In Jason Dohm's sermon, 'The Broken Made Well, and the Well Left Unbroken,' he discusses the miracles of Jesus in Matthew chapters 8 and 9, highlighting how they demonstrate Jesus' authority over disease, nature, and the spiritual realm. The sermon emphasizes the crescendo of Jesus' authoritative acts, culminating in his claim to forgive sins, asserting his divinity. Dohm explores the story of the paralytic, focusing on the faith of those who brought him to Jesus and Jesus' ability to address both physical and spiritual needs. The sermon contrasts Jesus' engagement with sinners, like Matthew the tax collector, with the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who failed to recognize their own sinfulness. Dohm stresses the importance of spiritual humility and being 'broken' before God, warning against self-satisfaction and pride. He underscores that true grace desires to bring others to Christ and highlights the peril of being spiritually 'unbroken' and left unchanged by Jesus.

Please remain standing and open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Holy God, Almighty God, we pray today you will reveal us the Christ that is God, that can forgive sins, control nature, save us from disease and call us whenever he pleases that we may be part of his realm, of his kingdom, of his eternal destiny. Destiny. I'm going to read Matthew 9 verses 1 to 13. 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 fate he said to the paralytic, son be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes. But Jesus knowing their thoughts said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiving you, or to say, arise and walk.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power and air 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 they glorified God who had given such power to men. 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 a house that behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 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.

Father God, we pray your power, your spirit on Jason that he may reveal us the God that saves. Thank you. How's the sound we're on? Oh God, these are holy moments whenever your people gather together to hear your word. Holy moments.

We Thank you God that you have shared your mind with us. You've not left us with our own thoughts in our own ways so far below your thoughts in your ways. But you have revealed yourself through your word. So God, now we take it in hand, desiring to be taught by you. I pray God that we would be found handling your word well, accurately, carefully, reverently, as we try to be here beneath your authority, submitted to you, happily, your children, wanting to learn the will of our Father and to do it.

May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. The last chapter and a half, all of eight and now part of nine, is a crescendo. Crescendo is a musical term. It just talks about the volume progressively rising through time, getting starting soft and getting louder and louder and louder.

And this is really what we're seeing at the very end of chapter 7, the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the people are astonished at his teaching. And the text says, because he taught as one having authority. And now in chapters 8 and now the beginning of 9, Jesus is backing up his words with his works. That's what we're seeing. Jesus has taught authoritatively and now he's giving demonstration of authority.

He is acting authoritatively. He is proving, he is not just talking, but he is demonstrating that his teaching is from heaven through the miracles that he is performing. The beginning of chapter 8, Jesus encounters a leper. He heals the leper. Jesus encounters a centurion whose servant is sick to the point of dying, and he heals that servant.

Jesus encounters Peter's mother-in-law and he heals her with a word. And he's showing, he's demonstrating that he has power over disease. And These are amazing accounts. We're witnesses to amazing things. But this is just the whisper of the crescendo.

This is just Matthew getting started and showing that Jesus really is the Messiah. Jesus really is the Son of God. In the middle of chapter 8, Jesus actually rebukes the winds and the waves. And this violent sea that makes professional fishermen think they are going to drown. It's just quiet and still.

And Jesus is demonstrating not only that He has power over disease, but that He has power over all of nature, so that He can speak a word and the storm is stilled. He leaves the disciples asking in verse 27, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? Then at the end of chapter 8, Jesus is faced with these two demoniacs, these two men that are just possessed with thousands of demons. And Jesus casts out the demons with a word. He just says, go.

And they have to go. And he is demonstrating not only that he has power over disease, not only that he has power over all of nature, but that he has the power over the spiritual realm. And so the evidence has been rising. It started with disease and then it went to all of nature and then it seemed to have culminated with the spiritual realm Jesus demonstrating with power that he has authority over all these things and just when you think He can't possibly top that we come to our text in the beginning of verse 9. And Jesus claims to have the power to forgive sins.

He's actually making the claim that he has power over sin itself. And this is just a clear, unambiguous declaration by Jesus that He Himself is God. Let's look at the text. We will start, we are going to divide this into two sections. The first is 1-8.

