Dennis Tuuri

Uh the sermon text today is found in the first 20 verses of Matthew 18. This is in the segment of one of the discourses of Christ recorded in Matthew. It is the longest discourse, particularly if we take the rest of the chapter which we won’t be looking at today for reasons I’ll talk about in a minute. But this is the longest of our Savior’s discourses found in the gospels on community life. And so this theme we’ve been singing about of children and fathers and living in community, living in our families, in the family of God is the focus of what we’ll be looking at in just a minute.

Psalm 78 we quoted the first few verses. Of course, it’s quite a long psalm. It was one that the historic church traditionally would have their children memorize over a long period of time. The verse where we cut off—the next verse is the children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. The Lord God equips us today with a knowledge of how to live in community through the teaching found in Matthew 18.

And we pray at the beginning of this sermon that Him having armed us with the knowledge of what we’re supposed to do, we won’t turn back in the day of our battle from doing what God tells us to do to have a vibrant community life in the context of the church. So to that end, please stand. We’re going to read Matthew 18, verses 1-20, which I think is a particular unit and it helps to see that as we’ll see Matthew 18:1-20.

And if you have the handout for today, the text is actually laid out on that handout in the way I’ll be discussing it in the context of the sermon. So you may want to look at that rather than your Bibles either way. All right? Or you could just listen. Matthew 18, beginning at verse one.

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. Whoever causes one of these little children who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes.

If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones.

For I say to you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountain to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that did not go astray.

Even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.

But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for the wonderful truths found in the gospels, the coming of our Savior. We move closer to our celebration of the Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, a remembering of that and a looking forward to his second coming. Bless us now by his Advent amidst us, Lord God. May he by his Spirit teach us things from your word. Teach us about him. Help us, Lord God, to understand how to live in community to the end that we would be blessed and not cursed.

Bless us, Father. Arm us with the truths of your covenant, particularly as it applies to life together in the church and in our families. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, as I said, this is the most extensive of Jesus’s discourses as it relates to life in community and how the church is to be built. And so this is a very important text for us. It’s kind of like, you know, in Ephesians there’s the section about husband-wife relationships and that’s the most extensive teaching in the New Testament. Well this talks about life in the context of the church and here we find in the gospels this instruction that’s so important for us to understand and it’s important for us to see it together.

Now before we get started let me remind you that it’s our belief at this church that life in the church extends beyond the four walls of Reformation Covenant Church. It of course extends to the whole world but very specifically we think that in the New Testament there are indications that the church in a particular region should see itself as the body of Christ operating in different homes.

And I wanted to mention in the context of that: last Thursday night the candidates forum held at the Abernathy Center right down the hill from us here sponsored by the church in Oregon City was a really excellent event. It was quite helpful. We had people running for two different city council positions. All three candidates for mayor and as well we had one candidate each for the Senate seat from this district and the House seat here in Oregon—that is, the Oregon House and Senate. And it was really very encouraging to me.

The church in Oregon City, the organizing committee for the event asked two questions of the candidates after they made their presentations. The first was, “How would you utilize the church in Oregon City to help meet your goals for the city?” That’s an excellent question. That’s a great question.

And I’d venture to say that for most of these candidates, they’ve never thought about that. “Oh, I could use the churches to help affect change in the context of our city. I mean, this is a new and novel concept.” It was a very exciting event. Now, there were only about 100, 120 people maybe there, but several of the people, the candidates remarked on how big the audience was. We doubled the size of people that the Chamber of Commerce brought out for a similar event.

And I’m thinking, man, if we really get behind this event the next time in 2 years, we should easily be able to have 300-400 people from the, you know, 3,000 Christians who attend worship on any particular Sunday here in Oregon City. And think of the amount of influence then and the dialogue that could happen between our civil government and the church in Oregon City—between Christians who are trying to bring a biblical perspective of covenant.

So I know this is about a specific set of things and what I just said only comes in because again it’s how to live in community and we think that actually in terms of these truths the importance of seeing the unity of the church in a particular place is important when for instance we get to the end of this text where it talks about telling it to the church in case of excommunication or discipline of a member. You know, it’s one thing to tell it to the church here and the person to go down the block and go to the church over there, but if we could get to the place, and I think we will, where the church in Oregon City is the church that’s being spoken to here, and unitedly we agree not to pretend that a person is doing okay when they’re in sin.

Well, this has a much greater impact. So life in community, we’ll talk about it here in the context of RCC, but it has tremendous implications as well for the broader church.

Now I’ve chosen a particular set of verses here. In our Bible study methods class in Sunday school today I talked about pericopy identification. And so in Matthew there are five discourses and at the end of every one there are these words that say, “This after he said this.” And so in Matthew 19:1 it says the same: “After he had finished saying these things then this happens.” So that means there’s a specific heavy marker at the end of this section.

