Well, let me start today by saying … ‘Happy Easter!’ Today, in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, we’re beginning a new series which will basically explain—perhaps in ways you’ve never thought of before—why Jesus came and did what he did for us. And what we’re going to discover together today and for the next several weeks is … it’s all about relationship!

Are you familiar with the old game called ‘Simon Says’? You know, you’ve got one person who is the caller and says ‘Simon says … whatever.’ And when that happens, you’re supposed to do what the caller says. If they just say to do something—without the ‘Simon says’ part, you’re not supposed to do that. But, again, when the caller says ‘Simon says … whatever.’ You’re supposed to do what Simon says. You know the game…

Well, for me—and maybe because I grew up as a P.K. (Pastor’s Kid), this whole Christianity thing to me seemed to be one big game of ‘Jesus says…’. Do you know what I mean?

• Jesus says … pray!
• Jesus says … don’t look over there!
• Jesus says … now, be nice (or was that Mom?)!
• Jesus says … get up early and read your Bible!

Now, do you know what I mean? And the frustrating thing to me is that some people were so good at that game. They could stay in the game forever—for a lifetime. But, I kept having to sit down. I wasn’t very good at, especially as a teenager…

I would meet people who had never played ‘Jesus says…’ and I would think to myself: Now, that person really needs to play! And as I tried my best to play ‘Jesus says…’, I got kind of judgmental of others who weren’t playing the game. But, the reality was … I wasn’t very good at it myself. I couldn’t even imagine inviting others to play…

Folks, it’s very easy to lose sight of the relational nature of Christianity—that the driving force behind the Christian faith is not a list of regulations, but rather a relationship with the One who allowed himself to be arrested, was beaten, died on a cross, and then—miraculously—rose again for you and me.

If we begin pursuing a list of things to do—and we don’t DO too well, we lose our joy, our victory over temptation, and general balance in life. It would be like pursuing the rules and principles of marriage … rather than the person you’re married to. In other words, we could play the game and do really good at keeping all those marriage rules, but what kind of relationship would we have? You could be keeping all the rules, but have no real relationship. So, how enjoyable would that be? And how long would that charade be able to go on? That’s why so many have bailed out of this Christianity thing after high school … or college … or a few years of marriage. Playing ‘Jesus says…’ will absolutely wear you out. But the irony is this…

The reason Jesus came … was to lay the groundwork for a new kind of relationship with God. Jesus came to change the spiritual paradigm—how we think about God, how we relate to him, how we imagine him, how we approach him, which brings me to this… Jesus gave us several word pictures to help us think correctly about spiritual reality—our life with God…

• Father/Child – Jesus said he came to explain the Father. Who’s that? That’s God, so we can call God ‘Father’, as in ‘Our Father, who art in heaven…’. That’s pretty relational, isn’t it? And God is not a reflection of your father or my father; God is the perfection of ‘Father’. So, father/child; how relational is that?
• Vine/Branches – Jesus said ‘I am the Vine and you are the branches’. Okay, the vine doesn’t say to the branch ‘Do this and do that’; the vine gives life to the branch and when you learn to abide in me, things will happen; you’ll change and you’ll grow. ‘Very relational…
• Shepherd/Sheep – For us, this may be a bad illustration, because we don’t understand this relationship in our day and age, but we can learn … can’t we? In Jesus’ day, shepherds cared for their sheep, and the sheep knew the shepherd’s voice and followed; they were in a relationship with their shepherd…

So, what Jesus was actually teaching was intensely relational! And this whole ‘Jesus says…’ thing is just not right. Yes, once we get into a relationship with Jesus, we need to have some disciplines in our lives (i.e. prayer, worship, etc.) that will help keep our relationship healthy, BUT … the relationship is what has to come first!

So then, how do you have a relationship with an invisible God? We’re going to talk about that in this series over the next several weeks … but throughout the Gospels, the word that Jesus came back to over and over and over again was … FOLLOW, which brings us to #2 today, which is…

Jesus invited Matthew. And here, we find Matthew talking about himself (Matthew 9:9, NIV)…

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth…

Jewish tax collectors were the undisputed scum of the earth! Now, if you’re not familiar with NT Jewish tax collectors, I’m just going to say this: About the only category I could use to compare what Matthew was doing for a living with today … would be that 22-year old kid who hangs out behind the local gas station and sells drugs to middle-schoolers when they come over there to buy candy. When you think about someone like that, you probably think they’re absolutely disgusting! And that’s exactly what upstanding Jews of Jesus day would have thought about a tax collector. They worked for the Roman government—an extension of those oppressors; they were traitors to their own people…

And this is who Matthew was the day Jesus found him… And there are several things Jesus could have said to Matthew that day, things like: “How could you?” or “You should be ashamed of yourself!” or “I’ll pray for you” or “You call yourself a son of Abraham?” But he didn’t. Listen to what he said (v. 9)…

“Follow me,” he told him…

Jesus, folks, was a Rabbi. So this invitation was very significant. This was more than a casual ‘Can you take a break from your work?’ kind of thing. This was an invitation to become part of his group of followers, his disciples … and here’s what happened (v.9)…

…and Matthew got up and followed him.

