Jesus, What A Friend for Sinners! (8/13/2023)

Let's open to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9, we've sort of been taking things slow up until this point, sort of laying the groundwork of what the gospel of Matthew is about and what

Jesus is trying to communicate. So I feel like we have that under us. So now

I'm going to start going a little faster through the book. So we're going to cover more territory this morning.

So let's look at Matthew chapter 9, starting in verse 1. It says, so he, that is,

Jesus, he got into a boat and crossed over and came to his own city, which was

Capernaum. Then behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, be of good cheer.

Your sins are forgiven you. And at once, some of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes.

In Mark's account, they say, who can forgive sins but God alone? And of course, that's a rhetorical question because they all understood only

God can forgive sins. Verse 4, 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 you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

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 multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified

God who had given such power to men. OK, so this is one of the most important miracles

Jesus ever worked. Why? Because he makes this additional point that he has the power to forgive sin.

And immediately, the scribes, who were experts in the Jewish law, they recognized the claim that Jesus is making.

And we need to recognize the claim he's making. So Jesus, as a rabbi, as a teacher, he would have known, just as the scribes knew, that only

God has this authority to forgive sin, which really only leaves us and leaves them with two possibilities.

Either Jesus is a blasphemer, and a heretic, and a false teacher, or he is

God in human flesh. My friends, these are the only two possibilities there are. We know what the scribes thought.

And I know what this church believes, amen? Now, this word blasphemy, it means one who speaks against God, or someone who speaks against the things of God.

And Jesus would have been guilty of this if he wasn't God in the flesh.

So on some level, the scribes are right to sort of question a man who would say he has the power to forgive sins.

Of course, Jesus did have that power. And he proved it. So two options.

Jesus is either guilty, or Jesus is God. Make your choice. The scribes clearly believed he was a blasphemer.

But because he was the Lord, and they were speaking against the Lord, in actuality, guess who's the blasphemer?

The scribes. So there's no middle ground here. It's either black or white.

And sometimes people say, oh, this is my problem with Christianity or Bible -believing preachers.

They're so black and white on the things they say and believe. You got it right. That's true.

It's truth or error, heaven or hell. Jesus is either God or he's not. It's one or the other.

There's no middle ground. Now, there's a lot of people kind of stuck in between. They're not really sure. And those are the people we want to reach and appeal to.

But make no mistake about it, it is one or the other. So this is what is at stake with this miracle.

Jesus heals the paralyzed man. And he says to him, your sins are forgiven you.

This indicates that the man's condition, being paralyzed, was somehow connected to something that he did.

Now, that's not always the case. Someone might be going through difficulty. And it's not because they did anything wrong. But with this situation, it seems to be tied together.

So Jesus forgives the man of his sin. And the scribes, when they hear it, they are angry. I mean, they are enraged.

How dare he say such a thing? Who does this man think he is? And of course, that's the whole question.

That's the biggest question of all. Who is Jesus? So if you've been following along, you remember last week we answered this question, that in the

Gospel of Matthew, again and again and again, we see all these hints, at least hints, that Jesus is

God manifest in the flesh. This is why we preach Christ, because he is the

Lord. Because it's all about God. It's about the Lord. This is why we preach Christ.

He is the image, the Bible says, of the invisible God. Every once in a while, you hear the skeptics and liberal theologians, they'll say, well,

Jesus never claimed to be God. Have you heard this? They'll say that, Jesus never claimed to be

God. It's like, yeah, he did. Hello? But this is the whole claim of the

New Testament straight on through. In Matthew, Jesus claims the power of God right here in forgiving sin.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus says about himself, what, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Only God can say that. So there is no ambiguity about the divinity of Christ.

But here's the thing. When a person is committed to opposing God's truth, you know, the facts don't matter.

The evidence doesn't matter. When somebody has made up their mind, we are against this man, Jesus. The term is reprobate or reprobation.

When somebody has already made up their mind and they're taking the next step in opposing Jesus, it doesn't really matter what

Jesus says or does. They're just, they're against him. They are against God. But there's all sorts of people who are not sure in between.

So the multitudes, many of them, they didn't quite know what to make of this, but they end up praising

God. They know something happened. They might not know Jesus is God in the flesh, but they knew he was something special.

He was a man who at least harnessed the power of God. So sometimes it takes people a while to get there.

So the scribes, back to them. What did I say they were? The scribes, their job was what? Yeah, Jewish leaders, experts in the

Jewish law, right? Well, supposedly they were. Jesus was the real expert. That's the reality.

But the scribes, they were experts in the law of Moses. And this is why the

Bible, or at least the King James Version calls them lawyers, right? So the scribes were lawyers.

And you know that this is true. Lawyers either can be really good and ethical or they can be really unethical.

