Biblestudy: Matthew (Part Twenty-Four)

Matthew 18:1-22
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John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 19-May-82; 79 minutes

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Back to Matthew the 18th chapter. I think the last Bible study we only got to about the fourth or fifth verse so I am going to go back to the beginning of the chapter, and get a running start at it. Since the last time, I have had a couple of thoughts run through my mind regarding it, and I think they will help you to understand why these things are written, maybe exactly where they are written following right on the heels of what is in chapter 17, and for that matter chapter 16 as well; also what practical application it has for you and me.

Now, what was the outstanding event that occurred in chapter 17? It was the Transfiguration. And in the Transfiguration, the Messianic implications of Christ's ministry—of Jesus Himself—was made very clear to Peter, James, and John. They were given a witness that none of the other apostles was privileged to see, showing what Jesus was going to be like in His glory. And Peter—his immediate reaction was one of understanding, at least to some degree, exactly what was going on. That is why he wanted to make the booths that he did, because he recognized immediately the Feast of Tabernacles, the Millennium, the Kingdom of God. And so that immediately followed on the heels of what was the main issue in chapter 16.

In chapter 16, beginning in about verse 13, the question was asked by Christ of Peter, “Who do men say that I am?” And then Peter's reply was, “Well, some people say that you are Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus said, “Well, who do you say that I am?” And Peter's reply was that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then said, “Well, you have answered correctly. Flesh and blood has not shown you this though. But it has been revealed of My Father who is in heaven.” And then He made the statement that “Upon this rock,” meaning Himself, “I will build My church.” So there we have the very first mention of a church.

Then we have in chapter 17, the Messianic implications of His ministry. And then comes chapter 18. Remember when we were giving you a little bit of the background of what you need to be looking for as we go through chapter 18, I gave you this little catch-phrase that contains the essence of personal relationships.

Now, I want to alter that a little wee bit, to make it a little bit more specific: It is actually the essence of personal relationships in the church, because many of the instructions that you are going to see, though they may be somewhat practical, they are far more practical in the church. That is where their intention lies more than with the world. So Jesus’ Messianic implications have been very clearly shown.

Remember that He is going back to heaven. The institution that He is starting—the church—is going to be here on this earth, and what kind of attitudes, what kind of lives are people going to have to live in order to ensure its continuance, and still do the work besides.

That is what chapter 18 is about. As I mentioned to you, there are seven basic areas that are covered. They are not covered in a great deal of detail. One of them covers about 12 or 13 verses, otherwise most of them cover no more than two or three; one of them covers four.

Those things were first of all: Humility or childlike attitudes; the attitudes of those in the Kingdom of God are going to be like children. That is a requirement to maintain peace and unity within the church. If there is going to be that harmony, if cliques are not going to develop, if there are not going to be any prejudices and misapplications of human nature, then we are going to have to have a childlike attitude.

The second thing is actually a duty, as we are going to see regarding example. We will get to that. That is a very interesting one.

Then the next one has to do with self-denial, self-renunciation, or self-sacrifice.

The next one had to do with individual care. We will see that in a little bit clearer this evening.

Then number five was, how do you correct a person?

Number six has to do with fellowship.

Number seven has to do with forgiveness.

Now let us begin in verse 1.

Matthew 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

Remember, they had just been all inspired by seeing Christ in His glory, being transfigured there on the mount. The kingdom of heaven was certainly at the forefront of their thinking and boy, they were all pumped up. And naturally, they would think boy, I am going to be in that Kingdom, and I am going to be a great one. They want to know who is going to be the greatest.

Matthew 18:2-4 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

As I mentioned last week, Jesus at first did not directly answer their question—Who is the greatest? Jesus said, “Hey, wait a minute. You’re not even there yet. First, you have to get there. And the way you get there is to have a childlike attitude.” He put first things first. He put the priorities in the right order. He said, “First of all, you have to get there and then we will worry about who is going to be greatest when we get there. But if you are going to get there, you are going to have to have a childlike attitude.”

Now, down in verse 3, he says, “Unless you are converted.” That word is very interesting. It is not the word that is ordinarily translated repented or repent. This is a different word but yet they mean virtually the same thing. The difference between converted and repentance is that the word repentance has a feeling attached to it, whereas to be converted does not necessarily imply any kind of feeling, any emotional quality.

