Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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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."
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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!’”
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