Now I also broke it off before verse 21 because verse 21 says Peter came to him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” So we have a specific discourse—sayings of Christ—before this. There’s stuff going on, and at the question and conversation after this there’s this question from Peter.

So I think this is a discrete unit that’s bound together in this particular section. So that’s why I’ve broken it off here. As I said, Matthew 19:1 says, “Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these things.” That’s a very specific limitation in what is going on.

And did you notice as I read this, you know, one of the ways that this section is bound together, a particular phrase—I tried to emphasize this phrase—did you notice what it was? The first thing Jesus does is he takes a little child. He calls for a little child actually, so the little child is responding in obedience to him. He calls for him and he puts the child in the midst of the disciples because they want to know who’s greatest. And what happens at the end of the section or pericopy when two or three of you agree talking specifically about church discipline?

What does he say? “I am there in the midst of you.” Now this word “in the midst” is not a common phrase to be used and here we have it kind of marking off this section as a complete section. And what a wonderful way it does it for us, right? It marks it off by reminding us that when we accept one another as little children we’re really accepting Jesus because the little children who come to him and are united to him covenantally—really receiving them—and Jesus says this very explicitly in the first section: “If you receive one of these children in my name, you receive me.” He identifies himself with this little toddler.

The word used here in verse two is a little toddler, maybe even an infant. And he calls for him; the kid can recognize his name and toddle over apparently. And then Jesus sets him in the midst. And this is linked up, as I said, with Jesus being in the midst of us. We come to the table. All those who are united to Christ partake of the table. Our children partake of the table. And it’s because they’re united to Christ that we’re to esteem them in that way.

So wonderful—a wonderful little section marked off here with an identification of Jesus with little children because of their union to him. And at this time of year as we’re thinking about Advent, it’s particularly delightful to think about this because our Savior came, of course, as a little child to do the will of the Father in heaven, obeying him the way this little child obeys Jesus.

So that’s why I’ve marked this section out. I think there’s three distinct sections in this unit and we just sang in a way kind of a summation of them here. When we sang “Shepherd of Tender Youth,” we sang “hither our children bring.” So the first section is about being humble like children. Children are example to us—how we’re to treat ourselves, how we’re to think of ourselves in relationship to the kingdom. And the section goes from a consideration of somebody saying, “How am I greatest?” And Jesus says, “Well, you may not get in with that kind of attitude.” So it starts the discussion of children and we bring our children. We recognize that we’re all children in that way. So it begins by stressing our humility to the Father as children.

That’s the opening section.

The second section warns us against sinning against little children and by way of extension each other, right? So the middle section is about don’t do this—don’t sin in this particular way—and Jesus says instead we have an obligation then in the third section to positively help one another. So we’re to be—it’s about our relationship to the kingdom personally becoming like little children. And then what, how we’re to concern ourselves with other people positively, right? How we’re supposed to seek others out and help them. And then finally, what not to do in terms of our sin against them.

So that’s kind of the way the thing flows. Those are the three sections which we’ll go over now in a little more detail.

So first the opening section. And again if we look at the handout I’ve provided for you: how do you enter the kingdom of heaven? And so as I said, what’s fascinating about this is that the question itself almost disqualifies you. Now I don’t understand it. There’s a lot of things about this text I don’t understand. There’s a lot of things about every text in the Bible I don’t understand. I understand some things.

And what I understand, I pass on to you. But I don’t understand. It’s a conundrum to me. It’s a mystery how the disciples want to argue about who’s the greatest. I’m not sure I thought through that well enough to understand what’s actually occurring. But in any event, it’s obvious from other texts of scripture that’s what they did. And they were kind of considering themselves as who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus warns them instead that you may not even get into the kingdom of heaven. And so that’s kind of what happens here. And if you look at your handout, there’s a nice structure to all of this, right? It begins with them coming to Jesus with a particular question. And it ends by stressing the unity of the disciples and Jesus: “If you receive a little child in my name, you’re receiving me.” So it’s Jesus and the disciples at the beginning and end.

And then moving in from the center, we have the phrase “greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” And so you know, this is like bookends again of this central section. And then the next section: “Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them.” So he, it’s interesting because he gives the child kind of a place of honor in setting him in the midst of the disciples. And this is matched with “whoever humbles himself as this little child,” right?

So he takes a specific child in verse two. And verse four mentions a specific child. Now the center talks about little children plural. So you see there’s very carefully constructed structure here that God gives us that draws us in to the center of the text which is underlined, double underlined in your handout.

