Christ’s Heart For The Sinner

Text: Matthew 9:9-13

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (09/02/01)

Introduction:   

ILLUS: The preacher who said “Jesus drank beer with the sinners” whose message was entitled “God’s Heart for Lost People”.  What a contrast with what the Bible teaches.

This is one of the most heart warming and touching scenes in all the Bible. It is Matthew’s personal testimony.

As you study the lives of the men whom Christ called, you are reminded of Pauls words…..

1 Corinthians 1:26-27  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

Imagine him sitting and writing about the experiences of so many others that we have just read about in Matthew 1-8. Now he comes to his own personal experience.

He was a man bitterly opposed, talked and gossiped about and hated, not by just a few, but by everyone. He was so detested that he was classified with the worst of sinners (Luke 15:1).

He was a tax collector for a conquering nation. He had become wealthy by extortion, so wealthy that he was able to own a house large enough to handle a huge crowd and a large feast. He was immoral, unjust, money-hungry, and worldly-minded. He cared more for possessions and wealth than for people.

Through the years he had become unloving, hard, difficult, bitter—and worst of all, without love, purpose, meaning, and significance in life. There is, of course, so much more; yet he covers all in these few simple verses.

There are three reasons why tax collectors were so bitterly hated.

1.  They served the Roman conquerors.

Most tax collectors were Jews, but in the people’s eyes they had denied their Jewish heritage and betrayed their country. They were thus ostracized, completely cut off from Jewish society and excommunicated from Jewish religion and privileges.

2.  They were cheats, dishonest and unjust men.

Most tax collectors were extremely wealthy. The Roman government compensated tax collectors by allowing them to collect more than the percentage required for taxes. Tax collectors greedily abused their right, adding whatever percent they wished and felt could be collected (see note—§ Romans 13:6). They took bribes from the wealthy who wished to avoid taxes, fleeced the average citizen, and swindled the government when they could.

3.  They were assuming rights that belonged only to God.

In the eyes of the Jews, God and the ruling High Priest were considered to be the head of Jewish government. Therefore, taxes were to be paid only to God and His government. To pay taxes to earthly rulers was an abuse and a denial of God’s rights. Therefore, tax collectors were excommunicated from Jewish religion and privileges. They were accursed, anathema.

What is so heart-warming and touching is that he shares his own personal conversion in one simple verse, and then he moves on to share how Jesus came to save sinners such as himself. He does not talk about himself nor about the details of his sin and shame, but He lifts up Jesus and the glorious salvation Jesus came to bring. He emphasizes not his own conversion, but the fact that Jesus came to save all tax collectors and sinners such as himself.

1. (9:9) Matthew— Conversion: the sinner who needed a Savior.

We Have A Calling

1.  Jesus “saw a man” named Matthew.

He saw everything about Matthew. He saw his heart, his mind, his thoughts, his hurt, his pain, his loneliness, his lack of purpose and meaning in life. He saw a useless life, a life being wasted.

2.  Jesus called the man.

He dramatically said, “Follow me.” It was forceful and to the point.

It was immediate and total commitment or nothing.

Luke 9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Think of the call extended to everyone of us.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”.

Isaiah 55:1 “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price”.

3.  The man’s one act: he arose and followed Jesus.

He got up and left all to follow Jesus.

Matthew himself is too humble to record this, but Luke did tell us this fact.

Mark 8:35-36 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”.

A dramatic change took place in Matthew.

Jesus’ call was clear and forceful,  “Follow me.”

Matthew’s response was clear and forceful, he arose and followed Christ.

It is hard for rich men to enter heaven because they are so attached to the material world. Matthew was one of the few who had been willing to give up all in order to follow Jesus.

Matthew’s conversion shows that Jesus saves anyone who will truly follow Him:

the hated                     the bitter                      the non-religious

the unjust                    the dissatisfied                        the lonely

the traitor                    the thief                       the immoral

the one without purpose or meaning

Matthew represents all these and more.

2. (9:10-11) Witnessing: the sinner who introduced his sinful friends to the Savior.

We Have A Commission

Matthew entertained Jesus and his sinful friends. The very first thing Matthew did was witness to his friends. He arranged a “great feast” for Jesus to share with his sinful friends (Luke 5:29). The witnessing session was apparently very fruitful: “there were many, and they followed Him” (Mark 2:15).

John 20:21 “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”.

Isaiah 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”.

How often we fail and come short in witnessing to our sinful friends.

A new convert should not boast in his past, but in Jesus. Note that Matthew does no writing about his former life. He lifts up Jesus Christ, not his past life. What a lesson in modesty and humility!

Note several important lessons.

1) Jesus went where the sinners were.  He sought them out.

“for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”

1 Corinthians 9:22  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

APPLICATION:

2) Sinners felt comfortable coming to Him.

3) Jesus had meals with sinners, immoral people whom society and religionists rejected and avoided.

4) Jesus and sinners were close friends.

The religionists questioned Jesus’ fellowship with sinners.  It is almost like they were watching, looking for wrong-doing so they could pounce on Him.

How often do we convey thoughts that God has nothing to do with sinners?

There are two ditches we fall into…..

The ditch of compromise with the world.

Jude 1:22-23  And of some have compassion, making a difference:

23  And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

The ditch of a judgmental and censorious spirit

This does more to hurt people than any other single thing.

Romans 2:1-3  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

3. (9:12-13) Jesus Christ, Mission: this point can be titled as the Savior who saved the sinner or as the mission of the Savior.

We Have A Caring Compassionate Saviour

First, Matthew was testifying that he, the sinner, and his sinful friends were spiritually sick and they needed the mercy of God.

Second, Jesus was warning the religionist and those who think they are more acceptable to God than others

Note that the threefold purpose of Jesus is given.

1.  Jesus came to be where the spiritually sick are.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”.

He came to be where the spiritually sick are. He had come to earth for the same purpose that a physician enters a home: to help the sick.

Sin is a sickness. All have sinned (Romans 3:23)

Sin, the sickness of the spirit, is always curable (Romans 10:13).

How foolish to have a fatal disease that is curable and not seek the cure!

Many are walking about with the fatal disease of sin, but they are...

• ignoring it
• neglecting it
• feeding it
• denying it
• abusing it

2.  Jesus came to have mercy, not to gain sacrifice.

He came to have mercy and not to lead people to make sacrifices.  He came to show and bestow mercy upon sinners—any person who knows that he is a sinner and desires the mercy and acceptance of God.

Psalm 51:16-17 “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”.

Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost”.

God’s call is to mercy, not to sacrifice.  What God wants first of all is a person’s life.  Once God has the person’s life, He has all he is.

3.  Jesus came to call men to repentance.

Matthew 3:2 “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.

Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent,ye shall all likewise perish”.

Mark 1:15  And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

He came to call sinners to repentance. If a person does not know that he needs changing (repentance), Jesus cannot help him. But if he knows he is a sinner and wants to be changed, Jesus can lead him to repentance (to change).

Jesus does not call the self-righteous and the self-satisfied.  Jesus calls the sinners to repentance, the ones who are deeply aware of their need for a Savior (1 Tim. 1:15).

The call of Jesus is to repentance: to a changed life (2 Cor. 5:17).

Conclusion:     (Review)