SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2021 10:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“PT-4 “The Positive Response”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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.”
One
of the things that Matthew did was typical of what new believers do, and that
is to begin to tell others of the wonderful experience that they have had
understanding that their sins were forgiven and that they now have a new life
in Jesus Christ. I certainly can relate
to this as the same happened to me when I became a new believer in Jesus Christ
back in January of 1974, and actually I am still ready to “always being
ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the
hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15). Now we have mentioned that Matthew was a very
humble person and as we look at what verse ten is talking about in Mark 2:15
and Luke 5:29 we can see that this dinner party was set up by Matthew bringing
many of his “sinful” friends to the dinner so that they too would be able to
see and hear Jesus. This gathering no doubt included the local gabbai of Capernaum and perhaps even
some fellow mokhes that perhaps came
from neighboring towns. The “sinners”
doubtlessly included robbers, murderers, drunkards, and prostitutes, and
probably other irreligious and ungodly people too. This dinner party brought in the riffraff of
the area and must have been intrigued and touched by the prospect of being able
to dine with Jesus who as we have mentioned made His home there so people would
have heard about His great miracles.
MacArthur
adds “It was probably because of this banquet that Jesus first gained the reputation
among His opponents as “a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of
tax-gatherers and sinners’ (Matt. 11:19; cf. Luke 15:2). Most religious Jews, and especially the proud
and self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, could not conceive of any Jew socializing
with such a group of ‘sinners’ unless he were one of their own kind.
“The
Jews of Jesus’ day used the term hamartoloi
(‘sinners’) almost as a technical term for people who had no concern or respect
either for the Mosaic law or rabbinic people.
Yet it was some of these that ‘Jesus and His disciples’ joined at the
banquet in Matthew’s house.”
The
story of Matthew’s conversion is very similar to that of Zaccheus’ conversion
as both of these men were despised “sinful” tax collectors. Zaccheus’ story is found in Luke 19 which was
right near the end of our Lord’s ministry, while Matthew’s conversion was near
the beginning of our Lord’s ministry.
Jesus is truly a friend of sinners for as mentioned everyone on this
planet is a sinner, born that way and act that way.
MacArthur
concludes this rather long section from his commentary by writing “We are not
told what the group of ‘tax-gatherers and sinners’ though of Jesus either
before or after the meal, but their response to Him was at least positive
enough to eat with Him and listen to Him.
The main point of the incident, however—and what most offended the
Pharisees—was not that the tax-gatherers and sinners’ were willing to associate
with Jesus but that Jesus was willing to associate with them.”
Lord
willing we will move from the positive response to the negative response in our
next SD that will cover verse eleven of this ninth chapter of Matthew.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: ““always being ready to make a defense
to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet
with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).
My Steps of Faith for Today: ““always being
ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the
hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).
5/17/2021 10:35 AM
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