Sunday Service 17/5/09

Friend of Sinners.

Guess who we're talking about? Why of course, Jesus. Our beloved Lord and Savior. The only one who would be a friend of those who do wrong in the eyes of the "righteous"..

Matthew 9:9-11
It talks about the calling of Matthew.

Why did God chose Matthew?
I don't know.
Neither did Pastor Terrance Hall, our pastor for the day.
We would never know what went through Jesus' mind that day.
But one question it brings up:
Why did God chose us?
We will never know why God chose us.
But one thing is for sure, thank God He chose us.
Now we have the opportunity to be saved..

And Matthew got up and followed Him.
So the bible says.
Now imagine,
Matthew is what we would call, "a Roman dog"
And no one would ever respect nor take him as a friend.
Except perhaps the government officials for whom he was working for..

So, why did Matthew walk away from his responsibility?
Why did he ever walk away from what he knows best?
His most familar things?
Why did Matthew choose to follow Christ?
I don't know.
Neither did Pastor Terrance Hall, our pastor for the day.
We would never know what went through Matthew's mind that day.
But one question it brings up:
Why did we choose to follow Christ?
We didn't hear a voice calling us, but we chose to follow God.
Anyhow, thank God we chose to follow Him,
For now, we have the gift of salvation.

Now, between verses 9 and 10,
Where Matthew invited Jesus to dinner,
And the actual dinner itself,
It took possibly about 8 hours.
"Why?", you may ask.
Imagine,
The middle of the day,
Nothing prepared.
And suddenly Matthew appears,
Yells at his servants to go buy veggies, wine, and slaughter a calf.
Then they have to chop, slice, cook, garnish, serve..
And the main point is, what was Jesus doing in this 8 hours?
Imagine, Matthew's house,
The living room, past the kitchen where servants are running frantically around,
Matthew sits, Jesus with him,
And obviously, some of Matthew's closes friends,
Who most likely are tax collectors like him,
Roman dogs whom their own people shunted.
And Jesus would be talking,
Everyone would be listening,
Someone would ask a question,
Jesus would explain, teach, answer.
And that person would feel so unburdened and grateful.

What was Jesus doing?
He was doing what we nowadays neglect to do when sharing/evangelizing..
He was becoming their friend.
Their FRIEND!
A friend of sinners.
That He was.

Imagine the Pharisees peeking through the shutters into Matthew's living room.
And then gossiping among themselves.
A disciple walks out for some fresh air and they grab him,
Throwing questions at him.
They couldn't criticize the conversation,
They couldn't blame the food,
They couldn't ask about why they weren't invited.
All they could blabber about was,
"Why does Jesus eat with sinners?"
That was all they had to shoot with and they didn't do a good job either..

And imagine Jesus was sitting near the window and overhears.
He turns, waves them in and offers them a drink,
Which they most reluctantly refuse (although extremely thirsty)
Of course, Jerusalem, so near the desert, would have been so hot and dry..
Then Jesus gives them a riddle,
They, who spend almost their entire lives studying and pouring over the old testament,
They, who spend almost all their time debating old laws,
Are now asked to ponder the answer to this riddle,
And if they could understand the riddle, they'd understand why Jesus was doing as such.
And Jesus gives them Hosea 6:6
"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
And acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."

They who spend their entire lives discussing what to kill and burn next,
Would never understand why God didn't want burnt offerings.
They would never want to understand such things..

Jesus had 2 purposes for being here.
1, To please the One who sent Him.
2, To seek and save the lost.

And later in the evening, or perhaps night,
As Jesus gathers His disciples together,
I assume Matthew among them,
As seen in verse 37,
He begins to explain to them,
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,
Pray to the Father to send more workers."
3 facts and 1 command He leaves with us:
1, The harvest is coming.
2, It will be plentiful.
3, But workers are few.
And He commands us to pray and ask the Father to send more workers.

Amen.