Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you. I know we’ve got some folks out sick. I hope not with the flu. Maybe the flu. But I know the flu is going around. So, I’ll be praying for the sick among us. I know we’ve got some folks traveling as well. It’s good to be with you. If you would, turn with me to Matthew 9. We’re going to be in Matthew 9, verses 9-13.
Matthew 9, verses 9-13.
Matthew writes, And 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.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when He heard it, He said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners.
Many years ago, I was in Costa Rica, and I was in a food court in this mall, and of course, I can’t speak Spanish. I still can’t speak Spanish, even though I’m Spanish. Whatever, I can’t do it. But we’re at this food court, and you know, you just say easy things like numero uno, whatever.
But this guy, this guy that I was with, I don’t know why he thought if he spoke English like really loud and slow
that this man that can’t speak any English would hear him. So he was saying what he wanted over and over again, loud and slow. And I said, He’s not going to understand you better. He can’t speak your language. Like, he can’t respond to that. And so obviously that was hilarious and ribbed him for a really long time about it. Last week we said that it’s so important that you and I know the idea of God. That we know the identity of Jesus. Who is this Jesus? But it goes one step beyond just knowing who Christ is. And what becomes imperative is how you and I respond to Christ. Christ is not just someone to know and know about. He’s someone to hear and respond to. Christ has come to us where we’re at, and He’s speaking our language. He’s speaking in words loud and clear, words that we can hear. And that call that Jesus gives to each of us, He expects a very particular response from each of us. So what is Jesus saying to us? What’s His call? And then how does Jesus expect me and you to respond when Jesus calls? When Jesus calls? Verse 9 again, As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him,
So you’ve probably noticed it in Matthew’s gospel up till now, verse chapter 9. We go back and forth between like these big picture ministry scenes that Jesus does, these like intimate ones. So it’s like healing all these people in front of everybody, having these big teachings, and then He has like these one-on-one discourses. Remember like with the would-be disciples or the paralytic. So we go back and forth. And here we are again this week, with that pastoral, personal kind of ministry. Jesus deals one-on-one with a person. And it’s not that Jesus’ corporate public ministry isn’t valuable. It’s very valuable. But when Jesus has, you know, this personal dialogue with someone, it’s a very clear reminder that Jesus does want us to respond to Him. He will, you know, solicit a response from us. You and I are not. People may think they are, but you and I, are not nameless and faceless. Nobody’s nameless and faceless. God’s got tabs on every person. And because He’s got tabs on every person, God is going to acquire a very real response from you and I to Him and to His Christ. And what I want you to see is this. If there was ever an interpersonal dialogue that amplifies that reality, it’s this one this morning. If ever there was a person who would think, we would think this person’s nameless, this person is faceless, this person is invisible to God, it would be this person. But it’s the person that Jesus interacts with. And not with some kind of false piety, like Jesus has, you know, public relation image to keep up. Jesus isn’t going in false piety. Jesus is going because He loves the man. Who’s the man? Well, the man is Matthew. Matthew, who, you know, wrote this gospel that we’ve been waiting through for so long. And that Matthew was not reared from a young age in some particular special scholarly godly school to pen Scripture. You think if you’re going to pen Scripture, you better be something, you know, really big and somebody really important. It’s not true. When Jesus found Matthew, Matthew was a trader. Matthew was a trader of traders to his own people, the Jews. Matthew was a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector. One Bible dictionary defines a tax collector like this. They earned a profit by demanding a higher tax from the people than they prepaid to their Roman government. This system led to widespread greed and corruption. The tax collecting profession was saturated with unscrupulous people who overtaxed to maximize their personal gain. The toll collectors were in a profession that was open to dishonesty and oppression of neighbor. And since the Jews considered themselves victims of Roman oppression, Jewish tax collectors who overtaxed their fellow countrymen were especially despised. So tax collectors were especially hated. It hurt enough that my taxes weren’t going to my own country. They were going out to Rome, the people that suppressed me. What’s worse to add, you know, injury to insult. I’ve got fellow countrymen who are exploiting that and they’re burning me even worse and taking more. Of my money. So if you were a tax collector, you just didn’t give a rip about people at all. I mean, you cared about yourself. That was the only way to be a tax collector. You loved you.
