Matthew and Thomas
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 28 October 2012
We have the privilege to focus in Matthew 10 on the Jesus' disciples, those very special individuals who were chosen by our Lord. Later they became His Apostles sent to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. And we are also learning how God is using all kinds of people to do high level spiritual tasks.
It struck me how few there were. Usually when we think about a church having a great impact we think about a church having a lot of people. And yet as you study the disciples you find that these twelve, really eleven, were pitted against not only the human system but the demon system as well. Just eleven faithful men who were not particularly gifted either.
As we saw last week, all of them were basically unqualified for the task. And yet these men literally turned the world upside down. It is amazing what God can do with just a few people. Humanly speaking the world hails the few who attack the many, you know? When one person goes up against many, the world esteems them heroes even if they lose.
We remember their courage and their devotion of duty, but they lost. I believe there are more amazing things than this. Man may be courageous and devoted to fulfill his duty, but he is still limited as a man. And because he is weak he cannot overcome certain odds. But quite the contrary is it when God gets into the act. For God can take a very few to overrun the biggest enemy of all.
Gideon was ready to do battle with the Midianites and their allies the Amalekites and he gathered his army of 32,000 men. God said, That's too many and He cut it down to 300 men. And in Judges 7:12 it describes the enemy: "and they were like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number like the sand by the seaside for multitude." You know who won? Gideon, and all he did was make a bunch of noise and the Midianites and the Amalekites all killed each other in the confusion.
Now listen, here's the point. God is not restrained by many or by few people, that doesn't matter. God can make them heroes not only because of their courage and their devotion but mostly because of their trust in Him.
Now let's go back to Matthew 10 and with that as a background, remind ourselves of the uniqueness of these twelve men. Not only were they heroes because of their courage, because of their devotion, their obedience but because they accomplished their goal. They literally established the church.
And you and I are the product of their work. They touched a whole world. They extended the Kingdom, just these eleven faithful, humble, simple people just like us. Listen, what kind of people does God use? He uses the common kind like we are. He uses the unqualified. God is in the business of accepting unqualified people because nobody's qualified.
Now, we're going to meet two others that He uses this evening; Matthew and Thomas in Mattthew 10:3. The second group of four is Philip, Bartholomew or Nathanael, Thomas and Matthew. Let's take Matthew first because we have already examined something of Matthew's life in looking at chapter 9.
Matthew is mentioned in every list, always in the same group, but nothing is ever said about Matthew and nothing is ever said by Matthew except one tiny little thing. And look in Matthew 9:9, "And as Jesus passed forth from there He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office and He said to him, Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him."
And when Matthew puts his name in the list in chapter 10:3 he says: "Matthew the tax collector." Why does Matthew say that? I mean, that's not something you should be proud of. No. A tax collector was the most hated and despised human being in the society of Israel. And Matthew is showing us his genuine humility and sense of sinful unworthiness.
Why does Matthew even comment about himself in verse 9? "As Jesus passed forth from there He saw a man named Matthew and He said, Follow Me." The point is in verses 1 to 8 Matthew is giving a demonstration that Jesus came to forgive sin. Matthew 9:5: "Your sins are forgiven." Matthew 9:6, "The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." And Matthew slips himself in there to show that indeed Jesus forgives sin even to the vilest sinner, namely himself.
That may be the reason why Matthew never speaks, asks questions or makes comments. He just is faceless and voiceless through the entire narrative of the gospels. And it may be that his humility was born out of his overwhelming sense of sinfulness. And so he is silent, until the Spirit of God asks him to write. And then he is given the privilege of writing the opening of the New Testament, 28 chapters on the King of Kings Himself.
Matthew was a traitor and an extortioner. Matthew was greedy and a social outcast. And he knew it. You see, to be a tax collector you as a Jew were used by the Roman government to collect taxes from the Jews to give to Rome. You then worked for the oppressor. And you were free to collect anything more you could from the people and that you kept for yourself. And so there were bribes and abuses.
They hated a tax collector so much so that the Talmud said, "It is righteous to lie and deceive a tax collector." No tax collector was permitted to testify in a court of law because everyone knew they were liars and took bribes. No tax collector could ever enter a synagogue to worship God because they were cut off from God by the rabbi’s.
There were two kinds, there were Gabbais, the general tax collectors, collecting property tax, income tax, all standardized. Then there were the Mokhes, who collected the duties on everything. They collected on all import, all export, all items bought, all items sold. They set tolls on roads, bridges and harbors. They set tolls on packages, letters and everything else and Matthew was one of them.
What is fascinating is that he also had a name Levi which indicates that he really was in the flow of Jewish tradition. And in the gospel of Matthew there are more quotes of the Old Testament than in Mark, Luke and John combined. Matthew in fact quotes out of the three sections of the Old Testament that a Jew knew: the law, the prophets and the Holy Writings.
And when Jesus comes along in Matthew 9: 9, He says to him -- Follow Me and he arose and followed Him, instantly. Do you know what that meant? First, he just walked away from his career. This wasn't like being fishermen. If they didn't like what went on with Jesus they could go back. But when Matthew walked away from that table, the Roman government would have a replacement there the next day.
Also, he was followed somebody who was equally rejected by the establishment, for the Pharisees and the scribes hated Jesus as much or more than they hated a publican. So he was really going from the frying pan into the fire. He paid a high price.
