Disciples and the Kingdom of Heaven | Matthew 9:9-17

It's great to be back in this series that we have started in the book of Matthew and

if you have your Bibles with you this morning we will be in the text quite a bit.

And it is great to be back in this series because we've been following the miraculous

healing ministry of our Lord Jesus.

And if we think back to where we've been so far, from the beginning of chapter 8 we've

seen Jesus cleanse a leper with just the word of his mouth.

We've seen him heal a man that he never met with just the word of his mouth.

He healed an entire town with just the word of his mouth and even command nature and demons

to flee with just the word of his mouth.

However things really ramped up just a couple of weeks ago when we got into the chapter

that we have before us this morning in which Jesus had a paralysed man set before him and

with just the word of his mouth he forgave the man of his sin.

And just so there was no confusion for those who were questioning the legitimacy of what

was going on with Christ's claim, Jesus then told the man to pick up his mat, walk home

as proof of his authority that he could really forgive sin.

Every step of the way as we've been studying the word of God together we have seen a great

emphasis in an ascending series of events in which Jesus is being shown over and over

again to have the same power as God himself.

And that's actually where we left it last time.

We left a stunned crowd there in verse 8, marvelling and glorifying God because they

recognised that God had given such power to this man, to this Jesus of Nazareth to which

our local theologian Tom Richards helpfully pulled back the curtain to show us that God

the Father really was at work with God the Son through God the Holy Spirit in bringing

glory to himself in these events.

This brings us to the passage that we have before us this morning in which we're going

to see that Jesus not only can forgive sinners like you and me but actually wants to forgive

sinners like you and me as he has a great love for the lost and the outcast to the point

that he invites us all to be his disciples and belong to him forever no matter who you

are or what you've done.

And we'll be looking at this wonderful truth in two halves this morning.

First verses 9 through to 13, we'll look at how Jesus called Matthew to be his disciple

and then rebukes the Pharisees for not understanding the heart of God and then the second we'll

look at verses 14 through to 17 and we'll look at how Jesus answers some of John's disciples

about how we Christians are to foster biblical maturity in our discipleship.

But before we get into any of this this morning I would ask that you please join me in prayer

in asking our Father to help us this morning understand his word.

Would you please pray with me?

Father we are so thankful for your word and we ask this morning that your promise is made

true in our midst that your word never comes back void.

We ask that you would pierce our hearts that you would show us Christ and transform us

by the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask for this in Jesus name.

Amen.

If you have your Bibles look with me at verse 9.

We read as Jesus went from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting in a tax collectors

booth.

Okay so the first thing that I want you to see here is the wonderful grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ and this comes to light when we notice that this Matthew was a tax collector.

Now that might not mean much now in this day and age even though none of us really are

big fans of paying taxes I presume but back in this context locals hated these guys as

it would have been Matthew's job to collect the incredibly high import and export fees

that were put on goods by the government while also keeping tabs on who paid the tribute

tax to Rome for living in their occupied territory.

Now paying taxes to governments and fees to regimes wasn't anything new for the Jews but

the locals despised tax collectors for a couple of different reasons.

First they were notoriously dishonest and greedy with the money that they collected

but second they were Jews themselves.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

You see Rome had come into Israel and oppressed the Jews and one of the ways that they did

that was through heavy taxation laws which were designed to keep the Jews financially

under their iron fist and so if we think about it Matthew was working for the enemy, working

for a regime that was there to cripple his own people while also stealing from them to

line his own pockets.

So you can imagine it right, Matthew would have been particularly unpopular with the

locals as he and his colleagues were seen as traitors to their own nation.

So what we see here, what we see here next is absolutely incredible.

Jesus sees him at work in the midst of working to rip off his own people and he comes to

him and he says follow me.

We read that Matthew got up and followed him.

Incredible grace and I say that because notice the language in all of this.

Notice Matthew didn't go seeking Jesus.

Jesus saw Matthew.

Jesus comes to Matthew.

He says follow me.

Now knowing what we know about Matthew already no one would have thought that he would make

a great disciple.

I mean it wasn't like some of the other disciples who at least had some interaction and ministry

from John the Baptist before they met Jesus.

We simply don't have that information about Matthew.

All we know is that he worked for the nation that occupied his and he was in a line of

work where he would rob from the poor to steal for the rich.

I mean we're not even sure if he heard any of the sermons of Jesus in and around Capernaum

but none of that mattered to Jesus.

Jesus saw something in this man.

He came to where he was.

He called him and we see that Matthew left everything to do so.

Church if we pause here for just a moment and look at just these first few verses that

we have before us.

We should again be struck with the grace of our Lord and his love for those on the outskirts

of society.

And struck with his power to change impossible situations.

We saw it with the leper.

No one would go near him.

Jesus did.

Jesus healed him.

We saw it with a sick old woman.

