Matthew 9:1-17

            And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

            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.

            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?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

            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. 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.”

Celebrating Four Years

“Where He leads me I will follow…I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way.” That was the singing conclusion to last Sunday’s service, and it’s where I want to start this morning on our fourth birthday—if you want to think of yourselves as children, one of the families of God’s children here in the South Metro—or our fourth anniversary—if you like thinking of our congregation as part of the Bride of Christ meeting south of the river.

A Brief History

It was in the three summer months of 2006 that this portion of Bethlehem first began meeting one Wednesday night a month, at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan for a meal and a time of worship and the Word. In June there were about 150 present, 190 in July and 225 in August.

Then, on September 10, 2006, 750 members, regular attenders and friends (exactly the number Pastor Piper had asked to attend “Launch Sunday”) came to the MRAZ Auditorium at Burnsville High School. And for the first time in the old church’s then 135-year history, Bethlehem Baptist Church was worshiping and having Sunday School at three locations: Downtown, Mounds View and Burnsville.

The original elder team consisted of five men. Two of them were called elsewhere to live and serve and now there are eight of us. Just two of the current support staff have been here from the start: “Super Volunteer” Bonnie Williams (as nursery coordinator) and “Miss (& now Mrs.) Make-It-Happen”Amy Katterson (as office administrator). Those still on the worship team from Day 1 are Tim Jacobson (piano), Joe Davitt (drums), Rich Burton (auxiliary percussion), and John Huss (bass).

Together with our children, and do we have a bumper crop of them, there are now 1,194 members, regular attenders and their children who consider the south site our church home. Thought of as households, there are 375 South households.

A Few Thoughts From Our Birthday/Anniversary Text:  “Follow Me!”

The two key words among the seventeen verses that were just read are in v. 9, “Follow Me!” “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.” They stand out because of who said them, because of how they were obeyed, and how they were not and are not obeyed.

1. Because of Who Said Them!

This invitation and command is from the mouth of Jesus Christ. What do we already know about him so far from the opening page of the New Testament and up to this point? Here are a dozen things. He…

1. Had direct physical lineage back to Abraham (the “Father of Israel”) and to David (greatest OT King of the Jewish people).
2. Had the most astonishing birth story in human history (a virgin conception by God’s Spirit).
3. Was visited by “wise men” from the East, seeking Him as the newborn king of the Jews.
4. Was rescued from a murderous, puppet-king named Herod while still an infant by heaven-sent dreams.
5. Was brought back from Egypt and was raised in Nazareth.
6. Was pointed to in young manhood by the prophet John as the mighty One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.
7. Was attested to at his own baptism by a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (3:17).
8. Was tested (and withstood the temptations) for forty days in the wilderness by the devil.
9. Attracted great crowds from all over Israel with his teaching and healing ministry.
10. Started to call his first disciples, all of whom immediately left everything to follow him.
11. Announced the presence and nature of the kingdom of heaven, doing so in the greatest sermon ever recorded.
12. Performed deeds that were no less mighty than his words, such as cleansing a leper with his touch, healing a centurion’s servant without the man even being present, removing a fever from Peter’s mother-in-law, turning a great storm into a great calm on the Sea of Galilee, and healing two demon-possessed men previously so fierce no one could pass near them.

All those words and deeds, every commendation and prophetic fulfillment bring us to the seventeen verses we read in Matthew 9. There Jesus does yet another miracle, healing a paralytic, but this time he advances his identity by doing that physical marvel in order to prove his even greater spiritual authority to do what only God can do—forgive sins! Verse 6, “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And he rose and went home.” This is the Jesus who, according to the start of v. 9, was passing on from that miracle to this moment. He was approaching the tax booth.  He saw a man called Matthew. He was about to say, “Follow Me!” again. 

