Alright. Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 9. I had mentioned this morning that we were going to take some time and really not look at every verse. But to take the section of verses, now that we've done verses 1 through 9, the last time we met and studied Matthew 9, we're going to look at what I'm seeing in this text are the different people Jesus spoke to and how Matthew puts it together in a way that, again, summarizes his overall theme. And his overall theme is the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, is the King of the Jews, the Jews' Messiah. And the Jews' Messiah, as is explained in the Old Testament, is God. Now, we know that Jesus is God because God's given us that understanding. We understand what His Word teaches. Jesus is God. He's the Son of God. He's the Creator. He's the Savior, etc., etc. But for the Jewish community, they're seeing Jesus as an interrupter. They're seeing him as an enigma. They're viewing him as someone who is kind of clashing with their overall sense of peace in the community. And yet he's zeroing in on people. He's not interested in building buildings. He's not interested in dragging people. He's interested in interacting with people where they are. Keep that in mind as we begin reading in verse number 10 of Matthew chapter 9. 9 in verse 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meet in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners, tax collectors and transgressors of God's law, came and sat down with him and his disciples. We call that in the biblical vernacular, as they were having fellowship together. Jesus wasn't hanging out with them. They were hanging out with Jesus. There's a difference there. Jesus was not entering into a compromising situation. He was there for one purpose, and that was whoever was wanting to come and sit down and talk, He was willing to come and sit with them and talk to them. not about how their bank account was going, not how the business of being a tax collector was going. He wasn't interested in all the lists of sins that sinners were committing. He was there for one purpose, and we're gonna see how this unfolds here. Verse 11, and when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? Now we would say, what's the problem with that, Mr. Pharisee? Well, the problem is we don't identify with publicans and sinners. That's what they would say. We are the example. He's not following our example. Now look at verse number 12. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. but go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The approach of Jesus to the areas in which he was seeking to minister is not a carbon copy of the previous engagements that we've seen Jesus had from chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9. Again, be reminded that the Sermon on the Mount was chapters 5 through 7. Then we get a little bit of an interlude from the sermon and how he's dealing with people after the Sermon on the Mount in the beginning of chapter 8. Here is a different approach with a different group of people that are being highlighted. It isn't to mean that Jesus didn't interact with publicans and sinners previously. It's that this is another page turn of information of how Jesus, in his walk, was exposing God's Word to people, and some of them thought they were okay. The majority of them were not thinking the way a Pharisee thought. They were thinking the way a sick person would think. I need help. Sinners would say they need help. They would identify their adultery, their thievery, their lying. The publicans knew what they were doing. The only way that they would get them, the average publican would charge more to be able to put something in his pocket because he was working for Rome, and Rome wanted everything. And so they were kind of tilting the scales a little bit in their favor, thinking that it was justified. And we would call that just pure and simple thievery. So they too are sinners. But they're looked at as the scum of the earth, as far as the Jewish mindset was concerned. There are some things that look the same in chapter 9 that we've seen in chapter 8. There are other interactions that are completely different, and this would be one of them. However, one thing remains true. Jesus seeks to engage sinners in his earthly ministry, and he did that all the way to the cross. He did that even after the cross. He's not seeking to bring them into the synagogue. but to meet them where they are with their everyday needs, which he understands are avenues, pathways, doors to addressing their eternal need. Have you recognized that? In your walk with the Lord, you may have talked with someone repeatedly about the Lord, trying to encourage them from a biblical perspective. Maybe you've tried to invite them to church and they just are not budging. And then a crisis happens. All of a sudden, there's a little tenderness there. They may fight to acknowledge that, but it's there. Someone who's down on what the world would say they're down on their luck, and all of a sudden, After weeks and months and perhaps years of your witnessing and inviting and being kind to them and giving them cookies at Christmas or whatever the case is, all of a sudden they're willing to tell you over the fence or on the way to the post box that they lost their job. And you said you were praying for them. And so they're going to take you up if you're still praying for me, add this to your