Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Saw a Man - Not a Traitor

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

***CHAPTER 13:  JESUS CALLS MATTHEW TO BE A DISCIPLEAFTER THE miraculous cure of the paralytic, Jesus left the house and, as he passed along, saw Matthew, known as Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting in the customhouse-where he performed his duties as tax collector.  Jesus said to him:             “Follow me.”            Matthew arose and followed him.            Later Jesus sat down to a meal in Matthew’s house.  With him were his disciples and many tax collectors and sinners.            Pharisees and scribes who saw them eating together were surprised and said to the disciples:            “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?”            Jesus, hearing them, said:            “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris. I hope you're enjoying the series and we're going to continue today. We're in chapter 13 of our little book, The Words of Jesus. And this is when Jesus calls Matthew to be a disciple. After the miraculous cure of the paralytic Jesus left the house and as he passed along he saw Matthew known as Levi the son of Alphaeus

sitting at the risk at the King James says receipt of custom this calls it the custom house where he performed his duty as a tax collector. Jesus said to him, follow me. I can't help it. I, wouldn't you love to have that in your past somewhere? Wouldn't you love when things aren't going so well and you just can't seem to get it done you just can't seem to you just can't

seem to get it pushed off its mark you can't get the your wheels out of the mud you can't you just can't get things rolling like they should or I don't know you meet up with sickness or you meet up with some kind of disaster that hinders you or I don't know sometimes you just get discouraged and you just don't want to continue boy to be able to look into your past and think I remember when Jesus walked up looked me square in the eye and said follow me and that exactly what I did. I got up and I followed him. I mean, it just seems like it's almost an unfair advantage. But friend, you know,

you hear me talk about all the time how there is such a thing as hearing the word of God. There's such a thing as reading your Bible. There's just such a thing as hearing the word of God. There's such a thing as reading your Bible. There's just such a thing as hearing the voice of God within ourselves. And I love to give the example that, you know, if you go to your favorite girl, you go to your Valentine, I don't know. I don't know how Catholic you are. But if you go to them and you happen to

whisper in her ear, I love you, she gets all twitterpated and she gets goose bumpy and she just loves to hear that. And you say to her, oh, you kind of like that when I said that, huh? And she says, yeah, I did. And you say, here, here, let me write this down. So you take out a little three by five card and you write I love you on it. And you hand it to her and say,

anytime you want to know if I love you, here, just read this to yourself. How far are you going to get with that? You think you're going to get a nice hot dinner tonight? You think you're going to get a date to the movies? No, you wouldn't dare try that. Why? It says I love you.

You said you liked that. There you go. You got it with you all the time. What are you gri griping about you think you're going to get by with this of course you're not why because you're not saying it you're just writing it do you know if you can understand what i'm talking about right now you can understand the difference between the Word of God and the Bible. Look, you can read in the Scriptures all you want that Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me, this I know,

for the Bible tells me so. Well, that sounds way too much like a 3x5 card to me. Is he alive or is he not? Look, if you ever, ever experience that two and a half seconds of his time where he speaks from the inside up into your spirit and into your mind and he says, perhaps in the middle of conversation, perhaps parenthetically, perhaps just as an aside remark, but he says it nonetheless, I love you.

There is nothing in the world that is even close to that not a hundred bibles written a hundred different times in a hundred different languages is even close to what i'm talking about here it's very much the the same resentment that that your girlfriend felt when you handed her the three by five card and said, here, just read this. This is the kind of resentment we ought to feel within ourselves when we even think or when we hear a preacher preach that. Jesus loves you. He cares so much for you that when he left, he gave you a book. Jesus never said that. Jesus says, I'm going to leave and it's going to be better for you. How could it be better? Because, you know, now I talk to you here and I talk to you there, but if I go away, I'm going to move inside you, and I'll speak to you from the inside out.

Now, that's better than any book, better than any church, better than any pastor, better than any preacher, better than any sermon, any lecture, any DVD or CD. It's better than gospel music. It's better than anything than to have that voice within ourselves that we are indeed the children of God. Look, I know that modern Christianity, conventional Christianity, gives us this list of criteria how we know we're saved. Most of the time, this criteria is, well, you know, it says that if we confess of our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes in the righteousness.

