Sermon by Pastor Alwin
Matt 9:10-17
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 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 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.” Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
From the above passage we can see 2 kinds of people meeting Jesus.
1. Pharisees who were teachers of the Law and absolutely religious in everything they did.
2. Disciples of John who were supposed to be a revolutionary group, preaching the Kingdom of God and the message of Repentance.
Though there is a vast difference between the two groups, they both ask very weird questions to Jesus. The disciples of John who were supposed to be a radical set of people were completely driven with self- righteousness and chose to join themselves with the Pharisees.
Just like John’s disciples, if Godly people are not sure of what they believe the worldly people can cause a lot of confusion in their lives. It is important for us, the people of Faith to be sure of what we believe. If we are not in constant touch with God, then we too will be driven by self-righteousness and not God righteousness. Though the disciples of John were taught about God’s Kingdom and repentance, they eventually lost it into a holier than thou attitude.
When these people were questioning the disciples of Jesus, it was Jesus who stood for them to defend them. From this we can learn that we have a God who is willing to defend us in every situation. If ever you feel you are wronged, you don’t have to fight it out alone because it is God who will make your righteousness shine like a noon day sun.
When we believe in Jesus, we have been given a new life, we cannot get back into our old lives again. If we have been redeemed by Jesus, then we have to live a life worthy of the calling God has placed upon us. We are all called by God. According to verse 16-17 from the above passage we have been given a new heart and new life. We cannot put the old stuff into the new heart otherwise it will also burst like the new wineskins. We cannot go on with our old life. There has to be a change. If you have been redeemed, live a life pleasing unto God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
God says in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 24 to 27 “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
God has given each one of us a new heart, a heart of flesh so that will follow the statutes of his heart. Being with the worldly people doesn’t mean we have to be like them, it’s all about being Christ like with them. We cannot have the attitude of self-righteousness and hurt them. We cannot do the things that the world does. We are no more slaved to sin but now we are slaves to Christ. We have been set free from the slavery of sin. Remember that if we are casual towards sin, we will become a casualty to sin
The day we are born again, our life is just begun. It’s not always happily ever after. Until we meet our Saviour face to face, our lives are to be transformed and changed. The prince of this world is very different. He has a different way of thinking, doing, saying things hence we need to have a constant fellowship with God’s Word otherwise it is going to be challenging. We have to decide and purpose in our hearts that we’ll spend our time with the Word of God before facing the world
God is very serious when he says “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
Let be intentional and choose to set apart time for the personal study of the Word of God and be transformed by Him forever.
