Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

 

There was a Matthew behind the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew, a person much like us, wrote the Gospel which bears his name.  Like us, he knew the stress of fear and the power of hope.  He felt the anguish of guilt and the joy of forgiveness.  He cried and laughed.  And his life came together on the day Jesus called him to the ultimate adventure, “follow me.”

 

Those words were the invitation of a lifetime.  And by saying “yes” to the offer, Matthew walked into eternal salvation.  Such is the gospel’s power to transform us when we:

 

Accept our need for Christ;

Believe in Christ;

Commit our life to Christ. (Matt. 9: 9-13)

 

When Matthew arose from his tax collector’s table to follow Jesus, he became a first-hand witness to the world’s most amazing story.  Feeling responsible, he wrote an account of what he had seen and heard so future generations could know the events of Christ’s virgin birth, messianic ministry, atoning death, and victorious resurrection.

 

Forty years went by after Christ’s resurrection before Matthew wrote his account.  Then under God’s inspiration, he penned the tale that is told the world over.  The last verse of his twenty-eight chapters climaxes not only the Great Commission but his entire Gospel.  It’s the promise of Jesus never to abandon us, “and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

   

Blessing Spoken into Matthew’s Life

It is likely that Matthew was in the crowd when Jesus began his formal teaching ministry (Matt. 5-7).  Through these 111 verses, Jesus taught us how to relate successfully with God, people, ourselves, Creation, and possessions.  As Moses had earlier climbed Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, Jesus went to a high spot to deliver a Sermon on the Mount.  Upon hearing Jesus teach, his spiritual hunger was fed and thirst quenched.  The Sermon opened with a divine model for spiritual fulfillment called the Beatitudes.  The following is a biblical model of spirituality based on the Beatitudes taken from Matthew 5:1-1:

 

Attitude           Need 

Happiness        Humility (assessing self from God’s perspective)

Result: the Kingdom of heaven  

Happiness        Sorrow (vulnerable to the pain of others)

Result: God’s comfort

Happiness        Patience (trust in God’s timing)

Result: earthly blessings

Happiness        Godly Desires (wanting to do God’s will)

Result: contentment

Happiness        Mercy (commitment to love)

Result: God’s mercy

Happiness        Pure in Heart (motivationally clean & clarified)

Result: seeing God

Happiness        Peace-Making (bringing shalom to people)

Result: being a child of God

Happiness        Righteous Indignation (persecuted for enacting Biblical principles) 

Result: Kingdom of heaven

 

Matthew’s Call to Follow

Look at the following passages from Matthew Chapter 9:

 

9:9  Seeing Matthew’s burden of anger against his native people and his readiness to stop being a tax collector against his people, Jesus offered him a chance to begin a new life.  Following Jesus equals walking & talking in God’s best for our lives. 

 

9:10  Matthew knew that God’s best was to be shared, not hoarded.  So he invited his friends to join him in salvation.  During the party’s celebration - Jesus gave “them” his presence.  God’s best transforms life and is to be celebrated.   

 

9:11  The will of God sets us free for others but the Pharisees lacked the compassion to be happy for Matthew.  Not being stirred by God’s universal hope for everyone, they couldn’t walk the bridge to a cross-cultural experience and party with the social outcast.  They wanted their change, not God’s change, for Matthew’s friend.  Lacking compassion impoverishes our soul. 

 

9:12  We have to desire God’s best if our lives are to experience the best.  Acceptance of our need frees us from false pride. 

 

9:13 Following Jesus requires searching for answers God’s way.  From their homework assignment Jesus hoped the Pharisees would see they were walking in the wrong direction and that through hearts touched by compassion, they would join in the party. 

 

Matthew knew first-hand that Christ keeps His promises.  Therefore a person who chooses to follow Christ will never be led and left.  To follow Jesus is to be with Him forever.  

 

Pastor Les Hollon

 

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

-Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV)

 

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”  “Yes, Lord,” they replied.

-Matthew 9:28 (NIV)

 

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.  Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins.  If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died.  But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.”  Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

-Matthew 9:16-20 (NIV)

 

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

 

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks!