King of Thieves: How Jesus Loves the Hated Ones

Blessed Be Your Name

Welcome (Sam Garcia)

Scripture Reading (Matthew 9:9-13)

Prayer of Praise (God is personal), Tasha Tollison

And Can It Be

Crown Him With Many Crowns

Prayer of Confession (Impatience), Al Koth

Yes I Will

PBC Catechism #29

What is sanctification?

In sanctification, God progressively frees believers from the power of sin and grows them in practical holiness.

Pastoral Prayer (Mike Klaassen)

SERMON

On October 14, 2003 the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins were battling for the chance to play in the World Series.

The Cubs were five outs away from winning their first National League pennant since 1945.

Marlins batter Luis Castillo hit a fly ball into foul territory in left field.

Cubs’ leftfielder Moisés Alou pursued the ball and leapt near the fence in an attempt to make the catch.

Enter Steve Bartman.

At 26-years-old, Steve Bartman was a loyal Cubs fan. The kind of fan who traveled to watch his beloved Cubbies in Spring Training. The kind of fan willing to pay a small fortune to watch Game 6 of the NLCS from a front row seat in Wrigley Field.

But Steve Bartman’s life was about to change forever.

Hoping to catch a fly ball, Bartman reached over the wall, hindering the Cubs outfielder from making the catch.

SHOW STEVE BARTMAN IMAGE

What should’ve been out number two sparked new life in the Marlins, who went on to score eight runs that inning, win the game, and eventually the series.

When Cubs fans realized what had happened, they began to shout profanities at Bartman. They poured beer on him and pelted him with debris, until eventually he had to leave the ballpark under a security escort for his own safety. Shortly after the game ended, Bartman’s personal information had been shared online. He received death threats, required police protection outside his house in Chicago, and was offered to be placed in witness protection.

Most of us can’t imagine the level of hatred that Steve Bartman received from his own people.

But, perhaps, Matthew, the human author of the Gospel we’ve been studying, could relate.

Turn to Matthew 9:9

Last week: Jesus can demand absolute allegiance from the world because He has absolute authority in the world.

But what is Jesus going to do with all that authority?

Jesus does something surprising. He doesn’t use His authority to serve Himself, but to love others.

But Jesus doesn’t love the people you’d expect.

In scandalous fashion, Jesus loves to love people that others love to hate.

Three examples of Jesus’ Scandalous Love for Sinners:

Unbeliever: Jesus loves people like you too

Christian: You’ve been loved like this, so love like this

1) Jesus Loves Sinners with a PURSUING Love (v. 9)

9:9—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.

It’s hard to overestimate just how much the Jewish people would have hated a man like Matthew

D.A. Carson mentions three reasons tax collectors were hated: [1]

They were traitors

Collecting taxes for Rome

Because they were traitors they weren’t allowed to give testimony in court [2]

They were corrupt

Many would overtax and pocket the difference (think Zaccheus)

Rabbis taught it was acceptable to lie to tax collectors[3]

They were unclean

Association with Gentiles

Excommunicated from the synagogue [4]

Many believed the touch of a tax collector rendered a house unclean [5]

"It may be that contact with [Matthew] was actually more offensive than contact with a leper since a leper's condition was not chosen whereas a tax collector's was."[6]

Matthew chose his fate, Steve Bartman did not

Jesus, of course, knew all this. But He still loved Matthew with a pursuing love.

There’s no indication that Matthew was, like Zaccheus, looking to see Jesus. Or, like the tax collector in one of Jesus’ parables, going to the temple to pray.

Matthew is collecting taxes, when Jesus pursues Him.

Jesus loves all His people with a pursuing love...

Romans 3:10-12—...“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

If no one pursues God, why do any of us follow Him? Because He pursued us!!!

Christian: don’t be proud! You are His because He pursued you!

Unbeliever: is He calling you today?

"You take the first step, God will take the second step, and by the time you get to the third step, you will know that it was God who took the first step." [7]

Jesus loves to love people that others love to hate. He loves sinners with a pursuing love.

But what does He do when He pursues sinners?

2) Jesus Loves Sinners with an ACCEPTING Love (vv. 10-11)

It’s possible to pursue someone, only to nag them and badger them about all the things they’re doing wrong. It’s possible to pursue someone to show them how they’ve failed and how they never measure up. That’s not our Jesus.

9:10—And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples.

Matthew, the author of this gospel, is modest. He wants to focus on Jesus’ love, not his response. But Luke’s gospel tells us it was Matthew who threw this dinner party.

Notice who is at the party...

MANY...

...Tax collectors...

…and “sinners”

Aren’t we all “sinners”?

MacArthur explains, “The Jews of Jesus’ day used the term sinners almost as a technical term for people who had no concern or respect either for the Mosaic law or rabbinic traditions. They were looked on as the vilest and most wretched and worthless of all people.” [9]

Jesus is hanging out, eating dinner with these guys?!?

Take it a step further: there’s no indication these people have cleaned up their act!

With the exception of Matthew, these aren’t former tax collectors. They are tax collectors! They’re not repentant sinners, they are sinners!

Jesus accepted these men and women as they are!

That’s why the Pharisees respond as they do...

9:11—And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

In another story, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being...

Luke 7:34b—“...A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

"How can your Teacher accept such wicked people”

Christian, can you relate to the Pharisees?

What would you think if you saw Jesus eating dinner with a many terrorists, pedophiles, abortionists, LGBTQ+ activists, rapists, and murderers?

If it bothers you, your instinct is right. God is holy. He cannot tolerate evil!

How then can Jesus, the God-man accept sinners?

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

Unbeliever: Jesus doesn’t ask you to clean yourself up before you come to Him.