So let's read that again. Matthew 9 verses 1-8. 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. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes. 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. So Jesus has just been on the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee, crossing over into Gentile territory, meeting these two demoniacs, delivering them, leaving them clothed and in their right minds. But the people in that region are afraid of the manifestation of God. And they want no part of Jesus and they ask Him to depart.

So 9.1 tells us that He did exactly what was asked of Him. He got back in the boat and He went over to His own city. In chapter 4 verse 13 we learned that though he grew up in Nazareth, the base of his ministry in Galilee, in the district in the region of Galilee, was actually Capernaum. So here he is entering back into Capernaum. Today's text has two fantastic parallel passages.

The first in Mark 2 beginning in verse 1 and the second in Luke 5 beginning in 17. We've actually got two parts of our text this week. In Mark 2 and in Luke 5, it follows exactly the same pattern, in exactly the same order. So we know that These are the same accounts just by looking at them and finding virtually everything to be the same. Mark, the account in Mark, records that people heard that Jesus was in a house, and so the people, the multitudes, the crowds converge on this house to hear his teaching and he's actually teaching them and In in the mark account also four men bring the paralytic so they're carrying him The new King James says on a bed But some of the other translations are on a mat or on a stretcher.

Stretcher might be the closest to what they have here. The word actually means something you would carry someone on. And So these four friends bring this man on a stretcher. Only they find that the crowd is too thick. They can't get to Jesus because there is one house, there are only a few entrances, and they are all jammed with people who want to hear Jesus, so they can't get to Him.

So, we don't get this in Matthew, but in both Mark 2 and Luke 5, this is the account where they get Him up on the roof, and they burrow through the roof. And Luke says, let's see, Mark says that they uncover the roof, and Luke says that they put him through the tiling. So they are peeling back the tiling on the roof. This is the picture. It's a tile roof and they're peeling back the tiles to create an opening that they can get this paralyzed man through and lower him down to where Jesus is.

Jesus says this, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. He speaks affectionately to this man. The word son is the affectionate term that a teacher would use. Here's this crowd of people that have come to be taught by Jesus.

They've come to be molded by Jesus. Now this man, who's actually come to be healed by Jesus, and Jesus just uses the affectionate term that a superior would use. He says, son. And then he says, be of good cheer. The New American standard renders this, take courage.

The ESV renders this, take heart. So that's the range of meaning for this Greek phrase. Be of good cheer. Take courage. Take heart.

And this is not by any stretch the only time that Jesus uses this term. Actually, There's a pattern of him using this term. Later, next week, verse 22, we'll see Jesus use be of good cheer again. And it's with the woman who's had the flow of blood for 12 years who reaches out to touch his garment. He'll say to her, woman, be of good cheer.

In Matthew chapter 14 when we get there, the disciples are rowing against the wind in the third watch of the night, and here comes Jesus walking on the water out to them. They are frightened. They think it is a ghost. And Jesus will say to them, be of good cheer. Take courage.

Take heart. In John 16, Jesus is addressing the disciples. It's very close to the end of John. It's very close to him laying down his life at the cross. And he's explaining to the disciples that they're going to be scattered.

And he says this to them in John 16, 33. These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. This is really at the heart of what Jesus means when he says, Be of good cheer.

In the world you'll have tribulation. We're promised that. That's true of all of us. We're all going to experience tribulation in this world. But Jesus says, be of good cheer, take courage, take heart, because I have overcome the world.

This is not turn your frown upside down theology. This is not happy face Christianity where we just act like everything is okay all the time. This is having an object of faith, having a rock to believe in, to lean on, So that even though we know that life will offer us tribulation, we can be of good cheer. We can take courage. We can take heart knowing that Jesus has overcome the world.

Jesus offers us peace. Jesus offers us hope. Not some sort of power of positive thinking, but a knowledge that He is the God of the universe, arranging all things for His own glory. And so we look to Jesus as our rock. We look to Jesus as our fortress.

We look to Jesus as our fortress. We look to Jesus as our very present help in time of trouble. And even when life offers us tribulation, we know that He has overcome the world. Finally, in Acts 23, this is after the resurrection, Jesus isn't bodily on the earth, and yet Paul is approaching the end of his ministry. He's actually been brought before the Sanhedrin.

