Let's Meet the King, Part 3

With political tension rising around the world and our culture spinning out of control, sometimes it begins to feel like God has stepped away. The question looms, is God truly in control?

Does He really know what's happening or even care? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that the King is on His throne. That's not conjecture. Chuck's conviction comes from the Gospel according to Matthew, the New Testament writer who introduces us to the Son of the Living God. Chuck title today's message, Let's Meet the King. We're all sinners, sorry sinners who don't deserve the breath that's in our lungs. And along came Christ who said to us, I want you to follow me. Go back a chapter to Matthew 9.

I love thoughts like this. Matthew 9, as Jesus, verse 9, is walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. By the way, it's the last place that you ever want to go.

That was a strong right-winger. Stay away from those crooks. Stay away from those people. They want your money.

By the way, it's a good time for me to add this before I go any further. Matthew, being a tax collector, it took the life of Jesus to change him. They were as much hated as social pariahs. The Jews classed them with murderers. They weren't even welcome in the synagogue. To make matters worse, Matthew worked under the employ of Herod Antipas, who in turn had to make massive block tax disbursements to the swine of Rome.

It was a very lucrative place in which to work. This is the man who has changed from his disreputable profession to become a follower of Jesus. Now, all of that is a background. I want you to get the picture of Levi before Christ got a hold of him. This is not the first time he hears of or meets Christ. I think there have been weeks that have passed where he's followed from a distance and maybe even believed in his heart that this is Messiah. He doesn't quite know what to do with all of this.

Now, look closely. Jesus comes along. He sees Matthew sitting in the collector's booth, and rather than walking away as all the other freedom fighters would have done, he walks in and says, follow me and be my disciple.

Matthew got up and followed him. Think about it. Cheat though he was, he was rich. He has mated money on the hide of fellow Jews. Hated? Why would he want to be numbered among those who were going to follow Jesus?

They're filled with people who are going to hate people like him. It was the power of Christ that drew him. Read on. I love this part. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home.

I'm sure it was a big place, really big place. He invited them to be his dinner guests along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. Now, that doesn't mean much to you because we don't have tax collectors today. Well, we do.

Well, we call them by other names. But let's say you have a party and you bring in a bunch of your friends from the IRS and you bring your buddies along with those with whom you once worked. We're all together at one table. Isn't that going to be fun? I could just imagine how some of you would respond to that.

I'm sure you'd be very gracious. But we read, verse 11, when the Pharisees saw this, saw what? This whole group sitting together for dinner. Disreputable sinners, tax collectors, people that are hated as well as those disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with such scum?

These are Pharisees looking in from the outside. They wouldn't dare go in there and get their garments soiled by this sorry bunch of sinners sitting around the table. Now, look at Jesus' response. He said, healthy people don't need a doctor.

Sick people do. Then he added, now you go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. They're all busy doing all their sacrifices, all their feasts, all their customs.

Don't go that route. Go and show mercy, for I've come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners. By the way, do you know that about yourself?

Honestly, there are some so smug and snobbish they'd consider that an insulting question. If you are born without Christ as you are, and if you're living your life without God, you have no righteousness. Oh, you have status. Oh, you may have all the stuff that money can buy, but you're a sinner. Not until you acknowledge that and see yourself as that, will you ever come anywhere near the ranks of those who are followers of Christ. No one comes to Jesus who doesn't first see herself or himself as a sinner.

Because when you see yourself in that light, you have no trouble believing in one who can save you from your plight. Because the tragedy is, if you are like most, is that you die in your sins. And you have nothing when you face eternity to bring you before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ. See, you're not surrounded by personally righteous people today. You're not hearing the words of a righteous person in myself.

I'm a sinner that's been delivered from my sin by the grace of God, like every one of you know Christ. That's what the Pharisees could never see. All they could see was the sinfulness of life. They didn't realize they were the same camp in need of a physician as much as any other sinner. I love this thought, as one man writes, when Jesus called Matthew, as he sat at his receipt of custom, Matthew rose up, followed him, left everything behind him except one thing, his pen.

It's not good. He brought along his pen. You see, with the other disciples, they weren't writers, they're fishermen.

They're people who work the trades. Matthew made his living writing. That's why when you read through Matthew, you find it excellent, excellent Greek, excellent writing.

Well, as D.A. Carson writes, Matthew was a skilled literary craftsman and gave his gospel structure, form, and rhythm. That's the Matthew we're going to be studying. It'll be a book of structure, form, and rhythm. Now as far as his styles and phrases are concerned, just keep in mind what he loves to refer to.

You'll see it on the chart. He refers 32 different times to the kingdom of heaven. That's a phrase he loves. He also will refer to the law. He will refer to customs. He'll refer to many of the Jewish traditions because it's a Jewish gospel written to fellow Jews.

Here's the theme. Jesus Christ is Israel's Messiah. There you have it. Jesus Christ is Israel's Messiah. You're looking for a master, you'll find him in Matthew.

