19: The Messiah No One Expected (Mt 9:1-17)

Anybody recognize this screen from back in the day? What did it mean? It meant the station you were looking for wasn’t broadcasting what you were expecting to see - something was wrong.

What would you do then? You would turn the channel to something you WANTED to see, instead of something you didn’t want to see.

So, too, Jesus was The Messiah No One Expected, and many people changed the channel rather than wait to see the amazing things that were about to happen through Him.

PRAY Lord Jesus, help us SEE who you really are and then join you in the journey of bringing others to meet You. Amen.

We pick up where we left off 3 weeks ago, as Jesus is leaving the Gaderenes, where Jesus cast the demons into the herd of pigs.

Matthew 9:1 (NIV)

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.

His own town is referring to Capernaum, where Peter’s house was - the place where Jesus made His home base for ministry around the Sea of Galilee.

And then Matthew gives us the cliff notes version of a story told by Mark and Luke as well (Mk 2:3-12; Lk 5:18-26).

Matthew 9:2a (NIV)

Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man...

It’s obvious that these men brought their paralyzed friend to ask Jesus to heal him. Mark & Luke give us more detail and tell us that they couldn’t get their friend to Jesus through the door because there were so many people crammed into the home. So…they went to the roof, removed part of it, and lowered him down to where Jesus was.

These faithful friends did all this difficult work because they expected Jesus to heal him. Jesus saw their faith. They really BELIEVED that Jesus could heal this man!

They HEARD about and maybe even SAW Jesus heal a leper, cast out demons, healed fevers & various other diseases - including paralyzed people walking again (Mt 4:24; 8:6)!

And now they watch what Jesus will do as they lower their friend a step or 2 of his healing hands.

It was a dramatic moment, and all eyes shifted to Jesus to see what He would do.

Matthew 9:2b (NIV)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

WHAT?!! THAT’S not why these guys brought him! These men wanted their paralyzed friend to walk again. All this effort…for THAT!? Maybe Jesus COULDN’T heal this one. Maybe that’s why He responds with kind words, “son, your sins are forgiven.”

To many watching, this would have been quite a let-down.

But that’s NOT what the religious leaders in the front row were thinking!

Matthew 9:2b–3 (NIV)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

The religious leaders consider what Jesus says to be blasphemy - a word that means “to speak harm.” Blasphemy is an attitude of disrespect…directed against the character of God. Sometimes people would 1) speak evil about God or even 2) claim to be God.

In this case it seems that they rightly understood that Jesus was claiming equality with God as Mark and Luke note what the teachers of the law were saying to one another...

Mark 2:7b (NIV)

...Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

We have taught on this story before, so you might remember being asked this question - ARE THEY RIGHT? Can God alone forgive sin?

Is that TRUE? Can ONLY GOD forgive sins? Yes and no.

You see, WE can forgive others for their sins against US. But we CAN’T forgive their sin against God. And THIS is what Jesus claimed, to have authority to forgive sins on behalf of God.

But the Pharisees had a system - a Biblical system. And THIS wasn’t it.

Want God’s forgiveness? You must come to the Temple the Day of Atonement. Bring your animal sacrifices that will die as an offering for your sin…Then you come back to do the same thing next year…and the year after that…and the year after that. THAT’S how God forgives sin. They would say that God doesn’t forgive sin through some Renegade Rabbi who can do circus tricks!

If only God can forgive sin, and Jesus claims to forgive sin, then He is claiming to have the authority of God..and this is blasphemy - a most serious accusation, since the Scriptural punishment for blaspheming was death by stoning.

Leviticus 24:15–16 (LSB)

And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. ‘Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

This isn’t the only time Jesus is accused of blasphemy.

The people picked up stones to Jesus several times after this (Jn 8:58-59; 10:31-33). In fact, the accusation of blaspheming is what condemned Him to the cross (Mt 26:65).

Matthew 9:4–5 (NIV)

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Which is easier to say?

It’s easier to SAY ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ It’s easier to SAY it cause no one can SEE it.

But if you were to SAY ‘Get up and walk’ then the audience WOULD see whether it happened or not.