So much like Zacchaeus up a tree, Matthew could have only imagined he was invisible to somebody like Jesus. Even despised and rejected. If common people thought that way, surely this great man… If God would think that kind of thing, you know, about Matthew. But Jesus passes by Matthew’s tax booths. The place where Matthew time and time again ripped people off. That’s what he did. It says Matthew is sitting. It doesn’t mean he sat or sometimes he would sit. It’s a continuous state. So Matthew is over and over again. He’s just sitting there doing what he knows how to do. Sin. Rob. Steal. It’s in. That place that Jesus sees Matthew. It’s in that place that Jesus comes to Matthew to this beyond help, beyond repair soul. And he says this. He says, Matthew, follow me.
Follow me. Now, Jesus didn’t mean, hey, you should take a vacation day, burn a vacation day and come around with the crowds and see how awesome I am from a distance. You know, because that’s as close as you’re ever going to get. To somebody like me. OK, that’s not at all what he he was saying to Matthew. The phrasing that Jesus is using here. It means why don’t you come after me? Why don’t you why don’t you come and live your life with me? Why don’t you come and live your life like me? What Jesus was calling this treacherous, this this selfish, this godless man to was intimate companionship. Jesus was inviting this man to something. He didn’t deserve. He didn’t deserve to be invited to. It didn’t have anything to do with Matthew. It didn’t have anything to do with Matthew’s qualifications. It had everything to do with the caller. It had everything to do with the caller’s qualifications. And I want you to see this. And this is really, really important. The call of discipleship, the call of the gospel. Yes, it was an invitation. But please see more so it was a command. The Greek doesn’t allow us to just see it as an open invitation. It was. What you call in the Greek an imperative. It was a direct command that required an immediate response.
So it wasn’t Jesus saying, hey, if you feel like it, Jesus was telling Matthew to do something. He said, Matthew, you get up. The same word that spoke creation into being when there was nothing was speaking life in Matthew where there was none before, where there was an absence of it.
And by grace working through faith, Matthew does that. And by grace doing this, he gets up out of his sin and he follows Jesus.
He believes, which is to say he obeys. And he obeys because he believes you can’t have one without the other. And it’s proof of real discipleship at life in Matthew. It’s the gracious work of the spirit enabling and empowering Matthew to do it.
So Matthew is this. Matthew is an unlikely follower. But he’s a real one. And here’s why. Because Jesus always calls unlikely followers to himself. It’s the only kind he calls. If you’re here this morning like, hey, I’m a Christian. Like, I hope you know you are an unlikely follower of Jesus. You’re not one. I’m not one because we looked up and we saw our great need. Only because Christ looked down and he had pity on our great need. Beyond a distance. Look, Christ came down to you and I in the place of debauchery, the place of self-seeking, the place of spiritual darkness. And it’s there that Christ issued that powerful call. It’s there in that place that Jesus shined his light in the darkness. It’s there in the helpless place that Christ himself became our help. And I don’t believe we have a better word picture of it in all the scriptures of what happens at the moment of conversion. What happens? What happens when a soul comes to faith than the word picture we get in Ezekiel’s vision in chapter 37. I want to read it with you. And here’s what God says to Ezekiel. We’re going to work through it. It’s a little long, but we can do it. It says, The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley. So he’s down in a valley. And it was full of bones. And he led me around them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley. And behold, they were very dry. You know, no marrow in the bone. They’re dead completely. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, oh, Lord God, you know. Then he said to me, you prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin, put breath in you. And you shall live to command. You will live. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound. And behold, rattling, the bones came together, both bone to its bone. And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them and flesh to come on them and skin covered them. There was no breath in them. But then he said, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, say to the breath. Thus says the Lord, come from four winds, oh breath. Breathe on these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me. And the breath came into them and they live and stood on their feet and exceedingly great army. And let me tell you, it’s a picture that when God tells somebody to get up and live, they get up and they live.