He alone is the king of glory. That's another phrase that he loved to use. And there is the flavor of the Jewish mind as you work your way through it. Every family has a flavor.

Every lifestyle has a flavor. Our family, when we were growing up, had a flavor of music. Music was in our blood. Several of us played musical instruments. We all sang. We loved music.

Music was a part of our lives. I heard the story, or heard the speech, of an Italian fellow whose name was Tony. That fits. Tony talked about his family. And he said when he was in school, he ran around with two friends all the way through.

They all rode the school bus together. He had an American friend named Freddy. That fits. He had a Jewish friend named Saul. That fits. Tony, Freddy, and Saul. He said when my American friend would be running to the bus, the mother would be at the door saying, Freddy, do you have your baseball glove?

So American. He said when my Jewish friend Saul was running to the bus, his mother was at the door saying, do you have your books? Today she would say, do you have your computer? And he said, every time I'd run to the bus, my mother would say, Tony, do you have your lunch?

My mother would have said to me, do you have your musical instrument? Every family has this kind of flavor. When you get to this Matthew style, you come to realize oozing from the pores of his writing is the way the Jews saw life. It's good to become acquainted with them, especially when we get into Matthew. It'll help us understand it all the more. Now, right quick, let's sort of zoom through the chart. Shall we do that? Got your rollerblades on? Don't worry. It'll be through about 130. Here we go.

We're gonna move from left to right. Look down at the bottom. Look at the bottom.

You'll see categories. Chapters 1 through 15, we have the king presented in his identity, 1 through 15, as the king, Israel's promised king. Move across the page and you'll find his destiny is emphasized in chapter 16 to 27.

What's the destiny? He came to die. His mission was to die.

It was to pay the price for the sins of the world. And when you move into chapter 16 through 27, there is an increase in hostility against him as the tide of popular opinion turns against him. When you get to the last chapter, he comes back from beyond and he's victorious over sin, death, and the grave. And the title there could be, He is Risen. That's chapter 28.

Go back to the scope. In the first 15 chapters, there are large crowds. People are following him.

There's a growing popularity. There's an interest in his teaching. People give ear to his stories. They're impressed by the miracles. When you get to chapter around chapter 16, he begins to turn his attention to his 12 rather than to the large multitudes.

Why would that be? Because he is mentoring his 12 to carry on without him. That's the purpose of his pouring his life into the 12. In chapters 1 to 4, there's a emphasis on Bethlehem and Nazareth. When you get to chapter 5 through 15, there's a special ministry emphasized in Galilee. And when you get to 16 on Judea, because that's where Jerusalem is and that's where he was crucified. The key verses you'll see at the very bottom where Peter testifies that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And at the very end, you come to the Great Commission. I want to turn there as we wrap it up. Go to the last chapter of Matthew's gospel.

You do that? Matthew 28. Go to verse 16, Matthew 28. When the 11 disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountains where Jesus had told them to go, when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some of them doubted.

Look at that. Don't paint the disciples as perfect. Even to the end, some of them had doubts. Some of them still scratching their heads, wondering how it's all going to work. Remember, they were looking forward to a kingdom and all of a sudden their Savior has died and now he's been raised from the dead. It's confusing. We've had centuries to look back on it and had it explained to us.

It's happening in time for them. Now read on. Jesus came and told his disciples, and this is now called the Great Commission.

Pay close attention. Here are his words. I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this.

I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. In a previous set of messages, I talked to you about the importance of observation. Remember, seeing what is really in the text. Go back up to verse 18, then verse 19, end with verse 20 and look for one word that's repeated three times.

Three times. I've been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations. Verse 20, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands. See the word?

Circle it. All. All.

All. The first has reference to the king. We don't have all authority. He does. For anyone to say I have all authority over heaven and earth would be a fool, would actually be mentally ill if he thinks that or if she thinks that, but not Jesus. He's made the heavens and the earth.

None of it is unfamiliar to him. He's the one in full authority, so all authority in his existence and in his life. And now he speaks to those places where to go with his message to all the nations.

I'm going to come back to that in a moment. And how about us who take the message? We are to obey all he has said.

Why? Well, for people to believe our message, we need to be modeling what the message is saying. It's awfully difficult for a soiled messenger to deliver a pure message. So he says for all of you who are going to carry the message, remember you to obey all that I've told you and you're to take the message to all the nations. Now for a brief moment, I want you to remember the cross. Remember the sign that was placed above his head on the cross?

It read, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. You know that that was written in three languages according to John chapter 19 verse 20? Three languages. Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. Those were the languages of that day. Aramaic is the spoken language, the lingua franca, of that area. Greek would be the written language that everyone had been taught, the common Greek of the day. Latin would be the formal language known especially by the Romans so that all who passed by could read what the sign says. His message is now to go to all the nations.