But what if Jesus really COULD forgive sin? Wouldn’t THAT be The Greatest Miracle of All? Think about it. Let’s say Jesus heals this man - a great miracle, but the guy dies 20 years later. He walked for 20 years but what is 20 years of health compared to eternity in hell? From THAT perspective, The Greatest Miracle of All would be NOT be physical healing.

The Greatest Miracle of All is 4 words: You’re Sins Are Forgiven!

I wonder what the paralyzed guy thought at this point. Had he overlooked his ULTIMATE need, because he was so focused on his immediate need? Did he think, “But what about healing my body?”

How about YOU and me?

We might be focused on what we consider an immediate need: health, wealth, successful relationships & successful business, popularity, & authority. But what if we have ALL THAT…and die without seeking the Greatest Miracle of All - our ULTIMATE need…hearing those 4 precious words: ’Your sins are forgiven’

Matthew 9:6–8 (NIV)

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

NO WONDER! You saw The Greatest Miracle of All - more than a paralyzed guy walk. You saw Jesus speak the most precious 4 words anyone could hear…

You’re Sins Are Forgiven!

Followers of Jesus. What are WE to do with this?

FIRST, thank Jesus that WE have experienced The Greatest Miracle of All! Don’t take it for granted.

SECOND, as we go into the community to be the hands, feet, & voice of Jesus - let’s not meet the immediate need - and fail to address the ULTIMATE need. May we be ‘whatever it takes’ kind of friends who want our friends to hear the 4 precious words: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ May we pray for their salvation. May we tell them how Jesus offers forgiveness.

And the next scene in Matthew introduces..himself!

Matthew 9:9 (NIV)

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

This choice is super strange. Rabbis choosing their disciples would pick good students who obeyed the Scriptural laws.

Matthew is a tax collector, a Jewish traitor - collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans and likely cheating his own people for his own gain. He would not have been welcomed into the Jewish synagogue and was essentially a well-to-do social outcast.

Matthew was THAT GUY - the last one you think would follow Jesus. He worked around Capernaum & since Jesus was living there, Matthew had certainly heard the stories of what Jesus had done around town. It’s possible that Matthew had even gone to hear Jesus teach before. Matthew doesn’t give us any of that information. He cuts right to the chase.

The tax collector is going about his daily business, cheating people & making mucho denarius - when Jesus steps up to his tax booth. Notice this: Matthew wasn’t pursuing Jesus…instead - Jesus was pursuing Matthew!

And it was at this simple set-up just off the main road - where farmers, merchants, and caravans passed - that Jesus calls THAT GUY to follow Him and be His disciple.

You’ll remember that tax collectors came to be baptized by John the Baptist. When they asked what God wanted them to change, John told them, ““Don’t collect any more than you are required to” (Luke 3:12-13).

In other words, John told them to be HONEST.

But when Jesus spoke to Matthew, He told Matthew to be DONE.

Follow me was more than a figurative phrase that we might use, ”Yes, I follow Jesus.” Matthew literally got up, Luke’s gospel adds left everything and followed him.

Where Jesus goes, Matthew would go. If Matthew was a lower level tax collector as many commentators note, as Matthew left his boss would have quickly hired someone to replace him. Matthew quit his lucrative job to follow Jesus.

Matthew 9:10 (NIV)

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.

Luke notes that this was a “great banquet for Jesus” (Lk 5:29).

I LOVE this! Levi/Matthew threw a dinner party…for Jesus! He invited other friends to hang out with Jesus in his home.

WHY? Matthew wanted them to experience what he had experienced...

The Greatest Miracle of All is 4 words: You’re Sins Are Forgiven!

The Oh that we would use our homes the same way! May our homes be a place where Jesus is honored and people are welcomed! Sadly, many American Christians view their homes as a place of personal comfort rather than a tool to honor the King. May we use our homes to welcome brothers & sisters…and invite a sinner to dinner…like Matthew did.