Verse three: “Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So we got kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven—child, child in the middle. You got to be like these little children or you’re not going to get in. Now okay. So that draws the question then: what are these little children like? What’s he saying to us? How do we become like a little child? Do we play stickball or what do we do? You know, do we go back to a young infant diet? What does he mean “become like a little child”?

And the answer to that, that’s the critical truth at the center. And I think the explanation for it is found on the other ends of it in verse two and in verse four. The little child came when he was called. Okay, so this is an obedient little child and Jesus is saying you have to have simple obedience to me as this little child. That’s certainly an element of what the text is telling us. I’m not trying to figure out what I think a little child is like and imposing it on you. You see a lot of commentaries that do this: “Well, a child is like this and well, a child is like that.” Well, what does the text tell us? The text tells us this child is obedient. When Jesus calls him, he comes to him.

Now that implies trust, right? You’re obedient to someone you trust. So one thing that Jesus is telling his disciples is: trust me. Trust me enough to enter into simple obedience. But the other bookend is found in verse four: “humbles himself.” So here’s the actual explanation of Jesus. We have the example of them coming in trust. But then Jesus also says that these little children are the ones who humble themselves.

And of course, this is the big picture of this particular text. Life in community begins with the members of that community assuming humility, not putting themselves forward, but rather being humble as humble as little children are. You know, little children know they can’t take care of themselves. They know that the one who’s calling them is the one who has to provide for them. They humble themselves in submission to the one they know will care for them—they care for them—and that’s supposed to be our attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the opening stage of entering into the kingdom of heaven is this humility to God. So you know it has a relationship to other people. But the stress is that if you want good community life, you want that worked out, here’s a discourse on how to live in community. You begin with humility. You begin with, you know, getting rid of pride. Pride is the great enemy to all of this. Pride says, “I want to be at the top of the heap here in the context of this church. I want to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I want to be greatest in the church. I want a name for myself in the context of the church. I want a name for myself in my family. I want, you know, I want I want I want.” Pride is the great enemy to even entering into the kingdom of heaven.

Now, our Savior says this, and I think we have to take him at his word: he’s warning these disciples that they may not even get in. Take it to heart, brothers and sisters. If you struggle with this kind of attitude of pride and wanting to puff yourself up and not having childlike trust and simple humility before God, recognize that our Savior tells us here, you may not even get into the kingdom of heaven, let alone be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

So we have this opening section really stressing to us the importance of humility.

Okay, this word “humility”—the Greek word means to get low. There’s a recent movie called “Get Low.” And it’s a good movie that ends with the man humbly confessing his sins in front of the whole community, the congregation. We could say get low. And that’s what this word means. The literal meaning is making oneself low.

Now, in God’s eyes, that should be obvious to us that in relationship to God we should always see ourselves in the context of humility. The one who lowers himself is what in the Bible? He’s exalted by God. If we just did this responsive reading about kneeling before God and then we didn’t do it. I always hate that, you know, maybe we should just do it. I mean, I don’t know. Or maybe we should use different words. I know we can’t, you know, we just ran that responsively that we kneel before God.

The problem with not doing it and reading it is it sort of sets us up to think that we can obey something intellectually but not physically, right? I mean that’s not what we’re trying to do of course but that’s what the implication is. Well, worship begins with, at least in terms of your attitude, but you know in many churches, with your physical posture of kneeling, you get down on the ground and confess your sins to God. That’s where community life begins as well.

Jesus tells us is with humility. God will exalt you. Don’t worry about it. God will raise you up. Confess your sins. Fish tells you to stand up. You’re forgiven. Just like in the gospel—the Revelation of John—falls down dead before Jesus. Jesus raises him up. And so this humility we have, you know, is the way that actually we’re going to be most effective in the kingdom where that God calls us to do.

Jesus says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.” Jesus says in Matthew 23, “Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” Jesus himself of course humbled himself in Philippians 2:8, right? And as I said, Advent—Philippians 2 is a verse that we always think about. It talks about Jesus coming as a man and humbling himself to the point of death. So Jesus himself was the one who in his incarnation then in his life growing up humbled himself to the point of death. He regards himself as not the greatest. He humbles himself instead as a model to us.

So humility is the beginning of this.

You know, I had a sermon several years ago on pride and I think I had a list of how to tell if you’re prideful or not. I mean, you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, “Okay, great, humble. I know I’m humble. I’m not prideful.” Well, I think it’s worthwhile with this opening section placing such an emphasis upon it for each of us to do an evaluation of ourselves this week to see how humble we are. Do we have that trusting obedience, simple obedience? Do we have a humility in relationship to other people? Do we—would we rather be served or would we rather serve?

