SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/16/2021 11:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Positive Response”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 9:9-10
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.”
We
have been talking about tax-collectors and we have been looking at the different
Greek words that Edersheim says these men were.
First “gabbai”, and then “mokhes” and then the great “mokhes” and the
small “mokhes,” of which Matthew obviously was, as he was the one who stood in
the tax-collectors booth collecting money from the Jews, the Jews that hated
him. I have to believe that the Spirit
of God had been working in the life of Matthew before Jesus came to him that day
and said “follow Me!” MacArthur writes “It
was clear to early readers of Matthew’s gospel, as it was clear to those who
witnessed this amazing encounter, that Jesus extended His forgiveness even to
the outcasts of society.” Remember how
Jesus told the man on the stretcher that his sins were forgiven, but we don’t know
exactly what sins he had committed in order to be forgiven by Jesus, of course
other than being born a sinner and probably sin was what got him into trouble
that caused him to be on that mat for 38 years.
However Matthew’s sins were far more evident than that man’s were at
least in the eyes of the Jews.
I
want to say that the call that Jesus gave to Matthew was similar to the call
that the Holy Spirit gives to all sinners to follow Jesus as their Savior and
Lord, as it is what we call an effectual call, a call that no person can say no
to. I remember that call that the Spirit
of God gave to me those many years ago, and looking back on it makes it easier
for me to understand more about it than when I was going through it, and that
is because I know more about it. Another
thing that I believe is that Matthew was well aquainted with the ministry of
Jesus just because Jesus had made His headquarters there in the very town that Matthew
was working at.
MacArthur
writes “Because of his modesty, Matthew does not mention the fact, but Luke
tells us that the moment Jesus called him, Matthew ‘left everything behind, and
rose and began to follow Him’ (Luke 5:28).
That simple call by Jesus was more than enough reason for Matthew to
turn his back on everything he was and possessed. Because of his position as an agent of Rome,
he knew that once he forsook his post he would never be able to return to
it. He knew the cost and willingly paid
it. Of all the disciples, Matthew
doubtlessly made the greatest sacrifice of material possessions; yet he himself
makes no mention of it. He felt with Paul
that ‘whatever things we gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for
the sake of Christ’ (Phil. 3:7).
“When
a person is truly converted, he cannot leave his old life fast enough. His old habits, standards, and practices no
longer appeal to him and he gladly longs to leave them behind. Edersheim says of Matthew, ‘He said not a
word, for his soul was in the speechless surprise of unexpected grace.’ Far from being depressed about what he left
behind, his heart overflowed with joy.
He lost a career but gained a destiny, lost his material possessions but
gained a spiritual fortune, lost his temporal security but gained eternal life.”
We
will end with a quotation from Amy Carmichael whose poem says the following
“I hear
Him call, ‘Come, follow’;
That was
all!
My gold
grew dim.
My heart
went after Him.
I rose
and followed,
That was
all.
Would
you not follow,
If you
heard Him call?”
I
can truly understand about leaving the old life, although it came in slower
stages, but in my heart it came very fast.
5/16/2021 11:23 PM
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