What? Well, that's scriptural proof of salvation. You believe in Jesus, don't you? Well, yeah. Well, he said he would save you, didn't he? Yeah. Well, is he a liar? Have you ever heard this conversation? This is unbelievable that adults would do this to other adults. This is unbelievable. But that's what we do. That's how we prove we're saved. Do you know the Bible says there are only

three ways that you can know that you're born again? Are you going to like these or not? I don't know. But one of them is we keep the commandments. Oh, the Bible don't say that. Yes, it does. We keep the commandments. And if we say that we're his and we don't keep the commandments, we're a liar. That's what the scriptures say. The other way is that we love the brethren. Oh, come on. Does the Bible really? Yes, we know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Well, I loved the brethren before. You might want to

investigate that, my friend. You might want to investigate that, especially if you're not keeping the commandments. But if you're keeping the commandments and you love your brother, do you realize you got two out of three? You know that you've been born again. You know. You just know. Well, I got to know. What's the third way? That the Spirit of God witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. This very thing I'm talking about right now,

this very thing about keeping the commandments and not disobeying your conscience, taking time to hear God every day, to have this within ourselves, the Spirit of God, keep my commandments, me and my Father will move into you, we'll manifest ourselves to you, and we will lead and guide you from the inside.

All that stuff I've been saying all these weeks. Do you realize that without that you have no assurance of your salvation whatsoever? Well not according to this, not according to the scriptures, not according to what you call the word of God. If you think that you have some contract with God because, well, I believe, and he said if I believe that I'm saved.

And my only other alternative is to believe that he's a liar. No, no, no, that's not so at all. That's not so at all. So what are we going to do? That's what I'd like to know. Do you want assurance? Do you know who doesn't have assurance of their salvation? Are the people who sit under preachers that constantly preach on eternal security.

That's the ones that don't have any assurance of their salvation. You know why? Because the eternal security preachers, they don't preach the commandments. They don't tell you that you need to keep the commandments. But it's the commandment. As you keep the commandments of God, do you know what happens to you? All of a sudden, this assurance of salvation. We don't need any contract with God. We obey him. We love Him. We speak to Him every day. We don't disobey our conscience. And we keep the commandments of God.

He said that if I keep the commandments, He'll come into me and witness and guide me from the inside. This is His Spirit witnessing with my spirit that I am a child of God. Keeping the commandments I do for my brother. And I don't offend my brother. I love my brother. Another evidence of being born again. You know you pass from death unto life because you love the brethren. Because you keep the commandments. You know people who don't try to erase, try to push the commandments

out of their life, do you know they don't struggle with I wonder if I'm saved? Do you know there's a group of people out know they don't struggle with, I wonder if I'm saved? Do you know there's a group of people out there that don't struggle with this? It's because they don't constantly hear that preaching to the contrary. Look, there's a lot of money in making people doubt their salvation. There's a lot of money in rededicating your life. There's a lot of money in teaching people, these are things you need to know to have confidence toward God. There's a lot of money in teaching people these are things you need to know to have confidence toward God. There's a lot of money in it. There's a lot of fame in it. There's a lot of church building in it. There's a lot of nasty stuff that I don't necessarily want to talk about today. But do you want that kind of assurance? You can have it. It's's yours but you're gonna have to do it the way the scriptures tell us to do it

the word of god i love you i love you well would you write that down no i'm not gonna write that down you want to know that you come to me i'll tell you i'll tell you that i love you well why don't you just write it down so I don't have to appear before you and feel guilty for the way I've been living all week. No! You come here and see me. We'll talk about the way you've been living all week. And when we're all done, I'll tell you I love you again. This is really a wonderful way to live. But you can't have this.

You can't have this in modern religion. It's just, it's not the deal. I want to talk to you today about Jesus calling Matthew as a disciple. We read that after this situation in the paralytic, he walks by, sees Matthew and says to him, follow me. Matthew arose and followed him. Later Jesus sat down to a meal in Matthew's house. With him were his disciples

and many tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees and scribes who saw them eating together were surprised. I think they were a little ticked off. And said to the disciples, said to the disciples, not to Jesus, by the way, but to his disciples, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Jesus heard them say that.

