Matthew 1:1 & Intro "Jesus' Genealogy Part 1: The Covenants"

Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to The Gospel According to Matthew. We are embarking on an exciting journey through the New Testament beginning with Matthew. Today, we will look at a broad introduction to the Gospels and then narrow in on Matthew, and we will begin to look at the Genealogies of Jesus Christ. Stand with me... We are going to read Matt 1:1 all the way down to verse 1. Let's pray! The New Testament begins with 4 Gospels. The word "Gospel" means "Good News." Gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon godspell denoting "glad tidings" or "good news." * So, what is this good news?...well of course it is THE good news that Jesus, the Christ...the Messiah has come into the world for the forgiveness of sins and the redemption of all mankind who look to Him in faith. All 4 Gospels, Matt, Mark, Luke, and John proclaim this good news with variations in their styles based on their audience. The Four Gospels: * The first three (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are called the Synoptic...derived from Greek sun, "together" and opsis "view"...Lit. "together view." They see together with a common view. They capture Jesus' Galilean Ministry, but individually are quite different and especially different from John's Gospel... who wrote much later, looking back from a quite different vantage point. Why Four Gospels? * Because God loved the various people groups in the first century, just as He loves you and people of the world today. Each Gospel was written to a different audience- Jews, Romans, Greeks or Gentiles, and, depending on how you see John's audience, either to all people or to His church. * In the four Gospels, the Holy Spirit, through the writers of the Gospels, presents different portrayals and characteristics of Christ. The early church likened Jesus' characteristics, and the four Gospel's characteristics, to the Cherub in Ezekiel 1. o The Cherub in Ezekiel 1 is described as having four faces... "...the face of a man...the face of a lion on the right side...the face of an ox on the left side...and the face of an eagle..." (Ezek 1:10). o The early church used an image of a Cherub to secretly indicate where they met, in lieu of persecution. o In the OT, the faces of the Cherubim were used on the banners of the four major tribes as they camped around the Tabernacle in the days of Moses...no doubt prophetic to Christ. o The Gospels are also portrayed by the faces of the Cherub. Not that the Gospels reflect the Cherub, but that the faces of the Cherub reflect Jesus Christ, and the Gospels also reflect Jesus Christ. * Matthew wrote to the Jews and portrayed Jesus as the King, thus this Gospel is assigned the Cherub's face of a Lion, as the lion is king of the animals, and Jesus is the King, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. * Mark wrote to the Romans and portrayed Jesus as a Servant, thus this Gospel is assigned the Cherub's face of an Ox, the beast of burden, a servant willing to serve and work. * Luke wrote to the Greeks and portrayed Jesus as a man, thus this Gospel is assigned the Cherub's face of man, as Jesus is God incarnate and His humanity is seen in Luke's gospel. * John wrote to either to all people or to the Church, and portrayed Jesus as God, thus this Gospel is assigned the Cherub's face of an Eagle, as the Eagle symbolize the majestic and divine, soaring and transcendent. An overview of the Four Gospels Matthew and John were the only 2 direct Apostles of Jesus of the Gospel writers. In Matthew's Gospel... * First Miracle: Cleansing of a Leper- Matt 8 (spoken of in Leviticus 14, but we have no record of the Priests ever cleansing a Leper in the Old Testament...this was a healing very particular to a coming Messiah). o Matt 4:23-24 does mention general miraculous healings of sickness and demon possession, but Matt 8 shows the first specific healing. * Conclusion: Resurrection. Which was debated between the Jewish leaders the Pharisees and Sadducees. * Style: Lecturer. He included 3 major discourses of Christ: "Sermon on the Mount," "Parables of the Kingdom," and the "Olivet Discourse." More topical than chronological. * Key Phrase: "Fulfilled" 17x (often "that it might be fulfilled") as Matthew often goes back to OT prophecy directly citing or alluding to prophetic verses. He also spoke about the Kingdom 57x in 55 verses. Mark was thought to be a secretary for Peter, documenting the life of Christ from Peter's perspective. * First Miracle: Demon Cast Out (Humanity healed)- Mk 1:23-26 * Conclusion: Ascension * Style: Photographer. His Gospel is quick and action packed like a modern movie. His is the shortest of the Gospels with only 16 Chapters (Matthew (28); Luke (24); John (21)). He shows more doing or miracles of Jesus, and less teaching...less words in Red, as a servant was a doer, and the Roman audience was more action oriented and less Philosophical (very similar to America today). * Key Phrase: "Immediately" 36x ("Straightway" in KJV) Luke was a companion to Paul, and possibly served as a Dr. in Tarsus where Paul was from. He was the only Gentile writer of the Gospel writers. Thus, how appropriate he directs his gospel to the Greeks. He also wrote Acts, and was one of the major