Warnings to Pay Attention Too...
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Warnings to Pay Attention Too...
Warnings to Pay Attention Too...
Good morning...
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends.
Anytime we can gather with family and others that we love I think is a special time, I believe you would agree with me on this point.
Well here we are, just a few days away from the last month of the year! That doesn’t even seem real my friends. Pretty soon we will be celebrating Christmas and then the coming of a New Year if the good Lord allows us to see that...
Now let me ask you a question: Do you consider yourself to be blessed?
Now I know you do…
Why then did I ask you that question? * To help us to reflect my friends… to make sure we do not lose sight of that truth, we are indeed blessed and God is the one who has blessed us.
Now… one more question: Are you a blessing?
That changes things a bit.. are you a blessing to others and to the Lord? We should hope to live in just that way… be a blessing.
What does all this have to do with our Sermon today. Well as we think about Jesus warnings about temptation and sin… if our heart and mind are focused on living in such a way that we 1. remember all that God has done for us,, and 2. Focus on how we are to live and serve.... I think we can overcome temptation and sin.
So with that in mind… Lets go to Matthew 18, and lets look at verses 7-9 to begin with today.
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
So as we open this text we find that Jesus begins to speak to the fallen nature of the world we live in and as such, temptations are a real part of our existence here on planet Earth. But we can over come!
So lets begin with this thought today...
1. Sin and a Fallen World...
As Jesus is teaching His disciples and others, He is moving their focus off their place and aspirations, (remember last week we were address the question of who will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven).
Here, He is directing them to consider their life and how they are living day to day.
And consider this my friends, we can have thoughts for the future, but its the day to day we must focus on the most.
So what is our main problem....??
A. Sin is our Problem....
We know from the witness of Scripture, in Genesis chapter 3, sin entered the world with man’s failure to obey God,.
And with the fall of man, and sin everything in this world changed, and it didn’t stop there, The world and all in it are continuing to suffer under its oppression. Sin and its consequences leaves this world suffering!
And as we open this passage, Jesus speaks to the issue of sin and temptation. Look again at verse 7
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
As we have already talked about we know sin is a universal problem, it’s not just one person’s problem it’s the problem of humanity. We are prone to sin. And even as a saved child of God, we must be careful how we live in this world.
But here is a secret my friends, God’s children have a way of escape. With the Lord’s help we can choose to live differently, It doesn’t mean we are sinless, heavens no, but we are doing all we can with the Lord’s help to avoid sin.
But Woe Jesus says to the one who continues in sin having rejected Jesus to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. They stand judged having known the truth but choosing a different path.
Sin seduces the people of this world, it drags them away to sin, and sin leads to death … James 1 gives us a clear picture of how sin operates in this world. The Woe is a call to judgment for what a person or in this case the world does in luring people away.
And so Jesus adds to this thought with verses 8 and 9… How do we deal with sin...
B. How Do We Deal With Sin....
Knowing sin is the problem, how do we deal with it. What’s the solution to avoid sin as best we can? Here in these passages Jesus teaches his disciples how they can deal with man’s greatest problem.
Look at those verses .... 8-9
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
And this begs us to ask, what does Jesus mean here? Are we really to start amputating limbs or gouging out our eyes?
Well the answer is No,
Jesus is not calling mankind to do these things physically to our bodies of course, but Jesus is calling to take drastic measures to avoid sin…
So instead of removing your eye or your hand… let’s remove ourselves. Listen to Paul in 1 Thessalonians
22 Abstain from every form of evil.
So the very best thing we do is to shun the very appearance of evil! Instead of mutilating yourself, cut yourself off from the pathway that leads to sin. Make the mind and will of Christ yours,
Paul says in Phil 2:5
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
And if you fail to do so, judgment awaits. Hell fire the Lord tells us awaits those who cannot abstain from the evil of this world.
Literally, it is those who refuse to deal with sin, and repent. Thus judgment awaits them for eternity.
Learning to deal with sin, learning to put it out of our lives, as we do this we learn to live correctly in front of others. Jesus compels us to live rightly, and it begins with following Him… humble yourself and come after Him.
So knowing sin is the problem, the quest for us is learning to >>>>>>> which is our second thought.
2. Live Correctly in Front of Others....
As the children of God, we are called to live in such a way that it brings glory to God and allows the world to see the way we live to honor God and share his love to a world in great need.
