The Table of Grace: Embracing the Unacceptable

• Fear of Irrelevance and Cancellation [00:27:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the cultural anxieties of being irrelevant due to AI and being 'canceled' due to past mistakes, linking these to a fear of judgment.
• The Nature of Tax Collectors [00:33:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Historical context is provided to explain why tax collectors were viewed as traitors and ritually unclean, highlighting the scandal of Jesus associating with them.
• The Gospel of Sinners [00:30:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the core of the Christian gospel is Jesus' willingness to eat with and save 'sinners,' challenging the desire to hide one's true self.
• Social Stigma of Tax Collectors [00:34:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the historical context of tax collectors as despised traitors, ritually unclean, and considered worse than lepers, highlighting the severity of Matthew's social isolation.
• Transformation vs. Acceptance [00:36:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Pharisees' requirement for transformation before acceptance with Jesus' paradigm of acceptance before transformation, using the metaphor of a physician treating the sick.
• Irreversible Commitment [00:41:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes the difference between the disciples leaving fishing (reversible) and Matthew leaving tax collection (irreversible due to Roman government grants), illustrating the total nature of his following.
• Expanding Capacity to Love [00:47:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that relationship with Jesus expands one's capacity to accept and love people previously despised or 'canceled,' referencing the parable of the great banquet and personal relationships.
• Seeing Need vs. Sin [00:50:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that while Jesus acknowledges sin, He primarily sees 'need' and human dignity, treating people with compassion rather than just condemning their failure.
• Perception of Sin and Need [00:50:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the Pharisees' view of sinners with Jesus' view of human need, arguing that Jesus sees 'more than sin' and treats people with dignity.
• Community and Isolation [00:52:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor explains that sin thrives in isolation and that addressing sin requires relationship and community presence.
• Reorientation of Life [00:55:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that encountering Jesus doesn't always mean drastic change (like quitting a job) but often means reorienting existing activities to include Jesus as the guest of honor.
• Communion and Grace [01:01:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The sacrament is presented as a reminder that Jesus came for the sick, not the righteous, requiring participants to acknowledge their need for grace rather than their own righteousness.
• Grace and Acceptance [01:04:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that believers should bring their need for Jesus and their sins to the table, rather than their achievements or 'resume,' highlighting that God's acceptance is based on faith and need, not performance.
• Communion Logistics and Sacrament [01:04:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Detailed instructions are given for the physical act of communion, including the flow of aisles, gluten-free options, and the distinction between grape juice and wine, framing it as a communal sacrament.
• Overcoming Familiarity with Scripture [01:05:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns that familiarity with biblical stories can breed contempt or forgetfulness of their power, urging the congregation to rediscover the power of Jesus' acceptance.
• Church as a Counter-Cultural Community [01:12:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the church's role with the world's tendency to 'cancel' people, praying that the church would instead offer radical acceptance and grace, mirroring Jesus' interaction with Matthew.

• Sermon Illustration [00:27:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts an interview with basketball player Allen Iverson, who advised younger stars to 'be fake' because fans are 'waiting' for them to fail, illustrating the fear of being canceled.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Christian author Brennan Manning, who rejected Iverson's advice to hide his struggles with alcoholism, choosing instead to be honest because of the gospel message.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the Talmud's teaching that sharing a meal with a tax collector made one ritually unclean, and that tax collectors were considered on par with thieves or murderers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:42:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites a song by Jess Ray, noting the line: 'he may be too good to be understood, but he's not too good to be true.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the detail from Mark's Gospel that Matthew was at his tax booth 'beside the sea,' implying he taxed the fishermen (Peter and the other disciples), creating a tension where Peter's former rival became his brother.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes the parable of the great banquet, where Jesus instructs to invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind because they cannot repay you.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a funeral for a friend of his son Austin, noting the high attendance of non-churchgoers and observing a group of 20-30 college students smoking in the courtyard, which he felt reenacted the scene of Jesus dining with sinners in Matthew's Gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes Matthew throwing a great feast for Jesus, highlighting that Matthew invited his former colleagues (tax collectors and sinners) and made Jesus the guest of honor, demonstrating a reorientation of his social habits.
• Sermon Illustration [01:05:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical story of Matthew, noting that Jesus came for the sick and sinners rather than the healthy, and uses this narrative to illustrate that God's acceptance transforms individuals just as it did for Matthew 2,000 years ago.
• Sermon Illustration [01:04:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'resume' to contrast worldly measures of worth with spiritual need, stating that Jesus does not require a record of past achievements but rather the individual's acknowledgment of their need for Him.

• Pastoral Charge [00:48:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identify specific individuals the congregation despises or wishes to 'cancel' and actively reach out to them with love.
• Pastoral Charge [00:49:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Spend time with Jesus to gain the strength to build relationships with people the congregation normally avoids or rejects.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Invite someone the congregation would normally exclude to a dinner party in March, reorienting the event to include Jesus.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > Host a 'Matthew party' in March to reach out to people outside their usual social circle.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The congregation is instructed on the specific physical logistics of participating in communion, including movement paths, food selection, and exit routes.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor requests that the designated servers come forward to assist with the communion service.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:01:11] Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Motown Community Church. A special welcome to any visitors we have with us today and those who are joining us online.
[00:01:22] So today we begin, as every Sunday, by being called to worship. Today's call to worship is taken from one of the letters the Apostle Paul wrote to a church just around the time but after Jesus died.
[00:01:42] has is that Paul calls attention to himself as an example to us all. And in what we read today, we will see that Paul highlights his great sins, and then he talks about being saved with great
[00:01:57] patience, love, and power. Now, as you walk through the door today and you look back on your week, are there times, are there moments, thoughts, actions that you're not very proud of? Would you like to be forgiven and saved with great patience, love, and power. That's what calls us to worship.
[00:02:20] And on page three of your bulletins, you will find today's call to worship. I will read the portions marked leader. Please join with me for the portions marked all. And this time I call you
[00:02:29] to stand if you are able and join me and we can all be called to worship together. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
[00:02:45] sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience. The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith
[00:03:02] and love that are in Christ Jesus. To the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
[00:03:15] Let us worship.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:04:08] The crystal moon

