THE RULE OF GOD PRODUCES A HEALTHY COMMUNITY
Matthew 18: 15-35
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 18 of Matthew stands as one unit. Jesus is responding throughout
this chapter to the question of the disciples in v. 1 and the situation
that provoked the question. As we saw last week, the 12 disciples of Jesus
displayed their true colors when they demanded to know from Jesus, "Who
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" The disciples are proud
men and they do not view themselves as debtors to Jesus’ kindness but
as deserving heroes in God’s army. They demand to be treated like kings
from the only person who ever deserved to be treated like a king. The
picture Jesus paints in vv. 1-14, apart from the promise of v. 14, is
pessimistic. Proud people lead others into sin and commit sins and so
are threatened with hell. God’s people are viewed as sheep that both are
led astray and go astray. Verses 1-14 are addressed to those who sin whereas
vv. 15-35 are addressed to those who are sinned against. In verses 15-35,
Jesus explains how it is that his people are to function together to help
one another make it safely to heaven.
There isn’t a person in here that doesn’t want to live in a family, a
community that functions well and helps all the members of the community.
However, if that’s going to happen we must learn how to deal with the
ever-present reality of sin. Families and societies are shredded by the
people who make them up. A community of people who all want to be treated
like kings is not going to be a pleasant place to live nor will it last
very long. I concluded long ago that the only thing that stands between
me and a happy home—a happy neighborhood—a happy church, is me. The only
thing that will keep us from being the church God wants us to be is us.
We cannot be naïve and act as though the only thing we need to do
to create a healthy community is to sing songs together, listen to sermons
together and play softball together. In this passage Jesus deals with
the nitty-gritty reality of how sinners, who have been saved by God’s
unmerited favor live together in healthy communities.
MAIN POINT
The Church is a community of people that helps one another make it
safely to heaven by …
I. Supporting each other’s war against sin (vv. 15-16)
Jesus begins by telling us to expect our Christian brothers and sisters
to sin and to sin against us. This ought to be encouraging to us. We’ve
all seen other Christians commit sins. We know that we have sinned. In
addition, other Christians have sinned against us and so it is good to
know that Jesus, the leader of the church, expects such things to happen.
When you see sin in the church it doesn’t mean it’s time to go elsewhere.
It means it’s time to do something about it. We are to go to our Christian
brothers and sisters when they sin and when they sin against us. In vv.
15-16, Jesus is telling us when to go, how to go and why to go to our
fellow Christian. I want to look at each of these in turn.
First, when do we go? We are to go to another Christian when they
sin against us. I believe that this includes not just sin against us personally
but also when we see other Christians sinning. I think this is the case
for two reasons. First, we are commanded at several other places in the
NT to go to our brothers that we see them sin. In Galatians 6:1 we are
told, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual
should restore him gently." Second, there is a sense in which every
sin that a Christian commits is against other Christians. Paul says this
in 2 Cor. 2:5 when referring to the professing Christian who was having
an incestuous relationship with his step-mother. This isn’t hard to understand.
When a member of a family is arrested for a crime, even though the crime
was not committed against the family, yet there has been injury done to
the family for which the criminal should apologize. We must go to other
Christians when we see them sin or when they sin against us.
Now notice, Jesus does say "sin", he doesn’t say "annoy"
or "irritate". He does say "sin", he doesn’t say "when
you see them violate a man-made rule" or "when they disagree
with your preferences". Especially in this chapter, we must let the
word sin have its full meaning. We are dealing with behaviors that if
not repented of reveals that the person is not a Christian and is going
to hell. There are many places in the Scriptures where we are commanded
to "let love cover a multitude of sins" or "bear with each
other." People, even Christian people, are annoying and Jesus isn’t
telling us to confront one another whenever we are annoyed. We don’t go
unless we have clear and convincing evidence that this is a sin, a violation
of God’s will for human conduct and relationships. When determining whether
to go or not the central question to ask isn’t only, "Am I offended?"
but also, "Is God offended?"
