Tonight we begin in our text at a meal.  A meal in Matthew's house.  Matthew was the tax collector who in Verse 9 of Chapter 9, gives his life to Christ and surrenders himself to follow Jesus Christ.  The very next verse, introduces us to the meal that the other gospel writers give us added information saying that Matthew through a big shindig, big meal in his house invited all of his buddies.  And so, our text begins with a meal, Matthew sharing with all of his friends, showing his love for Jesus Christ.

Also tonight, we will end our time together with a meal.  The Lord's meal, the Lord's Supper sharing with all of our friends, those of us around with each other and also expressing our love for Jesus Christ.  So before we begin our study and then follow that truth toward the end where we take communion together.  Let's pray.

Father we want to thank you that you have invited us into intimacy with you, fellowship with you.  I think of the words of Peter concerning us relating to Christ whom having not seen yet you love with joy unspeakable.  We love you Lord and we're more grateful that you love us even though you know everything about us.  And in a few moments toward the end of our time and the word as we consider how the living word Jesus sacrifice for us.  I pray Lord that that reminder during that meal would keep us tethered for the rest of the week, tethered to your love as we hold up tonight in expression a symbol of that love, in Jesus' name.  Amen.

I get the idea as I go to the New Testament that Jesus love the meals that he like to eat.  We have Jesus showing up here in Matthew 11 in Matthew's house, Matthew 9 in Matthew's house having a meal.  Later on, we will discover another scoundrel by the name of Zacchaeus in Jericho tax gatherer as well and Jesus invites him over to Zacchaeus' home, "Come on down from that tree Zacchaeus.  We are going over to your house."  Inviting himself to lunch.  I like that.  Maybe that's a good present that we can set.

There was the Last Supper where Jesus ate a meal with His disciples then there was the time when Jesus fed the 5,000 men plus their wives and their kids around the Sea of Galilee and He multiplied the fish and the bread and sat down in that wonderful place outside and ate.  Then we have Revelation Chapter 3 as the Lord would speak of intimacy with His people.  In the 20th Verse Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.  If anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

So, Jesus love to eat and that is because in Judaism in that culture to eat with another person was to become essentially one with that person to enjoy an intimacy, a camaraderie, a fellowship.  To say, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone will open the door I will come in and eat with him," is tantamount to Jesus saying, "Let's hangout together.  Let's be friends with each other.  Let's enjoy deep fellowship and intimacy of relationship that we haven't known up to this point, I long to have that with you."

And now we have that here in Matthew Chapter 9, concerning that passage in Revelation 3 that I quoted.  Years ago, there was an English artist named Holman Hunt who painted pretty famous picture of Jesus knocking at a door.  I think we actually have a picture that might go up.  Well, I thought we did.  Oh, it's right behind me.  Yeah.

So if you look on the screen over my shoulder, I, by faith believe it's there.  Holman Hunt was depicting that verse that I quoted in Revelation 3:20.  After he painted it, he invited some of his artist friends to come and take a look at it and offer some helpful criticism.  They look at it and one artist said, "Well Holman, it's a nice picture but you left out a very important detail on the door, there is no door handle."  And Holman Hunt said, "Well, that's because the door represents the human heart."  Jesus is knocking at the door of the heart and the doorknob is always on the inside of the human heart, not the outside."  Jesus doesn't force his way in, you have to open the door.  That's what he was trying to paint.  So he said, "I didn't leave it off accidentally, I left it off deliberately."

The setting that we are in, the city that we are in is the city of Capernaum.  Now, if you have never been to Israel it's impossible for you to see it in your mind's eye.  I can picture it.  It's a cool place.  It's situated right on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Capernaum today is the little tiny village of just stones and ruins but back then understand that Capernaum was on the main drag that connected the great population centers of the world.  The road that ran from Egypt down south, up north through Syria and then east toward Babylon went up to sea coast and because it went up to sea coast it was called the Via Maris or the Way of the Sea.

Situated from the Via Maris was Capernaum and situated in Capernaum on the Via Maris to take tolls and taxes from travelers was our friend Matthew.  Matthew had evidently already heard Jesus.  He was probably listening to the Sermon on the Mount.  His heart was stirred as he was no doubt toward the back of the crowd as Jesus was saying, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit.  Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness they will be filled."  And on and on as Jesus preached Matthew's heart was already primed and stirred.  So the day Jesus in Verse 9 walked up to the toll booth and said, "Follow me." he was ready.  He dropped everything and he followed Jesus.

Now we get in to Matthew's house in Verse 10 for the meal.  And now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold.  Many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And Pharisees saw it they said to His disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  Notice how those two are put together.  It shows you what they thought of tax collectors.  They always put them together with sinners, but that was sort of a buzz word, a buzz catch phrase tax collectors and sinners.  You see them coupled together frequently by the Pharisees.

To the Pharisee, the tax collectors and the sinners were those people who unlike themselves did not highly regard tradition or ceremonial law.  The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, they were the tax collectors and sinners.  Now, we are the Pharisees.  We are the separated ones.  We highly regard traditions and ceremonial law.  So, it was always a snob, always a put down.  He's in a tax collector's home the riffraff is there with Matthew that's who He hangout with.

