A Feast for Sinners at Matthew's House
Month 3: Come, Follow Me · Family Worship
Today's Scripture
Read together: Luke 5:29-32
29 Then Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors was there, along with others who were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their scribes complained to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Memory Verse
“And when they had brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed Him.”— Luke 5:11 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: 1 Samuel 26-28
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 81 of 365 — David spares Saul again, choosing mercy over revenge.)The Heart of It
The very first thing Matthew did as a follower of Jesus was throw a party. He hosted a great banquet in his own house. And he packed it with his old friends: tax collectors and "sinners," the exact crowd the religious leaders avoided. Matthew wanted everyone he knew to meet the Man who had welcomed him. And Jesus came. He sat down and ate with them. In that culture, that meant friendship and acceptance and belonging. The Pharisees were scandalized. "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" To them, holiness meant keeping your distance from messy people. To Jesus, holiness meant going right into the mess to rescue them.
Jesus' answer is one of the clearest pictures of why He came. "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." A doctor doesn't avoid sick people. He runs toward them, because that's the whole point. Jesus came for people who know they need Him. The trap the Pharisees fell into was thinking they were already "well." And people who think they're healthy never call the doctor. As we worship together tonight, here's the gospel in a sentence. Jesus came for sinners, and that includes every single one of us at this table. Nobody here is too messy for Him. And nobody here is too "good" to need Him.
Around the Table
Matthew was so happy that Jesus loved him! So he threw a big party, so all his friends could meet Jesus too!
Let's do it: Plan a tiny "Jesus party." Pick a snack. Then let each person name one friend they'd love to tell about Jesus.
Jesus said He came like a doctor, for people who know they're "sick" with sin. The Pharisees thought they didn't need Him.
Let's talk: Why is it dangerous to think you're already "good enough" and don't need Jesus?
Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." The only people His mission leaves out are the ones who won't admit they need Him.
Let's go deeper: Matthew's first act was to bring his friends to meet Jesus. Who is in your circle that you could "invite to the feast"?
💬 Conversation Starter
If you could invite anyone in the world to dinner to meet Jesus, who would you invite? And why?— Matthew picked the friends nobody else would have.
🛡️ Defending the Faith
People sometimes say, "I'm not good enough to come to church or to God." But that's actually what qualifies you, not what disqualifies you. Jesus said He came exactly for the "sick," not the "well" (). The doors are open widest to the people who know they need Him.
For Dad · Go Deeper
A family on mission looks a lot like Matthew's feast. It's an open table where "sinners" are genuinely welcome, hosted by people who never forgot they were rescued too. Robert Coleman, in The Master Plan of Evangelism, observes that Jesus' strategy was relentlessly relational. He won people by being with them, around tables and on roads, not from a safe distance. Your home can be that kind of place. But it means resisting two equal dangers. One is the Pharisee's distance: "we don't associate with people like that." The other is a watered-down compromise that forgets Jesus called sinners to repentance. He loved them too much to leave them unchanged. Hold both together. Make your table warm enough that "sinners" want to come. And keep it centered enough on Jesus that they actually meet the One who can make them new. So ask yourself honestly tonight. Would the people Jesus ate with feel welcome in my home? And would they meet Him there?
Draws on: Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism.
Let's Pray Together
"Lord Jesus, thank You that You came for sinners. Thank You that You came for us. Make our home like Matthew's feast. Make it warm and open, a place where people meet You and are changed. Give us friends to invite, and the joy to invite them. In Jesus' name, amen."
Jesus came for the sick, not the show-offs. So our table stays open, and our hearts stay humble.