They can be really terrible and dishonest. So here's the thing. It was right for them to question this. However, Jesus, what he did should have been enough to convince them.

Look at verse five. Jesus says, for which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say, arise and walk.

Which is easier? To go up to somebody who's crippled and say your sins are forgiven you? Technically, anybody can do that.

And like anyone can say that. But the person who says that and then can heal them,

God has just authenticated the man as at least a prophet. And of course, we know

Jesus was more than a prophet. So Jesus, in other words, he's saying, I'll prove it to you.

Verse six, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

He said to the paralytic, arise, take up your bed and walk. And the man was immediately healed.

So after they saw this, did the scribes change their mind? No, it doesn't look like they changed their mind.

Why? Because at this point, they were really haters of God. They were opposing Christ.

What about the multitudes? Did the multitudes have a change of mind or were they convinced by it?

Yeah, they believed. They believed that Jesus, they didn't know everything, but they were saying this man is from God.

You know, and this is still the way that it is. The common people, the scripture says, received

Jesus gladly. So the average everyday person is much more likely to believe on Christ.

The wealthy or highly educated ruling class is usually they're the people opposed to Christ.

So it was that situation then, same situation now, generally speaking. Of course, there's exceptions to that.

But why did the scribes not want to accept Christ? See, this is key. This, I believe, is why most people don't want to accept

Christ. It's about their pride, right? If they believed in Jesus, they would have to admit that they were wrong.

And people, this is what I see, that people don't like admitting when they're wrong, right?

So the scribes, their pride prevented them from coming to Christ. They didn't see it.

They don't want to see it. But the common people and the multitudes, they did. But the multitudes are still not making the connection that Jesus was

God in the flesh because verse eight says that they glorified God that he had given such power to men.

Meaning, or it seems to be implied that they're only viewing Jesus as a man, a great man, but maybe not the son of God.

So two things before we move on. Some people probably are wondering this.

Why didn't Jesus come right out at this point and say to everybody, hey, everyone, I'm God. I'm Jehovah.

I am the Lord. Why didn't Jesus do that? Have you thought this?

Why didn't Jesus just come out? I would argue there are places where he does come out and say that, but he doesn't do that here.

Why didn't he say that? Well, it's not something you can just say. I mean, put yourself in that position.

If some guy came and said, even if he worked a miracle, he said, I'm God, would you believe it?

So here's what Jesus is doing. He is proving it over the course of his three and a half year ministry.

And even right now, if you know someone who is open to hearing about Jesus, you can't expect them to first time they hear, first time they hear the gospel, first time you talk to them to just immediately believe all this.

There's a lot of people, they need to be kind of brought along. There's a lot of people, they need to come to terms with this themselves.

So this is what I say, as long as somebody isn't like the scribes and they're not like teaching against the doctrine of Christ, going back to what

I was talking about at the beginning, how there are teachers who are actively opposing the ministry of Christ, teaching false, as long as somebody is not actively opposing the ministry, welcome them into the church, pray for them, love them, be patient with them, because we want them to realize this for themselves.

That's the first thing. Number two, as for God giving this power to men, that was sort of the assessment of the crowd, but it's not totally accurate.

Jesus, as a man, did not have this power. Jesus, as the

God man, had this power. So my point is men do not have the power to forgive sin.

So they were thinking, oh, God gave this power to a man. Not totally accurate. Here's why I bring that up.

And hear me say this, I say it with all due respect, because there is probably, at least later on, there will be a

Roman Catholic or two listening, and you need to know the priest does not have the power to forgive sin.

He does not have that power. This is standard Catholic doctrine that you go to, we all know this, you go to confession, you sit in the booth with the priest, you confess your sins to a man, and he acts as if he is the

Lord, and he absolves you of your sin. He does not have the authority or the power to do that.

We need to, all people need to go directly to the Lord in prayer and confess their sins.

It's okay to confess your sins one to another. The Bible says that, but you don't look for others for that full and final forgiveness.

Who do we look to for forgiveness? Yeah, the Lord. And who's our mediator?

A man? Am I your mediator? Is a man in a box with a collar the mediator? No, the

Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, verse five, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man,

Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the only man, God -man, that can forgive sin.

So I would just appeal to anyone, put your trust in the Lord, confess to him, go directly to God.

Salvation does not come through any man. Salvation does not come through a church. Salvation does not come through sacraments and being sprinkled by water or eating bread.

Salvation only comes through Christ. Grace alone, faith alone,

Christ alone. Can I get a witness on that? Can I get an amen on that? Okay, moving on.

Now that we all agree, all right, let's move on. Here, Matthew, starting in verse nine, records his own call and conversion.

So it says, and 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. You know,

I suspect there's a little more to the conversation than this. Sometimes the Bible gives us just the little bit that we need.