This is a meal a farewell dinner probably to say goodbye to all of his friends and hopefully introduce some of the riffraff to the saviour.  Hey, if Jesus can save me the tax collector in Capernaum, I bet these other friends of mine are prime targets.  I bet if I could have a meal and introduce them to my new friend Jesus, they might want to follow Him as well.  I think this is Matthew doing evangelism.  It's the natural result once a heart has been touched by Christ.  You want to let others, you want to let your friends, you want to let other tax collectors and sinners know about your saviour.

It's a start comparison though to Matthew newly saved and the Pharisees not even saved.  How did they do evangelism?  How did the Pharisees win converts?  They didn't.  Who would want to be one of them?  Their life really was an attractive now they thought it was because they acted so pious and they thought by acting that way it would attract people.  But, it really wasn't attractive.  Matthew had the right idea.  He invites Jesus, he invites his friends and he wants them to hear, he wants them to see, he wants them to hangout with Jesus.  And evidently Jesus is over at the table with the riffraff.  I like that.

He's now with the important people.  He is not with the Pharisees.  He is with on purpose the tax collectors and the sinners.  Vance Havner one said, "The gospel is not a secret to be hoarded, it's a story to be heralded."  Even Matthew so soon after coming to Jesus evidently believed that.  So here are the Pharisees sitting like this, angry.  Their method of evangelism was finger pointing, tax collector, sinner, bad person, evil, bad person, et cetera just pointing fingers.

There's a great quote that I memorized by Henry Drummond who said, "How many prodigals are kept out of the Kingdom of God by those unlovely characters who profess to be inside?"  The Pharisees profess to be inside.  They weren't tax collectors, they weren't sinners.  They love the law.  They were separated to it.  They were holier than everybody else but their lifestyle and their message was not attractive.  I read about a billboard that showed a picture of it.  A billboard on a freeway in Canada that somebody obviously had rented out and put their message on it and here is the message as you're driving on the freeway.  "The wicked will go to hell and live there forever."

Now, as you drive by that sign is that attractive to you?  Do you say, "Oh man, it really just ministered to me, that's awesome.  Thank you Lord."  It doesn't compel me.  It concerns me.  The message is true.  The wicked will go to hell and live there forever and unrepentant sinner will.  And though that is theologically accurate, the way it was done isn't compelling it is concerning but it doesn't compel a person.  Perhaps we could, using Matthew as our example, be a little more creative in our evangelism.  There is no rule book that says, "It has to be done this way."

I actually read a book one time that says, "Place right hand on the left shoulder."  This is like an old 1940s book on evangelism.  Now, today if you try to touch somebody's shoulder they probably pop you one, "Dude, you are in my space."  But it says, "Put right hand on the left shoulder, make eye contact and say the first name."  Ted?  I wonder and they have the whole spill that you memorize.  Okay cool, it can work.  But depending on your background like Matthew, you could be creative.  Matthew was creative.  Get the riffraff, get the tax collector, get the sinners, bring Jesus and let's have a party.

I had a friend back in California in Orange County at a Bible study that I once taught many years ago.  Her name was Barb.  Now Barb is a short little crusty gal, it's the best way I can describe just rough, came from a rough background love Jesus.  She was also an expert pool player.  Now, in her old busy days she was a pool shark.  She would challenge people and win a lot of money.  So she thought, "I wonder if I could use this for Christ."  Now her life, her background(ph) were in the bars.  She didn't have a drinking problem so I'm not saying, "Go to the bars and down a few brewskies and then when you lose, start talking about Jesus.  So don't even go there, okay?"

But, Barb did something interesting because she was always bringing other crusty characters to my Bible study.  And she was from New York and she moved to the west coast she goes, "Let me tell you how I get him here.  I go into the bar some of these guys they start checking me out.  They say, "Hey can I buy you a drink?"  And I said, "Tell you what?  I play you a game of pool.  If you beat me in pool you can buy me a drink" because she knew there's no way they are going to beat me.  If I win the game you got to listen with me for one hour."

They'd say deal and she would just clean their clock.  Every time and she would sit down and tell them about Christ and invite them to the Bible study and I thought, "Barb that's very creative."  I don't know that I would advertise that until everyone that I know to try that but you come from a very interesting background like Matthew and it worked, very creative.

When Jesus heard that, He heard what the religious folks were saying, listen to what he says.  When he heard that he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a doctor or a physician but those who are sick."  In other words, Pharisee Mr. Pharisee, Mr. Religious dude, you're actually right.  You're right these people are sick.  They are spiritually sick, they are sinners.  You're right about that because they are sick where else would a doctor be?  I'm the doctor.  I make house calls.  "Those who are well they don't needed a doctor, but those who are sick they do.  But go and learn what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance."

You know if you think about it, becoming a Christian is very similar to getting fixed of a disease, getting cured of a melody.  You will never get cured of a disease until you first admit, "I have a disease.  I'm sick."  Now, some people that I have met don't like to admit when they get sick.  "How are you doing?"  "Great."  "Well you don't sound great."  "No, no, I'm fine."  We have a name for people like that.  We call them dead eventually.  Because they never admit and if they never admit the problem they never go to seek help for the problem.  They don't go to a doctor.