Repentance involves remorse, a feeling of deep sorrow for what one has done. But this conversion that He is talking about here, “Unless you are changed. . .” Let me describe it this way: If you were in the army and your drill sergeant was marching you down the field, and he said, “Right about face,” that is what the word means. It means, turn around 180 degrees and go the other way. Is that clear? It means to be completely changed; to go opposite of the way that you are going now.

Now we see why He said what He said. Here they were, worrying about who was going to be the greatest. He put them in their place. He said, “Hey, wait a minute. You’re not going to be there with that kind of an attitude, worrying about who is going to be the greatest. You better do a right about face, and go the other way, and become childlike.”

Remember again, I asked you a question in regard to this section, and that is, “What is it that you are aiming for in life? Is it money? Power? Prestige?” They are all fine things, but also all material things; things that are concerned with this world.

The reason I asked that question is because what we are aiming for in our life has a great deal to do with—a very pronounced effect—on our attitudes, on what our attitudes are going to be.

God says there in Proverbs 29:18 that without vision, people perish. That is a fundamental principle. Unless a person has sharply etched goals, things that are really clear in his mind, he is not going to succeed. I do not care whether it is in physical, materialistic areas, or whether it is in spiritual areas. The stronger the picture is in your mind, the more desire there is to accomplish it and the more likely it is that you are going to accomplish it. And so without vision, you are going nowhere.

Let us look at this thing physically. If you have a materialistic goal that you are striving for, and it really burns in your mind, you want to accomplish it with all of your being, with every fiber in your body you want to accomplish this thing. Maybe you want to be a great athletic star. Are you not going to do everything that is required of you to become what that goal is, or represents? You are going to do anything; you are going to be willing to pay any price.

Now, if it is materialistic, you are going to get caught up in the attitudes and activities of this world, because this world is completely materialistic.

What is the way of the world? It is the way of competition, and the way of competition is to beat the other fellow to the punch; to get there the quickest with the most-est. In many cases, people are just aggressive; arrogant enough to do anything that is necessary to get there; to pull the rug out, figuratively speaking, of somebody that is ahead of them; stab them in the back; use rumor; use all kinds of dirty tricks to get ahead.

Maybe most will not go to that extent. But I do think that it was very interesting, in one of Mr. Armstrong's writings (I cannot remember which one. I think it is in the autobiography, but I am not positive), he cites a survey that was taken some years back, where 100 top executives were asked, “Did they get to the top honestly, without any cheating at all?” And out of those 100 executives that were asked, there were only two or three said that they got to the top honestly. The other 97 said that they were lying. That is the three were lying, like anyway, it was something along that line. (I might be misquoting it a little wee bit.) But that is the way of the world—to take advantage of every situation, everybody, to try to get ahead.

The Kingdom of God is different. It is a spiritual goal. And spiritual laws apply to the attaining of that goal. That is why Jesus said that unless you are converted and become as a little child, you are not even going to be there. And the reason is, that is rule number one.

In order for a person to be into the Kingdom of God, he has got to be humble. He has got to be teachable. He cannot be competitive against others the way the world is. He can certainly compete with himself, but he cannot take advantage of others.

Now, if your goal really is the Kingdom of God, are you then willing to pay any price; to do anything; to make any sacrifice; to make any change that you need to make in order to attain that?

If the Kingdom of God really is your goal, you are going to change your attitudes; you are going to do everything possible. This is why when Jesus said at the very beginning of His ministry, “Repent and believe the gospel,” He laid down those requirements. Unless you have the right goal, I do not care how much spiritual knowledge you have, I do not care how much doctrine you have, I do not care how clearly you understand it, if the Kingdom of God is not your goal, you are not going to use that knowledge properly. You will not make the right changes. The Kingdom of God has to be your goal or you will not make the changes necessary. That is where you start from.

The apostle Paul carried it just a little bit further. He says in Romans 1:16-17 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That is what moves a person, that is what motivates them. That is what makes a person do whatever is necessary. Except you become as a little child, you will not even be there in the Kingdom of God.

I mentioned three characteristics. The first one is humility. You have to mention that one because that is what He mentions himself in verse 4. “Whoever humbles himself as this little child.” That humility has attributes to it that are very important to us.

Now humility, I gave a broad definition of it, is a proper evaluation of the self in relation to both God and man. A man has to be able to see himself in the right perspective. And if he does not, he is in trouble.

