Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18 as we continue with our study through the Word of God. And in this portion of Scripture Jesus is going to be dealing with some heavy topics, some heavy issues; humility, honesty and forgiveness. It is what should flow from a believer’s life. With that said let’s begin reading in verse 1 of Matthew chapter 18 and see what the Lord has for us this evening.
VERSE 1
1. Keep in mind that they are still in the area of Galilee, in Capernaum and He is making His journey to Jerusalem, to the cross of Calvary.
2. It would seem that Jesus’ disciples had a little argument and they were disputing who would be the greatest in God’s kingdom, even making their own case for their position I’m sure. And finally, when it seemed to be going nowhere, they come to Jesus and ask Him, and they are eagerly awaiting His response, wondering which one, and we read...
VERSES 2-4
1. The disciples were self-centered, interested in their position instead of others-centered. Thus, Jesus takes a child and tells them if you want to be great, you must have a child-like faith. It speaks of humility, not exalting self. In other words, the way up is down and the way down is up! It is as James tells us, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10.
2. Have you ever watched kids being placed on Santa’s lap during the Christmas season? Some of those kids have this expression of terror on their faces! Not so with Jesus. He was comfortable with the kids and the kids were comfortable with Him. That should be true in us as Christians. Children should be comfortable around us because of Jesus in us!
VERSE 5
1. What does that tell you about any ministry to children? Jesus so closely relates to them, identifies with them that as we treat the children, we are also treating Him. Now Sunday School can be very difficult and at times it seems like you are not accomplishing anything with the children. Let me try to encourage you with this story. Many years ago a Scottish pastor stood up before his congregation and resigned from the ministry. The reason was simple, "In the past two years, I have seen only one conversion in this congregation: wee Bobby Moffatt. With such little fruit, I can no longer serve in this ministry." Thus, he walked away from the pulpit a broken man. The thing he didn’t know was that Bobby Moffatt grew up to be Robert Moffatt, a missionary who opened up the entire continent of Africa to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I wonder if you have a Bobby Moffatt in your class right now? Thus, place a high value on the children, Jesus did!
VERSE 6
1. Don’t mess with God’s kids! Don’t try to destroy their faith in Him for you will be held accountable for your actions!
VERSE 7
1. You can’t escape these things as we live in this world. The key is, you can live in this world, just don’t let the world live in you! Also, don’t be a partaker of causing God’s kids to stumble, don’t entice them to sin!
VERSES 8-9
1. Jesus is speaking of eternity and how we are not to take it lightly but deal with our sin, fight against it because it’s goal is to destroy you. And please don’t start cutting off limbs or plucking out eyes, that is not what Jesus is speaking of. He is using a graphic example to drive home the point of entering by the narrow gate. You see, if you cut off your hand because you stole something, you still have another hand. It truly is a matter of the heart and not a matter of our body parts. They just respond in accordance to what is in our heart.
VERSE 10
1. I like that. God has His angels watching over His children, and for some of us, they are working overtime! It is as Paul said in Hebrews 1:14, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"
VERSES 11-13
1. Notice the heart of our Shepard, He goes out to gather His sheep that are lost, He goes out to save them. He cares about the individuals! Now that is not to say that He doesn’t care about the 99 sheep in His fold, He of course does, but He is out looking for that lost sheep who is in danger from wolves, and snakes, and all kinds of evil. And Luke tells us that when this lost sheep is found, all of heaven rejoices!
VERSE 14
1. Do you see how important we are to God? As His children we have angels watching over us, He warns others not to entice us to sin, He wants us safe within His arms.
2. That is humility, getting our eyes off of self and onto God and others. As the song goes, "If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, learn to be a servant of all!"
VERSE 15
1. Jesus is laying out for us a form of church discipline, and tragically, this is not how it is handled in most cases. You see, if someone does something against you, instead of running and telling everyone else what they did to you, you need to go to them and if they did sin, the idea here is restoration not destruction. If you don’t go to that person but tell others, it is gossip and it is destructive. Let me give you an example. Several years ago a youth group leader was driving and his car broke down, and it was late. The only place open was a movie theater that was showing an X-rated movie. So he used their phone and got his car fixed.
Unbeknownst to him, a member of his church saw him go into the movie theater and instead of confronting him, this person started spreading the word. And this once thriving youth group now had parents pulling their kids out. Finally, the board called this man in to confront him on this issue. So he told them what took place and why he was there, but it was too late now, and he finally left the church! You see, the first thing you need to do is confront the person one-to-one with the hope of either restoration or maybe you have misinterpreted the situation, the information, and you will be corrected. That is how it needs to be dealt with initially.
VERSE 16
1. If they refuse to repent, then take 2 or 3 people with you, agin with the hope of restoration. I have done this before, and I am so thankful I did. Now it was not my word against the other person, but I had witnesses who heard what I said. But even at this point, when confronted by a few people, they still might not repent, they may ignore you, and thus, verse 17 tells us...