Now, my dad never likes to go to doctors.  He would always he was fine and I recall on one occasion, he was working on the car out in the garage and he had the car running, the engine was running and he was tuning it up and he got his fingers too close to the fan belt.  And the two phalanges on his left hand got too close to the fan belt and it chop them off, just took them off.  So, my dad saw that and he went and he wrapped it up in a towel and he kept working on the car.

Now, we came out and we saw that and we saw an awful a lot of blood and we said, "Dad don't you think you should look at that?"  My mom is a nurse.  So, have her like, "Oh, I'll be okay."  Finally my mom came out and said, "Lou, you are going to the hospital."  And you know he is thinking, "Oh it will stop."  So, she convinced him to go to the hospital but I remembered it was an ordeal and he felt, he went inside with the handkerchief wrap around his finger and the blood was filling it up but he have to shave his face before leaving the house, "I'm going in public, I can't go like this."  Your fingers are chopped off dude.

So that by way of an example.  Those who are well they don't need a doctor but sick people or people with their fingers chopped off, they do.  So, what better place for a doctor to be than in a room filled with sick people?  And then Verse 13 he's quoting a prophet they should know about Hosea Chapter 6 Verse 6, "Go learn what this means.  Go find your Bibles Mr. Pharisee and go read your own prophets with say, "I desire mercy," the Lord's says, "and not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

The gospel is not for good people.  The gospel's for us.  Bad people who know they're bad and want to get fixed and admit it.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who admit their own poverty of spirit, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.  You notice something about Jesus in comparison to these Pharisees.  Jesus wants the very people that these people did not want.  Now, when Jesus said and so listen carefully how He words it.  "Those who are well don't need a doctor, only those who are sick.  I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners."  You are to read Hosea at Chapter 6 of what God desires.

In effect, Jesus does not calling himself a doctor, spiritually, but he's calling them a bunch of quacks.  He is inditing them for malpractice.  He's saying, "You're good at a diagnosis, but you're rotten at a cure.  You can point out bad people, but you don't know how to do anything about it.  I have come not to call good people, the righteous people but sinners to repentance."

There's a great old story when Oliver Cromwell ruled England during the time of crisis and he was looking for silver and gold, mint coins with because it was scarce in those days.  His army came to him one day and said, "There is no more gold and silver to be found in all of the land except," they said, "The metal statues in the cathedrals in England.  And Cromwell smiled then said, "Melt down those saints and put them back in their circulation."

May God put us into circulation.  May God melt our hearts, our lives, make us pliable and get us into circulation, not as finger pointers like the Pharisees, but as fellow partners with God calling people to repentance.  Verse 14, then the disciples of John, now this is John the Baptist.  This is later after the meal still in Capernaum but a whole different scene now.

Now, we have disciples of John the Baptist who are not yet followers of Christ.  Now, I find this interesting.  I'll tell you why.  Because it seems that John the Baptist exerted and influenced with people, not just before and during the time of Christ, but all the way into the Book of Acts.  When Paul goes through Ephesus in Acts Chapter 19, he finds a guy by the name of Apollos who was very eloquent, very persuasive but the only thing Apollos knows about and he can convince people in his teaching what he says is right.  He only knows the truth up to baptism of John the Baptist.  So, that in Ephesus, there were disciples effectively of John the Baptist through the preaching of Apollos.

And they hadn't heard about Jesus Christ and the atonement.  They only knew the baptism of John.  So when he came he says, "What have you been baptized in?"  And they would say the name of Jesus.  They said, "John's Baptism."  He said, "Do you even been baptized with the Holy Spirit?"  And they said, "We've never even heard of the Holy Spirit."  So, John's ministry was very effective and he garnered followers that lasted a long time.

So here, we have followers who come to Jesus.  They're not disciples of Jesus.  They're disciples of John.  And they're a little bit perturbed, myth if you will that Jesus and His disciples seem to have a little more liberty and are as legalistic as they are.  Notice, the disciples of John came to him saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"  You get the question?  We, the disciples of John and the Pharisees, we fast a lot.  We're holier than, I guess you are or you and you and your disciples are.  Why do we fast more than you if you're the Messiah that John predicted?

Okay, let's understand this.  According to the Law of Moses, the Jews were required to fast.  Do you know how often?

Once a year, maybe.  I say maybe because the only reference we have of a requirement to fast is the language that comes to us out of Leviticus Chapter 16 and Leviticus 23 about the Day of Atonement, the Yom Kippur.  In that passage, God says, "In the seventh month on the 10th day, you shall afflict your souls."  That's all it says, afflict to your souls.  What does that mean?  It's a good question.  Another translation is you shall humble yourself.

It over time began to be believed that to afflict your souls or to humble yourself was to not eat.  So, it became mandatory to fast once a year on Yom Kippur, the 10th day of the seventh Jewish month.  That's it.  However, by the time of Jesus, many of the righteous people, the Pharisees, Scribes fasted twice a week, nothing wrong with that.  Except the days they've chose to fast were Mondays and Thursdays.  Those just happened to be the busiest days in the market.

