JESUS IS CALLING

Introduction

{Matthew 9}

I grew up in the day and age where people didn’t have their own individual cell phones to reach the exact person you want. You had one phone in the house for everybody to use. So, if someone wanted to get a hold of you they’d have to call the house phone and ask for you, and your parents had to yell out to tell you about the call. Then you’d have to go to where the phone was because it was connected to a cord. There are obviously a lot of advantages to individual cell phones, because you’re able to get the exact person you want at that time to get them the message without a lot of middlemen in your way.

And I liken that to the fact that for each individual, Jesus is giving you a call. He isn’t calling the general house phone for just anybody to answer. He is calling you—on your direct line. Why is Jesus calling you? As we learn in today’s passage Jesus calls people out of the world to a higher purpose. And I want to lead us to answer that call.

Matthew 9:9–13 LSB

9 And as Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he stood up and followed Him. 10 Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

{pray}

To give us some context, Jesus is back in Capernaum which was His base of operations for a time. Jesus had done much ministry there—healings, casting out of demons, and other miracles. He was well known in this town, so His reputation preceded Him. Matthew was a Jew who was a tax collector, working for the Roman Empire. He had probably heard about what Jesus was doing, and he may have witnessed some things himself.

But then, while he was at work, Jesus approached Matthew and gives him the call. We don’t know what may have prepared Matthew’s heart, but he readily answered. And the interactions that Jesus has here tells us about our own call out of the world for something greater. What does this passage tell us about the call? First, that we are to:

1) Commit to the purpose of the call

When people called my house as a kid, there was a reason why they called. They wanted me to come over to play. They wanted to trade baseball cards. They had a question about homework. Kids don’t call just to call, there’s a purpose for it.

What was the purpose for which Jesus called Matthew? It is the same purpose to which He calls us. Jesus said to him and says to us: FOLLOW ME. When Jesus says to follow He doesn’t mean to just follow behind Jesus, merely being led to the next destination.

Jesus was issuing an invitation for Matthew to abandon his entire way of life and enter into a radically different existence—a new life purpose. It is a call to discipleship. Discipleship in this context was not merely reading a book and discussing it. This was a call to observe what it was that Jesus did and then join Jesus in doing what He did. This is the higher purpose.

Yes, Matthew and the others literally followed Jesus around, but it was for them to learn from Jesus’ teachings and life so that they would be prepared to do the same as He did. This took personal commitment and it came at a cost, but the eternal rewards outmatched any so-called sacrifice.

And Jesus gives the same call to all. He says to you and me and everybody: FOLLOW ME. Now, that doesn’t mean for everybody to quit their jobs and go off into some far land. That might be the purpose for some but not for all. What it does mean is that from within your context you learn from Jesus and you live like Jesus.

And therein lies the real edge of it all. Jesus said: follow ME. He didn’t say to follow a religious system. He didn’t say to follow a life philosophy. He definitely didn’t say to follow your heart or your dreams or your opinions or your feelings. He said: follow ME. Follow Jesus.

Learn from Jesus and live like Jesus, even if it means letting go of your personal opinions...even if it is at the cost of your personal dreams...even if you don’t feel like it, don’t let your feelings dictate your direction: follow Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that get things backwards. They think that they call Jesus, and then Jesus is supposed to follow them. Jesus, you give me heaven and I want you to give me a comfortable life too. Jesus, not only do I want eternal life, I want you to make all my plans come to fruition. I’ve got a lot of ideas Jesus, and I want you to come alongside and see them through. That’s not how it works. Jesus is the one that drives the agenda and our way of thinking and the subsequent lifestyle. Jesus is the master and leader and He is the example. We learn from Jesus and we live like Jesus.

But just because there is a commitment and a cost doesn’t mean that we lost out in any way. In fact, when you follow Jesus you actually fulfill what you have been created to do all along. When you follow Jesus, you find a meaning and purpose that transcends any worldly plan or pleasure you could ever dream up.