And said, hey, they that are whole, they that are well, those that are healthy, they don't need a doctor. But they that are sick, those who are unhealthy, those are the ones that need a doctor. I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call the sinner to repentance.

Now a couple of things I want you to see here. One of them is this is a beautiful revelation given to me so many years ago. I remember it occurring to me in the King James when this story is told in the King James, when this story is told in the King James, the Bible says, he, talking about Jesus, he saw a man named Matthew. And the words, he saw a man, stood out to me. And I think, why is this standing out to me?

Why is this of any prime importance at this particular point? Well because every Jew, every self-respecting Israelite when they looked at Matthew they didn't see a man. They saw a traitor. They saw somebody who has exchanged money for their allegiance

to this country. They saw somebody who sold out to the Roman government. Matthew hired himself out to the Roman government to collect taxes. The Roman government was very sharp in this regard. As they occupied Israel they found Israelites, born Israelites to do their work for them. One of the reasons why

Herod was set in as the governor of this area. Of course he was an Idumean, he wasn't really Judean, he wasn't really from Jerusalem, he was from Idumea. However he was closer to this society of Jews than any Roman could have been. No Roman could have sat on Herod's throne. Somebody would have went in there and cut his throat.

So they had him do it. And Herod of course he had an affinity for the Jews. He loved them. He was pretty, according to standards of today's living, he was a pretty decent guy. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons, one of the ways that he wanted to win the hearts of the Israel and confidence of the people of Israel was that he built the temple. He rebuilt the temple that was destroyed.

And spent a lot of money on it, I might say. His name is on every stone. Remember, Jesus was walking out of the temple one day and his disciples said, oh, master, behold what beautiful stones these are. And he says, don't you see what these stones are all about? These stones are somebody who's buying your affection. Come on! Alright, Harris translation again, but we'll get to it as we move through the red words.

But they would take people who were locals and have them do what could be considered the dirty work of the Romans, which tax collecting is not a very pleasant thing to do, not even in our day. And so Matthew hired himself out to collect taxes. So he's sitting there with a big roster of names and waiting for them to come and pay their tax so he could mark their names off the list and this kind of thing. Well, people are coming by and they're looking at him and saying, hey, Roman, I thought your name was Levi.

What's this Matthew thing about? Well, he obviously had to change his name. He obviously was, you know, ducking the rocks being thrown at him. But they accused him of being a traitor. They didn't see a man there. By the way, you need to know that the Jews don't see Gentiles as people. They put us in the same category as pigs, chickens, and cows. I don't recommend reading the Tal pigs, chickens, and cows.

I don't recommend reading the Talmud, but it's there. Nevertheless, they didn't consider him to be a man, and he had lived in this state, in this condition, for a long time. And he'd lost all of his friends and probably some of his family, and the only people that were his friends were other tax collectors. As we see witnessed in the fact that when Jesus went to his house for dinner it was full of tax collectors. The Pharisees and the scribes and such I don't know that they were invited to the dinner. I think they were just peeking in.

I think they don't know that they were invited to the dinner. I think they were just peeking in. I think, you know, they don't mind peeking. They don't mind spying and looking around and making judgments. So that's exactly what they were doing. That's what they were doing there. And they saw all those tax collectors in there, all those horrible sellouts to the Roman government. You know, it wouldn't take long for a man to really start to get a bad attitude about his own self

if the people that he loved and his friends and the people he grew up with had shunned him like poor Matthew was shunned. Matthew was absolutely ostracized. There was nothing left for him in Jerusalem except his job. That's all he had. That's why he hung around other tax collectors. They had the same problem. Romans didn't hire Romans to collect taxes.

Like I said, they'd have their throat cut. So they hired other people. And all the people who hired themselves out to the Roman government for tax collecting were just known as traitors. They sold themselves for money. They put them in the category of prostitute. They put them into the horrible light that a man would have serious difficulty ignoring in his life.

You know how to tell a man that really cares deeply? You want to know how to tell a man whose heart's broken? A man who, after 15 minutes of conversation and soul searching, would probably burst into tears? You want to know how to identify that guy? He's the one that says, I't care i don't care hey it's the way we defend ourselves i know you ladies don't understand that but that's the way we do it and uh so a lot of times we do care and it does hurt i know it's hard for some women to understand if men even have feelings, but they do.