The high priest has commanded that he be struck, and he's almost actually been torn to pieces by the Sanhedrin, so that the Roman guards have to come in and bodily rescue him from the tumult that's happening. And here's what we see in Acts 23, 11. The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul. Take courage, Paul. Take heart, Paul.

And It's just what we saw in John. Paul is in the middle of all this tribulation. In fact, people want to tear him to pieces, but he can be of good cheer because Jesus Christ has overcome the world and is ordering all things for His own glory. So Jesus sees this man. Jesus sees that there are people who believe so strongly that He is able to heal that they would go up on the rooftop and peel back the tiles and let down the stretcher through the roof just to get this friend of theirs to Jesus.

And Matthew records that he sees their faith. Probably best to understand that it's the faith of all five of them. These four friends that have brought him and the man on the stretcher believe that Jesus is able to heal. And what an active faith it is that they wouldn't be put off by the crowd. They go up on the roof and peel back the tiles in order to get their friend to Jesus.

And this is wonderful that Jesus would say, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins have been forgiven you, but surely this is not why this man was brought to Jesus. We brought our friend who can't walk. We put him before you, knowing that you're able to heal. And this is what you say.

Your sins have been forgiven. This was not what they expected. This is not why they had come. And yet, Jesus has a different diagnosis for this man's problem than his friends have. And that would be consistent with the expectation of the crowd.

The expectation of the crowd is that Jesus is going to heal again. And yet he pronounces the sins forgiven. Jesus often has a different diagnosis of the problem. Jesus will often see something completely different than we will see about ourselves. And so, we should know that Jesus always addresses the real need.

And we should just ask ourselves, what do we think needs fixed? What do we think we need to have Jesus address and fix? Is it our health? Is it our financial circumstances? Is it, and the list could go on and on and on.

But When Jesus looks at us, we should understand that he sees the real need. He sees the more profound need. We might come to him to have legs that don't work be healed. And yet, he might see through that and diagnose the real nature of the problem being our sin. Now the scribes, when they hear Jesus pronounce the forgiveness of sins, have a big problem with this.

And Luke tells us in the parallel account in Luke, Luke 5.17, it says, as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Now, it's not surprising that these men would have come from Galilee. Capernaum is in Galilee. That's the district that he's in. And so, They might have just come across town to hear what Jesus is teaching.

But that they would have come from Judea and Jerusalem, which was 60 to 70 miles away, is a lot more surprising. And we don't know whether they're curious or whether they're spies at this point, the text doesn't tell us, but we know that there's a lot of interest. Luke says these people have come from everywhere. It's not just the general population, not just people who are interested in seeing miracles, it's actually the scribes, the experts in the law, and the Pharisees who are coming out of the woodwork to see what Jesus has been teaching. And now, he says something that really displeases them.

In Mark 2 verse 7, this parallel passage in Mark, they say, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? They accuse Him in their hearts of blaspheming, of uttering blasphemies. And this just means speaking against God, raging against God, by claiming to do what only God can do. This is at the heart of it.

Jesus is claiming to do something that only God can do. Ultimately, Psalm 54, ultimately, all sins are just against God. In an ultimate sense, God is the law giver. And so you can't forgive sins for God. It's not your law that's been broken.

It's God's law that's been broken. And so ultimately, only God can forgive sins. And so in this sense, we would say that the scribes, these experts in the law, actually get it. They actually understand what is being said and what the implications of what is being said are. And even though they get it, they come to the wrong conclusion.

But imagine if this happened here. Imagine if someone needed prayer for health here. And we gathered around to pray for them. And one of us actually, as part of the prayer said, your sins are forgiven. There would be eyes opening at that point in the prayer and looking around to see what the reaction the other people are there would be an after meeting if we ever pray for someone to be healed and one of you decides that the right thing to do is to pronounce their sins forgiven.

There's going to be an after meeting. There's going to be additional discussion that is required. And so it is here. Two in the text two weeks ago, the text that Eddie brought to us, Matthew connects Jesus with Isaiah 53. And in Isaiah 53, the Messiah is put forward as someone who heals diseases, as someone who can overcome sicknesses.

