Kingdom Community - Restoration

Introduction

Good morning! We’re continuing in Matthew chapter 18 this morning.

Review

Last week, Mike introduced this chapter and gave us an overview of this section of teaching. This is the fourth of five major sections of teaching in the book of Matthew, and this whole section, this whole chapter, is really one cohesive teaching with one overarching theme. But there is a lot of content in here, and several different sub-themes that you can be identified. So, to tackle this chapter, we’ve broken it up into three messages to focus on three of those themes, or buckets.

But it’s important to remember not to take any one verse or section of verses in isolation from the rest, because the topics all overlap each other, and the concepts connect from one to the next.

We said the same thing quite a bit when we were going through the first major section of teaching in Matthew, the “sermon on the mount,” which is significantly longer than any other section of teaching. The sermon on the mount is five chapters long but it cohesively follows one key thread throughout the whole thing.

Kingdom Community

In fact, all of Jesus’s teaching had to do ultimately with one thing: the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. Being prepared for it, understanding it, and knowing how to be a part of it.

In the sermon on the mount, a lot of it was Jesus describing what types of people belong in the kingdom, how they behave, and there’s a lot of focus on the individual heart condition of people and the results thereof.

In this passage, in chapter eighteen, Jesus is addressing the concept of a whole community of these kingdom people, living in relationship with each other.

The seed of this whole kingdom is starting with his inner circle, his 12 closest followers, and he wants them to understand how they should be living amongst each other after he’s gone. And this whole section of teaching is prompted by his disciples very clearly demonstrating that they don’t quite have that understanding yet.

As Mike pointed out last week, they’ve been arguing with each other while traveling, while on the road, they’ve had this debate about which one of them is the most important disciple! In essence, it’s a power struggle!

And in a way, it’s understandable that their minds would be going there. They are all followers of one man: Jesus. Jesus keeps talking about how he’s leaving soon, and Jesus doesn’t really officially have a “second in command” if you will. He has recognized “something” special in Peter, but there is really no official hierarchy of authority among the disciples. So they want to know who is the next greatest, the best disciple who deserves to lead the group, and receive the most honor in the kingdom of God.

Humility

Of course, Jesus’s response to their question of “who is the greatest?” really reveals their fundamental misunderstanding of how people are valued in God’s kingdom.

What Jesus says is “whoever humbles themselves like a child is is the greatest. In other words, “you’re seeking after glory and pride, but what you really should be doing is seeking humility, towards each other and the rest of the world, in order to discover the true values of the kingdom.

It is important to distinguish that Jesus called his followers to resemble children, not in their faith, their wisdom, their understanding, or their maturity. He called them to resemble children in their humility.

At that time the disciples had failed to recognize the value of humility in God’s economy; it just wasn’t something they were used to even associating with greatness.

The implication is that if we all think of ourselves honestly, humbly, through a kingdom lens, we will recognize that we are equal to each other in that we are dependent upon God for everything and deserving of nothing. We are all as helpless as infants apart from our Father, the author and sustainer of life.

As such, none of us has any right to elevate ourselves as more important than each other. Ultimately, the disciples were just asking the wrong question.

Jesus redirects their focus from “who’s the greatest?” to “who’s the humblest?” and from there continues to teach about what living as a community of God-loving, Jesus-following people should look like. And that’s really what the whole rest of the chapter is about; it’s about what the kingdom community should be; how the church, the people of God should be.

And it starts with how we should be humble.

Purity

Then, in verses six through nine, he talks about how important it is to protect the children, to protect each other. God’s children are so precious to him that we should take seriously any corruption that threatens to compromise the integrity, the purity of the flock.

So, it’s important to keep in mind that context, of how both humility and purity, and both grace and protection, should be held as priorities for the church, when we come to the next few verses.

To help explain this, Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd and his sheep.

Passage

Let’s read together, beginning in verse 10:

Matthew 18:10 CSB

10 “See to it that you don’t despise one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven.

Now, I do just have to mention here that this particular verse has been the cause of much discussion, and I could spend the rest of the morning just talking about how it relates to the spiritual realm, and Daniel chapter ten, but that’s really a rabbit hole for another day.

In this case, just know that when Jesus says this, the main point of him saying this is to emphasize how important children are to God.

And in the broader context, God is declaring anybody who follows Jesus to be his child, and important enough for God to pay attention to.

Let’s keep reading...

Matthew 18:10–20 LSB

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 12 “What do you think? If any man has one hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 “And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14 “In this way, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. 15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. 18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Analysis

Alright, so first of all, Jesus is providing a parable using sheep, and then follows up with very practical, applicable instructions for dealing with personal offenses within the church.

Sheep

So let’s start by looking at this little parable of sheep, in verses twelve through fourteen.

The preceding verses have established that we all should be viewing each other as equally valuable, and these verses establish that the value, in God’s eyes, is very high, and should be in ours as well.

A shepherd who has 100 sheep, a lot of sheep, still values each of those sheep very much and does not want to lose any of them.

So, the point of this parable is not that God will abandon 99 of his children for the sake of saving one! It’s that even when he has millions of children, he will still value and pursue each individual person with just as much love and affection as he would anyone else.

