do, and their job is immoral? Might be illegal? Why would you be with them? Right? Who are the people that that you could reach out to that God has put in your life that it might be risky to share Jesus with them? If you get to know them, the way Jesus did. Your reputation is at risk. So the call to discipleship is clear. But there's some risk involved. And falling and truly falling Christ. Jesus says that wisdom is justified by her deeds. In other words, that these people were reaching out to it and we don't join them in their sin. You didn't see Jesus say, now tell me your business plan for tax collecting. Give me a booth. I can put it over here on the corner. So I can join you in ripping people off. Just how much percentage do you put up to markup so you can live comfortably. He wasn't asking for their profession. He was enjoying them in their sin. He was telling them yes, you're a sinner. But here is the truth. I am the truth. So in order to reach people for Jesus, we don't do what they do. But we might have to encounter their their den of wickedness quite literally as he was in their house on some level for them to hear about Jesus Christ. And it's gonna be different for everybody. You're gonna have access to people that other people won't have access to. But then look what verse 11 says, When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Hey, what is your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Now they weren't going to him and asking him straight up sometimes they did but this time they were tired talking on his back. People might ask that about you. You know, I saw so Also the other day, this place, I don't know why he was there. But you know, we live in a small town so this conversation never happened, right. I saw a silencer the other day, driving with somebody in the car. I don't know what that was about. Falling crisis is risky. When proverb says, Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. Excellence kinda makes you laugh, thinking about the turtle, just slowly taking the mick out of the shell. You know, as Christians, we can just stay in our shell. And never move and hope a car didn't hit us to stay right there and be safe. But if we're gonna get anywhere, we kind of have to stick our neck out a little bit. If we're going to go where Jesus is calling us to go. To follow Jesus means to stick your neck out. Look at John 15. This is a promise Jesus gives us I don't see too many of these on bumper stickers. If the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. therefore the world hates you. If the world agrees with everything you're doing in your life. You're not following Jesus Christ. Plain and simple. It tells us right here, if the world cheers you and says Good job, you're doing exactly how you should be living. The secular world cheers you you're not following Christ. That's the first thing that we should see from this. Verse 20, remember the word that I said to you? A servant is not greater than his master. They persecuted me they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things that they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know who sent me as a Christian, you're going to be constantly like the salmon swimming upstream against the currents. When you follow Jesus, you're going to encounter risks. You might risks your friendships. And people that you reach out to and try to disciple they might hurt you. They might turn on you. They might not follow Christ. It's risky. You may risk job advancement. You may risk relationships, you may risk financial security. Every decision has an element of risk. I made a risky decision this morning, putting these pants on. Right. Every decision you make has an element of risk. Everything you risked your life you don't know this, but you risked your life driving here today, even if you only drove a mile down the road. You've seen what's out there on the roads. When God called my family in here over 10 years ago, we had to leave or living and move here it was risky. No idea what the people would be like no idea what the town would be like. Me think you know, you don't know, how do you get here? It's risky. It's risky when you get married. It's risky to have children. There's an element of risk to anything worth having in life. I want to say that again. Is the element of risk to anything worth having in life. So why would the most important decision one that has the power to determine your eternity? Why would it be any different? The risks as real as they are are completely worth it when we realize what we gain from following Jesus. Like I mentioned last week, God is building you into a house of his making. It's not our making. His he's the interior decorator. He's the designer we're not. We thought we were getting just you know salvation and a couple life changes and that's not it. He's gotten us he's changing the piping. He's re carpeting he's pulling up the linoleum. He's making a big change in our lives. We didn't ask for it, but it doesn't matter. Because he knows us better than we do. And he knows what we need in our lives. When we follow him. It's risky. But it's a good type of risk. In number three, finally, the call of discipleship is humbling. It's humbling. Jesus, verse 12. He heard it. He heard the whispers. He said, those who are well have no need of a physician. But those who are sick. Today, when people were sick, what do they do? They they go to the doctor. They call the doctor or they are in denial. They don't go the doctor has a different thing, right? They go to the doctor, the back then. And this is great as a as a customer, doctors visited the sick, right? You have to leave they came to you. So Jesus is saying, Well, why would I be visiting those who aren't sick. He was