Title: Mercy Extended
Text: Matthew 9:10-19,23-26 Memory Verse: Matthew 9:12
Theme: Jesus shows mercy to all who come to Him in faith.
Intro: This passage shows us the amazing mercy of God extended to a tax collector, Matthew. How has God shown you His mercy? Take some time and lets have some one minute salvation testimonies: Life before Jesus saved you, how and when Jesus saved you and how you received the Good News of Jesus Christ, and the difference Jesus has made in your life since you’ve been saved. Jesus shows this tax collector mercy. Jesus has launched His public ministry and would do yet another miracle, and it would be the miracle of salvation. It’s in-between several other miracles, the leper’s healing and the religious leader in the local synagogue’s daughter’s healing, and the two blind men who were healed, and a demon possessed man is freed. Jesus goes to the suffering and desperate and the well off alike, we all need His salvation, no matter who you are, what your background is, where you’ve been or what you’ve done.
- Jesus’s Mission (Matt. 9:10-13)
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus intentionally went to Matthew.
Jesus called Matthew with authority and compassion.
Matthew left it all to follow Jesus in an instant. (Luke 5:27-28).
Application: Do you remember when you left it all—the partying, the substance abusing, the codependences relying on people for happiness, the workaholic-ism , the you name it—to follow Jesus? Never look back. Leave the old life behind and live in the fullness of your new life as a follower of Jesus, just like Matthew.
(v. 10) Matthew invited his tax collecting buddies and other sinners. Because mercy received translates into mercy extended.
Gospel: God has shown us mercy when we strayed from His design and went our own way in sin and brokenness when He extended mercy to us and we received His gift of salvation by repenting and believing. We’re then set free in Christ to recover and pursue Gid’s good plan and design for our lives, We are recipients of mercy. What would prevent you—if you have never given your life to Jesus-from asking Him to save you, repenting and believing today?
Connect Group isn’t a holy huddle, it’s a welcome center for lost people to be found, it’s a debrief of the past week’s evangelistic efforts—the highs and the lows—it’s a place to pray together for lost people by name, and it’s a launch pad to be SENT out again to get back out there investing and inviting the lost. And as we study God’s Word and not just for head knowledge but to grow as disciples—and incidentally disciples probably aren’t disciples if they’re not making obedient steps to grow in making disciples—what did Jesus say?
Matthew 4:19 (ESV), “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
What’s the first descriptor Jesus ever gave a disciple? Someone who fishes for men/someone who makes other disciples!
(v. 11) The religious leaders charged in with their demeaning accusations against Jesus and everyone else.
(v. 12) Jesus respond with a simple analogy of those who are sick needing a doctor. According to the law, the priest was yes supposed to enforce the law, but also verify when someone was physically healed, changed, or when a Canaanite affirmed faith in Yahweh and could be welcomed into the covenant community. These Pharisees majored on the law-enforcing side of things, but were lazy in the compassion side of their job. They weren’t doing their job! If he was a changed man, they were to examine and affirm it. They were stunted because they were in cahoots with the roman government so they were compromised, and they hated that any change could come through Jesus. It had to be all about them.
Application; do we rejoice just as much if not more when someone else gets to lead someone to Jesus? Do we celebrate someone’s salvation testimony when they share it in your Connect Group as much as we celebrate getting to explain the gospel and coach our people up in sharing the gospel week-after-week? Praise the Lord, it’s not to be about us.
(v. 13) This indictment was a direct confrontation against these so-called learned but deeply unchanged Old testament teachers and religious leaders.
Application: We need to guard our hearts from just going through the motions and getting a bunch of head knowledge, if you have your people share one lost person’s name and have one salvation testimony each week in your connect group it shows, “We’re not just talking and being a holy huddle; we’re going to do something with what we’ve learned and especially live this out to the far-from-God people, especially toward the lost this week.”
Key Doctrine: Man
“Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.” (See Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 1:21-22.)
2. Jesus’s Work (Matt. 9:14-17)
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 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. 16 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. 17 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.”
(v. 14) John’s disciples shortly after the previous encounter and upon John the Baptist’s imprisonment come with concerns and questions about Jesus, citing their fasting and religious obedience and observance of the commandments, yet Jesus’s disciples weren’t as devoted in their eyes. Could it be they were concerned about Jesus eating with Matthew, as well? Could it be they feasted on a religious fasting day? Or could it be they didn’t join in a fast specifically for John’s release?
(v. 15) Jesus gently responds with 3 analogies: the bridegroom (meaning Jesus) with the wedding guests is cause for feasting and celebration and that day would end.
(v. 16) On the second analogy, Lifeway Explore the Bible says, “Jesus’s second analogy involved clothing. An old garment often developed holes from wear and tear. But no one patches a hole with unshrunk cloth. Such cloth was often made from wool and needed to be washed before being applied so it would shrink to its permanent size. Without the shrinking, the cloth tears away from the old garment and makes a worse tear.
Trying to incorporate the old trappings of ritualistic religion with the fresh spirit of Christ damages both. In some ways, John’s disciples had been trying to follow the teachings of John while clinging to the rituals of the scribes and Pharisees. They didn’t yet comprehend the totally new relationship with God that Jesus made possible. Mixing the new and the old was detrimental to both.”
(v. 17) Lifeway Explore the Bible goes on to explain the 3rd analogy, “Similarly, new wine doesn’t go in old wineskins. Wineskins were made from animal skins that grew hard and brittle over time. Fresh wine would ferment, creating gases that would expand and cause the skins to burst. Consequently, both are lost as the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. People knew that new wine is put into fresh wineskins.
Like the analogy of the new and old cloth, this illustration showed the problem of trying to combine the old and the new. The new covenant of Christ needed a fresh container—the church.
We can rejoice in the truth that salvation is not based on religious works or rituals. We have the living Spirit of God filling us as we trust Christ by faith and follow Him.”
3. Jesus’s Compassion (Matt. 9:18-19)
18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.
(v. 18) A sudden and surprising need was placed into Jesus’s day. He doesn’t see these intrusions and interruptions, but as opportunities to show compassion and do the will of the Father.
According to the Gospel of Mark, his name was, Jairus (Mark 5:22). He was a leader in the local synagogue.
Lifeway Explore says, “Synagogues were local assemblies of Jews that emerged after the destruction of the original temple in Jerusalem and the people’s exile to Babylon. They were not places of sacrifice, but focused on teaching and worship. While most synagogues had a chief ruler, a group of lay elders filled administrative positions. The indefinite article “a” suggests that Jairus was among this group of elders.” He kneels in reverence and pleads his case for his daughter’s healing.
(v. 19) Everyone was watching Jesus for the response. He goes with him and even pauses to heal the woman with the bleeding illness (Matt. 9:20-22). No interruptions form Jairus, show his faith and belief in Jesus and the miracle even heightened his hope, possibly.
Application: are you in a hurry for healing, for Jesus to fix something, maybe Jesus’s delay is the very thing that will heighten your faith and hope in him, which will outlast a physical healing and yield eternal rewards. God IS on God’s time schedule, not yours and not mine; and we should be thankful for that.
- Jesus’s Power (Matt. 9:23-26)
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.
(v. 23-26) Jesus encounters the emotional, commotion of the funeral group and mourners, and tells them to leave, they are no longer necessary. He’s in the house, goes into her room, takes her by the hand, and tells her gently to rise. And she does.
The miracle of your salvation is a miracle to rejoice in. look at the rejoicing and amazement of these miracles and thank God for the miracle of salvation. Let’s make this week the boldest witnessing and greatest rejoicing week we’ve ever had since being saved.
Caleb Walker 
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