Imagine if on their wedding day, a groom stands at the altar and says in his vows to his bride, “I will follow you...but I’m keeping my old apartment, my old girlfriend’s number, and my old lifestyle.” That would be absurd. Marriage is a calling to something greater—it requires one to leave in order cleave.

The "Follow me" of Jesus to Matthew is a call to something greater. Matthew was engaged in his everyday, lucrative work. When Jesus' call sounded, it wasn't a gentle suggestion; it was an authoritative summons that demanded an immediate and complete break from his current activities. It meant dropping his ledger, leaving his booth, and committing fully to a new mission.

You might say that you believe in Jesus, but my question to you is: ARE YOU FOLLOWING JESUS? Are you learning from Him and living like Him? That’s the purpose. And then the next lesson that we learn from this passage is to:

2) Appreciate the breadth of the call

What is so amazing about the call of Jesus is who it’s given to, because Jesus doesn’t call just a certain class of people that have a certain intelligence or a certain social status or a certain economic standing or a certain ethical background. Jesus calls everybody, including those who we might consider the least of these. And we need to remember and appreciate that because that means we can’t exclude anybody from the calling and we can’t exclude ourselves from the calling either. What do I mean?

Well, let’s first consider Matthew himself. Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were deeply despised by their fellow Jews for several reasons. First, they were considered traitors to their people because they collaborated with the dreaded Romans. They were through to be sell-outs to the occupying forces. They gave aid to the enemies of the people.

But they were also hated because they were corrupt—exploiting the people. Tax collectors made their profit from what they could extort from the people. Rome had their rate, but then the tax collectors would charge extra to pad their own pockets. These were despised people, considered unclean and barely human.

But here was Jesus, calling one of these dreaded people to follow Him—calling him to discipleship and even making him one of the twelve apostles. In polite society or cultural convention, this probably would have tanked His ministry in the eyes of the religious leaders and their followers.

But if that weren’t bad enough, Matthew invites Jesus and His disciples over to his house for dinner, and invites his friends to join them. Since the “good Jewish folks” would never befriend a tax collector, who would have been friends with Matthew? His friends were other people that were shunned by the religious elite. It says that tax collectors and sinners came and they dined with Jesus.

When it says that Jesus reclined at the table, not only is it talking about their physical posture (leaning on your elbow at a low table), but it was talking about the social importance of what was happening. Meals in Jewish culture were a social event. You were fellowshipping and sharing life with these people as much as you were sharing food. You were getting intimate with the people that you reclined with.

And here was Jesus being social with, fellowshipping with, getting intimate with sinners—or what we might call the dregs of society. Jesus went against every cultural propriety that there was. Why? Because Jesus came to call everybody to Himself, even those that polite society cast to the wayside.

And that means a few things for us. First, it means that no matter who you are or what you have done, Jesus is calling you. There are people who think that they’ve done too much bad stuff for Jesus to accept them and save them. But Jesus says right here that He has come to call sinners to Himself. And everybody is a sinner. We may all sin in different ways, but all of our sin separated us from God. We all need Jesus. But you say: Al, you don’t know what I’ve done in the past. We all have a past. It doesn’t matter what your past or present is, Jesus wants to change your future.

But then there’s the other side that thinks that they are just fine the way they are, and they look down on those who aren’t like them. Pictured from our passage, there’s the Pharisees who think that they’re own righteousness is enough, so they don’t think that they need a physician...they don’t think they need a Savior...they don’t think that they need Jesus. If that’s you, you too are wrong. You are no different from the other sinners. And Jesus is also calling you to follow Him.

And that is the amazing breadth of the call of Jesus. Jesus is calling the sinner and the self-righteous. Jesus is calling the tax collector and the Pharisee, and everybody in between.

There was a man serving multiple life sentences for murders and years of other unimaginable evil. Society had written him off completely. Then one day he heard about a King who eats with murderers and traitors. Against all logic, that King said to him, ‘Follow Me.’

That man was serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. After his conversion in prison, he was baptized and expressed faith in Christ. We not be able to know for sure, but he claimed to answer the call. The same Jesus who called Matthew the tax cheat calls the worst of the worst today. No past is too dark.

