7-9); and, the care of heaven toward both the saved and lost . 690-94.] Well you file a malpractice suit against me for quackery for saying, "We'll, just let it go and see what happens".And I said, "You're coming to me with a spiritual malady that is more deadly then cancer. Failure to do so robs the church not only of mature believers but also robs us of the opportunity to be used by God. This is surely the simplest of all the parables of Jesus, for it is the simple story of a lost sheep and a seeking shepherd. When church conflict arises, many pastors agree that we should follow the tenets outlined in Matthew 18. but what does Matthew 18 say, and why is it important to follow this when it comes to conflict resolution? Your materials are a healing balm in the Church. If God was there, what else could He, would He do? You have an amazing ability to put into words the very things people agonize over. the sight of the Lord your God, by transgressing His covenant, and It is truth that I have been coming into in my own understanding over the past few years. She is a literary agent for Wordwise Media Services and a certified writing coach. But in practicality, we live and fellowship in the Local Church. The mention of "the church," or "the congregation" as it is in the Greek, shows that this rule was propounded by Christ for observance on the part of his followers in all ages. The power of agreement in prayer.Then Jesus goes on with His two or three concepts. Now at the same time there came disciples to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? God gives the church the authority to disfellowship a member who is habitually committing sin or is a danger to the congregation (Matthew 18:17; Romans 16:17-18; I Corinthians 5:1-5, 9-13; II Thessalonians 3:6, 14; Titus 3:10-11).Every private association possesses power of this sort. If we do not want to be publicly humiliated for our sin, especially if we have not been given the opportunity to repent, we should take a private approach to go to someone in love and let them know of their error. This would not be a legal claim on man, but the scattering of good seed, life and fruit from God, and this in the unlimited field of the world, not in the land of Israel merely. The ten thousand talent debt would take to carry it an army of about 8,600 carriers, each carrying a sack of sixpences 60 lbs. If there is something in your life that is causing you to stumble, if there is something in your life that is creating an offense, cut it out, get rid of it.Sometimes when a person comes into the office and sits down and begins to pour out their story, and they say, "Well, Chuck I am really in a mess. What generates Peter's question may be an exchange not recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. ``A religious person indeed, that becomes a collector of taxes, they first said, is to be driven from the society; but they afterwards said, all the time that he is a tax gatherer, they drive him from the society; but when he goes out of his office, lo! 16 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 . He is the Lord of the harvest. How I wish I wouldve come across a read like this/been exhorted as much when I was a few years younger. Am I missing something, or did not the Church start soon after the death and resurrection of our LORD Jesus Christ? In its biblical context, sin was treated more harshly than it is today. He is in the midst of them, that is, in their hearts; it is a spiritual presence, the presence of Christ's Spirit with their spirits, that is here intended. Jesus point is that a believer who persists in his evil ways is to be put out of the church and to be offered the same fellowship as an unbelieving, unrepentant outsider. More trouble has been caused by the writing of letters than by almost anything else. The law said there was to be no ruling without the presence of two or three witnesses. For He loved Peter felt for him, and his wife's mother was precious in His sight. (i) It stresses the terror of teaching another to sin. Were you watching my life when you wrote the New Testament Prophet? The Lord, while thoroughly proving that He forgot nothing, owned everything that was of grace in Peter or the rest, while opening the same door to "every one" who forsakes nature for His name's sake, solemnly adds, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." Better that that happen to him than he offend, destroy the faith of one of these little ones who believe in Me". In the next scene, then, we have the disciples as a whole tried by a sudden danger to which their sleeping Master paid no heed. Thus the point that meets us in the conclusion of the chapter is, that while every character, every measure of giving up for His name's sake, will meet with the most worthy recompence and result, man can as little judge of this as he can accomplish salvation. But the great keynote of this passage is the terrible weight of responsibility it leaves upon every one of us. c. 14. sect. There are those who never give of their best except on the so-called great occasion; but for Jesus Christ every occasion where even two or three are gathered in his name is a great occasion. "Telling it to the Church" probably does not refer to a public announcement, but probably a discrete fellowship with some members of Church who will find an appropriate way to deal with the issue. Jesus then told the story of the servant forgiven a great debt who went out and dealt mercilessly with a fellow-servant who owed him a debt that was an infinitesimal fraction of what he himself had owed; and who for his mercilessness was utterly condemned. we respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day . The problem is, we are not often willing to forgive. Matthew opens his Gospel by summarising the Old Testament story in terms