Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 17
and verse 9.
This is referring to the time when Peter,
James and John had just been up the
mountain to see Jesus transfigured.
And then we read here, as they were
coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them,
saying, Tell the vision to no one until
the Son of Man has risen from the
dead.
When they were on the mountain, Peter had
said, Lord, it is good for us to
be here.
But it wasn't the will of God that
they should stay forever on that mountain, seeing
the glory of Jesus.
Because there was a world in need, lying
at their feet in the valley.
And God's will is not that we should
forever sit on the mountaintop, seeing the glory
of Jesus.
There's something exciting about that.
But the purpose of every mountaintop experience is
that we might come down from the mountain,
down into the valley, to minister to human
need.
And that's what we see here.
And this is the mistake that people make.
They are either living forever in the valley,
ministering to human need, never going up to
the mountain, seeing the glory of Jesus, or
forever seeking to live on the mountaintop, seeing
the glory of Jesus, never coming down into
the valley to minister to human need.
So there's great significance here in that little
expression, they came down from the mountain.
In other words, they went up to the
mountain, but they didn't stay there.
And that's how our life must be.
We do need times when we are up
on the mountain, seeing the glory of Jesus.
But the purpose of that strengthening, that lifting
up of our spirit, is that we might
come down from the mountain and minister to
human need in the valley.
And Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision
to no one until the Son of Man
is risen from the dead.
There's something that stirs us to tell others
immediately about any new experience that we've had.
And what a battle that must have been
for them to keep quiet about it.
Not even to tell the other nine disciples.
When we have had something special, a special
experience, what a lust there is in our
flesh to boast about it.
Paul had an experience, we read in 2
Corinthians 12, that he kept quiet about for
fourteen years.
And even when he did speak about it,
he spoke about it so briefly, and that
also, only to establish his apostleship to the
Corinthians, so that they would receive his letters
as God's word to them.
There are many things that God does to
us and says to us that we are
not to reveal to others.
Many experiences.
We need to have wisdom concerning what we
can testify about and what we shouldn't testify
about.
And here is where many believers fail.
They think that everything that they experience and
hear and know, they should tell others.
That's because of their immaturity and folly.
Tell the vision to no one, Jesus said,
until the Son of Man is risen from
the dead.
And his disciples asked him, saying, why then
do the scribes say that Elijah must come
first?
They had just seen Elijah on the mountaintop,
and they wondered if this is the coming
of Elijah.
And he answered and said, Elijah is coming
and will restore all things.
But I say to you that Elijah already
came.
And they did not recognize him, but did
to him whatever they wished.
Of course, Jesus was referring there to John
the Baptist, who had come in the spirit
and power of Elijah.
John the Baptist was the one person who
was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, who came
in the spirit and power of Elijah, as
prophesied in Malachi chapter 4.
And John the Baptist was a partial fulfillment
of that prophecy in the first coming of
Christ.
He has already come, Jesus said in verse
12.
But then Jesus said something else.
He said in verse 11 that Elijah is
coming and will restore all things.
And this Elijah is a prophetic voice that
will be found in the church, particularly before
the second coming of Christ, seeking to restore
people in the church to that purity that
is necessary to be the bride of Christ.
Elijah is coming and will restore all things.
And this is the calling of the church
in this day and age, just before the
second coming of Christ, to proclaim God's word
in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Backsliding has entered the church, just like backsliding
was there in Israel in the days of
Elijah.
Compromise was there in the days of Elijah,
and compromise is found in the Christian church
today.
And the need of the hour is the
prophetic voice of Elijah in the church, calling
the church back to recognize its true God,
calling down spiritual fire from heaven.
This is the need of the hour.
And God has his prophets even today.
Elijah is coming and he will restore all
things.
It's a ministry of restoration back to that
original standard that God desired when he established
the new covenant on the day of Pentecost.