And so, Jesus chided them, "When you fast don't be like the hypocrites who paint themselves up that they maybe seen by men."  Some of these people would put white makeup on so they'll look really sick and then go out there and lift their hands up and pray and people would say, "These people are fasting.  It's their fast day.  It's Monday and Thursday."  But it would be the day what most people would be out in the streets to see them.

They did it so the people would see them.  So, the disciples of John the Baptist, they fasted a lot, not like the Pharisees.  They're probably weren't hypocrite.  They were sincere, but they wonder, "Why is it that we, the followers of John the Baptist, not the followers of you, whom John points to, why do we fast more often than you and your disciples?"  Now, I don't know what your relationship with fasting, but it is a good thing.

It's commendable.  I'll tell you what fasting is not.  It's not a way to twist God's arm.  It's not a way to say, "God I'm so sincere and I'll really be a good boy or girl and watch.  I'll fast if you give me that."  That's not what it is.  One of the benefits of fasting is focus.  I'm focusing on spiritual things and I'm refusing to focus on physical.  Yeah, but you know what, when you don't need.  That's all you're focused on -- it's physical thing, right, because here's the thing, "I'm so hungry all the time."

So, I'm thinking about.  What it does in that focus is you're saying to your appetite, you're saying, "You're not going to be my master.  You're going to be my servant."  Because we're used to serving our appetites.  You feel the slightest, a bit hungry.  You grab something to eat.  And you're always serving the desires of the flesh.  Fasting says, "No, my appetites, my hunger is going to be my slave.  I'm going to tell them what to do.  I'm going to bring my body under."  That's a good discipline.

The second benefit of fasting is it makes you appreciate the benefits that God has given you.  It makes you thankful for what God has given you.  Our senses become dulled even great foods.  If you ever leave America and you come back so you're not eating.  You're effectively fasting some of the things you like to eat.  When you come back like after a month and you come back to America and you eat a juicy cheeseburger with green chilly.

It's like, "I've been ruptured.  This is what heaven's going to taste like.  This is the marriage supper kind of the meal."  I remember years ago before I came to New Mexico.  I was in California praying and fasting about coming here.  And I hadn't eaten for a few days and to break my fast, I went to a place called Hadley's.  And they have this incredible shakes.  It's probably not good to have that kind of sugar up breaking your fast, but it was a date shake so I figure it's healthy.

It was a large date shake as big as I could get it.  And I had them before.  But on that day, it was like angels were singing the first five.  Every little bit of date and every ingredient was so loud in my mouth.  So, fasting can heightened that sensitivity and make you very appreciative.  A third benefit of fasting is it helps you understand a little bit better, a concern for the poor.  Those people who don't have an abundance of food and can eat whenever they want to eat.  And that's been an important benefit.

In Isaiah 58, just think about that or write it down for later God says, "What is the fast that I will accept?"  It's not just the time when you afflict your souls he says but it's a time when you remember the poor and the down-trodden and the widow and you think ways to help them out.  Okay, so Jesus is now going to answer their concern.  He's going to do it with three analogies.  They're saying, "How come we're like fasting a lot and you guys don't do it?"  He's going to give them three analogies one from marriage, one from fashion and one from domestic life.  Here's the marriage one.  Verse 15, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast."

Now, I find that an interesting analogy especially because these are the disciples of John the Baptist and this is an analogy that John the Baptist himself used when they asked him who are you and he says, "I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness."  And as John the Baptist speaks about himself now I'm going to quote John Chapter 3.  John the Baptist says, "You, yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ but I have been sent before Him."  He who has the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom John says, "That's me, John the Baptist.  I'm the friend of the bridegroom.  I'm the best man who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.  Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled."

Now, a friend of the bridegroom was the liaison between the bride and the groom and he guy who arrange the marriage itself.  He made all the arrangements.  John the Baptist says, "I am the friend of Jesus the bridegroom and I'm rejoicing that He has come and He is gathering His bride."  Jesus expands that analogy to include His disciples, the friends of the bridegroom.  As long as the friends are with the bridegroom it's a time of joy.

Two thousand years ago, a Jewish wedding did not have a honeymoon but rather in lieu of a honeymoon, the bride and the groom stayed at home in the groom's house for one week and entertained all of their friends.  They would come in and have nice feast together everyday for seven days.  Now, for most people on that culture who are working and work by the sweat of their brow everyday was the happiest week of their lives.  You had to eat everyday, get to hangout everyday with your friends, this is like awesome.  That was the wedding week.  Then they would go back to their work.

So, what Jesus is saying is simple.  This is the time of joy.  The time will come to fast.  He's not opposed to fasting, okay?  In fact, once Jesus does ascend into heaven and the Book of Acts begins, we see how they fasted at Chapter 13 as they prayed and fasted and ministered to the Lord, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate Me, Paul and Barnabas for the work that I've called them to do."

Next chapter, Acts Chapter 14, Paul in Lystra.  He gets stoned -- let me rephrase that.  They stone him.  He gets up off the ground, goes back into the town, preaches again, leaves the town, goes to Derbe and Iconium and Antioch and it says they prayed and they fasted and they appointed elders in every town.  But here's the point, Jesus as the physician has to bring spiritual help.  Jesus as the bridegroom has come to bring spiritual joy.  Be plenty of time for fasting, but my friends are here.  It's the time for rejoicing."  So evidently, these friends of John the Baptist or disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus with this concern after -- probably shortly after they heard about Jesus in the house with Matthew.

