Today we look at Matthew the Apostle. Our reading is from Luke chapter five, verses 27 to 29. We read about Matthew's conversion, and it says, “And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house, and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.” Luke 5:27–29 (KJV). Then another reading in Luke, chapter 6, verse 13. Here we have the call of Matthew to be an apostle. Verse 13 of Luke 6 says, “And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;” Luke 6:13 (KJV). “Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,” Luke 6:15 (KJV).

In Luke's Gospel, both Matthew's names are used, Levi and Matthew. He was the tax collector whom the Lord used to write the Gospel of Matthew, presenting Jesus as the King of the Jews. He gave up a very lucrative job that earned him a lot of money. Tax collectors were generally very rich people, and yet he burnt his bridges and made a feast for all his fellow tax collectors so that they could come and meet the Lord Jesus. He sacrificed everything for the Lord. Now, apart from this passage about his conversion, nothing is mentioned of him as an individual, speaking to the Lord, or saying something. He's just mentioned with the other 12. And so this is all we have about Matthew and his conversion and mention of him. But we see so much of his character as a tax collector brought out in the Gospel of Matthew, which the Lord used him to write. So much mention of money in that gospel. It is a very lovely study that we shall look at another time.

Levi the Publican

Today we just look at these few verses where it tells us about Matthew or Levi the publican. Mark and Matthew, well, Matthew uses his other name, and sorry, Matthew is his other name, which he uses in his own gospel. He calls himself Matthew there. And Mark calls him Matthew as well. But Luke calls him Levi. Levi was of course his Jewish name, meaning joined. After Levi, the third son of Jacob, Matthew means gift of Jehovah. Mark adds in Mark chapter 2, verse 14, that he was the son of Alpheus. Now tax collectors were expected by the Romans to render a certain amount of tax and they could fix whatever they wanted for themselves, and so they were hated firstly because they worked for the Romans and secondly for taking too much money from people sometimes by extortion and dishonesty. We learn how John the Baptist spoke to publicans, tax collectors, in Luke 3 verses 12–13. We read, “Then came also publicans to be baptised, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.” Luke 3:12-13 (KJV).

So they were in a habit of charging much more than they were supposed to. Zaccheus the tax collector confessed, in Luke chapter 19:8, “And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” Luke 19:8 (KJV). In that verse, he says, So you can see they were quite crooked. We're not told Matthew was crooked, but generally tax collectors were very crooked and dishonest, and they looted people out of their money, so they're bitterly hated by the Jews. But these are the people God saves. Those are the hated ones of this world. Those were the nobodies, the outcasts, the great sinners. He shows his great grace towards men by saving the worst of sinners. He was sitting at the receipt of customs.

There was a Roman road; there was actually a Roman road along by the sea, and then it went; then there was a road that joined it and went across the top of the Sea of Galilee, so from the coast of the Mediterranean up, it went along the coast towards Mount Carmel. and then cut across to the top of Galilee and joined the King's Highway that we read of in the Old Testament, which was an ancient train route going from Egypt right up into the north. And so just by this main road where so much traffic and merchants were going with their goods, the Romans had their custom place. And he sat at the receipt of custom at the top of the town of Capernaum, where this road was, to collect money. So you can imagine a huge amount of money to be made at that place. Jesus called busy men; whether it's fishermen busy mending their nets, cleaning their nets, or just fishing all night and caught nothing, there were busy men that the Lord Jesus called. And the same applies to this tax collector.

He was doing an official job, collecting taxes. And the Bible tells us as believers we should pay our taxes and customs and duties; we should pay them. And so the Lord called him from this busy work he was involved in. His work was an office job, we can say, just sitting at a desk like so many do in the world. Their job is to sit at the desk and work. Others it's manual labour, like fishermen. But whatever we find, they are all busy. before the Lord called them. The Lord doesn't call lazy people who are just idle and don't want to do anything and want money for nothing. The Lord never calls such people. He calls hard-working people because they are the ones he wants to use to work hard in his kingdom.

Follow Me

Now Matthew's work was such a lucrative one by the main road he had so much to tempt him to stay. He had so much money. but to follow the Lord would mean to give it all up. Give up this job. But he did that. He forsook him. He forsook everything to follow the Lord. So Jesus calls him with the simple words, Follow me. How simple salvation is. Just two words. Follow me means to turn your back on everything you have and look to me and follow me. How simple is salvation? We turn our backs on sin and the present evil world in which we live. Our face is toward the Lord. We trust him as our savior. We want to live for Him. We want to follow Him and be like Him. So we have repentance and faith. In the Lord Jesus as the object of faith, everything in those two words follow me. To follow Him means you've got to turn away from what you're doing and to follow Him as your object of faith. And so we learn Levi, for Sukkul, he left all.

