Hope Church's Church
2.1.26 Sunday Morning Worship
  • It Was Finished Upon That Cross
  • A Thousand Hallelujahs

      • Matthew 9:18-19ESV

      • Matthew 9:20-22ESV

      • Matthew 9:23-26ESV

      • Matthew 9:27-29ESV

      • Matthew 9:30-32ESV

      • Matthew 9:33-34ESV

  • Intro

    All or Nothing choices.
    When I say the word ICE, what comes to mind? I think 20 years ago, you may have thought of a cooling your drink. Today, this week, with all that is going on, when I say ICE, certainly different issues are coming to your mind.
    As the pastor who does not speak to current events and political issues that are not in the text, I wanted to start the sermon with the most controversial thing i could today.
    When you choose either to join ICE, or stand in opposition to ICE, it is an all or nothing decision. You will be dedicated in one way or the other. If you are a federal agent of ICE, you will be tasked to follow the government and carry out what will be difficult orders of justice. You will face opposition. Once you become an ICE agent, you will have that on your resume and record forever. This will have affects on your life as a whole. You had better truly consider the effects on your life.
    On the other hand, if you choose to stand opposed to ICE, protesting, and maybe even abstracting arrests of innocent asylum seekers and refugees, you will also be making an all or nothing decision if you fully commit. For the sake of caring for the voiceless, you might be imprisoned. You’re actions will forever be recorded in news articles or social media posts. This will take an effect on your life going forward as your actions could become public record. You political opposing friends and family might disown you. You had better truly consider how this decision will affect your life.
    Guess what? The text today does not tell you whether you should join ICE or protest ICE.
    But in a similar way, consider how Christianity is an all or nothing decision. We have this idea that Jesus can just be added to our key chain along with everything else.
    The gospel of Matthew has been calling us to this choice, showing us what it looks like to live in the Kingdom that Jesus has come to give. It is not a quick ticket of admission, it is a continual lifestyle transformation. It is recognizing and then submitting to Christ’s authority in our lives in every way. Following Christ is not a subway sandwich where I can choose what I want on it. You accept the whole package of Jesus or you don’t accept him at all.
    MAIN POINT: Disciples of Jesus find our lives both disrupted and restored in the Gospel.
    Let’s jump into the text today.