list. There's a sense of tenderness in the midst of their emergency because it's urgent to them. Jesus is dealing similarly. Why did these publicans gather with Jesus? Why are these generalized sinners gathering with Jesus? Perhaps they had an emergency. Perhaps there was a crisis going on in their lives. And many times God uses those challenges in our unsaved friends' lives to give us another opportunity to share the love of Christ and His salvation to them. As we are to see Jesus presented as the Messiah of the Jews, Matthew is recording for us here a model of how to focus our life in making connections with people. You may not be able to talk to the person while they're looking on the shelf at a grocery store. You may not even have a lot of time with the lady or the gentleman cashing out your groceries. But you see somebody struggling in the parking lot. You find somebody who's dropped a bag or somebody who's fumbling with their cane while they're trying to push their cart. That is an interjection opportunity to expose people to Christ. You don't have to hop in their cart and stand up and preach a sermon. But when most of them say thank you, just say, God's good. I saw you were struggling. I care. I struggled in my life spiritually. God cared and helped me. Would you like to know? We have something to give them. In our society today, sitting around the same table with the IRS and mass murderers doesn't seem to be feasible or even possible. But all humans are sinners, regardless of their occupation. When I mention neighbor, is there a person's face or name that comes to you? A coworker? How about the word relative? It could be a brother, a sister, it could be a mom or a dad, it could be an uncle, a grandparent. How about fellow church attendee? Just because people come in to church, you know this, just because people come into church doesn't mean that they're saved. More than likely, it could mean that they're seeking, they're searching. I've mentioned this to you before. The greatest witnessing opportunity we have is in that room right there, the foyer. We engage people. We can ask people. Rather than just leaving it with, thank you for coming, or it was good to see you, how did the message speak to your heart? You mean you would ask that? Where better to ask the question? In the place where you just heard the message. And Jesus would do that because He's not looking to make friends. He's looking to share truth so that they come to know that there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. How about when I say the word stranger? Does a face from this past week that you saw but didn't speak to come to mind? Maybe it is that cashier. Maybe it was that struggling customer trying to make their way through the parking lot to their vehicle. What do you think about when it comes to getting to the point of the gospel? Is it just sharing it? Well, that's the start. But the point of the gospel is, do you believe? Will you believe? Will you trust? Now again, when we look at our text, this isn't Jesus putting out a sign on the street corner and saying, come have a free meal with me. It's not Jesus in a church parking lot saying he's having a rummage sale, trying to bring people to church. It's Jesus engaging people. Hey, listen, no, I'm not, I'm using a little bit of the Austin imagination here. I don't believe it's going to lead us into a heretical point down the road. But Jesus had been talking to these people. Listen, why don't you have lunch? Let's get together for lunch. Let's get together for a meal. Let's go over to so-and-so's house. You know where so-and-so lives, don't you? It wasn't Jesus' home, we know that. He didn't have a home. He used someone else's. Whether it was Peter, Peter's mother-in-law's house, whether it was another disciple's home, whatever the case may be, Jesus saw this as an opportunity. I want us to look quickly, and this will be about all we have time for, Unless you want to go to midnight. I didn't hear any groans, but I'm not going to take that as permission. We see the engagement. That's the first thing. Jesus is exposing himself, if you will, to exchange with people. And there's an engagement that takes place in each one of these sections. Verses 10 through 13, we've already seen publicans and sinners. Verses 14 through 17, We see the Pharisees. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast oft or often, but thy disciples fast not? We have the religious. They're interacting with Jesus and his disciples. They're interacting with the ministry of Jesus, if you will. And Jesus said to them, can the children Of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent, or the tear, is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. Now that's somewhat of a parable that Jesus is giving, an illustration, an analogy, a metaphor for new life and new people. Not people who are stuck in doing things their own way and trying to put new into their life. You've got to have a transformational change. But the question, the engagement here, is with the religious. the disciples of John. Now, they're not bad people. They would be believers, but they're seekers. They're saying, hey, I thought fasting was a part of this life. I mean, even the Pharisees fast. Why don't yours? Well, because fasting is for those that are in mourning. And right now, the bridegroom and the bride are together. It's a time of rejoicing. It's not a time for fasting. It's a time for celebration. It's