I'm sure he's probably said more than that. But follow me, and he arose and followed him. Verse 10, now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house, and behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

So the sinners are coming and sitting down with who? With Jesus. Yeah, with Matthew, the disciples, but with Christ, okay.

Verse 11, and when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And when Jesus heard that, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

You notice what he says about the sinners. What are they? They're sick, but go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, or at least people who thought they were righteous, but sinners to repentance.

So what is Jesus doing? Is he hanging around with the sinners? Just it's Friday night, just blowing off some steam.

Is that what Jesus is doing? No, he's calling the sinners to repentance. So Matthew was the tax collector, and he worked hand in hand with the

Romans, probably some extortion going on. Matthew was seen as a total outcast.

He was like a traitor, a Jewish man working hand in hand with the Romans. I mean, the

Jews would have despised a guy like Matthew, and yet that's why it's so expected when Jesus comes and sees him and says, hey, follow me, come and be one of my disciples.

I mean, this was a controversial thing, but what is it? It is a testament to the grace of God.

There's people saying, well, I don't know if God could forgive me. I'm so bad, you don't realize the things

I've done. Well, God understands the things you've done, and he wants to forgive you. I would argue it's the same call, not to be an apostle, but the same call for all of us, for the whole world.

Come and follow Jesus, right? That's the message of the church, preaching

Christ, come and follow Christ. So Matthew would have been an outcast.

His friends, who would have wanted to hang around with this tax collector?

I mean, this was a pretty rough crowd. I mean, Matthew's friends would have been, yeah, this was a tough group, and yet Jesus sat down and he had a meal with them.

And did this make the Pharisees very happy? No. See, Jesus, in the previous section we looked at, he offended the scribes.

Now, and you have to wonder, there's some passages we could look at where I know

Jesus did this on purpose, but Jesus is just looking to offend these guys. You realize that, right?

He wants to create this situation to make a bigger point. So he offended the scribes before.

Might not have been on purpose, but sometimes it was. This time he's offending this other group, the

Pharisees. Now, here's the thing about the Pharisees. This was a social slash religious movement in Israel.

The Pharisees were the strictest sect of Judaism. I mean, they were strict.

They wanted to follow every law to the T. And you know what? That's not necessarily a bad thing, except that they were blinded by their pride.

So what they ended up doing is they were very strict with everybody else, but they themselves kind of skirted the rules.

That's why Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy. But here's the thing. You know, the Pharisees would have been right if Jesus, as some people claim, was just hanging around with tax collectors.

And this is one of my pet peeves when people are like, yeah, Jesus, he hung out with prostitutes and drunkards and sinners.

Jesus did not hang out with them. What was he doing? He had a meal with them.

He showed kindness to them. He was trying to reach out to them, calling them to repentance.

Because if he really was just hanging out, the Pharisees wouldn't have had a reason to complain. But again, this is a testament to the grace of God.

I'm glad that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, right? Of whom

I am chief. I know that's a Bible verse that Paul said, of whom I am chief. But you know what?

I feel that way. If you don't feel that way, because you don't really know everybody's sin, you know your own sin, we should all feel this way.

1 Timothy 1 .15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

I am chief. So Jesus loved the sinners, but he did call them to repentance.

Now in verse 14, Jesus is questioned about fasting.

It says, then the disciples of John, that is John the Baptist came to him saying, why do we and the

Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? And at this time,

John the Baptist was in prison. So it's not surprising that his disciples would be fasting because this is just what you do.

When you're mourning, when you're praying to God for deliverance, you fast and you pray. But for those disciples who had embraced

Christ, the arrival of the Messiah, this was a time of celebration. The Messiah is here.

This isn't a time to fast and be sad. This was a time to rejoice.

So that's why they weren't fasting. Jesus says in verse 15, 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.

So we draw from this that the disciples probably fasted after Jesus was arrested.

And of course, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the father. Now it's Christian practice for us to fast, but not while Jesus was with them.

One last point before we're going to close. The next statement is a little difficult to interpret without some context.

How many of you have read the Bible and you're like, oh man, what is he talking about? Like out of nowhere,

Jesus makes this statement and you're just left scratching your head. Now today we have these things called study

Bibles, right? And you can always go and look at the note on the bottom. Here's the thing, and I know you know this, but here's the thing about study

Bibles, they're not inspired. So you never know 100 % sure is the note in the study

Bible right? So keep that in mind. But we need a little context and I'll make this final point.

So for the Jews, think about this, growing up at this time, I know we're reading in the pages of the

New Testament scripture, but this is still technically Old Testament dispensation. Jesus hasn't died on the cross yet.

So they're still living under the law as of now. So for the Jews, the old covenant was so ingrained in them, once the new covenant was ushered in, there was going to be a temptation for them to kind of blend the old covenant with the new covenant.