In fact, Matthew invited many tax collectors and sinners to dinner. Most Jews wouldn’t want to be ANYWHERE NEAR this motley crew, but Jesus accepted the invitation and took his disciples with Him. Following oriental custom of the day, they would have reclined on a couch or a floor full of pillows as they ate & talked together for a long time.

Matthew 9:10–11 (NIV)

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

When the Pharisees became aware that Jesus was there, they wondered why. They would never have contaminated themselves entering a sinner’s home. So they either waited outside until the disciples of Jesus came out or filed their complaint days later, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

I have 2 Questions about their complaint:

First, What’s the BIG DEAL? Why is it ‘wrong’ to have dinner with a sinner?

“In their society table fellowship implied mutual acceptance.” In other words, many understood that eating with another person communicated that you agreed with them. But couldn’t Jesus be a friend of sinners & yet NOT be a friend of SIN?

Second question: Why did they complain to the disciples of Jesus, rather than to Him? Maybe Jesus wasn’t available - maybe He is inside saying His goodbyes. Or maybe the Pharisees were looking for the perfect opportunity pick on the freshmen disciples - fishermen and a tax collector - instead of facing Jesus Himself. Cowards!

But somehow the question to the disciples made it to the ears of Jesus.

Matthew 9:12–13 (NIV)

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus compares Himself to a doctor who comes to heal the sick. He will do MUCH MORE than heal physical disease & physical problems. Jesus will give them the greatest miracle of all.

His life & death will make the way for sinners to hear the most 4 beautiful words, “Your Sins Are Forgiven!”

You know who DOESN’T go to the doctor? People who aren’t sick…or people who refuse to recognize they are sick.

They have no need of a doctor. Since these Pharisees didn’t view themselves as being sick…they had NO NEED of a doctor - especially if that was Jesus. But the tax collectors at Matthew’s house were very sick. Even the Pharisees believed that.

So the argument in question form might sound like this: “What exactly do you expect a doctor to DO? Stay away from sick people?”

The Pharisees act like Jesus is there to applaud their sickness, but Jesus is there…to help them get well. He is a Friend of Sinners, but not a friend of sin.

Jesus loves us right where we’re at, but He loves us too much to leave us there!

You want to know the heartbeat of GOD? Look to Jesus - God in skin!

Then Jesus points them back the Scriptures from Hosea 6:6.

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’

In quoting this, Jesus then shows the difference between HIM and THEM

He demonstrates the MERCIFUL LOVE OF GOD caring for people far from God,

while they are only concerned checking the boxes of the sacrificial system, while people around them go to hell.

Are WE like that? Who are we going out of the way to care for, share with, and invest time in?

It’s a lot more comfortable to stay with OUR PEOPLE rather than reach out like Jesus did…and like He trained His disciples to do.

The great missionary C. T. Studd (what a great name!) once wrote, “Some want to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” [1]

We’ve got to go tells others about...

The Greatest Miracle of All is 4 words: You’re Sins Are Forgiven!

Jesus the Messiah the Pharisees didn’t expect. But there were others that didn’t expect Him in this way either.

Matthew 9:14–15 (NIV)

Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

The only fast prescribed in the Scriptures was on Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement [2], as people came clean from their sin and blood was spilt on their behalf, to atone for their sin.

During the lifetime of Jesus on earth, many Jews fasted every Monday and Thursday. [3] But Jesus’ disciples didn’t.

They will fast in the future, but not right now. WHY NOT?

The bridegroom - Jesus - is here and it’s time to celebrate! When He leaves, they will find time to fast, but right now was time to celebrate that the groom is in the room!

Imagine going to the 7 days of wedding celebration and FASTING! Nope! The disciples of Jesus were fasting from fasting.

I wonder if John’s disciples had asked HIM about this. After all, John referred to himself as “the best man” and Jesus as “the bridegroom” who made John’s joy complete (John 3:29).

Then Jesus uses 2 more illustrations they would have understood.

Matthew 9:16–17 (NIV)

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.”

Back in MY DAY, we didn’t buy messed on jeans with holes in them.

