October 22: Matthew 18

October 22, Matthew 18

Matthew continued…

Matthew 18

• Conversation amongst the disciples about who is the greatest in God’s Kingdom. Jesus brought a child to them and got His point across this way: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” So what must we do to be the greatest in God’s Kingdom? Live with a humble life like a child. Jesus continued on teaching them on sins and kids. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” I would say that Jesus is not playing around here. Think about it… if you morally or spiritually cause a child to sin - you are on the hook for it. This is everything from sex trafficking to not protecting children in many simple ways. There is no excuse for causing a child to sin.
• Temptations to Sin. “For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes.” Never cause someone to sin! Being tempted is not the sin, giving into temptation is the sin. We must do everything we can to eradicate sin in our lives. The New Testament does not refer to believers in Jesus Christ as sinners but as saints. Do whatever it takes to be freed of sin, “It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” We are not commanded here to literally pluck out our eyes so that we don’t lust, but truth be told, if that is what it takes to be freed of sin… kinda joking - Don’t gouge out your eyes - instead eradicate the sin at its root. Most of the sins that we deal with are idolatry issues anyway - us making things more important than God. This is how you deal with it - Pull out that weed of sin at its root so that it does not regrow again. What sins are you struggling with? Also, are you dealing with them or are your sins dealing with you?
• The Parable of the Lost Sheep. 
• Side note - did you notice in some translations, such as the NIV & ESV, there is no Matthew 18:11? We read in the NASB version, “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” I personally think that it should be in our Bibles as it is not contradictory. From this website, Why Is It Missing? ‘The verse is missing from some of the Bibles because the passage does not actually appear in the best early Greek manuscripts which contain Matthew. It is important to remember that the New Testament was written in Greek. These original documents called "autographs" were copied and passed from one person to another. In the process of making copies, errors would occur sometimes. Sometimes words were misspelled, words were left out, and on rare occasions, some copyists would insert some words. Today there are more than 5,000 thousands ancient manuscripts of the New Testament in our possession. By using a process called Textual Criticism we have been able to determine very accurately how the original"autographs" should read. A better explanation of textual criticism and the accuracy of our Bible is available from an article at the following link, "How Accurate Is The Bible?" The conclusion of that article says that the Bible is 99.9% accurate. There is no other ancient book in existence with so many copies and with so little error. The Bible is really unique. The Bible is very accurate! 

      Textual criticism has determined that verse 11 should not occur in Matthew 18. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, edited by Frank Gaebelein says that verse was "Omitted in the earliest witnesses of the Alexandria, pre-Caesarean, Egyptian, and Antiochene text types" (Vol. 8, p. 401). 

      Another Thought. It appears someone borrowed Luke 19:10 and copied and modified it into Matthew 18. Here is both Mathew 18:10 and Luke 19:10,  

For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. (NASB) Matt. 18:11  

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (NASB) Luke 19:10

The only difference is the phrase "to seek." While Matthew 18:11 should not exist in our Bibles, it is not an inaccurate statement. It captures the sense of Luke 19:10.  

Conclusion: God has helped us to keep His Word very accurate by preserving thousands of manuscripts. By employing textual criticism, we have been able to keep it pure. Thank the Lord for His Word!’

• Back to The Parable of the Lost Sheep.  Jesus, still teaching, explains that God uses angels to protect His kids. The parable is profound - if one of God’s chosen is lost, God will go after him/her. When that person is found (spiritually speaking) there will be rejoicing in heaven! Compound that with John 6:39, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus will find a way to save His. 
• How to deal when a brother sins against you. This section of Scripture gives us incredible insight and instruction on how to properly manage confrontation and sin. This is not always easy, but this is the way that we are to handle sin. If a brother sins against you (we are referring to how to handle Christian confrontation…)

1. Confront him and tell him what he has done - just the 2 of you.

• If he listens to you you have gained a friend, if not…

2. Take 1 or 2 others with you so that all evidence presented is honest and straight

• If he still refuses to listen, then you are to..

3. Take it to the church - not the elders, but the congregation. 

• The intent is to love the offender back to Christ as a church. The authority of the church is guided and given by the Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment. We are never told in Scripture that only Elders have this given to them, but believers. If he still refuses to listen to the counsel of the church…

4. Kick him out of the church and treat him as a non-believer. That doesn't mean to ostracize him, but rather treat him as one who does not know Christ. The person needs to repent so that he can be saved. He needs to experience God’s forgiveness and love.

Continuing on, Jesus goes on to say, “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this.” That is a paraphrase from the Message translation - basically what we do and say here on earth has eternal ramifications. Then Jesus goes further and states, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” This Scripture is in the context of confrontation and we can be assured that when we are gathered in the name of Jesus - God is there to give us His Spirit and guide us. What a relief that we don’t have to try and do this on our own!

• How many times must I forgive? Peter asked Jesus if he had to keep forgiving a brother that has sinned against him a bunch, over and over again. Jesus told Peter (and us) that we are to forgive as many times as it takes.
• The Parable of the unforgiving servant. Jesus spoke another parable about a servant who owed the king about $6 Billion dollars. The king had him arrested and then had compassion on him and released him and freed him of his debt. Then the servant that just received an unfathomable amount of grace threw a fellow servant into prison that owed him about $12,000. The king heard about it and was furious and threw the guy that did owe him $6 billion back into prison until he could pay his debt (which he never would be able to). “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Here is the point: The massive debt that we owe to God is unfathomable - our sin is our debt. We have no such ability to repay our debt to God. Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are unable to pay our debt but we are offered a free gift - Salvation in Jesus Christ. 

To sum it all up: 

• One such organization that is fighting sex trafficking and those causing children to sin, is Agape International Missions. You can access their website here. I have personally gone to Cambodia and watched these guys in action - it is incredible what they are doing to help free kids and women from sex trafficking. 
• Are you living as a sinner or a saint?
• Even though Matthew 18:11 is not in my version of the Bible does in no way insinuate that we have a flawed text. There is no other historical document that is 99.99% accurate.
• Confrontation between believers can be tough. But if the intent is to confront in love with the hope of producing righteousness and salvation, then we are on the right track. If it is to be vindictive or any form of gossip, then it will go bad. 
• We are to offer forgiveness to others because it has been offered us. If we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven. What does this look like tangibly for you? Only you can answer that with God’s help. But I will tell you, there is great freedom in forgiving others that have wronged you (not to mention that fact that we are to forgive others by God’s command). Hey, who said that living for Jesus can’t also be incredibly rewarding? Of course it is. 
• Repent of your sins and return to God. Forgive others and be forgiven.