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:04:16] can see when I tread

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:04:47] the verge of Jordan.
[00:04:52] He just fears

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:04:54] his structure.
[00:05:01] page six of your bulletins you can find today's confession of faith I will read

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:47] the question from the Heidelberg Catechism and please join with me in reciting the answer question one what is your only comfort in life and death that I'm not my own but belong with body and soul both in life and in death to my
[00:10:07] faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins and his precious blood, and he has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without
[00:10:24] the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. Let us continue our worship
[00:10:49] service with a song of thanksgiving. At this time, we will also collect our tithes and offerings.
[00:10:54] And if you're a visitor, please feel no compulsion to give. But for the rest of us, if you are someone who gives in the offering plate, you get to have that experience of giving and feeling the
[00:11:04] gratitude. But if you, like me, take the convenience of giving online in an auto-debit, it can feel a little transactional, literally transactional. The only evidence that you did anything was a transaction on your bank statement. But as the plate comes near you today, take the opportunity
[00:11:21] to realize that you contributed to the work of God's church, that you are grateful for what he's done for you. And with that, I'll also invite the ushers who will help us with our tithes and offerings, and we can sing together.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:11:32] And our Savior, I

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:11:57] will be blessed in His favor as well. Precious is the blood that feeds the grace healed of His

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:15:03] God from blessings. For His here be. At this time,

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:15:41] kids, up through second grade or to semester for Children's Church, you'll bring them up front and find the teacher for your kids class. Take a moment now, greet somebody new around you. All right, if everybody can take a seat at this time. All right, thank you. So my name is
[00:18:06] Lindsay Williams. I'm one of the pastors here at Midtown Church. I'm glad you can join us for worship. A couple of announcements in your bulletin, and I'm actually going to bring up Catherine Dysart. She's going to talk about one of those announcements, which is the women's
[00:18:20] retreat. So Catherine, if you want to come on up, the mic is yours. Good morning. I'm Catherine.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:18:30] I've been a member at Milltown for what? I just said Milltown. 11 years? Long, long time. I've known this guy for way too long. I'm up here because I want to talk to y'all about the retreat.
[00:18:44] We normally do it out of town. This year we're switching it up and we're going to do it in town all day from nine to five on the 21st. It's at Northridge Country Club. It's a really pretty
[00:18:55] room. I've already got in it. It's very like calm and peaceful. It's going to be delicious food, coffee all day. The main topic is we're going to look at Jesus's life through different eras.
[00:19:07] And our takeaway will be how we all just struggle with waiting, waiting for whatever kind of season you're in. And then how we take that waiting and find our identity in Christ. My takeaways from
[00:19:22] every retreat, mostly the ones that we've been to go away, is that you just come back refreshed.
[00:19:27] You come back remembering the priorities of your life, who's important in your life, and you almost always come back with one new friendship or one that's been deepened and strengthened. I encourage all the women, especially the college girls, come on. If you don't know anyone, then that's even
[00:19:45] better because you're going to walk away knowing someone stronger and better than you did. I know I'm up here talking, but I really don't like going in big social situations. So it's even intimidating for me, but don't let that stop you. Register. The link is live. It's in the Midtown
[00:20:01] Connection emails. And if you don't know where else to find it, email any of the Women's Shepherding team members. It's your bulletin, and we'll send you the link. But please come. Try to carve out
[00:20:12] your whole day. Don't go to like a soccer game or a baseball game or whatever. Come the whole time and just enjoy yourself and let your mind rest in God's peace. Okay, come on.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:20:25] Thank you, Catherine. A couple other announcements. One, if you are on our church directory email communication app called Church Center, Planning Center. You should have gotten a text at like 9 a.m. this morning with a link to sign up for this seminar that's going to take place on April
[00:20:46] 9th. And the topic is this, can we trust the Gospels? We know what the Bible says, but can we trust that the Bible that we have in our hands is a book that we can center our entire lives around?
[00:21:00] And so we're bringing in a guy named Dr. Michael Kruger, who is really one of the foremost scholars on the reliability of the scriptures, the New Testament canon.
[00:21:11] I think this will be a phenomenal opportunity for us to sort of grow on a topic that I think is really important for us as we either wrestle with our own doubts as it relates to the Bible,
[00:21:23] or as we interact with friends, family, co-workers who may be there, skeptics, they're seekers, and one of their questions is, can I trust that the Bible is gonna tell me what I need to know about who Jesus is
[00:21:39] and what he wants to do with me?
[00:21:41] So I highly encourage you to sign up for that.
[00:21:43] It's only $5.
[00:21:45] You can sign up on your Planning Center app.
[00:21:47] It'll be a great opportunity.
[00:21:49] Consider inviting a friend.
[00:21:51] The other announcement I will draw your attention to is Midtown 101.
[00:21:56] Midtown 101 is the name that we give to our prospective members class.
[00:22:00] And so if you've been visiting Midtown Community Church, you're interested in exploring further what we believe, what our church is about, or if you're at a point where you feel like, hey, I feel like this might be my church home,
[00:22:13] and I'd love to take the next step towards becoming a member of the church.
[00:22:17] Midtown 101 is for you.
[00:22:18] We're going to be meeting on consecutive Thursday nights from 7 to 9 p.m.
[00:22:24] We'll be meeting this Thursday at 7 p.m. for our first session.
[00:22:28] So if you are interested, you can email our admin, Jessie.
[00:22:33] Her email is there in the bulletin announcement, and she'll give you whatever info you need.
[00:22:37] But again, we'd love for you to come check out our church, and it'll be a great opportunity to ask questions and hopefully get some answers.
[00:22:44] All right, that's it.
[00:22:45] We're here to worship, wanting to come pray, and then we'll jump into God's word.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:55] Let us pray.
[00:22:59] Lord God, in Isaiah 29, you were faced with a people who had disappointed you, and this is what you said.
[00:23:06] You said, this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.
[00:23:17] We learn many things from the scripture.
[00:23:18] One of them is that you desire a deep relationship with us.
[00:23:21] you the creator of the universe wants to have a deep personal relationship with me who can barely understand the universe let alone create it that is astounding and it's astounding for each one of us that there is a relationship with you that you desire for each of us and while
[00:23:42] it is easy to claim to love god with our hearts what does that mean and lord you tell us further in Matthew, actually, you tell us that heart-level love is shown by justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
[00:23:58] And by that standard, Lord, we, I, have to confess that my love and many of our loves for you is shallow. Forgive us, we pray. And thank you that you came to forgive and save us even with our
[00:24:12] misplaced love. We thank you that you go further and promise to correct the affections of our hearts. Now, Lord, in that Isaiah passage where you decry your people's lack of heart worship, it also talks about what you do about it. You say that you will do wonders, that you will give
[00:24:31] understanding, that you will remove shame, and that you will give us a correct awe of you. Lord, please do that for us. Please work in our hearts those things. Help us to do justice, to love
[00:24:46] kindness and to walk humbly with you, our God. Lord, also it's with heavy hearts that we also pray for the ongoing and new conflict in the Middle East. We pray for justice, mercy, and kindness. We pray for wisdom for our leaders. We pray for peace and the protection of innocence.
[00:25:08] And now as we turn our attention to your word, we pray that you also work in our hearts the ability to focus, the ability to get past destruction, the trials and difficulties of the week that brought us here, the ability to hear from you, that your Holy Spirit would
[00:25:23] work through the words of your servant and work righteousness into our hearts, correct our affections, correct our actions, and help us to love you more deeply.
[00:25:33] Thank you for Lindsay and his preparation.
[00:25:36] Pray that your words flow through his mouth and bless us, this community, as we grow closer to you because of this time that you are with us.
[00:25:43] In Jesus' name, amen.