writers of the New Testament, possibly the major writer of the New Testament depending on if Hebrews was written by Paul. * First Miracle: Demons Cast Out- Lk 4:33-36 * Conclusion: Promise of the Spirit * Style: Chronologer. Luke observed and recorded great details. He was a companion of Paul, who had contact with some of the original Apostles and James, the brother of Jesus. And, Luke, no doubt, also met some of these same people. * Key Phrase: "It came to pass" 10x John was not just one of the 12 Disciples, but was also one of the inner 3 Disciples (Peter, James, and John). He also wrote 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation. The first 3 Gospels are called the Synoptic gospels * First Miracle: Jesus turned water to wine at a wedding- John 2 * Conclusion: Promised Return * Style: Discourse. He writes in a way the leads the reader to have to make a verdict about Jesus by the end of his Gospel. He uses the word "believe" 101x (Mth 11x; Mk 17x; Lk 10x). * Key Phrase: "Verily verily" (KJV) or "Most assuredly" 25x Of the Four Gospels, the New Testament begins with Matthew... Why is Matthew listed first in the Gospels? * Not necessarily because of chronology...it's difficult to know which Gospel was written first. * In writing to the Jews, Matthew's Gospel best transitions from the OT to the NT. It serves as a bridge. * Matthew was seen as significant amongst early Christian as he includes greater detail of certain teachings of Jesus such as the Sermon on the Mount. * Matthew was the only Apostle who wrote a Synoptic Gospel...and of the four Gospels only Matthew and John were Apostles. o Mark was an eye witness to events in the life of Christ and wrote likely from the perspective of Peter, and Luke, the beloved Physician, was a travel companion to Paul...a respected historian and the only Gentile author in the NT. * Jesus went to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. How appropriate to follow this same order in the Gospels? The Gospel of Matthew is the first inspired, God breathed, writing in the New Testament, and it breaks the 400 silent years between Malachi, the last OT book, and Matthew, the first NT book." * There were other writings in the 400 silent years...what we call Apocryphal writings...a series of books found in Catholic Bibles, and even more in Orthodox Bibles....writings that Protestants reject as lacking inspiration from God, and failing certain canonical tests like being quoted from in the NT. o The word apocrypha is from the Greek word for "obscure" or "hidden" and by dictionary definition apocryphal mean "of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true." Some of them hold great historical value, like the books of Maccabees, but still they are not God-breathed. * In your Bible, and in mine, you will not find these writings, the last book of the OT is Malachi...and notice... * The final two verses of Malachi look forward to the Messiah...both His first and second advents. And, look forward to His forerunner, partially fulfilled in John the Baptist as a type of Elijah, and finally fulfilled in the seven-year tribulation with Elijah's return as one of the Two Witnesses (Rev 11). * Listen to these final words in the Old Testament Mal 4:5-6 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." * You may recall in Luke 1:16-17, that an Angel of the Lord prophesied to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist, and in his prophecy, he referenced Mal 4:5-6 o 16 "And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:16-17 * So, after 400 years of silence, that silence is broken first with the coming of the forerunner of the Lord, and the prophecies over John the Baptist, and then with the visitation to Mary and later Joseph about Jesus, and how Mary has conceived this child by the Holy Spirit. * For the Jew, they knew of the prophecies of the coming Messiah. To name a few...the prophecies foretold of His virgin birth; his birth place, Bethlehem; and that He must be of the lineage of King David. As such, Matthew, who writes to the Jews, so very appropriately opens this Gospel with the lineage of Jesus. * We are going to look at the bulk of this lineage next week. But, let's narrow in on The Gospel of Matthew looking at the "Who, what, and when?" of the background of this book. Who wrote the book? Author: Matthew ...Yes...the words above Matthew 1 are a dead giveaway, but how do we know since Matthew does not explicitly state he authored this work? Strong Evidence for Authorship of Matthew: * External evidence: o Many early church fathers cited Matthew as its author, including Pseudo Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen. * Internal evidence: o Unique Occupational Notes: Matthew was a tax collector and there are more references to coins than any of the other three Gospels. Includes three terms for coins that are found nowhere else in the New Testament: "The two-drachma tax" (Matt. 17:24); "a four-drachma coin" (17:27), and "talents" (18:24). Luke the Physician, in comparison, had more notes on anatomy and medical terms. * As a tax collector, Matthew kept records and knew how to write. He had the ability to write a Gospel humanly speaking. * Personal Term of Contempt: Matthew alone continually refers to himself throughout his Gospel as "Matthew the