Tax Collectors and Sinners (2)

I want to thank you for the invitation to speak tonight.

My name is Jake Davidson, I have known Josh for several years

It is an honor to be here, and to be given an opportunity to speak into your life.

If I could I’d like to share with you a little about our church

1) One of the things God showed me was the unique location that we are in

When Paul planted churches He went to where the people were!

Because this is the soul business, we want to win as many as we can!

We are 15 minutes from a large military base that has over 30,000 active duty members

This is not including their families and children that would easily double that number

Heres what we quickly learned: This was a field that was ripe for the harvest!

So we have a regular front door evangelism ministry that takes advantage of this

2) Secondly, we are focusing heavily on discipleship.

Jesus said, “Go make disciples and teach them to obey all that I have commanded you

We are not just teaching for obedience to Christ, but we are teaching them how to make disciples.

2 Tim 2:2 “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Paul knew the most world changing method is discipleship must include multiplication.

Teach one, with intent for them to teach another.

What I’d like to talk to you about tonight is this subject: sinners and tax collectors.

Everybody in this room is called to be an evangelist. Jesus said, “come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men”.

And Jesus was the greatest evangelist who ever lived and lived and gives us a wonderful picture of how to live out our faith in this world while not being of the world.

What happens often in the church today is after we have walked with the Lord for several years we almost lose contact with the world. We lose our worldly friends, we no longer go the places we once went to, and consequently lose our impact in the world.

But the ministry of the church cannot be carried out is isolation from this world. We must be in this world, and influencing this world, but not of this world.

I want us to see some principles tonight from the master evangelist Himself, Jesus, and how he ministers to a lost a broken world.

Matthew 9:9-13 “As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. 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. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

We must not become so offended by the sin of others that we forget about the grace of God

Matthew 9:9 NASB95

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

Explanation

Tax collectors

They were the despised by the people. They severed Herod who served Rome. And instead of charging people to correct amount of taxes that were due, they would charge them more and line their pockets. In fact, many tax collectors were rich because extorted the people of God on a regular basis. They were considered what many would call today the scum of society.

But notice what Jesus sees

He sees “a man” sitting in a tax collector booth. Notice he doesn’t call him a sinner, he doesn’t call him a tax collector, in fact he sees a man with a name: Matthew.

Jesus carries this attitude all throughout his ministry. he does not identify people b the sins they commit as we often do, he identifies them as human beings.

In fact down in verse 33 the Scripture says, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd”

Jesus did not become offended by the sins of people because he knew all people were sinners.

What Jesus saw sitting in the tax collectors booth was not a dirty rotten scoundrel, but a “man” who was made in the image of God. He saw a man who was precious and valuable in God’s sight. He saw was a man who desperately needed new life that only Jesus could give him. He saw was a man who was wasting away his life on earth by ripping people off to line his pockets with things that would perish along with his soul.

Application

What we so desperately need in the church today is the ability to see past the sins of people and to see them as potential believers.

Can you imagine how uncomfortable the disciples were when Jesus called this tac collector to join their group? Can you imagine what was going through their minds when Jesu called this crook to join them, and you know they had their doubts that he would never make it.

AND can you imagine those same disciples reading the Gospel of Matthew years later and being amazed at what jesus had done with him.

No matter how deep and dark the sin is, WE MUST KNOW that the grace of Jesus Christ is deeper and brighter and can overcome any problems that people may have.

What am I saying? Do not be so offended by the sin that you forget about the unlimited grace of Jesus Christ.

I want you to see an amazing truth that takes place when one sinner comes to repentance.

Matthew 9:10 NASB95

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.

When you win one sinner to the Lord, you win an entire circle of prospects who need Christ

Explanation

Notice what Jesus does, he goes to the house of Matthew whom he had just called to follow Him and the next thing you know he is surrounded by all of Matthew’s friends. But it was not only Jesus, His disciples were with Him!

And now you can really imagine that things were getting a little uncomfortable for the disciples? These were Jewish men who probably had similar thoughts about tax collectors and sinners as the Pharisees did. And they are following Jesus and he has them sitting at a table now full of tax collectors and sinners!

Can you imagine what was going through their minds? They must have felt like they were sitting in the waiting room of the ER surround by COVID patients!

But what a grand opportunity to share the gospel!

Can you imagine the questions Matthews friends were asking him? Can you imagine what they must have been thinking to know that Matthew had just walked away from a job that made him rich so that he could give up everything to follow this Jesus.

Listen to what Mark records about this event:

Mark 2:15 (NASB95)

And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.

Who was following who? The friends of Matthew who were lost had come to faith in Jesus because of the testimony of Matthew and the presence of Jesus.

Bridge

Lost people have lost friends. And when the church ministers to the lost and wins a lost soul, they also win and entire circle of potential converts. And what happens is that one who came to faith, becomes a light in a dark circle. The radical change in that one person’s life strikes so much curiosity and shows them that this thing called Christianity is real and truly is life changing.

You take a group of people to Mammoth Cave and send them into the cave to find their way through, they ain’t going to make it. Its too dark, and no one can see.

You take another group of the same size and give one a light, they’ll prolly make it because that one with the light can lead all the others out.