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:25:58] Good morning.
[00:26:00] This morning's scripture is Matthew 9, 9 through 13.
[00:26:06] As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me.
[00:26:13] And he rose and followed him.
[00:26:16] And as Jesus reclined at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
[00:26:25] And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners. But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a
[00:26:37] physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. This is the word of the Lord.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:27:01] So a few weeks ago, when I preached, I mentioned that there's been an increase in people who are struggling with phobia, the fear of being irrelevant. We see this, I think, particularly with the rise in AI. It's replacing people's jobs. I've even started to notice that AI has become
[00:27:23] one of the places that people look to for advice. It's become a therapist, a friend, And so it starts to risk replacing some of our existing relationships, community.
[00:27:37] So another fear that has increased in recent years, I think this is particularly true in the social media age, and it's this.
[00:27:47] It's the fear of being canceled.
[00:27:51] A number of years ago, I saw an interview featuring a basketball player who, ironically, his name or nickname was AI.
[00:27:59] It was a guy named Allen Iverson.
[00:28:02] He played for the 76ers.
[00:28:04] But he was this incredibly talented basketball player.
[00:28:08] But he was also known as sort of like a bad boy in the NBA.
[00:28:12] And there was an interview that took place on ESPN where he was asked, what advice would you give to some of these younger NBA stars?
[00:28:22] And here's what he said in response.
[00:28:25] He said, don't do what I did.
[00:28:27] You need to be fake because they love you right now, but please believe me, the first incident, the first time something happens, they're waiting, man. They are waiting. I think we've probably felt this at some point. We struggled to bring our truest selves to a relationship because we're
[00:28:55] afraid. If they really knew this thing about my past or this thing that I'm struggling with, they're waiting to cancel me.
[00:29:05] You know, maybe this is what keeps people on the fringe of the church.
[00:29:11] It's the suspicion that if people in the church, if they really knew what I was dealing with, man, they are waiting and they will just cancel me.
[00:29:23] I've seen this a lot.
[00:29:24] I've seen a couple of reminders this past week of people in ministry who've had major failings, morally speaking.
[00:29:32] And I sort of wonder if one of the reasons small sins turn into big sins is because we're afraid of being canceled.
[00:29:45] And maybe this is why we actually keep God at a distance.
[00:29:49] Like we actually don't have the courage to talk to God about the real things we're struggling with because we're afraid of what God is going to say in response if we were actually honest with him.
[00:30:01] And so part of the point here is that this fear of being canceled, this is not just a social media problem, a relational problem.
[00:30:09] I think the fear of being canceled is a deeply religious problem.
[00:30:15] And that is why the passage that was just read here I think is so important.
[00:30:22] Brennan Manning is a Christian author, actually passed away a few years ago.
[00:30:26] But throughout his writings, he spoke very honestly about his own struggles lifelong with alcoholism.
[00:30:35] In many ways, Brennan Manning chose to reject the advice of Allen Iverson.
[00:30:43] And the reason he chose to reject that advice and to really be honest about his struggles is because of the message that McNair just read this morning.
[00:30:55] This quote's in the front of your bulletin.
[00:30:57] Brennan Manning said this, This passage should be read, re-read, and memorized.
[00:31:04] Every Christian generation tries to dim the blinding brightness of its meaning because the gospel seems too good to be true.
[00:31:16] You know, it's interesting that this is the first time in Matthew's gospel that the word sinners appears.
[00:31:24] If you were to do a quick analysis of the word sinners in Matthew's Gospel, it occurs five times in all 28 chapters.
[00:31:34] Three of those occurrences are in this one passage.
[00:31:40] And it just so happens to be a word that's using connection with the only autobiographical section in the entire book.
[00:31:49] Think about that.
[00:31:50] That is not insignificant.
[00:31:53] The man whose book will bear his name chooses to make the most scandalous story his own story.
[00:32:03] And so what I want to do in our time this morning is to explain why this story, the calling of Matthew, why it really does get to the heart of the uniqueness of the Christian gospel.
[00:32:16] Why Brennan Manning thinks it should be read, re-read, and memorized.
[00:32:20] And then after that, I just want us to consider three implications based on this passage.
[00:32:26] So, all right, let's consider why this story just really gets to the heart of the Christian gospel.
[00:32:32] So our passage, it begins with this statement.
[00:32:36] As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me.
[00:32:43] And he rose and followed him.
[00:32:45] And then what transpires is essentially an affirmation of what AI felt, right?
[00:32:55] If he was playing basketball in first century Israel, he would be saying the exact same thing, right?
[00:33:01] They are waiting.
[00:33:04] So let me remind us why Jesus' choice of calling a tax collector was so problematic.
[00:33:13] So at this point in Israel's history, they were occupied by the Roman Empire.
[00:33:19] And the Roman method of tax collection came by employing Jews to get money from their own countrymen on behalf of the Roman government.
[00:33:30] Now, how do you get the job of a tax collector?
[00:33:34] In order to get this job, you actually had to bid for the job.
[00:33:38] And the highest bidder would be granted the job.
[00:33:42] Now, the reason a person would be willing to bid for a job is because this was one of the most lucrative jobs that you could possibly find in ancient Israel.
[00:33:54] It was a straight commission-based job where you acquired the designated Roman tax while charging essentially any amount above that tax, and that would be your commission.
[00:34:09] And so you had the backing of the Roman government, And so no one would resist whatever price you gave on a selected tax.