Now, we have a question in form of a text question.  We'll throw that up on the screen.  Thank you for the question.  Is food the only thing to fast from?  Well, I suppose not, but from a Biblical perspective when you hear a fasting what is implied is what you put in your mouth because that's what keep the person going throughout the day and throughout the week.  So, a fast was understood as something that you keep from yourself in terms of daily assonance i.e. food, food and water.  There are different forms of fasting.  There's what's called the Daniel Fast where Daniel would only eat vegetables and drink water and not eat the delicacies that were uncouture that would come from the King of Babylon's table.

So, he was eating but he was fasting from the delicacies and the rich foods and being obedient to God keeping a couture dieting and eating only vegetables and some people call that a Daniel Fast.  But I wouldn't impose staying away from certain things as a Biblical fast although -- listen, not a bad practice.  Any kind of discipline that is use for the glory of God to keep yourself away from any kind of temptation --

Listen, if you're to go on a one month television fast, that would be so hard for some of us.  It might have been be even harder than going without food for a period of time.  But I guarantee you it could be wonderful thing.  Imagine it for a month you said every night I'm not going to watch television or those shows.  I'll tee ball them all for a month and get back to them but this month I'll pray with my wife, my friends.  I'm going to read the Bible more.  I wonder.  I just wonder what that might be like at the end.

We got to get back to Matthew 9.  He said, "Skip, I've been back.  You're the one that's digressing."  Okay.  Next analogy after marriage, fashion, Verse 16, "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a tear is made worse."  That's easy to figure out.  You don't take a new piece of cloth and put it on a garment that's an older garment that's already been washed and therefore, it is already the fibers have shrunk.  The cloth hasn't shrunk yet.  So, if you take something that hasn't shrunk and put it on cloth by the time that patch shrinks it's going to tear the clothing that it's been sewn into.

Let's complete the analogy and then we'll tie it all together.  The next one is from domestic life, Verse 17.  "Nor did they put new wine into old wineskin or else the wineskins break and the wine is spilled, but the wineskins are ruined."  But they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.  Wine was stored in animal skins. The skin of an animal was sewn up. It was often poured in at where the neck is, the legs were truncated and sewn up and they were sealed.  And the reason wine was put in the animal skin is because a new animal skin is very elastic.  It stretches.  It moves.  And wine as it sets new wine ferments and as the fermentation process takes place pressure is built up as pressure is built up in the wineskin, the wineskin has to stretch.

Once it stretches, once it ferments, it's stabilized and it can keep like that.  But, once it stretches and loses its elasticity it becomes brittle eventually.  So, if you were to take a wineskin, use it for a period of time and then you say, "You know what, I don't want to spend the extra money on a new wineskin.  I'll just use the old one and pour new one wine into it."  That thing is going to burst open.  There's no more elasticity.  There's no more room for it to give.  So, Jesus is now talking about a system of Judaism.  Here's the Scribes and the Pharisees saying, "Tax collector, sinners and the apostles of John saying, How come you guys don't fast like we fast?"

Evidently, there were people not just the Pharisees, but disciples of John who their description of righteousness were externals and what Jesus is saying is, "Look, let me just tell you something.  I have not come to patch up the old system Judaism or ruin the whole system.  And I have not come to pour the new wine of this New Covenant into the old wineskin of Judaism.  It can contain the new wine.  The wine would be spilled and the system would be ruined.  So, I'm not going to patch the New Covenant under the Old Covenant.  I'm not going to pour something that is new and fresh into something that is old."

He's not primarily referring to the Old Covenant as God wrote it, as much as the Old Testament with all of the added tradition by the Scribes and the Pharisees that weren't biblical.  Rabbinical Judaism had ruined it, and so what Jesus is saying is "No, this really comes from it, but it's a whole new thing."

I'm always mystified by believers who are trying to go back to Judaism.  At first, it's wonderful.  You discover some of the festivals and activities in scriptures and the reasons Sabbath has kept and it's a wonderful thing.  It really is.  But then they almost make it a law.  "It's Sabbath, you can't do anything after the three stars."  Or they almost try -- well not almost, in many cases actually try to compel Christians to become Jewish practicers, Judaizers, so to speak.

You don't need to do that.  If you never keep the Sabbath as a believer, the Jewish Sabbath, Friday and Saturday, and if you never eat kosher as a Gentile person, that's okay.  If you eat a pork sandwich tomorrow, you are not any closer or further away from God.  But there are people who are saying, "Let's go back to the old wineskin and throw the new wine into the skin that it came from, Judaism because that's where it functions best."  No, even the prophets predicted that God would call Israel, but eventually, the promise would be to the entire world to believe.  It would be a world calling.  Gentiles would come to know the Messiah as well.