If I can find those notes from that sermon, I think it was a list of 10 indicators of pride in our lives. I’ll try to send it out to you all. But that’s where this thing begins. Community life begins with humility and specifically seeing yourself in relationship to one another humbly.

So that’s the opening bookend. And then the center section is found after this and this begins of course in verse six.

So now it’s not having the humility of a little one. Now the danger is that we could cause one a little one to sin. Verse six: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses. Offenses must come. Woe to that man by whom the offenses come.”

There’s an obvious A-B-A there, right? There’s offenses listed three times. And in the middle: “offenses must come.” Woe to the world because of these offenses. The word “offense” here means like a rock put in the way that causes somebody to stumble. So it’s an activity we do which causes someone else to sin.

Okay? And so we have to be very careful in our humility also to make sure we don’t cause others in the context of the community to sin. And then the warning is: if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and get rid of it. Toss it away from you. It’s better to enter life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.

So we have these hand, feet, and eye statements and again our Savior speaks in very emphatic words here. If you cause a brother or sister—if you cause a child, but if you cause a disciple because that’s what he’s done: he’s made an identification between the children, himself, and his disciples in the opening section. If you cause one of these children or one of the disciples to sin, it is a really big deal. It’s not some small thing.

He warns us that man, you need to really be careful. Again, he warns us about the dangers of hellfire. The same way that pride can keep us out of the kingdom of heaven—here, you know, having both hands and not cutting off the thing that brings offense can actually make us not enter into life.

Now, the parallelism here is: the kingdom of heaven is life. And so, while there’s an emphasis on eternal life at some point here, the kingdom of heaven is made manifest on the earth with Christ’s Advent. And that kingdom of heaven is the only place life is. So life and the kingdom of heaven are put in parallel here. And we have a tremendous warning not to cause others to sin. So humility—community life begins with humility. It moves on then to not just being humble before God with no concern for our neighbor, but making sure we don’t cause our neighbors to sin.

And Jesus puts a big emphasis upon this. And in the middle of it is: “offenses must come, but don’t you be the cause of them.”

Now, he’s going to go on. By the way, it’s interesting, and I’m not sure the connections here, but see, if we see this as a unit—Jesus in the midst, Jesus, child in the midst, Jesus in the midst—and narratives on either side, questions at least from other people. If we see this as a unit, then we have to think in terms of the relationship of all the parts. And here we’ve got part of the body being cut off that the whole body might enter into life.

Now, as we get to the end of this narrative or this discourse rather, what he’s going to tell us is the need for discipline to the end that we’d be willing to cut off—to excommunicate—a member of a brother, a member of the body who refuses to repent. So I think there’s a connection here. And when we get to a discussion of church discipline, Jesus has already told us about the importance of being willing to cut off portions of the body if need be for the sake of the rest of the body. So I think there’s a relationship there, but the real stress is on our personal culpability.

Now, why a millstone? And you know what is this being cast into the sea? Behind this, this isn’t just an abstract narrative about life in community. There was community going on. There was the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel was prideful, right? They weren’t humble and submissive to God the Father, nor to the emissary, the Lord Jesus Christ. They weren’t. And they were not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven as a result of their desiring to be greatest.

The Pharisees make their phylacteries big and all their shows, etc. And these the community found in Jerusalem would in AD 70 be overwhelmed. The sea in the scriptures is always a picture of the bipolarity of the world. Sea and land—land being Israel and the farmers, sea being the Gentile nations, the out there in the islands that would receive the gospel eventually. So I think that being cast into the sea must call to mind to us—at least this side of AD 70—the fact that Jerusalem is essentially cast into the Roman Sea, overwhelmed by Rome and destroyed.

And that’s going on here as well. There’s individual instruction that’s germane to us. But the object lesson for us is what the Jews didn’t do. They were prideful. They did cause a lot of other people to stumble and they were cast into the sea. The Romans conquered them and they did have as it were a millstone tied around their neck.

Now millstone’s interesting use of that here because you know in the Old Testament the millstone is the thing of work. But now the millstone becomes the thing of death. Abimelech, bad guy in the Old Testament in Judges, as Flynn A. talked about in a previous sermon, his head was crushed by a woman throwing a millstone. So, you know, if you’re going to have a millstone attached to your head, the way Abimelech had the millstone hitting his head, this is a picture of judgment from God.

Judgment from God. So this is what’s happening here. And in the book of Revelation, specifically in the book of Revelation, it says that they’ll have a millstone tied around their necks and be cast into the ocean. Revelation 18:21: “Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, threw it into the sea, saying, ‘Thus with violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.’”