[00:34:16] And so what this meant is that tax collectors had to love money so much that they would be willing to steal from their own people.
[00:34:28] And so the real cost of becoming a tax collector was not the bid price.
[00:34:36] It was your social and religious standing within your community.
[00:34:41] Tax collectors were considered to be traitors among the Jewish people.
[00:34:47] To give you an idea of just how despised tax collectors were, all you have to do is look at an ancient religious text called the Talmud.
[00:34:57] The Talmud was the central religious text of rabbinical Judaism.
[00:35:01] It was second only to the Hebrew Bible in authority.
[00:35:05] The Talmud states that tax collectors were on par with a thief or a murderer.
[00:35:13] If you were to share a meal with a tax collector, according to the Talmud, you were considered to be ritually unclean, and you therefore could not go to your Sabbath worship service that Saturday because of that fact.
[00:35:29] And so, as a result, nobody ever ate a meal with a tax collector.
[00:35:35] Yet tax collectors were more detestable than even a leper because unlike lepers, tax collectors actually chose their disease.
[00:35:50] Did you notice what the disciples said in response when the Pharisees asked them, why does your rabbi eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
[00:36:04] Did you hear what they said in response?
[00:36:07] Nothing.
[00:36:09] They couldn't make sense of Jesus' decision to pick this guy.
[00:36:14] Now, does this mean that in the mind of the disciples or the Pharisees that there was no path of redemption for a tax collector?
[00:36:23] Well, actually, no.
[00:36:25] There was a path for tax collectors to find redemption and be accepted back into their community.
[00:36:30] But the chief difference between the religion of Jesus and the religion of the Pharisees is really one of order.
[00:36:38] So it comes down to this question.
[00:36:41] What comes first, transformation or acceptance?
[00:36:49] The Pharisees were of the conviction that transformation must come before acceptance.
[00:36:58] This is why they asked the disciples, why does your teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
[00:37:06] Because it really is a function of the fact that in Jewish culture, eating a meal with someone had tremendous significance.
[00:37:17] To eat a meal with somebody meant that they were accepted.
[00:37:22] It was an act of acceptance.
[00:37:24] And the thought of Jesus eating a meal with tax collectors while they were still tax collectors, that is a major problem if you were a Jew, if you were a Pharisee.
[00:37:35] Because they needed to fully repent of their extortion before there was any possibility of being accepted and therefore capable of being invited into your home for a dinner.
[00:37:46] And here's the thing.
[00:37:48] I don't think the Pharisees even knew at this point that Jesus had already chosen Matthew as a rabbinical student.
[00:37:59] He was in the middle of extorting his own people.
[00:38:04] And what did Jesus say?
[00:38:07] Follow me.
[00:38:11] Jesus is working off a completely different paradigm than the Pharisees.
[00:38:16] Right? Jesus accepts the sinner before he transforms the sinner. God chooses people before he changes people. And Jesus, he gave a really simple metaphor, but it really cut to the heart of how Jesus was different. So here's what we're told in the passage. It says,
[00:38:34] but when Jesus heard it, meaning the question of the Pharisees, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.
[00:38:46] And so what he's essentially saying is that to reject Jesus' actions here, it would be the equivalent of telling the doctor, you need to withhold treatment of a patient until they've been cured.
[00:38:59] Wait, wait a second, right?
[00:39:02] Doctors should only be interested in sick people.
[00:39:05] If you don't come to Jesus with a problem that is bigger than your ability to solve, Jesus is saying, you don't even come to me then.
[00:39:14] Why bother?
[00:39:15] You're missing the purpose of why I exist and why I came.
[00:39:21] Now, I think the reason that the Pharisees couldn't understand Jesus' paradigm is because if you really get to the heart of them, they didn't have the power to change people.
[00:39:36] The reason they wouldn't accept people until they transformed is because they knew that they didn't have the power to change somebody from the inside out.
[00:39:47] But Jesus' power was put on display immediately.
[00:39:52] And if you go to Luke's account of the calling of Matthew, so he gives a detail that Matthew did not give in his account.
[00:40:03] And I think the reason why Matthew didn't give this particular detail is because Matthew really wants to focus on just how powerful Jesus' acceptance was in his eyes.
[00:40:17] But Luke wants to tell us about the impact of that acceptance.
[00:40:22] And so here's what Luke's gospel says about this exact same calling of Matthew.
[00:40:27] He says, and Jesus said to him, follow me, and leaving everything, that's what Luke adds, he rose and followed him.
[00:40:37] It's not just that he rose and followed him, but it's that this tax collector left everything in the process.
[00:40:45] That upon realizing the acceptance of Jesus, he left his lucrative career just like that.
[00:40:52] It was done.
[00:40:54] You know, if you go back to Matthew 4, when Jesus called the first disciples, they left everything as well.
[00:41:02] But do you remember what they left?
[00:41:03] What was their occupation?
[00:41:06] They were fishermen.
[00:41:07] But here's the thing about fishing.
[00:41:10] Fishing is something that you can actually go back to at any time if things did not work out with Jesus.
[00:41:18] In fact, if you might recall, right after Jesus' resurrection, that's what Peter did.
[00:41:24] There's a brief moment in time where he went back to fishing.
[00:41:28] But the situation with Matthew is decidedly different.
[00:41:34] Right? First of all, being a tax collector was way more lucrative of a job than being a fisherman.
[00:41:42] But here's the other detail. This was a job that was granted to you by the Roman government. And so what this meant is that as soon as Matthew left that tax booth, there was no way that he
[00:41:57] would ever be granted the ability to return there again. It was done forever. He could never go back.
[00:42:07] You know, I wonder if Matthew was probably the most likely person who would be capable of testing this theory that money can buy you happiness. And what he realized in this very moment when he met
