Well, I invite you to turn this morning as we're continuing our study in the Gospel of Matthew to Matthew chapter 9. You'll find that on page 967, and we come to the first 1 through 13 of Matthew chapter 9 this morning. Taking these two accounts together of the paralytic and the call of Matthew, beginning at verse 1 Matthew chapter 9, 9 67 This is the holy word of the Lord: "And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Rise and walk"? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins he then said to the paralytic, rise pick up your bed, and go home. and he rose and went home When the crowd saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. They were in awe."
Verse 9: "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 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 When he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick go learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, or I came not to call the righteous but sinners And there will end the reading of God's word.
Well, you know, we've been working through this gospel, and last time Matthew has been developing a theme that has been running through these narratives, and it is this theme of authority. Remember, big picture with Matthew's Gospel: this is the Gospel of the true King. His kingdom has arrived, and Matthew has really strung through these narratives, showing us his authority in many different aspects of life to prove this great coming of the kingdom. He's been showcasing this for us in everything that he does. And last time, uh, we were this issue sort of was raised to the surface with the centurion, um, really a fascinating section, really was two sermons ago when he asked for the healing of his servant. You remember? And um, he asked Jesus just to say a word. He didn't even need to come, and the man would be healed. And his follow-up was, "Listen, I'm a man under authority, and I have those under authority under me, and he said, I say to one, go and he goes, and I say to one, come and he comes, and to my servant, do this and he does it." Jesus capitalizes on that because that's exactly what was going to be showcased now in the ministry of jesus that kind of authority that kind of power that kind of command over people's lives. And Jesus celebrates it. "Truly, I say, I have not found such great faith in all of Israel. He sees who I am; he sees my authority; he believes. That's what I'm after."
Well, Matthew then goes to unfold this great authority. He he demonstrated his authority over all peoples and the calls to "Follow me," and then his great power as as his disciples effectually did follow because of his effectual power. And then his authority you remember, over all of creation as he calmed the the winds And the waves and built into those narratives was the revelation and exposing of who Jesus is. Every time Jesus would we would see a little unfolding of who he is, the Son of Man. The disciples questioning, "Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey?" And then he came to the region of the Gadarenes, the dark, pagan place of the Gentiles, and even the demonic realm was completely under his authority. When Jesus said, "Go," they immediately fled into the pigs and were drowned into the sea.
Well, we've seen all these. He had authority over healing. We saw we've seen all these showcases of authority, and now it seems that Matthew, before he breaks into another section here, climaxes this emphasis on authority in something that Jesus was most interested to demonstrate. And that's what makes this section so special today. I want you to look down at verse 6. You'll see it in verse 6 of chapter 9, where this word "authority" is used twice in this section: "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," and after he does this and heals the man, that's the first thing everyone recognizes they are in awe over this that God had given such authority to men. So this is where we are today. We come to the sort of climax of this that would really climax at the cross because none of this none of this issue of forgiveness today will matter without the cross But this is what the cross is teaching us: his authority to lay down his life for the forgiveness of sins.
And I believe what's so important to emphasize today is this captures the heart of the ministry of Jesus. If you looked at Mark and did the comparison, people were interested in the healings. People were interested in all these other showcases of authority. But he kept moving, and he said, "I have to go on and preach the Gospel, for that's why I came forth." And this is the passage: after Jesus said that in Mark, the healing of the paralytic that followed. It captures what the preaching of the Gospel was intending to accomplish. And in that way, it captures the whole climax of the ministry. climax of the authority of what Jesus wants to demonstrate to us. It captures his mission, if you will.
So I want to look at that briefly this morning with you: his mission captured, his mission criticized, and then his mission clarified. That's, um, what I believe we see here unfolding here the capturing of his ministry, his mission, then criticized, and his mission clarified. I want to take these two accounts together, as we've been doing, to sort of step back a little bit and see the themes develop here. And we're looking today together at this section of the healing of the paralytic and then Matthew's call that follows right after.