We see the same with Peter and Andrew, James and John, who are fishermen; we read they forsook everything. They left their boats, and they followed the Lord, and Levi does the same. 100% God expects from us. He doesn't expect anything less except a complete surrender of our lives for Him. Doesn't mean we give up all our money and become paupers and give up our jobs and all become full-time missionaries. No. But God does expect that we do not count anything that we have as belonging to us but as belonging to Him. And we should be willing to sacrifice for Him, willing to go the extra mile, willing to give up anything the Lord wants us to give up for Him. In our hearts, it should always be 100% for God, because God does not expect anything less from us than 100%. So he forsook all. Verse 11, the fisherman forsook all. And here in verse 28 of Luke. We find that in Luke 5 verse 27 Matthew forsakes all as well. Now we learn a lesson in this as well. In Matthew's Gospel, this story comes soon after the Lord's teaching on discipleship. There in Matthew 8, 21, and 22, we read, “And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” Matthew 8:21-22 (KJV).

There are a number who claim they want to follow him, but really they did not. They were half-hearted, cold-hearted. And they were. In the words of this man, me first, that sums up everything about his dedication. He said, I'll follow you, but me first. He said, Lord, suffer me first. There's no me first if you want to follow the Lord. You can't put yourself first and everything about yourself first. There's no me first. If you say you want to follow the Lord, it's 100% for him. No, me first. When the Lord called Matthew 100% dedication to the Lord. These were true disciples.

I was reading a story about a woman in 2014 who found a huge sum of money. Her name was Claudia Moretti, and her uncle died. Her uncle died and left the house to her, and so while she was looking in the house, she found a safe, and she opened it, and there's 100 million lire in Italian money. Oh, she was so excited that her uncle had saved and saved, didn't put it in a bank, put all this money in his safe, and she was going to be so rich—100 million lira—today it'd be many, many lakhs in Indian money. So she went to the bank, the central bank of Italy, and they told her this is worthless money because back in... 2002, January 1st, Italy had changed over to the Euro. They're not using their old money anymore. There was a deadline that by December 6th, 2011, you had to hand in your old money to change it to new money. She was shocked. All that money, 100 million Lira, is totally worthless. So she hired lawyers to challenge the decision, but they were not successful. Because the rule was December 6th, 2011. After that, if you try and bring the old money, it's worthless. And now it was 2014. Her money was declared worthless, though it was so much.

We must remember that whatever we have here on earth, it's really worthless in heaven. We can be ever so rich in this world and have so many possessions, but they're completely worthless in heaven. The Lord Jesus said, We should lay up our treasures in heaven. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? Jesus told the rich young ruler, One thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come take up the cross, and follow me." Mark chapter 10 verse 21. So what the Lord said is, whatever treasure you have here on earth, use it for God. This man obviously trusted his money so much, so the Lord was telling him to give it all up and give it to the poor and follow him. Of course that's not said to everybody, but particularly for this man because he had such a faith and trust in money. and was not willing to trust the Lord. But it teaches us that whatever we have and we sacrifice to help others, we sacrifice for the kingdom of God's sake.

The money we spend here for God, the possessions we have that we use for God lays up treasure in heaven. And that is treasure that will last for eternity. Philip Henry, the Father of Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator said, he is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose. Matthew gave up all that money. He knew that money's gonna be worthless. In the presence of the Lord Jesus, he had a reward far greater than anything this world can give. As God said to Abraham in Genesis 15, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward. When you have the Lord, that's the greatest reward you can ever have.

Levi rises up

He sat collecting money, but when the light of the glory of the Lord shone upon him, he rose up. Isaiah 60 verse one says, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:1 ( KJV). That day the glory of the Lord rose upon Levi. Not only did he physically arose, but spiritually. Just like Abraham, Stephen said of Abraham in Acts 7 verse 2, “And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,” Acts 7:2 ( KJV). and he said, See, when Abraham saw that glory of the Lord, the glory of Ur and the glory of this world, was nothing. He gladly gave it up. He saw a glory far greater.

And so when the glory of the Lord appears to Matthew, he sees the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He stands up. He forsakes everything and he stands up to follow the Lord. You know to stand means to stand as a servant. We read 1 Kings 17 verse 1. “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” 1Kings 17:1 ( KJV). So Elijah was saying, I am a servant of God. I stand by God, obeying his commands, just like the angels in heaven stand before the Lord, ready to obey. Matthew is now not just physically rising up. but spiritually rising up to stand before his Lord as his servant, no longer a servant of Rome, now a servant of the Lord Jesus. Then we read that Levi follows Jesus. He set the Lord before him and never turned back.

Psalm 16 verse 8 is a psalm about the Lord Jesus, but we can apply it to Matthew. I've set the Lord always before me. Matthew never looked back. Jesus said, No man, in Luke 9:62, “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Acts 7:2 ( KJV). Jesus said in Matthew 16:24. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 ( KJV).

Levi Follows Jesus

Levi followed the Lord. He never looked back. He had his eye upon the Lord always. William MacDonald writes in his commentary about this verse from Matthew chapter 16 verse 24. He says, to deny self is not the same as self denial. It means to yield to his control so completely that self has no rights whatsoever. To take up the cross means the willingness to endure shame, suffering, and perhaps martyrdom for his sake.