God shines his light and it penetrates the darkness.
Do not say you contributed to your salvation. Do not say you were good. As if you and I knew the difference between light and dark. Right and wrong, heaven and hell, death and life. God said to Jonah, Jonah, of course, I have compassion on the Ninevites. They don’t even know. God said their right hand from their left. Matthew, it says, was sitting. It was continuous. He couldn’t do anything else. He was helpless. He just did the thing he knew how to do. But God was gracious in that he became his help.
You know, you and I think silly things like, oh, of course. I’m a Christian. I grew up in a Christian home. And so I heard the gospel from a young age. What do you expect? Or this is the West. So everybody hears the God. That’s ridiculous. Let me say to you this. When a soul passes from death to life, from darkness to light, you know what it is? It’s a miracle of grace. And that grace is the power of God at work to enable sinners to believe and obey, to do what they could not do. It is a miracle. And I want to see the miracle. And if you’ve got the miracle. And you, friend, praise Jesus, because Jesus brought this miracle to pass for you and I to perceive the unhappy end of sin and the very joyous inheritance of the saints. You and I were unlikely followers, and we still would be not followers had it not been for the gracious call.
But the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that’s a powerful word, friends. And that word saves. It saves. It calls what’s spiritually dead. It comes to life.
It’s a powerful call, but it’s also something that requires a personal response. As much as you and I see the sovereignty of God and the salvation of sinners, the power of God to do what He will, you cannot exclude or ignore a personal responsibility to make the choice.
Commands are to be obeyed. You obey or you disobey. That’s what a command is. The act of obeying. It’s preceded by a conscious choice to follow. So Paul, in Acts 17, he says, hey, before God overlooked your ignorance, but now in these last times, He commands you, commands you to repent. So you would be, I would be lacking in spirit, a spiritual, scriptural basis if we tried to put the burden of responsibility on God for choosing. Like God’s not making the choice for me. It’s not how it happens. The very famous, you know, Joshua. You probably have it on your wall in your house. I think I’ve got it somewhere. Choose you this day. So again, it’s a command. It’s something God tells us. Hey, you choose. Choose you this day. So you’re not a robot. I’m not a robot. We’re not zombies. We’re not marionettes either, right? So here’s what I want us to see.
God powerfully saving us by grace through faith. God enabling and wooing us to Himself by enabling us to do. That’s not button heads with our choosing. It’s the means by which we can choose. So the lofty call to Christian discipleship, it’s accompanied by the grace and power to believe. The powerful call comes with the power to believe. That’s how good God is. His spirit draws us to say of our own volition. Yes. Amen. I want that. So passive discipleship is no discipleship. God will hold you and I accountable for how we obey the gospel and how we have or have not obeyed the implications of the gospel, our long-term discipleship, you know, past becoming Christians. He supplied the call and He supplied the means of grace to believe for those whom He calls. So what’s proof? What’s the proof that I have real discipleship? Here’s the proof. Have we gotten up with Matthew out of our sin? Have we followed Jesus? That’s the proof.
Have we bid farewell to monotony and meaninglessness apart from Christ? He longs to be near you and I. He desires to bring us into life with Him and His kingdom.
We’re unlikely disciples, but we’re made real ones. Here’s why. Because God willed us to be something we were not. Christ made us, called us to something we didn’t deserve. And the Spirit supplied the faith and the power to have it. And that Spirit won’t be taken away. So you and I can be sure our discipleship will be kept until the very end. You and I can be sure with all confidence this lofty call of discipleship, which is too great for me. Oh, but I, a weak vessel, I, a jar of clay, I’m filled with Christ to fulfill it. And that’s good news. And I will say happily, it’s something of a mystery, I think. And I need to be okay with that. How does it work? I don’t know how it works. I know it works. Paul says, hey, you, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So you do that, comma, for it is God who works and rules within you for His good pleasure. So, so yes, God is sovereign. But at the same time, that sovereignty, it’s calling me, it’s drawing me to believe. And I just need to be thankful for the gift of salvation in Jesus, right? I mean, it was, was it Augustine that said, I don’t, you know, understand to believe. I believe to understand, right? So the gospel. The gospel’s good for us, even if the mind of God, and surely we can all say the mind of God is way, is way beyond me.