We come to verse one, and we read that immediately, getting out of the boat, he crossed over and he came to his own city. He is in Capernaum. This was sort of home base for his ministry. We know that at one point he was criticized, just like a prophet. It's not without honor except in his home country." This was a rough soil for Jesus, this was tough soil for people. But they are interested in his healings. Verse 3 tells us the scribes are sitting there. We have come into, we know from the other gospels, Peter's house again. Crowds are gathering all around the house, crowding into the house, wanting healing from Jesus.
Verse 2 we read, now this is not so chronological, I should say. Matthew's not so much interested in chronology as Mark and Luke are. Matthew is more thematic. So that's why what happened earlier in Mark happens later in Matthew. He's putting this together more thematically for us. And I believe that theme is showing the development of authority on purpose here, to show where that authority was ultimately aimed.
We read of them, you'll notice here in verse 2, that these men had come, we know, carrying the paralytic and the man being carried by his friends. We don't read of them saying a word. It's had to have been quite a moment. He looks right at them. You can imagine all the hustle and bustle, and everyone wanting, "Heal Aunt Joan and heal Uncle Mike. heal, heal." heal. And Jesus stops.
In every other case, he had purposely reached out his hand and touched people, or made some kind of contact with people, or listened to the words of people. Here, he comes, and notice the complete omniscience now of Christ. So we see two key attributes play out today: not only his omniscience, but his omnipotence, his power and authority, and his knowledge of reading hearts here. He looks right into their hearts.
Here's what he sees: in the man, not just the affliction. He is looking into him, and he sees how burdened the man is. He looked right into his heart, and he saw his guilt. Keep in mind, everyone thought this man was sick. This was common view of the time, especially in israel that this man was sick because of his sin, this man was a bad sinner, that's why he's in the state he was in. So everything about this man is offensive. Everything about this man is offensive. But notice what Jesus does here: he emphasizes his own burden over sin. That's all Jesus had to see. This was a man burdened. He obviously believed, with his friends, that Jesus had the faith he had the faith in jesus to heal him but Notice the compassion of Christ. here Notice the compassion of christ Notice how Matthew records it: "Take heart, my son."
Now, you would expect, all of a sudden, the flesh to be healed. That's what he's been doing. That's not what he says. "Take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven." Do you understand how radical a moment this is? Jesus knew just what he was doing. Jesus had, right then and there, think of what just happened. I don't think we think about what just happened. He had just blotted out with a few words All of his sins. All of them. Anticipating the atonement, anticipating Colossians 2: "Having forgiven all your trespasses." He does it right then and there, seeing his faith. Forever, Psalm 103: cast as far as the east is from the west, right then and there. Done.
Now, this should mean something to us. This should really mean something to us. If any of you are burdened by sin? are any of you burdened by sin? If you have any burden by sin and you have faith in Christ to believe he can deal with it, he deals with it. He covers it. He forgives it. He blots out all sin and he washes it away. You ever feel that burden? Look to him. I think what's so amazing about this is the tender way he speaks: "Take heart, son. Take heart, daughter," I could say. "I forgive you. I'm sure someone needs to hear that right now. Actually, all of you need to hear it right now. Even when you fell for words. Hasn't that always been something that you struggled with? Internally guilty, but finding few words to say."
This has to be what Romans was describing when he speaks of the Spirit's interceding work work with groanings that cannot be uttered when the Spirit himself makes intercession. And then what follows is the assurance that we're his children. Burdened, burdened by sin. "Abba, Father." Oh, he desires to exercise authority here. He desires to exercise authority right here. This was the sort of drive of all the authority he wanted to showcase. "I forgive you. I forgive you." Jesus would often ask a question when people wanted healed. You know what it was? "What do you want me to do for you? What do you really want?" I saw a website adding ads for churches, and it said, "A real church a real church that addresses today's most pressing issues." Sounds wise. What is that? What are the most pressing issues? What do you see from Jesus?
Matthew is pressing us to put the accounts together, and once you look down now after this, we'll come back to this once you look to verse 9, we're bouncing back and forth here. Skip down to verse 9: "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."
So in both cases, the paralytic doesn't say a word, Matthew doesn't say a word in what everyone at the time would have viewed as an utterly offensive moment offensive moment one and then comes offensive moment two: a rabbi walks up in their eyes to the tax collector, the publicanny if you will. And the brevity of the call is just shocking. Matthew doesn't want to give a lot of detail about it's recording his own sort of story here. He's very humble, I guess you'd say.
