Open your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew Chapter 18. John 3.16 is the most famous reference in the Bible. Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 13 might be tied for second. Someone says, Matthew 18, they're not saying about leaving the 99 and going after the 1. They're not talking about the unforgiving servant being delivered to the torturers. They're not picking out If your eye offends you, pluck it out. All of these things are in this chapter, but of course, by Matthew 18, typically someone is referring to verse 15 and 16, which describe a process for dealing with it when someone offends you. So we'll get there. That is part of this chapter. That part is best understood in terms of the whole chapter. Jesus, of course, hardly ever mentioned the church. The word church appears three times across all four Gospels. Three times in the Gospels. And this is one of the times when Jesus talked specifically about the church and said, here is what life in the church should be. So this is his fourth discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. And he describes life in the church to us. We spoke last time, I gave you a brief rundown of our Easter series. which is called Your Changing Body. Your Changing Body, one of those awkward high school health textbooks that some of you were forced to read. The whole idea is our church is changing, we're growing, and we want to not just grow, we want to grow up. Our body is changing, and we need to grow up to maturity, so we're talking about maturity in these five Sundays around Easter. Last Sunday we talked about Ephesians chapter 4 and Paul's definition of maturity is growing up to the stature of Christ. Today we'll talk about what a mature church looks like in terms of the community that it has in Matthew 18. Next week for Palm Sunday we'll look at Deuteronomy 23 and And the Lord's command to cover your excrement so that he doesn't step in it. That's a huge part of being a mature church. We'll talk about that. And then for Easter and the Sunday after, Colossians 3, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Matthew chapter 18. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And 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, and whoever receives one little child like this 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 if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. And 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 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 hellfire. 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. 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. 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. But if he will not hear you, 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. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. 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. 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. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to sell the accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my Heavenly Father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses." The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father, we need to be like You. You sent Your Son to tell us what You are like. that You are a lover of children, the one who goes after lost sheep, and the one who is utterly uncompromising on the need for us to forgive one another as You forgive us. Help us to see what You are like, and help us to be conformed to that by the power of Your Word and Spirit today. drive all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice out of our hearts, that we might grow up in every way to the one who is the head, to Jesus. Show us yourself, free us from distraction, help me to speak boldly and accurately to your people today, and help us all to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. We pray it in the name of your Son, who is our help and shield. Amen. We saw last week in Ephesians 4 that God has given us two tools by which we can grow up to maturity. These two tools are knowledge and community. We're not tossed about with every wind of doctrine, but instead we are settled doctrinally. We have knowledge. The other tool that we have is community. Speaking the truth in love is how we grow up to the head. Matthew 18 focuses on community. What does a mature community within the body look like? How does a mature church act? Well, it does the things that the Lord outlines in this passage. It welcomes children. It goes after the lost brother, and it forgives. That is a mature community, and that is a calling on every person in this room. In our community, we must love children, seek out the lost brother, and forgive those who sin against us. Because these things reflect our Father, who loves children, seeks the lost brother, and forgives. We'll look at the first part and we obviously do not have time today to talk about everything in this chapter in detail but notice the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Mark tells us that this is kind of a guilty question they had been disputing about who is the greatest and of course Jesus probably gave them the look to say none of you are the greatest so they ask him who is the greatest If you were asked to name the greatest American, you might reach for a president, an inventor, somebody like that, a great man. Jesus called a little child to him. Come here, little one. And then he points to this little one and says to everyone, this is the greatest in the kingdom. It's none of you. St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. John, whatever, forget it. You guys are not the greatest in the kingdom. this little child is the greatest in the kingdom. And he tells the disciples in no uncertain terms, you must imitate the children. Children, there are approximately 30 of you in this church this morning. You are placed here as examples to the rest of us. That's what the Lord tells us. He brought the child and put him in the midst and said, you want to see a great Christian? Here's one right here. You want to see everything a kingdom citizen ought to be? Here's one right here. He tells us the quality that the children excel in is humility. Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom. Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. That is getting out of your own head. Stop obsessing over yourself. Who am I? What do I want? What do I need? What is everyone thinking about me? Like the lady said to my dad one time, enough of me talking about me. What do you think of me? That's not humility. Humility means thinking accurately of yourself. Those of us who have been at prayer meeting with the children recently, and I'll name myself here, they always pray for the same thing. They always thank God for the other people in the room. And on more than one occasion, I've caught myself thinking, these kids, they have so much to learn. They have a lot that they need to pray about. They need to become better prayers. Is that what Jesus says? The children are still amazed at the wonder of the body of Christ. They're still amazed that all these people love each other and gather together, and all they do, they're overwhelmed, they thank God, thank you that these people are here, and that these people are here, and that these people are here. They can't believe it. They're blown away by what God is doing at prayer meetings. The child trusts rather than believing that he knows it all already. And Jesus says, you want to see a mature community? You want to see a mature Christian? Look at the child. That's our call today, brothers and sisters. And so Jesus tells us, welcome the children. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. The mature church community welcomes children. There's a bunch of different aspects to this. I'm going to break it down into two and we could talk about this obviously for a whole sermon series, not just one point in a large sermon. But I'm going to break it into officially and unofficially. How do we officially welcome children? Well, we say they are part of the church. If you're a child here this morning, you belong. You are one of us. Welcome. Our Book of Church Orders says this, the children of believers are, through the covenant and by right of birth, non-communing members of the church. Hence, they are entitled to baptism and to the pastoral oversight, instruction, and government of the church with a view to their embracing Christ and thus possessing personally all the benefits of the covenant. That's in our documents. We officially welcome children here. I've heard pastors say, no church membership till you're 18. That makes my blood boil. There was one here right now, I would debate him. for your viewing pleasure. I think that is absolutely, utterly ungodly, that that's the exact thing that Jesus is talking about with the millstone. Unofficially not welcoming children and saying, you are not part of the body of Christ. God hates that. Well, there's my rant. We need to also unofficially welcome children. It's one thing to say in our book of church order, children are welcome around here. but we need to unofficially welcome them too. How do we do that? Well, for one thing, we start at the beginning. We love our pregnant mothers. We don't say, what, you're having another one? We say, that's amazing. Praise God, right? We bring them meals. We do all of these other things. We hold baby showers. This is a way of welcoming children unofficially. We also don't let ourselves be bothered by their behavior. Now, yes, there's multiple sides to this. Parents, we need to be doing a good job of teaching our children to obey the Lord, not to run around and plow over the seniors in the room and so on. But Jesus says, welcome the children. Show them love. If you're over 50, what have you done this month to show your love to children in the church? Many of you are really good at this. You bring them clothes. You bring them snacks. You bring them books. That's really good. Praise God for that. Others of you have room to grow in this area. You should engage a child in conversation. And parents, you should teach your children to engage an adult in conversation each Sunday. The research that's been done indicates that the biggest factor in whether a child will stay with the church is whether they had meaningful relationships with adults in the church besides their parents. So as you come to church and you say, I love having children here, that's great. Befriend them, talk to them, and All of us need to meditate on Jesus' command to be like children in their humility. God, after all, crushes anyone who leads a child to sin. That's Jesus' words here. God forbid that you create the kind of hostile environment that leads someone to grow up and say, I left the church because of what so-and-so said to me, what so-and-so did to me. In this place where children were supposed to be welcomed, I wasn't. church community needs to officially and unofficially welcome children. Don't provoke them to anger. Don't tempt them to sin. Don't shame them. Welcome the children. Well, Jesus moves on from there to describe the relationship between children in the church and the lost one in the church. To a certain extent, he says the church welcomes children, And the church welcomes and goes after the lost brother. He starts with an illustration. The man has a hundred sheep. One is lost. He goes after the one and brings it back. God is not a utilitarian. He does not believe in the greatest good of the greatest number. He doesn't say, well, we need to sacrifice the individual to the needs of the group. If I leave the 99, they'll all go astray. But what exactly does this entail? Just reading the parable, you might think, oh, well, if someone in the church is in trouble, the pastor should spend all his time pursuing that person and not write sermons, not feed the rest of the flock, et cetera. That's not what he means. Jesus tells us what the application is. He gives the illustration. Leave the 99 and go after the one. He gives the point, verse 