The Model Prayer - 6c

Forgive = ἀφίημι aphiēmi = to release from legal or moral obligation or consequence, cancel, remit, pardon; to remove the guilt resulting from wrongdoing.

Vss. 14-15, sin(s) = παράπτωμα paraptōma = a false step, a blunder (para, “aside,” pipto, “to fall”); a lapse from uprightness, a sin, a moral trespass, misdeed.

to fall by the wayside. Fault, lapse, error, mistake, wrongdoing.

God’s forgiveness of sin is not based on one’s forgiving others; a Christian’s forgiveness is based on realizing he has been forgiven (cf. Eph. 4:32).

Personal fellowship with God is in view in these verses (not salvation from sin).

One cannot walk in fellowship with God if he refuses to forgive others.

Matthew 18:12–20 (NIV84)

12“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

13And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.

14In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

15“If your brother sins against you (singular), go and show him his fault, just between the two of you (singular). If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

Some very reliable manuscripts, from which these English versions of the Bible are translated, omit “against you.” (The parallel passage in Luke 17:3 omits this.)

Luke 17:3 (NIV84)

3 So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

Whether a fellow believer sins against you or just sins, we are to go and show him his fault privately.

Spiros Zodhiates: It is easier to be publicly critical than privately corrective. And it is invariably more difficult, if not impossible, to correct someone after we have taken the liberty to publicize his or her sin.

Faultfinding is as dangerous as it is easy. It is much less difficult to destroy a reputation than to reconstruct a character torn down by thoughtless gossip.

16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

18“I tell you the truth, whatever you (plural) bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you (plural) loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19“Again, I tell you (plural) that if two of you (plural) on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

These verses address sin and church discipline.

The goal of this process is restoration.

They all relate to sin, discipline, repentance, and forgiveness.

V. 12, wanders away = πλανάω planaō = to go astray, wander about, stray; to proceed without a sense of proper direction, go astray, be misled, wander about aimlessly;

Life characterized by sin, sometimes despite exposure to God’s truth.

to lead astray or to deceive, whether through conduct, speech, or writing.

Often connected to people who abandon the faith.

V. 14, In the same way. The preceding two verses talk about a sheep that wanders off. Then the following verses talk about restoring a sinner.

All these verses (12-20) speak of the same issue:

Restoring a wandering sheep back into the fold by leading them to repentance from their sin.

Who is the wanderer? The sinning believer.

Luke 15:1–10 (NIV84)

1Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him.

2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3Then Jesus told them this parable:

4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders

6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

8“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

9And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’

10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The common thread is finding a wandering sheep that is likened to a sinner who repents.

The rejoicing in heaven is not merely because a lost sheep was found, it was because a sinner repented of their sins.

In order to rejoice over the restoration of a sinner, one must exercise forgiveness.

Matthew 16:13–20 (NIV84)

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Many ancient peoples believed that heaven and hell were closed by gates to which certain deities and angelic beings had keys.

In Greek mythology Pluto kept the key to Hades.

Jewish writings near the time of Jesus give God the key to the abode of the dead.

In the Book of Revelation John sees Christ holding the keys of Death and Hades (Rev. 1:17; 3:7).

Handing over the keys implies appointment to full authority. He who has the keys has on the one side control, e.g., over the council chamber or treasury, cf. Mt. 13:52, and on the other the power to allow or to forbid entry, cf. Rev. 3:7.

Jesus gave this authority to Peter and later extended it to the other disciples (18:18).

Matthew 23:13 (NIV84)

13“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Matthew 23:13 shows us that the scribes of the time of Jesus claimed to possess the power of the keys in respect to this kingdom.

They exercised this by declaring the will of God in Holy Scripture in the form of preaching, teaching and judging.

They opened up for the congregation a way into this kingdom by acting as spiritual leaders of the congregation.

Jesus pointed out that they did not fulfill their task and that they barred many from entering into the kingdom of God rather than opening it up.

Jesus thus transferred the keys of God’s royal dominion, i.e., the full authority of proclamation, to Peter.

The authority to bind and to loose is judicial.

= It is the authority to pronounce judgment on unbelievers and to promise forgiveness to believers through the dispensing of the word of grace and judgment (through the proclamation of God’s Word).

Some have taken the statement to imply that the institutional church or the ecclesiastical head has the power to make authoritative statements that may supersede Scripture and that heaven is obligated to comply. (Roman Catholicism and false teachers who claim a new revelation)

Others have taken it to mean that Christians have the authority to “bind” and “loose” spiritual powers by use of the spoken word of faith. Neither of these views is a correct interpretation.

A more accurate translation of Matt. 16:19 is “and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Similarly, Matt. 18:18 might well read “Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

In other words, that which would be declared and bound on the earth will have already been declared and bound in heaven first; that which would be declared and loosed on earth will have already been declared and loosed in heaven first.

Simon and the other apostles are given authority to offer the gospel freely to loose those in bondage.

This same gospel alienates some, so we find Peter shutting up the kingdom as well.

Those who are loosed by the church have already been loosed by heaven (God’s elect), and those bound by the gospel’s narrowness will have been bound by heaven.

Matthew 18:18–20 (NIV84)

18“I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Verses 18-20 have nothing to do with binding evil spirits and loosing the holy angels. This was referring to church discipline.

As the foundational leaders of the church, the agency that extends the kingdom on earth, Peter and the apostles were the gatekeepers of the kingdom. They guided the ongoing authoritative proclamation of the truth of 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God..”