[00:42:23] the acceptance of Jesus is that that is a fool's errand. That all the money in the world, it's a poor substitute for the opportunity to be loved and accepted by one person, especially when that
[00:42:37] one person is Jesus. You know that quote by Brendan Manning, this idea that it almost seems too good to be true. There's actually a songwriter based here in the Triangle area, her name is Jess
[00:42:56] Ray, and she wrote this beautiful song. The worship team is going to sing it during communion, But she's got this one line that is my favorite line in the song, and she puts it this way.
[00:43:07] She says, he may be too good to be understood, but he's not too good to be true.
[00:43:13] He may be too good to be understood, but he is not too good to be true.
[00:43:23] What are the implications of a person who discovers this?
[00:43:29] What are the implications of a person who actually discovers the acceptance of Jesus, right?
[00:43:35] Whether it's for the first time or for the 100th time.
[00:43:40] I'll give you three implications.
[00:43:42] First, you have a capacity to accept people before they become a transformed people.
[00:43:50] You start to be capable of doing what Jesus did.
[00:43:56] And this is what the Pharisees were actually unable to do, right?
[00:43:59] Consistently, right, throughout the Gospels, they've proven an inability to love people unless these people have changed.
[00:44:08] And I don't think it means that the Pharisees were incapable of loving people on some level, but they were incapable of loving hurting people, broken people, unlovable people.
[00:44:21] They were incapable of loving people that they previously despised.
[00:44:26] And I think this is actually a problem for Jesus' disciples at this very moment.
[00:44:36] So if you go to Mark's Gospel, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about the calling of Matthew.
[00:44:42] There was something about this story that they all loved, but they loved it from very different perspectives.
[00:44:49] And if you go to Mark's Gospel, I think we're given a window into why Matthew probably held the superlative of being the least liked of all 12 disciples.
[00:45:02] So it's widely believed that Mark's primary source material for his gospel was Peter because they were actually close friends.
[00:45:11] And so when Peter was telling his version of the calling of Matthew to Mark, he gave a really small detail that Matthew, for whatever reason, decided to leave out.
[00:45:25] So when Jesus first met Matthew, we're told in all three gospel accounts that he met him at his tax booth right when he was in the midst of doing his extortion business.
[00:45:35] But then in Mark's gospel, and you'll find this in Mark 2, verse 13, Mark adds this one little phrase.
[00:45:44] He visited him at his tax booth beside the seat, beside the seat.
[00:45:52] So, all right, first century, there were different types of tax collectors.
[00:45:57] There were tax collectors who collected what is called a head tax, which is like an annual tax that you get for anybody who's a citizen of a particular area.
[00:46:06] But there was another type of tax collector that were commerce-related tax collectors.
[00:46:12] And so they would be positioned right near places where commerce took place and they would take taxes from those individuals.
[00:46:22] Mark's gospel suggests that Matthew was in charge of commerce-related tax collection.
[00:46:30] And because he was beside the sea, it meant that he was in charge of taking taxes from what occupation?
[00:46:40] Fishermen, the first four disciples, their occupation was what?
[00:46:49] Fishermen.
[00:46:50] It's also worth noting that this whole story takes place in the town of Capernaum.
[00:46:59] Guess what was the major spot that the four disciples fished from before they started following Jesus?
[00:47:08] Capernaum.
[00:47:11] Here's the point, right?
[00:47:12] No one would be more inclined to cancel Matthew than Peter and the other three disciples.
[00:47:23] And the fact that Peter would draw out this fact that he was beside the sea as he was talking to Mark about his gospel, it tells you that Peter wants all of us to know about where he stood and what changed in his life.
[00:47:42] that the man he once canceled became one of his brothers.
[00:47:48] If you're in a relationship with Jesus, it will expand your capacity to love other people.
[00:47:59] You'll have a capacity to accept people that you would have historically canceled.
[00:48:05] It sort of reminds me of one of Jesus' parables, the parable of the great banquet, where Jesus put it this way.
[00:48:12] He said, when you give a dinner or a banquet, Do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.
[00:48:23] But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.
[00:48:38] Here's the question.
[00:48:40] Who are the people right now in your life that you don't want to love?
[00:48:45] I know you've got them.
[00:48:48] Who are the people that you would really want to just cancel?
[00:48:52] Maybe it's a family member that has offended you, the co-worker that everyone avoids at the office.
[00:49:00] Maybe it's the neighbor who is constantly complaining about your yard behind your back, the person that you do not see eye-to-eye with on politics.
[00:49:13] Take the person whose social media posts rub you in the worst possible way.
[00:49:20] What this passage invites us to is to consider, do you have the kind of love that Jesus had that you would reach out to the person that you most despise when it comes to their social media presence?
[00:49:33] That's an uncomfortable thought.
[00:49:36] But if you spend time with Jesus, he will challenge you to build bridges in those places where you would normally build walls.
[00:49:47] Second, you'll begin to see people differently than you did before.
[00:49:52] Here's what I mean.
[00:49:53] When the Pharisees looked in on this dinner party, so there's this dinner party going on, the Pharisees kind of looked in on it from the outside, all they could see was sinners.
[00:50:05] But what did Jesus see at first?
[00:50:08] He responded with these words, Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.
[00:50:17] What I think is going on here is that Jesus saw need where the Pharisees could only see failure.
[00:50:25] Now, does this mean that Jesus did not see people as sinners?
[00:50:29] Well, no, of course not, right?
[00:50:31] The very next line, verse 13, Jesus goes on to say, For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
[00:50:38] If you were to go to the passage before this one, the healing of the paralytic, Jesus declared to that paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.