This is what say the Seventh -day Adventists will do. They take the commandments and the Sabbath and the dietary laws and all these things that some of them are for us.

Thou shall not steal, that's for us, right? The dietary laws, that was for the Jews, but they kind of just blend the two covenants.

And that's what Jesus didn't want them to do. Do not blend the covenants.

This would be a great problem. You know, the sect of the Judaizers, right?

When Gentiles and Greeks wanted to believe in Jesus, the Judaizers said, well, yes, you need to believe in Jesus, but you also need to be circumcised to be saved.

You need to keep the law of Moses to be saved. And if you're a 40 -year -old Gentile male, you're not gonna wanna do that.

So this was a great hindrance to the gospel. But what is that? It's a mixing together of the covenants.

Jesus doesn't want us to blend the old with the new. Look at verses 16 and 17.

"'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 and the wine is spilled, "'and the wineskins are ruined.

"'But they put new wine into the new wineskins, "'and both are preserved.'"

So what covenant are we under right now? The new covenant. Are we under the old covenant?

Now, is the Old Testament Scriptures, are they still true? It's all true, but not everything applies.

Not everything applies. I can prove it, you don't offer bulls and goats when you go home or on Sunday or Saturday, right?

Have you offered your animal sacrifice lately? Why, I hope you haven't. I mean, we need to talk afterwards if you're doing that.

Well, that's part of the old covenant. We don't do that anymore. Same thing with keeping the Saturday Sabbath.

That's old covenant. That was given at Mount Sinai. Nobody observed it before, the disciples.

Now we have a new day. We have the Lord's Day in honor of Christ rising from the dead. So don't blend covenants.

And I'll just end with this application because I always like to try to take what the scripture says and apply it to our modern day.

I don't think blending old and new covenant is a real big issue within, you know,

Protestant evangelical Christianity. It was back then. But today, the biggest issue

I see as far as blending things together, here's the problem within evangelical churches, taking the world and taking the

Bible, taking, you know, the philosophies of the world, the worldview, you've heard the term worldview, take the world and blend it together with the new covenant, with Christianity.

And then we kind of have this mixture where you can kind of live life like everybody else and still have your religion and follow

Jesus. But really, you know, Monday through Saturday, you're just like everybody else. My friends, that is sort of a modern equivalent of blending right and wrong, if you will, right?

You can't tell me that's not happening. So let me leave you with this. Don't blend the two.

We need to read the word of God, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and do what God says and not be conformed to this world.

And for those, and that's for the Christians. And for unbelievers, if there's an unbeliever here or listening later on, you know, you need to come to terms sooner or later with who this man

Jesus is. You need to know that he is God in human flesh.

He is the only way, as Peter said in Acts 4 .12, he is the only name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.

So if there's somebody here who has never put their trust in Christ, I would argue do it now before it's too late.

Because every time you hear it and put it off, every time you hear it and reject it, your heart gets a little harder.

And then a little harder. And then some people, I do believe, reach a state where you can't believe anymore.

So that's for the unbeliever. Believe on Christ today. At least take one step closer in believing.

And then for Christians, don't blend the world with Christianity. Because what's the world?

It's a cesspool at this point. And I don't think I need to go on and prove that to you.

Don't blend the two, amen? Keep them separate. We're Christians, we live under the new covenant, learn from Christ, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and how while it has maybe one meaning, it has many different applications.

So I just pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, impress the things that we talked about today on the hearts of each one.

And Lord, we're thankful to be assembled together. And Lord, if there's somebody who has never received

Jesus, I pray that they would pray right now and understand that they're not saved because they said a prayer.

They're saved because they believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Lord, that's the message. Help us to keep the first thing first. We pray it all in his name, amen.

Amen. Let's stand, we'll close with hymn number 89. Megan will come up, hymn number 89.

♪ Jesus, what a friend for sinners ♪ ♪

Jesus, lover of my soul ♪ ♪

Friends may fail me, foes assail me ♪ ♪

When my Savior makes me whole ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, what a

Savior for sinners ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, what a friend ♪ ♪

Saving, helping, keeping, loving ♪ ♪

He is with me to the end ♪

Do number three. Number three. ♪ Jesus, what a help in sorrow ♪ ♪

While the billows o 'er me roll ♪ ♪

Even when my heart is breaking ♪ ♪

He, my comfort, helps my soul ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, what a

Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, what a friend ♪ ♪

Saving, helping, keeping, loving ♪ ♪

He is with me to the end ♪

And the last. ♪ Jesus, I do now receive him ♪ ♪

More than all in him I find ♪ ♪

He hath granted me forgiveness of sin ♪ ♪

I am his and he is mine ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, what a Savior ♪ ♪

Hallelujah, what a friend ♪ ♪

Saving, helping, keeping, loving ♪ ♪

He is with me to the end ♪