Once more, let’s be clear about this man and this moment! Who is this that is passing by? Who is it that sees a man called Matthew, sitting at the tax booth? Who is about to say yet again to this man, not a fisherman like the previous disciples but instead this time a tax collector, “Follow Me!”? It is the God-Man. The Gospel record has taken pains to make it inescapable to us that there is nothing Jesus cannot do. This first book of the New Testament in fact closes with Jesus’ own affirmation, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (28:18).  He will go on from calling Matthew to fill out his career of teaching and to perform other sensational miracles. He will go on to do what only he and the Father knew must happen and that, together with the Holy Spirit, lay hidden in plain sight in the Old Testament writings. Namely, that God would kill his only begotten Son in order that he might be both just and the justifier of all who believe in him.

This is the Christ, the King, our Lord and only Savior! Two centuries ago, one writer penned these oft-quoted words about Jesus.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress.  I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life (Leighton Ford, quoted from sermon series, p.83). 

And now at the intersection of time and eternity, when the Son of God is passing and seeing and speaking to another solitary son of Adam—and surely at that, a most hated and traitorous turn-coat to his own people—we now observe a second remarkable thing about these two words, “Follow Me!”

2. How They Were Obeyed!

The second thing about these words is how they were obeyed. Turn your attention from the speaker to the subject. Matthew responded in almost exactly the same way the paralytic had and that perhaps only moments before. Look at v. 7 about this lame man. It says, “And he rose and went home.” But now, look two verses down at the words ending v. 9, “And he [Matthew] rose and followed him.” That is no accident. Our inspired writer was purposefully describing two consecutive miracles!

Listen to the words of commentator Michael Green about that electric moment:

Matthew will have heard the teaching of Jesus in the Capernaum area. He will have seen the miracles of Jesus. He will have been wondering about this amazing man everyone was talking about. And then suddenly Jesus stood in front of him, and said, ‘Follow me’.   Matthew did just that. That is truly amazing—

• amazing that Jesus should bother about someone so universally despised and hated;
• amazing that Matthew should leave everything to follow this carpenter;
• amazing that Jesus had such authority that when he said to a businessman, ‘Follow me’, the man obeyed; and
• amazing the transformation in Matthew’s life that resulted. To him is owing the first written accounts of the life of Jesus and materials in the life of Jesus we have from no other source. History records that he went on to teach and preach in Persia and the Far East, never forsaking Jesus even up to and including a martyr’s death. (p. 123) 

It is hard to escape the conclusion that Matthew is here modestly describing his own conversion story. But turn back to another similarity between the healed paralytic of v. 7 and the now former tax collector. Both of them immediately arose and both of them also went home. Yes, it says that explicitly about the healed man in v. 7, but Matthew took Jesus home with him according to v. 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.” Mark’s account says the follow-up gathering took place at “his [Matthew’s] house” (2:15).  And it is even more unmistakable in Luke 5:28-29,  “And leaving everything, [it says of Matthew, or “Levi,” his other name], he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there were a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.”

Is this not a frequent and altogether natural and appropriate first impulse to a life of discipleship, a life of following Jesus, that we ask him to come home with us? The two on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:28-31 were drawing “near to the village to which they were going. [Jesus] acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”

It is the same kind of reaction that Lydia the businesswoman had at Philippi, as recorded in Acts 16, “…when the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’  And she prevailed upon us” (vv. 15-16). And of course there is that other famous little tax collector from Jericho whom Jesus called from his perch up in a sycamore tree, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

Whether Jesus said it first as the leader or Matthew did as the brand new disciple, there must have been instant agreement between them, “Let’s have a party tonight and invite lots of friends!” Don’t you suppose the invitation to Matthew’s house that night was the hottest ticket in town!? The news of his simply standing up and walking away from his sweet, guaranteed, government job in the tax booth must have spread like fire through Capernaum, especially among his fellow tax collectors. Don’t you suppose more than a few went to talk the poor, deranged fellow back to his senses?  Michael J. Wilkins observes,

For Matthew, discipleship has an immediate cost, for collecting taxes not only filled the coffers of the governor but also meant a lucrative income for the tax collector.  A fisherman could always go back to fishing, but it is less likely that a tax collector could return to the booth.  But our author doesn’t expand on what that sacrifice entails, perhaps a subtle indication of the identity of humble Matthew as author of this first Gospel (p. 365, The NIV Application Commentary).

