NKJV 365 / Matthew - Leaving It All Behind

NKJV 365 Day Reading Plan

Day 225 of 365 Matthew Leaving It All Behind After years of counting out coins, writing out customs receipts, and collecting Roman taxes from his Jewish countrymen, Matthew finally heard an offer he could not refuse. "Follow Me," Jesus said to him, and at the sound of those words, Matthew "left all, rose up, and followed Him" (Luke 5:27, 28). Notice the words Luke uses to emphasize Matthew's call into ministry. He tells us that Matthew left everything-the money, his connections within the Roman government, and the powerful position he held. He left it all-except, praise God, his gift of accurate recordkeeping! Before his conversion, his name had been Levi, the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14). But after he accepted Christ's call to ministry, Jesus gave him a new name, Matthew ("Gift of the Lord"). When Luke and Mark refer to Matthew, they identify him as Levi. But in Matthew 10:3, he refers to himself as "Matthew the tax collector"- a pointed reminder of a past he had given up. What "old life" did you leave behind in order to fully follow the Son of God? Taken from The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible Matthew 9:9-13 NASB 9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector's booth; and He said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed Him. 10 Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, " It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.  13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion , and not sacrifice ,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."