So also, it says in verse 12, just
like the people did whatever they wished to
that first Elijah, the first one who came
in the spirit of Elijah, John the Baptist,
so also, the last part of verse 12,
the Son of Man is going to suffer
at their hands.
Then the disciples understood that he had spoken
to them about John the Baptist.
It was clear.
And Jesus is also going to suffer like
that.
And now we see the purpose of coming
down the mountain to the valley.
Verse 14, When they came to the multitude,
a man came up to him, falling on
his knees before him, and saying, Lord, have
mercy on my son.
Here is human need, people under the grip
of Satan, for he is an epileptic and
is very ill.
And he often falls into the fire and
often into the water.
And I brought him to your disciples, and
they could not cure him.
Just think of that simple statement, dear friends.
Verse 16, I brought him to your disciples,
and they could not cure him.
What a sad testimony to the powerlessness of
the Christian church even today that many people
have to say, I brought him to your
disciples, and they could not set him free.
They could not cure him.
They could not cast out the demon.
They could not help him.
Why has God placed us as the disciples
of Jesus here in the world?
Why has he placed the church on earth?
So that we might do the works of
Jesus.
That we might help people to be free
from the bondage of Satan, spiritually and physically.
And Jesus answered and said in verse 17,
O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall
I be with you?
How long shall I put up with you?
Bring him here to me.
Jesus sought to deliver people from the physical
and spiritual oppression of Satan.
In fact, when the apostle Paul was describing
the ministry of Jesus in the house of
Cornelius, he described it like this in Acts
10.38, You know of Jesus of Nazareth,
how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit
and with power, and how he went about
doing good and healing or delivering all who
were oppressed by the devil, for God was
with him.
What was his ministry?
His ministry was one of doing good and
delivering people who were oppressed spiritually and physically
by Satan.
And why couldn't they deliver him?
We read here, Jesus rebuked him and the
demon came out of him.
Matthew 17.18 And the boy was cured
at once.
There was no delay when you came to
Jesus, and he is the same yesterday, today
and forever.
We must remember this, that demon possession was
something that Jesus hated, and he hates it
today.
He delivered every person who came to him,
seeking for deliverance from demons.
And every person today who is possessed by
demons can be delivered in the name of
Jesus Christ.
And if there is no one around you
who has faith to pray for you, there
is a wonderful promise in the New Testament
which says, Whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be delivered.
So that you can call upon the name
of the Lord yourself.
You don't have to wait for someone to
come and help you.
If those who claim to be disciples of
Jesus around you are unbelieving and powerless, claim
this promise.
Whosoever, Acts 2.21, calls on the name
of the Lord will be delivered.
Deliverance is for you.
Whatever oppression of Satan you are under, physical
or spiritual, call upon the name of the
Lord, He who is the same yesterday, today
and forever.
And you can be delivered, not partially, completely,
totally, one hundred percent, if you will call
upon the name of the Lord and say,
Lord, you who delivered people from demons when
you were on earth, deliver me from the
oppression of Satan in my life.
You can do that right now and be
free.
The Lord will set you free.
The boy was cured at once.
Does Jesus delay?
He delays only because you don't call upon
Him.
Call upon Him now and you can be
cured at once.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and
said, Why could we not cast it out?
Hadn't Jesus given them authority?
He certainly had.
We read in Matthew chapter 10 and verse
8, He gave them authority, saying, Cast out
demons.
That was clear.
But they did not, because they didn't have
faith.
And Jesus said that to them in Matthew
17.20, Even though I have given you
authority, you couldn't cast out this demon because
of the littleness of your faith.
Matthew 17.20, But truly I say to
you, If you have faith as a mustard
seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move
from here to there, and it shall move,
and nothing shall be impossible to you.
If you can believe that the Lord can
fulfill through you that which He has given
you authority for, we cannot claim anything from
God, but if He has promised something, then
we can certainly claim it.
We can even ask a mountain to move.
If God has promised that it will move,
we can have faith and exercise that authority,
and it will move.
