He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom.
The following Christ
Whom are we to follow, and on what road, and to what place?
I. We are to follow Christ. Do not the soldiers follow their captain? Do not the redeemed follow their deliverer? Do not the disciples follow the teacher? We must follow Him further and further. Immediately, lest we never have the invitation given us again. He has something worthy to be obtained by such as follow Him. Will a man shut his ears to such a merciful invitation? If a rich man were to call a famished man to come into his house and be fed, would tie not instantly follow? The state of those who refuse is one of miserable bondage.
II. What is the way along which he calls us to follow? Christ has opened a new and living way, in every sense of the Word. Our old, corrupt nature dislikes a new was. Christ gives the power, hence no excuse. But is this new way unpleasant? It has good company and entertainment; at the end, the house of the Almighty Father.
III. To what place. (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
The calling of Matthew
I. Consider the event as illustrative of divine grace. God seeks whom He will to serve Him. The change rapid.
II. We are to forsake all inordinate love of riches. Discriminate between the possession of riches and inordinate love of them.
III. Subsequently to his conversion Matthew entertained his master, inviting guests from his former companions-a proof of the sincerity of his conversion. We should silently and sedulously seek others. What mariner, rescued from the fury of the waves, would refuse to extend a charitable hand to his companions who are plunging in the abyss he has escaped. (Pitman.)
The calling of St. Matthew
I. The call.
1. It was a call of sovereignty. There was no miracle; the attraction of personal authority.
2. It was a call of grace. What was there in St. Matthew to recommend him?
3. It was a call of love (1 John 3:1).
II. The answer.
1. It was an answer of faith. He followed because he believed-had trust-in Christ.
2. It was an answer of decision.
3. It was an answer of self-sacrifice. (Canon Titcomb, M. A.)
“A man called Matthew:”
I. His call seemed accidental and unlikely.
II. His call was altogether unthought of and unsought.
1. He was in a degrading business.
2. He was in an ensnaring business.
3. He would not have dared to follow Jesus even if he had wished to do so.
III. His call was given by the Lord, with full knowledge of him. Jesus “saw a man named Matthew.”
1. He saw all the evil that had been in him.
2. He saw his adaptation for holy service.
3. He saw all that He meant to make of him.
IV. His call was graciously condescending.
V. His call was sublimely simple.
1. Few were the words.
2. Clear was the direction.
3. Personal was the address.
4. Royal was the command.
VI. His call was immediately effectual.
1. He followed at once.
2. He followed spiritually as well as literally.
3. He followed wholly.
4. He followed growingly.
5. He followed ever after.
VII. His call was a door of hope for others. (C. H. Spurgeon)
St. Matthew’s Day
I. We may learn also the necessity of our immediate and cheerful obedience to the commands of God. When our Saviour called him to arise and follow Him, He
(1) called him to give up a gainful profession for a life of hardship, toil, and danger.
(2) To expose himself to the mockery of his former companions.
(3) To the scoffs of the wise, and the
(4) persecution of men in power.
(5) To enter into a situation for which neither his former habits, nor, as he might plead, his general education suited him. Should we have wondered if, under such circumstances, St. Matthew had offered an excuse?
II. St. Matthew did not answer, “not yet, lord, while so many persons are looking on; at night I will come to Thee. Not yet, Lord, while my fortune is beginning to thrive; another year and I will give up my business.”
1. He arose immediately, and followed Him.
2. With joy, as having attained the highest honour which mortal man could obtain.
3. To prove that joy he makes a great feast: calls together his brother publicans.
4. In defiance of their ridicule or wonder.
III. Compare this conduct with your own. (Bishop Heber.)
St. Matthew’s Day
I. The call; in a word of command, “Follow me”: a word very well befitting the Captain of our salvation, when He was to list soldiers or officers in His militia. Some have not come at the call. Others, though they have come, have not followed Him as they should do.
II. There is something oh our part, when we are called, to be done by us. There must be concurrence and obedient compliance of our will. Else we may resist the word as well as the ,Spirit.
III. The obedience-“He arose and followed Him.’ His rising up shows
(1) reverence and respect, as well as
(2) resolution.
(3) Henceforth he owns Christ as his master.
(4) He was wealthy, but now sees nothing before him but poverty and persecution. Yet he accepts the condition at first word.
IV. The constancy.
1. He followed his master to the end.
2. Till His departure.
3. Till his own death. (Adam Littleton, D. D.)
Receipt of custom
Some articles of produce are taxed as they are brought into the town. A booth of branches, or a more substantial hut, is erected at every entrance into the city or village, and there, both day and night, sits a man at the “receipt of custom.” He taxes all the produce, piercing with a long, sharp iron rod the large camel-bags of wheat or cotton, in order to discover concealed copper-wire, or other contraband. (Van Lennep.)
Custom of sitting at work
The people of this country sit at all kinds of work. The carpenter saws, planes, and hews with his hand-adze sitting upon the ground, or upon the plank he is planing. The washer-woman sits by the tub, and, in a word, no one stands where it is possible to sit. Shopkeepers always sit; and Levi sitting at the receipt of custom is the exact way to state the case. (W. M. Thomson, D. D.)
The commencement of a religious life easy for some men
How easy it is for some men to rise and follow Christ, as compared with others. They seem to fall into the way of faith: it is like bringing the sun to bear upon a bud that wants to open, and that is just waiting for light in order that it might unfold its deep and sacred beauty. It is so easy for some men to pray: they seem to be walking up a gentle green slope to meet God at the height of it. When other men try to pray it is like climbing up a rugged, steep rock, some of the stones loose, and if you put your foot upon them you will fall. It is so easy for some men to do the act of benevolence. (J. Parker, D. D.)
When Christ calls, He also draws
“Come,” says the sea to the river. “Come,” says the magnet to the steel. “Come,” says the spring to the sleeping life of the field and forest. And, like the obedience of the river to the sea, of the steel to the stone, of the earth’s charmed atoms to the spring’s effectual call, is the obedience of the soul to Christ’s wondrous spirit. (C. Stanford.)
He that said “ Let there be light,” says now, “Follow me.” That power sweetly inclines which could forcibly command; the force is not more irresistible than the inclination. When the sun shines upon the icicles, can they choose but melt and fall? When it looks into a dungeon, can the place choose but be enlightened? Do we see the jet drawing up straws to it; the loadstone, iron? And do we marvel if the Omnipotent Saviour, by the influence of His grace, attract the heart of a publican? (Bishop Hall.)
St. Matthew
1. We must remember how in business may be found a service for Christ.
2. We may learn not to think too much of daily work, and set too great a price on it.
3. We shall seek to give of the fruits of our trading to Christ.
4. The true servant of Christ will be willing to give up, not only of the fruits of daily work, but daily work itself for Christ. (T. Gasquoine, B. A.)