[00:50:48] Jesus has no reluctance to see sin, to call out sin, to name sin, or to forgive sin. But what Jesus consistently shows, and this story of Matthew is no exception, is that Jesus doesn't see less than sin. He sees more than sin. That Jesus is able to see need.
[00:51:12] He's able to see a human being. He's able to treat them with dignity, regardless of what they have done, or even regardless of what they're doing in that very moment. And that's why he led with
[00:51:24] the metaphor of a doctor, right? He saw a human being who needed help. You know, if all Jesus cared about was just pronouncing forgiveness of sins, he wouldn't have been at Matthew's house that night, much less spent the next three years in relationship with him. Jesus saw a man with
[00:51:44] great wealth, but he saw a man who had great need. And it wasn't just the forgiveness of sins that he needed. He also needed friendship from someone who represented the religious community of his people, and he gave it to him. You know, in his book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
[00:52:10] he says sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from community, right? The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply
[00:52:24] he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown.
[00:52:32] And so what I think we can hear from Bonhoeffer's statement is that you really aren't addressing sin if you're addressing sin in the absence of relationship. That is what people need. And if you have the presence of relationship, then you'll actually become somebody who starts to expect
[00:52:54] sin to walk through the doors of your home on any given moment. You'll expect sin to walk through the doors of Midtown Community Church any given Sunday. And not only that, you hope that sin will
[00:53:10] walk through these doors. Like, what would it look like if we were a community of physicians that our greatest hope, the reason we know that we're still in business is because people come through these doors and they actually need help and they've got bigger problems than they need
[00:53:29] than they can solve on their own. You know, one of my favorite moments in the past few years took place here like a month ago when we had a funeral for one of our son Austin's really good
[00:53:49] friends. The church was never more packed. I've never been in a worship service that had a larger percentage of people who didn't go to church regularly. And it was this incredibly odd moment, but it was incredibly beautiful. But my favorite part of that whole funeral service,
[00:54:15] it was after the service was over and people just sort of poured out into the courtyard and there was this one moment when I was talking to people and I looked over in the side
[00:54:28] in the courtyard often where our kids are playing on Sunday mornings and I saw a group of like 20 or 30 college students and they are all smoking cigarettes and it was the closest that I felt like I had seen our church come
[00:54:46] to reenacting the scene here in Matthew's Gospel.
[00:54:52] And what would it look like for something like the equivalent of that, and I'm not making some sort of big moral statement about cigarettes or anything like that, but you're not typically going to have a lot of cigarette smokers right after a worship service.
[00:55:08] But what if we expected, what if we hoped for scenarios like that?
[00:55:14] What if we hoped for this to be a place where people could come exactly as they are and they wouldn't be turned away, but they would be accepted?
[00:55:23] And is it possible that that sort of acceptance could actually be the very thing that transforms them?
[00:55:33] And this gets to the third point.
[00:55:37] When you have an authentic encounter with Jesus who accepts you before you transform, you start to put Jesus at the center of your life.
[00:55:46] So one of the obvious examples of Matthew's transformation is that he left his job, right?
[00:55:54] And in some cases, putting Jesus at the center of your life, it could involve a drastic change, like quitting your job if it's clearly immoral.
[00:56:06] Or maybe there's an activity that you're engaged in and you know that it's clearly unethical and you're willing to drop that activity at a moment's notice.
[00:56:15] I think, though, for the majority of folks, the transformation that takes place when you experience the acceptance of Jesus is actually a reorientation of the very things that you're already doing.
[00:56:32] You just do them a little bit differently than you did before.
[00:56:39] So you know in our passage, right, we're told that Matthew rose and he followed Jesus.
[00:56:46] At that point, you'd be interested to know, well, what's the next thing he did?
[00:56:50] It wasn't going to a Bible study, even though we love Bible studies.
[00:56:54] It wasn't that he went to a worship service.
[00:56:57] He just threw a party with his friends.
[00:57:01] If you go to Luke's gospel, we get a few details about this party that Matthew actually leaves out.
[00:57:08] And perhaps Luke is like, I mean, this is my favorite part of the story.
[00:57:12] Luke says this, and Matthew made him a great feast in his house.
[00:57:18] and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.
[00:57:25] Now, the fact that it was a large party is a reminder that Matthew was actually a man of tremendous wealth, right?
[00:57:33] It wasn't just that he was a tax collector, but he was a successful tax collector.
[00:57:39] He had gotten great commission off of his people, and so he threw a huge party.
[00:57:45] The second thing that's worth noting is that he threw a party for the people that he was in relationship with.
[00:57:51] It wasn't religious people.
[00:57:53] It was other tax collectors and sinners.
[00:57:57] Those were the only kinds of people that he could actually have over and would be willing to accept the invite.
[00:58:04] Now, what I just described, these are things that he would have done regardless of whether or not he met Jesus, right?
[00:58:11] He would throw parties with his fellow tax collectors, with the other sinners.
[00:58:16] But here's what's different.
[00:58:18] When Jesus threw this, or when Matthew threw this party, we're told that he threw the party for whom?
[00:58:28] It was Jesus.
[00:58:31] And this is something that he never would have done before.
[00:58:33] But once you've experienced the acceptance of Jesus, you become someone who wants to share that acceptance with others.
[00:58:45] Do the people in your life who don't know Jesus, do they know the importance that Jesus has in your life?