Regardless, Matthew realized that his conversion and call could be a door of hope for many others. His salvation encouraged other tax collectors to do that very night what he had done earlier in the day, to come to Jesus! His open house gave opportunity to those friends to hear Jesus. How many of them were up to their necks in business? Totally absorbed and utterly lost in their careers, needing what Matthew had received: a call to come at once, to escape, to trade up from what they could not keep to lay hold of what they could not lose! All of us know people exactly in that trap today and our ministry individually and as a congregation might be useful to bringing them to the Savior and keeping us close to him as well!

Contrast Matthew with “the rich young man” who he would later observe and write about in chapter 19, a man Jesus loved and who approached the Lord asking what he must do to have eternal life. The climax is in vv. 21-22 where “Jesus said to him, ‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ [Identical words of invitation but…] When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” This leads to the final observation about the simple command and invitation of Jesus to “Follow Me!”

3. How They Weren’t (& Aren’t) Obeyed

On our fourth birthday as a church, let’s recognize there were people then (and still are) who won’t come to the party with Jesus.  They won’t throw such a party for sinners, nor will they come even if we host it and invited them. Verse 11 reads, “And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”            Unlike some church people, Jesus was totally relaxed in the presence of sinners and outsiders of every kind. The Pharisees, on the other hand, excluded themselves from the party. “Pharisee” means “separated one”; they were proud that they stand out from the crowd and are good people. Such an attitude stinks in God’s nostrils. The kingdom is a one-class society—for sinner’s only (Michael Green, 124).

So is that what we will honestly advertise ourselves to be? One of our great temptations, maybe our greatest danger, is to let the lingering, self-righteous, better-than-thou-Pharisee in us isolate and close our hearts and our doors to other sinners. It is to be afraid of contamination from worldly people. Jesus wasn’t afraid of that and neither should we be. Look at verses 12-13 for Jesus’ words and our safeguard, “But when he heard it [namely, that the Pharisees thought themselves too good to eat and mingle with sinners], he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Thus he called Matthew, the sinner, and thus he called us into his one-class society of sinners. And thus he means to call us forgiven sinners to the spreading of his healing gospel in our sin-sick south suburbs. Jesus leniently and graciously referred to our sin as a terrible and universally fatal disease and then gave himself as God’s ultimate and only cure. I used this thought in a funeral meditation just yesterday that I want to share again this morning in closing.

What was the main thought of our Great Physician, Jesus, as he was mixing his invaluable medicine? What was it that made him shed great drops of blood? Was it human guilt or human merit? Well, of course, it was guilt and guilt alone! What made him give his back to be whipped to a bloody pulp? And his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard? What made him stretch out his arms on the cross and give his feet to the nails? What made him bear the infinite, unbearable wrath of Almighty God? Not the supposed goodness of those who think themselves good enough for God but rather for us sinners in all our vileness and stubbornness and meanness and foolishness due to sin. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Need, need, need alone hastened the Doctor’s coming from the throne of heaven to the cross.” And brothers and sisters of the South Site, that ongoing realization of our desperate need still brings him from heaven down with great power to every house and every heart that calls out for help in his healing Name.

The best case we can lay before this Great Physician in the year to come and for the rest of our lives is a bad one. Not apologizing for our sins or attempting to make them less than they are, let us tell him we are guilty and contemptible and self-righteous. Falling flat before him, let us go on always saying, “Lord Jesus, if you are looking for someone to heal, I’m just your man. Please, take me on. Make me another of your patients. All I have to offer you is my need.” Bethlehem, trust Him, believe Him. He loves to save!