The tax collector was protected under the umbrella of the Roman government. They were constantly extorting more money than they should. They were rich. They were the rich. They were stealing. Think of Zacchaeus. They could tax almost anything. I mean, that's just kind of the business you want to be in like a politician. They had road taxes. They had taxes for crossing bridges. They had taxes for entering towns. They had taxes for using harbors. They had taxes on animals. They had taxes on carts. It's just endless. And some of you are already riled up because you know these people and you live every day criticizing them.
Then, on top of the corruption, they had amassed for themselves great wealth. They would take bribes from the rich. They would falsify their own taxes. They would raise the taxes on the middle class to make up for the difference. Can you imagine the anger in Israel over these people? They were making fortunes off the corruption.
And what would have been an utterly shocking moment Jesus looks at him, walks up to him at the tax booth as he's extorting, and he says, "Follow me." You could hear the gasps: "What? What? You just called him to be one of the apostles? Your apostle?" Of course, it was a call to leave the former life, wasn't it? It was a call to leave the life of lying. It was a call to come to Christ and join the train of apostles on whom the whole church would be built.
There's no response from Matthew. There's no response from the paralytic. There's no response from Matthew. He didn't say, "Well, I've got to go bury Dad first." His life was not honest. Listen to this: his life was not honest. I think there are a lot of people like this in the kingdom. They know they're alienated from God. Are we honest about our lives? It could be from paying our own taxes. Some secret sin that we hold on to today. That guilt has not yet been removed. You're still in it. You're still in it. Does it resonate?
Matthew couldn't follow fast enough. Because inside, here's the tie: it was the same burden as the paralytic. The same burden. The same conviction. The same sense of alienation, and probably the sense is, "There's nothing that can be done about this. I give up. He was just a sin. He was just as sick. He was just as sick as the paralytic. The burden of his heart was so great. All he needed was to hear the powerful call of Christ and believe that Christ was calling him, that it was for him. God had compassion on him too. The Lord was ready to receive him too. That's the best news for you who know yourself. The same burden, you could be somebody with great physical problem today, but really, deep down, you know that it's sin that's troubling you. Or you could be somebody who's healthy and rich, and it's still sin. The same guilt, the same problem.
Now, the text will mean a lot to the burden, to the guilty, to those who are burdened by sin. It won't matter at all to those who have no idea what their own hearts are like.
So we move to the second point: the mission criticized. After he exercises authority to forgive the paralytic sin, and remember, everyone perceived this man was sick because he was a great sinner, the criticism was intense. The criticism in the house that day was intense. Mark gives us some indication of the stir of this cause. In fact, we read the scribes are there because they have come to judge Jesus. They have come to catch him in some kind of trap. They can't stand him. They can't stand his ministry. And this such a thing was the ultimate moment to capture him.
"That's blasphemy," they said. And Jesus says, "This man just, think about what they said. They see him say, There's no validation. to this. There's no validation. If I said, "Son, your sins are forgiven," what would that do? There's no validation to that. All they concluded was, the guy's a blasphemer. They're furious about it. You understand, they were agitated at him for numerous reasons.
I want you to think about the numerous reasons they were agitated at Jesus when it comes to the mission captured, the first point. Think about it, which leads to the mission criticized. They were agitated at him because he wouldn't become the political hero they wanted him to become. They were obsessed with this. They wanted deliverance from Rome. They were constantly criticizing him because their vision for his ministry didn't fit Jesus' own vision for ministry. So they were criticizing him, calling him a drunk. a wine-bibber. This guy is nothing but a friend of tax collectors and sinners. How is that the Messiah's ministry?" So they were always finding a way to discredit him.
And the big issue, again, had to do with his identity, doesn't it? They are reasoning: "Listen, if this were the case that he were forgiving sins he'd have to be God. Only God can do this. But he's not God; therefore, he's a blasphemer." That's how they're concluding. And Jesus raises it: "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?" They want to stone him at this point. So in front of them all, knowing that many of them are uninterested in really his purpose, I just think that's the saddest thing about all this. How could you have an entire ministry, and it seems that so few really want him to do this? What is wrong with these people?
"Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts. evil in your hearts Why? Well, put together the Prodigal Son. How that passage began now "The luke 15 the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees and teachers of the law these were these were the law teachers muttered this man welcomes sinners and eats with them "This guy's an antinomian," that was their charge against Jesus all the way through. It was always the charge against Paul. We should learn something from it. "Who does he think he is to take upon his lips forgiveness of these kind of people? That's against the law of God. That he's even sitting with them."
Jesus, knowing their thoughts: "What do you think is easier to say? For me just to say, forgive sins or heal? They have no idea what they mean. I know your attitude to what I just said. That you roll your eyes and you sit here thinking, yeah, right, who can validate that he's forgiving sins? We don't see any external power to that the way we want to see it. We want a better ministry than that.
"Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say, rise and walk But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins imagine the scene. you want it validated sure that you may know that I have authority to forgive sins, which would require what, beloved? The death of the cross. How hard was that to go and suffer and die He said from all, of them "Rise, pick up your bed, and go home." And he rose and he went home.
Notice there you kind of have Matthew 28 anticipated. He sends him, and he goes and obeys everything that he commanded. This is we're seeing what Matthew's talking about. It's tied to following. Matthew's explaining that Matthew follows in the train of apostles. This man goes home to become the missionary in the hometown where Jesus is rejected. He had just healed him with a purpose: to validate his authority to forgive sins. If Jesus can heal, he can forgive. That shows the aim of the healing. He wanted the greater conclusion to be made, beloved. And we should be in awe. What is he doing? He's forgiving sins. Now, that's important. Why we put these scenes together?
Back to Matthew. When it came to Matthew, it's difficult to communicate again how much hatred there was in society for this guy. They loathe the publicans who was involved in a line of work that was so detestable. They're furious. The Orthodox were totally forbidden to even have any interaction with these kind of people. They could not journey. They could not talk to them. They could not do business. They would be defiled if these people went into their homes, these publicani. They were no higher than the pigs that he had just sent down into the river and to the lake.
Let me try to capture this for a minute. How do you feel about corrupt politicians again? I think you get a sense of this. What if Jesus walked up to Newsom today and said, "Follow me. I want you to be an apostle." Can you imagine what everyone would say? The Gospel is for them too. The Gospel is for Joe Biden too. Now, who's that going to trouble? The Gospel is for Kamala Harris too. The Gospel is for Donald Trump too. See, I think we've forgotten this in our moment. I think we've totally forgotten this. We've forgotten our mission. What do you think we're doing here? What is the mission of Jesus all about?
Here's the essence of loving your enemies. He forgave the worst in their eyes. I think we have to feel the offense of the Gospel. I think that's intended here. We went through Romans 4. We went through abraham that's kind of easy to take. He's kind of a bad guy. David, you know what he did? And Romans says, "Yeah, and God justifies the wicked." What do you think about that?
Two sinners have repented here. One went home at Jesus' command; one became an apostle at Jesus' command. What is the effect when the sinners repent? In heaven, heaven rejoices. He takes his authority, and you know what he does? He forgives you. This is so beautiful. It gives us total hope. This is the most powerful message of who it is for: sinners.
We find that the change was so remarkable in Matthew immediately that all the tax collectors were then started getting interested. Can you imagine if all the kingdoms started getting filled with these politicians? No one in the history of tax collecting just got up and left the business. I mean, Israel's on alarm at this point. "What is he doing?" I hope we capture the offense. I hope we see it. You have tax collectors now all around you. What is this?
Matthew wanted them to meet Jesus. If we're reading verse 10, really, comparing it with the other accounts, he threw a party, and he invites all his buddies, his tax-collecting buddies to the party. The text says, for emphasis, "The sinners." They're reclining with Jesus now.
I guess it's important to say because this verse gets abused, and it gets abused, that maybe Pastor Gordon should just be down at the bars. I'm not going down to the bars. Don't worry. What it means is Jesus was not sitting with people as they sinned, right? Jesus was calling them out of that. So here's the party. They come to meet Jesus, and he starts forgiving their sins, and he dines with them. And the banquet hall is full of all these bad sinners. There's all kinds of parables about this for a reason. I can't express enough how inconceivable a scene this is to Israel.