of Jesus' ancestry (vv.1-17). I heard the podcast of how you and Bryon handled the Matthew 18 principle. It was Rabbinic teaching that a man must forgive his brother three times. in weight; and they would form, at a distance of a yard apart, a line five miles long! More than one Gentile and tax collector accept the Messiah. It's appropriate to follow that model in that situation . And inasmuch as God has commanded it, God will give me the capacity if I am willing, but I've got to be willing.And so I have to pray, "Oh, God give to me that spirit of forgiveness. "Lord, save us; we perish," cried they, as they awoke Him; and He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." I cant tell you how much your blog posts have meant to me. Thirdly, If he neglect to hear them, and will not be humbled, then tell it to the church,Matthew 18:17; Matthew 18:17. All these passages use the word aionios ( G166) ; but we must be careful to remember what it means. At its best, the pasture is sparse. If they listen to you, you have won them over. God had given his soul a deeper, fuller sight of Christ; for the Gentile's words prove that he had apprehended God in the man who was healing at that moment all sickness and disease in Galilee. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. God used this love-inflicted wound to move him to repentance ( Proverbs 27:6 ). It is the love which seeks and saves. In the early part of this chapter he is collecting Jesus' teaching about children; and we must remember that the Jews used the word child in a double sense. (iii) There follows the quality of self-renunciation ( Matthew 18:8-10). But every Scripture that treats of that time proves what dread, what anxiety, what dark clouds will be ever and anon. And that's very typical. He goes to raise the dead, and the woman with the issue of blood touches Him by the way. He healed, and bore its burden on His heart before God, as truly as He took it away from men. The picture is of a great royal court where only the most favoured courtiers and ministers and officials have direct access to the king. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Indeed he grew, for that baby became William the Conqueror of England. He is there wherever faithful hearts meet, however few they may be, for he gives all of himself to each individual person. The pattern is the Son of man saving the lost. And if it so happens that he finds it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more for the one sheep, than for the ninety-nine which never went astray. But here pardon dispensed on earth arouses the pride of the religious leaders to the quick, and implacably. A hook is cast into the sea, and the fish that takes it produces the required money for Peter as for his gracious Master and Lord. What Does Matthew 18 Say about Conflict Resolution Within the Church? Oh, what a heart is ours! It is the death-blow to human tradition and ordinance in divine things, and in reality depends on the truth of the absolute ruin of man a truth which, as we see, the disciples were very slow to recognize. Matthew 18:15-20 . Petty interpersonal offenses and hurt feelings are not included. For even the heathen, that is, the Gentiles and pagans, we do not In meeting or worship, we must have an eye to Christ; must come together by virtue of his warrant and appointment, in token of our relation to him, professing faith in him, and in communion with all that in every place call upon him. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. To me it is evident, from a careful comparison of them all, as I think it is capable of clear and adequate proof to an unprejudiced Christian mind, that neither Matthew nor Luke confines himself to such an order of events. (v) It is now we come to the difficult part. The disciples asked who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. So often we accept a man who is penitent with a moral lecture and a clear indication that he must regard himself as contemptible, and the practical statement that we have no further use for him and do not propose to trust him ever again. Perhaps they thought He was referring to a Jewish assembly, a synagogue. "If he will not hear thee, yet do not give him up as in a desperate case; say not, It will be to no purpose to deal with him any further; but go on in the use of other means; even those that harden their necks must be often reproved, and those that oppose themselves instructed in meekness." ". ________________________________________________. Their angels hold their faces before the Father continually, and He isn't willing that any perish. He "went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." The Jew would gladly agree that, if the sinner came crawling wretchedly home, God would forgive. (iv) The love of God is a rejoicing love. We are in chapter 18 and at this point, Jesus has spent a couple of years with His disciples traveling around and spreading the Good News. Ephesians 4:15 has something similar to say when it states, Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.. I gotta tell you that you are the most straight shooting guy I have ever met. It was a grave step this, and in view of His rejection now. Peter has really got it here: "Lord how often shall I forgive my brother the very same offense, he is doing the very same thing seven times?". When that servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him L5. In our gospel we have not seen the apostles called and ordained. "A religious person indeed, that becomes a collector of taxes, they first said, is to be driven from the society; but they afterwards said, all the time that he is a tax gatherer, they drive him from the society; but when he goes out of his office, lo! Of course, both do preserve chronological order when it is compatible with the objects the