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Jesus who called tax collectors Matthew

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[ Matthew 9:9]

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.

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When Jesus preached the gospel on earth, the Jews thought that tax collectors were sinners who could not even go to heaven. So, even ignoring tax collectors and eating with them, it was very filthy.

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As Jesus went on the way, he passed the place where the tax collector called Matthew worked. Matthew, the tax collector, is the son of Alphaeus, also called Levi.

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Jesus approached the place where Matthew, the tax collector, was. And he said, “Come with me.” This means that you must quit your tax collection job right now and become a disciple of Jesus.

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The Jews at that time ignored the tax collectors and treated them as sinners. But those who have a job as tax collectors were rich people who made a lot of money. To quit this immediately was to give up everything he had done so far.

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Matthew, who was called by Jesus, did not have any hesitation. He immediately rose from his place and obeyed the words of Jesus. He stopped what he was doing and followed Jesus right away.

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Matthew had a great feast in his house for Jesus who called himself. There were other tax collectors who knew Matthew at the table with Jesus. There were also those who were ignorant of the Jews as sinners.

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Jesus did not discriminate and ate with them. However, there were some people who were very disgruntled with this appearance. Those who ate with Jesus were Pharisees who thought they could not go to heaven because they were sinners.

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The Pharisees spoke to the disciples of Jesus, “Why can your teachers eat with the tax collectors and the sinners together?” They said that Jesus was doing something very wrong.

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Jesus heard what the Pharisees said to their disciples. And Jesus answered them. “The person who needs a doctor is not a healthy person, but a sick person. I did not come to call the righteous, but to call sinners and repent.”

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The Pharisees were people who thought they were the righteous themselves. They were people who mistook themselves as healthy people without any sickness. They regarded everything they do as most right and lived as judging others to be sinners. So they did not need Jesus' love.

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But those who eat with Jesus today knew that they were sinners. They were people gathered with the desire for the help of Jesus. They were people who wanted to be forgiven for their sins through Jesus. These were like sick people who needed a doctor.

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Jesus made it plain that he came to repent sinners in this land. Zacchaeus, another tax collector, also repented and returned because of Jesus' meeting. After he met Jesus, he gave half of his possessions to the poor.

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Matthew, who the Pharisees ignored as sinners, became a good disciples of Jesus. He was widely used to record the gospel of Matthew that we read and to preach about Jesus. He became a disciple of Jesus, a man of faith who was a great devotee to the preaching of the gospel as an apostle.

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Matthew considered Jesus more important than living comfortably with a job of earning a lot of money. He showed a great faith in obedience to his call immediately when Jesus called him a disciple. As a result, he became a person recorded in the kingdom of God in Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, not a tax collector.

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Today, we must look back on ourselves if we are not actively ignoring and judging other people like the Pharisees.

We must look to see if we are acting properly as a person who has received the grace of a great salvation given by God.

We must be someone who values and helps others as Jesus did. Like Matthew, we must be a faithful man who regards Jesus' call as the most precious and obedient.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)