[00:58:55] And I'm not talking about whether or not you go to church.
[00:58:58] Listen, we're in the Bible Belt.
[00:59:00] Everybody goes to church here.
[00:59:02] That is not a separator.
[00:59:08] Case in point, you know who else went to church every Sabbath day?
[00:59:13] The Pharisees, the people who are on the outside.
[00:59:16] So your religious observance may not necessarily be the indicator completely of the vitality of a relationship with Jesus.
[00:59:25] But are you willing to make Jesus the guest of honor in your life?
[00:59:31] Do you take him with you when you go to work?
[00:59:35] Do people realize that Jesus is sitting in the office with you?
[00:59:40] Do people see something of Jesus when you go out and you play pickleball, golf, work out at the gym, whatever it is?
[00:59:48] All right, here's my application question before we close.
[00:59:57] It's March 1st.
[01:00:00] Sometime in the month of March, here's your homework assignment.
[01:00:06] I want you to do what Matthew did here.
[01:00:12] Think of somebody that you could invite over to your house for dinner that you normally, you would never invite them over, but you recognize that something of what took place here as something that should be in your life.
[01:00:26] Invite somebody over to your house for dinner.
[01:00:30] Maybe it's thinking of like a party that you're already planning to have for a birthday.
[01:00:33] What does it look like to reorient that party and to make it a party that you could invite Jesus into on some level?
[01:00:40] And it could be the guest list.
[01:00:42] It could be the simple act of saying, hey, you know what?
[01:00:45] We're gonna pray before the food here.
[01:00:47] It could be going out to lunch with a coworker that you really don't want to hang out with.
[01:00:53] That's your homework assignment.
[01:00:55] Do a Matthew party sometime in the month of March.
[01:00:59] Find somebody or some group of people that you could reach out to that you normally wouldn't have, but you might think a little bit differently because the same Jesus who came into Matthew's life is the same Jesus who's come into our life.
[01:01:14] You know, the sacrament of communion is Jesus' way of reminding us that what was true of him 2,000 years ago, is true for you and me.
[01:01:28] Jesus didn't come for the healthy.
[01:01:32] He came for the sick.
[01:01:34] He didn't come for people who were convinced of their righteousness.
[01:01:38] He came for people who were convinced that they had sin and they needed grace.
[01:01:46] This sacrament is not for people who think they can earn God's love.
[01:01:51] It's for people who know without a shadow of a doubt that they could never earn his love, but they don't have to.
[01:01:58] this meal forces you to become a Matthew.
[01:02:06] It means that you can't be a Pharisee.
[01:02:09] You're standing on the outside looking in judgment among all the other sinners out there in this world.
[01:02:14] But it also means that in order to take this meal, you have to get up out of your metaphorical tax booth.
[01:02:24] And so it's an invitation to lean into the fact that you need grace and that Jesus loves you and that this grace is powerful enough to call you out of whether it's your judgmentalism or whatever the sin is that you've been hanging on to
[01:02:40] or has a hold of you, but to come and to know that this is a place where you can receive grace.
[01:02:48] Jesus reminds us on the night that he was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he gave it to his disciples and he said, this represents my body that was broken for you.
[01:03:00] And after the supper, he took the cup and he said, this cup, it represents my blood.
[01:03:04] It was shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.
[01:03:06] Drink from it, all of you.
[01:03:09] In order to take the sacrament of communion, you need to get to a place that Matthew did where you're willing to acknowledge the call that Jesus has on your life and you're willing to rise, to get up
[01:03:25] and to run towards Jesus and to put your faith in him.
[01:03:29] If you've never put your faith in Jesus, We don't want you to feel pressure to take a sacrament that's inconsistent with where you're at.
[01:03:37] And so if you're still wrestling with the claims of Christianity, just know that the call of God's grace is extended every time we gather together on a Sunday morning.
[01:03:46] And to know that whenever that point comes, when you're ready to let go of whatever it is that has defined your life up until this point, you can come and accept the call of Jesus upon your life,
[01:03:58] and you can ask for forgiveness of sins, and he will give you grace.
[01:04:02] But for those of you who come this morning, this is not a gold star.
[01:04:07] You don't need to give Jesus your resume of what you've done this past week.
[01:04:11] All you need to give Jesus is your need of him.
[01:04:16] And if you're able to do that, and you can come and you can bring your sin, and you can bring your longing for grace, this is a table for anybody who's put their faith in him.
[01:04:26] Before I pray, here's the logistics for communion.
[01:04:29] After I pray, you'll come up through the center of two aisles. You can pinch off a piece of bread. If you need a gluten-free option, that will be provided in my far right, your far left. And then every tray, the outer ring is grape juice. Everything
[01:04:43] else is wine. So take according to your conscience. You'll exit through the exterior aisles, return to your seat, and then I will lead us so that we as a community of faith can take this sacrament of
[01:04:54] communion together. Let me pray, and if those who are serving would come forward at this time.
[01:04:58] Heavenly Father, I'm sure many of us, we know this story.
[01:05:13] We know how it plays out.
[01:05:16] But sometimes our familiarity with this story can actually breed a subtle contempt in our lives that we can forget the power of your acceptance.
[01:05:32] So Jesus, I pray that no matter where we're at this morning, you didn't come for the healthy.
[01:05:39] you came for the sick you did come for righteous you came for sinners and what was true 2,000 years ago in the life of Matthew is true for us today so I pray that you would help us to lean in that
[01:05:54] help us to find our inner Matthew and give us the courage to come and to take this meal to know that you accepted us because of what you did on the cross 2,000 years ago
[01:06:05] and help us to live in that acceptance knowing that it is powerful to actually transform us so would you use this meal for that very purpose in Jesus name amen