    I. Leave What He Calls Us From v9

    First today, we leave what he calls us from. We see this exemplified in the character of Matthew.
    If you didn’t make the connection, Matthew, the person in verse 9, and the author of this book, are the same person.
    We might be a little confused if you have read Mark and Luke’s account of this story because they give the persons name as “Levi.” Certainly there are other explanations here, but most likely, Matthew has two names like many Jewish people at the time. Think of some examples of two names we have in scripture. Simon/Peter/Cephas. Think about Joseph/Barnabas. Jesus/Barabbas. Thomas/Didymus. Matthew is known by his longer name, but maybe Levi was his first name.
    This isn’t even uncommon today. Sometimes people go by a completely different name than what they were given. My dad’s name is Douglas Lynn DeField, but he goes by Jake. And he has yet to tell me the story of how that happened.
    The other gospel writers maybe want to respectfully distance Matthew the disciple from Levi who was a tax collector. But Matthew is willing to completely identify who he is, a sinner saved by the Grace of Jesus’s call.
    We are nine chapters in and finally get introduced to the author.
    Most scholars believe that Matthew has been following Jesus at this point. They believe that he has already been an eye witness to most of what has happened. But Matthew chooses to insert his calling here.
    Matthew, the author of the first book of the new testament, the account of Jesus with more chapters and verses than the other three gospels, gives himself one verse.
    This is not typically how authors introduce themselves in the book. Usually, they begin the book with themselves. Or maybe they might surprise the audience and end the book announcing that they are this character. But not so with Matthew.
    And it’s good for us to ask why. Maybe you want a little more back story for Matthew. Maybe you want to know his upbringing. Why he chose tax collecting. What were his parents like. Who were his friends.
    But Matthew wants you to know one thing about his life, the most important thing about his life. He was a sinner, and Jesus rescued him.
    He chooses to put his one verse among all of the other stories of Jesus’s work. Guess what happens before this story? Making much of Jesus and his authority. Guess what happens after this story? More healing and rescuing that make much of Jesus and his authority.
    Matthew is making a point about our lives. Christ rescues you because of the Love of God for you, but it is not merely just for yourself. It is to make much of Jesus. Your salvation shows how mighty our savior is. Great is our sin, but greater is our Savior.
    Matthew puts himself into this mosaic to show a greater picture. He is one small tile in the mosaic showing the greatness of Jesus and who he is.
    We as believers ought to be delighted that we get to be a small part in the unfolding plans of God in making much of Christ with our lives.
    In this narrative portion of Matthew, we have seen Jesus escalating. First, Jesus has authority to heal the sick. Then to rescue from the storm, then to cast our demons, then to forgive sins. Only something that God could do. And then with Matthew here in verse 9, this one even gets escalated. We see that Jesus not only forgives sins, but he forgives the worst of sinners.
    Jesus calling fishermen in chapter two was weird. He was the messiah, gathering a group of followers, and why would you choose fishermen? But him choosing a tax collector would have been abhorrent and disgusting.
    Like a doctor wanting to open his own practice, and choosing Hannaford employees to go into business with. Weird, unexpected, but okay. But then this doctor chose a drug addict off the street to be a nurse practitioner at his practice. Not weird, appalling.
    Certainly, this all or nothing decision was true for Matthew.
    So, he goes home to pray about it. He goes to the local pub to discuss this life choice with his friends. Nope. He simply chooses to follow Jesus.
    He responds to Jesus’s call by following. Remember what John says? no one comes to Jesus unless the Father calls them. And Jesus says later “You did not choose me, I chose you.”
    Jesus’s general call of the kingdom of God is for everyone, but here he is specifically calling one.
    Many of you have experienced the gospel in this way in your life. You knew a general call of salvation, you knew that God existed, but then you knew Jesus was calling you specifically.
    I love the picture of that with Matthew. Matthew in his sinful God forsaken state, needs Jesus to call him.
    So it is for us. We contribute nothing to our salvation except for the sin that made it necessary. But Jesus saw through all of our mess and chose us. And so we respond.
    For Matthew to respond was not an easy decision. It was not like choosing to wake up in the cold and come to church today. This choice to respond to Jesus was an all or nothing choice for Matthew.
    Think of the fishermen. If they choose to follow Jesus, then go back to fishing, not a huge deal. In fact, spoiler alert, this is what happens when they believe Jesus to be dead.
    But as a tax collector, he would not have endless opportunities beyond tax collecting. As a despised person, he would not find employment among jews. To follow Jesus meant he would loose his current position, friends, and occupation, and not be able to go back.
    This was sacrifice. And so it is for us. To respond to the gospel and follow Jesus means leaving behind certain parts of our life. Leaving behind the things that God has saved us from.
    Let me ask us today. What has Jesus called us away from? What specific things in your life has he called you away from? What parts of our lives are we holding onto that he wants us to give up? What sins do we need to confess and leave? What sins do we need to go to another brother or sister, confess to them, and ask them to pray with you?