14, the father wills to save every last little one it is not the will of your father in heaven that any of these little ones should perish the good shepherd prioritizes the lost one because that's what the father prioritizes one of these little ones the lost one that's the one that the lord loves and he spells out exactly what that looks like if your brother is lost Go after him. That's what leaving the 99 and going after the one means. It means, man, it's more comfortable to spend time with the 99 people who don't have a grievance against me and with whom I don't have a grievance. Boy, it's just a lot easier. If I have broken fellowship with someone, if someone has a problem with me, it's a lot easier to just kind of let that break, stay broken, and we just drift apart. Well, we don't talk to each other, we don't see each other, we don't do things together anymore. It's just more comfortable that way. Leaving the 99 and going after the 1 means saying, it's my responsibility as a Christian to find reconciliation with the 1 I'm out of fellowship with. Even though the 99 are a lot more comfortable, cheerful, and pleasant to me to be around. If your brother is lost, go after him. That's what Jesus means by leaving the 99. If there's a lost brother, you're out of fellowship with someone, pursue them. Don't just say, oh well, that problem solved itself. They're out of my life. Good riddance. Not how the Lord thinks, not how He allows us to think. He came down from earth to heaven to seek and to save the lost, and He tells us to do the same thing when our brother sins against us. And of course, He says, we all know how wise this is, go first to the offender, not first to your mom, not first to your sister, not first to your drinking buddies, not first to the elders, not first to your spouse, I can't believe what so-and-so did to me. Go to the offender. And then, bring it up and seek reconciliation. Jesus tells us what the goal is. You have gained your brother, if he hears you. You've brought the lost one back. You're all part of the same team. You're all part of the same flock, once again. You're not hanging out with the 99 and saying, oh well about the other one. One of you has told me about a church he belonged to that had split into factions to the point where there was a central railing on the front steps of the church. Those in one faction would come out and stand on one side of that railing, and those in the other faction would come out on Sunday morning after worship and stand on the other side of that railing. And that was just church. You know, we all cordially hate each other in here. Jesus forbids that for the Christian. There's no factionalism allowed in this community. Your brother offends you, go to him and seek reconciliation. And he outlines the steps of that process to say, take witnesses. If the witnesses don't win the brother, then tell it to the church, the brother refuses to be one, then yes, there is this option of expulsion where he becomes like the heathen man and the tax collector. That is, someone who is obviously living a sinful lifestyle and is not considered to be in the fellowship of the church. We aren't going to get into what excommunication means and what it's about. We don't have time for that. But the application, if your brother is lost, go after him because, verse 18, reconciliation with God requires reconciliation with the church. That's what Jesus' cryptic words mean here. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. That is, when the church acts to close the door to heaven on the fingers of the unrepentant, God agrees with that. There's no reconciliation with God without reconciliation with the church. And any of you who's lived in Gillette for more than about two or three weeks, met someone who's told you that there is. Oh, I'm a believer. My spouse is a believer. My child is a believer. They never go to church. They hate the people at church. They're definitely good with God. Jesus says it doesn't work that way. If you're out of fellowship with the church, You're out of fellowship with your heavenly father. The church binds you and says, you're not going to heaven with that attitude. God backs it up and says, that's right. No, you're not going to heaven with that attitude. God heeds the prayers of the church. Where two or three are gathered, or rather two of you agree on earth, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. God listens to the church. That's why reconciliation with the church is imperative for anyone who would be reconciled with God. It's also why coming to letting the little children come and be part of the church means is the same thing as letting them come to Jesus. Say you can't come to Jesus because of your age is something God hates. but to say on the other side, oh, you can come to Jesus despite what those mean church people say. That's also something God hates. God backs up the discipline of the church. Verse 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there. God is reconciled with the church. God is backing up what the church says and does. That's what he means by guaranteeing his presence where two or three are gathered in this attempt to go after the lost brother. He never says, by the way, of course, I'm in the national forest on Sunday mornings. I'm in your boat with your fishing pole. I'm in the tree stand. No, he says I'm where my people gather in my name, not where my people gather in the name of hunting elk, not where my people gather in the name of eating gourmet food. I am where my people gather in my name, that is in the name of worshiping and following Jesus. So God backs up the discipline of the church. Reconciliation with God requires reconciliation with the church. And Jesus tells us this story because so often I think we ask, tell me more about church discipline. What exactly do we do to the bad guy? Peter, right, we tend to ask about the one who doesn't repent. What do we do to him? Peter asked the other question. What about the one who does repent? What do we do with that one? Someone I was out of fellowship with who's repented, what now? How many times do we have to go through this? And Jesus says, an unlimited number of times. 