But verse 21, This kind does not go
out except by prayer and fasting.
Sometimes there is a need for wholehearted prayer
and fasting if we are to come into
this deliverance.
But it is ours, in the name of
Jesus Christ.
Let's turn now to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 17,
and verse 22.
And while they were gathering together in Galilee,
Jesus said to them, The Son of Man
is going to be delivered into the hands
of men, and they will kill Him, and
He will be raised again on the third
day.
And they were deeply grieved.
Again Jesus speaks to them about the cross,
but this time Peter does not say, Let
it not happen to you, Lord, because he
has learnt his lesson, that the voice that
tells us to avoid the way of the
cross is the voice of Satan.
They were grieved, but they kept quiet.
And when they came to Capernaum, verse 24,
those who collected the two drachma tax came
to Peter and said, Does your teacher not
pay the two drachma tax?
This was the tax for the temple, and
they were wondering whether Jesus, who was establishing
new principles compared to the law of Moses,
was also not going to pay the tax
for that temple.
And when they asked Peter, Peter said, Of
course, he is going to pay it, yes.
He did not consult the Lord.
Very often we are like that too, to
give a quick answer before seeking God's will.
And when he came into the house, before
Peter could say a word, Jesus knew already
what the people outside had come for and
what Peter had replied through the supernatural revelation
of the Spirit.
Jesus spoke to Peter first, it says in
verse 25, and said, What do you think,
Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth
collect customs or poll tax, from their sons
or from strangers?
And upon this saying, upon Peter saying from
strangers, Jesus said to him, Well, then the
sons are exempt.
The sons do not have to pay tax.
For after all, in any nation, if a
king collects taxes, he collects taxes from the
people of the nation.
He does not collect tax from his own
son.
And here was a tax being collected for
that temple, which was the house of God.
And Jesus takes his position there as the
son of God and says, If this tax
is really being collected for the father, why
should I, who am the son, pay this
tax?
I am free.
I do not have to pay the tax
for the house of my own father.
But he said, Even though I have that
freedom as the son of God, I will
not exercise that freedom.
And this is another fundamental new covenant principle.
This is the way of the cross.
That though I have freedom, I don't exercise
that freedom.
For the sake of others, I deny myself.
And here Jesus says in verse 27, Lest
we give them offense.
Lest we cause them to stumble.
In other words, he was denying himself for
the sake of others.
He was not exercising his right and his
privilege as the son of God because he
did not want to offend others.
Remember this, dear brothers and sisters, that the
highest Christian life is where we deny ourselves
our rights and privileges for the sake of
others, to bring others to blessing, to bring
others into the kingdom.
To prevent others from stumbling, we deny ourselves
our rights.
Jesus said in John 17, For their sakes,
I sanctify myself.
John 17, 19.
He set himself apart.
He gave up certain privileges and rights for
the sake of others.
And we see an example of that here.
Even for the sake of others who were
not his disciples.
And the true disciple of Jesus will walk
in this way.
If he finds that some action of his,
which he has liberty to do, is going
to cause stumbling to others, he will give
it up.
Lest we give them offense, he says, we'll
pay the tax.
How does he pay it?
Go to the sea, and throw in a
hook, and take the first fish that comes
up.
And when you open its mouth, you'll find
a stator.
Take that and give it to them for
you and me.
Oh, here we see something very wonderful.
Jesus would never do a miracle for himself.
He never turned the stones into bread for
himself.
But he was willing to multiply the loaves
for others.
And here it was a question of paying
the tax not only for himself but also
for Peter who needed to pay that tax.
And Peter had forsaken everything to follow Jesus.
And Jesus was going to help Peter pay
his tax.
That's a wonderful thing for us to learn.
Do you know that God wants you to
pay your tax?
All your taxes?
When you avoid paying your taxes, you're going
against the will of God.
But you don't have to be burdened about
that.