    II. Love Who He Cares For v10-13

    Next, when we think of our lives being disrupted and restored by the gospel, we want to love who Jesus cares for. Let’s look at the text to see who Jesus cares about in this passage.
    Verse 10 tells us that Jesus is reclining at a table in most likely Matthew’s house. And who is he dining with? Tax collectors and sinners. This was discussing for the Pharisees or any good Jew. How could someone who claims to be a teacher and the messiah be eating and dining with sinners?
    Sharing a meal in this culture was a sign of identifying with someone.
    Meal sharing was a sacred, ceremonial time. It included washings, ritual cleansings, even tithings that would go with the meal. Jews could not eat with tax collectors or sinners because they would have been unclean. Unclean because they had contact with gentiles, unclean because of their profession, unclean because they worked on Sabbath.
    Tax collecting in Capernaum was significant for the region and for the roman empire. There were taxes on trade routs and on the fish that were caught. We often have this idea that Matthew is the only tax collector. But what we learn from the next verse is that many tax collectors may have been in this region.
    When we think of IRS federal employees, we might have a very neutral feeling about them. We don’t love being taxed, but they are just doing there job and collecting taxes.
    But the animosity toward tax collectors at Jesus’s time was much more heated.
    Think of the current political situation between ICE agents and opposition of ICE agents. Both of them hating each other with great distain. One for obstructing justice, one for obstructing compassion. Think of the animosity between the church in Minnesota and the protestors last Sunday. A heated situation.
    This is the animosity between the Jews and the tax collectors. Except everyone hated the tax collectors.
    Tax Collectors were not neutral IRS employees, but distained traitors who worked for the occupying oppression, the Romans. And worse than that, they became oppressors of their own people. And worse still, they were morally corrupt and profited with unlawful gains at the expense of their fellow citizens.
    They were allowed to charge whatever they wanted to.
    It is coming up on tax season, and you have paid out your taxes throughout the year. But pretend the IRS agent could come to your house, demand anything they wanted, anything from your bank account, then give the government what was required, and keep the rest. You would not like these type of IRS agents.
    Tax collectors are often paired with sinners through out Matthew. It is not that they only had shady ways of getting money, theirs lives were shady and had all the shady things money could buy. They were sinful people. The worst in society.
    So the pharisees ask Jesus through his disciples, why he identifies with sinners and tax collectors through meals? They say “your teacher” which we can reasonable assume had some level of sarcasm. What kind of teacher who leads his disciples to hang out with sinner?
    The issue for them was inappropriate association. Because this person exibits these qualities, because they live their lives this way, I wont touch them.
    We do this in Christian circles as well. You know the old christian saying “I don’t smoke, drink, or chew, or hang with those who do?”
    This phrase has an underlining problem of thinking that we are above people and will be affected by the sin of others if we stoop to their level.
    Remember that Jesus makes this point clear when he heals the leper. He touches something unclean and is not affected from the uncleanness.
    We as his followers go to the uncleaness, having been cleansed by Christ, and seek to share his healing with others.
    We discussed this a bit on Wednesday night. About how we sometimes have an us vs them mentality. When in reality, we all are the “them” who need Jesus. It isn’t us verses them. It’s all of us needing Jesus and inviting others to see our shared need for Jesus.
    We as Christians have been fear mongered from sharing the Gospel like Jesus did because we like the pharisees are afraid to get a little dirt on our cloths. We put up boundries and lines to make sure we keep the darkness away from the light of Christ we have been given. We put up walls to make sure sin can never get close to us. Jesus tore down all the walls!
    Now I want to be clear about something, this does not mean we neglect practical wisdom in personal situations.
    If you are someone who has struggled with substance abuse in the past, friday night at the bar is probably should not be the main place you make your post for sharing the gospel.
    If you are struggling with lust, late night alone time on your phone will not be the platform where you successfully share the gospel.
    But if Jesus spent time in the darkness, working through problems with people, getting down in the mud with them to pull them out, then we should also. Yet without sin.
    Jesus came to be light in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended not the light. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5. We are meant to be salt and light. Not salt stored up in a salt shaker. Not light hid away from the darkness, but in culture affecting the culture with the gospel!
    Practically, what does this look like? It looks like going to the lost and being willing to sit down and talk them. Not holding them at arms length but pulling them into to embrace them with a hug of the gospel. Yes, to you non-huggers in the room, that one is a little uncomfortable.
    Does this mean we will get burnt and face rejection? Absolutely! But the gospel will also reach the hearts of the ones God is calling.
    To the individual who has a questionable sexual ethic, and maybe it makes us feel icky inside. We ought not be a pharisee to them. What does it look like to be a pharisee? Looking down on them. Reflecting on our status instead seeing them as someone who Jesus would have a meal with. Not keeping them at arms length giving them a gospel tract, but willing to go out to lunch with them. Hear their story. Hear what they are going through, how they got to where they are. Understanding their lifestyle choices, and then pointing them to the Savior who wants to have a relationship with them. You get to display the kindness of a relationship that Christ is inviting them into.
    Jesus responds for the disciples to the pharasees question in verse 12.
    Matthew 9:12 “12 When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.”
    and then verse 13
    Matthew 9:13 “13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.””
    Jesus has not come for the healthy, he came for the sick. Not righteous, but sinners.
    This doesn’t imply that these tax collectors and sinners are Jesus’s focus because they recieved him well or were glad, but because they knew they needed him.
    You might be asking yourself “are there righteous people that Jesus did not need to come and save then?”
    Jesus isn’t dividing humanity up into two groups, those who need him and those who don’t. He knows that all humanity universally needs him.
    We know there is none righteous no not one. It seems like Jesus is throwing a jab at them. Jesus didn’t come for the ones who thing themselves righteous, but the ones who are willing to see their need of rescue. The ones who are honest with their condition. The ones who are willing to assess their true nature and heart. Those are the ones Jesus came for.
    And aren’t you glad for the ones that Jesus came for? Sinners like me...Sinners like you.
    Discipleship is not comfortable, maybe not even respectable. It is for those who society would like to keep at arms length. But the gospel of Jesus is meant to be spread to the ones society doesn’t hold in high esteem.
    Imagine that you walk in to see your primary care phycician, for a yearly check up, and they say “we need to start you on kemo right away.” You would be “no thanks, i like my hair.” But imagine the doctor tells you you they have been reviewing your file and noticed on the last scan that you have stage four cancer. You didn’t answer your phone when they’ve been trying to reach out. The time to start kemo is now least the cancer consume you and you die. You might be okay with some hair loss knowing your life is at stake.
    But the truth of our spiritual condition is we all have a spiritual cancer that is consuming our bodies. The cancer of sin that will cause death. All of us are effected by it. All of us are consumed by it. But Jesus came to be the cure from the cancer of sin and give us life.
    The Pharisees expected one who would crush the sinful and be near to the righteous. But Jesus tells us his mission is to transform sinners and dismiss the self righteous.
    If you are here today and consider yourself a pretty good person, you need to critically assess your heart before God and what Jesus is calling you from.
    Before we can consider ministering to the ones Jesus came for, we need to reflect on how we are one of the ones Jesus came for. Not because we are worthy, not because we were good, not because we were clean, but because we were filthy sinners who had a great need of Jesus to come and save us.
    Jesus addresses this problem of with the Pharisees hearts. It is that they were concerned with sacrfice instead of mercy. They were aligning themselves with the ancient Israel that God judged. Jesus is quoting Hosea 6:6. They knew their Hebrew scripture better than we do today. They would have made this connection.
    In Hosea 6, the Israelites appeared to repent, but it was fake. Saying you are righteous means nothing if you are not willing to consistently change behavior.
    While righteousness might be the goal of discipleship, righteousness like Jesus’s, we do not seek it at the expense of mercy.
    Going back to Hosea, the word that is used for mercy if our favorite Hebrew word that we have talked about before. חֶ֥סֶד meaning loving kindness. Long sufferingness. Unearned faithful love. Mercy that we didn’t deserve. This HSD is what we receive from God, so we ought to show it to others.
    This is a character that God desires to see in his people.
    For the Pharisees, a sinner is a person who has violated the law according to their interpretation. But to Jesus, the true actual sinner is any person who remains opposed to God’s will.
    What about us, are we stuck in judging people by our own interpretation, or do we long to see mercy for the ones God has called us to bring salvation to?