And sometimes our feelings and concerns in that area are discounted. Men don't help because even when somebody does want to care, they, ah, get away from me. And so they don't help in this situation, but men do hurt. And it's tough to lose friends and loved ones. What impressed Matthew? Why did Matthew get up and cinch up all of his little coin bags and gather up all of his papers and put them into his mule sack or whatever he had

and roll up his little carpet there and pick up his chair and his table and pack it on his mule. Why did he do that? Why did he get up and follow someone who he didn't even know? He didn't even say follow me to somewhere. He just said follow me. I think it was very clear to poor poor Matthew. This is the first guy for a long, long time that has come by

here and saw a man. A real flesh and blood man whose feelings are hurt. Whose life is destroyed, who people don't care about. You know, Matthew's attitude was, yeah, I saw the Lord, but most of all, he saw me.

Friend, you are looking at an example for every Christian in life. The guy down on the corner, down there with the little piece of cardboard that says we'll work for food. Or he's got a little dog there. Or, you know, the fellow that, he delivers beer in the county oh my goodness what do you do for a living oh I work for Anheuser-Busch oh my goodness and you know this is horrible this guy delivers

beer for a living are we seeing men here are we seeing people who are trying to provide for their families, who are doing the best they can? In some cases, they're doing the best they can. Okay, there's laziness involved. There may be other extenuating circumstances involved. But for the most part, can't you feel some kind of kinship to people who are under stresses that are outside of their realm of

power to change? Can't we have some kind of compassion for one another? Oh, I don't want to give this guy a dollar. He's liable to buy cigarettes with it. Or I don't want to give this guy, I don't think you can buy them for a dollar, but I don't want to give this guy, I don't think you can buy them for a dollar, but I don't want to give this man any money because he's liable to buy drugs or something. You know what? I think you might be missing a point here. Until you are a better friend to that person than the bottle of beer he's going to go buy

with the money you give him? Until you're a better friend to him than the beer is, give him the buck. You know, can we not see some kinship with these people? Okay, fine, this is his problem. What's yours? It's certainly not making enough money, so why can't we help one another?

Why can't we give? Well, God, if I gave to everybody that stuck their hand up, I wouldn't have any money. Not if you were following the scriptures, you wouldn't. You know the Old Testament, the thing you preachers threw out a long time ago and said we didn't need it? Do you know that it outlines exactly how we're supposed to live in this area? What we're supposed to do? What we're supposed to

give to the poor and the widows and the fathers and the Levite, the preacher, the church? It lays it all out. You don't have to worry about going broke. You don't have to worry about that at all. You're worried about things that are really none of your concern. I'm going to tell you. Well, there's people that err in the opposite direction. You know, they give till it hurts. We're in the scriptures that say give till it hurts. It doesn't say that.

Why are you doing that? Overcompensating for one reason or another. We're going to talk about these things as time goes by and you need to know what the Bible says about these things so that you can order your life properly but most of all I think if you know these things it empowers us to treat one another like human beings. Do you know if the church got a hold of what we're talking about here? If they understood what we're talking about here right now, the welfare system in the United States would become unnecessary.

I can't say that it would disappear because I'm afraid our politicians would find something to do with the money. But the welfare system? Gone. The Division of Youth Services or whatever else your state happens to call whatever they do, where they're running from house to house and trying to fix domestic problems would disappear. The problems of finding out, oh, it was so horrible because I found out somebody right here in our community froze to death. Froze to death. How could that happen?

How could that happen? How could anybody who knows him not understand their situation? And not help? I don't get that. Do you think this man just didn't know any Christians? Is that the idea? I don't believe it, not for a minute. Friends, we don't see people anymore.

We see Democrats. We see liberals. We see liberals. We see politicians. We see progressives. We see the people we hate. We see Muslims. We see people that aren't like us. But for God's sake, and for the sake of America,

for the sake of our homes, for the sake of our own spiritual welfare, it's time to start seeing men who need us and be to them what the Lord Jesus would be if he were walking by. Time to go. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you