Jesus is to be followed!

Matthew 9:9-13

Fergy called. He and Gerty got an offer for one of those timeshare deals in Florida. So they drove down and stayed in a fancy hotel. Gerty’s skeptical about such things and made Fergy check the room for bugs. Fergy checked behind the pictures, in the phone and under the rug - "Eureka!" Under the rug he found a high tech looking devise screwed to the floor. He removed in and hid it in his duffle bag.

The next morning, the sales agent for the timeshare came up to their room. Fergy said he asked how their stay was going and if they liked the room. Fergy assured him that everything was A-Okay.  The agent gave a sigh of relief and said, "Great! Glad to hear it! The people under you aren’t so happy. Last night after you checked in the chandelier fell on them!"

Our lives bump along over the cause and effects that fall in our path. Or we see and hear something and we have to decide whether to act or not. Some things are no brainers. If you see ice cream, you eat it. If you see a trooper behind you, you slow down. If you see Jesus, you . . .

Matthew 9:9-13.

  9 Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector, named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him. 

10 While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. 11 Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such people?” 

12 Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. 13 Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”

Remember Matthew was an opportunistic tax collector and swindler. Then Jesus said, “Follow me.” And the creep and traitor got up and followed him. Does that stretch your imagination beyond reason?  Bad guys don’t do stuff like that.

So how did Matthew get from point A to point B?

He wasn’t a dummy. He was a businessman. He was tough. He was shrewd. He wouldn’t make a move like this on the spur of the moment, would he? He had to have given it some thought.

This was probably not his first encounter with Jesus. He would have had other opportunities to observe Jesus in Capernaum. For example:

· He might have seen Jesus call the four fishermen to be his disciples. As their tax collector he probably knew them. I wonder what he thought

· He might have heard about Jesus casting out a demon in the temple and wondered about that.

· He might have heard the Sermon on the Mount and stayed awake thinking about it.

· He might have heard about Peter’s mother-in-law.. That same night some of his own friends and relatives might have been healed of something. He would have Jesus on the brain.

He heard Jesus preaching about the good news, witnessed his miracles, saw him call disciples and heard him claim he could forgive sins. He watched Jesus reveal himself as a great teacher, a greater healer and finally as the greatest, as God. A light dawned on Matthew that very day.

 Several things are true because Jesus is the greatest Savior and Lord and because he is God. Just like if you were the greatest man who ever lived this would be true:

1. When your wife wanted to talk to you during the World Series, she'd appear in a little box in the corner of the TV screen between innings.

2. Nodding and looking at your watch would be deemed an acceptable response to "I love you."

But those things aren’t true so you and I aren’t one of the greatest men who ever lived. 

Jesus healed, performed miracles, knew and understood what constituted genuine good news for all of humanity and had the authority to forgive sins. He had unquestioned unmatched unchallenged greatness.

And because of that he could say, “Follow me.” 

 Follow me is a lot more than, “Listen to me.” Or “Vote for me.” Or “Work for me.” Or “Play ball for me.” Or “Join me.” Those require a certain level of commitment but not on the same scale as “Follow me.”

 Jesus’ “Follow me.” is kind of a combination of “Marry me.” and Uncle Sam’s, “Fight for me.” Jesus’ “Follow me!” is a “Follow me – for love, to the death and to eternal life.” It is a unique “Follow me!” among all the “Follow mes!” of the world. It’s the Messiah’s “Follow me!”

  Matthew, other tax collectors and other outcasts gave Jesus a hearing at Matthew’s dinner party. The religious guys gave him grief. It might surprise us but Jesus expected it. He said the people who are aware of their sins are more open to a Savior because they know they have something to be saved from. The religious hypocrites, who pretend not to have much, if any sin, aren’t interested in making an appointment for a spiritual checkup. Their loss! And they’re lost.

 Here’s how it stacks up. We have a savior who administers the good new, heals and forgives. Because his greatness is unmatched in the universe, he is to be followed. But chances are the people we would expect to follow him probably won’t.

 However, there are plenty of people who will. People who will see Jesus and bring him their hurts and sorrows and sins. People, who will acknowledge his greatness, turn wholeheartedly to follow him. It will be true love. 

  So I want you to stand on your front porch and look down the road in both directions, and around the corner. Think about the people in each house. Think about the people on your phone list at work. Think about your children and grandchildren and their friends. Think about the people on your mail route. How exciting would it be if these people came across Jesus, gave him a hearing and decided to follow him.

 There is no one else for them to follow. He alone has the authority to say, “Follow me.” He alone is completely and totally worthy of being followed. When Jesus ask the disciples if they were going to leave Jesus, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Satan’s job description is to deceive people into thinking there is somewhere else to go, some other religion, some other pursuit or interest that will fill the spiritual void. There is none. There is no substitute for following Jesus. No stand in.

 If you tell them about Jesus, it might just be like unscrewing the plate that holds up a chandelier. They might just fall for Jesus like we have.

Youth Message

What would you do?

If a doctor said, your tonsils are infected. We need to take them out. Check into the hospital. What would you do?

If your tour guide through a huge cave under a mountain said, turn right here or you’ll fall off a cliff. What would you do?

If your coach said get 8 hours of sleep and eat a good breakfast so we can win the championship, what would you do?

If you were lost in the dessert and a woman with GPS in her Jeep rides up to you and says to jump in, what would you do?

  If you want to go to school and the bus driver stopped at your house, what would you do?

If you’re hungry and mom says come to the table because dinner’s ready, what would you do?

If the person who created you and then died for you so your sins could be forgiven, if that person said, “Follow me!” what would you do? When Jesus curls his finger, we Follow His Finger. Everyone should follow Jesus. I know that’s why you’re here so I’m going to give each of you a Butterfingers because their slogan is Follow the Finger.