visiting the sick, who knew they were sick, just like a doctor would. But the metaphor is this. He was visiting those who knew they were sinners. He was hanging out with those who knew they probably weren't right with God, those tax collectors knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew that they were swindling people they knew. But it was their life. It was what they did. And they knew that they might not be able to be right made right with God. So many ways, those who know they're not right with God. But those who are open to hearing about Jesus. Well, they're the most humble people around those who are not right with God, but they're open to it. They have a certain humility, because they know where they're at. But they know they need help. They've been humbled by their sin. They've been humbled by their life. It takes a certain level of humility to even be in here today. So every single one of you have some type of humility. You say, No, you need to be here. That's a good sign. If you're here today, do you know you need it? You need it. He doesn't verse 13. To them. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Now, when he says, Go and learn what this means. This is what a rabbi would tell a student who didn't understand something. So it would been offensive for them to hear this. Hey, go and learn what this means religious expert. Go and study this on your own. And then it gives them a concept that they should know about, go and learn about mercy. And he quotes the book of Hosea six, six that says this fried desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt. offerings, says Go study this. And this is a common refrain and some of the Old Testament prophetic books. Look at Amos five. He says to the worshipers, he says, he says, I hate I despise your feasts. And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Not a verse you put on someone's crockpot, by the way, right? Verse 22, even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them in the peace offerings of your fatten animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs. Your songs just irritate me. They make a noise, the melody of your hearts. I'm not going to listen. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness, like an ever flowing stream. He says this, your sacrifices you're showing up to worship. He says, God says to the ones here in the Old Testament, He says I don't want to hear you even sing to me. Until your heart is humble. To Your heart is right with me. He says I want you to be people of justice and rights righteousness. One of the sins the Old Testament people had that the prophets kept speaking out to them was they oppressed to the poor, the oppressed those who had no rights. So he says, justice will roll one day. But he takes this idea of righteousness in verse 13. He says this. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Jesus says that those who think the righteous, I can't help. I can't help the healthy. The doctor doesn't need to help the healthy. He says, I can't help the righteous. Now I can't do anything for you. But someone who knows they need me I can help. And until you come to a place, whether you're not a believer, and you're looking for truth in Jesus, or you're a believer, and you're following Christ, in teaching come to a place where you know, you need Jesus to help you. He can't. You got to invite Him in the healthy, don't need a doctor, the sinless don't need a Savior. You know, hell was made for Satan. He was cast there, because of his pride to take over heaven. And that's where we go if we don't receive Jesus, salvation. And hell is not made up of people who are repentant. It's made of the people who will not humble themselves. To the truth of Jesus Christ isn't going to be the most prideful place in all of eternity. The one thing they all have in common many things, but that's one thing. They will remain prideful with the prince of pride, say himself, because the call of discipleship is humbling. Now, we can't take pride in our humility. That's the tricky thing about this. So we praise the Lord, that He humbled us and we received His salvation, amen. And we search and we try to be humble, knowing that we can't without his, we can't without his help, we try to get a humble posture in that way. The call to discipleship is humbling. If we're going to follow Christ, we have to look at ourselves and say, Lord, where do I need to humble myself? How can I be a sick person, not a healthy person, but a sick person, so you can work in my life? Jesus asks you to follow him. Again, going down a path and there he is. And he speaks to you. And he looks you right in the eye? And what are you going to do? Even as believers, we have this challenge every day. Are we going to follow Jesus? Our Lord and Savior Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. For what you've given us, all of the gifts, all the blessings that we find in you. And Father, if there's a person in here today that that's never placed their faith ever believed in you. Today, they would they return from their lifestyle sin. And they would say, she just saved me. That you would, and they would follow you and they would start their journey as a believer, that you would give them the abundant life you promise and the eternal life that she promises will. Or for those of us in here, who are believers, and we know we all don't follow you. The ways we should we get off track, that you're always there leading us or that we would search our hearts today. And that we would be humble enough to say, Father, show us in our lives, where we need to continue to humble ourselves so that we can follow this path of discipleship Lord, we love you. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.
