Contemporary Worship || Loving Your Neighbor

Matthew 9 places Jesus at a table with tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees cannot understand why. Their question exposes a problem deeper than table manners: why would a holy teacher want to be around people with that kind of reputation? Jesus sees what they refuse to see. Matthew is not merely a betrayer, a snake, or a label. Matthew is a soul worth saving.

The doctrine of people holds two things together. People have incredible value because God created humanity in his image. People are also incredibly broken because sin entered the world and shattered that relationship with God. Jesus never pretends sin does not exist. His call to Matthew is still, “Follow me.” Yet Jesus refuses to reduce Matthew to his sin.

Jesus enjoys people not because of what he can get from them, but because of what he is going to give to them. Matthew 9 has already shown this with the paralytic. Jesus gives forgiveness before he gives physical healing. He comes near to broken people, sits with them, hears their story, and gives them what they cannot give themselves: forgiveness of sins.

Jesus does not stand at a safe distance and tell sinners to clean up their act before coming close. Jesus takes sin upon himself and carries it to the cross. His real death and resurrection destroy sin and death, and his forgiveness becomes the reality of those who trust in him. The image of God, broken by sin, is restored in the new creation given through faith in Christ.

The call to enjoy people does not mean everybody must become an extrovert or throw a neighborhood party next week. Enjoying people is not about personality or disposition. God’s Word gives people their value, even when their brokenness is obvious. The church receives opportunities to sit with children, spouses, neighbors, coworkers, and hurting people long enough to hear their stories and share the hope of Jesus.

Salvation does not rest on handling those opportunities perfectly. Christ’s work is finished, and his forgiveness remains secure even amid missed opportunities and messy failures. Yet the people who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good are free to sit, laugh, cry, work, and live life with others, offering the forgiveness they have freely received.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. People carry value and brokenness Humanity cannot be understood by only looking at sin, failure, or reputation. God created people in his image, giving every person real worth, reason, personality, and dignity. Sin is devastatingly real, but brokenness never cancels God-given value. [45:13]
• 2. Jesus refuses labels as final Matthew was known as a tax collector, a betrayer, and a man nobody enjoyed being around. Jesus saw beyond the label without minimizing the sin. Christ’s “Follow me” both confronts the old life and opens the door to a new one. [47:54]
• 3. Forgiveness comes before self-repair Jesus does not wait for broken people to become presentable before sitting with them. He comes near, bears sin himself, and gives forgiveness through his cross and resurrection. Grace does not deny the sickness; grace heals the sick from the inside out. [51:39]
• 4. Enjoy people as Christ enjoys them Relationships become places of faithful witness when Christians slow down enough to sit and hear another person’s story. This is not a strategy for gaining approval or proving spiritual maturity. It is a response to Christ, who has already sat with sinners and given them mercy. [54:28]
• 5. Christ’s finished gift frees service Missed opportunities do not undo salvation, because salvation rests on Christ’s completed work. Forgiven people do not serve others to secure God’s love. They are free to love because they have already received the gift of forgiveness.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [39:27] - Joining Jesus Where He Works
• [40:21] - Enjoy People
• [42:21] - Personality Is Not the Point
• [43:25] - The Doctrine of People
• [45:57] - Jesus Enjoys Broken People
• [47:05] - Jesus Calls Matthew
• [48:40] - The Pharisees Question the Table
• [49:41] - Jesus Refuses to Reduce Matthew
• [51:17] - Jesus Sits With Sinners
• [53:19] - Sharing Hope in Everyday Relationships
• [57:11] - Christ’s Finished Gift and Prayer

Bible Reading

Matthew 9:9–13

Verse 9: As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. [47:17] [47:26] [47:29]

Verse 10: And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. [48:40]

Verse 11: And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” [48:55]

Verse 12: But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

Verse 13: Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Genesis 1:26–27

Verse 26: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” [44:08]

Verse 27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. [44:16]

Matthew 9:1–8

Verse 1: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

Verse 2: And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” [46:56] [47:01]

Verse 3: And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”

Verse 4: But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?”

Verse 5: For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”?

Verse 6: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

Verse 7: And he rose and went home.

Verse 8: When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Observation questions

1. What details in Matthew 9:9–10 show that Jesus did more than simply speak to Matthew for a moment? What did Jesus choose to do with Matthew and the others at his house? [48:08]
2. What labels and reputation did Matthew carry as a Jewish tax collector, and how did Jesus respond to him? [47:32]
3. What two truths about people are held together in Genesis 1 and in the account of Matthew: people have real value, and people are deeply broken? [45:13]
4. In the healing of the paralytic, what did Jesus give before physical healing, and what does that show about the need Jesus came to meet? [47:01]

Interpretation questions

1. Why is Jesus’ command, “Follow me,” important? How does it show that Jesus neither excuses Matthew’s sin nor treats Matthew’s sin as his whole identity? [49:41]
2. The Pharisees were troubled that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. What does their question reveal about the kind of holiness they expected, and how is Jesus’ holiness different?
3. Jesus calls himself a physician for the sick. What does this picture suggest about how a believer should view people whose sins, wounds, or failures are especially visible? [51:39]
4. Jesus gave the paralytic forgiveness before physical healing. Why might forgiveness be the deeper gift, even when a person is carrying serious physical, relational, or emotional pain? [46:56]

Application questions

1. Is there someone in your life whom you are tempted to reduce to a label—difficult coworker, irresponsible family member, political opponent, addict, gossip, or “that kind of person”? What might change if you remembered both their God-given value and their brokenness? [50:25]
2. When you think about your own sin or failures, do you tend to believe that you must clean yourself up before coming near to Jesus? What would it look like to receive his forgiveness as a finished gift instead? [51:47]
3. Jesus sat at a table with people and heard their stories. Where is one ordinary place this week—a meal, workplace, school pickup, neighborhood, or family moment—where you could slow down and truly listen to someone? [54:28]
4. Who are the people God has already placed closest to you: a spouse, child, parent, neighbor, friend, or coworker? What is one simple way you could share life with them through conversation, laughter, care, or honest presence? [56:35]
5. Are there times when fear of saying the wrong thing keeps you from showing care or sharing hope in Jesus? How does the truth that salvation rests on Christ’s work, not your perfect performance, bring freedom in those moments? [57:06]
6. When you miss an opportunity to love someone well, what is your usual response—guilt, excuses, discouragement, or trying harder? How can Christ’s forgiveness lead you to repentance and renewed freedom rather than shame? [57:15]
7. Jesus did not seek people for what he could get from them, but for what he could give them. How might that reshape the way you approach relationships that feel inconvenient, draining, or different from you? [46:30]