Now when he spoke these things to them, "Behold a ruler came and worshipped him."  Saying, "My daughter has just died."  But come and lay your hand on her and she will live.  Now you know what this ruler's name is, Jairus.  Mark tells us his name is Jairus.  Luke tells us his daughter was 12 years old.  That's an important fact to know.  A 12-year-old girl, at this point has died.  Now let tell me you Matthew shortens the version.  Matthew or Mark and Luke kind of tell different elements.  What they tell us is that the man comes to Jesus first and says, "My daughter is really sick, almost dead."  And then he gets interrupted and you'll see the interruption.  And then the second time somebody comes and says, "Don't even trouble the master, she's already dead."  So he says again, "My daughter is dead."

Matthew shortens the version just to give us the salient details instead of all the extra details that they give.  But listen to the faith of this ruler of the synagogue.  Now if you know the ruler of the synagogue, he was the most important religious person in the Capernaum.  He supervised all the worship of the synagogue in Capernaum.  He is called in Greek the "Archisunagogos", the chief ruler of the synagogue, Mr. Religion who runs it all in Capernaum.  Notice what he says, "My daughter has just died.  There's no life in my daughter.  She's dead.  But come and lay your hand on her and she will live."  That's a statement of faith, isn't it?  "Jesus, I believe that there's resurrection power in you.  And even though my daughter has already died, you can fix that."

Jesus arose and followed him and so did His disciples and suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for how many years?  Twelve years.  It's an interesting contrast.  The girl is 12 years old who died and the woman has the issue of blood is 12 years sick.  The flow of blood was probably a vaginal hemorrhage which would make her ceremonially unclean.  So for 12 years, and Luke by the way, says, "She spent everything she had on doctors and was none the better."  It's an interesting sight now because Luke was a doctor.

That often is the case.  You spend a lot on doctors and after it's all done, nothing is better.  So here you have a girl, who's been a blessing to her father for 12 years and here you have a woman who has suffered a curse that makes her ceremonially unclean for 12 years.  She interrupts Jesus going to that house of this synagogue ruler, came behind and touched the hem of His garment.  For she said to herself, "If I only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well."  But Jesus turned around and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well."  The woman was made well from that very hour.

Some of the accounts say that Jesus stopped and said, "Who touched me?"  And I'm sure the ruler of the synagogue is thinking, "Who cares?"  I need you now.  What are you stopping for this woman who's unclean?  But Jesus perceived that there was a touch of faith.  Now this woman said something.  "If I touch the hem of His garment probably meant where the Jewish men wore cloaks and on the four corners they had four tassels which would remind of them God's law, probably the tassel of His robe, if I can just touch."  This woman believed evidently that anyone Jesus touches is cured.  So, she thinks, "I bet it's also true that whoever touches Him will also be cured."  That's her thinking.

Now, a lot of people make a big deal out of the touch.  The issue isn't the touch, as much as the release of her faith in Jesus being able to heal her.  You see, touching the garment was simply for her, a point of contact to release her faith.  Do you understand what a point of contact is?  Some people will go, "I just believe, I just really believe that if I make it to church tonight and somebody lays their hand on me, I am going to be healed."  I believe that.  They have set that in their mind as that point of contact.  As soon as I am at that place and as soon as that hand touches me, I am going to be healed.  So when that time comes their faith is released.  It's a trigger to release their faith.  Her faith was released at that moment when she touched the hem of His garment, she said, "Here goes, here goes, here goes.  Ahhhh."  And Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well."  And the woman was made well from that very hour.

When Jesus came to the ruler's house, Jairus' house and saw the flute players and the noisy wailing.  Funerals 2,000 years ago were not somber events where you walk into a mortuary and as soon as you walk in, you hear, they are all been going -- and people coming up to you going, "Hello."  None of that.  People were loud, it was a noisy affair, they were vociferous and it was customary to hire professional mourners who would make a big cry.  So if you're in the vicinity, you hear loud yelling, loud commotion and they would bring musicians in who would play this doleful kind of minor key music but it was loud enough and it set the tone for everybody to make a huge to do.  It was a very noisy -- so he comes home.  And listen to what Jesus says.  He said to them "Make room," like, "Move over, for the girl is not dead but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him.

But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose.  And this report went to all that land.  Now, when Jesus said, "She's not dead, she's asleep."  Understand it's not that like Jesus was not knowledgeable.  This was not a misdiagnosis.  It's not like Jesus said, "She's asleep."  And Peter would go, "No, she's dead."  "I mean she's dead."  It's not like a mistake he made.  When Jesus said she was asleep, He was saying she is asleep just like Jesus said about Lazarus, "Our friend Lazarus is sleeping.  I need to go wake him up".  And the disciples said, "Well, if he is sleeping he'll get better."  And then Jesus said, "Lazarus is dead.  I'm speaking metaphorically guys."

When He says in here He is speaking metaphorically, remember in the book of Acts?  Stephen was pummeled with stones and it says, "He finally fell asleep," that is he died.  In the Old Testament, when people died, it said, "And they slept with their fathers."  It's a metaphor for dying.  Why is it used?  Simply because when a person goes to sleep they wake up.  It's temporary.

When I was a kid, my Mom would say, "It's time for your nap."  I hated it.  I hated it.  I hated naps.