The pursuit of the one is not at the expense of the ninety-nine, rather it’s a concern for the preservation of each individual as part of the whole.

This concept really sets up the teaching in the next few verses, which address how to handle a situation in which that sheep does not want to come willingly back into the fold.

That is, when someone has strayed from the truth, or is causing harm to someone else. That person is a lost sheep, and should be considered a valuable, loved person, and every effort should be made to restore them, to bring them back.

Ultimately, we have all been lost sheep, and would have stayed lost had it not been for Jesus, the ultimate good shepherd, coming to save us.

Isaiah 53:6 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

God is frequently described as a shepherd to his people throughout the old testament. It would have been a relatable metaphor! All Jews came from ancestors who were sheep and cattle herders, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and many continued in that tradition over hundreds of years, into the time of the prophets and kings.

In Psalms, the people of Israel are called to worship the good shepherd, as humble and grateful sheep who have been brought to good pastures:

Psalm 95:6–7 LSB

6 Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice,

Psalm 100:3 LSB

3 Know that Yahweh, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Probably one of the most well-known, well-beloved of all the psalms is David writing about how good it is to be under the care of the Good Shepherd.

Psalm 23 LSB

A Psalm of David. 1 Yahweh is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will pursue me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.

David placed his faith in God, even during his darkest hours, and God used him to lead Israel into a time of peace and prosperity.

In fact, God even said that he was appointing David as a shepherd, an under-shepherd, of his people, when he made him king.

2 Samuel 5:2–3 LSB

2 “Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel; and Yahweh said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David cut a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; then they anointed David king over Israel.

Of course, that didn’t last…David and generations of Israel and her kings failed. They turned away from God, wandered from their shepherd, and ultimately were scattered in Exile. Their city and temple destroyed. And though some would return to Jerusalem, and some of it would be rebuilt, there would forever be many of them dispersed throughout the earth.

In Ezekiel, written during the exile, we see God’s promise to personally intervene to save his lost sheep.

Ezekiel 34:11–16 CSB

11 “ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them. 12 As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them to their own soil. I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 I will tend them in good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel’s lofty mountains. There they will lie down in a good grazing place; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will tend my flock and let them lie down. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will shepherd them with justice.

God promised that he himself would seek out and gather his scattered sheep and restore them to the pastures and still waters of Psalm 23.

Jesus is placing himself in the position of the shepherd, saying he is the one who will restore God’s people. And as it turns out…he came not just to gather the Jews, but to restore ALL of humanity, all of creation, to provide reconciliation for humans before God that we can forever live in his presence, under his care, and by his provision.

I think it’s worth reading the parallel passage in Luke for this parable, in Luke chapter fifteen, to get an even better picture of God’s heart as a shepherd.

Luke 15:4–7 CSB

4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.

The Good shepherd pursues his sheep not simply out of duty or obligation, but out of love, and the joy with which the sheep are received back into the fold.

And this parable is told in a slightly different context in Luke. Here he’s telling it in response to the pharisees criticizing Jesus for keeping company with disreputable people; for eating with tax collectors and sinners.

But it’s those people he’s pursuing as the shepherd…those who many have only wandered a little way off, as well as those who find themselves in the darkest, desolate ravines. Because he loves each of us, deeply and personally, and wants us to be a part of his community.

And in the next few verses, Jesus calls his community, those of us who are with him, to be more than just witless, complacent sheep, but to become active participants alongside him in restoring the flock.

Restoration

In last week’s passage, Jesus warned against causing others to stumble, to stray. Here, in verses fifteen to seventeen, he advises on how to do the opposite, how to reach out to restore someone. He outlines a basic, practical approach to conflict resolution within the church here:

Matthew 18:15–17 LSB

15 “Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.

Now, in verse 15 some manuscripts add “if your brother sins against you” so you may have that in your translation, but the earliest manuscripts don’t have that, so this process really applies to either situation, not just a personal offense, like me stealing something from you, or something you happen to notice, like if you saw me steal from someones wallet, or put pineapple on pizza.

Whether someone has done something to hurt you, or you notice someone in the church sinning unrepentantly, causing others to stumble, causing harm to the church, this is how it ought to be handled.

When it comes to personal offenses against us, our first reaction really ought to be forgiveness!

If one of you were to steal my coat…well…as a brother or sister in Christ we really should talk about that, but if you really need a coat that badly you can have it! I have several. Now, if one of you stole my car, well, I only have one and I kind of need it, so I’m going to ask for it back. But even if I don’t get it back, I need to forgive them in my heart, and be more concerned with the issues in the heart of the thief.

Realize the goal here is not necessarily to achieve justice, or to right what was wronged. If it’s a matter as simple as property that can be returned, then great! But it’s not always that simple, and there’s not always a way to “make up for” what has been done.

The goal is for the person at fault to recognize what they’ve done as wrong and to repent. It’s the repentance that saves us, that restores us to the flock. True repentance, a heart transformation and a decision to turn around. To change our path. And yes, true repentance ought to also prompt us to make amends however possible! But that comes as a result of the real goal, a result of repentance.