Let me give you an example of how the nations have advanced in the last few centuries. Now think of how far the name of Jesus has gone. The name could be written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Polish, Bengali, German, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, all the Slavic countries, all the Scandinavian countries, all the European languages, and then when you get to Africa you have languages and dialects many of which have not yet been translated. Some of them are called heart languages because there isn't even an alphabet. Then you go to the islands of the sea where you have the same thing.

Imagine that. Ultimately even the heart languages by God's grace will be getting the message of Christ and it will be our pleasure to make that message known to them. Never think of this message of Christ as something you cling to. It was given to us to pass it on, to release it, illustrated even by the sign that hung above Jesus head.

What a great thought that is. Talk about a message for the missions, that's it. Now how about us personally? Let me wrap it up with four statements. You ready? Number one, when we were born again the king arrived.

You could put that here on your outline. When we were born again the king arrived in our hearts. Are you there? Has the king arrived? Has he begun to change your nature? Has he given you another name, if you will? Unlike the name you were born with and you have lived out, is there a new name that's beginning to take shape now that the king has arrived in your heart? When you were born again the king arrived.

Here's the second. When we began to grow in our faith the king demonstrated his power just as he does through the Gospel of Matthew. Changes occurred, some nearly miraculous.

The truth began to sink in. He revealed his will to us. He dealt with addictions in our lives. He took care of vulgarity, evil thoughts that once dominated our thinking. He took away our greed. He made us aware that life is not made up by the things you can touch or buy.

Are you there? Is that where you are in the stage of your growth? Here's the third. As growth accelerated so did opposition and testing. Same with Jesus. As you noticed, even the disciples there were doubts. Maybe you've experienced them lately. Doubts replacing what was once simple, confident faith. Discouragement now harasses you.

Maybe you're being misunderstood by those who once called you a friend. Perhaps if you're in a mixed marriage where you're saved and your partner is not, there may be a growing distance between you and there's been a sword brought instead of peace that you once had. Maybe in your business success is waning because as you grow deeper, you will discover the Lord purifies us as he brings us to a place of focus only on him. Fourth and finally, when all seems lost, he arises victorious in our lives just as he does in chapter 28. He reminds us I'm still King Jesus. I'm still here to call the shots in your life. You can trust me. I have all the power. I have all the authority. Now I ask you to obey all that I've told you. What a great place to close by asking you where is Jesus in your life?

If you were to put that answer on a piece of paper, what role would he fill? I'm just being introduced to him. I'm just beginning to realize what he can mean.

I've begun to discover that life isn't made up of the things I can buy or own. Or maybe I've come to a place that's very, very painful, kind of a crossroads in my walk with him. You may say I've never met him. I don't know him. He's still a bit of a stranger to me and I would like to know him personally. Following the service in the first hour, had a man come to me who is searching.

It's obvious from the words he used. He had several questions to ask me. I could tell that the Lord was working on his heart. He's intrigued by the power of the scriptures and how they still speak to his life, speak right into where he is today. I'm convinced the Lord's gonna win him over, just as he will in your life. Remember the Lord never met his match.

He could turn a Quisling like Levi into a disciple like Matthew. Bow with me, will you please? We look forward, our Father, to a journey through these stories, lines on a page that will become living truths in our lives. Make us good students of your word, even better followers of your son. Here in our hearts, Father, the cry, teach me, change me, begin now to make me like Christ.

Father, we anticipate the growth that will come from learning of your son through this story of his life. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to accept this. As Matthew writes about him, may we come to know him and love him as never before in our lives.

We pray for Christ's sake. Everyone said, amen. Including the first message in a brand-new study in the Gospel of Matthew, you're listening to Chuck Swindoll. He titled this opening message, Let's Meet the King. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. This comprehensive series has never been shared on Insight for Living until now, and we're confident you'll gain a whole new understanding of Jesus' life and ministry by joining us for this fascinating study. It begins with the birth of our King and concludes with His Great Commission. It's our hope that you'll resolve to listen every day to this powerful study. Matthew's unique perspective provides a magnificent view of our Lord's life and ministry.

And when we truly engage with the biblical Jesus, our love and affection for Him grows immensely. Concurrent with Chuck's new teaching series on Matthew, you'll be glad to learn that he's just completed an exhaustive commentary as well. It's titled Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary for Matthew. The Matthew commentary comes in two hardbound volumes, and we encourage you to purchase your copies now in order to make the most of this in-depth series. To purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary for Matthew, call us.

If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash store. And here's another resource for the entire family. Many of us are making every effort to understand our changing times and we're learning how to communicate truth with the next generation. Well, Chuck has been impressed with the insight in a new book he's recommending to you called A Practical Guide to Culture.

The authors, John Stonestreet and Brett Kunkel, provide a biblical view on key issues in our culture that all of us face, such as sexual orientation, gender identity, racial tension, and more. You could purchase a copy right now by going to insight.org slash store. The book is titled A Practical Guide to Culture, and there's a similar book targeted for younger readers titled A Student's Guide to Culture. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888 or purchase the book online at insight.org slash store. Join us again Monday to hear the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Let's Meet the King, was copyrighted in 2014 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.