Intro to Matt. 9:9-17

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2021 9:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Matt. 9:9-17

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 9:9-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him. 10 Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

    14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" 15 And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16  "But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17 “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.’”

 

            John MacArthur entitles this sixth chapter in his commentary “Receiving the Sinner/Refusing the Righteous,” and one could say that this is the reason that Jesus came, that is to save sinners, those who realize that they are sinners, and also realize that on their own they can do nothing about that issue.  However when they realize this truth then they will also realize that Jesus Christ did it all and accept what He did for them and become a true born-again believer.

 

            In Matthew’s gospel we can see from the very beginning that Matthew made it clear that Jesus came to save the bad people, the sinners who knew that they were sinners.  All one has to do is look at the genealogy, which is actually the genealogy of Joseph, as Mary’s is found in Luke’s gospel.  In Joseph’s genealogy we find some very sinful people as we see some women there who were very unsavory people.  Now before one calls me some bad name I have to say that there were many unsavory men in there too, and when we get to the verses that we are going over for this section we find a man named “Matthew” whom the Jews stated that there was no room for repentance for an awful tax collector.  Now back to the ladies as we see that both Rahab and Ruth were from pagan, idolatrous, Gentile nations and Rahab was even a prostitute.  As mentioned some men who are in this list are very sinful including the man after God’s own heart, King David as he committed adultery and also murder. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “As the forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist prepared the people for the Messiah by preaching repentance from sin, and as they confessed their sins, he baptized them as a symbol of God’s cleansing (3:2, 6, 11).  Jesus began His own ministry with the preaching of repentance (4:17), and in the Sermon on the Mount He proclaimed God’s offer of forgiveness for those who sincerely and humbly hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:3-6).  In His model prayer He taught His followers to continue to ask God for forgiveness (6:12).  From the day of Pentecost on, the early church preached repentance from sin as an integral part of the gospel message (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31).

 

            “The object of men’s repentance is God’s forgiveness, and that is the dual theme of the gospel—men must turn from sin in order for God to forgive, cleanse, and save them.  The only people who ever receive salvation and enter God’s kingdom are those who acknowledge their sinfulness and repent of it.  It follows, then, that those who consider themselves already to be righteous see no need for repentance or forgiveness—and thereby shut themselves out from salvation in the kingdom of God.”

 

            Now I have already pretty much stated that this is the theme of Matthew 9:9-17 as one can discover one of the most definitive, dramatic, insightful, and also comprehensive statements that our Lord ever made.  We see this statement in 13b where Jesus states “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  The truth of that wonderful statement is the essence of the gospel and the purpose for the incarnation.  Jesus came into the world to call sinners to Himself.  He came to call, as mentioned those who know they have a terminal spiritual illness and who have no trust or hope in themselves to be cured, Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” in John 14:6.  It looks like we will need to finish this introduction in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for the book of Matthew as I am learning and relearning many things from this book.  I am especially learning why it was that Matthew put the things into this book that he put in there, and put them in the order that he put them.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remembering that there is nothing that I can do on my own not only to be saved, but to walk in a way that will be pleasing to the Lord as this must be in the power of the Holy Spirit to do these things that are pleasing to the Lord.

 

5/12/2021 10:32 AM