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

The degree of the humility of God that we have depends entirely upon how we think about ourselves in relation to both God and men. And so we see examples in the Bible of men who were truly humble. I mean, men like Moses and David who were humble men. Yet they could do things that seems to us to have with it elements of hardness of heart—ordering armies about; ordering the invasion; sacking and burning of cities.

And yet, if Moses humbled himself before God, if God gave the order, regardless of Moses’ personal feelings about them, he put them down and did what God said. The same with David.

They were subject to God in a way that we have to learn. Yet it says also of Moses that he was meek above all men on the earth. He was a gentle, easily approached human being. He did not think of himself as being any great person, but rather somebody who was really just another human being, who had been singled out for a responsibility that he did not choose to go into.

So on the one hand, he was subject to God and able to do things, great things. Yet on the other hand, he was just as common as your next-door neighbor; just as common as you are; easily approached.

I mentioned also last week about childlike dependence, and how that men from Adam on have been striving to be independent of God. Adam chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What he did was to choose the right to decide for himself what was good and what was evil. And he chose to do it through human experience, apart from God. The Tree of Life would have connected him to God, subject to God, subject to God's government, and God's law. Of course, also it would have given them the Spirit of God. But Adam has led mankind into a way apart from God, so all have followed Adam. And so we read in Romans 8:7 that the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

And so humanly, physically, we have a drive within us to be independent of God—not dependent, but independent. That is really the history of man. That is why things are the way they are. The reason why there is so much conflict on earth is because each has chosen to go his own way, the way that seems right, which ends in death. We have to turn in that area and become dependent upon God.

Of course, directly related to that is the third attribute I mentioned about a child's trust in his parents. A child instinctively does what we as adults have to learn to do toward God. To a child, his father and mother are God. He knows no superior being than father or mother. And their word to that child (to this kind of a child, anyway) is law.

And so, the child does not worry about whether his parents are right or wrong. He does not worry about whether his parents are going to supply food, whether his parents are going to supply clothing, whether his parents are going to be able to take care of him. He implicitly trusts what his parents say—their judgment.

Again, that is something that we have to learn. We have to grow to learn to trust God, because we tend to be skeptical, filled with doubts, cynical, always looking over our shoulder, because we think that God is going to trick us; that He is going to let us down; that He is not really going to come through with what He said that He is going to come through with. So we are always a little bit on edge, worrying a little bit about whether or not God is going to come through. So again, that is something that we have to come to learn to grow into.

Other aspects might be the friendliness of a child. A child is totally unconscious of rank, or prejudice, until some adult teaches them. You know, they do not see color. I do not mean that they do not see the literal color. I mean that they do not see the distinction, until they become educated in the ways of the world. And that is something that we have to come to.

A child is selfish. There is no doubt about that. But, you know, even a child's selfishness, within it there is an innocence to it. Their conscience is not developed like ours. They are innocently selfish, but we are selfish knowing we are doing the wrong thing. Yet we choose to go that way. When we do it, we feel bad about it, but we do it anyway. We are really something!

Let us just put a little capstone on this. What he is saying here is only those who absolutely know that they cannot earn the grace of God will be able to be in the frame of mind to grow within it. So that is the starting point.

God did not choose us because of anything that we have done. Why did He choose you? I do not know. I do not know why He chose me either. There are millions of people that He could have chosen that are better, and yet He did. That is just something we have to recognize.

I know that the furthest Mr. Armstrong I have ever heard speculate on this is, “Well, maybe God saw in us a quality that was willing to submit to it.” I do not know.

Matthew 18:5-7 “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”

Beginning in verse 5, the subject actually shifts gears from a little child that Jesus was holding or standing in their midst, to a disciple of His. And so the little child is very clearly shown in verse 6 to be, “One of these little ones who believe in Me.” He is not talking about four-year-old children. He is talking about newly converted people. He is talking about people who are young or weak in the faith.

Romans 14:1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.

That is the kind of person that Jesus is talking about. The word that is translated back in Matthew 18, or as it is applied (let me put it this way), simply means immature ones, or insignificant wants, or little ones. Back in Psalm 119:165 the psalmist wrote, “That great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.” Or as it says in the margin, they shall have no stumbling block.