Second question, how are we to go? We are to go to the
brother who has offended. We are not to go to our friend and tell them
or to our prayer group. We aren’t to go to the pastor and tell him. When
we see another Christian sinning or when they sin against us we are to
go directly to them in private. This is true for families also.
How much bickering would be stopped in our families if when another member
of the family sinned against us, we went to them in private instead of
confronting them in front of the entire family? We are going to "show
him his fault." In other words, we are going with evidence of their
sin. This means both a biblical warrant and an eyewitness account. We
are going to prove to them that what they did actually violated God’s
will for human conduct and relationships. If you cannot do that, then
you don’t go. The therapeutic model of relationships tells us to go in
order to express how the others behavior made us feel. We are told that
we need to express our emotions and help the other person to empathize
with us. We are told by our therapists that it’s important that the other
person know how we feel. That is not what Jesus says. We’re not going
to our brother because our feelings were hurt, we’re going because we
have first hand evidence that they are sinning.
I do think that we only go after we have done what Jesus tells us to
do in Matthew 7: 1-5. "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For
in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure
you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust
in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’
when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brother’s eye." In other words, we only go after
we have dealt with our sin. We do not go as self-righteous morality police.
We go humbly, gently, knowing that the only reason that we are not on
the other end of this conversation is timing and grace.
What do I do if my sinning brother will not listen to me? What if they
don’t agree that what they’ve done is sin, a violation of God’s will for
human conduct and relationships? What if—he is not willing to turn away
from the sin that he is committing—if he is not willing to be reconciled
to me? Let me say first that you haven’t done v. 15 after just one conversation.
We engage in patient dialogue. We don’t just drop a bomb and then say,
"Well I did what I was supposed to do." We engage in a process
of restoration. After repeated attempts to resolve the issue in private,
Jesus says I am to go and find one or two other mature Christians to come
and talk with the two of us. These "witnesses" do not have to
have witnessed the sin, but they are to come and to act as impartial,
godly arbitrators in our dispute. It may be that I am wrong in my assessment
of the problem. It may be that I haven’t removed the log from my own eye.
It may be that the other person will respond to the loving persuasion
of another person.
Finally, why do we go or what is our goal? The goal, as it is
expressed at the end of v. 15 is to "win my brother". This verb
is used in 1 Cor. 9 and 1 Peter 3 to describe winning men and women to
Christ. When we see another Christian sin or when another Christian sins
against us we see danger for him or her and we want to help them. We know,
based on what Jesus said in vv. 5-9 that people who sin and who sin against
others are in danger of hell. We also know, based on vv. 10-14 that God
the Father is pursuing his straying sheep to bring them back. When we
see another Christian sinning or when they sin against us, we know that
they don’t really want to do this. We know that they may have somehow
been led astray or wandered off, but they really want to be living in
God’s sheepfold. We know they really want to be living in harmony with
us and with God’s church. Therefore, we go to them, not for the purpose
of condemning them or making them pay for what they’ve done. We go out
of our love for them and a desire for them to live at peace with us in
God’s church. We go as God’s representative to help restore them to God
and to us.
This is so important. My attitude towards other Christians is not like
a judge or police officer. I am not out to make people pay for their sins.
It’s not my goal to make you understand how much you hurt me. My posture
towards other Christians is one of encouragement, to help them in their
battle against sin. Therefore, the motive and the purpose of our going
to another Christian who has sinned or sinned against us is to restore
them to God, to his church and to us.
The Church is a community of people that helps one another make it
safely to heaven by …
- Supporting each other’s war against sin
- And by…
II. Excluding those who refuse to fight (v. 17)
Jesus does envision the possibility that the sinning brother refuses
to listen to you or to the spiritual, objective arbitrators you bring.
He will not turn and humble himself like a little child. He refuses to
engage in the fight against sin that Jesus commands in vv. 8-9. If that
is the case, then Jesus says we are to report the matter to the church.
Here again, the purpose isn’t to humiliate the sinning brother but to
restore him. That is the meaning of, "if he refuses to listen to
even the church." Practically speaking, I would say you begin by
going to the leadership of the church and seeking to have a meeting with
the two of you and the elders. The elders evaluate the case and urge the
erring brother to turn, to come back and seek to establish a process of
restoration and reconciliation. Again, there is a patient, gentle involvement.