Because the Lord wants to help you to
pay your tax.
He's going to give you the money to
pay your taxes.
That's wonderful.
He doesn't want you to avoid paying your
taxes.
At the same time, He's going to help
you, if necessary, supernaturally, to pay your taxes.
That's a wonderful message we get from this
passage.
Go to the sea and take the first
fish that comes up.
And Peter was going to experience something that
he had never experienced in all the years
in which he had been fishing.
He was going to find money in the
mouth of a fish.
How wonderful God is.
Now, there was a treasurer that the apostles
had.
Judas Iscariot was the treasurer.
But Jesus didn't send Peter to Judas Iscariot.
Let Judas Iscariot and Peter get into a
conflict.
He said, don't go to Judas.
I'll provide that need another way.
Go and pick up a fish from the
sea.
And you'll find enough there in the mouth
of the fish to pay your tax and
mine.
What a beautiful picture of partnership.
The Lord meets our need.
And the Father, who met the need of
Jesus, the financial need of Jesus, supernaturally, also
met the financial need of Peter, supernaturally.
This is a wonderful message that we get
in the New Covenant.
If Jesus could walk on the water, Peter
could walk on the water too.
And if the Father was going to meet
Jesus' financial need supernaturally, He was going to
meet Peter's financial need supernaturally too.
That is the wonderful message of the New
Covenant.
And that's a word of encouragement for us.
That what God did for Jesus in His
earthly life, He will do for us as
He cared for Jesus in His earthly life.
He will care for you and me, if
we are His disciples and if we have
forsaken everything to follow Him like Peter did.
You'll find that God never lets you down.
He never lets His servants or His disciples
down.
There need never be that fear in our
hearts.
If necessary, supernaturally, He will provide our need,
even the need to pay our taxes.
If we can walk in the way that
Jesus walked, of not standing up for our
rights and privileges, but being willing to give
them up, because we do not want to
cause offense to others.
If you find yourself in a situation where
you have to give up a certain right
or a privilege for the sake of others,
and because of that you suffer some loss
or some inconvenience, you can be sure that
God in heaven who watches that will more
than make up for that need.
And now we come to chapter 18 and
verse 1.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus
saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven?
Here Jesus had spoken about Himself as the
Son of God, and the Son of God
being exempt from paying tax.
Is He the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?
At that time the disciples came to Jesus
and asked Him this question.
And Jesus explained who was the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven.
In verse 2 He said, He called a
child to Himself and stood him in their
midst and said, I say to you, unless
you are converted and become like children, you
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The disciples thought this is wonderful to have
such an honor to be a son in
the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus said that
it is the spirit of a child that
makes a person great in the kingdom of
heaven.
And unless you are converted, now these disciples
had already forsaken everything in order to be
disciples of Jesus.
But although they were converted in one sense,
they had revelation concerning Jesus as the Christ,
the Son of the living God, they had
forsaken their earthly jobs, they had forsaken earthly
security, yet they needed another conversion.
That teaches us something very significant.
There may be many things that we have
given up for the Lord, and yet you
and I may need another conversion if we
have not become like little children in our
attitude, in our spirit.
For He spoke about another conversion.
I say to you, unless you are converted
and become like children, you shall not enter
the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who
have understood what it is to come like
a little child.
And the one thing we know about little
children is their helplessness.
A little child is helpless.
Whoever then humbles himself, verse 4, as this
child, he is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven.
It's not the one who does miracles, but
the one who humbles himself.
And to humble oneself means to become like
a little child, to have that attitude of
helpless dependence upon the Father, accepting everything that
the Father allows into our life.
That is humility.
Helplessly dependent upon the Father for the provision
of all our needs, that is humility.
If we are not willing to come to
Jesus like that, it says we cannot enter.
And the more we are like that little
child in helplessness and in humility, in helpless
dependence upon the Father, the greater we are
in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is, of course, the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven.