tax collector." But Mark and Luke do not continually use that term when speaking of Matthew. The use of this personal term of contempt demonstrates great humility by Matthew. * Humility: When Matthew began to follow Jesus, he invited his friends to a "dinner" (Matt. 9:9-10). Luke, however, called the dinner "a great banquet" (Luke 5:29). * Significant Omissions: Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) and the story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector who restored fourfold what he had stolen (Luke 19:1-10). Perhaps these accounts hit too close to home for Matthew? * Between the external and internal evidence, there is very little scholarly debate that Matthew was the author of this Gospel. Who was Matthew? To examine this man, let's look talk about Matthew as a Tax Collector, A Levite, and A Rebel. Matthew, the Tax Collector * Matthew- A Jew and a tax collector who was stationed in Capernaum...a key city between the Via de Mares (the way of the sea) and The King's Highway. Many traders and merchants had to travel through Capernaum, and would be taxed here. Capernaum was also where several Apostles lived (Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew) and became the base of operations for Jesus' ministry. * As a Jew and Tax Collector, Matthew was hated by fellow Jews for aligning himself with Caesar to collect taxes from his own people. Very likely, he taxed the very fish that Peter and Andrew caught and sold. Caesar had a quota, and whatever the tax collectors collected over and above went into their own pockets. * Jews treated tax collectors as traitors to their people and viewed them as they would a Gentile- as despised. * In the Gospels, Tax Collectors are referenced numerous times, and it is evident they were looked down upon, not by Jesus, but by the Religious leaders: o In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses tax collectors as a cutting remark to the Pharisees. "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?" Mt 5:46-47. o Tax Collectors were not permitted into the Temple. We see this in the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector- "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' " Lk 18:10-13. o The Pharisees also questioned Jesus about His association with Tax Collectors: "Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Mt 9:10-11. (several other examples in scripture) * But, Jesus saw Matthew as more than a despise Tax Collector...He saw Matthew as a man. "As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him." Matt 9:9 o Follow Me: Matthew did not need an extensive speech, he just needed to believe in something real. Jesus was unlike anything in religion he had witnessed. Matthew, the Levite? * It seems that Matthew may not just have been a Jew, but may have come from the priestly line of the Levites, we cannot say for sure, but here are some thoughts to support this idea. * Matthew's original name is Levi. o Matthew was a given name which means "gift of Jehovah" or "gift of God." Was this name Matthew a given name to him by Jesus? We cannot say for sure, but Jesus certainly gave other people in the Bible new names (Simon Peter -> Cephas; Saul -> Paul), so this is a good thought. * Mark records the account of Matthew's call to follow Jesus as "As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him." Mk 2:14. o Notice Mark calls Matthew "Levi" * Some scholars believe he was from the tribe of Levi, who served at the Priests for Israel. o If we are using just his name as a proof, we need to be careful. In Jesus' genealogy, we can see He is from the tribe of Judah, but later in his descent, Luke 3:29 lists an ancestor of Jesus named Levi. So, was this Levi also a Levite? Or, was this just his name? Beyond Matthew's name, Levi, are there additional supports or evidence that Matthew may have been from the Priestly line of the Levites? * Yes. Matthew demonstrates a strong command of OT Scripture, through frequent use of OT Scriptures. o A key phrase in Matthew's Gospel is "Fulfilled" (17x)...more than any other Gospel writer, and fulfilled prophecy from the OT would be of particular interest to a priest. o Blue Letter Bible has a list of "Quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament." Matthew- 96...more than any of the other Gospels: Mark (34); Luke (58); John (40). * Matthew quotes OT Scripture 2nd most in the New Testament #1 Revelation (249); #3 Hebrews (86); #4 Romans (74) * Also, Matthew's style of writing is very Jewish, which likely attests to his upbringing...perhaps an upbringing in a Priestly family. o The Genealogy in Matthew 1 includes 3 groups of 14 generations which was a Jewish style that some believe intended for memorization purposes as Jews memorized genealogies. o The Genealogy may have been laid out as a poetic device. In Hebrew, and Greek, letters corresponded to numbers. Imagine if our ABC corresponded to 123. A = 1, B = 2, and so forth through the Alphabet...well this is true in Hebrew. When you take the numeric values of the name "David" it adds up to 14. So, interwoven into this genealogy is a numeric code that screams "David" and testifies to the Jews, the audience of this Gospel, that Jesus is the Son of David. * If you want to look deeper at this topic, I recommend looking into