We’re real ones. We’re kept ones. We’re able ones. We have been helped. We’re being helped. We’ve been qualified. We’re being qualified. It’s the work of the Spirit of God within us, unlikely but real. And here’s what I want to draw out with you this morning. I feel like as much as we hear that, it’s like, yes, that’s good. Like, that’s good. I have confidence in the Spirit. God has called me to this. It’s God’s work. And so I can obey. And it’s going to be good. You and I, I think we often have spiritual amnesia. And it leads us into potholes we never should have hit.
We’re told to have joy always, for example. We’ve been qualified, right? Yet how often do you, or perhaps somebody you know, like, they’re constantly dealing with this, like, shame, self-deprecation. And on the surface, like, oh, how noble. Like, they constantly feel bad about their sin. How could God love you? It’s not noble. Let me say this to you. It’s really. It’s really disgusting. And here’s why. Okay? It’s proof of disbelief, which becomes proof of disobedience. If you believe the gospel, you would believe Jesus took all your shame, which means you would live a free life. So it’s a belief issue. You’re not believing the gospel. You’ve been empowered. So you meet someone and say, oh, I’m just a hothead. I just have anger problems. No, you don’t have anger problems. You have belief issues. You’re not believing that Jesus died to your anger on the cross. And when he rose up victorious, he gave you a spirit of patience. He gave you a spirit of gentleness. He gave you a spirit of love. You’re not a hothead. You’re a disbelieving person. Friends, you need to believe the gospel. Or how often do we say things like, I can’t do anything great for God. Oh, I couldn’t imagine being one of those people that shares my faith all the time. Hold on. Doesn’t the scripture say the spirit equips us for every good work? Hold on. So again, it’s not an issue. It’s not an issue of something that’s wrong with you. It’s an issue that you’re not believing who Jesus is and what he’s done for you. So we need to constantly, again, preach the gospel to ourselves. It’s the medicine, friends, for so many things. I think that we hit and we didn’t have to. I’m not saying God doesn’t bring us through tough seasons. But I think we’ve put ourselves through tough seasons. Like, oh, the devil’s really after me. He’s not after you. You’re just not believing the gospel. Believe the gospel. And I certainly don’t want to say, like, I’m coming down on you. Like, all you people can’t believe. I mean, I’m struggling too. But what I want to do is not beat us. I want to lift us up to where we are with Christ this morning. I want us to live in the power and joy and life of that grace. So we got it with Matthew. We got to get up and we got to stay up. It’s been afforded to us in Christ.
Look back at verse 10 with me.
And it says, And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold,
many tax collectors and sinners came, and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples,
Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
So we learn from Mark and Luke’s account. It was Matthew. Why Matthew left that detail, I don’t know. But Matthew, Matthew threw the party. So Matthew’s celebrating Jesus with this big feast. And Matthew says that, he says it all the time. He says, behold. We talk about, hey, behold. It’s like, check it. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Something’s worth considering. And what does he say? He says that many tax collectors and sinners, that’s synonymous, tax collectors and sinners, they’ve come to this great party. And here’s what Jesus, or Matthew wants us to go at. It says Jesus is reclining at table with them. You ever been like in an uncomfortable, like formal dinner? Like you can’t wait to get out of there. It’s so weird. You’re like, ugh. I’m not this kind of person. I don’t drink out of like nice, beautiful glasses. Like, I’m gonna go home and eat off a paper plate. Like that’s not what happened because it says Jesus was reclining at table. And it’s a strange phrase to us. But what that means, Eastern, you know, culture style, Jesus is down on a pillow on the floor and he’s leaning over like on his side, like probably on his elbow. And he’s just eating and he’s just laying sideways talking and conversating. And I want to say this to you. He’s just, he’s just being with them. He’s just being with them.
One Bible dictionary says, a shared meal in Eastern culture, it shows the value of hospitality that a meal can affirm kinship, friendship, goodwill. It recognizes a peaceful disposition and a commitment to non-aggression.