VERSE 17
1. If they refuse to listen to the church leaders, then they need to be removed from the church with the hope of repenting and restoration one day. Paul, in dealing with a man who was sexually involved with either his mother or his step-mom, said to the church at Corinth, "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." I Corinthians 5:5. And in II Corinthians chapter 2, we see this man restored into the church body as he repented. He had enough of the world and wanted to return home again. He was restored. You see, you can’t let sin grow, if you do it will be like a cancer in the body of Christ and it will affect the whole body.
VERSE 18
1. This is dealing with a sinning brother who has his eyes blinded by Satan. Thus, the idea here is to bind the powers of Satan and unleash the power of God through prayer so he may see again and be restored.
VERSES 19-20
1. Specifically, the praying for a sinning brother, coming together as a body and praying for him that he may see again. You don’t need 200 people, just 2 or 3 and Jesus is there and we can intercede for that person.
2. In the first section we dealt with humility, and here it is with honesty. You see, it is dealing honestly with problems that arise, and dealing with them in a Biblical manner.
VERSE 21
1. Now according to the traditional rabbinical teaching, you were only required to forgive someone 3 times. So Peter is stretching it, maybe wanting to be recognized as the greatest in God’s kingdom for forgiving a person 7 times!
VERSE 22
1. Jesus is not saying we need to forgive someone 490 times and then on the 491st we can nail them! It is not a matter of mathematics, but it is a matter of the heart! It is having the mind of Christ, a forgiving spirit. Now Jesus is going to give us an example of what forgiveness is all about.
VERSES 23-24
1. How much money is that? Some say over $52 million dollars today. I don’t really think that is the issue. The real issue is, he could never repay that amount of money back in his lifetime!
VERSES 25-27
1. He and his family were going to be sold into slavery to repay their debts, which would mean they would be slaves until their deaths! So he comes before the king asking to be forgiven all his debts, and the king has compassion on him and wipes his slate clean! The debt was forgiven!
VERSE 28
1. A denarius was a daily wage for a laborer. So this is a hundred days wages. Something that may take some time to pay back, but he could work it off.
VERSES 29-30
1. This should have rung a bell, but it didn’t. He refused to listen, refused to forgive, and threw this man into prison where he couldn’t even work to pay back this debt!
VERSES 31-33
1. What a picture we have here. God has forgiven all of our debts, and yet, someone has done something wrong to us, they have offended us, and we can’t forgive them. I am sorry, that is totally wrong. It is as Paul said in Ephesians 4:30-32, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you." That is what we need to do, have a heart of forgiveness!
VERSES 34-35
1. This is not an option or a suggestion, but a command that Jesus is giving to us. You see, forgiveness ought to be in direct proportion to the amount you have been forgiven! Show grace and not justice, for that is what we want shown to us. James 2:13 says, "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." And I will tell you this, unforgiveness will destroy you, eat you up, and it will affect others as your web of unforgiveness entangles others. Forgive people as God has forgiven you, not 490 times, but unconditionally, not mathematically, but a matter of the heart. And this last section, obviously, deals with forgiveness, and we need to forgive and forgive until we lose count!
VERSES 1-2
1. Now He is moving farther southward, on the east side of the Jordan River, in an area called Perea. And even though the cross is drawing closer, Jesus is still ministering to the people.
VERSE 3
1. This was not a honest question but the religious leaders spoke trying to trap Jesus, to cause division amongst His following. And their question centers on divorce, is it lawful? In the Law their was a provision for divorce, Deuteronomy 24:1 speaks of "some uncleanness." Rabbi Shammai had the conservative view, he said it spoke of adultery only. The other school of thought came from Rabbi Hillel and his was a very liberal view. You could divorce if she made you a bad breakfast or if you found a prettier woman. I think you can guess what was the more popular view, Rabbi Hillel and his liberal view. Thus, these religious leaders were trying to cause a division on this issue, at least that was what they were hoping for.
VERSES 4-6
1. Jesus takes them back to the very beginning, to the Garden of Eden. And notice, God created them male and female, Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve! Homosexuality, lesbianism, is a sin before God, it is not how He created us. And Jesus is taking them back before the Law, not to the tradition or any religious leader, but to God Himself. Thus, Jesus took the narrow view, and made it even stricter by saying that God has joined man and woman together, and thus, they should not be separated, CHORIZETO in the Greek, which speaks of divorce! Now they got Him, or so they thought.
VERSE 7
1. Here is the controversy that these religious leaders wanted to stir up. Moses received the Law from God and in it there is a provision for divorce. Now here comes Jesus, claiming to be God, and yet He is contradicting what Moses said. And if that is true, then Jesus is also in conflict with God and thus, He must not be of God. "Gotcha," they thought!
VERSES 8-9
1. God’s divine plan was that a man and a woman would be joined together in marriage for a lifetime. But, because of man’s hard heart, God allowed for divorce. This is not a command or a mandate for divorce, but it is a provision that God allowed in the event of adultery. And even then, there should be a time for reconciliation, it shouldn’t be used as a loop hole to get out of marriage.
VERSE 10
1. You gotta love these guys. The extreme swings they had. If you can’t divorce your wife except for adultery, then it is better not to marry than be stuck with her until death parts them! Not much sensitivity here.