I brought in Psalm 119 because I want you to see that Christ expects us to grow out of being able to be offended. Being offended is a weakness. It is a sign of immaturity. If a person is strong in the faith, then there will be nothing to make him stumble. Now we will get back to that in just a bit.

Matthew 18:5 also says, “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.” In My name, means, “for My sake,” or, “because of Me,” or, “on My behalf.” Receive Me indicates accepting, welcoming, or caring for, because of Christ. He is talking about essentially the same thing that Paul was in Romans 14. He said, “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.”

Jesus says, “Receive this little one.” You see, this insignificant one, this immature one. He says, “Receive him because of Me.” What He is saying essentially is that if you receive him, you are also receiving Me.

Turn back to Matthew 25.

Matthew 25:34-36 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

See? All these are forms of weakness. In Matthew 18, Jesus is most concerned about immaturity. In Matthew 25 the subject is not necessarily immaturity, but rather weakness in terms of physical need.

Matthew 26:37-40 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

Now, this is a principle that you want to remember. Because Christ lives in a person, the acceptance or rejection of the person is the same as the acceptance or rejection of Christ. Thus, whenever Moses was about to be stoned, he said to those people, “Hey, you’re not rejecting me. You are rejecting God.” Whenever Samuel was standing before the people, and they wanted a king, and Samuel was very hesitant about doing it, God spoke to Samuel and said, “Hey, they’re not rejecting you, they are rejecting Me that I should not rule over them.” Thus, again, it says in Matthew 10, “If you give a glass of water (in certain circumstances), it is the same as giving the glass of water to Me.”

The reason I am embellishing this so much is because I want you to see the awesome responsibility that it places on you and me in regard to offending someone. We are not talking about offending the world, we are talking about offending somebody in the church.

Let us make this offense a little bit clearer. When we think about offense, the chances are very likely that what comes to mind is to be hurt emotionally—to be irritated because somebody has said something that insults us.

This word “offense” could include that. However, it goes far beyond that. This word offense means, “to cause somebody to stumble”—to trip and fall. In other words, what he is talking about is leading somebody to sin. Just because somebody gets his feelings hurt, does not necessarily mean that they have been led to sin. It might provide a fertile ground for sin to develop. In this case, a great deal depends on the offended person. But we are talking about something here that has developed to the place where the person has been led to sin by some other person.

Now, how do you do that? You are not going to lead somebody to sin verbally. It may occur. But I would think from my experience if somebody began to teach you false doctrine, the chances are pretty great that you would spot it pretty clearly; you would not be led to stumble.

That does happen once in a while. But what we are talking about, here, mostly, is somebody following your example. They see you do it. They are weak. It leads them to understand that they could do it or should do it.

That is the subject of Romans 14. That is what Jesus is talking about here (Matthew 18).

How important is it? It is so important, He said if you lead somebody to sin by your example, you may as well have a millstone hanged about your head and thrown into the sea. That is pretty sobering to me. It is an awesome responsibility to make sure that you do not do anything that misleads a brother into sin.

So it means, you never know when a brother is watching you. You could be all the way across the room. You could be doing something out in public where you do not think that anybody is aware of what is going on. But here is somebody watching.

I will never forget the time (this actually happened!) Mr. Meredith was counseling this young couple who really had a hot thing going between them. It was one of those things where the passions were getting out of control, and they had better not go any further than they have already gone, or they were going to get disfellowshipped. So he tells this young fellow and gal, “I think you two better cool it. I think that you two had better not even date one another for a period of six months or so. And then, let’s see how you feel about one another.”

A couple of weeks later, Mr. and Mrs. Meredith are out in the mountains, miles from nowhere, hiking along on a vacation. They are out there, hiking along, and they come around the corner into this canyon, and who is there, but that fellow and girl! You see, they were not going to do what they were going to do where anybody could see them. You say that there is a God in heaven. You see, they forgot about that. Who inspired Mr. Meredith and Mrs. Meredith to come walking right along the path where they were?

You see, something like that may happen. You are walking down Main Street, and you are not even aware that there are brethren around watching you. That happens.

I do not mean to make you wonder if somebody is always watching you. God does not intend that you live life like that at all. But you know, we should have a great deal of freedom in our lives. I will tell you, you will have the freedom if you just obey God all the time. You do not have to worry about offending people if you just always do the right thing.

It is an awesome responsibility we have. We should always be striving to set the right example in every circumstance.