Application

When you win one sinner to the Lord, you are striking a bright burning match in a dark place. And the worse the sin in this person’s life, the brighter the match burns! Ands those friends of that person cannot help but see that bright match burning and knows that something happened to them that they cannot explain!

And I am telling you God will work through that person, and in that person’s life as a glorious witness to power of Jesus Christ!

Which brings us to the next point:

Church Ministry is not about how many we can gather, its about the spiritually sick being healed

Matthew 9:11–12 NASB95

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

Explanation

Here was the question from the Pharisees. Why is your teacher spending time with sinners? Why if your Teacher is this holy man who knows God associating with the outcasts and talking to these lowlifes?

Ands what does Jesus tell them? The sick are the one’s who need a doctor, not those who are well. Jesus did not come to primarily teach in the synagogues (though He did that), and He did not come to meet the physical needs of people (though He did that too), but He came as a Physician to heal the spiritually sick and lead the captives out of captivity. He purposely put Himself where the spiritually sick were.

Bridge

Can you imagine a doctor who only made house calls to people who were not ill. A doctor who only made house calls to people with health problems. Or an ER who had a sign up that says, “only the healthy are welcome here”. If you are sick then you need to go home and use WEB MD and figure it out for yourself.

We would fire that doctor wouldn’t we! We would say some doctor he is! He does not even care about the sick and that is what he has been called to do! That is what he has been trained to do! He has the cure for many of these people’s illnesses and yet completely neglects those who need him the most!

Application

There are many churches like this today. They have forgotten what we have been called to do. They have so drifted from the original calling that Jesus placed upon the church that they began to believe that success in the church is about how many we can get to attend our service and, not how many are made well.

Can I tell you something? Crowds impress men not God. God is not impressed when 300 people show up at church on Sunday morning and never think even think about Him again until they need something from Him. God is not impressed by our churches who boast numbers because redemption is a secondary factor! God is not impressed when our churches become more about personal glory rather than the glory of God.

How can we live this principle out? The church must be willing to go out of their comfort zone to minister to the sick. How man of us (I’m preaching to the choir) make a point to take a lost person out for a meal, or on a fishing trip, or invite them over for dinner? How many of us stop and share a Word of truth to the man scamming people for money at Walmart? The church must come back tot eh realization that it is the sick who need a doctor, not those who are well.

QUESTION: Would you be more excited if this church had 200 people attending on Sunday morning who were lost or 1 sinner who has been delivered from death and sin and hell and transformed into a child of God?

Religious practices can take the place of the mercy of God

Matthew 9:13 NASB95

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Explanation

Notice what Jesus says, “go and learn what this means”. He is talking to the Pharisees and he is telling them their understanding of Scripture is backwards! And he quotes Hos 6:6 that says, “I desire compassion and not sacrifice”.

In Hosea, the nation of Israel still practiced the letter of the law which was to make sacrifices, but their hearts were far from the Spirit of the Law. They did what they had to do by the law, but their hearts were far from God. And what Jesus is saying is the error of the Pharisees, the same error with the people in Hosea’s day.

The Pharisees

They would do all the religious practices: tithing, memorizing Scripture, fasting twice a week, attending services in the synagogues. And they would look at themselves and think they were so holy because of these things. And their error was putting their trust in those things, rather than in the fished work of Christ. Those things were never meant to replace a relationship with God, they were only designed and implemented to enhance it.

And the pharisees had taken this theology and began to teach others this is the way to follow God. You just have to do this and do that. What they should have been saying is there is nothing that we can do, it is about what Christ has been done. And the only way we could ever be truly righteous is if somehow God could give us His righteousness.

Bridge

This error is often repeated today. People can easily become so routine in doing the religious practices that they come to believe that is what ministry is about. And those people begin to think all the church needs to do is get people in here who will do these things and we will be a healthy church.

But Jesus would say religious practices never saved anyone from hell. Tithing, church attendance, fasting, praying, offering sacrifices, reading our Bibles…these things do not give us what we need most.

What we need is mercy. And that mercy only comes through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Application

What is the church to do with this today? We are to have an accurate understanding of Scripture and what it means to have a relationship with God.

We are to understand what verses means such as:

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We are to know that getting people to adhere to practices will not deliver their souls from hell and that is really all that matters.

CONCLUSION

I want to close with this quote by Grant Osborn:

“Too many of us are Pharisees at heart, hypocrites who talk the talk but do not walk the walk. It is easy to become “churchified,” i.e., to perform all the external rituals but fail to have a heart for God and others. The Pharisees loved only their own kind but had no mercy or love for the despised in society. A true biblical church will have a community-wide ministry that shows God’s love to all around. This is true for ministry both outside and inside the church. It is shocking how many believers go through hard times with no one offering a helping hand in the church. In the early church “there were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:34), for the members did whatever they had to (even selling property or homes!) to meet the financial crisis. Can any church in the West come close to that biblical ideal?”

The ministry of the church is not so much to those who believe they are right with God but to those who know they are sinners. Ministry is hard work. It is messy work. But there is no better work that a man can do on the face of the earth.

I want to challenge you this week to reach out to the sinners and tax collectors whom you come into contact with. I want to challenge you to get outside these four walls and tell people about the grace and mercy of God.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a lost sinner give up this life and begin to follow Jesus. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a new believer grow in their relationship with Christ and begin to walk by faith. That is the good stuff.

~PRAYER~