Sunday Morning Service

Matthew 9:1-17 (Click title for audio access)

"Now Introducing The Opposition" • 7.18.10 • Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Chapter 8 introduces us to the miraculous side of Christ's ministry and the people who wanted to follow Jesus.

- These were treated to a stormy reality, with some difficult people and no guarantee of success. The end of chapter 8 leaves us with a segue into another group of people.

- They saw the same miracles and wonders that produced awe and a desire to follow in group 1, but in them, it produced something else.

- These people are the ones who will begin to oppose Jesus. They will have their attacks, some will be subtle, while others will be obvious. Jesus will answer with His actions.

Text

• Matthew 9:1,2 : "So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.'" : The pig farmers in the city of Gerasa have asked Jesus to leave and He left.

- He comes back to what Matthew calls His own city. Jesus had adopted Capernaum as His ministry headquarters.

- The people of that city brought a paralyzed man to Him. No details are given to us here of their journey. We'll get that in the other gospel accounts.

- Jesus here notes the faith of those who brought this paralytic to Him. Notice, He saw their faith. It was demonstrable. He could point to it.

- Can anyone see our faith? Is there evidence of faith growing in our life?

- The very act of bringing this man to Jesus testified that these men believed in His ability to heal. Their action showed that they trusted Jesus for this.

- Perhaps we need to begin here: Do we have faith enough to bring people to Jesus? We won't go far into this, but the man is paralyzed. He could not have come Himself.

- That is also the case with our friends and family who are unsaved. They cannot come on their own, Ephesians 2:1 telling us that they "are dead in their trespasses."

- These people who brought the paralytic are challenging examples to you and I. But the lesson continues:

- When Jesus said "Son, be of good cheer;" they no doubt believed that their journey had been successful. They must have thought, "He's gonna heal him!"

- Then Jesus said, "your sins are forgiven you." These friends probably said, "And..."

- I wonder if they were disappointed. We often want God to meet some temporary need in the lives of people around us. "Lord help them out with this issue."

- Jesus spoke and remitted His sins, which was His and IS our greatest need.

- This is likely this man's greatest fear. His paralysis may have even come as a result of sin.

- It's possible that this mental suffering was the most pressing issue to him. Jesus speaks directly to that issue first.

- In all that we have seen, it's easy to forget that man's greatest malady is not leprosy or paralysis. It is sin!

- Modern medicine might one day be able to treat these problems. However, no doctor in the world will ever successfully treat our sin problem, unless he prescribes Jesus!

- Only God has the power to forgive sins. Jesus is doing what only God can do.

- He is not hiding the fact of His divinity and those of that day could not have missed this. The scribes definitely did not miss this.

• Matthew 9:3 : "And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, 'This Man blasphemes!'" : The people who brought the paralytic are confused and probably a little bummed. The scribes that heard it began to criticize.

- They are witnesses to these events. They saw Jesus work and chose to come to another conclusion about Him.

- In their minds, Jesus was a great teacher and could perform miracles, but He was just a man like themselves. No man could forgive sins. This was reserved for God.

- Any man that would say that he could forgive sins would in fact be blaspheming.

- The word "blasphemy" means to insult or to revile when speaking toward other men. In this instance, it means to speak contemptably toward God, or to fall short of the reverance due to Him.

- It is blasphemy for any man to equate himself with God. But this is not any man. This is God in the form of a man, something that the scribes refused to believe.

- Notice that they said this within themselves. This was their internal dialogue. They had not reached the point of actually saying anything.

- Theirs is not some noble defense of God's character. It was an insult against Jesus. In effect, they were saying, "This...This...Blasphemes!"

• Matthew 9:4-8 : "But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, 'Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins'—then He said to the paralytic, 'Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.' And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men." : Jesus did not have to hear their words. He knew their thoughts and they were evil.

- The issue for the scribes is the same issue that confronts man today. Men know of the testimony of what Christ did. They know that there are truly changed lives all around them.