Holy Spirit had in inspiring them; but in both the order of time is subordinated to still greater purposes which God had in view. Oh, for grace so to bow and bless God, even when our little travail seems in vain! The Jew feared the sea; for him Heaven was a place where there would be no more sea ( Revelation 21:1). There can be a love which ruins; there can be a love which softens; but the love of God is a protecting love which saves a man for the service of his fellow-men, a love which makes the wanderer wise, the weak strong, the sinner pure, the captive of sin the free man of holiness, and the vanquished by temptation its conqueror. one witness. woe unto thee, Bethsaida! He ate with them. He, on the contrary, insists not only that He was bound for the cross, but that its truth must be made good in any who will come after Him. It does not mean taking two or three shills with you who are on your side, to beat the other person down until they agree with you. Note, The presence of Christ in the assemblies of Christians is promised, and may in faith be prayed for and depended on; There am I. According to Matthew 16:18, what is the relationship between the NT church and OT church? It is the glory of Christ; not so much as Son of the living God, but as the exalted Son of man, who once suffered here below. There is no unpassable gulf fixed but that between hell and heaven. Otherwise verses in the old testament and in fact the whole Bible would be largely irrelevant to us today. We have here. [1.] I cant express to you how much you have helped free me. Read the Scripture: Matthew 18:15-18. Thanks to your prophetic seminar I am now free to be an authentic blessing to others, instead of always feeling like there is something wrong with me, because I can never seem to fit in., The residents in our recovery facility love your articles, so thank you your writings become part of their discipleship and recovery, This is an unfortunate and illegitimate understanding and application. Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/fizkes. The debt which a fellow-servant owed him was a trifling thing; it was 100 denarii ( G1220) ; a denarius ( G1220) was worth about 4 pence in value; and therefore the total debt was less than 5 British pounds. We need not dwell upon it. Jesus, nevertheless, owned all that could be owned in him. This means that it is not only a sin to put a stumbling-block in another's way; it is also a sin even to bring that person into any situation, or circumstance, or environment where he may meet with such a stumbling-block. I. Romans 16:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:14). Even so it is not the will of the Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish ( Matthew 18:12-14 ). It was His meat to do the will of God. And how is the rule usually observed? They used it literally of the young child; but regularly a teacher's disciples were called his sons or his children. It is not enough that Israel be awakened from the sleep of death, and see aright. In fact, even the mothers of the disciples sometimes got in on this. Matthew 18:18 is a trust from God himself. Fourthly, The unanimous petitions of the church of God, for the ratification of their just censures, shall be heard in heaven, and obtain an answer; "It shall be done, it shall be bound and loosed in heaven; God will set his fiat to the appeals and applications you make to him." Peter asked how many times Jesus followers should forgive before taking the severe action that Jesus had just outlined. Individual Revelation Needed for a Testimony of Jesus Christ As recorded in Matthew 16:17-18, Jesus Christ commended Peter, recognizing that his testimony came not from the testimony of others or from physical evidences, but from revelation from Heavenly Father. One of the great points in this parable is the contrast between the two debts. This person may receive undue shame, embarrassment, and humiliation and may fall away from the faith as result. The Church or Ecclessia is a group of believers called out of the world and regenerated in their spirits. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents [about sixteen million dollars]. After this our Lord sees great multitudes following Him, and gives commandment to go to the other side. And Jesus wanted it to be. And so if you humble yourself as a little child, that person will be the greatest". For that person to not be numbered among the brothers, all the church would need to know. (ii) The love of God is a patient love. Sufficient is the punishment which has attained its end, and the offender must then be forgiven and comforted, 2 Corinthians 2:6. To the child a state of dependence is perfectly natural. Ecclessia doesn't have a sense of just the people of one denomination who meet at that local church building you see in your suburb of the city. 137.]. Publican - See the notes at Matthew 5:47. Great sins often amuse conscience, and for the present stupify and silence it; and there is need of help to awaken it. (iii) It has a warning to silence all evasion. The very size of the millstone shows the awfulness of the condemnation. "I will build my church." Jesus has only one church. What Does Biblical Conflict Resolution Look Like? Considerable time, it is true, elapsed between the two facts; but this only makes it the more sure and plain, that they are grouped together with a divine purpose. 