Quote from Forum Archives on October 6, 2009, 4:03 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

FOOTSTEPS

October 4, 2009

 

 

Text:  Matthew 9:9-13

 

We have just celebrated together the Lord’s Supper, or Communion service.  As we were reminded in this service and from our responsive reading, we participate in a Communion service to remember Jesus.  We take the bread, as he did, and remember that his body was broken for us.  We take the cup, as he did, and remember the blood he shed for us.  The bread and the cup provide a way for us to remember that Jesus suffered for our sake.  They provide a way for us to remember that Jesus rose in victory over sin and death.  They provide a way for us to remember that Jesus is our Savior.

 

It is fitting that we begin the month of promotion of the World Mission Offering with a service of Communion that reminds us of Jesus’ own love and sacrifice for us.  Throughout the world, our missionaries find circumstances among people that are so far removed from us that it is hard to imagine.  Yes, we have places in America where there is difficulty, but some of the scenes we have from other countries depict populations far removed from what we consider basic necessities of life.  I am reminded of the testimonies that Brandon Rush gave this year and last year about the time he spent in Cartagena, Columbia.  He worked among a people whose infrastructure is extremely austere.  That’s just one example.  Small wonder that God calls those who have been given much to be merciful to those who have little.

 

Helping to meet the needs of others is a very important Biblical lesson.  I’ll leave it for your own Bible study time to read Matthew 25 and James chapters 1 and 2 – just a couple of places where believers are told to care for others.  Oh, you can add Luke 16 where Jesus tells about a rich man who ignored the beggar Lazarus.  We don’t want to forget that lesson; it’s not a pretty picture.

 

However, as we think about the importance of reaching out to others with tangible acts of compassion and mercy, we also must remember what it means to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.  As important as it is to offer mercy on the human level, we must never forget that Jesus came to bring men and women to a saving knowledge of God.  That may sound a bit “churchy,” but all it means is that we are made aware that we are separated from God by our disobedience – sin – and that God desires us to confess that sin, believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, and turn away from continuing to disobey God.  Matthew 9 is a powerful place to see this openly laid out for everyone.

 

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.  ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  As we see, Jesus called Matthew as a disciple.  What was unusual about this was that, like all tax collectors, Matthew was branded a traitor to his people and, consequently, a sinner.  Jesus began his public ministry with the possibility of scandal.  What religious leader, claiming and displaying an above normal level of righteousness, would willingly choose a traitorous sinner as a disciple?  Jesus knew why, and as a result, we have one of our key accounts – the gospel by Matthew - of the ministry and meaning of Jesus.

 

Even more scandalous, though, was what happened after he called Matthew.  “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with him and his disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”  This may seem like an extreme attitude to us, but recognize the structure of faith that they practiced.  According to the custom of the Jewish law at that time, it was forbidden for a Jew to socially mingle with Gentiles or Jews who were separated from Jewish life because the sins of these others would make them ceremonially impure.

 

Having the advantage of the completed work of Jesus Christ’s salvation plan, we well know that the Pharisees were wrong.  It was not that they did not mean well; indeed, they sought to walk in the law of God.  To actively seek to please God is a good thing, and we should never slight the Pharisees for their desire to please God.  But they were wrong in their application of the law.  Even before the gift of Jesus to the world, God indicated to His people that they were to make Him known throughout the world.  They were not to reject those seeking a relationship with God.  This is the part they forgot or failed to do.  Yes, God fulfilled His covenant with Abraham and established a nation for His people, but God did not stop inviting the world to worship Him as their God.  But the Hebrew people forgot this over the years and used their identity with God as a reason for separation.  They forgot to extend mercy and goodness and forgiveness.

 

Jesus answered them wisely and well: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Jesus opened the Scripture to the Pharisees by making a reference to Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”  Like a teacher telling his students to keep studying what they did not understand, Jesus told the Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means.”

 

What they needed to learn was the meaning of a right relationship with God.  When these words were spoken by the prophet Hosea, God was condemning a thoughtless, mechanical approach to sacrifice.  A religious ritual that helps our relationship with God grow when it is carried out with an attitude of love for God.  But in Hosea’s time, the sacrifice was being done as a fulfillment of a duty so that the people could get back to their “normal” lives, which included disobeying God.  God did not want the Israelites’ rituals; He wanted their hearts.  Jesus challenged the Pharisees to apply the prophet’s words to themselves.  God still desired mercy.  Those are the footsteps of Jesus.

 

At the same time, Jesus made it abundantly clear that he did not come just to hang out and party.  There are many in our own day who try to use this Scripture as justification for condoning sinful behavior.  They try to tell us that since Jesus accepted these people as they were and where they were at, then it was all right for them to stay where they were at.  They use it to justify their own sinful behavior without acknowledging their need to repent and change.

 

This is as much a mistaken attitude as that of the Pharisees.  Jesus said those folks with whom he ate were sick and in need of a physician.  That is figurative language, of course, for their need to recognize their sins and seek to be forgiven.  Bible scholar William Barclay tells us, “This is a highly compressed saying.  Jesus was saying, ‘I did not come to invite people who are so self-satisfied that they are convinced they do not need anyone's help; I came to invite people who are very conscious of their sin and desperately aware of their need for a saviour.’  He was saying, ‘It is only those who know how much they need me who can accept my invitation.’” (William Barclay, “Matthew,” The Barclay Daily Study Bible Series, Westminster John Knox Press, Ligouri Faithware Electronic Version)  Those today who want to make Jesus out to be nothing more than a really nice guy who was unconcerned about the lifestyles being practiced by those around him are as mistaken as the Pharisees.  Jesus laid it on the line with both groups of people because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

 

Following in the footsteps of Jesus means that we recognize our need for a savior.  It means that we rejoice because our savior, Jesus, has come, and we accept his offer to forgive us.  It means that since we are forgiven by God’s hand of mercy, we are also merciful to those without salvation.  We do not become hardened and self-righteous.  We pray for them and tell them about Jesus and rejoice when they accept Christ and are saved.  Following the footsteps of Jesus means that we willingly let Jesus heal us of our sickness of sin.

 

In no small part, this is what we remember when we share the Lord’s Supper.  We remember that our only source of spiritual health and well-being is through the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  We remember that we are not to engage in self-righteous arrogance.  We remember that we are not to engage in self-centeredness by refusing to turn from sinful behavior.

 

This is also why we support the ministries of our missionaries.  Many of them go to people who have been forgotten and abandoned by everyone except Jesus.  Following the footsteps of the Master, they take the merciful message of God’s saving love to places where is not known well – or at all. 

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

 

 

 

-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org