- Yet, because they do not wish to submit themselves to Christ, they think evil of Him!

- The scribes refuse to recognize Him as God in the Flesh. They do not recognize Him as their promised Messiah.

- Jesus proposes a test: Which is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven" or "get up and walk?"

- I believe that we would all agree that the former is easier to say. Neither is easy to do. To actually effect a condition where sin is forgiven is impossible except for God, but to say it is easy.

- To tell someone to walk who has been paralyzed requires immediate visual proof. Jesus tells the scribes that both are within His grasp.

- Jesus wants to do this miracle so that the scribes will see that forgiving sins is part of His power. He is trying to show them that He is the Son Of Man.

- He tells this man to rise and take up His bed. This must have come as a surprise to the paralytic. "Uh, do you know that I can't?"

- When Jesus tells you to do something, the difficulty is never an issue! The only issue is our willingness to obey! This man got up and went out to his house.

- The multitudes witnessed this. The scribes saw this. None could deny that a genuine miracle had taken place.

- All who saw it, gave glory to God thinking that He had given this power to men. Yes, God had given this power to men, but the truth is that this was God manifested in flesh.

- Talk about being close, but missing everything! It was not registering that this man was God in the flesh! God was in their midst, present to heal, and they did not recognize Him.

• Matthew 9:9,10 : "As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples." : This was close to Peter's house, near the waterfront there in Capernaum. All around the sea, there were various tax booths. It was a tremendous business.

- The Romans, the hated occupants of Israel, dictated a certain amount of taxation from each individual province. The tax collector was employed to make sure that they got that amount.

- The Romans usually employed locals for these jobs. One would enter into a bidding process to secure such a job. As a result, the tax collector was considered a traitor to his country.

- Tax collectors were not allowed to give testimony in a court of law, nor were they allowed into the synagogue or temple to worship!

- These tax collectors were able to tax over the amount that was decreed by Rome, and that amount over would be their salary!

- If you did not like it, the tax collector could simply call his Roman Centurion friends to settle things for you. It's not hard to imagine why tax collectors were the most despised men in Israel.

- There were three kinds of tax collectors that made the hated list. First, there was the general tax agent who collected property and income taxes.

- Then there were the toll booth tax agents who owned a booth and could declare taxes on anything. "How many fish did you catch?" "Is that air that you are breathing?"

- These who owned these booths, but did not sit in them, were hated more than the general tax collectors. These men shielded themselves from public hatred, conscious of social opinion.

- The most hated ones were the ones who owned the booth and sat there themselves! Read again, "He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office!"

- Matthew was the most hated man in Capernaum and he did not even care about it. But then Jesus came and actually approached Matthew! He wanted Matthew to follow Him.

- There are people on this earth who would never feel comfortable in a church because of what they do. They feel that they are outcasts and the church generally helps to support their view.

- In their thinking, if we are against them, then God is against them. A verse like this proves that all wrong! God is calling on all outcasts: Come Follow Me!

- Anyone is a candidate to follow Jesus! There is not an untouchable, lowly sinner that is beneath coming to follow Jesus!

- Notice this same word: He arose! I'm convinced that Matthew put his story next to the paralytic and used the same wording to reflect the equality of the miracle!

- Matthew, upon being called, stood up, closed up and stepped up to follow Jesus.

- We can't fathom what this meant for Matthew. He left behind a very lucrative career that had no monetary ceiling.

- Matthew immediately invites Jesus into his house for a dinner party. Tax collectors, being outcasts, usually had a group of unsavory outcast friends as well.

- Jesus sat down to eat and across the table were more tax collectors and sinners! I love the definition of sinners: "Pre-eminently wicked!" These people were wicked and good at it!

- Prostitutes, drunkards, sexual deviants, and gangsters filled Matthew's table scene.

- One can only wonder what some of the disciples thought about this scenario. "Should I laugh? Can I sit next to her?"