We made those holes ourselves and momma wasn’t too happy when she had to put a patch on them. The people in Jesus’ day didn’t have jeans, but most people didn’t have a closet full of clothing. When they got a hole, you patched them - but you better use an old patch on an old garment, or the new patch would shrink up over time and washing and tear the garment even worse.

So too, Jesus continues with a similar illustration.

Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Wineskins were made from animal skin that would stretch by the gases produced as the new wine fermented. To pour new wine into old wineskins would result in a skins that burst and wine that is lost.

Here’s the point.

Jesus is not trying to patch up a messed up religious system, a system that - like old wineskins - was not willing to stretch and grow. Jesus had come to fulfill the Old Covenant and pour the New Covenant into new wineskins - people who were willing to trust, grow, and obey Him.

Jesus isn’t calling old garment religious leaders & their disciples who valued following man-made traditions over God-breathed truths, offering sacrifices without showing mercy.

Jesus is calling tax collectors & fisherman to him - brand new garments/new wine skins - to carry His message to others.

So, we see that Jesus FORGIVES SIN, calls SINNERS to Him rather than stiff-arming them and keeping us at a distance.

Jesus is the Messiah no one expected, but He is the Savior and King that we all need.

He is the Messiah who did all kinds of miracles...

The Greatest Miracle of All is 4 words: You’re Sins Are Forgiven!

Followers of Jesus should appreciate what the Lord Jesus has done for us. We ARE FORGIVEN!

We can’t keep that to ourselves. We must go care for and share with others.

And if you’re not yet a follower of Jesus, can I plead with you to trust Him with your life. If you’re still breathing, there’s still HOPE!

Years ago my firstborn did something he thought would get him in a bunch of trouble. So, rather than tell us the truth, he lied to us. After some investigative work it became obvious we weren’t getting the whole truth. When I pressed for the truth and demonstrated I knew he was lying, my son would not submit and get honest.

Several minutes later he approached and said, “I’m sorry.”

I asked, “Sorry for what?”

He responded, “I sorry I lied to you.”

Then, as we have taught our kids, he asked, “Will you forgive me?”

I pulled him to me and whispered, “I forgave you before you asked.” You see, I was WANTING and WILLING to forgive him before he even approached to confess his sin.

I look forward to the day that he shows MERCY to my grandchild. That mercy wasn’t just for HIM! And I showed him mercy because…the Lord Jesus showed mercy to me!

May we take the message of Jesus to the next generation. May we take the message of Jesus to the “Matthews” in our culture.

PRAY & SHARE a couple of Really Cool Things

Share about $5k given to Alaska Mission - as most of you know, Kokraine Hills Bible Camp was severely impacted by the Yukon River ice that carried away a greenhouse, flooded our missionary friend’s home, destroyed the HUGE basketball court made of wood, etc.

Our team is returning from serving there - rebuilding much of what has been destroyed (see Daniel Adams working so hard!)

Share about Yasmin and ministry - 2 videos & PIC of beaten brother (NAME: Vicky (Husband), Asifa (wife), Robinson (son) and Monica (daughter)

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C. T. Studd, quoted in William Barclay, Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, repr. 2003), p. 62.

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 223–224.

Ibid.

Discussion Questions

Read Matthew 9:2-8. What surprised or challenged you most from this part of the passage? Spend some time here digging down deep; things to consider: Jesus forgiving sin, blasphemy?, ‘whatever it takes’ compassion of friends, & The Greatest Miracle of All.

What is the danger of meeting an immediate need but never addressing the ultimate need? How can meeting an immediate need help to be able to address one’s ultimate need? Do you know of anyone’s immediate need that we can meet as a family/group?

Read Matthew 9:9-13. Why was Jesus choosing Matthew as a disciple so unexpected? What’s the difference between how Jesus and Pharisees dealt with sinners? Which are YOU more like and what changes might you need to make?

How was Jesus a friend to sinners without being a friend to sin? What’s the danger of doing one or the other? How can caring for sinners without condoning sin lead to making a spiritual impact in someone’s life?

What challenged or encouraged you most from today’s teaching?

Share prayer needs and pray for one another.