And when he says that the one who
humbles himself as a child is the greatest,
it's obvious that Jesus also humbled himself as
a little child.
Let's get our understanding right.
Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is dependent
on how childlike we are in our spirit.
Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 18
and verse 5.
Jesus had just been explaining to the disciples
who was the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.
He said it was a little child.
The one who humbles himself as a little
child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven, verse 4.
In other words, it is not ability or
accomplishment that makes a person great in heaven.
In earth, on earth, it is ability, accomplishment,
family, so many things.
But in heaven, values are so completely different,
exactly the opposite of here on earth.
A little child has accomplished nothing.
It hasn't got a name for itself.
But the one who has that spirit is
the one who is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven.
If Christians hadn't forgotten this, the spirit in
the churches of Jesus Christ would have been
something quite different from what it is today.
There is so much of human exaltation, exaltation
of human personalities.
Those who are not great in heaven are
made great in the church.
Well, then that is not the church that
is representing Jesus Christ correctly.
Jesus went on to say in verse 5,
whoever receives one such child in my name
receives me.
Jesus loved little children.
This is quite the opposite attitude to children
that we find in the world today.
The world is generally speaking does not have
any value for children.
In fact, children are often considered a nuisance.
And too many children in a family are
considered a headache.
But Jesus said, if you receive one child
in the name of Jesus, you receive him.
Do you know that when you receive a
child into your family, you are receiving Jesus
Christ?
How many people receive a child into their
family in the way they receive Jesus Christ?
To despise a child is to despise Jesus
Christ.
We need to have a scriptural understanding in
this area.
Whoever receives one such child in my name
receives me.
And he went on to say in verse
10, see that you do not despise one
of these little ones.
When you despise children, you are despising Jesus
Christ.
And whoever, verse 6, causes one of these
little ones who believe in me to stumble,
it is better for him that a heavy
millstone be hung around his neck and that
he be drowned in the depth of the
sea.
If you do anything or say anything that
causes a little child who believes in Jesus
to stumble, Jesus said, it is better you
go and drown yourself in the sea.
Think of the strong expression Jesus used here.
Put a stone around your neck and go
and jump in the sea, he said.
Because the judgment for you in the final
day will be terrible.
If you have conducted yourself in a way
that causes little ones to stumble, are you
conducting yourself in a way that causes other
younger children who believe in Jesus to stumble?
Father and mother can behave in such a
way at home that they cause their little
children to stumble.
When father and mother yell at each other
at home, they cause their little ones to
stumble.
When father and mother have practices at home
that are dishonoring to God, they cause their
little ones to stumble.
Or it may be that you are a
sister who dresses in a very immodest way
and cause younger ones to be led astray
into worldliness.
It may be your way of speech.
It may be a habit that you have
which causes other people to stumble.
There could be so many things like this
that hinder younger ones in their following of
Jesus.
It could be that defiling television program that
you are watching.
The worldliness that you watch on the television
screen causes younger ones to stumble.
Jesus said, whoever causes one of these little
ones who believe in me to stumble, it
is better for him that a heavy millstone
be hung around his neck and that he
be drowned in the depth of the sea.
How seriously Jesus took this matter of stumbling
little ones.
Woe unto the world because of its stumbling
blocks.
Jesus said in verse 7, it is inevitable
that stumbling blocks come.
There will be stumbling blocks in the world.
You can't avoid that.
But woe unto that man through whom the
stumbling block comes.
May God have mercy on us if there
is anything in us that causes others to
stumble.
For our judgment will be very severe.
Now is the time to repent, dear friends,
of anything in our life that's causing younger
believers or little children to stumble in their
following of Jesus.
Anything in our speech, anything in our way
of life, any habit that we have.
Whatever it is, get rid of it.
Even if it is as important to you
as your hand or your foot.
Jesus said cut it off.
It may not be an evil thing.
Your hand and foot are not evil things.
Jesus is not speaking now about sinful things.