To die to sin, self, and the world. To follow him means to live as he lived, with all that involves of humility, poverty, compassion, love, grace and every other godly virtue. Very beautifully put, what it means to follow the Lord Jesus.

Levi makes a Feast

Levi makes a great feast in verse 29, but did you notice something? It doesn't say he made them a great feast. He had many fellow publicans invited a great number and others and of course he cooked the food had the food prepared for them It was a great feast. He had the food prepared He had a lot of money and he was going to use it for the Lord But it says he made him a great feast made him a great feast Of course, it was for everyone the food was for everyone and the Lord But primarily it says it was all for the Lord Jesus. He made him great feast. Isn't that wonderful?

We see that with Mary and Martha and Lazarus in John chapter 12 verse 2. “There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.” John 12:2 (KJV). Of course the food prepared by Mary and Martha was for everybody to eat but it says they made him a supper. It was foremost for him. It was for his pleasure. It was for his joy. Matthew made that feast for his Lord and Savior. It was for him. Mary and Martha, Lazarus, they made a supper for him. When we remember the Lord Jesus on the Lord's Day morning on Sunday, let us remember it's called the Lord's Supper. It is for him that we meet. We read in Luke 22 verse 19, “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19 (KJV).

When we break that bread on a Sunday morning, that meeting is all about not us. We're glad to be saved, we're glad of what God has done for us, but first and foremost, we do it for Him. We do it to remember Him in all His loveliness and His life. His deities, humanity, His compassion, His glorious and wondrous death on the cross for us, His resurrection, His ascension, His coming again, we remember Him as He has commanded us. Of course, the Corinthians were rebuked because they were eating and drinking and not remembering Him, and they were chastised by the Lord. Let us remember when we gather, whatever we do, it is for Him. that we are doing it. Secondly, Matthew made this great feast because he wanted others to meet Jesus. Here's a clear scripture that teaches the use of a meal for evangelistic meetings. Everyone loves to go to a feast, except of course with those with pathetic excuses, like in the parable of the great supper. But it is good for to use your home, to invite people for food, enable to meet the Lord Jesus.

As Warren Wiersbe writes, this is a good plan for new believers to follow. Introduce your old friends to your new friend before they drop you. Some years ago when I was in Poland, I was introduced to a brother who's now with the Lord in a village and he was using his home in this way, inviting his neighbors for a meal and on a long table everybody was seated and before the meal was served, the word of God was opened and God's word was preached to them and then we had a very generous meal served for everyone. He was using his home for the gospel. His name was Wojtek. and he's with the Lord now but he was using his home, inviting his friends and neighbours to have a meal in the home and they were coming also to hear the word of God.

Gospel Meeting

So Levi had a gospel meeting. Luke adds that he called others too, not just his tax collectors friends. We read there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. Elisha did the same didn't he? before he went on to follow Elijah and follow the Lord, he made a great feast and burnt all the instruments of his work so there's no going back. In Luke, in 1 Kings 19, 21 we read, “And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.” 1Kings 19:21 (KJV). You know Matthew wrote his Gospel. and through that gospel many people have been saved.

He wrote it so that Jews would come to know that Jesus is the Messiah. One such Jewish man was someone called Mark Wenble whom I knew, very elderly man. I just learned yesterday that he had sadly died in 2022 but gone to be with the Lord. He told me his testimony of how he was brought up in a semi-orthodox Jewish home and knew nothing about the Lord Jesus. As you know, the Jews do not believe that Jesus is their Messiah. And he was quite depressed because of various problems in his life. He was looking at different religions and things for answers. So he went to a cousin's house who was a believer, who had married a Gentile he had heard and he used to socialise with him. This was back in 1965 when he was 34 years of age. And this cousin showed him a Hebrew English New Testament.

So he asked him, where shall I begin? It said start at the beginning. So he took it to his bedroom and he began to read from Matthew's Gospel and what stunned him and shocked him which he didn't realize it never occurred to him that Jesus was descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David. He said if he's descended from them he must be true. He's a Jew. It really struck him that Jesus was actually a Jew. descended from Abraham and David as well. And he carried on reading the genealogy and it was the genealogy of Matthew chapter one which most people think why there's so many names written in the Bible is because it's for the Jew. Reading that genealogy and list of the ancestors of the Lord Jesus showed that he was truly descended from Abraham and King David and had the right to sit on the throne. And he was a perfect man. And so he read and read and by the time he got to chapter 28 of Matthew, he knelt down and prayed. He was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He wanted to know more and he came to trust him as his Lord and Savior for many, many years. He was a bright and happy witness for the Lord until the Lord called him at a great age in his 90s. Matthew's Gospel is still saving Jews today. Matthew though in heaven, 2000 years His gospel is still bringing Jews to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as Savior, just like they were in his home when he invited them all to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless his word. Amen.