They allowed entrance to the kingdom through the church for those who confessed Jesus. Those who did not confess Jesus were forbidden entrance.

Church leaders have also been given authority to permit or prevent a person from entering the church fellowship.

To bind would mean, “to excommunicate” and to loose would mean, “not to excommunicate.”

To bind is to forbid entry, to loose is to permit entry into the fellowship of believers.

The whole process is focused on the restoration of the offender, not revenge for the offended.

2 Corinthians 10:1–5 (NIV84)

1By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away!

2I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

When it comes to the term, spiritual warfare, a vast majority never think that the enemy we resist involves arguments, pretentions, and thoughts that attempt to distort the truth of the Gospel.

Many believe that the main emphasis of spiritual warfare is binding devils and loosing angels; binding evil and loosing good.

Look at verse 5. Where are evil spirits mentioned?

Many a person has prayed, “I bind you Satan, in the name of Jesus.” Is that Biblical?

First, the time when Satan and the demons will be bound is in the future, not in the present, as Revelation 20:2 tells us: “He laid hold of … Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.”

The Bible describes our current strategy as resisting Satan not binding him (Eph. 6:11; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).

Second, God will not be using believers to round up Satan and put him out of commission by binding.

Instead, the means that God will use is stated clearly in Revelation 20:1, where it says that “an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand” will do the honors.

The idea that believers have removed Satan and his demon armies from spheres of influence because they have prayed for Satan’s binding is unbiblical.

1 Corinthians 5:1–2, 4-5 (NIV84)

1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?

4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,

5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

The sinning believer must be disciplined according to Scripture.

V. 2, Neither Christian nor Gentile law would have sanctioned such a marriage, however Corinth’s profligacy (immoral lifestyle) might wink at the concubinage.

Concubinage = Practice of a man cohabiting with a woman who is regarded only as his sexual partner.

Our immoral society winks at concubinage.

Most likely, the Corinthians ignored the incest and boasted that a man with such a high social status was a member of their church. The church was honored that a person with such a prominent status would be part of their congregation, and they were unwilling to confront him about his incest. So the church did what their culture occasionally did for socially prominent people: turn a blind eye to that person’s sin rather than risk losing his favor and becoming the enemy of a powerful man.

Hand this man over to Satan. Turning a believer over to Satan thrusts the believer back into the world on his own, apart from the care and support of Christian fellowship.

That person has forfeited his right to participation in the church of Jesus Christ, which He intends to keep pure at all costs.

The purpose is that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

The word deliver (hand over) means “to give into the hands of another, to give over into one’s power, to give someone something to manage or to care for, to deliver one to be taught or to be molded.”

This young man was about to be placed into the hands of the Devil and the Devil is going to have temporary custody of his physical body and the man will rue (bitterly regret) the day that this had to occur.

The objective of this action was not to kill the man but to make the man miserable enough to forsake and to abandon his sin.

To deliver over to Satan means negatively to expel from Christ’s kingdom and positively to relegate to Satan’s kingdom. This is a court action, a judicial verdict. By his crime and his impenitence the man placed himself into Satan’s power.

He merely deceived himself and others by thinking that he was still a Christian [in good standing] because he was being wrongfully allowed to continue his outward connection with the church.

This wrongful outward connection now ceases. After this verdict has been rendered, he and all the Corinthians know the fact that the man is under Satan and not under Christ.

Satan has no power over the spirits of believers. When Satan attacked Job, he was only allowed to harm that man of God physically. He could destroy his possessions and afflict his body, but he could not destroy his soul.

The believer belongs entirely to Christ and we have the absolute assurance that he will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

In the meanwhile the unrepentant believer may be turned over to suffer greatly at the hands of Satan.

Psalm 119:71 (NIV84)

71It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NIV84)

9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Removing a Christian who habitually sins from your fellowship is part of church discipline in an effort to get the person to realize he is sinning and repent.

Paul excommunicated Hymenaeus and Alexander because of their continued and unrepented blasphemy. They were pastors with a false gospel; he “delivered [them] over to Satan that they may be taught not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20).

2 Corinthians 2:5–11 (NIV84)

5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely.

6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him.

7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.

Reaffirm = κυρόω kyroō = conclude, decide in favor of.

Paul was asking the Corinthians to “confirm” their love toward the errant brother by readmitting him to their fellowship.

They were to “conclude” or “decide in favor of” love since punishment to the offender had resulted in sincere repentance.

9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,

11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Westminster Confession of Faith on church discipline: Church censures (condemnations) are necessary,

for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren,

for deterring of others from the like offenses,

for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump,

for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profession of the gospel, and

for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the Church, if they should suffer his covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.

There are limits to reconciliation and restoration.

A youth worker who abuses a youth, may repent, but he will never be restored to the position of a youth worker.

The act of forgiveness does not automatically restore a former status.

A drunk driver can be forgiven, but the car he wrecked stays wrecked.

An embezzler can be forgiven, but it may be that no bank will ever hire her again.

A pedophile can be forgiven, but, by law, he will never be allowed to work with children again.

Ephesians 4:32 (NIV84)

32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

True forgiveness leads to restoration, while unforgiving attitudes can hinder our relationship with God. The goal of church discipline is the repentance and reconciliation of the sinner, not merely punishment.

Forgiveness is essential for a believer's spiritual well-being, and church discipline is a loving act intended to restore a wayward believer.

What are the consequences of not forgiving a repentant believer or unbeliever?

How can I forgive someone I despise?

Next Week!!! (The Lord willing)

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