PT-2 "Intro to Matt. 9:9-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/13/2021 10:07 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Matt. 9:9-17”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 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.’”

 

            Let us begin by quoting a couple verses from the gospel of Luke “13  "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14  "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted’” (Luke 18:13-14).  This man, and not the self-righteous Pharisee came away justified because he knew that he was a sinner and could on his own do nothing about it.  Augustine pleaded “Lord, save me from that wicked man, myself.”  John Know confessed “In youth, in middle age and now after many battles, I find nothing in me but corruption.”  John Wesley wrote “I am fallen short of the glory of God, my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life being an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.”  John’s brother Charles, the great hymn writer confessed “Vile and full of sin I am.”  Augustus Toplady, who wrote the beloved hymn “Rock of Ages,” said of himself “Oh, that such a wretch as I should ever be tempted to think highly of himself.  I am myself nothing but sin and weakness, in whose flesh naturally dwells no good thing.”  (All these quotation have come from MacArthur’s introduction to the verses we are looking at this morning.)

 

            There are more people including the apostle who did not think of themselves worthy or have self-righteousness like the scribes and the Pharisees.  Peter said to Jesus in Luke 5:8 “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”  Paul writes to his beloved son in the Lord, Timothy “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all”

 

            If Jesus came to earth in the incarnation to save righteous people then that would have been pointless.  Righteous people need no salvation.  However even more relevant to man’s situation is the fact that there are no righteous people as Paul writes in Romans chapter three.  “10 The scriptures endorse this fact plainly enough. There is none righteous, no, not one. 11 There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; 12 They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one” (Rom. 3:10-12 Philips).  In this third chapter Paul is writing what seems to be like a machine gun firing as he quotes numerous quotations from the Old Testament to make his point, and his point will end in verse 23 “everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan” (Philips).  Now to understand this verse we can see that there is no one who is righteous and so as we have been using that term we are talking about the self-righteous person who does not think that he has any need for the salvation that Jesus Christ offers.  One thing for sure and that is a person who realizes that he is a sinner in need of Christ’s salvation offer will come to the cross to be saved, as a person has to be sick before he desires to see a doctor.

 

            MacArthur writes “In the midst of his carefully selected accounts of Jesus’ miracles that show His credentials as the predicted Messiah, Matthew presents that central truth of the gospel.  The first three miracles (see Matt. 8:1-17) dealt with disease and displayed Jesus’ power over sickness and the infirmities of the body.  After those miracles came the response of three would-be disciples, whose unwillingness to pay the price of discipleship betrayed their lack of genuine faith (Matt. 8:18-22); cf Luke 9:57-62).  The second group of three miracles displayed Jesus’ power over nature, over demons, and over sin (see 8:23-9:8).

 

            “The response to those three miracles is set forth in the present text.  The first part of the response is positive, evidenced in the acceptance of the gospel by a penitent sinner.  The second part of the response is negative, evidenced in the rejection of the gospel by those who thought themselves already to be righteous.

 

            “After Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sin (9:2), the questions in the minds of many people no doubt were:  ‘How much sin is God willing to forgive?  Whose sin can be forgiven, and whose, not?  What are the parameters and limits of His forgiveness?  What are its conditions and how far does it go?’  Those are the questions answered in verses 9-17.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I think about how the scribes and the Pharisees were self-righteous I certainly do not want to act like this because I have received the free gift of salvation, but must be humbly seeking to do the things that God has appointed me to do before the world began as seen in Ephesians 2:10.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I certainly look forward to the study of these verses and pray that God’s Spirit will teach me from these truths found here and that He will enable me to not only learn them but to pass them on as they go around the world on the blog that I truly believe the Lord directed me to begin back in 2010.

 

5/13/2021 10:41 AM