And my first day of kindergarten, I was a cry baby in kindergarten.  I think I cried more in kindergarten in my first day than any girl in my class.  I was the biggest baby in kindergarten.  And what I cried mostly over is nap that I don't want to take a nap.  I just cried like -- oh I was just big baby and I've got ridiculed for it.

When you get older and somebody suggests a nap to you, you see it differently.  It's not punishment.  It's a reward.  It's something you are eager to take.  Yeah I'm all about a nap man.  Just give me a quick little power nap.  I'll be set.  We love them.  We're not afraid of them.  I was afraid of them as a child.  I didn't know if I was going to wake up perhaps.  What Jesus is saying is simply, "You don't need to worry about death anymore than you need to worry about taking a nap.  You'll get up again."

There's a resurrection.  To say somebody is sleeping is to say there's going to be a resurrection.  Now in this case, it was a physical resurrection.  In your case it's going to be a physical resurrection.  I was throwing you off on purpose.  When you die, eventually the body that died will be resurrected in glory.  So, it is proper for a Christian, when a Christian dies to say, "He fell asleep."  The word cemetery means sleeping place.  It's aptly named.  But I guarantee you, every cemetery in the world will one day will be very, very noisy.

As they get up again, Daniel said, "Some to everlasting shame and some to everlasting life."  When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him.  Now stop right there.  How?  Wait, wait, wait.  Two blind men followed him?  Evidently, they were being led or they had a special device or they went by the sound, but they were following Jesus, probably not for long.  And they were crying out the whole time.

So that, that helps explain to us.  Hey wait.  They're crying out and they're saying, "Son of David, have mercy on us."  And when He had come into the house, again this is also interesting.  The blind men came to Him.  So, He's not making it really easy for these blind guys.  He keeps walking.  They're trying to follow Him.  They're going, "Jesus, son of David."  Now, when they said son of David, that's a Messianic term.  This is the first time in the Gospel of Matthew that someone else besides Matthew calls him the son of David.

Matthew called him that in Chapter 1 Verse 1.  Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the genealogical records are given.  But now, these blind men somehow believed Jesus is the promised Messiah, all the promises God gave to David are fulfilled in this man.  And one of the predictions of the Messiah according to Isaiah 29, Isaiah 35, and Isaiah 42, is that when the Messiah comes, He will open the eyes of the blind.  It is stated that specifically.  If they believed this is the Messiah, the son of David then they're expecting a miracle.

Son of David have mercy on us.  So, He had come into the house and the blind men said -- they came to Him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"  And they said, "Yes Lord."  And then He touched their eyes saying, "According to your faith, let it be to you."  And their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them saying, "See that no one knows it."  Okay quickly.  Blindness was common in those days.  It was not unusual to see that lots of blind people especially who were beggars.  Why?

High poverty, unsanitary conditions, blazing sun, no sunglasses 2000 years ago, unfiltered sun, bright sun, blowing dust, all of those added to blindness.  So it was common.  There was another form of blindness quite common known in the medical community as ophthalmia neonatorum.  Ophthalmia neonatorum is congenital blindness.  Really it's a gonorrhea of the eyes.  It's a bacterium carried in the birth canal of the mother, so that when the baby is born, upon birth some of the mucus in the vaginal canal gets into the eyelids, the conjunctiva, the mucus membranes of the eye, so it's contracted by the baby.  Within three days, there's pus running out of the baby's eyes and a couple of weeks the baby is blind.

So, the baby is born because of birth, because she is carried in her womb, that bacteria, the baby is blind.  That was very, very common.  We don't know why, but these men were blind.  It was a very difficult life.  They were typically reduced to being beggars and now, watch.   Again, go back to that where it says, "Jesus goes into the house."  Why?  Why didn't Jesus, outside in the street, in public, where they are to say, "Bring him to me or walk to them.  Make it easy for the poor blind guy."

Why did Jesus heal inside and not outside?  A couple of reasons.  The crowds were all already getting difficult.  Just for crowd control, Jesus would often tell people, "Don't tell anybody what has happened."  They've already tried to take Jesus by force and make Him a king at one point.  So he's trying to reduce crowd control.  Number two and this is key.  I believe the reason up here is He is trying to draw out the expression of their faith.  Now you'll notice not just here but in so many, and really in this chapter, all of the incidences of physical healing, Jesus makes persistence a prerequisite.

The guy that was paralyzed, his four friends had to make a hole in the roof and let their friend down.  That was not easy to do.  That took persistence.  The woman had to press through the crowd.  I'm going to touch the hem of His garment.  But other gospel account say, "The crowd was thick but she had to make her way through."  It's difficult, but she had to persist.  Jairus had asked once and then the other gospel records again and Jesus came.  So, persistence is required.  Jesus always likes to involve a person by drawing out faith, isolating them in the house, he asked them the question, "Do you believe that I'm able to do this?"  And the affirmation, "Yes Lord, according to your faith let it be done to you."

But when they had departed, they spread the news about him in all that country now.  Jesus said, "Don't tell anybody."  What's the first thing they did?  Told everybody.  You can't blame them.  Okay, you can preach the sermon on how they were obedient to Christ.  I think if I was blind, it will be very difficult for me to not tell everybody.  First of all, they're going to find out.  When those blind men open their eyes, what's the first thing they saw?  Jesus.

