Identity Authority
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Identity of Jesus...
and
Authority of Jesus...
as we read through the stories in Matthew of Jesus proclaiming the new kingdom of heaven,
Keep thinking of this:
6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
“These men who have turned the world upside down"
Paul and Silas in Thessalonica...proclaiming “another King, Jesus.”
proclaiming another King, Jesus.
I love that picture of what they were doing... the world being turned upside down.
,...that picture of the world being turned upside down as we read through the stories in Matthew of Jesus proclaiming the new kingdom of heaven.
We see where that started here in the ministry of Jesus… that same picture... wtud... in the stories about Jesus that Matthew is telling us… we recognize the upside downness of what Jesus is doing by the responses of those who encounter Jesus.
With Authority, Jesus purposefully antagonizes the “accepted way of things” in society, in order to make a sharp delineation between the things of the world, religious or otherwise, and the things of his father.
Remember from last week:
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
thats a gauntlet that he throws down in front those who question the company he keep, and in context we see Jesus claiming authority again.
Recall: [teaches with authority… over disease and illness and wind and water and demons and authority to forgive sin.
Now step back to v 9 to see the context:
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.
Matthew 9:
So, Who is Matthew? Hold that question… obviously something about Jesus struck him and called to him. What do you do with Jesus when he crosses your path? He calls us to Follow him! That’s what Matthew did, apparently without hesitation.
Now Matthew’s dinner party:
Matthew 9:1
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. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
And Jesus [rebukes the pharisees] for asking the question. “Go and learn what this means...”
Well, the pharisees WERE the teachers. It was a stinging rebuke.
But moreover,
Jesus is claiming authority to redefine conventional wisdom about who’s in and who’s out!
Who has been in charge of that definition? The Pharisees. Religious leaders.
This is reminiscent of Jesus’ you have heard / but i say to you teachings...
You have heard… these are the qualifications of a righteous man, but I am not here for your qualifications… I am here for sinners.
And the group of Disciples that Jesus is cultivating here is quite the eclectic group...
Back in Ch 4:18 we met Peter and Andrew and James and John; all fisherman, right?
Back in Ch 4:18 we met Peter and Andrew and James and John; all fisherman, right?
And then we see his call to Matthew the tax collector in ch 9 v 9.
who is this guy?
well, This is a guy literally sitting in a little booth raised up on a platform… this is the guy who when, say, a fisherman heads past with a days catch of fish, requires that fisherman to give Caesar his due. He collects Rome’s tax from his own people.
the Roman occupation of Israel was devastating to the Jews. They longed for the promised messiah to come and free them. The occupation was oppressive, certainly for the military presence, but day in and day out it was the taxes were hated. The taxes kept Israel submissive and poor. The taxes were the Roman boot on the necks of the Jewish people.
and Rome knew the best way to subdue a nation wasn’t to send a bunch of Romans over… it was to buy off the locals to do their bidding. So you end up with Herod the Roman puppet king… and you end up with the likes of Matthew the tax collector, who’s allowed to become wealthy off the backs of his own people. He skims off the top… if Rome wanted 20 percent, tax collectors might take 40. That’s how it worked.
But Rome knew the best way to subdue a nation wasn’t to send a bunch of Romans over… it was to buy off the locals to do their bidding. So you end up with Herod the Roman puppet king… and you end up with Matthew the tax collector, who’s allowed to become wealthy off the backs of his own people. He skims off the top… if Rome wanted 20 percent, Matthew would take 40. That’s how it worked.
How popular were the tax collectors? How popular was Matthew among his people?
So, now Jesus and his fisherman disciples add Matthew to the team, and not only that, they go to his house for a dinner party with a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. The dregs. The scum. The riffraff.
2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Why? Good question. He says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 10:2
Three of the list have extra info about them… Matthew the tax collector, Simon the Zealot, and the Judas, who betrayed him. Let’s focus on Simon for a moment. The zealots
I think when the disciples were confronted about this, Jesus answered for then becaus
And who was in the business of defining righteousness in those days? defining Worthiness? Again: Pharisees and other religious leaders.
Jesus turns their ideas on achieving self-righteousness upside down.
Paul says We are all sinners made righteous only by Christ.
1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
romans 3:10
-21-24
With this dinner party, Jesus is emphasizing the ALL part of Paul’s statement by turning upside down polite jewish society’s definition of what’s an acceptable dinner party.
With this dinner party, Jesus is emphasizing the ALL part of Paul’s statement here by turning polite society’s definition of an acceptable dinner party on it’s head.
V 14-17 add another layer to this, and explains jesus purpose even further.
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
This dinner party of Jesus’ was held during one of the twice a week fasts. So picture Jesus with tax collectors and sinners while the Pharisees and disciples of John were fasting.
Jesus answered them:
15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Matthew 10:1
15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
1st: it is not an appropriate time to fast. Another statement of authority.
And then two parables:
16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
The structure that had grown up around the Law of God was incompatible for God with us. Isn’t that ironic? It is sobering. The religiosity of that society based on God’s law, was incompatible with the life of the person of God.
And so Jesus claims authority over the definition of worthiness and over who’s allowed to be a part of what God is accomplishing through him. And he claims authority over the religious traditions that had become a path to exclusion and self-righteousness.
And so these stories here are truly a message about unity. And about identity.
Identity in that Jesus is in the midst of revealing the fullness of who it is that can truly call themselves a child of God; In revealing His identity, he also reveals for us our own true identity. And checklists aren’t what give us identity.
remember that jews wanted to claim identity based on physical lineage to Abraham but Jesus said I can raise up these rocks as children of Abraham.
So far in the story jesus is emphasizing Followership. Follow me, he says! He didn’t hand out a list of things to do. He showed a way to be. Follow me. James wrote: draw near to God and he will draw near to you… cleanse your hands, purify your hearts.
Musician? Artist? Chef?
Christian? are you moving closer to Christ? Or is that someting from your past… you might still know the fingerings and can read the music for the most part… but to call yourself a musician would be a stretch...
Is your Identity wrapped up in His identity? What grace for God to show us his identity in Jesus Christ, even to give us his identity in Jesus Christ. Are you drawing closer to it?
The closer you are the more glorious you shine.
Hilltops of Glory. 231.
Prototype for the church.
Claiming authority to redefine who’s in and who’s out!