If Jesus can call a man like that to follow Him, He can call anyone in this room. That is the breadth of the calling. And that leads us to our final lesson, where we are invited to:

3) Unite in extending the call

Part of accepting the call to follow Jesus is to then turn around and go out and extend that call to others. If we have accepted the call, we are now tools in the hand of the Master to go out and share. That’s what Matthew did, right? He got all His friends together so they could hear from Jesus and respond like he did.

We can’t be like the Pharisees. They saw Jesus getting friendly with sinners and didn’t like it. They wouldn’t say it to Jesus’ face, but they went to the disciples, maybe trying to sow discord, and ask why Jesus is eating with sinners. Jesus overheard and answered them. Quoting from Hosea He remind them that God desires compassion and mercy, not only sacrifice. Jesus wasn’t belittling the sacrificial system, but He was saying that external religious devotion without having a heart for God or what is important to God is mere hypocrisy.

And God has a heart for the sinner. Jesus reminded them that the sick need a physician—and sinners need a Savior. Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sin of sinners so they could be free to follow Him. Jesus rose from the dead to let the world know that He defeated sin and death, and those who follow Him would have eternal life.

And for those of us who have answered the call, who have tasted the freedom of salvation, we are now the ones who go out and extend the call to everybody—even those that self-righteous religious folks try to ignore. We let them know that Jesus died for them and is calling them to follow.

It should be noted that Jesus may have dined with the sinners, but He didn’t sin with the sinners. Jesus reclined with the sinners, but He didn’t approve of the sin. He called the sinner to something better, to something higher, to something eternal. He called them to spiritual healing by the Great Physician.

And we do the same. We have to walk a fine line of reaching out to people and building relationships with people without coming across as approving the sin. We don’t want to shun people like the Pharisees, but neither do we want to encourage unholy behaviors or situations.

So, for example, I wouldn’t go to a same-sex wedding because that is not holy or right in God’s eyes, and I don’t want to be seen as approving what God disapproves. But if someone in the LGBTQ community wanted to meet for coffee and talk about life and it allows me to extend the call to follow Jesus, absolutely I’d meet them for coffee. If it means inviting my LGBTQ neighbor over for dinner to give an opportunity to extend the call—absolutely.

You might say—but, the LGBTQ lifestyle is sinful. And I would agree with you—according to Scripture it is. But I also know that Jesus says in our passage that the sick need a physician, the sinner needs a Savior. I was a sinner and He called me. I may not sin like they do, but I needed a physician nonetheless...I needed a Savior. So do you. So does everyone. If you answered the call, what are you doing to call others?

Imagine a person who was once stranded deep in a dangerous wilderness. They were alone, injured, and without hope, convinced no one would ever find them. Suddenly, a skilled search and rescue team arrives, finds them, brings them back to safety, and nurses them back to health.

Now, instead of simply returning to their old life, out of gratitude they feel an overwhelming desire to join that same search and rescue team. They know the wilderness firsthand and their own experience of being found gives them a unique compassion and understanding. They can now reach others and say "Follow me, I know the way out."

This illustrates Jesus' call. We were once lost in the wilderness of sin, just like Matthew and his "sinner" friends. Jesus found us, called us, and brought us to safety. Now, having experienced His grace and healing, He invites us to join His search and rescue mission. Jesus calls us to the higher purpose of following Him, and part of that high calling is to call others to join in.

Conclusion

I want you to imagine a house in the 1970s that was abandoned, but somebody tried to call the house phone. There’s a phone ringing and ringing and ringing in an empty house. They didn’t have answering machines in the 1970s, so it just keeps ringing. The call is real, the line is open, but someone has to pick up otherwise the call goes unanswered.

Jesus is still dialing your number. The question isn’t whether or not He’s calling—He definitely is. The question is if you’re going to pick up. If you haven’t answered yet—then answer today.

If you have answered the call, have you extended the call to others? Pray about who you can extend that call to tomorrow.

And as it is Mother’s Day, I want to again emphasize with parents the importance of constantly putting that call in front of your children so they will answer and follow Him.