Yes they were able to see the streets of Capernaum and the lake of Galilee.  They just heard the waves lapping, but now they can see it but the first thing they could see was Jesus.  What a treat.  Some of you, who are musically inclined in church music, heard of the hymn writer Frances Jane Crosby, also known by the nickname Fanny Crosby.  She wrote a lot of hymns including Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine, Oh What A Foretaste Of Glory Divine.  She became blind six weeks after birth.  She grew up, loved the Lord, used her gifts to write hymns.

A friend said to her one day, "Ms. Crosby, it's a pity that God didn't give your sight, when so he gave you so many other wonderful gifts."  Fanny Crosby smiled and she said, "If I upon birth could've had one request of the Lord, is that I would've been born blind."  Her friend said, "Why?"  And Fanny smiled and said, "Because the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my savior."  I haven't been spoiled by all the other things that could steal my attention.  The first thing I'm ever going to see is the face of Jesus.  "Son of David have mercy on us."  Their eyes were open.  They were looking at their Messiah, the prophesied one who would come and open the eyes of the blind and it just happened.

We began with a meal in Matthew's house, Matthew dining with Jesus.  Tonight we close the study with a meal.  You have that with you.  Why don't you grab that now?  I should say, take that now.  We've made it easy by passing the mouth in advanced.  They're conveniently packaged so that you have a wafer, the bread representing the broken body of Christ, underneath the juice, the fruit of the vine representing the blood of Christ.

Matthew dined with Jesus.  Tonight, we dine with Jesus, but not upon the prototype He's given in Matthew's house, but the prototype given at the last supper where Jesus said, "Do this and eat this often in remembrance of Me."  In remembrance of the sacrifice that He was about to undertake for us, His body broken and His bloodshed on the cross.

At the beginning of our study, we know that that text in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone will hear my voice and will open up that door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me.  I'll come in and have intimate close relational fellowship with that person if he'll invite me in."  That's a picture of your heart, Jesus knocking at the door of your heart.

Quick question before we take the Lord's Supper together.  Is Jesus Christ merely on your lips, or is He living in your heart?  Have you taken His name to speak it, but Jesus Himself has not come in as your saviour.  Maybe you've come close like the disciple of John the Baptist, but you're not following Jesus.

Before we take the Lord's Supper, we want to say, if that describes you, if you're not truly a follower of Christ and you know who you are, if it's real, if it's in your life, if it's in your heart, if you've given Christ your life.  Or if you've just gone through the motions and it's not really a reality, if that's the case, then please don't take this meal with us.  It's simply bespeaks condemnation to you, not salvation.  If you know Christ, no matter what you've done, or how you have fallen or how much you fail, you take it like those blind men, "Son of David, have mercy on me."  It speaks salvation, not condemnation.

But, we always at communion want to suggest the other possibility.  If Jesus isn't your saviour yet, that He become your saviour now, tonight, in this place, at this moment.  It could be simple.  You invite Him in.  You open the door of your heart.

For some of you, He's been knocking since you were a child and when you were a child, there was a loud knock, you heard it distinctly, but as you grew older into teenagers, it was still there, but you've gotten pretty good at pushing the voice away.  Then there was a crisis that happened in your life and you heard His voice again, but then once the crisis has left, it's like, "Whatever, I'll do what I want to do."  Maybe that voice, however, faint it is tonight, you can hear Him calling and you hear the knocking, then you have an opportunity.

Before we take the Lord's Supper, would you just bow your heads with me for a moment?  Father, we come before You and I pray, we pray for those who are in the family room tonight, but they're not part of Your family yet.  They've never said yes to Jesus.  It's never been personalized.  I pray that at this moment, it would be -- this is only going to take a moment, but if you're here tonight and you haven't surrendered your life to Christ yet, or if you've walked away from Jesus and you want to come back to Him.

It's been a series of steps of disobedience or perhaps, simply you have had an understanding or religious acknowledgement, but it's never been a reality of accepting Christ.  If you're willing to do that tonight, as our heads are bowed, I just want you to raise your hand up in the air, just so I can acknowledge your hand.  That's it.  I'm going to acknowledge and pray for you as we take the Lord's Supper.  You're saying, "Tonight, I'm going to give Him my heart.  I'm going to surrender my life to Him." Or bless you, right in the middle.  I see your hand in the middle, a couple of you, toward the back.  Slip that hand up as a testimony to your faith right now, to my right, on the edge of the auditorium.

Father, for those hands that are around the auditorium, for those people, for those men and women, those hearts, those lives, we pray just now.  We pray that Jesus would come in and occupy the throne, control central, calling the shots from tonight onward.  If you raised your hand and just say a prayer to the Lord right now, say these words to Him from your heart, say, "Lord, I admit I'm a sinner.  Forgive me.  I turn from my sin and I turn to you as my saviour.  I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for me and I surrender my life to Him as my saviour and my Lord."

Now, you take these elements with us, but after this service, identify yourself to one of our pastors, so we can spend a moment with you and give you some material in the Bible.

Father, we thank you for this bread that represents the body of Christ and we take it in obedience and thanksgiving for us, in Jesus' name, Amen.  Let's take it.