• Matthew 9:11-13 : "And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, 'Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'" : This situation caught the eyes of the Pharisees. They could have easily asked the Lord Himself, but chose instead to engage the disciples on this question.

- Their question is more like a sly accusation: "Why would such a good teacher eat with such a wicked group of people!?" The first opposing criticism was blasphemy, this is immorality!

- The Lord's response is corrective toward the Pharisees and instructive toward us. Notice the logical response. The world needs a physician. They are sick, literally "miserably ill."

- These are the ones that Jesus has come for. These are the ones that surround you on a day by day basis. They are cancer ridden, and you know the Great Physician!

- Unfortunately, there are those who are sick, but they don't even know it! They believe themselves to be well. They believe that there is nothing wrong with them.

- There are those who believe themselves to be Christians, simply because they are Americans!

- Worse still and far more horrible a fate, there are Pharisees alive and well today, who don't see how desperate they are for Him, who will endure a wretched existence through religion on earth and then forever be damned because Christ never knew them!

- Did they not see that they were not at the same table as Christ? Did they not see that simply saying, "I am as much a sinner as that prostitute" would have been sufficient for a sit down with Him!

- Their own self-righteous beliefs kept them from helping sinners which is bad enough, but it also kept them from experiencing their Messiah!

- He counsels them and you and I to learn that His mission is one of mercy. Here Jesus quotes from Hosea 6. To tell them to go back and read their bibles was a tremendous indictment.

- The knew where He was quoting from and could probably quote it themselves, but they had not learned what it meant in terms of action.

- God has always had a desire for mercy. His heart has always been to bring people back to Himself. To see a sinner and know his position, without having the mercy to cure it, is to be a doctor who has no desire to practice medicine!

• Matthew 9:14 : "Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?'" : John the Baptist still had disciples at this time. A part of their routine called for regular fasting.

- The represent the third point of opposition: Jesus is too slack in His requirements.

- The law only required one day of fasting, but both the disciples of John, as well as the Pharisees fasted as many times as three times a week. The Lord's disciples? Not so much.

- Fasting was a somber experience. John's message was one of repentance and the Pharisee's were religious.

- Both groups were formed in anticipation of Messiah's coming. John had come to prepare the way for the Lord, to call hearts to repent, so that when Messiah came, they would be ready.

- Their discipleship was based on that model. Jesus' discipleship was different.

• Matthew 9:15-17 : "And Jesus said to them, 'Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.'" : Fasting would have been an inappropriate exercise for somebody who was in a wedding.

- The wedding was a celebration of friendship and of new life. Nobody would think to fast during that time! Jesus came as the groom and the disciples were enjoying that time as best men.

- Jesus was the Messiah that had been foretold. How could His men fast in somberness!?

- A time would come when Jesus would be taken from them and in that time, they would fast. There would be mourning, prayers and sadness, but now was not that time.

- Jesus gives them a vivid illustration of what they were trying to to His ministry and why it is that they opposed Him. He begins with the idea of a patch.

- Today, if you took an unshrunk patch and placed it on your old jeans, you would need a new patch tomorrow! The first time you wash that patch, it will tear away from your jeans.

- They were scratching their heads. So Jesus tries another one. Wineskins were animal hides that wine was stored in.

- When grape juice ferments, it expands. The skins, when they are new, expand and grow with the wine. But then, they can never grow again. Once stretched, you cannot employ them again.

- New wine would destroy the skins and be lost on the floor. Every batch of new wine needed to be coupled with new, fresh, unused wineskins.

- Jesus is telling them and ourselves: I won't fit into some rigid system! I require flexibility!

- Preconceived notions about what I will do or who I will minister to will only stumble you!

- Jesus has not come to fit into some old religious system and reform it. He wants to take lives that are battered by sin and transform them!

Conclusion

- Our minds need to remain consistent in this: Jesus wants to forgive sinners. He will break through and do things in a different, maybe even shocking way.

- Instead of opposing Him, we need to remember that we always want to be on His side!