Jesus saw her.

He goes to her.

He heals her.

We saw it with this paralysed man.

He was brought to Jesus.

And Jesus forgives his sin and heals him in a way that no one could have possibly have

imagined.

And now here Jesus goes to a self-inflicted outcast.

A man with a crippled diseased heart and Jesus he turns him into a disciple.

Brothers and sisters nothing is impossible for our Lord.

He is the one who can and does transform the lives of those whom he comes in contact with

and all those that follow him know that truth.

I mean we all know what it was like to be lost and then Jesus came into our lives to

rescue us and call us to himself.

He still does that.

He still pursues sinners in that he still summons sinners to himself through the gospel.

In as many words follow me.

And like you and me in this very room, like the fisherman we read about in chapter four,

like dear Matthew here we heard the call.

Matthew heard the call.

He experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He knew the kindness of the Lord which came to him that day.

He knew something was transforming and he wanted others to experience it as well.

And I say that he wanted others to experience what he had because of the very next thing

we read in verse 10.

We read while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house many tax collectors and sinners came

and ate with him and his disciples.

See what Matthew did is the very first thing after following Jesus.

The very first thing he did was host a party so that others could meet Jesus as well.

And I love this scene.

I absolutely love it because that's such a natural reaction to experiencing such a life

changing event.

I don't know if you've been around someone who's had a life changing surgery because

they'll usually speak and go on about how great their surgeon was.

If you've been around someone who their team has won the grand final they'll usually want

you to know all about it.

And don't get me started on people that have found that special someone and have fallen

in love.

Very much in the same way.

Matthew knew that something life changing had happened to him.

That something had changed and that this Jesus was someone that others had to meet.

That his friends, his work colleagues had to get around.

So Matthew arranges this get together to get people around Jesus.

It's beautiful.

It's a beautiful scene.

Matthew was so impacted by the grace of our Lord that he wanted others to come to know

what he had come to know.

And if we think forward a little this morning church that's exactly what Matthew would do

for the rest of his life as an apostle and as an evangelist.

Think about it.

He's even testifying to us here this morning.

Two thousand years later as we study these inspired God breathed words.

This account from this tax collector who was made into a testifier.

From this sinner made into a saint.

Church we must never underestimate the power and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And how he comes to change someone.

To change people like you and me.

Matthew was a man that was seen as a disgusting traitor to his own people.

A filthy defiled wannabe Gentile maybe even by our Lord's very disciples.

Yet Jesus went to him.

Jesus called him.

Everything changes.

What we have here is a beautiful picture of Israel's King coming to the lost.

Coming to the outcast and inviting him to belong.

To belong to him to be his disciple.

And what a beautiful picture of a follower of Jesus who wants all their friends to come

to know Jesus as well.

It's a beautiful picture.

But there's something else that we see here and it's tragic.

Because not everyone was impressed with what had happened in their city that day.

We see it there in verse 11.

When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with

tax collectors and sinners?

We know the scene.

We've seen a man who has experienced something life changing.

He invites Jesus to be with the kind of people that he hangs out with.

The outcasts of society.

But then the theological elite of the day, the pastors and teachers of the town, they

see what's happening and a God smack that Jesus would spend time with these sorts of

people.

So much so that they start to undermine the very work of God that's happening in their

city.

How do they do that?

How do they try and undermine the very work of God?

Well you notice it.

That they don't go to Jesus.

We see that in our text.

They go to his disciples.

As his disciples were probably even themselves a little taken back by what they were witnessing

themselves.

And I think they do that because they want to turn his disciples against him.

They want to play to the Jewish tradition that these men had grown up with and make

them doubt Jesus and start questioning his ministry among them.

You can imagine it.

You can imagine these guys coming up and saying you left us to follow this guy as your rabbi?

If he's really of God why would he ignore the first psalm which says blessed is the

man who doesn't sit and stand with sinners.

This guy is laying with sinners.

He's eating with the scum of the city.

Why would you want to follow him?

Why would you want to be like that?

What a tactic.

They don't go to Jesus to challenge him like the snake in Eden.

They go to his friends.

To his disciples because they were hoping to cause them to stumble, to turn and doubt

the work of God that they were witnessing for themselves.

They may have even been hoping that they would abandon Jesus and come back to their pharisee

to call way of doing things.

But as all of this was going on we read that our Lord overheard this conversation and he

responds with an incredible rebuke.

He says it's not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.

Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy not sacrifice for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.

Verses 12 and 13.

I want to break down for you why this rebuke was so intense because he's basically saying

to the theologians, to the pastors, to the teachers of the city that they don't have

a clue what the law and the prophets stood for.

They don't understand the word of God.

First he says it's not the healthy who need a doctor.

It's the sick.

In other words Israel always expected that God was going to send them a saviour to save

them from their sin.