One of the things that I brought out in the sermon that I gave out in Pasadena was from Luke 12, where Jesus makes the statement, “There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.” That is frightening—“Nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.” You think you can get away with things? We cannot get away with anything. If we will not repent. . . God is love. He will cover sin. If a person repents, whatever it is that we have done, He will just cover it up so that nobody knows about it. But if we will not repent, He will make everybody know. He will bring it out in order to get us to repent. If shame will get us to repent, He will do it. So you do not ever want to live like a hypocrite, because as Moses said, “You can be sure of one thing, your sins will find you out.” That to me is a strong admonition to always be true under every circumstance.

At any rate (back to Matthew), He said that if somebody does offend, cause a person to stumble, it would be better that a millstone be hanged about their neck.

This millstone here, really does not give justice to the word. He is talking about a huge millstone. That is what He really said.

While we were out in California, we took a couple of hours to tour the San Fernando Mission just outside of Los Angeles. And while we were there, we saw some millstones. I do not know whether they were the actual ones that they used to use whenever the mission was actually in operation. But they were certainly a type of what they used. And those big stones were, I would say, at least 36 to 40 inches in diameter, and six or eight inches thick. And it was certainly a good indication to me of the kind of millstone that He was talking about here. It was not the kind that you would have around the house, but the kind of millstone that was heavy enough that it would take a donkey to turn it. If you got one of those things hung about your neck, and they threw you in the water, there would be no swimming. Good luck fella. He was saying, “We are going to sink you out there, where there is no hope of you come floating to the top.” That is a pretty strong warning.

Matthew 18:7 “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”

It is impossible to avoid offenses or temptations to sin from the world. There are going to be plenty of distractions. There are going to be plenty of people setting the wrong example. There is going to be plenty of motivation to follow the example of the world.

But the warning is that none of us—no Christian—should ever be the source of offense for someone in the church at all.

Matthew 18:10 "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

That is very interesting to me! First of all, the mere mention of an angel being a representative of a man. We know that is true because back in the book of Hebrews, it says that they are ministering spirits to those who are the heirs of salvation. Now, He says they are angels, plural. Is it possible that each one of us has an angel? Is it possible that each one of us has many angels who minister to us? Maybe one that stays home with you ladies when your husband goes to work, one that goes with your husband, and one that follows your kids around. I do not know; I am just speculating here.

But back in Acts 12 when Peter was thrown in jail, and God opened up the doors of the jail, He caused all of the shackles to fall off Peter. He walked out of jail. And when he got to the place where the Christians were gathered together, he knocked on the door and that girl came out, I think her name was Rhoda, she opened the door and then slammed the door in Peter's face, and ran back in the house, and said, “Peter's angel is out there!”

That intrigues me. If you or I went to the door, we would not even think of an angel. We would see that person standing there, and we would say, “Peter is there.”

Do the Jews understand that not only do we have angels, but we have angels that look like we do? Well, I do not know, but obviously she connected this spirit being with Peter, and that she thought that the angel looked exactly like Peter. She did not expect Peter to be there. So it had to be Peter's angel.

Anyway, it is nice to know that there are angels who behold the face of My Father in heaven. What He means by that, is that there is somebody there to plead your case. There is somebody there that is looking out for your interests; that even besides Christ, there are angels who are in the presence of God.

That is another warning. He is saying that if you do not care about your brother, whether you offend them or not, and cause them to stumble, buddy, you better look out! There are angels before God and they are going to do something about that sooner or later. They are going to make your life a little bit miserable to get you to repent, to shape up.

You just wonder how many things happen that have a connection with spirit beings. Things that we call trials—problems—that might never have happened if we had a great deal more love.

Matthew 18:8-9 "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.”

There are a couple of interesting things here. First of all, He talks about entering into life. Of course He means eternal life. We are already living, but real life still lies off in the future.

Verses 8-9 are the final nails in the coffin showing how important it is that we be concerned about the example that we set before our brother. This same saying of Jesus was used back in Matthew 5. However, it appears in a different context. In Matthew 5, the context was personal. If your hand or foot offend you, cut them off. If they are causing you to stumble—is the context in Matthew 5.

In Matthew 18, the context is about the church. You see, how to get along in the church. How do we preserve unity in the church? How do we strengthen the church? How do we keep it going in the same direction? Keeping cliques from forming? That is really the subject that is being addressed here.