So clearly there’s some illusions here—as the book of Revelation makes clear—to what’s going to happen to Jerusalem.

Now what does this do for us? It intensifies the warnings to us. You know, not causing your brother to stumble is not a small deal. This is a really big deal—is the point of all of this. And it’s really the specific incident for which Jerusalem finds itself destroyed by God: the lack of humility and actually causing others to sin.

Moving on from this section—oh no, I misplaced my notes. Excuse me while I rearrange my notes here. What could I have done with them? No, no, no. Okay, here we go.

So that’s the center section, and that’s the opening subsection. Oh my. Okay. That’s the center of the section. And now the closing section is found in verses 10 to 20. So the opening section is about humility before God entering the kingdom. The central section is not causing others offense. And the third section is going to move on to our responsibilities to help others overcome the offenses or the stumbling blocks that they have given into and sinned relative to.

Now it begins by really kind of focusing back on what was just said. “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones.” I want to spend a couple of minutes on this. So what he’s saying is don’t cause someone to stumble. And then what he opens the next section with is don’t despise little ones. So one of the ways we cause people to stumble—if we take these sections together—is by despising rather other people.

John MacArthur has a pretty good discussion of this in his commentary and I wanted to list several points that he makes about how Christians despise one another.

Before I do that, one quick sentence here. “I say to you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” The face of my Father in heaven has a marker there down to the end showing that all these verses 10 to 20 are a unit based on that phrase.

But the point I want to make is: this doesn’t necessarily mean that we each have guardian angels. But it does say something very important to us. It says that there are angels and Hebrews says that all angels are ministering spirits that God sends for the well-being of his people. Okay? So we’ve got angels plural beholding the face of God, looking at God and deciding what he wants them to do in terms of helping us.

Okay, us collectively. So it doesn’t mean each one of us has a particular guarding angel necessarily, but it does mean that the person that you might be despising is one of the people that God has ministering angels in heaven who can do what you can’t do: behold the face of God. No man has ever done that except Jesus, of course. They can do that and they’re doing that for the express purpose of helping that person.

So what’s contrasted here is the way we treat one another is frequently with disdain or contempt. And the way God sees the person that you might be despising is something important enough and very significant and dear to his heart that he’s got angels around his throne that he’s going to dispatch to help them. So the contrast here again is how things look from heaven and how we typically treat one another in the context of the fallen earth.

So hope this gets our attention. We frequently sin against one another by despising each other. And when we do that, we’re despising the particular object of God’s care, love, and attention, right? And if it’s a little one who has faith in Christ, we’re despising one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died, suffered on the cross. So it’s a big deal, this despising.

Let me quickly run through several points that MacArthur makes from his commentary on how we despise.

He says, first of all, Christians despise each other in many different ways. We despise one another when we flaunt our liberty before weaker brothers, causing them to go against their consciences or to overreact and fall deeper into legalism. And he quotes here from Romans: “Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat.” Okay. Well, see there it is. We got stronger and weaker brothers. And we’re tempted to despise a weaker brother for not engaging in the liberties that we engage in.

And what the warnings is in Romans and Corinthians is we could do something that would cause him to sin. And normally we think about that as: well if he thinks alcohol is bad, he could actually drink alcohol against his conscience and sin. That’s one way it could be. But what MacArthur is pointing out rightly I think is another danger of the improper exercise of our liberty and flaunting it is that people are going to dig deeper into their legalism. They’re really going to be ticked when you show it to them in an overt way, you’re drinking or whatever it is. So, in any event, the scriptures—and that’s all MacArthur is doing here—is doing a little word study on despise—warn us against despising people with the improper exercise of our liberty.

Second, Christians also despise one another when they show partiality. We are never to hold the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. That’s James chapter 2. God loves and cares for his children equally. He Acts 10 is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears and does what is right is welcome to him. So, you know, within the context of community life, we’re not to show that kind of favoritism or partiality because what we’re doing is despising people that aren’t like us. Okay? So very important.

Third, MacArthur says, “A third way we despise fellow believers is by withholding help from those in need.” People need help. We’re coldhearted toward them. We don’t reach out and help them. And this is essentially looking down. To despise means to look down on someone—literally here. And we’re looking down on them when God gives us the ability to help them with a particular need. And we don’t do it. It’s despising our brother.

A fourth way believers despise fellow believers is by ridiculing their physical appearances. And he cites this because Paul was subject to this, right? The people said, “Well, yeah, he’s got great letters that he writes, but you know, when he shows up, he does not have impressive personal characteristics and in fact he’s got some weird eye condition going on and we can’t tell what he’s looking at.” So they make fun of Paul and despise him for his physical appearance and we do that.