And this is Isaiah 53 verse four. This is what Matthew actually quoted in Matthew 8. He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. So Matthew is connecting what is being seen in the narrative with what has been prophesied in Isaiah 53 verse 4. Isaiah 53 verse 5, just one verse away says this, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. It was widely understood and widely recognized that Isaiah 53 was about the Messiah. That's what that chapter has always been interpreted to be, is about the one who would come to save Israel. And so, it should have been a surprise to the experts of the law that as Matthew has connected Jesus with what we see about healing in a text about the Messiah, that the very next verse would then apply as well.

And that is about the forgiveness of sins. As John the Baptist says in John 1, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so they're thinking it. They're thinking Jesus is blaspheming. And they're seething, but they haven't said it yet.

But with Jesus, they might as well have shouted it out. They might as well have shouted it out to the crowd, you blasphemer, because even though they haven't said it, Jesus can see into their minds and He knows that they're thinking it. This is also something that's found repeatedly in the Gospel. The Gospel writers record that someone is thinking something, there's mumbling going on in the background, Jesus knows what's being thought, Jesus knows what's being mumbled, and He'll address it on the spot. You see it over and over and over again.

And Jesus actually says, why do you think evil in your hearts? Now this tells us a couple of things. It tells us something about the scribes and Pharisees here. That Jesus expected them to know from the law and be able to make the connections that Matthew is making. When Matthew makes the connection between the works that are being done and this passage about the Messiah in Isaiah 53, Jesus is expecting the experts in the law to be able to make the same connection.

That's why he says, why do you think that evil in your heart? You might have thought that the scribes were defending the honor of God. After all, the fundamental premise is that only God can forgive sins, and that's true. So you might think, oh, scribes and Pharisees would be so hard on them. And they're just defending the honor of God.

But let's, over the next few minutes, just explore whether that's really what's happening or not. Verses 5 and 6, Jesus says, 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. Now, as soon as he has said this, Jesus has set up a circumstance where in the next moments, he will either be a fraud, because he's told a paralyzed man to arise and to take up his stretcher that he came on and take that stretcher home.

He came without working legs and Jesus says so that you may know that the Son of God has authority, has power on earth to forgive sins, you get up and you take your stretcher home. So he's laid it all out before them. I'm going to give a proof that I have authority to forgive sins. You paralyzed man, get up and take your mat and go home. And so in those next moments, he'll either be a fraud or he will be demonstrating that he's God.

The scribes and the Pharisees could not have missed this. Their whole objection was built upon only God being able to forgive sins. And Him, Jesus claiming to be able to forgive sins is Jesus saying, I am God. And Jesus saying that He has authority, He has power to forgive sins is Jesus saying, I'm God. And he has set up his own test case.

And that's exactly what this man does. He gets up. We don't know how long it's been since he's walked. We just know that he can stand up in that moment. He can pick up his stretcher in that moment.

He can go home. And he goes home rejoicing and praising God is what we learn from the Luke account. In John 10, John 10 there's a very similar confrontation. And Jesus has claimed to be God, again, in John 10. Only, You don't even have to infer it.

Jesus has called himself the Son of God in John 10. So from the perspective of the Pharisees, it's even worse in John 10. And so they're going to stone him in John 10. And in verse 32 of John 10, Jesus says, For which of those good works do you stone me? Was it for healing him or healing him?

Was it for Casting the devil out of her or casting the devil out of her? Was it for making that blind man see? Or was it for making that death man hear? Or was it for making that youth woman be able to talk? Which of the good words are you going to stone me for?

Here's what he says in the following verses. This is John 10, starting in verse 36. Do you say of Him who the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not do the works of my Father, Do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in Him." So, in fact, the scribes are not defending the honor of God.

They're impugning the honor of God. They're accusing the honor of God. They're resisting the signs that God is sending to show that Jesus is authentic and they're dishonoring God. Jesus isn't merely asserting that He has the power, the authority to forgive sins. He's proving that he has the power and authority to forgive sins.

These miracles are given so that we may know that Jesus is the Christ. And that as the Christ, He has the power, He has the authority to forgive sins. Now, does this mean that anyone who claims to do a miracle of healing is certainly from God? We have to ask that question, don't we? Because there are people who run around today, and they're claiming to do miracles of healing.

Now, does that mean that based on that, we're obligated to accept that they're from God? May it never be. With Jesus Christ, it's not just a miracle. It's a string of miracles. And with Jesus Christ, it's that everything lines up.