We should be so concerned about offending our brother, causing someone to stumble, that we would be willing to go to tremendous extremes, great sacrifices in order to keep from setting a bad example. In the first place, we will keep ourselves from sinning. In the second place, we will keep from setting a bad example that will cause the brother to stumble. So, this section has to do with self-sacrificing with renunciation in order to preserve unity; in order to show love to your brother.

Jesus of course, did not intend for this to be taken literally. The sin is not in the hand, the sin is not in the eye. It is the desire behind the eye where the problem lies.

And so, to what extent are we willing to go in order to discipline ourselves to keep our eye from sinning, or our hand from sinning, or our tongue, or our feet from sinning? It is in the lust that is behind the act that one has to make the sacrifice. It is better to avoid sin at any cost than it is to face future judgment.

Future judgment is introduced in that statement of being cast into everlasting fire. That word “everlasting fire” is kind of interesting just all by itself. It literally means, “belonging to the ages.” It is fire that belongs to the ages, or some modern translations have said “age lasting.” This says everlasting. There is only one Being who belongs to the ages, and that is God. What we are talking about here is a punishment that belongs to God.

Back to the context. The context is, “How do you get along in the church? How do you maintain unity? How do you get along with your brother? What kind of attitude should you have?” We should be responsible, very responsible. It is our duty to avoid leading them into sin in any way. And here we find our responsibility emphasized in a warning about judgment.

What He says here is this: If a person is not helping to maintain unity, not helping by setting the right examples, then he must be a hindrance. He must be useless to the program.

Now, in verse 9, hellfire is introduced. I think most of you know that this hellfire comes from the Greek “Gehenna” fire. Gehenna is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Hinnom.” And Hinnom was a parcel of land just outside the city of Jerusalem, where a family owned a parcel of ground. The family was the sons of Hinnom, in which the refuse of Jerusalem was burned.

Refuse is that which is useless. So what was useless—anything from dead dogs, to clothing that was worn out, articles of furniture that were broken, or as history shows us even human beings [dead bodies?] were thrown into the valley of Hinnom to be burned up. That is where all of the useless objects in the city were thrown. The fires were kept burning in order to turn everything to ash, and to conserve space. And thus it became the type—Gehenna fire, hellfire, the Lake of Fire that is coming after the Great White Throne Judgment.

Now, back to the context. If a thing is useless within the church, within the Body, we have a human being who is setting bad examples, who does not seem to love his brothers, who drives wedges between people, gets everybody upset—what do you do with them? Well, you disfellowship them. In one sense of the word, the disfellowshipped person is on his way to the Lake of Fire.

We are going to leave this subject, because Jesus is going to expand it a little bit further in just a moment.

So already we see we have to have good attitudes, and we have to go to extremes to avoid setting bad examples for those who are in the congregation. And if we are not helping, we are a hindrance, we are useless to the program. We are going to go to the Lake of Fire.

Now, is the person completely abandoned? That is what He is going to address here.

Matthew 18:11-14 “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

It is God's purpose, it is His will that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And even though there may be somebody who is useless to the congregation at this time, it does not mean that He has abandoned that person entirely.

Let us go back to I Corinthians 5, verse 3. Paul says,

I Corinthians 5:3-5 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Disfellowshipping is a stern punishment. But it is not the end for the person. Disfellowshipping is actually another step in God's program to try to win the person back—the one who has gone astray, that the spirit might be saved. It may take years. And then again, it may not work at all. But God is going to allow Satan to have a pretty much free hand with that person eventually, in order to bring that person to repentance.

Just because Satan has a free hand, does not mean that the person is immediately going to fall into all kinds of calamities. Not at all. The person may leave the church and be very prospered. Nothing could be more deceptive. That is the way Satan is. He is very sneaky. But eventually they are going to lose that.

I Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

Even though a person may be put out or leave, that does not mean that God is done with the person. He is going to do what He can in His wisdom, and in His time, even using Satan the Devil to bring the person back.

There is a principle there for you and me to follow. We should try to strengthen the weak, those who have gone astray. We should follow what Christ is teaching here. If we know of somebody who is going astray, that we should be a committee of one to try to win that person back, try to encourage them. I am not talking here about pointing out all of their sins. I am not talking here about telling them what an evil person they are. I am not talking about doing anything more than trying to encourage them, or admonishing them to come back.