You know, it’s interesting because Jesus says, you know, it’s better to be lame or maimed—with your hand cut off—or blind and enter into life. And that’s the way a lot of us are. A lot of us have appearances in different ways that show that we are kind of messed up. I have a lot of physical problems and to look down on people for these kind of physical challenges or difficulties that God in his grace has given to them is really a very bad thing. Again, I can’t emphasize how strongly Jesus says this is really bad. Don’t do it. Don’t despise one of these ones that God is sending his angels to minister in the context of.

Fifth, believers despise other believers when they are indifferent to or judgmental of a fellow believer who seriously stumbles. Indifference to a believer who is sinning or stumbling is a form of derision or looking down—treating somebody contemptuously. And this is what the text is going to go into next. It’s going to say, you know, don’t despise one of these. And when you see someone sinning, you’ve got to go talk to them.

This is really important. When we don’t do that, when we try to be nicer than Jesus, right? Or when we redefine love in terms of everybody has their own deal going on and I’m not going to go talk to somebody about their sin. This is really a bad thing. This is as I think MacArthur is absolutely right. Instead, we’re told specifically: if people are caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual are supposed to go to that one and correct him and restore him and help him recover from his sin. We’ll talk more about this in a minute.

Sixth, he says believers despise other believers by resenting a fellow Christian who confronts their sinfulness. Okay? So, I don’t go to you with a problem you’ve got going on and I know about—or I do go to you and now you can despise me by saying, well, you know, who are you? Get out of my life. It’s my life. You know, I do it my way. And this is to despise the one that’s bringing correction.

Now, this is always a temptation. If I go to someone to talk to them about a sin or if they come to me, what are we typically going to do? We’re going to either run away or we’re going to put up our fists and start to fight defensively. And so we want to not do that because what we’re doing then is actually engaging in despising or looking down on the one bringing correction. And we have this tremendous judgment that Jesus says could be coming upon us for this very thing.

And of course, the Jews in AD 70 in Jerusalem—this is what they did. They despised Christians. And we don’t want to put ourselves in that kind of company.

MacArthur said this: “For one believer to wound another is to attack the will of God and set himself up as God’s antagonist. The Lord seeks the spiritual well-being of all his children, and we had better do no less.”

Okay. So, so that’s that’s where this starts: don’t despise them. “I say to you that in heaven their angels, behold the face of God.” This—and then he goes to the positive now. Not just don’t despise, but look what he says next. “The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” And then we have this idea of the man straying and he’s going after the 99 and in the middle of it he goes to the mountains to seek the one that is straying. And if he finds it there’s great rejoicing.

So I’ve bolded the words that seem to indicate that the center of this section—the first in this closing set of bookends in 10 to 14—is this idea of going to the mountains and seeking the one that strays. Now again here, why mountains? You know, you go through the Bible and you read these verses, you’re supposed to be thinking. You’re supposed to ask yourself questions. And so again, the big picture here is more than just personal relationships in a tiny community.

There’s a big thing going on. Listen to this from Jeremiah 50:6: “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray. They have turned them away on the mountains and they have gone from mountain to mountain, they have forgotten their resting place.”

So bad shepherds don’t seek after sheep straying on the mountains. And in fact, the bad shepherds of Jesus’s day had caused the people to stray and to be up in the mountains where they weren’t supposed to be. The coloring picture today shows these mountains. That’s why I chose this one. You know, it doesn’t say mountain. It says mountains plural. And why would sheep go up to mountains instead of staying in the valley? Well, we can think about that and meditate about it.

One cause is that they got bad shepherds who aren’t really caring for them and they’re off trying to get their food wherever they can get it. Another would be fear. Fear causes people to run off and to leave the group. And so what Jesus says is, you know, community life begins with humility. It moves to making sure we don’t despise one another. We don’t hurt little children or the disciples. We don’t make them sin. And it goes on to say that the third aspect of community life is helping one another. Helping them particularly when they’re straying.

So this is the third key to effective community life together: seeking the one who is straying.

Now it’s interesting because if I’ve outlined the passage correctly, the very next section has as a center the law of God. So verse 15: “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.” So this is the classic passage. This is why most people know about Matthew 18. They want to talk about Matthew 18 and discipline.

But the discipline is the third step, right? We’re supposed to be positively humble before one another and God. We’re supposed to be caring—not sinning against each other. And only after that do we then end up having to go and help other people. So it’s the third step and it’s a unity, but it is this third step. But look at the way this is structured.