So it was shocking that Matthew would come. Like Jesus, you called him out. Okay, you got away with him. He seems to be living his life. But you really don’t have any assurance, do you, that all these, other people are going to do that. You don’t know. So you’re just sitting there with them. You’re just being with them. They’re not good enough to have conversations with Jesus. They’re not good enough to have table fellowship with Jesus. That’s about as good as it gets in Eastern culture. They were below Jesus culturally. They were below Jesus when we’re talking about morals and spiritual purity. They weren’t there.
But here’s what Jesus does.
Jesus pays them a dignity they don’t deserve.
As the God-man, He’s acknowledging to them, maybe for the first time, it’s being revealed to these sinners. He’s just accepted. We’re the worst. Like we’re just bad people.
He’s revealing to them that God loves you, really. God really loves you.
It’s not that Jesus was ignoring their sin. It was that Jesus was powerful enough as the God-man to say, I love you in the midst of your sin. It’s an altogether different kind of love.
And the Pharisees are beside themselves.
It’s almost silly when you think about it. They say, hey, how come somebody so clean will get next to somebody so dirty?
And Jesus is like, well, you know, like sick people, how do they get better? They get close to people who are well and know how to help dirty, sick people. It’s almost silly the way the Pharisees are processing Jesus. But it shows this, the people that were so sure they were close to the heart of God, they couldn’t be, could they, any further from it. And then Jesus really, He hits them. Here’s His thing. He says, hey, you teachers of Israel, I want you to do something. I want you to go learn. You know that law? You know the prophets you think you know so well? You know the prophets you think you know so well? Hey, go figure out what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God instead of burnt offerings. All the rules, all the regulations of the Pharisees, it meant nothing to Jesus. And here’s why it meant nothing to Jesus. It didn’t flow from a heart of love that had experienced the compassion of God. And they didn’t have a heart that desired to show the compassion of God. That’s the problem. That is the great problem.
So Jesus always has unlikely followers. But I want to say to you, it’s because Jesus first is always willing to have unlikely friends. Are we?
The love of God came near to you and I in Christ Jesus. The love of God led the Son of God to humility to be with you, to be with me, to show us a dignity we did not deserve. And what does Paul write? Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.15. 1 Timothy 1.15. He says, here’s a trustworthy saying. Timothy, remember this. Christ Jesus came into the world. Why? To save sinners. I think we have to answer the Pharisees and say, duh, because it’s a point. It’s why God showed up. To save us. It wasn’t an accidental hobby Jesus had. Like just something He did on the side. He came to save sinners. Jesus came to have mercy. Jesus came, even though we didn’t know what to ask for. And here’s the thing. I know we’re in Matthew. And it’s like, how long can you stay in a book? Goodness. But if we’re really seeing Matthew, we’re going to see the whole thing. Anywhere in the Bible, you’re going to see the whole picture. You’re going to see that overarching, grand, redemptive story of God. So we go all the way back to the garden. In the very moment the first man fell, God does not separate himself. He says, hey, yeah, I got to separate myself from you. But what does God do? He pays Adam, that first sinner, this dignity. He says, hey, I’m going to send somebody to you.
You can’t send somebody if they don’t show up, right?
Even in the midst of the fall, God was saying, hey, somebody’s going to come. A seed’s going to come. He’s going to be with you. He’s going to fix you. And He’s going to heal you. He’s going to love you. And it was unconditional.
That’s how good God is in the beginning. Even in the beginning, even before time, Scripture says God had a definite plan to save sinners.
Mercy deserved. Those two words don’t work together, do they? That’s like just saying you didn’t do anything wrong.
Mercy by its nature, oh friends, it’s undeserved. But I want to say it’s the very thing that God has shown us in Christ. If mercy for sinners pulses through the Bible, the whole story, which is to say I think it pulses in Christ, which is to say it pulses in God, if you and I are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus, should we not say that the love and compassion of God for sinners pulses through us?