Now, verse 15.

Matthew 18:15 "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

Now, we are talking about a situation where there is hard feelings between two people who are members.

Matthew 18:16-17 “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.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

The teaching begins to show here that there is a limit to forgiveness. Even God's forgiveness as great as it is, and as great as His power is to change people's minds and to bring people to repentance, there comes a time when He can see that there is no use working with the person any longer, the person is too hardened to change.

We cannot assume that. If there is a difficulty between two brothers, here are the steps that need to be taken. First of all, I would say the first piece of advice would be to try to put your complaint into words, verbalize it. I am not talking about verbalizing in the sense of yelling at somebody either. I am just talking about being able to verbalize it—talking it over to yourself to try to understand what it is the root cause of the problem.

The reason is because it is very likely that one of the most damaging things that you can do is to hold it in yourself. If you contain it within yourself, and bitterness begins to develop, then you are in real trouble, because that is the kind of a situation that Satan can take advantage of.

Turn with me back to Hebrews the 12th chapter, beginning in verse 12. This is another one of Paul's long sentences, so we are going to break in.

Hebrews 12:12-14 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

That is a very frequently given piece of advice; that peace is so important that it is one of two grounds for divorce that God gives in the Bible. One is fraud and the other is peace. If there is no peace and he will permit people to separate. If they both happen to be in the church, there is no divorce, but they can separate.

Hebrews 12:14-15 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness . . .

He is saying: Be careful; look diligently; be on the ball; be alert. Allow nothing in your mind that will make you bitter because he says,

Hebrews 12:15 Lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

It is very easy for us to become bitter. We can become bitter at God because we feel that He has failed us for whatever the reasons might be: failed to heal, failed to make us prosperous, failed to recognize us; we can get bitter at other people; our mate; children; parents. That is the kind of attitude that Satan can have a field day with.

You know what bitterness does? It turns you completely in on yourself. That is what is so bad about bitterness. All you are thinking about is yourself, and that is the opposite of love. And if a person is bitter, he cannot be in God's Kingdom, because he does not love anybody but himself.

Back to Matthew 18. This section above is extremely important in order to keep bitterness from developing. So step number one is try to verbalize it, and then go to the person personally. You do not go to the minister, you do not go to the neighbor. The offended goes to the offender; the one who has had his feelings hurt goes to the one that they feel hurt their feelings or did something against them.

Now, in a case like this, my recommendation would always be: do not write any letters, unless it is impossible to do otherwise—go in person, because that is what the scripture says. It does not say write a letter. It says go to the person.

Matthew 18:15-17 "Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. 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.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

The second step then if there is dissatisfaction at the end of that meeting, and I do not mean at the immediate end of it, sometimes it takes a period of time for somebody to think something through. But if after a period of time there is still that dissatisfaction there, then you go and get another brother or two or three to come with you. You still have not gone to the ministry yet. And my recommendation here would be that if something like this occurs, you do not necessarily take your friend with you. It would be far better to take somebody that you respect as being spiritually minded, and mature, and yet not your close friend. The idea here is not to find fault with the other person, but rather the idea is to get sound advice, and objective views regarding the difference of opinion between the two parties. If you take a friend, a close friend, the likelihood is that they are going to be somewhat prejudiced toward you and your point of view.

And then finally you take it to the ministry.

Now, the advice beginning in verse 17 begins to fit into the ministry's responsibilities. If the person really is at fault and there is no repentance, then the next step, of course, is disfellowshipping. “Let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.”

You see, even the heathens and tax collectors can repent, but they were also the pariahs of society. And so they would then be put out of the church, but they can still repent and come back. Disfellowshipping is another step in leading the person to repentance. God is not done with the person; He can bring them back.

Matthew 18:18-20 "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

Now verses 18-20 are put here in order to give encouragement to us to follow the advice in verses 15 through 17, because it does take some faith to do. It takes a lot of courage sometimes, because the easiest way to get out of a situation like this is to just take it to a minister and say, “You handle it.” But that really does not help the situation the way this way will. This is God's advice.

So you go yourself. The chances are that it will probably be solved in round one in almost every case.

Matthew 18:18 "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Now, does that give us carte blanche to just change laws, change policies, change decisions, change judgments of God? Of course not. What is the context? The context has to do with making judgments regarding whether a person should remain as part of the group. And so our judgments have to be made within the already revealed law of God that is written in this Book.