We are after restoration, not vindication. We are not trying to prove
people are wrong so we can prove we are righteous. We are to act like
God, like the good shepherd who is trying to bring back wandering sheep.
However, there does come a time when we must finally say to the erring
brother something to this effect. "You, by your behavior and your
unwillingness to turn, to humble yourself, are revealing that you do not
want to have anything to do with the salvation of Christ. Jesus doesn’t
save people in their sins, he saves them from their sins. You are refusing
to fight the good fight, to run the race of faith. You are trying to live
in sin and live with Christ and that is an impossibility. Therefore, we
want you to feel what it is like to live apart from Christ by requiring
you to live apart from his people. We are not going to enable you to enjoy
the benefits of being a Christian while you are enjoying sin. We are going
to treat you as "unclean" people were treated in the OT. You
cannot come to church or participate in any of the functions of the church.
None of us will treat you like a Christian brother. We will be polite
when we meet you, but we will not act as though you are a brother or sister
of ours."
Paul makes clear in 1 Cor 5 as Jesus does here that even this shunning
or excommunicating of a person from Christian fellowship is to be done
with the purpose or restoring the person to Christ and to his church.
We want the sinning brother to feel what it is like to live without Christ
in the world so that his heart will be broken and he will turn and humble
himself. To use the language of Jesus in vv. 8-9, we want him to cut off
the member of his body that is leading him into sin and throw it away.
I do not think that this kind of radical excommunication should happen
very often in a church. If the gospel is being correctly taught in a church,
including the warnings of Jesus as in vv. 1-14 and if we are doing v.
15, then this kind of radical discipline will not be often needed.
This is serious stuff because we are dealing with serious issues, heaven
and hell. The reason that we are so anxious to confront a sinning sister
in Christ is because we believe what Jesus says in vv. 6-9. The reason
we are so willing to go through all this hassle and awkward relational
moments is that we want to be agents of reconciliation between people
and between God and people. We love Christ, we love people, and so we
love to be involved in helping people in the fight no matter how much
it costs. We are not interested in proving our righteousness or in condemning
people. We are very interested in being used of God to restore people
to Christ and to his church, even if sometimes that means removing people
from the fellowship of the church.
The Church is a community of people that helps one another make it
safely to heaven by …
- Supporting each other’s war against sin
- Excluding those who refuse to fight
- And by…
III. Living together in submission to the Word of God (vv. 18-20)
Verses 18-20 are difficult verses and are often misused by people. Verse
18 is repeating what Jesus told Peter and the other apostles back in 16:19
but applying it to the church at large rather than to just the apostles.
Let me summarize what we concluded the phrase, "whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven." (If you need to see the entire argument you
can go the web site or talk with me after church.) The church binds and
looses what God has already bound and loosed when it teaches and practices
what the Scriptures command. The authority of the church comes from Jesus
Christ, through the apostles to us by means of the Scriptures. What Jesus
is saying in v. 18 is that whenever the church gathers together in submission
to his Word and seeking to faithfully apply his word to particular situations,
then we can be sure of God’s presence and power when we correctly apply
this word. This is not saying that God automatically agrees with every
decision we make as a church. Rather, it is saying that when we are faithfully
teaching and obeying his Word, i.e., what he has already bound and loosed,
and applying it to particular situations, then we can be sure that we
are exercising God’s authority on earth. When we, as a church, decide
that a professing Christian, who is refusing to repent, must be barred
from fellowship with the church in accordance with clear biblical instruction,
then we can be sure that we are carrying out God’s will. We can be sure
that God endorses what we are doing because we are simply doing what he
commands us to do.
Many people, when they read vv. 19-20, take them as promises about prayer.