    III. Reorder Where He Wants Our Hearts v14-15

    Next, regarding how being a disciple of Jesus disrupts and restores our lives, we reorder where he wants our hearts. Look at verses 14-15.
    Jesus gets confronted by another group of people. What’s fun is that he is first confronted because he’s eating, then he is confronted for not fasting. He’s confronted by religious leaders, then his own cousin’s followers. Difficult times.
    The disciples of John the Baptist want to know why Jesus doesn’t fast like they and the pharisees fast. To be clear, fasting is not perscribed in the Old Testament except for the Day of Atonement, but fasting seems to be a gererally good religious practice. And even from the sermon on the mount, it is something that Jesus expects his followers to do. Again, not commanded, but expected.
    But the religious leaders have mandated fasts twice a week for the Jews. But Jesus isn’t practicing them. Fasting would have been seen as a way of gaining merit or favor with God.
    Jesus tells them why fast if i’m with you?
    Jesus is being explicit that he is the Messiah that they were waiting for. If the point of these religious observances was to be closer relationally with the divine, they have the divine now living with them.
    John the Baptist’s disciples would have been familiar with this example as John told his disciples previously that Jesus was the groom, and he was the best man in John 3.
    Imagine you are the in the wedding party, and we all know the best part of the wedding is the food and the cake right? You as part of the wedding party have endured this entire thing, you have seen your friend or loved one married, it’s time to celebrate! And they bring you food and you say “ah, my intermitted fast started this morning.” People would be looking at you like “really? Now?” Wrong place wrong time! Celebrate with us a little would you? It is the time of celebration! Your fast can start tonight after the festivities and everyone is gone.
    Jesus is saying that religious practices are good, but they were not at that time, and especially if they are done with the wrong heart or if they are missing the point.
    Ritual practices do not automatically assure spiritual growth. They can be good for us, but they can also hinder spiritual growth if they become more important that seeking after God.
    I was listening to a podcast this week about the spiritual disciplines or ritual practices of Christianity. And they spoke very possitively about it. But we have to be careful that these practices don’t become the focus themselves, but rather are the means by which we draw closer to the Savior.
    Is fasting today a good practice? Yes! if it draws your heart closer to the father.
    Is your prayer good? Yes, if it is done with your heart and seeking the will of the father.
    Is it good to be in the Bible? Yes, if it means you are seeking to know and worship God and not seeking knowledge for knowledges sake.