3. [2.] Those who depart from it, preferring some other way, do so at their eternal peril. There will be differences at the close. [1.] Thus the fresh revelations of grace in no way detract from that which God had of old established in nature; but, contrariwise, only impart a new and greater force in asserting the real value and wisdom of God's way even in these least things. God does not permit Scripture to be thus used without losing its force, its beauty, and the grand object for which it was written. Jesus anticipates the congregations that His own apostles will establish after Pentecost. The "Church" could just refer to a few members in the locality. "Who, then," they said, "is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" This is not a form of excommunication to be used among Christians, nor was there ever any such form among the Jews; nor could Heathens or publicans, especially such publicans as were Gentiles, be excommunicated, when they never were of the Jewish church. In Matthew 17:1-27 another scene appears, promised in part to some standing there in Matthew 16:28, and connected, though as yet hiddenly, with the cross. Consequently I assume that Jesus intended the disciples involved in such situations to make these determinations on the basis of all the facts in each particular case. Matthew 18 is a less-than-ideal necessity to maintain appropriate boundaries to assure the well-being of individuals and peace in the community when all other long-suffering and forgiving attempts have failed because of human weakness. Such was and is man. [1] For a fuller treatment of this topic see: The Rescue of Matthew 18 available at Amazon.com in softcover and Kindle format. The leper approaches the Lord with homage, but with a most inadequate belief in His love and readiness to meet his need. He could and did form His instruments according to His own sovereign will. Does this scribe offer to follow Jesus? They were the great congregation and church, in the midst of which Christ sung praise to his Father: and since the whole of this advice, and these excellent rules are given to them, and they are spoken of in the next verse, as having the power of binding and loosing, they may well be thought to be meant here; and that the design of Christ is, to instruct them how to behave, in case of offence to one another; that the reproof should be first private, and if it did not succeed, to be made before one or two more; and if that did not do, the whole body was to be acquainted with it; and which rules hold good, and are to be observed by all Christian men and churches, in all ages: though no doubt but allusion is made to the Jewish customs, in rebuking before the multitude, or carrying of a private case, after all other means used were ineffectual, to the sanhedrim. You --that's a painful operation. let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican: To illustrate His point regarding unrepentant sin, Jesus uses two classes of people who are particularly despised in His day. . It is evident that the bodily presence of the Messiah is the very essence of the former scene, as it ought to be in dealing with the leper, who is a kind of type of what Israel should have been in seeking cleansing at His hands. Your life depends on it, you got to cut it out." The warning in this passage applies specifically to one who causes the loss of a human soul. It literally means belonging to the ages; there is only one person to whom the word aionios ( G166) can properly be applied, and that is God. So long as a man considers his own self as the most important thing in the world, his back is turned to the Kingdom; if he wants ever to reach the Kingdom, he must turn round and face in the opposite direction. To continue to allow the flock to fraternize with such a beast is to invite bloodshed. And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? In short, he had a question because he was a man. The second is, "So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few are chosen." Thus, in the chapter before us, we have a very comprehensive sketch of the Lord's manifestation from that time, and in type going on to the end of the age. Again, that's a thought that gives us a -- we react mentally to that, as uh, horrible, but yet how wise as far as the muskrat is concerned. Your book on legalism is such a liberating read! There are no recriminations; there is no receiving back with a grudge and a sense of superior contempt; it is all joy. Evidently it is the change of dispensation that is in question and at hand, the cutting off of the fleshly seed for their unbelief, and the bringing in of numerous believers in the name of the Lord from among the Gentiles. It is easier to label and scapegoat someone as the cause of problems than to forgive them perpetually. In the exercise of church discipline, they must come together in the name of Christ,1 Corinthians 5:4. That is a must. If a first attempt at peacemaking has been unsuccessful, involve others in the community. I feel so blessed to have found you. He that humbles himself shall be exalted"( Luke 14:11 ). But he refused. Does this passage apply to how Christians and churches should handle public sins, including moral trespasses and false teaching? Homily LX on the Gospel According to St. Matthew. Israel must give full testimony in the bright day of His coming. How he loves their beautiful little faces. None the less does the Lord uphold it, purged of what accretions had come in to obscure its original and proper character. At 18:6 He shifts and talks about interpersonal trespassesoffenses, If a first attempt at peacemaking has been unsuccessful, involve others in the community. These instances appear to be a walking out of "telling the church". Power and love were come for any one to draw on. He desires for the members of his body to be in unity with one another. Andrew was confronted in his sin, called to repent and as an act of repentance, submit to his church leaders. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." It is giving up claims to power and status and knowing one's total dependence on God that counts as greatness in the kingdom of heaven. We are not meant to pray only for our own needs, thinking of nothing and no one but ourselves; we are meant to pray as members of a fellowship, in agreement, remembering that life and the world are not arranged for us as individuals but for the fellowship as a whole. He visited the pastor and asked for forgiveness. Matthew 18:17-18. Doubtless, it was contingent upon the utter ruin of Israel through their unbelief; but the fall of the lesser thing opened the way for the gift of a better glory in answer to Peter's faith in the glory of His person. Next, the storm follows. In his defilement he came to Jesus and sought to be cleansed, before the delivery of the sermon on the mount. But there is one clue which we do have. I love Jesus; He is a man's man. This chapter 18 conversation took place in private, in a house (see commentary on Matthew 18:1-5). There certainly is a protocol that Jesus outlines in Matthew 18:15-17 about correcting brethren in sin, but when should it be applied? If the censures of the church duly follow the institution of Christ, his judgments will follow the censures of the church, his spiritual judgments, which are the sorest of all other, such as the rejected Jews fell under (Romans 11:8), a spirit of slumber; for Christ will not suffer his own ordinances to be trampled upon, but will say amen to the righteous sentences which the church passes on obstinate offenders. And what makes this still more striking, is the certainty that the kingdom, bright as it is, is by no means the thing nearest to Jesus. Proud member A local church is any group of Christians who meet together in the name of Christ for worship, teaching, prayer, accountability, and discipline. If Christ (who here speaks as one having authority) say, "It shall be done," we may be assured that it is done, though we see not the effect in the way that we look for it. Matthew 13:19-22), we find first of all the utter worthlessness of the flesh's readiness to follow Jesus. It would have saved me years of heartache. Peter answers, "Of strangers." Seven times? In Matthew 18:17, Jesus' instructions on the brother who sins reach a climax: If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. he is as a religious person z.''. However, it seems that if the whole church gets involved in reproving the offender, some sort of communal, as well as individual, punishment would be involved. The clear assumption is that the Church fellowship is Christian, and seeks to judge everything, not in the light of a book of practice and procedure, but in the light of love. It is easy to pay most attention to the person who, in the worldly sense of the term, has made a success of life. We may take this great promise of Jesus into two spheres. 4. The Power Of The Presence ( Matthew 18:19-20), 18:19-20 "Again, I tell you, that if two of you agree upon earth upon any matter for which you are praying, you will receive it from my Father who is in Heaven. Your book on praise and worship woke me up to the new covenant reality. Matthew 18:15-17 New International Version Dealing With Sin in the Church 15 "If your brother or sister[ a] sins,[ b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. Here we find our Lord, after sending out the chosen witnesses of the truth (so momentous to Israel, above all) of His own Messiahship, realizing His utter rejection, yet rejoicing withal in God the Father's counsels of glory and grace, while the real secret in the chapter, as in fact, was His being not Messiah only, nor Son of man, but the Son of the Father, whose person none knows but Himself. And they, many times, were arguing about these things, the greatest. Jesus says to take the wayward brother to the Church for reproval. How are we to account for a selection so marked, an elimination of time so complete? If men would accept the fact of their dependence on God, a new strength and a new peace would enter their lives. Proceed in this method: First, "Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. (ii) Second, there is the quality of responsibility ( Matthew 18:5-7). "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" If he hears you, you have gained your brother. The very idea would have been incomprehensible to a Jew. He said, "The child is so little." Perhaps modern interpretations of this verse are different, but in antiquity "telling it to the Church" was understood to mean to the rulers of the Church and not to some assembly of persons in general. He tells them that they should not have gone over (or finished) the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come. A fish was the last being for man to make his banker of; with God all things are possible, who knew how to blend admirably in the same act divine glory, unanswerably vindicated, with the lowliest grace in man. The plucking of the corn, and the healing of the withered hand, had taken place long before. Here I close tonight. - Deuteronomy 17:2-7. But a mulos onikos ( G3684) was a grinding-stone of such a size that it needed an ass pulling it (onos ( G3688) is the Greek for an ass and mulos ( G3458) is the Greek for a millstone) to turn it round at all. "My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live." They could follow their track for miles; and they would brave the cliffs and the precipice to bring them back. But the next verse will make it more plain; Matthew 18:18, Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, &c. By the church then must be meant those who had power to bind and loose. 18:21-35 Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? A kingdom divided against itself will not stand. If I assume from the words "set forth in order," in the beginning of Luke's gospel, that therefore his is the chronological account, it will only lead me into confusion, both as to Luke and the other gospels; for proofs abound that the order of Luke, most methodical as he is, is by no means absolutely that of time.