You’re to go then and tell him his fault. And if you look on your outlines, you’ll see why I have it structured the way I do. And if I’m right, then the center of this is the law of God. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.” Now, this is very significant. He’s saying that community life is furthered by an application of the law of God. He’s quoting from Deuteronomy here—the need for two or three witnesses. And so this idea that love toward one another means grace and not law is completely put on its head by our Savior’s instructions of how to maintain good community in the context of our church or the extended church.

We have a positive obligation to seek and save those who end up on mountains—who go off away from the group. We have an obligation to go and seek them. And then we have a specific set of ways in which we’re to do this, right? What are those ways? Well, what it says is: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.” Who has to go? Everybody. In other words, this isn’t restricted to pastors. If there’s something going on in the church and you know about a person who’s sinning, it’s your obligation to go to that person.

Okay. Now, what sort of sin? How does discipline begin? It begins with people having enough love for each other to not let them do whatever the heck they want to do. And when you see people struggling, straying, or to think of them as little sheep away from the fold, you’re supposed to go help them out. It’s that simple. You’re supposed to have enough love for people to go and talk to them. And what sin is it that might lead to the excommunication that’s discussed in Matthew 18?

You know, I hear this all the time from denominations: we only excommunicate for major sins. But this text says it’s any sin that he’s done against you, right? He’s sinned against you in some way. No matter what it is, you’re supposed to go and help him come to correction.

Now, Leviticus makes it quite clear that the other option to this is talking about each other. In Leviticus 19, I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. You know, if you got a church that doesn’t have enough love and concern for each other to go and talk to them when they see problems, what you’re going to end up with instead is a church that talks to somebody else about the problems. That’s the options, it seems to me. You’re either going to have a church that loves one another enough—who recognizes the value of each someone’s sitting in this room—enough to notice if they’re not here next week and to try to figure out why that might be as an example or if you know of a particular sin, you’re supposed to have not you’re not supposed to call the elder.

You’re not supposed to do that. You’re not supposed to talk to your friends about it. You know, you’re not supposed to go and gossip about it. You’re supposed to go to that person, say, “What’s up? Looks like you’re having trouble.” And if they’re sinning and you find out they’re sinning, you’re supposed to then try to win them. The idea here is this particular word means to make clear to them what is happening.

Now how—when do you go about doing this? What does it say? I mean the text is pretty clear, isn’t it? “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.” There’s no time lapse. “Well, maybe things will get better with time.” They don’t get better with time. Usually with time people become more stuck, strident, solidified in whatever sin they may be engaged in. And with time, you get kind of a bad attitude as well.

If you know somebody’s sinning, you wait and wait and wait. By the time you’re ready to go talk to him frequently, it’s kind of pointless because you’ve botched it by not being prompt in discussing things with other people. So, community life—humility before other people, not despising people—means we have the positive obligation to help one another when sin is going on in the context of the church.

Church discipline is absolutely required. This is the great discourse—the greatest discourse on what community life is supposed to function like. And this discourse has half of it indicates we’re supposed to have enough Christian love toward each other to go and talk to people about their problems.

You know, I mentioned before this idea that, you know, Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. One of the results of that view is we don’t do this. Well, I don’t know. It’s their deal. You know, we all have private lives. Or we say, well, it’s judgmental to go and talk to a person. And Jesus says we’re not supposed to judge. But here, Jesus tells us explicitly: we have to evaluate actions, and on the basis of those actions, if we really love people, instead of just say we love them, we’re going to go to them and talk to them about the problem.

You know, we have right now in this church. Okay, let me get real specific here. We’ve got at least a dozen members of this church who aren’t here regularly week after week. Did you notice that? Do you notice that maybe one of your friends or somebody you know or whatever isn’t here? Do you wonder why that might be? I mean, some of them they’re perfectly proper, good things are looking for another home church.

But do you know that I worry that we’ll fail at Reformation Covenant the way that all the other churches have—well most other churches—no longer exercise this part of what our Savior tells them at all. When was the last time people are excommunicated for this or that sin? I know a case in another CRC church where you know woman’s living with the guy—been doing it for four months and maybe discipline might get started. Haven’t been at church—haven’t engaged in sex outside of marriage. Maybe we’ll get to it. Well, that seems completely counter.

How do you build a church when people don’t have enough love and esteem for their brothers and sisters in the Lord that God loves so much and cares for? He has these ministering spirits, these angels who are just looking for his direction to go and help. That’s how much God values them. How can a community exist and be effectual when it doesn’t attend to those within its care?

I don’t think it can be. And you know, churches don’t end up like that because they say, “Well, yeah, but I don’t want to do that.” No, it you sort of slide into it. And you slide into it with a law-grace distinction. You slide into it with, you know, if you go and do that, it’s kind of mean and judgmental. You know, we slide into it and we think that, well, they’re still, you know, related to Jesus. Maybe they’re going someplace else, maybe they’re not. Why don’t we talk to them?