    IV. Transform to How He Gives New Life v16-17

    Last today, we are find our lives disrupted and restored in the gospel through the way Jesus transforms us to give us new life. Transform to How he gives New Life.
    We see this in the odd illustrations that are distant from using verses 16-17.
    Old clothing isn’t meant to be attached to new clothing, and don’t put new wine in old wineskins. What are you talking about Jesus?
    Lets see what these mean. The first one is a bit easier for us. Something that must be done in our house. Guess what part of kids clothing is most likely to wear out? The knees. All of our kids can run through some pants. I feel like we are freequently buying cloths to cover legs. Shirts can last forever. But jeans? No way. And boys are particularly hard on clothing. Most of Avenleigh’s cloths that she wore is currently being worn by Adyline. But Leland? Leland is a different animal. I’m not sure if Lincoln will get any hamidowns from Leland. Leland plays hard. And we were going through so many pants with him that Erika recently bought these iron on patches. They were fantastic! Leland was able to keep sliding and walking on his knees! But then even these enforced patches could not withstand Lelands exertion. Eventually, they wore out. And do you want to know where they ripped? Right where the old clothing attached to the new clothing.
    New clothing is not meant to attach to old clothing.
    Now the wineskin issue. What they would do is take the skin of an animal, scrape it, tan it, sew it up, and then put new wine into it, with the hair side out to avoid it affecting the flavor.
    But after one use, because of the expanding of the fermenting wine, the animal sack would become brittle and dried out. If you attempted to reuse the wineskins, it would most likely burst the animal skins as they could not contain the fermenting of new wine.
    These examples are old. You might say the app doesn’t need another patch, no update will fix this app. The problems with this app are unresolvable and not meeting what we need and our problems. i’m going to start using a new app that was created just for the problem I have.
    What’s the point Jesus?
    Jesus is doing something new. He didn’t come to fix old worn out cloths. Or bring some new fresh wine to a tried out bag of animal skin. Jesus came to do something new. The old thing is passing away, Jesus has come to do something new.
    Jesus’s form of how we worship and know God will not be contained in Judaism. While Judaism is the foundation for Jesus’s ministry and teaching, the system of religious practices could not contain or hold what Jesus was doing.
    How does this apply to us?
    Jesus is not an add on to everything else we have going on in our lives. When we think of how Christ comes to disrupt and restore our life, disruption is part of it. He is radically changing who we are. He is not a checkbox on a sunday morning. Following Jesus looks like him removing our old life, and starting something new.
    2 Corinthians 5:17–18 NET 2nd ed.
    17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come! 18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
    2 Corinthians 5:21 NET 2nd ed.
    21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
    Transformed to become the righteousness of God. This is what Jesus has done. He didn’t come for the righteous, he came for the sinners, to bring us to the righteousness of God.

    Beyond the Walls

    Those of you who might not yet believe Jesus, or are unsure. Let me encourage you today. It is good for us as a people to be honest with the state of our own spiritual condition. Especially and an age where culture lies to us, telling us to find the light or the inner good within us. If we are honest with ourselves, and we see ourselves as God in his word sees us, not how we subjectively see ourselves, we are sinners. And may I even say that we are great sinners. Matthew, the tax collector, and us are in the same boat.
    But the good news of the gospel you is that The guilt and the shame that you feel unworthy by, like a stained and filthy rag, Jesus is looking at you and saying “That’s what I have come for.”
    Jesus who knew no sin, came to take on all of your sin, died on the cross, took your punishment for you, and gave you his righteousness. Righteousness you could not earn or own by your self.
    The word that Jesus uses for sinners in our text is a word meaning invite. Invite. Jesus is inviting you to join him today in new life. Will you choose to follow him into the disrruption and the restoration of your life?
    Believers here today, We might ask why tax collectors? Matthew is reminding us that we don’t know who God will bring to him through you. God might want to use you to bring all kinds of people to himself. Even the ones who you think are beyond saving.
    Church, We don’t just love support and minister to the ones who we agree with and love. We love and support and minister to the ones who don’t agree with us.
    Regarding the political situation right now.
    The illegal that lives in this country,
    and the ICE agent who you believe deserves no mercy.
    The protestors who you feel are insane,
    the right wingers who you believe to be appauling.
    See all of them as someone who God might use you to reach with the Gospel. The person you despise, guess what, Jesus would have a meal with them. Would you?
    Lets respond to the text together today.
    Father, help me to reorder what my heart longs for.
    Jesus, help me to practically care for the lost like you did.
    Spirit, transform me to the greater righteousness of God.

      • Numbers 15:39ESV

      • Zechariah 8:20–23ESV

      • Isaiah 35:5–6ESV

  • Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Beginning To End)
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