It's not just Jesus healing. And this is what Matthew continues the labor so hard to demonstrate. And he has since the beginning of chapter one that with Jesus everything lines up when Jesus teaches it's amazing exposition of scripture now Jesus has said things in different ways and anybody who knows their Bibles when we go through the Sermon on the Mount you say That is unbelievable Exposition how he pulls these these things that are in the Old Testament together but we could have preached every one of those sermons from the Old Testament. Every single one of them. And so, while it's brilliant exposition, you can go to Scripture and say, that teaching is from God.

You can independently, and I don't mean that in a negative way, but you can go without the new things that are being said. You can go back to what God has already said and say, this man is teaching the things that God, truths that God has given to His people hundreds and thousands of years before. And what Jesus does has been foretold by scripture. Not just Isaiah 53, but Matthew's been bringing forth a succession of prophets since the beginning of the books to show that things Jesus can control are the fulfillment of prophecy. And so many things that Jesus would not have been able to control were He not God.

Like where you're born. Like the massacre of babies that happens around Bethlehem when you're only a baby. Like your genealogy. Like your time in Egypt. Like the appearance of a forerunner in John the Baptist.

And so, Matthew has been laboring with us to demonstrate that the prophets have lined up to say Jesus is the Christ. And if anyone should have recognized it, if anyone should have known that the Old Testament pointed to this man, It's the people who now stand accusing Him. It's the experts in the law. It's the scribes and the Pharisees. Those who trust in Jesus should be of good cheer.

Those who trust in Jesus should be of good cheer. Those who trust in Jesus should take heart. They should take courage. Because with Jesus, everything lines up. He's doing the works that the prophets said that the Messiah should do.

He's taking authority over disease. He's taking authority over nature. He's taking authority over the spiritual realm. The multitudes see what Jesus is doing, and they marvel and they glorify God. This is one of the key reasons that Jesus is doing these things, that people would see the works of God and they would marvel and they would glorify Him.

Mark 2, that parallel passage, the people say we never saw anything like this. Luke 5, that parallel passage, people say we have seen strange things today. We've seen strange things today. We don't have a framework for the things that we're seeing here. This is very, very unusual.

The man that we knew couldn't walk has taken his stretcher and gone home. We have seen strange things today. But we can see that they didn't fully understand because they're marveling that God had given such power to men. God did not give such power to man. God gave such power to the Son of Man.

That's what Matthew 9 says. That's what Jesus says. That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Arise. Take up your bed and go home.

Now, when the scribes and Pharisees, even if the crowds missed it, even if the crowds went over their head, The scribes and Pharisees should never have gone over their head. When they hear Jesus, particularly in this context, in the context of healing, in the context of forgiveness of sins, when Jesus identifies himself as The son of man, their mind should have immediately said Daniel 7. Son of man, Daniel 7. Now in every context they might not have done this, but when we're talking about the context of healing and forgiving sins, an expert in the law would think Daniel 7. Here's what Daniel 7 says.

Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14. Daniel says, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before me. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

And His kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. In Daniel 7, in this prophetic vision that is given to Daniel, the Son of Man is the one who comes and is given by the Ancient of Days an everlasting kingdom. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. And Jesus identifies himself as the son of man. And it's not that the scribes and the Pharisees didn't think about Daniel 7, but they saw Jesus and they saw a different kingdom than the one they expected and then the one that they wanted and they rejected what was right before their eyes, what was plain for them to see.

Verses 9 through 13. Verses 9 through 13. 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. 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." Again, there's parallel passages in Mark 2, now starting in verse 13, and in Luke 5, now starting in verse 27.

And this is fascinating because our author introduces himself. This is the book of Matthew. And now we're in chapter 9, and Matthew is actually bringing himself into the story. In Mark, he's identified as Levi, the son of Alphaeus. It wasn't uncommon at all for Jews to have two different names that they went by.

Levi is undoubtedly the more exalted name. Here we have Matthew identifying himself as a tax collector and calling himself by his less exalted name. He is just a man at the tax office named Matthew. And Jesus says, follow me, and he does. Matthew is a tax collector, and Jesus has already acknowledged that this is a profession of ill repute.

And he did it in the Sermon on the Mount, the end of chapter 5. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so.

