Recapitulation
Our last study revealed some obstacles of pride and lack of
trust in God which hinder us from true greatness in God’s kingdom. Jesus had used a child as an object lesson
saying what we needed was humility and obedience like this child to become
truly great.
Meticulous Shepherding by the Savior
In verse 10, Jesus cries out again, “See that you do not
despise one of these ‘little ones.’” He
is still talking about these same ‘little ones who believe in Him’ who are
striving for greatness in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus is crying out a warning to those who
mess with His kids. Did you know that
they all have angels whose face always looks upon God Himself? Do you believe in angels? Jesus did.
And these angels are ready to act on a moment’s notice.
To explain God’s care for each one of His children, Jesus
related this parable. This is not a
bedtime story for children—it is a real-life spiritual story for God’s little
ones—those who believe in Him. But Jesus
tells it like a story that we have all loved to tell our children. It is the story of the shepherd that had a 100
sheep but one goes astray. By the way, the
original word translated ‘astray’ here is where we get our English word ‘planet.’ The Greeks called the planets ‘wandering
ones’ because they didn’t understand orbits and it looked like they just went
back and forth in the night sky like they were lost. So, one sheep has wandered off on the
mountain in the night and now it is lost.
It has been on the right path but it has been tricked into going the
wrong way. Sometimes God’s little ones,
too, have chosen an evil path because they are tricked into thinking it is a good
path. They are deceived and now they
need help getting back on the good path.
Do you see why I don’t believe this is only a story about
lost people coming to Jesus? It is true
that Jesus loves lost people—people who haven’t met the Shepherd yet—and He did
come to seek and to save that which was lost.
But this story is about little ones that do believe in Him and one is
deceived and goes astray. The shepherd
goes and looks for that sheep and brings him back. There is nothing here about persuading the sheep
to join the flock. He just goes and gets
it. If you believe in Jesus—if you have
trusted in Him as your personal Savior—you still commit sin which will separate
you from fellowship with Him just as that wandering sheep was separated from
the shepherd, but God has even the angels to bring about circumstances designed
to bring you back to Him. And Jesus adds
that He rejoices over that returned lamb even more than the ones who never
strayed. He went on to say, “It is not
the will of My Father in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish.” This is not a denial of our
free will. But through His great power,
God brings circumstances into our lives that bring about enlightenment and a
way out because He knows our weaknesses.
So, that’s one way we overcome obstacles to greatness in God’s
kingdom. The shepherd king, with all
those angels watching, will come to our rescue.
Now there is one more way that God brings us through the
deceptions in this world. He uses other
people in our lives—other believing little ones. Sometimes the other 99 are oblivious to the
straying little one but frequently, they see it as plain as day because when
someone strays it affects all of us whether the straying one realizes it or
not.
Shepherding by Brothers and Sisters
In verse 15, we have Jesus’ paradigm for dealing with a
sinning ‘brother.’ What should we do if
we see sin or deception among our brothers and sisters in Christ? Should we gossip about them or share juicy
prayer requests? Should we take it
straight to the pastor or chaplain?
Jesus has a three-step process that seeks to involve as few people as
possible. You do the church no favors by
discussing in public the moral failure of a member. Keeping it as quiet as possible is not
hypocrisy if only those who need to be involved are in the loop. If you see sin or are sinned against (as
Jesus puts it) then you alone should approach the brother or sister that sinned
and attempt to reach some reconciliation, forgiveness, and enlightenment. Maybe you need to forgive that person or you
will be the cause of them wandering any further off the path. If they hear you, Jesus says, “You have
regained your brother.” He is back on
the path. He was straying and now is
back in the fold.
A side note here.
Many times, maybe most of the time, where two people have an unresolved
conflict, the fault seldom lies 100% on one person. Now, it may be that 90% or 75% lies on one
person, but very often, there is some failure on the part of the other person
as well. So be ready to own up to your
own possible complicity in this is well.
But what if he won’t listen to you? Then, go with one or two others (not a whole
gaggle!) and try to convince him again.
