Eating With Sinners

Introduction

How many of you know at least one person who is not a follower of Jesus?

How many of you know of at least one person that you might say has a lifestyle that is at odds with the Christian lifestyle?

Jesus has returned back to his hometown, Capernaum.

Mk 2 - Jesus is teaching in a house and people bring him their friend who is paralyzed

No room to bring him in so they dig a hole in the roof and lower their friend down

Jesus sees their faith and forgives the man’s sin

Jesus is confronted by the scribes

Jesus heals the paralytic

Matthew 9:9–13 (ESV) 9 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 followed him.

“man called Matthew”

Remember who the author is - Matthew is writing his own story about how he became a follower of Jesus.

What’s your story? How would you write your story about how Jesus met you and you followed him?

“Tax booth”

Tax collectors in First Century Palestine were about as well-liked as they are in 21st century America.

While Matthew was likely more of a customs tax collector than a direct tax collector.

Throughout NT and other Jewish writings, tax collectors are written on the same line as sinner and thieves

They were considered religious outcasts

patriotic traitors

Know anyone like this?

“Follow me”

This is discipleship - following Jesus

The call to discipleship is not about church attendance, etc.

It is about

It is learning about Jesus and living like Jesus.

Luke tells us Matthew left everything

Luke 5.28

28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

Didn’t give up everything begrudgingly - he invited Jesus over to his house and made a feast for Jesus - throwing a party for him.

Luke 5.29

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.

10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

Imagine the scene:

Matthew gets saved and throws a dinner party - with the friends he knew - the marginalized and the sinner.

There could have been swearing, maybe some drunks or women dressed provocatively. As tax collectors in partnership with Rome, maybe they shared their progressive political ideas and criticized the zealots. Maybe they cracked jokes about the religious leaders and mocked the church-goers.

And there is Jesus.

11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

-I love how they don’t ask Jesus, but his disciples.

they ask why Jesus is eating with sinners

To eat a meal with someone suggested a close relationship

Surely Jesus wouldn’t

Abstain from the every appearance of evil meant avoid people and places known for sin lest someone suspect you are a sinner, too.

But this isn’t the heart of Jesus.

If Jesus intended to stay physically distant from sin and sinners there would have been no Christmas Day.

Because it is “while we were still sinners” that Jesus came and died for us.

12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

“well have no need of a physician”

by this reasoning, where should the doctor focus her time, energy, and resources in order to be an effective doctor?

To apply the analogy, (and recognizing that we are not Jesus but we follow his example) where then should the Christian focus her time, energy, and resources in order to be an effective Christian? with the lost.

The physician is careful not to become ill or they lose their effectiveness, so too, the Christian must not be led into sin by the sinners or they will lose their effectiveness

ILLUST - Guy from ATC who claimed Jesus but lived like a sinner. He actually hurt my witness

Jesus then tells the Pharisees to go and learn Hosea 6 :6

Hosea 6:6 ESV

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Is sacrifice wrong? NO. But to have a heart that worships God your heart must beat as God’s — for the lost.

In today’s terms — God does not want us to worship him and criticize the lost

We can’t sing for Jesus and avoid the sinner

How many people on their way to hell did we drive past to come to church and sing of heaven?

Jesus passed on from there

Jesus could have just stayed with those who wanted to listen to him who had great faith, and let them bring him those who need healing 

Jesus went outside the four walls of the house and found a sinner!

The purpose of the Church is not to insulate Christians from the world; instead, the Church is the instrument through which God infiltrates the world!

**Are you willing to go and find sinners to call them to Jesus?

Jesus went and found those who needed him — He stayed on mission. 

- A physician’s mission is to heal - isn’t it ironic that Jesus used this terminology when the left the house where he had physically healed someone and met with someone who physically lacked nothing? It is this person that Jesus said was sick!

He called Matthew while Matthew was in the midst of his daily life at the tax booth. Matthew was at work when Jesus found him.

Jesus didn’t need a 5-day evangelistic crusade - he needed an everyday gospel motivation!

Who do you see everyday that needs to know the gospel? Why do you think you are there?

We are not meant to simply exist next to the lost as we live our lives; We exist to call the lost to follow Jesus and find new life!

ILLUST - my time at Masano’s

**Jesus was on mission everyday and in every way - are you?

How can you be on mission everyday and in every way?

Jesus saw a man

Don’t want to read too much into this, but I don’t think this was by accident. 

Jesus saw a man - These are Matthew’s words!!

He didn’t say Jesus saw a sinner - that’s what the pharisees saw. 

Jesus knew Matthew was a sinner - Jesus knew every sin. Jesus saw a man.

How do you view the drug addict you see in the middle of South Bend, the guy at work who cheats on his wife and 

Quite honestly, if we see people as sinners should that not motivate us all the more to take the gospel to them?!

Who more than sinners need a Savior?! Who better than the saved to introduce them to Him?!

Jesus ate with Matthew and the sinners

Jesus ate with sinners because they were people. The Pharisees avoided those people because they were sinners. 

Jesus looked past the external to form a relationship. The Pharisees avoided the relationship because they were focused on the external. 

In Matthew 11 Jesus will be called a “friend of sinners” - TRUE

It is clear Jesus was a friend of sinners - it is also clear he was NOT a sinner!

**Jesus saw a person needing a Savior not a sinner to avoid?

**Do you see people needing a Savior, or sinners to avoid?

Jesus ate with sinners.

Can you be called a friend of sinners? 

Are you close enough to someone far from Jesus that you can share a meal and Jesus with them?

Jesus was on a mission to share a meal with the marginal.

I wanted to come up with one more part - “for God’s glory” - true

so they could be saved.

But it didn’t fit - not because it didn’t start with an “m” but because the story doesn’t tell us that “they all walked down the aisle and said the sinner’s prayer”

We know Matthew followed Jesus but what about the rest?

Everyone said they knew of someone who does not know Jesus.

In what ways have you become compromised at work or with your group of friends that don’t know Jesus such that it would be unnatural for you to talk about Jesus?

What do you need to confess and change so you can led sinners from sin and not fall into it yourself?

Do we care about God’s Plan of Redemption as much as we care about God’s plan “for me?”

What if we became a church concerned not only to bring our sacrifices but also to eat with sinners?

What if you went from here and “saw a man” or “saw a woman” not only as the sinner they are but for the Savior they need?

Will you commit to talk with them?