So even Jesus in His teaching is acknowledging the common view of this profession. They are the most despised. In chapter 8 we dealt with a leper who is physically an outcast, and in chapter 9 we are dealing with someone who is professionally an outcast. It might not have escaped your notice that people don't really like to pay their taxes. People aren't really happy about taxes.

But then put on top of that, you putting yourself in the employment of the occupier, when you're the people of God, and expecting to be the head and not the tail those who rule not those who are ruled and tax collectors have a real public perception problem. The parallel account in Luke 5 says this, so he left all. We find Matthew being very modest in his account and how he identifies himself and him being very forthright about what he was in his life. But Luke has the freedom to give us more detail than Matthew is willing to give in his modesty. Luke says, so he left all, rose up, and followed him.

Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. Matthew, in his account, doesn't say anything about this being at his house. Doesn't say anything about it being a great feast. But Luke when he records, he actually brings Matthew more into the account.

Matthew really just wants to focus on Jesus. You look at Matthew's account, it is bare bones and all about Jesus. But Luke makes it plain that the feast happened at Matthew's house. In Chapter 8, the chapter that we just got out of, there was a man who had a reason why now wasn't a good time to follow Jesus. And to us, seems like a good reason.

But here in Chapter 8, there's a man who has a really good reason why now is inconvenient. Now is not a good time. Not Matthew. Matthew immediately arises. He leaves all according to Luke and he follows Jesus.

And not only that, but he is the happiest man in Capernaum. He is organizing feasts based on what Jesus has done for him. And he's bringing in his friends. I think it was Gary on Tuesday morning who says, you know, that tax collectors have to hang together. Nobody likes tax collectors except for maybe other tax collectors.

And so they're probably a pretty tight-knit community. And This is what we see happening. When Matthew throws a feast, it's other people just like him. More sinners and tax collectors. Here's what Matthew Henry says about this.

Matthew Henry. They who are effectually brought to Christ themselves cannot but be desirous that others also may be brought to Him, and ambitious of contributing something towards it. Now listen to this. True grace will not contentedly eat its morsels alone, but will invite others. That's just what we see in Matthew.

True grace will not contentedly eat its morsels alone. Matthew cannot contain himself. Matthew has to throw a feast. Matthew has to invite his friends to come and be in the presence of this Jesus. And this, again, in rapid succession puts Jesus on the radar of the scribes and Pharisees.

We just had one confrontation and this puts Jesus on the collision course with the same people again. But they don't ask Jesus about it. They ask his disciples, not knowing that he knows their thoughts anyway. They might as well just ask Jesus about it. Now think about the question they ask.

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? The scribes and Pharisees have perceived that There is a call for the people of God to be a peculiar people, to be a separate people. Not to be unequally yoked.

This is a reputation now, Jesus's conduct how Jesus is patterning himself Sticks the reputation sticks, so we get to Matthew 11 19 Here's what we'll read the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. So here he is. He's called a tax collector to be his disciple. His tax collector disciple can't contain himself, so he throws a feast for all his other tax collector friends. And this gives Jesus a reputation that follows him well beyond his chapter 11, where he's called a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Can you imagine being a friend of tax collectors and sinners? And undoubtedly the scribes and Pharisees would have quoted Jesus Proverbs 1320. He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. They would have quoted Jesus, Psalm 11. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

And so, in a sense, the scribes and Pharisees can say that the scriptures are on our side, that the people of God are to be a separate people, are to be a peculiar people, are not to be a people who are unequally yoked with those who have no affection with God. There's two problems for them. The first is they overvalued their own company. And they betray that by saying tax collectors and sinners as if they're not sinners. And as we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, in sermon after sermon after sermon, the scribes and the Pharisees have constructed an external religion and they're very meticulous and they're very externally disciplined and so they think they're not sinners.

They think there's another category of people here, and that they're not a part of that category, but they're wrong. Matthew Henry says, they were very strict in avoiding sinners, but not in avoiding sin. This is an accurate description of the scribes and Pharisees. Very careful about avoiding sinners, only not very careful at all about avoiding sin, real sin, sin in the heart. So One, they've overvalued their own company.

