Sunday March 1, 2009 Phone: 570.829.5216 Pastor David Miklas e-mail pdmikbbm@aol.com Message #11 Twelve Chosen Men Text: Matthew 10:1-8 Matthew (Levi) The Converted Tax Collector Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:14-17, Luke 5:27-32 Introduction: We have been discussing twelve very special individuals, men who were chosen by our Lord to be His Apostles. Their task was to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. It s interesting that the Lord only chose twelve men for such an incredible task, twelve unqualified men at that! Yet, they literally turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ. God can do amazing things against tremendous odds with only a few men. The Old Testament gives us many examples of these: Here are just a few: In I Kings 18:40 Elijah slew 850 false prophets single-handedly. In Judges 15:14-20 Samson slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. In Judges 8:1-10 Gideon, with an army of only 300 men, defeated a Midianite army of 135,000. The point is this: God can accomplish His purposes with a multitude of people or just a few, it doesn t matter. As we look at the Apostles, we see twelve men who literally turned the world upside down. These twelve, simple, humble men established the church, extended the Kingdom, and touched the entire world. Please notice again Matthew 10:1-4, And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. (2) Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; (3) Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; (4) Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Now we come to another disciple, MATTHEW, who is listed for us in the second group of the disciples. The other disciples in this group are Philip, Nathanael Bartholomew, and Thomas. Matthew is mentioned in each of the four lists of the Apostles, always in the second group. However, the only picture we have of him is in relation to one incident found in three separate gospels: Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:14-17, and Luke 5:27-32. For the purpose of this lesson we will look at the account in Matthew 9:9-13 where we read. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. (10) And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. (11) And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? (12) But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. (13) But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. From this incident, we learn the following about Matthew: First: Matthew s recognition of Jesus ability to forgive sin, verse 9. Now, why does Matthew even comment about himself here in verse 9? What s his point? Well, in verses 1-8, Matthew is giving a demonstration that Jesus came to forgive sin. In verse 5-6 Jesus says, for whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath, power on earth to forgive sins... Then in verse 9, Matthew slips himself into the account to show that indeed Jesus can forgive sins, since He forgave such a vile sinner as himself, And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. Page 1
In verse 9 you will notice it says, Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: Matthew was a tax collector. Why does Matthew make reference to himself as a tax collector? Was it something to be proud of? NO! A tax collector was the most hated, despised, despicable human being in the society of Israel. He was hated because of his position and hated because of his associates. Matthew was simply showing us his genuine humility and sense of sinful unworthiness. Matthew was a traitor, an extortioner, a thief, and an outcast and he knew it! You see, Matthew was a publican, a Jew hired by the Roman government to collect taxes from his fellow Jews to give to Rome. He was a first class traitor who worked for the oppressor. And not only that, he bought the right from the Roman government to collect taxes, so you can say he bought into the system. Now the government would stipulate a certain amount of tax that had to be given to Rome, but then the publican was free to keep anything else he collected. This led to bribes, extortion and other abuses. There were two major classes of tax collectors: The GABBAI were the general tax collectors who collected property tax, income tax, and poll tax. These taxes were standardized so there was apparently little graft at this level. The MOKHES collected duty on everything. They collected taxes on all imports and exports, tolls on roads, donkeys, packages, letters, etc. They taxed everything they could. There were two kinds of MOKHES. A GREAT MOKHES hired someone to do the tax collecting for him so he could fade into the background. He didn t want to be associated with the actual activity itself, and thus retained some of his dignity. A LITTLE MOKHES was too cheap and too greedy to hire somebody to collect the taxes, so he did it himself. He didn t care about the social stigma associated with such a job. This is what Matthew was, a little Mokhes. In Matthew 9:9 we see him sitting at the tax office. He was a greedy extortioner and traitor to his people. He was hated because of his position and because of his associates. In fact tax collectors and harlots were looked upon as the same kind of people, hated and rejected. If people saw them on the streets, they crossed to the other side. They were so rejected by human society that the critics of Jesus criticized him by saying. He s a friend of publicans and sinners. Yet the Lord welcomed both Matthew and Zacheaeus, another tax collector, to him. Thank God, Jesus didn t look upon them as dirty old sinners. He saw them as people who needed to be saved. Thank God, people can be saved who have been rejected by everybody else. The fallen one, the rejected one can be saved, AMEN! Second: Matthew s response to Jesus call. Matthew s salvation, call and life show that the Lord saved people from all walks of life. In I Timothy 1:15-16 Paul said he was the chief of sinners when he wrote, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (16) Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. The conversion, the call and the life of Matthew show that Jesus is, according to Hebrews 7:25, able to save them to the UTTERMOST that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Page 2