the work of Ivan Panin, who is called the 'father of Bible numerics." He discovered an entire system of mathematical relationships in Scripture and penned over 43,000 pages demonstrating numeric patterns in the text of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles; especially a pattern of "sevens" in Scripture. Through his work, he scientifically demonstrated inspiration of the scriptures. He was a firm agnostic whose conversion to Christianity made headlines in newspapers around 1890. * Going back to Matthew's writing style, Dr. David Hocking states there are many Common Jewish teaching methods found in Matthew... o Use of Synonymous or Antithetic Parallelism like you find in Proverbs. Matt 7 is an example of a simple common Jewish story..."wise man builds his house on the rock, the foolish man builds his house on the sand..." & many others o We also see Hebrew origins of what is said and quoted in Greek such as the prevalence of repetitions and formulas and Strophic structures like the Beatitudes on the Sermon on the Mount "Blessed are the...Blessed are the...Blessed are the..." o Also, a familiarity with Rabbinical styles even dialectic teaching in the book. * These very Jewish styles of writing in Matthew give credence to the idea that Matthew was a Levite steeped in an upbringing under the Old Testament and with the Priests. Matthew, the rebel? If Matthew was from the line of the Levites, and raised in a Priestly home, it is obvious that he was not serving in the role of a Priest, because it is certain that he was a Tax Collector. This raises a question... What caused Matthew to rebel against the priesthood? What did he see growing up that let him to choose tax collecting over being a priest? * Observation: Matthew is more sensitive to the failings of the Jewish leaders, and is more critical of these leaders. The term "hypocrite" (NKJV) appears 1x in Mark; 4x in Luke; 0x in John; 15x in Matthew...more than OT ("hypocrite" 13x) or the rest of the NT (15 out of 21 total NT references are found in Matthew)! Did he observe hypocrisy, for he certainly notes it! We know that Jesus certainly pointed out the hypocrisy of the Religious leaders and Matthew was very happy to record it. Was hypocrisy what caused Matthew to rebel from the Levites in the most polar opposite of directions...a Tax Collector? o God wants to reach all his lost people. He used Matthew, a lost Jewish priest, to write to the Jews, a lost nation. o Today, he is still reaching out to us. Through His son Jesus, His life, His ministry, His death on the cross and His word which testifies of all these things. o He reaches out to us through His Holy Spirit who walks alongside unbelievers, and dwells within believers. o He uses His people to be salt and light. Preserving the world, and being a beacon for truth in a dark time. o Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The Genealogy in Matthew was exactly what the Jews needed to first see to believe. If a Jew reads Matthew, they first encounter a Genealogy, then many OT prophecies fulfilled: the Virgin birth, Jesus born in Bethlehem, Herod killing all the male children in Bethlehem, the forerunner- John the Baptist, and so forth. Jesus' first recorded miracle in Matthew was the cleansing of a Leper, which was spoken of in Leviticus, but no priest had seen a Leper cleansed until Jesus. So many signs, teachings, fulfilled prophecies, all to reach His people. Who is Matthew writing to? How do we know Matthew wrote to the Jews? Borrowing some ideas from the research of David Guzik...there are several compelling reasons we can see how Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience: * Matthew doesn't translate Aramaic terms such as raca (Matthew 5:22) and corban (Mark 7:11). * Matthew refers to Jewish customs without explanation assuming the audience would understand the custom (Matthew 15:2 to Mark 7:3-4; see also Matthew 23:5). * Matthew starts his genealogy with Abraham (Matthew 1:1). [Luke 3 starts with the supposed father, Joseph, and works chronologically backwards all the way to Adam] * Matthew presents the name of Jesus and its meaning in a way that assumes the reader knows its Hebrew roots (Matthew 1:21). * Matthew more often refers to Jesus with the messianic title "Son of David." 10 verses Matthew; 3 verses Mark; 4 verses Luke; 0 verses John * Matthew is the only person to use the more Jewish phrase "Kingdom of Heaven" (33x) instead of "Kingdom of God" (6x), though he does us both. "Kingdom of Heaven" is only found in Matthew and appears 33x in 32 verses. * Matthew ends with the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20) to make disciples of all nations. The early church was predominately Jewish, and this instructs them to look beyond Judaism to take the Gospel to the whole world. * Matthew is more sensitive to the failings of the Jewish leaders, and is more critical of these leaders. We already discussed how often Matthew used the term "hypocrite." * Matthew mentions the Sadducees more than any other Gospel. 