Two, they didn't recognize any other relationship to be had with sinners. They didn't recognize that there could be any other relationship with sinners other than a defiling one. But Jesus is looking for a redemptive relationship with sinners. And so it's true that the people of God ought to be separate and peculiar. It's always been true.

And yet it's also true that God has put the people of God here to be a city on a hill, to be a light on a stand that gives light to all who are in the house. And that these things are not contrary to one another. That the people of God are separate and peculiar, and yet there is a relationship to be had with tax collectors and sinners that is a redemptive relationship. Like Jesus' interaction with the leper, normally the touching of a leper is defiling to the person who touches, but with Jesus, not so. With Jesus, There's redemptive virtue that flows from him in the other direction to the leper.

We've seen it in a physical sense and now Jesus demonstrates it in a spiritual sense. It can be true that being in the company of tax collectors and sinners is defiling. And yet, Jesus wants to put in his people redemptive virtue, so that they can go and have another kind of an association with sinners. Not one that keeps them from being separate. Not one that keeps them from being peculiar, but one that allows virtue to flow from his people to sinners so that sinners will be sought out and saved.

Here's what the Expositors Bible commentary says. Expecting a messiah who would crush the sinful and support the righteous, they had little place for one who accepted and transformed the sinner and dismissed the righteous as hypocrites. For the scribes and Pharisees, the coming of the Messiah was to be the golden age for the meticulous. And The scribes and Pharisees have equated being meticulous with being righteous, but Jesus showed up and said, no, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. The coming of the Messiah is not the golden age for the meticulous, but Jesus Christ has come to seek and save the lost.

They want to know why. Jesus tells them why. Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. These tax collectors and sinners being despised and having some sense of their need might actually value the presence and the ministry of Jesus Christ. Where the scribes and the Pharisees being so smug, being so self satisfied, have no need for the presence in the ministry of Jesus Christ or so they think.

Jesus began the sermon on the mount by saying blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Revelations 3, Jesus is speaking to churches and he speaks to the church of the Laodiceans and he condemns them and he says this, you say I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Here are the scribes and the Pharisees before the Son of God thinking that they are rich, that they become wealthy, that they have need of nothing and not realizing that they're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Can you imagine any state more terrible than that, thinking that you're well, thinking that you're rich, that you have need of nothing, and yet in reality being wretched, blind, poor, naked. In Luke 19, another tax collector gets saved. Jesus seems to delight in targeting the most despised and for his own glory saving them. In Luke 19, it's Zacchaeus.

Luke 19 verses 8 through 10. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house because he also is the son of Abraham. For the son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost. The son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost.

The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. Oh, that we might have the heart of Jesus, who wasn't fighting against being separate, who wasn't fighting against being peculiar, but who also understood that the people of God are to have a redemptive interaction with sinners because Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Now at this point in the passage, Jesus gets overtly, intentionally offensive. There's no other way to read this, that Jesus wanted to offend them. Jesus is being intentionally offensive when he says, but go and learn what this means and quotes to them a well-known passage.

And when he says, but go and learn what this means he is saying You should have already known this shame on you for not knowing this the most learned of the time the most proud of the things that they're know that they know And Jesus is working to break through that. And so Jesus isn't going to pacify them. Jesus isn't going to play along with the things that they think they know. But Jesus is going to rattle the cage to see if there's any life there. 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." And he's quoting Hosea 6.6, for I desire mercy and not sacrifice in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. I desire mercy and not sacrifice in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Jesus isn't introducing the scribes and the Pharisees to the book of Micah. They already know the book of Micah.

They already know this verse. They probably memorized this verse. But because they knew it didn't mean that they know what it meant. Jesus doesn't say, go learn this. He says, go learn what this means.

They knew Hosea 6.6. They just didn't know what it meant. These men who were so proud of their learning that they become completely unteachable. What does it mean? I desire mercy and not sacrifice, but not sacrifice.

What does it mean? It doesn't mean that Sacrifice doesn't matter. That's not the interpretation of Hosea 6.6. Only worry about mercy. Don't worry about sacrifice.

But it does mean that you and I and The scribes and Pharisees that are in view don't have anything to offer that's sufficient for sacrifice that will cleanse from sin. We have nothing to offer that's sufficient to be a sacrifice. That is God's Word. And it always has been and the participation of mankind and sacrifice though there though. We've been commanded by God Though if we were living in Old Testament times we would have a duty it would be part of the law It would be sin not to do it.

