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How Jesus Turns Trash into Treasure
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 9:9-13
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared September 29, 2021)
BACKGROUND:
*Today in Matthew 9, we will see how Jesus called the man God used to write this book of the Bible.
His name was Matthew Levi, and he was a much-hated tax collector for the Romans.
Matthew was considered to be among the worst of the worst sinners, but our merciful Savior died for all sinners!
And Matthew was saved by Jesus Christ.
His sins were all forgiven, and his life was transformed when he put his trust in the Lord.
*That's what Jesus wants to do in all of our lives.
He wants to turn us from trash into treasure for the Kingdom of God.
And Matthew's story shows us how.
Let's begin by reading Matthew 9:9-13.
MESSAGE:
*Back in 1996, Craig Randall was 23 years old, and he drove a garbage truck for Waste Management up around Boston.
Sometimes Craig liked to bring his work home with him: There was an old-fashioned sewing machine he salvaged, also some books that he got from the trash.
*Then one day, Craig lifted a cup off a pile of trash.
It was a contest cup from Wendy's.
The week before, Craig had found another cup, and when he peeled the sticker, he won a chicken sandwich.
This time, he figured he'd win some fries to go with it.
But this time the sticker said: "Congratulations -- You have won $200,000 toward a new home."
Church, that would be almost $350,000 in today's money!
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*Craig turned trash into treasure.
And that's what Jesus Christ wants to do in our lives.
How does the Lord do it?
1. FIRST: JESUS FINDS US.
*In vs. 9, Jesus found Matthew sitting at work in the tax office, and that stirred up the Lord's enemies because Matthew was certainly considered to be a piece of human trash.
Again, he was a hated tax-collector for the Romans.
*William Barclay explained that "There was never a more unlikely candidate for being an Apostle than Matthew.
He was what the King James Version calls a "publican."
That's because these tax collectors dealt with public money, and they were hated by almost everybody because they served their country's Roman conquerors.
Tax collectors were also notoriously dishonest.
Not only did they cheat their own countrymen.
They tried their best to swindle the government.
They also made a thriving income by taking bribes from rich people who wanted to avoid paying the taxes they owed."
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*John Phillips added that this type of tax collector also had great power to take out "his spite on people, play favorites, and inflict hardship.
They could force merchants to stop their journeys, unload their animals, and open every package.
They could ransack through it all, read private letters, and generally make life miserable for people.
There were bridge tolls, road taxes, harbor dues, and property taxes, as many taxes as greedy imaginations could invent."
(3)
*Matthew may have been a piece of human trash, but in vs. 9 Jesus found him sitting at work in the tax office.
Jesus finds us.
He meets us right where we are.
That's because in Luke 15 and John 10, Jesus truly is the Good Shepherd who goes into the wilderness to find His lost sheep.
Thank God!
*In Matthew 4, Jesus met Peter and Andrew after they had been at work fishing in the Sea of Galilee.
Then a little while later, Jesus met James and John as they cleaned their nets.
This was not the first time Jesus had met these men.
But He met them at work to call them into His service, and in Matthew 4:19, Jesus said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
In John 4 Jesus met the Samaritan woman at a well, and in Luke 19 Jesus met Zacchaeus when he was up in a tree!
*Jesus met people where they were.
And remember that the Lord wants us to do the same thing.
Jesus wants us to go to people where they live, work, shop, play, and go to school.
In Luke 14, Jesus told a parable with this message: "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."
*God always wants us to be inviting people to His church, but you know that the next few Sundays are special times to invite.
Keep asking the Lord to show you who to invite, and then invite as many as you can.
Again, Jesus said, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."
*Jesus finds us where we are.
But this is not just a matter of the highway.
It's a matter of the heart.
*In Acts 9, the Lord met Paul on the Road to Damascus.
But the real story is about Paul's heart, because at the time, Paul was as far away from Jesus as you can get.
Paul certainly did not know Christ as his Savior.
He did not believe that Jesus was the Christ.
And Paul was doing everything he possibly could do to persecute Christians.
Acts 9:1 tells us that Paul was "breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord."
*But the Lord found Paul right where he was.
That means we can come to Jesus just as we are.
We don't have to clean up our lives to come to Jesus.
We come to Him just like we are, and He cleans us up.
*One of the hymns that has meant the most to me over the years is "Just As I Am."
We were singing that hymn 46 years ago on the day I made my public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
We were singing it in Macon, Georgia 8 years later on the day I went forward to answer God's call into the ministry.
*"Just As I Am" was written in 1835 by an English woman named Charlotte Elliott.
Charlotte was visiting some friends in London, and there she met Pastor Cesar Malan.
While seated at supper, the preacher said he hoped that she was a Christian.
Charlotte was offended by that and told him she would rather not discuss that question.
*Dr.
Malan said that he was sorry if he had offended her, that he always liked to speak a word for his Master, and that he hoped that some day she would become a worker for Christ.
*They met again 3 weeks later at the home of a mutual friend.
Charlotte told the preacher that ever since he had spoken to her, she had been trying to find her Savior.
And she asked him to tell her how to come to Christ.
*Dr.
Malan answered, "Just come to Him as you are."
Charlotte did right then!
And she went away rejoicing.
Shortly after that, she wrote the hymn with these words:
"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come."
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*When Jesus finds us, He calls us to come to Him just like we are.
He turns trash into treasure by finding us.
2. THEN JESUS URGES US TO FOLLOW HIM.
*We see this truth in vs. 9, where Jesus saw "Matthew sitting at the tax office.
And He said to him, 'Follow Me.'
And he arose and followed Him."
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