Pray for your elders. We have it on our agenda every week. Every time we meet now, we got these 12 or 15 people that we’re having trouble with of some type. Maybe not trouble—need of oversight. We’re going through it, but you should be doing that. You know what I’m saying? Don’t think it’s somehow a bad thing. The Bible says that’s what you’re supposed to do to live in community together.

And as I said, the other option of this is to not love each other and enough to do anything when people could be struggling big time. I know some of these people—they’re not hardly going to church very often at all. What are you doing about it? I know what the elders are doing about it. And you know, we are on it. But you know, this text isn’t written to elders only. It’s written to you. And this tells you how to live in community together.

And the one specific way you are told how to love your neighbor as yourself is to go and seek them out when there seems to be a problem in the context of their life. That’s what this says and the Bible says it over and over and over again. So, it’s for their well-being. But let me tell you another reason to do it: “Better for the body if you cut off the hand and go into life, right? That if you enter and if you don’t enter into life with both hands.”

Ultimately, the holiness of God that I spoke of a couple of weeks ago—in this it three or four weeks ago—that’s our motivating factor. Yes, we love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but if necessary, they have to become to us like tax payers or tax gatherers and Gentiles—those outside of the body of Christ. And even worse, because Paul goes on in the epistles to say, “Don’t eat with these people. Bring them to shame if you end up excommunicating them. Don’t just treat them like, you know, they’re okay, but don’t we don’t want them here.”

Ultimately, we have to be willing to say that the holiness of God and his kingdom on earth is more important than the number of friends, the size of the church and all that other stuff. A love for the person of God himself and his holiness, a love for the Lord Jesus Christ will not let a church become slip into degrees of unholiness and sinful activity going on. That’s the sort of arrangement that churches make with pastors: just give us an easy gospel. We don’t want to hear anything about God’s justice, his wrath, his holiness.

But Jesus says the essence of being a Christian in both in the gospels and the epistles is to be holy. And God calls on us to be holy and committed to each other enough to love each other by entering into the context of discipline when need be—lovingly talking to people. If required, bring another person to try to make it clear to them that what they’re doing is wrong and then if necessary telling the church and if they still won’t hear the church then they’re to be considered as a Gentile or as a tax gatherer.

And then Jesus concludes this by telling us: look, if you do things the way I tell you to do them then there will be a connection between heaven and earth. What you do on earth—when you do it according to the precepts that I’ve laid out for you. When you’re humble, when you don’t sin against people, when you don’t despise the little ones by not helping them come to correction if need be, and when you don’t despise the little ones by refusing correction when they bring it to you—if you do it right, if you go to them instead of talking to somebody else or having the elder go to them, if you go to them, if you go right away, right, and if you lovingly confront them as a brother, not as an, you know, someone that you’re enemy, but as somebody that’s your friend and brother.

And if you try to make it clear to them what’s happening and then follow the process through to its completion. Jesus says: when you do things the way I tell you to do it, we have this wonderful conjunction. “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.” And then the assurance: “I’m there in the midst of you.”

He closed it off by reminding them of the humility, the childlike trust of the child, the little toddler that comes when he calls. Jesus puts him in the midst. You want me in the midst? Then love each other. Be humble toward one another. Don’t despise one another. And if necessary, have enough love and concern for God’s holiness and love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor well enough to go to them and bring them to correction as they stumble away.

Maybe the Lord’s speaking to you today about someone that you know about that has some sin going on and you know about it. Maybe it’s to you or maybe you just know about it and yeah, I would greatly encourage you this week to talk to them. That’s love. It’s not unloving no matter what the world says, no matter what lawless branches of Christianity that try to break off grace and law say. It is the way to love and it’s the way to commit yourself to be the humble child who does what Jesus says.

That’s where the text began. “Come here,” he says. And we toddle over. “Here’s how you’re supposed to love each other,” he says. And we say, “Okay, that’s what we’ll do. We trust him enough and we love each other enough.” May the Lord God grant that this church walks in these ways of community.

The Lord has armed us with his covenant, with his law, with his gracious law in terms of how to have successful community together: humility, avoiding sinning against each other and disdaining each other, and then actively seeking out the well-being of each other. God has armed us. The question is, will we turn back in the day of battle? Or will we be more faithful than our forefathers who turned back and as a result suffered the judgments of God? He lays out for us the destruction of Jerusalem as the great warning to us as a church. He does the same thing in Revelation, right? Most of the book is about the destruction of the Jerusalem church—the eighth church—but it’s begun with a series of admonitions to the seven churches that they not be like that church. May the Lord God grant…