2. Now before we move on, let me say this. Divorce is not the unpardonable sin. The church today seems to be on both ends of the spectrum. Some feel divorce is okay any time and we see the divorce rate in the church today surpass that of the world. The other view is if you are divorced, that is it, you are in sin, you can’t serve, and there is a coldness about that. What is right and what is wrong? A balance. God’s ideal is not for divorce, but in divorce, remember forgiveness, love, compassion as God has extended to you for your sins.
VERSES 11-12
1. One of the early church fathers, Origen, read this portion of Scripture and castrated himself, only to find out later he misinterpreted this passage. Oops! This is not a command, but a choice. God has called some to be single and that is great, their focus is all on the Lord. For those of us who are married, have children, we must place them ahead of ministry. Paul put it this way in I Corinthians 7:32-33, "But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord-- how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world-- how he may please his wife."
VERSE 13
1. Jesus was busy, surrounded by the multitudes, not much time for rest and then there was all that talk about His death, and I think His disciples were just trying to give him some room, some rest, to protect Him.
VERSES 14-15
1. Jesus is never too busy for anyone. I love that! As a child of God He is always waiting for me, to hold me, to touch me, to comfort me.
VERSE 16
1. This moral, rich young ruler didn’t recognize Jesus as God, but as a good teacher. He had it all and yet he realized that Jesus had something that he wanted and he didn’t know how to obtain it.
VERSE 17
1. Jesus is trying to draw out his faith by asking him to think about what he said, calling Jesus a "good teacher." You see, only God is good, and thus, Jesus wanted to see if he was calling Him God?
2. Paul tells us in Romans 3:20, "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." And yet, that is how he was seeking to be justified, by his works.
VERSES 18-19
1. When this young man asked "which ones?" he was asking which ones of what the religious leaders laws does he have to keep, not just the laws of God. But Jesus ignores that and takes him to the second table of the Law dealing with man’s relationship with man. The thing is you can’t have a right relationship with man without first having a right relationship with God, and Jesus is going to show that to him in a minute.
VERSE 20
1. I believe he was sincere, he did the best he could, the problem was he was not satisfied, he was not fulfilled, he was still empty. And even though he thought he was doing good, Jesus is going to show him his heart. The same is true in our lives, we tend to have a different view of how we are doing than God does. And once He shows us our heart, we too have a choice to make, to give it to Him or continue holding onto it.
VERSE 21
1. Jesus now gets to the heart of the issue. You see, it was not that he was rich, it was that his wealth was his god and now Jesus exposes his heart, that he is transgressing the first table of the law, "Thou shall have no other gods before Me." Now he does have a choice to make, to obey or to walk away.
VERSE 22
1. His god, his riches were controlling his life. Yes, he wanted what Jesus had, but he was not willing to come on God’s terms, so he left, unfulfilled, unsatisfied, empty! And folks, there are many things that stand in our way of following Jesus, treasures in this life instead of eternal treasures! This rich, young ruler came with great expectations and he left empty because he refused to follow.
VERSES 23-24
1. Now this eye of the needle is not a gate, but it is a sewing needle and thus, it is impossible for a camel to go through its eye. It doesn’t matter how much you work, how much you push, how much you pull, you will not get that camel through, it is impossible!
VERSES 25-26
1. The disciples took on what the religious leaders taught, that the more wealth you had, the more God likes you and blesses you. But Jesus spoke contrary to that and thus, their conclusion is it is impossible to get to heaven! Well, they are partly right.
2. You see, in our own efforts it is impossible, but God can and has provided us a way, and that is through Jesus. Peter tells us, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." I Peter 3:18. You see, with God it is not only possible, it can be a reality if you receive Him. It is possible that God can save even you, He saved me!
VERSE 27
1. You have to love Peter. This young ruler refused to sell all and he lost out. Peter, on the other hand, says that they have left all and followed Jesus and they want to know what they get for it!
VERSE 28
1. This is not speaking of the eternal state, but the kingdom age where all believers will sit on the throne with Christ, (Revelation 3:21), and will exercise authority over the people on the earth, (Revelation 2:26). On the other hand, the apostles will rule over restored Israel in the kingdom age.
VERSE 29
1. We may give up much in this life but please understand that God is a debtor to no man, what He gives back to us far outweighs what we give up. And the reality is, if we don’t get another thing in this life, we have the eternal life that is before us! But we do get blessed beyond what we can even imagine in this life. And the Bible tells us that when the Lord comes back for His bride, the church, He will have our rewards with Him, (Revelation 22:12). It is as Jim Elliot, a young missionary who was martyred by the Auca Indians of Ecuador whom he was seeking to reach for Christ, and he said this shortly before his death, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." May we not forget that.
VERSE 30
1. I believe Jesus is saying that God is impartial and in regards to our salvation, we still receive the glorious promise no matter when we come to Him, even at the last hour, no matter what things we were in to, no matter how poorly we may have served Him! What a promise! It is all about Him and what He has done for us, all we have done is received it by faith! Yes there are rewards for service, but our salvation is all the same, by grace!