These verses have nothing to do with prayer. My dear Pentecostal and charismatic
friends use v. 19 to endorse the mistaken notion that prayer will only
"work" if all the parties involved specifically agree that God
is going to do what we together agree he is going to do. If any of us
have a shred of doubt that God will do what we have asked, his power is
short-circuited. Verse 20 is often used by those who do not want to participate
in an "organized" church to endorse what is called "home
church". They say, "We don’t need to worship God with anyone
but our own family and close friends. There is no need to get involved
with all those strangers who might not agree with us." The context
requires that these verses continue the argument that Jesus is making
about the process of restoring a sinning brother. The word, "again"
at the beginning of verse 19 connects it with what precedes. The repetition
of the "two or three" connects these verses with what precedes.
Having said that, how do these verse relate to what Jesus has said about
the process of restoring a sinning brother?
Let me give you my conclusion as to what Jesus is saying in these two
verses. If you want to get a detailed defense of my interpretation, talk
with me afterwards. Jesus began this section by talking about two Christians
who are in dispute. One Christian has sinned and another, out of love
and aiming to help his brother in the fight, goes to him and seeks to
show him his fault. Therefore, Jesus in vv. 19-20, is promising his presence
and his help in this process of restoration and reconciliation. He is
promising that when we as individuals and as a community live in submission
to him by submitting to his word we can be sure that he is present and
will be working in us and through us through this process of restoration.
When two of us engage in a dispute and bring other witnesses into the
process in a spirit of love for God and one another and in dependence
upon God, then God will work to reconcile and Jesus will be with us. Jesus
wants us to know that God’s goal is restoration, not condemnation. He
is seeking his sheep and will use us to bring them safely home if we will
follow his directions.
The Church is a community of people that helps one another make it
safely to heaven by …
- Supporting each other’s war against sin
- Excluding those who refuse to fight
- Living together in submission to the Word of God
- And by…
IV. Maintaining morale by forgiving one another (vv. 21-35)
Why does Peter ask this question at this time? I think there are two
reasons. First, we need to remember that this entire conversation was
provoked by a dispute among the disciples about which of them was the
greatest in the kingdom. In fact, as I showed last week, this whole question
quite likely was provoked because of the seemingly special treatment Peter
has received. It is more than likely that Peter has been insulted by some
of the other disciples and so Peter wants to know how often he has to
put up with this kind of treatment. The other reason Peter is asking this
question is that he understands human behavior. He knows it is more than
likely that when you forgive a sinning brother once, you will probably
have to do it again. He is simply asking what I’ve had more than a few
married people ask me, when do we get to stop forgiving and just end the
relationship because the person is obviously not going to change? How
often do I have to put up with the sins of others? Peter is willing to
go through this confronting, repenting, forgiving cycle seven times. Jesus
says you must be willing to go through it as often as the person repents.
If they don’t repent, then you follow the procedure he just outlined with
a view to their restoration. But as often as they "listen to you"
you must forgive them. This raises the question, why should I do this?
It also forces us to ask exactly what is forgiveness if I have to keep
giving it?
The story that Jesus tells in response to Peter’s question is one of
the most powerful parables in the NT. If you will hear what Jesus says
here, your whole life could be turned upside down. In the parable, the
king is God, the slaves are all of us. To be in a relationship of slavery
to God means that he owns us, we are dependent upon him for all things
and we are accountable to him for all things. Nothing we have belongs
to us. It all belongs to him. We all will answer to him for how we have
used what he has given us. Now, in the story, one of the slaves has amassed
a considerable debt to his master. I did a little computing so that you
could get a sense of the debts that are owed in the story. Jesus says
that the slave owes the master 10,000 talents. That is equivalent to a
debt of $3,360,000,000 in today’s money, assuming a wage of $7.00 per
hour.
Why does Jesus use such an outlandish number to describe the debt of
the slave? The point that Jesus is making is that the debt we each owe
God due to our sin is infinite. We cannot repay this debt. Anyone who
thinks they can somehow overcome the debt of sin by performing religious
deeds or "living a good life" is crazy. You and I can never
repay what we owe. We all deserve the sentence that the master gives to
the slave—to be thrown into prison until we repay it all. The point is
that we can never repay it all. In the king’s releasing the slave from
the debt we see that forgiveness is motivated by compassion and is the
determination to not give to a person what they deserve. The slave deserves
to spend eternity in prison. The king lets him go free and live without
any consequence to his debt. He treats him as if he never owed him a thing.
