To Follow With a Whole Heart

Matthew 9:1-17

A father said to his son who complained of not having all the latest gadgets and toys, "When Abe Lincoln was your age, he was studying books by the light of the fireplace." The son replied, "When Lincoln was your age, he was President."

Do you ever feel like you haven't gone far enough? Haven't done enough or earned enough money or been famous or powerful enough to make life worthwhile? Do you ever feel like you're just a halfway kind of person?

Today we're going to talk about going all the way - reaching out with all the gusto you can muster - but not for fame, power, money, or position - but for life that really matters - a life wholly devoted to Jesus.

We're studying the life of Christ found in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus has just left an encounter with men taken hostage by Satan - setting them free. Today he sets two other men free - one from the shackles of sickness, the other from the chains of riches.

9:1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat.

Mark's gospel tells us that this is the story where the guys climb up on the roof and lower their friend onto the floor because there was such a crowd. They would have removed some tiles from the roof to accomplish this.

This alone is pretty amazing - look at the lengths these guys went to get their friend near Jesus. A lot of people would have simply seen the crowds and said to their friend "we're not going to get anywhere near Jesus today - let's try for another time when He's less busy."

Instead they were determined and found a creative way to draw near to the Jesus.

I like this because I think it points out several things:

1. How determined are you to get near Jesus?
Perhaps what's crowding you out is time, activities, hobbies, relationships, busyness, sin. Are you willing to go "all out" to worship Him, listen to Him, seek Him? Or are you easily dissuaded?

2. Jesus likes us to be persistent and bold
Have you noticed that? Remember the Centurion? We'll see another example later in this chapter with a woman bleeding inside. Then there's the blind man by the road - and the leprous guys who risked a lot to get near Jesus.

Psalms 63:1 1O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

I want to focus on the two common words here: earnestly. The Hebrew word means "to pine after" It reminds me of my dog whining after us when we won't come into the house as fast as she would like.

The Greek word means to search out, investigate, crave - demand. It's a word that's related to the Hebrew word for: worship.

Honestly - do we "pine after" the Lord - or do we simply worship and seek Him because it's just what Christians do? Do we, like the four men who carried the paralyzed man - demand to see Jesus and will do ANYTHING to get near Him?

Something else: look how Jesus reacts to the scene:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."

Jesus was not concerned about the interruption. He wasn't worried about the service being taken in another direction than His three-point outline.

Are we as flexible with our lives and ministries as Jesus was?

Look too - "He saw their faith." It wasn't the faith of the guy who was paralyzed - but of the friends that impressed Jesus. Sometimes we as friends just need to press in to God on behalf of another. Be persistent. Remember: "Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking."

And look what Jesus says: "your sings are forgiven."

Now we take that for granted - of course Jesus forgave sins, that's what He came to do. But these people didn't know that. Furthermore - this was the first time Jesus spoke about it. Before, He'd performed miracles of healing - but now He goes way beyond that - way beyond.

Pausing a moment here - its actually accurate to say that forgiving sins and healing go hand in hand. Its not that this man did something specifically sinful that caused him to be paralyzed - but the condition of sin that we are all born in after the fall is the cause of all sickness and disease because we live in a fallen world.

So not surprisingly, the religious leaders gathered there picked up on Jesus' words pretty quickly - and look what they say - and not out loud, but "to themselves."

3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"

Why would they think this?
To the Jews, only God could forgive sins. Blasphemy was taking anything that was a divine prerogative. The scribes had come from Jerusalem with the intent on finding something to blame on Jesus - and the Lord provides good customer service in that way, don't you think?

Actually, blaspheme was very serious back then - using the divine name or taking on divine attributes carried with it a death sentence. In fact, even the accusation of blaspheme was often enough to get someone killed - like taking out a contract on someone.

Blaspheme is what the Jews finally used to get Jesus crucified.
Look how Jesus responds:

4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

There are several ways of looking at this - some say that Jesus, though man, was still fully God and therefore was omniscient. Others suggest that when Jesus came to earth He gave up all heavenly powers and had to rely totally on the Holy Spirit - just like we do.

I tend to agree with the second - Jesus couldn't just read minds at will - He had to ask the Holy Spirit for discernment. Jesus was either told by the Holy Spirit what was going on in these guys minds - or maybe He just read their facial expressions and knew what they were thinking.

A word about discernment here - Hebrews 5:14
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Discernment - the ability to distinguish good from evil - God from what is not God - isn't learned in the sense of learning a trick or a skill - but it's obtained by learning how to hear the Holy Spirit.

Jesus heard the Spirit absolutely clearly - the writer of Hebrews suggests that one way we can hear the Spirit better is by "reason of use" - he's referring to using the Word of God.

How does this happen? 2 ways: Ingesting and Applying. We need to take in the Word so God can bring it to mind when needed - and we need to apply the Word to our life and to our world to see how they compare.

Now, your might say: Ya, but the Bible doesn't speak to every situation. This is true but Biblical principals do.

I want to give you three ways to help you discern whether something is of God or not based on the Bible:

1. Scripture doesn't speak against it
2. It conveys the gospel and is fully in keeping with the root and heart of Christian belief found in Scripture
3. It turns the focus onto Christ - not people or organizations or signs

Discernment is a gift - 1 Cor 12:10 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

John further describes how this gift can be put to use:

1 John 4:1-3 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

For us, discernment is sometimes hard to come by - and we agonize over whether we are hearing from the Lord - know this, the more time you spend with Him and His Word, the more discernment you will have.