He gathered the sick and the needy who are viewed as the bad sinners, and he gathered the corrupt politicians, if you will. And look at the table there's the robbers, there's the murderers, there's the drunkards, there's the prostitutes, there's the thugs, and he's holding up a cup with them. So they ask won't even come to Jesus. They said to the disciples, what does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
It's so crucial a moment. Why? Because they saw no need for it themselves at all. And they're the pastors in Israel. They were convinced of their model lives. They were convinced of their achievements. They were convinced of their covenant status. They were convinced of everything in themselves that, inherently, they could not see their own hearts. Is that a problem?
So Jesus clarifies the mission. "When Jesus heard that, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick who's sick in this passage? Well, really, everyone. But who saw it? A patient in those days didn't go to the doctor like we do. The doctor would go to the patient, make the house call. Jesus said something like, "You're so healthy. You're so healthy. You're doing so well. You don't need any help from the Lord. Why do you think I should come to you?"
If Jesus looked at you today, would he see somebody who thinks they're healthy or they're sick? Now, if you've been forgiven and you've been washed and you've been justified, you know your story. Everyone knows what sickness is if they've been washed and justified. They know that. But the basic question I'm asking here is the big picture question: Are you healthy or are you sick? That's a very fundamental question to this. These people didn't know it. And so look at how they looked at everyone else. Look at what they did to the ministry because they couldn't see it in themselves. They could have never dreamed of having a corrupt politician enter the building.
"I want you to go learn what this means," from Hosea: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Who does? Notice the authority here. Who does? "I desire it." Who's that? Jesus is claiming it. That's me. "I desire." He's taking Hosea 6:6. He's saying, "That's my word. I desire mercy."
This is God. I mean, how overwhelming. God could have been saying to us, "I desire your wrath on you." And he didn't. "I desire mercy. And then they didn't read the next verse. This is what Jesus is usually telling us to do: I desire mercy and not sacrifice and an acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings. Acknowledge me who's come to you. You refuse. I'm not into people just coming up to worship. I'm not into people just doing the sacrifices when they don't know what this is all about. I'm not interested in that game
I think it addresses the heart today. What do you want Jesus to do for you? What do you believe is most important? What do you think is most important right now in our society? There's a good question. What do you think is most important in our society? To fix the government? Or to forgive your sins? "I've come for these people."
What kind of doctor goes to unhealthy people? Luther said, "A pastor who refuses to deal with sin is like a doctor who refuses to deal with illness. You better find another one." You might say, "A pastor who refuses to solve, today my people might think, a pastor who refuses to solve all society's ills is like a politician who refuses to address excessive taxation. You better find another." That's the pressure I feel. Thank the Lord, he was a rock, and he wouldn't be moved by this stuff. "I've come to forgive sins. And the resurrection solves it all."
So he concludes, "I didn't come, maybe one of the most jolting statements in all the Bible, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. I've come to forgive sins."
That's the best news ever, beloved. Are you worried about sin? Did you get up maybe this week and thought, "I'm such a failure"? Did you struggle with your breaking of God's law? Were you broken over that sense of doing that sin you knew you shouldn't do? Is your heart troubled because of sin and all the sad effects that it's brought? This is why he came.
And today, he will forgive you freely. You don't even have to walk an aisle right now. Did you know that? He's looking right into your hearts. We don't need the altar call. You can do it right now. "Come to me," said Jesus. "Are you burdened and weary? I'll give you rest. I will abundantly pardon your sins."
There are two spirits revealed here: one of a soft, burdened heart, the other of a proud, dissatisfied person who refuses to accept who's come to them. If you can say with the public in today, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Can you say that? I've got really good news for you. Today, you go down to your house justifying.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for such a passage. Forgive us that our interests, at times, are not on the things that you stayed most focused to achieve for us. Thank you for dealing with our alienation. Thank you for washing and cleansing our hearts. May we have that broken and that contrite spirit that you delight in more than burnt offering and sacrifice. Bless us now as we sing Psalm 32. In Jesus' name, amen.