9And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.

 10And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

 11And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

 12But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

 13But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

This is the story of Jesus calling Matthew to follow him.  Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman government a very despised position.  Tax collectors had a reputation for being corrupt.  I doubt Matthew was corrupt or else I doubt Jesus would have called him.  In verses 12 and 13 Jesus sums up part of his mission, to call sinners to repentance.  That is the very idea of evangelism to call sinners to repentance and to accept Jesus as their savior.  The church will never grow if we spend our time preaching to the choir.  The message of salvation has to get out to nonbelievers.

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