Our participation in that is merely symbolic. We're not offering anything to God that is acceptable of ourselves. We're bringing to God one of his animals, something completely outside of ourselves, To be killed. And it's just symbolic. It points to Christ.

The blood of bulls and goats never took away sin. It always just gave a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to call the righteous because there are none. And those who imagine that they are righteous will be left where they are, to perish in their pride and their folly. Unless that pride can be dealt with, The end is destruction.

We can never come to God on our own terms, satisfied with ourselves. But sinners, the poor in spirit, those who have been brought to mourn about their sin, Jesus Christ calls those to repentance. Isaiah 55.1 says this, it's an amazing verse, Isaiah 55.1, Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. This is the condition that we find ourselves in.

Hungry and thirsty, in need of food and drink, but with no money, and God bids us. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money come, buy, and eat. In this text we have two things. In this text we have two things. First we have the broken, the most helpless, the most despised, brought to Jesus and healed.

In the first account it was physical brokenness And Jesus heals. In the second account, you have this despised man, Matthew the tax collector, the sinner and the friend of other tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus heals. And secondly, you have those who imagine that they're well and they're just left. Those who imagine that they're well.

That they're acceptable to God and they are left unchanged. They're left unbroken. They're left for destruction. This should be a terrifying passage to us. That there might be Any in our midst who sits here Sunday after Sunday and is somehow able to maintain a sense of self-satisfaction, a sense of being acceptable.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Everybody turn your Bibles. 1 Corinthians 1. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul talks about this great paradox of the broken, who God has mercy on and it brings him glory, and the proud, who are just left to themselves, who are left to be self-satisfied.

First Corinthians 1, starting in verse 26. First Corinthians 1, 26. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, Not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen. And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God in righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. And so the men possessed by thousands of demons are clothed and in their right mind and they're going about the district telling everyone the great things that God has done for them.

And the paralyzed man arises And he takes up his bed and he walks home. Sin's forgiven. And the tax collector, the despised man, the sinner, the friend of other tax collectors and sinners, is justified and made a disciple. But the smug scribes, the experts in the law who can't see what's right before their eyes, the works that are done, that Take it upon themselves to accuse Jesus and think that they're well and they're strong and that it will always last wherever they're left. They're left unhelped by Jesus.

They are left unhelped by Jesus. Friends, get wisdom. Get understanding. In all you are getting, get understanding. Heed the warnings that God is putting before us in this text.

Would it terrify you that God might leave us unbroken people, satisfied in ourselves and our little families. Father, Father, you have been very good to us. You have given us much. You have given us much. It's hard not to look at this text And wonder if with such comfort we can trust in you as we ought to.

You're wise in all these things. This we know, Lord, That it was good that those men would be possessed with thousands of demons if you would rescue them. It was good that a man not have the use of his legs if it would be that he would forgive his sins. It was good that a man would be despised by all his countrymen. If you would call him to follow you.

And it was disastrous for the men who were never sick, who had comfort and ease. And so were lifted up, supposing that it was their own wisdom, their own strength that had given them these things. And so they were unbroken before you, and they were left to their own ways. God, when you bring sickness to us, I pray that we would worship you. When you bring what seemed to us like unbearable hardship, I pray that we would worship you for disciplining us, for bringing us low, that we might be poor in spirit, so that the kingdom of heaven would be ours, that we would mourn so that we would be comforted.

Oh God, please don't leave us unbroken. Oh God, please break us, Bring us low so that we might benefit from the presence and the ministry of Jesus Christ, knowing our need. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. This is the part in the service where we just ask the male heads of households to continue the teaching. So If you're one who likes to eat the microphone, that's when it starts cutting out.

Bring it down about 6 to 9 inches because we buy cheap microphones here. And they only work under certain circumstances so get it away from your mouth and you'll be Better off. It's not a complete thought yet in my mind, but I was pondering as you were going through your introduction where Jesus said, be of good cheer, take courage, take heart. And contrasting that with any time that angels have interacted with people, they say, fear not. They always say, don't be afraid.

And I'm trying to go over in all the interactions when the angel appeared to Mary, fear not. When the angel appeared to the women.