Please note, the slave is forgiven because of the kindness of the master,
not because he did anything. The cause of forgiveness is not because of
anything we do, but entirely because of what God does.
How would you feel if you were a slave, with no assets of your own who
owed your master over 3 billion dollars and were facing an eternal prison
term and then your master, because of his compassion forgave you? Isn’t
this a cause of celebration and joy and happiness? Yet, there is not a
note of joy in the story. Rather, this slave immediately goes out, free
from his debt, and finds a fellow slave that owes him, in today’s economy,
$5600. When he finds him, he seizes him, begins to choke him and demands
to be paid back. The slave did not just happen to see this fellow slave,
he went looking for him to get him to pay him back. Now, the amount of
money he is owed is considerable, especially since the whole story presumes
that the slave is living on minimum wage. However, compared to what he
was just forgiven, this is nothing.
The fellow slave begs to be forgiven in exactly the same words that the
slave used when he begged to be forgiven by the king. We would expect
that the slave would be very glad to forgive. However, he is not and so
he has the slave thrown into debtor prison. What this means is that the
owner of the prison paid the slave the $5600 and then the fellow slave
has to serve the owner of the prison until he has paid off his debt by
working for him. In this case he would have to work for 100 days. When
the other slaves saw what this slave had done, they were greatly distressed
and reported this to the king. Why would the fellow slaves be greatly
distressed? The slave has done nothing illegal. The fellow slave owed
him the money and he has a right to get back what he is owed. The reason
they are so upset is because they knew how much he had just been forgiven.
This kind of behavior is shocking from a person who has been forgiven
like this.
There are at least two things that Jesus wants us to know and feel out
of this parable. First, this story shows the atmosphere that all of vv.
15-20 takes place in. The confrontations that Jesus lays out are carried
out by people who are overwhelmed by the grace of God. People who confront
those who are sinning are humble and aware that they have been forgiven
far greater sins than the one that they are confronting. Christians are
far more troubled by their own sins than they are by the sins of others.
I would say this to you. If you are more offended and amazed by the sins
of others than you are by your own sins, you cannot do what vv. 15-20
tell you to do. All you will end up doing is fighting. I can engage in
the process of restoring you only when I am fully aware of my own wickedness
and of how amazing it is that I am forgiven. This slave was proud. He
was far more offended by the "sin" of his fellow slave than
he was by his $3,360,000,000 debt to the king. He was convinced that it
was only right for the king to forgive him. He deserved to be treated
like a king and he was not going to let any fellow slave get away with
not treating him like a king.
The second thing you and I need to see is what Jesus says in vv. 34-35.
If we do not forgive others when they ask to be forgiven, then we will
be sent to the torturers (NIV is wrong, it is not "jailers".)
until we pay off our debt, which is not possible to pay off. In other
words, Jesus is telling us that if we refuse to forgive others, we can
be sure that we are not forgiven and are going to hell. The kingdom of
God is a kingdom that is founded upon forgiveness and therefore if you
do not forgive you are not part of that kingdom. It is not how you enter
the kingdom; it is one of the defining characteristics of the kingdom.
If you don’t like forgiveness then you exclude yourself from the kingdom
that is characterized by forgiveness. You can only claim citizenship in
a kingdom where you agree with the king. If you hate the person and the
values of the king, then you do not belong to his kingdom. You are his
enemy and will be treated as such. My dear friends, if you are truly forgiven
by God, then you will forgive your brother from your heart. If you are
unwilling to forgive your brother from your heart, then you are not forgiven.
The Church is a community of people that helps one another make it
safely to heaven by …
- Supporting each other’s war against sin
- Excluding those who refuse to fight
- Living together in submission to the Word of God
- Maintaining morale by forgiving one another
BENEDICTION
May we live in the joy and freedom of forgiveness and so be a church
that helps one another make it safely to heaven.
© Copyright 2002
John Swanson.
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use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
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