a time for enjoyment. But again, he's engaging with the religious. Then verses 18 through 26, we have an example here of the physically distressed and the emotionally drained. Verse 18, While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples. And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years," here's another person, came behind him and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about. And when he saw her, he said, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour when Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the minstrels. In other words, these were hired people who would play their flutes for a funeral. Somebody just died. You had professional hired mourners who were collecting their tears to be paid for their mourning exercise. Not their M-O-R-N-I-N-G-S, but their M-O-U-R-N-I-G-S. Their mourning. Their weeping. I remember the first time I heard that explanation and I thought to myself, how odd. At the time that I heard this, I was in high school, and my Bible teacher was teaching, and I had only been to one funeral in my life up to that point. And there was a lot of mourning going on, weeping, loud moaning. Then I thought, Here they come in, they do their thing, they walk out, and they're doing a high five and counting how much money they made. It was just the oddest thing to me. But that's what happened in biblical times. Jesus is engaging with these folks, and they are now engaging with them. Here we have the distressed, physically distressed, and the emotionally drained. He's interacting with people who are at the end of their proverbial rope. They have nothing else to lean on. They have nowhere else to go. They didn't have the doctors that we have today. They don't have the pharmaceuticals that we have today. So there wasn't this doctor signing off on something and sending you to this doctor who after six months will sign off and send you to that doctor. These people were ailing physically to the point of the one who had died. He's engaging with them. Then in verses 27 through 31, And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying out loud, saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. You talk about a messianic statement. They're talking as Hebrews, addressing Jesus in his Old Testament title, and in essence saying, Messiah, thou son of David. Verse 28, And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that no man know it." I don't think Jesus was trying to present a pun there. Blind man, able to see, and then says, see that you tell no one of this. But they could not help themselves. They went out and declared it wherever they went. And I know the question is, why would Jesus tell them not to say anything? Because it wasn't his hour yet to be arrested and crucified. It's not time to spread the news yet. It was time to spread the good news, gospel message, but not time to spread the fact that Jesus just healed them as blind men, now able to see like immediate, no glasses, contacts, no surgery, He simply said this, do you believe that I can do this? And they said, yes, we believe. And that was it. It wasn't the placing of his hands on his eyes. The result of their seeing was God's will in working for them their sight back. So Jesus connects with those who are blind and dependent. There is a spiritual lesson in this example here. We are all blind. And when we're confronted with the gospel, and we're confronted with the light of the glorious gospel, as Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians, he's declaring to us as blind people, do you believe that I can bring light into your dark life? Do you believe that I can deliver you from your sin and forgive you of all the awful sins that you have committed in the past and thought of in the past and participated in the past? And even the ones that will be forthcoming after we're done? Yes, we believe that. Our eyes can see. We're now understanding. And little by little, and day by day, we understand more. It's a picture of our spiritual blindness and our sense of dependence. People in the world think the opposite. We're fine, we're good, I'm okay, I've got this. Me and the government can do it all by ourselves. And the sad reality is, They really are dependent. They're not independent. What if God took that job? What if God took their health? Now they are dependent. Each of these scenarios with each of these groups of people is Jesus engaging with people. And it's not all the same story. It's not all the same connection. It's not all equal in the sense that they don't all come from the same background. But it's the same person interacting with them. This is the opportunity that we have every day. Some of us have it more than others. People. People who are well off in the world. People who are very worldly. People who are sick physically, sick neurologically, you have people who are religious. Noah gave an example of the witch in jail. That's a religious person. The agnostic is a religious person. The atheist is a religious person. To the person who says they have no religion, they're religious. They worship themselves. They're a humanist. We have those people around us all the time. We have those who are going through physical distress. You may have a neighbor across the street, down the road, behind you, in front of you, maybe even living with you that's an unbeliever. You have those who are emotionally just drained. They've had all kinds of circumstances around them that they're connected to that they're just worn out. And then, of course, the blind, the dependent, the people who are looking for someone to lean on And then we come down to verses 32 through 35. And with this, I'll have to stop. Says, as they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. He was mute. He couldn't speak. He was demon possessed. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake and the multitudes marveled, saying it was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said he cast out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people. We have the disturbed and the possessed. I think this chapter pretty much covers every general category that we could come up with of the types of people. Jesus interacted with everyone. We're not told that every person who crossed paths with Jesus believed. But we are told and taught in Scripture that every person that Jesus crossed paths with, He did share. He may not have preached a sermon on the mouth to them, but He did address them as one concerned about their eternal need. That's the engagement part of the chapter. What we'll get to next time, Lord willing, is after he engages them, we're gonna see that there's an examination time in each one of those situations, where he goes a little further, he probes a little deeper, he asks a question or two along the way, or he makes a statement. That's part of his examination time. questions are a great first place in getting the gospel going in your conversations. What are you depending on? What brings you happiness? What are you going to do in that situation? What are you thinking needs to be done to solve your problem? You listen to those answers and you will get a wide open door You don't have to shuffle tracks at them like playing cards. You just have to be burdened, prayerful, prepared to share a verse, your testimony of the goodness and the greatness of God's redeeming love. That's what this chapter is about. And then the exchanges that happen in several of these, and then is it any wonder that he ends with verses 37 and 38, he said unto his disciples after they've walked with him through all of these personal connections, and says, the harvest truly is plentiful. There's more of these out there. But the laborers are few. Pray there for the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into the harvest. Where's the harvest? In our backyard, in our front yard, across the street, even in the foyer. Could be in the car as you drive with another person who needs to hear the gospel. These are exchange opportunities to engage people with the gospel, and we can use questions to bring examination, get them thinking on a spiritual level, on a biblical level, on a God-oriented level. Well, how's that gonna help you in five years? How's that gonna help you when your life is done? My Bible teaches that if by good health and strength and the will of the Lord, I'll live to be 70. Not everybody's guaranteed for 70. And if by strength, 80. Not everybody's guaranteed 80. But everybody has today. Asking questions, but making biblical comment as we go along the way. I want to leave you with this. Ask God to burden your heart for others, but at the same time pray for laborers. I want to warn you, when you pray for laborers to enter into the harvest field, that doesn't mean that God's calling you into full-time ministry. It may for some, and if he does, you need to heed and obey. But it will mean God gives you people. He will give you people. It's not going to be easy. They're not going to be overly excited. Oh, I've just been waiting for you. But there are some who are like that. We are burdened for souls. Are we as burdened to pray for those opportunities? As we go out the door in just a few moments, we are entering into the harvest field. God, I'm praying for laborers, and I want you to use me. I don't speak well, I don't know your word very well, but I want to know it better, so help me this week as I read it, that I'll take something that I can use to share with someone else. God's delighted to answer those prayers. There are an abundance of people. We just have to see them, to see that the fields are white. They're ready to be harvested. There are people who are yearning to know truth. Let's pray. Let's participate. Let's plan. Let's get ready to present the good news of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our sweet time here tonight. Thank you for this text. What a challenge it's been to my heart this week. What a longing it has brought into my own soul. we can get caught up in the fact that there's little to few laborers. Lord, that's in your hands. What we are capable of is participating in the laboring in that harvest field. Renew. Our commitment to sharing the good news to engaging people as people Not looking to bait a hook, but simply throwing our lives into that harvest field like a fisherman of old, throwing the net off the side of the boat and pulling it in and see what you will bring to us. Give us wisdom. Give us the words from your word. Help us to be dependent on the help and the leading of your spirit. Work in the hearts and minds just right now of those who are about to be spoken to this week by this group here tonight. May we come back to share. of how great and wonderful you were to bring about fruit of this labor as we seek to engage with those who are busy in life, but they are empty spiritually for they are without God. Help us, we pray.