[01:06:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:06:17] this is my body

[01:10:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:10:55] it was broken for you when you eat of this remember me Jesus then said this cup it represents my blood shed for many for the forgiveness of sins drink for all of you let's pray
[01:11:23] heavenly father maybe maybe you can think back to a time even if it's not right now that the thought of you seeing all the worst parts of ourselves and yet you accepting us like you did with Matthew
[01:11:51] you. It really is too good to be understood, but we thank you that these stories have been passed on for years because it is not too good to be true. So Jesus, I pray that you would help us
[01:12:06] to believe this for ourselves, that we can bring our faults, our flaws, our sins, and to know that you are a God who accepts us and gives us your grace. But I pray that you would also help us to
[01:12:23] believe this for this world. There are a lot of people out there who are convinced that God would cancel them, that a church would cancel them if they really knew what was going on. This rally
[01:12:37] area needs a church to be different than that. Give us the courage to be the kind of people that you were, Jesus, to a guy like Matthew. May we go out with the gospel of your grace,
[01:12:49] and may we accept people and know that the acceptance of Jesus is powerful to transform them as well. Thank you for your grace in your name. Amen.

[01:12:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:12:58] Amen. Why don't we stand and sing our final song together.

[01:13:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:13:21] Amazing grace

[01:13:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:13:23] saved a red light, but now

[01:13:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:13:39] it's too good to be understood that this God is not too good to be true. Amen.
[01:18:20] Go in peace.