In turn, as the rest of the flock we need to be ready and willing to joyfully receive those who are restored, and let go of any grudge or bitterness against them, forgiving each other as we have been forgiven by God.

The verses preceding and the verses that follow all point towards mercy, forgiveness, and unity. But these three verses, fifteen to seventeen, also address those scenarios in which action needs to be taken to avoid further harm. Because to forgive is not the same as to ignore.

In fact, to ignore a blatant sin would be to have no care for that person! If you love someone, you tell them when they have spinach in their teeth! Of course, you do it subtly, and privately. There are also times when, we may forgive a sin, but for the protection of the little ones, the flock, ourselves and each other, an issue needs to be addressed.

The underlying motive, the goal of whatever action is taken, is still to restore the lost sheep, it’s still out of love and value for the person at fault, but Jesus recognizes the practical, human reality of the inevitability of conflict. So he provides a simple, three-step process with which to approach conflict within the body.

First, approach the person directly.

Remember, this is preceded by humility, and the motive of reconciliation, not of accusation or revenge. If you can resolve it amongst yourselves, then great! Forgive, and move on. This is the ideal situation.

“Psst! You’ve got spinach in your teeth, here’s a toothpick why don’t you go to the mirror and get it out?”

“Ok, thank you for point that out!”

If not, then bring one or two others into the situation as witnesses, or moderators; third-parties who can help diffuse and objectively testify as to what has happened or is happening.

Let’s say they don’t believe there’s any spinach in their teeth at all. Or worse, they know all about it but they’re OK with it! They’re saving it for later.

I’m going to say “look, you don’t believe me?” here’s two other people to confirm it.

By the way, in verse sixteen Jesus is quoting from a law you can find in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 19:15 CSB

15 “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

As well as Numbers:

Numbers 35:30 CSB

30 “If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death based on the word of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness.

I’m using light-hearted, silly examples rather than murder, but this concept had serious, legal precedent in Jewish law, and continues to be taught as a guiding principle throughout the New Testament.

[Go back to slide]

Ultimately, the underlying concept is whenever conflict occurs, we should try to address it directly, rather than making a public scandal out of it, and gradually escalating it only as necessary in order to resolve it.

If attempting to resolve it personally doesn’t work, bringing in another witness doesn’t work, then bring it to the church. In our case, that would mean bringing it to the elders first, and the elders would provide guidance and assistance moving forward.

If even that doesn’t work, the person has at that point demonstrated that they do not regard the authority of the church and essentially don’t want to have anything to do with the church. So what Jesus says is, basically, just consider them as an outsider. Think of them as not being a part of the church.

Now, does that mean you shun them? No! What did Jesus do with tax collectors and sinners? He ate with them. Ministered to them. Reached out to them.

Does it mean you have to kick them out of the building?

Well, no, not necessarily. I’m not sure why someone in that position would want to continue attending, but church is not a building and being in the building doesn’t make you a part of the church. Unless someone is a threat to others, whether physically or spiritually, I don’t see any reason to physically remove someone. If someone is spreading false teaching, or screaming obscenities throughout the whole service, or lighting fireworks in the nursery, then yeah we’re gonna kick you out!

Again, I’m using some extreme or silly examples, but there are very real situations in which inappropriate teaching or behavior may warrant proactive response. That’s why this passage is often referred to when describing the concept of “church discipline.” Of a church body taking action in response to sin in the church. Sometimes it is necessary! But it’s crucially important to consider this passage in the context of the rest of the chapter, with the realization that the goal is always, always restoration.

Binding

The goal of ALL of this is unity within the community of the kingdom of God.

A house divided cannot stand.

Psalm 133:1 CSB

1 How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!

To emphasize that concept of unity, in verse 18 Jesus echos what he told Peter in chapter 16, and then in 19 and 20 he illustrates the importance of believers worshiping and praying together, rather than as isolated individuals.

Jesus previously told Peter that what he would do, and the decisions he would make would be reflections of what had already been done in heaven. And this would apply later to things like permitting certain foods, or not requiring circumcision for Gentiles.

Now, he’s applying that same concept to the church as a whole. Saying that what the church does on earth, when done in unity, will be a reflection of what’s been done in heaven.

Specifically, in the context of restoring a brother, if the church agrees to restore a brother after seeing repentance, we have assurance that he is also restored before God. Furthermore, we have the comforting statement that we’re not without the comfort and guidance of Christ himself, that when we gather in his name he is here with us, and his spirit will provide wisdom and discernment.

Next week, we’ll look more closely at the conclusion of this chapter, where we’ll see Peter questioning Jesus on the implications of this. Of being willing to welcome sheep back into the fold even after they willingly run away. Of being open to forgiveness and mercy.

Conclusion

We should all value ourselves and each other as treasured children of God. If someone goes astray, the goal in approaching them should be to restore them, not punish them. Those of us who are the church should be striving to act as one body, unified in our worship and prayer. And, as we’ll see more next week, we must be willing to forgive each other with as much mercy as God has forgiven us.

Benediction