This way you also have witnesses so that it is not just your word
against his. Again, he has another
opportunity. Maybe this will convince
him to come back to the fold. Sometimes
another perspective or more persuasive demeanor may help.
But, sometimes, he still won’t listen. Then, and only then, after steps one and two,
do you ‘tell it to the church.’ The best
way to do this is to go to the governing body in your local church whether it
be the deacons, the elders, or some other spiritual leadership group and let
them decide how to proceed with further outreach to the sinning brother. The church is supposed to confront the
brother as a church—whether this is at the church or some other place is not
specified—but representatives of the church leadership should hear the
witnesses – not just hearsay from one member—and only then confront the sinning
brother to win him over. The goal is
still forgiveness, reconciliation, and enlightenment not vengeance or public
shame. And Jesus says, if he will not
listen to the church then treat him ‘as a gentile and a tax collector.’
Matthew’s former occupation (tax collector) still bothers
him as you can see. To treat someone as
a gentile and a tax collector means you don’t have anything to do with him
anymore. To a Jew, a gentile was an
outsider that you didn’t even eat with.
A tax collector was an evil government official whose salary was tied up
with corruption. In neither case, do you
exact any other punishment. You just
don’t associate with him anymore. You
leave him up to the Lord.
It is interesting to note that Jesus did eat and speak with
gentiles and tax collectors but He didn’t invite them into His ministry unless
they believed in Him and followed Him—like Matthew.
By the way, this happened in the church at Corinth. A church member was living in sin with his
step mother and when he would not repent, Paul had him excommunicated for a
time. But later the member repented and
Paul told the church to welcome him back in and comfort him. They gave time for God to work in his heart
and eventually he came back.
If a person who truly believes falls into sin and refuses to
repent, you may have to cut yourself off from him for a while to give God time
to work. But be sure to follow the steps
Jesus outlines here in Matthew 18 first.
Balanced Shepherding
Now notice verses 18 through 20. Verse 18 is essentially a repetition of what
Jesus told Peter in chapter 16 when he publicly recognized that Jesus was the
Messiah and the Son of God. Once again,
there is a special Greek construction here that should better be translated “And whatever you forbid on earth must
be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth must
be what is already permitted in heaven” (Williams). Some translations imply that Peter (and now
the rest of the disciples) can decide on heaven’s policies. As we said before when we studied chapter 16,
this is a command to the church to be careful not to go too far and declare
someone as irretrievably lost or not go far enough and refuse to deal with sin. Be ready to welcome back with joy the
repentant sinner but be firm until then.
We need to have God’s heart toward straying people.
So, what is the ‘two or three gathered
together’ about? No this is not
God’s promise to sanction a church meeting that doesn’t have a quorum! Yes, God does promise to be with us always so
we certainly don’t need to wait for two or three people to show up! This verse is in the context of this sinning
brother that won’t listen to the church’s plea to change his ways and get right
with God. It is a reference
to the ancient Hebrew practice of requiring two or three witnesses at a legal
proceeding. The church only listens to
charges of sin when you have two or more witnesses. This is a protection against false
accusations. It is done only in reliance
upon prayer. And God will hear and act.
So, church action is not unilateral action by the pastor. It is a group decision.
Notice how it ends. “There am I in the midst of them.” This is exactly the same Greek phrase as at
the beginning of our pericope in verse 1 we looked at last time when Jesus
placed a child—a little one—in the midst of them. Jesus humbled Himself (Phil 2:8) like a
little child and came among us and is still with us. He wants us to know that being counted among
the great ones in the Kingdom of Heaven, requires us to humble ourselves like a
little child—something He Himself did. Dealing with sin in the membership is
very humbling when done properly. Little
believing ones face two great obstacles: other people trying to deceive us into
sinning or even our own bodies can deceive us.
Yet Jesus provides us with two great allies: Jesus Himself and our brothers and sisters in
Christ. Those who want to be great in
God’s kingdom humbly recognize they need the daily help of the Shepherd King as
well as the encouragement our fellow ‘little ones.’ There but for the grace of God go I.
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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