The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Repent and believe today! Let Him clean you up!

Jesus loves to love people that others love to hate. He loves sinners with an accepting love.

But we can’t stop here. Because even though Jesus loves us where we are, He loves us too much to leave us there!

3) Jesus Loves Sinners with a TRANSFORMING Love (vv. 12-13)

If we talk about Jesus’ accepting love and ignore His transforming love we’ll have a Jesus who seems great to the world but doesn’t look much like the Jesus of the Bible.

Kevin DeYoung—“…This truth...—that Jesus is a friend of sinners—...like every other precious truth in the Bible, needs to be safeguarded against doctrinal and ethical error. It is all too easy, and amazingly common, for Christians (or non-Christians) to take the general truth that Jesus was a friend of sinners and twist it all out of biblical recognition. So “Jesus ate with sinners” becomes “Jesus loved a good party,” which becomes “Jesus was more interested in showing love than taking sides...”

“In what way was Jesus a friend of sinners?... Did he indiscriminately “hang out” with drunks and prostitutes? Was he an easy going live-and-let-live kind of Messiah?...

“Jesus was a friend of sinners not because he winked at sin, ignored sin, or enjoyed light-hearted revelry with those engaged in immorality. Jesus was a friend of sinners in that he came to save sinners and was very pleased to welcome sinners who were open to the gospel, sorry for their sins, and on their way to putting their faith in Him.” [9]

The Pharisees ask, “What is Jesus doing?!?” How can He accept people like this?!?

Jesus defends Himself by reminding the Pharisees that He’s not merely accepting sinners. He’s transforming them.

First, Jesus defends His love with common sense...

9:12—But when He heard it, He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

“You guys know these sinners are sick. Fair enough, I agree. But what do sick people need? A doctor!”

Imagine a doctor who always diagnosed but never prescribed.

Jesus is the Great Physician. He diagnoses our spiritual sickness and provides the cure!

Second, Jesus defends His love with Scripture...

9:13a—“Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’”

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for not understanding...

Hosea 6:6—For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

God has always been after people with transformed hearts, not mere ritual-observance

Third, Jesus defends His love by explaining why He came...

9:13b—“For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke’s version of this story says that Jesus calls sinners to repentance (Lk. 5:32)

The whole point of Jesus’ coming was to call sinners to repent and believe!

John 3:16-17—“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

Jesus isn’t saying the Pharisees don’t need Him because they’re already righteous. He’s saying that because they’re self-righteous, they don’t think they need Him.

The first step to receiving the Gospel is admitting your need!

Jesus didn’t merely defend His transforming love. He demonstrated it!

Look at Matthew...

Luke 5:28 says Matthew “left everything” to follow Jesus

If following Jesus didn’t work out, what job could a former tax collector get? Matthew’s truly leaving everything behind.

Matthew isn’t doing it begrudgingly either. He’s joyfully following Jesus!

Remember, Matthew held this great feast. He’s bringing his friends to Jesus!!!

If you discovered a cure for cancer, wouldn’t you tell somebody?

Have you been transformed by Jesus’ love? Have you left your former life behind to follow Jesus? Are you faithfully inviting others to follow Jesus too?

Jesus doesn’t merely accept you. He transforms you. If there’s no evidence that His love has begun to change you, then perhaps you’ve never truly received it.

Ask someone: how have you seen Jesus’ love transform me? Where do I still need to grow?

Jesus loves to love people that others love to hate. He loves sinners with a transforming love.

Before we conclude, let’s apply some lessons from Jesus’ love.

If you’ve been loved like this you should love like this...

1) Love sinners with a pursuing love

John 20:21—Jesus said to them . . . “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.”

We are called to pursue the lost, not wait for them to come to us

Invited neighbors to VBS, they didn’t even know church building was here.

Easy place to start: pursue those you don’t know on a Sunday morning

2) Love sinners with an accepting love

Don’t expect the unbelievers in your life to live like Christians!

Don’t get bent out of shape when they use profanity, fly rainbow flags, get angry at the Supreme Court, etc.

Learn how to accept them where they are, without approving of their sin.

Sinners were comfortable enough to eat around Jesus, but the only ones who followed Him for long were those who forsook their sin

Easy place to start: learn to accept each other in the church, warts and all

3) Love sinners with a transforming love

Obviously we can’t transform anybody, but we can point them to the One who can

Jesus is rightly called a friend of sinners, but He wasn’t merely “hanging out” the way friends typically do. He had an agenda, to call them to repentance.

We must have the same agenda with our unbelieving friends and neighbors.

Unbeliever: we know we’re often really bad at this. But Jesus isn’t! Trust Him!

Christian, none of you are going to do this perfectly. In the end, it’s not your love that will win the victory. It’s the love of Christ.

13 years after that fateful night in Chicago, the Cubs finally won their World Series Championship against my beloved Cleveland Indians.

Several months later Steve Bartman, who never played an inning of professional baseball and never even sold a beer or a hot dog at Wrigley Field received a World Series ring from the Cubs.

SHOW BARTMAN RING IMAGE

Bartman contributed nothing to the Cubs championship. If anything, he only added to the franchise’s pain. But in the end, he received the same reward that every one of those championship players received.

That’s the way grace works, isn’t it?

You may be the most vile sinner in this room. You may feel like everyone hates you. You may feel like you’re unworthy of love. But Jesus is pursuing you with His love. He’ll accept you as you are, and then for the rest of your life He’ll slowly transform you into the person He wants you to be.

And when you die, you will receive the prize of eternity with Jesus. A prize you did nothing to earn.

Come As You Are

Benediction (Revelation 1:5b-6)