Well, why did he do that? There is only one reason and that is forgiveness of sin. In Matthew 9:10 he calls a feast after Jesus calls him. And Jesus is the guest of honor at the feast for tax collectors and sinners. You remember when we studied that? And the Pharisees say - why does He hang around with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus says, "Those who are well do not need a physician but those who are sick do."
The point of the banquet was for Jesus to call sinners to repentance. So the whole thread here is confession of sin, repentance and forgiveness. And Matthew knew how sinful he was. He knew his extortion and his greed. He knew that he had betrayed his Jewish people.
And I believe he wanted to get away from it and he had heard Jesus preach because he was in that little town of Capernaum. And when Jesus came to him and said -- Follow Me -- he knew that inherent in that was the forgiveness of sin and he ran to get that. And he was willing to say goodbye to his career because he wanted forgiveness.
You see, God is in the restoration business. He takes the unqualified and transforms them. Matthew quietly forsook all. And the genuineness of his repentance is found in that you see his humility. He has nothing to say about himself. He has nothing to say about his talent and what he has to offer the Lord.
That brings us to the last man in group two, Thomas is his name. And immediately when you hear Thomas what is the first word you think of? Doubting Thomas, right? Thomas is a better man than you think. In fact most people really don't understand Thomas. Listen, Matthew, Mark and Luke give us nothing about Thomas.
But John again, always digging into the heart of people, opens up Thomas’ heart to us. John 11:14, the Lord is up by the Jordan river and out of the city of Jerusalem. The plot to take His life has been hatched. In fact, they had to get out of Jerusalem because His time had not yet come and He had to do this to preserve His life. The report comes to them that Lazarus is really sick.
Verse 14, Jesus has tarried to give sufficient time for Lazarus to die and then says this: "Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. In other words, I'm going to do a miracle to increase your faith. They were a weak bunch, as we have learned. And they always needed some kind of demonstration of His power that will make them believe.
Then John 11:15, "Nevertheless let us go to him.” Now where was Lazarus? In Bethany which is two miles the other side of Jerusalem. Now that is a scary announcement because all the disciples can think about is -- Oh, this is absolute suicide. And they are sort of beginning to have doubts. And then verse 16, "Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
I see several things in that. First a certain amount of initiative and I also see pessimism, don't you? Now he was convinced Jesus was going to be killed. The greatest courage in the world is not the courage of an optimist but the courage of a pessimist because he knows the worse is going to happen and is willing to go anyway.
Thomas had already figured out his epitaph and everything. He could only see disaster but he was grimly determined to die with Christ. Now, why was he willing to go die with Jesus? Not because he doubted Him, but because he so totally believed in Him.
Thomas perhaps was only equaled by John with such a deep and intense love for Jesus that he could not endure to live without Him. He was a man of courage and a man of love. He did not want to be separated from Christ. That's how deep his love was.
Go to John 14 and we see him again. And the same attitude comes out again. In John 14 Jesus says, “2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
John 14:5, “Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” This is like saying - Lord, don't You go somewhere where we can't come. The thought of separation was the issue with Thomas. You are going to go and we're not going to know where You are or how to get there. He is pessimistic and he says -- We'll never find the place.
But then Jesus tells him, “ 6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” What He's saying is -- I'll take you, Thomas. I'll take you there. I'm the way, don't fear. I'm not going to go someplace and leave you. You see the same pessimism and the same love again.
Let's go to a third and last look at Thomas in John 20. Jesus died. You know what happened to Thomas when Jesus died? He said, I knew it, He died and I didn't die and He went somewhere and I don't know where He is. And all of his fears came true. He felt betrayed and rejected.
He was like a wounded animal. And he didn't want to be around people so he just split. And when all the rest of the disciples came together he just wasn't there, he was out and he was depressed because he loved Jesus so deeply. He would have died with Jesus but Jesus died without him. He wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus went without him.
And in John 20:24 it says: "Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.” Well who found Thomas? John 20:25, "The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas, you weren't there. But Thomas is depressed.
Have you ever tried to talk to somebody who is depressed? Really difficult isn't it? Thomas continues in verse 25, "So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Now he's a pessimist, but before you judge him, would you kindly remember this? None of the disciples believed until they saw Jesus. It is not easy to believe that somebody rose from the dead. Remember on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, two are walking along and the Lord is with them and they're moaning about His death. And they didn't believe either.
Do you know that the Lord doesn't mind people wanting to be sure? John 20:26 says, "And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” I am amazed at that. Jesus just penetrated the wall in His body. Wow. There is a whole lot of the universe that we still don’t know anything about.
And then He focuses on Thomas who loves Him enough to die with Him and is utterly depressed. Verse 27, “Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Did Thomas do that? It doesn't say he did it. It just says in verse 28, "And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” He affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He affirmed that He was God.
And Jesus said in verse 29, "Thomas, because you have seen Me you believe." And you're not alone, the rest of them did the same. "Blessed are those that have not seen and yet believed." You know who that is? Everybody who came after that, that's you and me. We've never seen but we believe. And Jesus says, "Blessed are they."
Thomas gave the greatest testimony ever given. In that one little statement Thomas gave the speech that destroys every lie that has been told about Jesus not being God in the history of man. All the people who deny the deity of Christ are put to silence by Thomas.
Thomas preached and tradition tells us he went as far as India. And one tradition says that he died in a very special way. They took a spear and rammed it through him. This would be kind of fitting climax for one who was told to feel the spear mark in his own Lord. Let's pray.