To rescue his people from their sin.

We studied that last week in the book of Isaiah.

And so Jesus is saying sinners, well they're the ones that need to be saved.

So where on earth do you think a saviour would be hanging out?

Where on earth do you think God would be ministering?

The sick need a doctor.

And so why would a doctor not go to where he is needed?

That's the first thing.

The Pharisees thought that they had this deep understanding of sin.

And so our Lord basically says you don't understand sin because if you understood it and what

it did to people then you would be doing everything humanly possible to make the least amount

of people not understand and know the grace of God.

Instead of looking down on them, instead of casting them out, you would be looking for

ways to get among them and show them God's mercy and grace.

Second not only have they misunderstood God's wisdom and plan for sin but they've totally

missed the point of the law.

That's why he quotes Hosea.

He says I desire mercy not sacrifice.

You see so many people they try to play God against himself in the Bible.

They say things like I can't take the God of the Old Testament but this Jesus guy I

think he's a much better example.

But you run into incredible problems with that kind of thinking.

When you think through the law, sorry you read through the law and see how the theme

of mercy and compassion comes up over and over and over again.

Even the ritualistic worship given to Israel was never to take priority over God's people

showing mercy and compassion to others.

And that's what Jesus is pointing these so-called teachers back to.

He's saying that the law it leads you to God, leads you to his holiness and it demands at

its very core, very hard, mercy and compassion towards others.

So second and in so many words Jesus is saying to the Pharisees that they don't just not

understand sin and God's wisdom but they don't even understand the law as the law teaches

that we're to be compassionate towards those who are spiritually blind and dead.

And that's certainly a theme that runs all throughout the prophets as well which they

totally misunderstand.

We see that in how Jesus ends what he says here.

I've come not to call the righteous but sinners.

This is a huge theme in the prophets, a huge theme in that they were sent to call people

back to repentance.

A work that Jesus the Messiah had come to do as well.

That's why he had come to those who had gone astray, come to gather the wandering sheep

and would ultimately shed his blood on the cross and give his life for them.

And that's just something the Pharisees didn't get.

No they concentrated on the letter of the law, on the rituals and the external works

and so when Jesus came along, came along and he's living out the heart of the law, the

mission of the prophets in the wisdom of God right in front of them, their hearts were

hardened.

Their hearts were offended at him.

Brothers and sisters there is such a huge warning in all of this because when we ourselves

begin to think that we're not in need of Jesus and that other people are worse than ourselves

then be warned because we are showing the signs that we have fallen into the phariseetical

mindset.

When we begin to think of ourselves as without fault having arrived and only others as those

who are in real need of forgiveness then beware because we are showing the heart of the Pharisees.

His words of Jesus were just as much for them as those he was eating with.

And may that never be the case for Grace Christian Church.

May we never be a people that are so consumed with our religious routine with protecting

our way of doing things that we turn a deaf ear to the outcast, to the downtrodden and

to those that our city would label as sinners.

No, may we like our Lord here love sinners, love prostitutes, love drug addicts, love

alcoholics, love the prisoner, love the rebel, the murderer, the sexually impure in our city.

May we love sinners knowing that we were once dead in our sins and only by the grace of

God that we are still not in rebellion to Him and on the way to hell.

Church, may we never lose sight of that.

May we, may that never be the culture of Grace Christian Church.

That doesn't mean that we need to approve, affirm or celebrate the sinner and their choices.

No way.

The reality is that the gospel invites us to come as we are.

But notice it, it never invites us to stay as we are.

It's not the healthy who are in need of a doctor, but the sick.

Sinful people, they need a rescuer.

They need a redeemer.

May we never become a stumbling block to those who God wants to reach in our city.

May we never turn from His mission to reach out to the sinners of this city with the gospel.

It's why our Lord, it's why He quotes from Hosea.

It's to make crystal clear that He had come to change sinners' hearts.

He didn't come to puff up people in their religious tradition, their ritualistic worship

or denominational heritage.

No, Jesus came to change sinners' hearts by and through the gospel.

And this city needs disciples of Jesus to hear these words.

We have a gospel message to share with our city, that there is no sin so deep that it

puts anyone beyond the reach of their creator.

A message that says that there is no sin which disqualifies us from the pursuit of God's

love.

A message that proclaims that there's no sin which separates us from the ability of our

Lord's power and grace to reach and love people and transform them, no matter who they are

or what they've done.

These are the words of the living God this morning.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

I have come to call sinners.

Jesus came for us, dear ones.

He came for sinners like you and me.

He came for the city of Armidale.

And if you're here this morning and you'd say that you have a sense that you've rebelled

and you've turned every which way from God and you know that you're in need of His forgiveness,

then the Lord Jesus Christ says to you this morning, I came for you.

I came for you.

If that's you this morning, please make that known.

We want to speak to you.

We want to pray with you.