So here Jesus reminds His disciples to live in such a way that it will impact others. And we know this to be true my friends, living for Jesus does impact others.
It impacts our home, our family, our friends, our brothers and sisters and yes the world around us,.
And so for the second time in this chapter, Jesus speaks to the necessity of living in a way that blesses and does not despise the “little ones”. Lets look back at verse 10.
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Jesus says here “See that” or in other translations it might be “Take heed,” it is a strong warning, it is like make sure you don’t do this… You do not want to be guilty of this
So consider His words do not “despise these little ones”
What does that mean here? ...To despise means “to put to shame” or “to spurn them”, or “to look down upon them”
Could you imagine the scene with me, Jesus is warning older believers to not treat younger Christians as anything but equal, treating them as if they don’t matter. and most certainly living in such a way before them that they are disillusioned and hurt in their faith.
We must live correctly in front of our Lord and yes, in front of others as well. We must receive not only little children fro His name’s sake, but we must receive all of God’s children and seek to help them, minister and bless them.
Paul admonishes this to us in Romans 14:1 and following.
God holds every believer as special, and as older Christians, who are supposed to be more mature, will be held accountable for the way we treat other believers.
But lets finish this verse, go back to verse 10
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
What does Jesus mean when he speaks of “their angels.” Now some hold that God has placed guardian angels over people, to watch over them, protect and help them at times.
Now while there is no absolute proof of this, we can say that God has placed his angels over us whether they are guardian or not… They watch the face of God so they can follow His commands to help us in our time of need.
Wow...
Like a Good Shepherd, God seeks the lost and saves them, how important it is to protect and help His little lambs.
And with that thought, lets move on to our last thought for today.
3. Complete the Mission....
As Jesus has given mankind warnings for living in a sin touched world, He now reminds His disciples of His mission.
Look at verse 11
11 [For the Son of Man has come to save the lost.]
Now verse 11 is a unique one, it is not in every Bible translation. In your Bible it might have a footnote that says something like, i This verse is not in the oldest and best translations.
You have to remember that there are several manuscripts in the original language, speaking of the New Testament it was in Aramaic and Greek. Two large manuscripts are the Byzantine and Alexandrian texts.
If you want to know more about the Bible and how God brought it together into our hands there is a great book on the Cannon of Scripture by F.F. Bruce.
Now enough of that...
Jesus purpose is to seek and to save the lost.. that is our purpose as well.
So lets go on and see what Jesus says in these next verses, 12-14
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
So what is Jesus saying here?
He is using a parable, a earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
So the shepherd, he cares for the sheep. Jesus is broken at the state of the people around Him, the people of the world.
If you look back to Matthew 9:36 we see His point of view concerning the people.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
He weeps, mourns over the lostness of mankind. So the Shepherd notices when even one sheep as gone astray.
So there are 99 sheep who are with the shepherd, they represent the faithful followers of Jesus who no longer need to repent because they are living correctly in front of God
The wandering one is on who wandered away from the intimate fellowship with the Lord, they are not obedient to the His will. The have strayed.
The sheep that has wandered away, represents the “little ones or child” of verses 5 and 6, These are Christians and not real children per say they are young in the faith, not mature.
And here in is the love of God, that he leaves the 99 in search of the 1. Now this doesn't mean the 99 are unprotected. No our Lord has left hem in care of other shepherds to ensure they are safe.
But understand that in a spiritual context, Jesus, the Son of God can do these two things at once, He is able to watch over us while seeking the one who has gone astray.
Now look again at verse 13
13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
When the person is found, when they return to the Lord their is great rejoicing. And we should rejoice with their return as well… but some will not.. Do you remember the brother of the prodigal son, he wasn’t happy that the father rejoiced in his brothers return when he never rejoiced that He was faithful.
My friends our part in this world is to walk faithfully, day in and out and with that the Lord rejoices with us daily, He loves us!
And then we come to verse 14…
14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Those who are is cannot be lost. It doesn’t mean we might stray or wander away, but we are still His… there is no loss of salvation.
But even if they did wander away, they will return, He knows this cause they are His and He has given them eternal life.
My dear friends, God loves this world and is at work daily seeking to save those who are away from Him.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
God wishes for all to be saved… He loves every person… and so should we.
We have a little time left, lets fufill His mission.
Pray