So if you’re Peter or Andrew or James or John, already following Jesus, you’re going to be going like ‘Wait, wait, wait … it can’t be that simple.’ You just can’t say ‘follow me’ and a tax collector becomes part of your group. But this is what Jesus didn’t say (what someone like me who grew up playing ‘Jesus says…’ would have expected): He didn’t say ‘Now Matthew, if you’re willing to fill in the blank, you can follow me.’ Or ‘If you’re willing to stop, you can follow me.’ Or ‘Do this and I’ll check back with you in a couple weeks to see how you’re doing and then we’ll see.’ It wasn’t conditional, was it? Jesus simply said, ‘Follow me.’ And Matthew took a ‘baby step’ that changed his life forever…

And this, folks, was Jesus invitation throughout the Gospels—just like this. Jesus was quick to invite everyone—regardless of gender, regardless of age or experience, regardless of lifestyle, both the righteous and the unrighteous—this invitation being the most accurate picture of what the spiritual life is all about. The Christian Life is a life of following Jesus—no matter how old or young you are physically or spiritually, this is the clear picture. The issue is not what you know, how long you’ve been a Christian, or how often you attend church—in some respects; the question you need to ask yourself is this: Am I following … currently … and actively? And you gotta know…

This didn’t sit well with the religious community. To them (as it probably does to many of us today), it seemed like the cart was getting just a little ahead of the horse! And if this seems too simple to us today, it seemed too simple for the religious people in Jesus’ day too! In fact, the story continues and Matthew gives us a really interesting detail, because in the next scene here’s what Matthew says happened (Matthew 9:10, NIV)…

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house…

Now, wait just a minute! We’re at a tax collectors booth one moment … and the next moment we’re at his house? If Peter and the other disciples had a problem with Matthew just walking around with them, think about this! We’re going to his house? Are you kidding me? We’ll get ‘tax collector cooties’ or something… It’s bad enough that he’s with us, but now we have to go to his house! (‘Remember Zacchaeus?) Next…

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners”…

Did you notice this? The tax collectors have their own category; they’re not even with the sinners. It’s tax collectors and ‘sinners’ in this part of the story. That’s how bad they were… Let’s go on…

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.

You’ve got to notice this here. Because if you’re one who’s ever had an aversion to Jesus or the Church or to Christianity, I want to show you how it’s supposed to be. Jesus, folks, was extraordinarily comfortable with people who weren’t like him and apparently … if you read all the Gospels … you’ll find that people who were nothing like Jesus … were very comfortable with him! Have you ever met somebody like that? This is a really big deal and I’ll come back to that, but first let me go here: At this point in the story, Jesus is now being shadowed (Matthew 9:11, NIV)…

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

We’re confused. He’s a Rabbi. He’s a holy man; we’re holy people. He’s a law keeper; we’re all good law keepers. You know he worships God; we worship God. Why is it that we have a lot in common, but he didn’t invite us? Why would he choose people he’s nothing like to have dinner with—to spend his precious time with? And Jesus overhears them and says (Matthew 9:12, NIV)…

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Well, first off, Jesus just insulted his dinner host. But I don’t think Matthew would have argued with him… It reminds me of my Great Uncle Fred, when my father had just started preaching as a teenager and came to hear Dad … and kept coming back to hear him. Fred wasn’t a church-person. So, my dad asked him, “Uncle Fred, why is that you don’t go to church … but you’ll come to hear me preach?” And his answer? “I come to hear you because you don’t tell me how bad I am. I already know how bad I am. You tell me how good I can be … with Christ!” And Jesus was all over that, too! And then he insulted those who stood outside criticizing him when he said (Matthew 9:13, NIV)…

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus just told the most formally educated people in the land … to go and learn something about God. What an insult! He just wasn’t done offending, was he … because he’s Jesus and that’s what he does … when necessary. “For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Folks, here’s what I want you to take home with you:

Four Things we learn about Jesus’ invitation to follow:

• Being a sinner doesn’t disqualify you; it’s a prerequisite. So many people have told me ‘God cannot possibly forgive me for what I’ve done’, but my answer to them is ‘You just don’t know how big my God is!’ Jesus didn’t die on the cross for ‘goody two shoes’; Jesus died on the cross for sinners just like you and me…
• Being an unbeliever doesn’t disqualify you; none of Jesus’ earlier followers believed… Most of them didn’t really believe in Jesus until after the resurrection—that first Easter morning … and Thomas (what was his nickname?) was a good example…
• The invitation to follow is an invitation to relationship—not something weird! It’s just about relationship, but a particular one. Exposure to the person of Christ is what initiates change … and maybe the Christ in us! Paul said in Romans 2:4 (NLT): “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” I think Paul was on to something here… And finally…
• Following forces me to focus on where I am, rather than where I am not. The more aware I am of how much God still has to do in my life, the less critical I am of what God still has to do in other people’s lives … and that’s the best kind of Christian!

Folks, at the end of the day, the question is not, “How far along are you in the journey?” But rather, “Are you following … right now?” Matthew had no idea all Jesus had in store for him—no idea that he’d write a best seller one day, no idea that 2,000+ years later, people would be talking about him. You have no idea what God has in store for you either, but you sure don’t want to miss it … do you? So let’s all do this, shall we? Begin tomorrow morning with this prayer: “Lord, where you lead, I will follow.” And next week, we’ll continue with ‘Next Steps’…