7 verses in Matthew; 1 verse in Mark; 1 verse in Luke; 0 verses in John. What is the Purpose of Matthew?: He writes with the purpose of demonstrating that Jesus is the King and the Messiah, and the lawful heir to the throne of David. * Matt 1:1 may have been his key verse "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:" When did Matthew write this book? Dating: Ultimately, we cannot say for sure. Scholars differ. A.D. 37, 45. Traditionally, Matthew is dated in the late 50's or early 60's A.D.; even into the late 60's. * Some hold to a later dating after A.D. 70, but this is less reliable, and I would say is inaccurate since we have Jesus' genealogy. Herod began destroying genealogies, but all genealogies were ultimately destroyed when the Temple, that contained all the genealogies, was destroyed in AD 70 by Titus. * Today, no one can claim they are the Messiah legitimately because they cannot produce a genealogy proving they have a link to David and Abraham. * Messianic Pretenders: Hundreds of people have claimed to be Messiah or closely related: o In the Philippines today, there is a joker named Apollo Quilboloy who claim to be the appointed son of God and has a substantial cult following...who obviously do not understand scripture and that Messiah must come from the lineage of David. * If you don't have a genealogy demonstrating they stem from David and Abraham, you are not the legitimate Messiah. And, perhaps in His omnipotence, God used the Romans to ensure all genealogies were destroyed in 70 A.D. But, in Matthew 1:1-17 we have Jesus' Genealogy preserved. Matt 1:1 "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:" 1. "The book of the genealogy..." a. "The book" could be rendered "the record of"...this is the record of Jesus' origin. b. This phrase "the book of the genealogy" only appears 2x in the whole Bible Gen 5:1 and Matt 1:1. Genesis 5:1 is very similar: "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam." c. The word "genealogy" in Greek in "Genesis" and can be translated "origin." i. The word "genealogy" in verse 1 shares a root word with "birth" in vs 18...and both describe Jesus' origin. Vss 1-17 tell us of Jesus' earthly origin or lineage and vss 18-25 tell us of Jesus' divine or spiritual origin. d. The word Genesis in Greek means "Beginning." In Hebrew, the word is Bereshîth meaning "In the beginning." e. The OT & NT both begin with an origin: i. OT: Origin of all creation and life by God. ii. NT: Origin of Messiah who brings all eternal life to all who believe. iii. We could add the origins of first Adam and the Last Adam. 2. "...of Jesus Christ..." a. The name Jesus is very significant. b. Ἰησοῦς, Yesous, is the Greek form for יְהוֹשׁוּעַ, Yhoshua (Joshua), or יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The name means "YHWH is salvation" or "Yehovah saves." i. Look at verse 21 in Matt 1, "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." c. Χριστός, Christos, which is not his name, but Jesus' title...some say it's His mission. Christos is a Greek word meaning "anointed one." In Hebrew the word for messiah is mashiach and also means "anointed one" or "chosen one." d. There is one more thing to note about Jesus' name...look at verse 23. Verse 23 speaks of Jesus' position. i. Matt 1:13 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." e. He is called Jesus because He is the Savior; Christ because He is the anointed or chosen one; and Immanuel because He is God with us. 3. "the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:" a. Verse 1 is where the Covenants are listed. i. Notice "Son of David" preceded "Son of Abraham" though Abraham predated David by 14 generations. We also see Abraham and David in proper genealogical order in verse 2 and verse 6, so this indicates verse one speaks of very significant covenants, both of which are fulfilled by Jesus. ii. Davidic Covenant: 2 Sam 7:12-16. Jesus must be born of the lineage of David for Jewish acceptance as Messiah. 1. The Lord spoke to Nathan, the prophet, and gave him these words for King David, "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." 2 Sam 7:12-13 iii. Abrahamic Covenant: 1. God spoke to Abraham in Gen 12:3 and promised him "...in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed... "From the seed of Abraham, namely Jesus, all families and all nations would be blessed. 2. In Gen 22:18 again God promised Abraham "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed..." From Abraham's seed would come the messiah for all people- Jews and Gentiles. 3. It is incredibly significant to the Jews. Well that brings us to our conclusion of the background and Introduction to the Gospels and Matthew. It's obvious that God has gone to great lengths to reach people...not only by sending His son to die for our sins, but to inspire the writers of the Gospels to address numerous audiences and to portray various characteristics of Jesus. As I reflect on Matthew, I am touched by his use of the word hypocrite, his rebellion in becoming a Tax Collector, and how his name was changed potentially by Jesus to Matthew "Gift of God." If you have seen hypocrisy, if you have rebelled against God, understand that God sees hypocrisy too, and does not view you as a despised Tax Collector. You are a gift to God. If He were to say to you "Follow me?" Would you drop all and Follow Him? There are many people today that need to hear that Good News. Friends let's keep them in prayer this week and be soft to the Holy Spirit's leading if He would use you this week to share that Good News. Let's pray!