The commentator notes that Hosea is not a religious reactionary who simply desires to stamp out social sins and impose religious duty. To the contrary, he desires that his reader acquire the loving and compassionate heart that comes from, here it is, a transformational life with God. Right? Remember what Jesus said way back in chapter 5 in the Beatitudes? He said, hey, you know, sinners love sinners. Tax collectors love tax collectors. Gentiles love Gentiles. Big deal. It’s supernatural. It’s otherworldly. In fact, it’s of the perfections of the Father to love people who don’t deserve your love, to have compassion on mercy of people who don’t deserve it. Those are the people to which we should be with and love because it looks like God to love where love is not due, where love is not deserved. There’s a transference. There’s a transformational love. And I think it’s got to be proof. You know, you can’t be transformed and not be transformed. Like, if you’re transformed, you’re transformed. You’re like a caterpillar. Like, a caterpillar’s not a butterfly. It can’t fly. It can call itself. So you and I can say, oh, I’m a Christian and yes, I’ve been saved. But the transformation comes out on this. Do I just, I can’t help it. I love sinners. And I will be the first person to say, like, I constantly need to, like, break my pride down, like, break my callous down, like, just get in my church, you know, rhythms and it’s good. And if the sermon’s good, I go, like, okay, that week was good. And then, like, live, like, that’s good, but I need to live outside of that and, like, go and have a compassionate heart of this Jesus, like, in places that I go. And if I don’t know, like, Lord, I don’t know, but I need you to show me somebody because you love sick people. You love people who love sin. So I need to love people who love sin and I need to be with people who want to just sit in their sin, not so I can be reintroduced to sin, but so that I can introduce them to Jesus who can save them from the soul. Again, friends, it’s a hard task, but it’s the task. It’s the task we’ve been called to. So I don’t want to begrudgingly be an evangelist. I want to say, Lord, here’s my life. How do you want to use me? Your love goes free. I want to be a free vessel that your love goes through.
Self-righteousness, then, you know, it’s antithetical to the heart of God.
Self-righteousness is a poison. You know what that poison does to you? It moves you not to hold the love of God hostage.
Nobody’s going to hear about this. I know. I know about it, and it’s good, but I don’t have the time today. I don’t have the care today to sacrifice and just be with someone else and love someone else. That’s what we’re called to do, friends.
Following Jesus, I would say it’s elite. It’s not exclusive.
The great grace of the call is accompanied, friends, by the privileged responsibility to make the call known to everyone. To everyone. Paul says in St. Corinthians, we’re ambassadors. You know, the thing about an ambassador is they’re not just somebody from a place. They represent the place. That person has the place they represent, like the best interest in their heart. Like, I love the place I’m from, and whatever I’m doing, whatever deals I make, whatever I’m saying, it’s because I love this place, and I want this place to be known for what it is. Like, I’m an ambassador for it. And that’s the exact same thing Paul calls us to. You should not be an ambassador of America if you love China. Like, you have, like, a wrong love there. Like, you’ve got to be, from the country you’re from. So again, like, if I’m from God’s country, like, I should just, like, nobody has to bend my arm to be an ambassador. Like, I want to do it. Like, I want to do it. So again, I say to you, like, I’m not shooting 100 on that, but I’m sure, back to the first point, that if I’m living in the Spirit, I’m believing the Gospel, and I know how good it is, it’s not just something I’m going to say, wow, God, you’ve done this for me, but let me take this to the world, because, man, if you love me, you’re wanting us to go and love the world. And so that’s just a church, you know, I want to be. I want to, you know, get there, and maybe it’s not going to happen overnight, but still, you know, when does a candle start burning? When you light it, or when it’s half, you know, burned down? I think we think, well, maybe when the candle burns halfway down, and I know some stuff, I’ll start shining. It’s like, no, the moment you light the candle, like, even if it’s a small flame, like, you should start flickering. People say, hey, there’s a candle. There’s a light. It’s just the same thing for us. Wherever we’re at, like, we need to be going and going and going and going.