He's talking about things which can stumble others,
which you may think are as necessary for
you as your hand or your foot.
He said if your hand or your foot
causes you to stumble, cut it off and
throw it away from you.
Get rid of anything you have in your
life or in your house which causes other
people to stumble.
Hinders them from following Jesus in the way
of discipleship.
It is better for you to enter life
crippled or lame than having two hands or
two feet to be cast into the eternal
fire.
In other words, if you are going to
be a stumbling block to others by something
you do or say, you can be cast
into the eternal fire.
That's the plain meaning of these verses.
The world will have its stumbling blocks, verse
7.
That is inevitable.
But woe unto that man through whom the
stumbling block comes.
Oh that it may be that none of
us will ever be that man or woman
through whom a stumbling block comes into the
church.
And if your eye causes you to stumble,
pluck it out and throw it from you.
Pluck out your eye and throw it away.
Is there anything wrong in having two eyes?
Nothing wrong.
But if you are stumbled because of your
eye, you cannot control it perhaps.
Jesus said it's better to lose one eye
and live in spiritual purity than to have
two eyes and to go to hell.
It's better for you to enter life with
one eye, he said in verse 9, than
having two eyes to be cast into the
hell of fire.
There are very few Christians who take these
words seriously.
They are so careless in sinning with their
eyes, sinning with their hands, sinning with their
body, sinning with their tongue especially.
We could add to the words of Jesus
in the same spirit, if your tongue causes
you to offend, it's better to cut out
your tongue and be dumb, so that you
don't sin with your tongue and go to
hell.
It's better to go to heaven without a
tongue than to go to hell with a
tongue.
Think of taking sin so seriously as Jesus
spoke about it.
Jesus spoke more about hell and about the
lake of fire than any other preacher.
We've already come across that in Matthew chapter
5.
Here we find it again in Matthew 18.
Sin is serious and particularly if that sin
not only causes us to stumble, but is
causing other people who look at us to
stumble.
And if you are a preacher or any
type of leader or elder in a church,
these words apply ten times more to people
like us.
For others are looking at us and the
way we live and conduct ourselves is so
important that we are an example.
Further Jesus went on to say in verse
10 See that you don't despise one of
these little ones.
For I say to you that there are
angels in heaven continually behold the face of
my father who is in heaven.
Do you know that every child has an
angel appointed?
And that is the angel that protects our
children from many many serious accidents.
There is an angel appointed for every child.
And those angels stand before the face of
the father in heaven.
And when you stumble a little child or
despise a little child it's serious.
Because those angels report it to the father.
They continually behold the face of my father
who is in heaven.
Ya, that's serious.
There is a comfort in the latter part
of that verse.
That the angels appointed for children remain with
that child right through life.
They don't leave that child when he's grown
up.
Psalm 91 says he gives his angels charge
concerning us to guard us in all our
ways.
Thank God for the ministry of angels.
Much is spoken in the world today about
what demons do.
It's important to know what angels do as
well for us.
They are appointed by God to take care
of us.
To protect us.
They behold the face of our father in
heaven.
So don't despise one of these little ones,
he said.
For the son of man has come to
save that which was lost.
And he is here speaking particularly about little
children.
Little children are lost.
And Jesus has come to save little children.
What do you think if a man has
a hundred sheep and one of them has
gone astray, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine
and go and search for the one that
is straying?
And if it turns out that he finds
it, truly I say to you, he rejoices
more over that than over the ninety-nine
which have not gone astray.
Thus it is not the will of your
father who is in heaven that one of
these little ones perish.
Do you know that little ones can perish?
Little children can be lost?
And little children can also be saved.
And Jesus spoke here the parable about the
ninety-nine sheep and the one sheep that
was lost and he replied it to little
children.
A little child needs to be brought back
into the fold.
And this is a tremendous ministry that we
can have by our life and by our
example and by our words to bring little
children back into the fold of Jesus Christ.