So look how Jesus responds to these guys:

5 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7 And the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

Jesus could have said: your sins are forgiven - and no one would have been able to verify it. But for Him to say: Get up and walk - now that was immediately verifiable.

Jesus is proving that He can forgive by the fact that He can heal - proving the invisible task by doing the visible.

A mistake we Christians often make when we talk to people about Jesus - is we want to prove Christianity by philosophy and argument. Christianity is proved by the fact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead - a resurrection that is a provable historical event with eyewitness testimony.

We also help convince others to accept Jesus by our eyewitness testimony to what He's done in our lives. "I don't know the answer to all of your questions - but I do know this, once I was blind and now I see - once I was lost, and now I'm found - Jesus has made a profound difference in my life and He can do the same for you if you will give yourself to Him."

We don't hear the scribes response to Jesus' words - but what can you say to a changed life standing right in front of them?

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

This, of course, is the same Matthew who wrote the words we are studying.

Matthew was a tax collector - he worked for Rome, and more specifically, Herod Antipas, to collect taxes on goods that came by land or sea - Capernaum was on the caravan route from Damascus to the northeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The "booth" was a raised platform - Matthew was in a prominent place.

Tax collecting was a very lucrative occupation - tax collectors got a commission on every fee they got - and so they usually overcharged and kept the profits.

Tax collecting was a very poor tool for relationships. Matthew would have been shamed by his family, hated by society, and ostracized from his synagogue.

The simple words Jesus speaks to him: "follow me" was not an invitation. It is written in an imperative tense - it was a command - a command that for Matthew's relationships would not have caused more harm than being a tax collector - but from a financial point of view would have been devastating.

Once Matthew followed Jesus he could never go back to being a tax collector - unlike the other disciples, many of whom could and did return to their former jobs.

Why did Jesus choose Matthew? Maybe it was for his attention to detail and financial management skills - maybe it was to show just how far God was going to go in forgiving sins.

The point is - he did call him - and He does call you. No matter what you think about your life, your skills, or lack thereof - Jesus wants you and will use you if you will respond to the call. No matter how much other people scorn you or ignore you Jesus loves you - just the way you are. It isn't easy following Jesus - but the rewards He offers far outweigh anything Matthew, or we, can get here in this life.

So watch what happens next:

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

The first thing Matthew does after getting up and leaving his life of wealth to follow Jesus is to call all his friends together so they can hear about Him too. And isn't it exciting to see someone who has found the Messiah - sharing their new found faith with others?

Sinners here refer not only to pagan people - but also to those who were not among the "certified smart" of that generation - namely anyone who did not follow the strict rules of the Pharisees.

To these outwardly righteous people it would have made them unclean to eat with such a crowd.

This begs a question for us - after we have come to the Lord, and we begin to fellowship with other believers - we have a tendency to become separatists. We end up eating and playing and working and talking only to other believers.

Now there is nothing wrong with this - and it is true, as the Bible says: "bad company corrupts good character." (1 Cor 15:33) But the Paul, who wrote those words, also says: 1 Cor 9:22 "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

We need to be aware that separatism can turn into isolationism. The Pharisees thought themselves above associating with those who were not like them. We need to make sure that we don't fall into that trap - or we will miss the opportunity to share the life Christ has given to us with those who need it the most.

Look what Jesus says:

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Doctor's waiting rooms are full of sick people, not well people. Jesus was actually pretty insulting to the Pharisees, even though it doesn't sound like it. The phrase "go and learn" was what a teacher of the law would say to his students when they weren't getting it - when they needed to go back and apply God's word to better understand it.

The quote He gives - from the book of Hosea - was a condemnation on empty ritual. That's what the Pharisees were doing - staying clean because you love God is one thing - but staying clean in order to feel great about yourself and become self important is quite another.

We do run the risk of acting this way as we grow closer to the Lord. Remember the plank and speck? Don't be so above it all that we can't rub elbows with those who might be considered "sinners" or "unclean" today.

That doesn't mean you should run down to the corner bar and order up a drink for everyone - especially if addiction is a problem for you - but it does mean that we need to watch avoiding contact with pre-Christians.

So oddly enough - even John's disciples now come and question the Lord.

14 Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

16 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

Now - what is all this? Are we getting a sewing lesson, and a teaching on proper wedding etiquette?

No - the basic idea here is this: The Pharisees fasted as a way of showing their piety on Mondays and Thursdays. John's disciples fasted because their leader was in prison.

But Jesus' coming meant it was no longer a time for mourning or fear - but a time for celebrating. And He goes on to compare the old system of laws and rules and regulations - pictured as old cloth, or old wineskins - with the newness of life He was bringing.

You can't mix the old and new systems together - the law vs. grace, the old covenant versus the new, the old system of spirituality with the new one Jesus brought.

In these days - people stored wine in goatskins sewn around the edges. When wine was poured into them it would expand as it was fermenting. An old rigid wineskin could not hold new, fermenting wine - and in the same way the old rigid religious system of Judaism could not contain the message or way of Jesus.

Conclusion

In conclusion, let me ask a question: is your life a new or old wineskin? Are you a tax collector trying to fit into God's kingdom yet still retain the profits from the world's kingdom? Are you trying to look like a Christian, yet still retain the habits of a person who doesn't know Jesus?

You won't find happiness that way - the new life inside will burst through the old life - causing pain and a loss of what God really wants to do through you.

Instead, be like Matthew - get up from the lucrative table of the world, and forsake it all - make it so you can't go back - give your life fully to Jesus and cut yourself off from past habits and sins - be determined to get to Jesus, no matter what it takes - there you'll find forgiveness and riches far beyond what you could imagine.