To all human beings that call upon Jesus to save them from their sins they are instantaneously saved. Matthew was instantaneously saved. Salvation is not a process. Let me repeat that, Salvation is not a process. A lot of folks would lead you to believe that to gain salvation you must go through certain exercises which will lead up to the matter of being saved. Salvation is an instantaneous experience in the life of those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. At that moment of believing faith, Matthew as well as you and I were Born Again into the family of God, receiving forever eternal life. Now there were two things that happened to Matthew as a result of his response to his salvation. He denounced his career: Again notice Matthew 9:9 where we read,...and He (Jesus) saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him. When Matthew walked away from his tax table, he walked away from his career. A lot more was at stake for him than for the fishermen, who left their nets. If following Jesus didn t work out for them, they could always go back to fishing, their nets and boats would still be there. In fact, in John 21 they did go back to fishing, but only until the Lord came and straightened them out. However, when Matthew walked away from his tax table, I m sure the Roman government had somebody there the next day to take his place, cutting off his career for good. All this shows that the past life of a saved person is completely forgiven. Here is Matthew, his whole life, work and calling had been against these people and against Christ. How could he be a disciple? Thank God, that is the miracle of regeneration! The miracle of being a Christian is that God removes all our past life and it is not held against the believer anymore. God remembers our sin and past life no more. Isaiah 44:22, I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins... Isaiah 38:17,...for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back, He had a desire to win others to Christ: Please notice verse 10 where I want you to see that Matthew made a public confession of his faith, And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. In Matthew 10:23-22 Jesus said, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. In Romans 10:9-10, Paul instructs us, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shatl believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. In verse 11 we read, For the scripture saith, Whosoever believethon him shall not be ashamed. Perhaps you are asking, Does going down an aisle of a church save you from sin? No! But it indicates to God and man and to all concerned that you either want to be saved or you are giving testimony that, yes, I have in my heart believed and have by faith trusted Jesus as my Saviour. I have a hard time getting excited about a kind of Christianity in which people are silent about it. They don t want to show their Christianity or talk about it. Matthew wanted to show that he had put his faith in Christ. He wanted to profess it publicly. What better way than to provide a meal, call together all his cronies,,other publicans and sinners, and invite Jesus to be there. One of the first indications or evidence that a person is saved is he wants to get somebody else saved. Page 3
The point of Matthew s banquet was for Jesus to call sinners to repentance. He had a heart for the lost. There are some wonderful people in this world who just gravitate to the down-and-outers, and Matthew was one of them. I m glad that when the Lord put together a team of twelve men, He took some of them out of the deepest pit of sin. Why did He do that? So that we would see the possibility of reaching people in that pit, and the potential of those people once they were saved. I believe the thread running through the first part of Matthew 9 is confession of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. The reason Matthew inserts his conversion experience where he does in scripture is because of his deep sense of sin and forgiveness. He knew his sin, his graft, his abuse, his extortion, his greed, and his betrayal of his people. He knew that he was a sinner, and I believe he despised it and wanted out. I believe he had heard Jesus preach in that little town of Capernaum and knew when Jesus said to him, Follow Me, inherent in that command was the forgiveness of his sins. So, he was willing to say good-by to his career and his way of life, because he wanted forgiveness. Third: Lessons we can learn from Matthew First lesson: In our life experience, God may want us to give up something in order to follow Jesus. Matthew left his career to follow Jesus and never turned back. Second lesson: God is looking for full-time representatives. Not just those who give their Sunday best, but those who follow the Lord seven days a week, day and night, twelve months out of the year. That is the kind of Christianity God wants. This business of only operating on Sunday is sending America to hell. God wants those who are as good a Christian on Monday morning as they are on Sunday morning. God is looking for full-time representatives who are sold out to go all the way with Him. Third lesson: God is no respecter of persons. God reaches down into every area of society. God cares not about your background; it is your foreground God is interested in. God took Matthew out of all that background as an outcast, the most hated of men. God saved him and changed his life. He is no respecter of persons. Fourth lesson: Every human being in the world is a candidate for salvation. Fifth Lesson: Material things do not satisfy the soul. Matthew had all this world s goods he could ever want. Yet, when he heard the Master say, Follow ME he left it all to follow Jesus. What kind of people does God use? Stained glass saints? No. He uses vile, wretched, rotten sinners. He uses the most despicable. We may say, God can t do much with that kind of person, with that kind of past. Oh, really? God used Matthew to write the first Gospel of the New Treatment. Thank God he takes the unqualified and through His marvelous grace he transforms them into the qualified for His Glory. ********************************************** If God has spoken to your heart after reading the sermon on Matthew (Levi) The Converted Tax Collector then right now talk to God about what He has spoken to you. Do you have the assurance that one day you will go to heaven? If you have no assurance that you know Jesus Christ, then I trust you will decide to accept Him as your personal Savior. The Bible tells us in Acts 16:31,...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved... Romans 10:13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This prayer is here for those who need to ask Jesus to be their personal Savior: I do want to go to Heaven. I know I am a sinner, and I do believe Jesus Christ died for me. I realize I cannot buy this great salvation, nor can I earn it. Knowing Jesus died on the cross and arose from the grave to pay Page 4
my sin debt and to purchase my salvation, I do now trust Him as my Savior, and from this moment on I am completely depending on Him for my salvation. If you made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, would you please let me know? Please send me an e-mail to pdmikbbm@aol.com. and in return I will send you some literature that will help you in your Christian life. The Weekly SERMON was sent as a ministry of Bible Baptist Ministry, 48 Alexie Rd., Hanover Township, PA 18706. Privacy policy: your e-mail address will not be sold, or shared with any third party. Copy write permission: Because the Weekly SERMONS will be reproduced into other formats, PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING: The Weekly SERMON in it s original form, without any changes, may be copied and re-transmitted by electronic mail, and copies may be printed for individual or ministry purposes, provided that such copying, re-transmission, printing, or other use is not for profit or other commercial purpose. Any copying, re-transmission, distribution, printing, or other use of the Weekly SERMON must set forth in full the heading that is given before each Weekly SERMON. Any other request for use, please contact Bible Baptist Ministries at pdmikbbm@aol.com or by phone at 570.829.5216. Page 5