I love evangelism. I love that we, we say, hey, we’re just going to do that once a month. We’re going to go to the park and share the gospel. It’s hard. It’s difficult. And I’m like, oh, gosh, maybe it’ll rain. We don’t have to go because it’s awkward. It’s weird, but it’s good. It’s good. It’s not, it’s not, though, I want to say the only way to evangelize. I think evangelism, a lot of times, looks like walking with somebody really, really slow for a really, really long period of time. You see very little fruit. So I think it’s not fair if evangelism just means going down the street, and it’s good, but it’s not all. And so I want to say to you, just as much as we’re doing that, friends, you and I, again, we’ve got to be with people in our lives. Like, who is it there? Who is it there in my neighborhood? Who is it there in my workplace? Who is it there that, like, the Spirit’s leading me? Like, I need to walk with that person for a long time. And you know what may happen? You may walk with that person for a really long time, and you’re like, no thanks, I’m done. Like, well, I just wasted two years of my life. I was like, no, you didn’t waste two years of your life because you’re obedient to being an ambassador. Like, you wanted someone to know. So leave all that up to God. You just be faithful. Say, Lord, where are they? I want to do this. I want to sacrifice the time because I love you, and I want this gospel to be made known. It’s a gospel worth sharing, isn’t it? It’s a gospel worth obeying. It’s a gospel to see re-implanted and re-planted again and again and again if we love it. And I want to love it. And I want to love it with you. By God’s grace, we’ll love it together and share it together.
But there in 13b, the second half of 13, Jesus says this last statement. He says, For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
The reason Christ didn’t come to call the righteous is because there’s not any, is there? There aren’t any. He’s Jesus Christ the righteous who intercedes for us. He’s the only one who could intercede.
Friend, you and I, we’re on the same boat. We’re unlikely followers.
We’re unlikely friends. You and I are 10,000 miles away from the heart of God. You and I don’t want to be the friends of God. Yet Christ, by His bloody cross, Christ, by the power of His resurrection, He has made us friends. Jesus said to His disciples, I call you my friends. I call you my friends. We’re unlikely followers, but Jesus has called us to be the nearest of companions. It’s a divine invitation, but please, I want you to remember this. It is a divine command. Obey the gospel. Obey it. If you’re not sure you’ve ever obeyed it, obey it. Start obeying it. Don’t know about it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t think about it. Obey the gospel. And if we’re here and we know Christ, we need to continually obey the gospel. Live in the power of God. That genuine faith would produce genuine obedience. And we would have the particular response that Christ is soliciting from us by the grace and working of the Spirit. And when you and I give that particular response and we’re made alive, we’re made ready to do this, go out and help other people follow Jesus so that the kingdom of God is filled with unlikely citizens. That’s the great end, isn’t it? And then for centuries and millennia, we can all look at one another and be like, this is so unlikely.
But it’s so real. It’s so real. Because of grace. Because of grace. When Jesus calls, friends,
let’s follow. Let’s follow. Would you pray with me?
Father, your mercy
endures. Your mercy is new every morning. As much as we think we’ve gotten to the end of how good you are, that rope is infinitely longer.
And we know it is because we know that the blood of Christ is sufficient. The blood of Christ is sufficient. The blood of Christ is powerful to save and to clean and to justify. And your spirit is strong to preserve and to give life.
Lord, wake us up. Wake us up from comfortable life. Wake us up from happiness here. Wake us up to follow you, Jesus. That we would bid farewell to everything we had. Consider it a loss to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.
Oh God, only your spirit could do this. Only your spirit could do it. So Lord, if we’re getting up, oh God, by your grace, let it be because the spirit has moved. The spirit has moved.
Save us.
Speak life into us.
Guard and keep us from the enemy. Guard and keep us from the world. Guard and keep us from our own flesh. Lord Jesus, would you abide in us as we by grace abide in you until the very end and we see your face. Oh, and we desire to see your face and we desire to help other people see your face.
Be our joy, Jesus. Be the only thing we want. Be the only thing we need. Be our great treasure.
So we just worship you in these moments. Just pray your word. Just turn us. Turn us towards you. Make us like Christ in all things.
And just pray that. Let’s pray that in Jesus’ name.
Amen.