We want to help.

Jesus is the one who came to sinners.

He embraced sinners.

He ate with sinners because He wants us to be transformed.

He wants us to experience the grace and love of God.

He came so that sinners would know what it is to have a real, living and loving relationship

with their Heavenly Father.

Our Lord wants His disciples to have the same heart that He has for those who have gone

astray because He wants them brought back.

He wants them to sit at His table, at the marriage supper of the Lamb where we will

all know and glorify our God and praise His holy name forevermore.

We just briefly think on verses 14 to 17, but we read in verse 14, John's disciples,

they came and asked, how is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples

don't fast?

Notice here that the disciples of John, they don't do what the Pharisees did.

They go to Jesus because they're curious about the pattern of discipleship that they were

seeing Him do ministry with.

They and the disciples of the Pharisees were used to doing the religious life a certain

way.

It seems that they had strict regulations with fasting, and yet Jesus was doing something

different and they wanted to come up and find out about that.

Now this isn't to say that Jesus' disciples didn't fast at all because if we read back

in Matthew 6, Jesus says, when you fast, don't make it a show for all of those around you.

We don't know, but whatever the case may be, Jesus replies with an absolute knockout statement

about His own identity and mission.

We see it in verse 15, He says, how can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He's

with them?

He'll be taken away and then they'll fast.

See what Jesus is saying here, He's saying that He's the groom of Israel, which has these

humongous messianic overtones that we won't go into here this morning, but He's saying

in as many words that the groom of Israel has arrived and you don't fast for a wedding.

What do you do?

You feast.

It's a time of joy and blessing and celebration.

And see, even though John's disciples had done the right thing in coming to Jesus, even

though they followed a righteous man and what Jesus would say is the greatest, He was the

greatest prophet to ever come to Israel, there's a rebuke here.

And we see that because John obviously demanded a lot from those who followed Him.

Because like the Pharisees, they were observing and doing things that the Bible didn't actually

demand of them.

That's right, you'd be hard pressed to find anything demanding people to fast outside

the day of atonement, which we find in the book of Leviticus.

That's not to say you couldn't, but it was left to the freedom of the believers and their

conscience as to when and how.

And so our Lord reminds John's disciples that though it might be a good idea to practice

this act of worship, and it looks like they did it a couple of times a week, two times

a week, it's not going to bind the conscience of His disciples.

And church, that's a great reminder to us to not impose our way of doing ministry on

others where there's no biblical warrant, no matter how useful and practical something

might be.

We're not just a reformed church, we're a reformed church that keeps reforming, reforming

back to the Word of God.

And so if the Bible is silent on something, we must never demand it and impose it on another

disciple's conscience.

The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet.

And though our traditions can be good and very helpful, the Word of God is never at

the mercy of our tradition, our denomination or confessions.

It's a subtle rebuke, but it's a rebuke nonetheless.

Jesus was saying that He wouldn't impose on His disciples something that seemed like a

good practice on His people.

Because God's Word didn't demand it in the first place.

No, the new understanding that He's bringing in the light of the new covenant as illustrated

by patches and wine there in verses 16 and 17, the light of the new covenant won't be

something that will be constrained by the regulations and rituals of the Pharisees or

even John's disciples.

Now what Jesus was bringing in with His ministry, no man-made regulations could foster that

work.

Put it simply, the work of the living God was in their midst.

The old was passing away and the new was coming in.

And it was right there in front of them in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Church, we have a God who came to save sinners.

A God who became flesh to dwell among us.

And when He was with His people, when He was with His people, when He is with His people,

when He will be with His people forevermore in eternity, there is great cause for joy

and celebration.

Our joy is always, always connected with His presence.

And that's the reality and hope of every single disciple of Jesus Christ right here and forevermore.

To be severed from Him, to be separated from the living God is to have no hope.

Not now, not in eternity.

And that is why Jesus came to us.

That's why Jesus came to give sinners hope, to give people like you and me hope because

in the Lord Jesus Christ we have at this very moment, because of His life, death and resurrection,

at this very moment, the love of God.

No one, no one is beyond the reach of that love.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for these words.

We thank you for not just the Word, but the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We thank you, Father, that you have not left us as orphans, but that you have given your

Holy Spirit to your people.

That you've washed us clean, that you are leading, that you are guiding and that you're

building your church.

Father, we thank you for the many men and women that have heard the words of the Great

Commission and didn't hear, stay and make disciples, but go and make disciples.

And from their labour and their love and their obedience that the gospel was brought to us

and that we have been born again and that we have eternity in your presence to look

forward to.

Father, we ask that you would use this congregation in the city of Armidale as a light set on

a hill.

That we would be a people that not just speak truth, but live the truth, your truth and

that disciples would be made here.

Fools not of us, but of you, for the glory of God and for the sake of Christ.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, Amen.