Matthew 18:19-20 "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

Again, do we have carte blanche on this thing? Does it mean that if my wife and I get together and say, “We’re going to pray about this thing,” that God is going to give us our request simply because we want what we ask? “If two of you shall agree on earth as concerning anything.” Now you see this verse really does not stand alone. It has to be modified by other things that are said elsewhere.

Again, what is the context? The context is in making judgments regarding a problem between two parties in the church that has reached the point where the ministry has to discern whether one of these people, or maybe both of them, but maybe in this case, one has to be put out of the church.

And so what Christ is promising is that if we pray about it and the ministry agrees that it is within the framework of God's law, that God is going to back it up, and He will give us what we ask. That is, peace in the congregation. Unity once again, harmony between maybe even those who are offended. So it has to do with making such judgments regarding these things.

If we took verse 19 all by itself, it would mean that any selfish request two of us would agree on making to God, God would be bound to give. That is not the way it is. God is not indulgent that way. That would not be good for us at all. Can you imagine what we could come up with? We could come up with dillies, doozies to pray about.

Now while we are on verse 19, what attitude should we pray in? What should always be at the forefront of our mind? God of course, certainly wants us to think and He certainly wants us to make our requests, but we always have to make the prayer with the understanding that it is not what we desire that we really want. What we really want is what God in His wisdom sees that we need.

Now, when we pray with that kind of understanding, then we are going to get the right kind of answers. Not only what we need, but when we need it.

Did you ever think about the kind of prayers that we make? I am going to include myself in this. The chances are very great that the great bulk of our prayers are asking God to help us escape from some problem. You think about it? “Oh God! I’ve got this trouble! And I have just got to get out of it. I don’t have any money. I don’t have any clothes. My next door neighbor's dog barks all night. My car broke down. My boss doesn’t love me. I can’t get along with my husband.” We can think of thousands of things.

I will tell you what to ask God for: ask Him, instead of helping you to escape, to help you to be victorious, to be a victor over your problems, because that is what an overcomer is. The overcomers are going to be in the Kingdom of God. An overcomer is a person who wins. In fact, some modern translations translate that word, “to the victors.” “I will give power over the nations” and He means the people who overcome who are successful in conquering problems.

Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Peter was really being quite generous here in asking, you know, “seven times.” And what he was really saying is, is there a limit to my forgiveness? How often should I do it?

There is a biblical basis for Peter asking this question about seven times. Back in Amos, there is an indication from God Himself about certain circumstances where He indicated something. In Amos 1, I am just going to read one verse because this phrase is repeated several different times.

Amos 1:3 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.”

That phrase “three transgressions and for four” is repeated at least seven or eight times in the next chapter or two. And from that, the rabbis got the idea that if a person sinned against you three times that you are bound to forgive them, but boy, on the fourth time, you could come down upon them with the wrath of heaven.

That is what was kind of indicated there. “For three transgressions, I will forgive you, but when the fourth one comes . . .”

Peter said seven. So you see, he was really being magnanimous, he doubled it and added one, he doubled the three and added one besides. But Jesus reply was seventy times seven, which is again, not to be taken literally at all. It is just intended to show a very large number. Actually, you might say without count—a number without count.

Now, the intention again is not to focus in on arithmetic. The intention is to focus in on attitude—our attitude always should be to leave the door open for the repentance of the one who sinned.

We might ask the question: “Can an enemy repent if you are unwilling to forgive?”

If you are hard in your approach to somebody who has sinned against you, is not it likely that that is also going to stiffen the resistance of the other person? Sure it is.

And so what he is saying here is that our approach to these situations ought not to be demanding. It does not necessarily mean that we have to forgive.

Let us go to Luke 17 where Luke gives his account of the same thing. This appears in a little bit different place than it does in Matthew.

Luke 17:2-3 “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.”

Is that clear? If he repents, forgive him.

Luke 17:4-5 “And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

I think the apostles' reply is a classic! They said, “Lord, increase our faith!”

How are we going to do this?

Back to Matthew 18. What He is driving at here is that our attitude ought to be always open and willing to forgive, to present an attitude toward the offender, welcoming him to change, rather than being obdurate and stubborn and hard about it.

JWR/rwu/drm