The Divine Crash

Today’s sermon was the last in our truth series.  I have a few other ideas for the next few weeks before Lent but this sermon went well.  Enjoy listening at the bottom and feel free to leave a comment on here or on iTunes.

Scripture: Matthew 9:9-12

Matthew in other Gospels is called Levi, probably his family name making him a Levite. A priest.

Priests are trained their whole live to be a priest and yet he ended up a tax collector. A few thoughts on this.
1. Matthew having been trained saw something he could no longer follow and left the faith. We’ve seen this.
2. Matthew had something happen to him that he was forced to leave. We’ve seen this.

Either way, Matthew is out of the religion practice. He was well trained and would have memorized all of scripture and known its meanings yet he wasn’t there.

Instead he became a tax collector, the lowest of the low. Most tax collectors were dirty. The taxes would be 9 dollars and they would tell you it was 50 dollars and they would pocket the difference. They were hated by the Israelites.

Jesus says follow me. This is the call to follow Jesus. Matthew would have heard about him before this event but either way Matthew sees in Jesus something better than religion. He sees relationship.

The key to Christianity is not rituals and religion that may or may not have meaning. It is relationship with the creation of the world.

So Matthew jumps in. There is no counting the cost, there is no packing, no thinking even, he simply jumps in head first and goes for it.

Then, Matthew sees how amazing Jesus is and invites all his friends to a feast with Jesus. His only friends are other sinners.

Tax collectors is straight forward but sinners here is Hamartolos.
- Greek word that means litteraly “stained with vices and crimes”

So Jesus is with a bunch of people who are well known drug dealers, prostitutes, thieves, and other nair-do-wells.

Then a bunch of uptight people come and ask him why he isn’t eating with people more like them.

Jesus responds with “Healthy people don’t need doctors, sick people need doctors”

A couple things with this.
1. For Jesus sin is a sickness. Jesus compares a persons life with their overall health. If your life is full of stuff that is displeasing to God then it affects your health.
- Example: when you work without ever taking a day off you will eventually get sick. Life is about a rhythm of work and rest. Failure to rest and failure to work puts your life out of rhythm and being out of that rhythm will wear you out and you will begin to experience exhaustion and sickness.
- Example: If you do not spend regular time in prayer with God then you begin to forget there is a God and that you are the one in control which has lead to all sorts disfunction.
2. Jesus believes that those who are healthy do not need to be around others who are well.

For us then, are you sick? Are there ways in which your lifestyle does not match up with Jesus? has it led to your health being in Jeopardy? Then visit the great physician. His office is always available and will always be with you. Jesus is not just the doctor He is the cure. Come to Jesus and get the cure of Grace. That takes your sin sickness and replaces it with himself, living breathing inside of you.

For us then, if you are well, if the cure is already inside of you, if Jesus is living inside of you. Then you are now a Physicians assistant.

A physician’s assistant can give prescriptions but is not the doctor. They can tell you what is wrong but they can’t give you the cure. And they check with the doctor to make sure the diagnosis is correct.

So then, this means a couple things. If you call yourself a Christian you are saying that you are well, that you have been healed of your sin by the great physician. And you are a physician’s assistant. Which means you do not get to sit around and do nothing. Any Physician’s assistant I have ever met is busier than the doctor.
- Is this why Jesus says his followers will do greater things than him?
- It means that no matter how old you are, it is your job to get people well.
- This means You who are healed are now called to heal others

This means that the church exists for the benefit of the non-members

the church is not a clinic for the well it is a sign post to those who are lost

The church is not a therapy room it is a foretaste of the kingdom of God that is coming

The church is not an movie theater for you to sit back and watch it is an instrument of the coming kingdom of God.

This is why we have concerts so that those who would never enter a church have a reason to hear about Jesus.
This is why we have committee’s so that those who are well can figure out to how to help the sick.
This is why we tell our family, friends, neighbors and loved ones about Jesus, so they can experience the healing we have.

So then, if you are sick come to the physician and be healed. If you are well go heal others.

woman at the well the first evangelist and said she saw a man who knew all about her.

blind man who can now see, he was sick and now he is well.

This is the point of communion. With the blood and the body we are healed. Isaiah writes that by his stripes we are healed. The cure for our sin sickness is the body and blood of Jesus. Then as healed people we come to this table to remember the cost of our health and we continue to be healed. We continue to be made more into the image of God through this meal.

Sermon Audio

 

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