Let's turn now to Matthew's Gospel, chapter eighteen
and verse fifteen.
And if your brother sins, go and reprove
him in private.
If he listens to you, you have won
your brother.
But if he does not listen to you,
take one or two more witnesses with you
so that by the mouth of two or
three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
And if he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church and if he
refuses to listen even to the church, let
him be to you as a Gentile and
a tax gatherer.
Here Jesus speaks about what we should do
when a brother sins, particularly if he has
sinned against you.
And what should be your reaction to that?
You can ignore it, but he may continue
in sin and he will have to answer
for it in the day of judgment.
Cain said to God, am I my brother's
keeper?
The answer to that question is yes, you
are.
We have a responsibility if we belong in
the church, in the body of Christ for
one another.
That is just like saying the right hand
has a responsibility for injury that has come
to the left hand to do something about
it, not to ignore it.
Now in the Old Testament, such a responsibility
was not there because people were not in
a body.
They were a congregation, they were a people.
But in the New Testament, the church is
called a body, the body of Christ and
we are members one of another.
And you know that every member in our
body has a responsibility for another member.
If my foot is injured, the eyes are
interested in that, the hand is interested in
that, every part of the body is interested
in it.
If the foot is aching, the whole body
suffers.
And therefore when your brother sins, this is
obviously a brother who is in your locality
with whom you are in fellowship.
He has become your brother and he sins.
Go and reprove him.
Make it clear to him.
This is a responsibility that very, very few
Christians take seriously.
Because they don't want to take the responsibility
that comes with it of being that brother's
keeper.
Reprove him in private.
In other words, don't go talking about it
to other people.
The very thing that Jesus said we should
do, very few people do.
And what Jesus said we should not do
is what people do.
Most believers are in the habit of speaking
to other people publicly about the sin of
somebody else.
But Jesus said, go and reprove that brother
in private.
When you speak to other people about that
person's sin, you are only bringing him down
in the eyes of others and destroying him.
But here, if you go and speak to
him in private, the chances are that he
may listen to you.
And you have won your brother.
The aim is to win the person back
when the devil has got an advantage over
him.
And this is exactly what we read also
in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 where
Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit says,
if a man is caught in a trespass,
you who are spiritual, restore such a one
in the spirit of gentleness.
The aim is restoration.
Try and bring that brother back into the
fold.
But if he does not listen to you,
then we find a spirit of rebellion.
Then take one or two more with you.
Don't go alone a second time.
Take one or two responsible mature brothers with
you, so that by the mouth of two
or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.
And if he refuses to listen even to
them, in other words, two or three have
spoken to him and he still refuses to
listen, then tell it to the church.
And now we need to ask ourselves what
does it mean to tell the church?
And it is obvious from the context here
that Jesus is speaking to tell it to
the elders in the church.
Because he goes on to say, if he
refuses to listen even to the church, it
doesn't mean that we go and tell a
hundred and fifty people in a local church
about it and that all the hundred and
fifty people descend on this man and begin
to speak to him.
That is impossible.
No.
It is obvious when you come to chapter
eighteen and verse nineteen and twenty that he
is referring to two or three who have
authority to bind and lose.
And those two or three are the elders
in a local church.
The authority in the church.
You have first gone with two or three
spiritual brothers to try and sort out this
problem yourself.
But you have not been able to do
it.
Well, bring it now to the notice of
the elders in the church and let them
handle it.
Sometimes it may be the wisest thing to
go to them straight away.
That in the very first stage, the one
or two you take with you are the
elders of the church.
And then of course you have gone to
the church straight away because you find that
maybe there are no others with wisdom to
handle the situation in your locality.
And he refuses to listen to the elders
of the church.
Then let that man be to you as
a heathen.
In other words, Jesus is speaking here about
discipline in the church where a brother continues
in sin in a spirit of rebellion.
The painful necessity of discipline.
It's just like surgery for cancer.
Here is a cancer that's begun to grow
in the body.
Once upon a time it was a living
cell.
It was a healthy cell but it has
become cancerous.
And we have tried to heal it through
other means and it's not healed.
Then the only solution is to do radical
surgery and cut it out and throw it
out of the body.
It's no longer a part of the body.
Discipline in the church where one who was
once a brother is now treated as a
heathen.
And in this context again, the Lord gives
authority to the elders in the church saying
whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven.
Whatever you lose on earth will be loosed
in heaven.
It speaks about the authority that the elders
who are walking with the Lord have.
To bind on earth spiritual forces that are
seeking to destroy the church.
And also to loose people who are in
bondage on earth and if a brother repents,
to loose him from the bondage of Satan
into which he had got himself into.
In this context, it's very important to see
the context, I say to you that if
two of you agree on earth about anything
that they may ask.
This matter of discipline is not something that
one person can do on his own.
There must be a minimum of two agreeing
to bind something.
Here are two people agreeing concerning something that
concerns the purity of the church.
In that context, it could be anything that
concerns the purity of the church.
Two who are in eldership come together and
they ask for anything it will be done
for them.
By my father in heaven.
Because the father in heaven is also concerned
about purity in the church.
And in this context, Jesus says, because where
two or three are gathered together like this,
in my name, in the spirit of unity
and harmony, there I am in their midst.
Now this is a verse that is very
much misunderstood and misquoted.
Where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst.
Many Christians have this bad habit of quoting
scripture out of context.
To know a verse and not to know
the context in which that verse comes, can
lead us to a wrong understanding and interpretation
of that verse.
Notice the context in which this verse comes.
It comes in the context of the local
church.
For this is the second time that Jesus
spoke about the church.
And in the gospel records there are only
two places where Jesus spoke about the church.
One is in Matthew 16 which we considered
in an earlier study.
And the other here is in Matthew 18.
Matthew 16 speaks about the universal worldwide church
including believers past, present and future.
Matthew 18 speaks about the local church, present
in one locality represented by its elders who
are two or three.
And in that context he speaks about two
or three gathering together in his name as
a local church.
And that teaches us that a local church
need comprise of only two or three.
Two or three are enough to comprise a
local church provided they are one in spirit.
The word used here in verse 19, agreed,
is the Greek word symphonio from which we
get the English word symphony.
It's a musical word.
And how beautiful it is to listen to
a number of instruments that are playing in
harmony and in symphony.
Even if it's two or three, even if
there are only two, you can get a
jarring note if one is out of tune.
Or one is not playing on the same
scale.
And Jesus is speaking about that type of
fine unity that is found in musical instruments.
And there are people with a very highly
sensitive ear to music who can discern even
if someone is off scale by one fourth
of a note.
It's that type of unity that the Lord
desires in the church where two brothers or
two sisters, two or three, are so completely
in harmony in their spirit.
When we hear musical instruments out of tune,
think of two brothers who are out of
tune with each other or two sisters who
are out of tune.
That is more of a discord in God's
ears than two instruments out of tune in
a church meeting.
That is the sound that God is listening
for, the unity of brothers and sisters who
come together, gathered together in unity in the
name of Jesus, where they agree together.
And when such agreement is there, the Lord
is present.
Where they are disagreeing and jealous and bitter
against one another, the Lord is not there.
For a true church to exercise itself, the
authority that the Lord has given to it,
there must be this unity.
This is the true church of Jesus Christ,
where there are at least two or three
who are so united in spirit that they
can bind the forces of darkness that seek
to bring spiritual death into it.
That they can lose in the Lord's name
those who are bound by Satan.
This is what we should long for in
our localities.
The church representing the unity of the Father
and Son, for this is what Jesus prayed
for, that we might be one as the
Father and Son are one.
For in the midst of such a church,
even if it's only two or three members,
the Lord himself is present in all his
authority.