70 times seven, the perfect number of times. the attitude and he tells the parable, he gives the command, forgive without limits. We're gonna talk more about this when we get to the Colossians passage on forgiving. You all are modern people, and like me, the second I say forgive without limits, your mind goes to the exception. What about the sex offender? What about the murderer? What about the really, really, really bad ones? We'll talk about that. The bottom line is, don't think like a modern. Reject that notion of always going to the hard case, the case that you think breaks the rule. That's a dumb, bad habit. It has nothing to do with what Jesus is saying here. The other thing is that forgiveness doesn't mean allowing the other person to continue to hurt you. That's not what forgiveness is. Forgiveness means dropping bitterness. Forgiveness means giving up your right to carry the offense. Forgiveness means saying, I will take the pain of this one rather than living for the day when I can inflict the pain back on you because you hurt me. That's what forgiveness is. And Jesus says to Peter and to all of us, you must forgive without limits. On forgiveness, the completed transaction is only possible for someone who repents. Doug Wilson compares it to wrapping up a present. You wrap up the present of forgiveness and you drop it on the other person's doorstep. They have the choice to accept it, to bring it in and unwrap it. They will only do that when they repent. But you must drop the grudge and offer them the forgiveness. You're not bitter. Well, Peter, of course, asks, how often do I have to forgive, as though he's going to be the one doing all the forgiving? As the gospel story unfolds, as all of us know, Peter is the one who needs the forgiveness. And so it is with us all. We read this parable of the unforgiving servant, and I think most of us like to cast ourselves as the king. Oh, I forgave the man 10,000 talents. And I have the right to say, you're not forgiving. Go to the torturers. Jesus telling this story to say, yes, my disciples, you are all like the king. No, he's telling us that we're like the man who is most likely to be thought of as a tax collector for a province. Josephus tells us that the annual tax take from the province of Judea was 8,000 talents. Very equivalent, very similar to the 10,000 talent debt that this man owes. This tax collector has gone out and he's collected the 10,000 talents on behalf of the king, And then he probably shorted something on Wall Street and lost the 10,000 talents. And the king says, where are my 10,000 talents? And the guy, oh, I'll pay you. I'll pay you. And the king forgives him. Then the man, you all know this parable well, I trust, goes and grabs his buddy by the throat and yells, pay me what you owe, 100 denarii. One 600,000th. of the amount that the king has just forgiven the unforgiving servant. What does Jesus point? God has forgiven you at least 600,000 times as much sin as you are being called on to forgive. God has forgiven you and me an impossibly large amount of sin. And yet so often we demand the right to be bitter and unforgiving towards the one who burnt our toast that one time. Or towards the one who backed into our car and won't pay to fix it. Oh, that makes me mad. Oh, I'm so bitter about that. God says, stop being the unforgiving servant. So what if someone backed into your car? So what if someone broke something at your house? Forgive them. Let it go. Give it to God. This is maturity in the community. We can tell whether a church is mature by how it responds to children, whether it goes after the lost one, and whether the people within that church forgive, or hold grudges. Jesus says this is life in the body. This is what community looks like. This is an extended commentary on Paul's one phrase, speaking the truth in love. What does that mean? It means we love children and welcome them. It means we go after the lost brother. It means we forgive. The Father will hand over to the torturers whoever doesn't forgive until their whole debt is paid. Of course, you can torture someone a long time without squeezing 10,000 talents out of him if he doesn't have the money. Jesus' point is that hell lasts forever. The only condition on salvation is that you freely share it. If you say, God has forgiven me, No matter what someone has done to you, you must forgive. No matter how mean they were, how abusive they were, how many cutting and terrible things they said, how they physically harmed you, it doesn't matter. If you're going to insist on keeping God's salvation and forgiveness to yourself, you will go to the torturers. So will my heavenly Father do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive. It's not just to say, oh yeah, I forgive you. It's not a formula. It's not an external action. It's an internal heart reality where you have actually let it go and you no longer carry the right to take up that offense. That's a mature community. And that's what we need to be this Easter as we are raised with Christ. He ascended up on high. He conquered everything, led captivity captive. He gives us the power of community through his own forgiveness, through his own example of seeking the lost sheep, through his own welcoming of children. That's how we become the community that we're called to be in Christ. Let's pray. Father, help us not just to grow, but to grow up. Help us to welcome children, officially and unofficially, in this church. Help us to go after the lost one. Not to go to everybody under the sun and say, oh, so-and-so is lost. Father, may that be entirely rooted out from among us. Help us instead to go directly after the lost one and reclaim them. There never be a dividing wall of hostility within this church, factions, disputes, bitterness of any kind. We pray that no root of bitterness would spring up and bear that poisonous fruit that destroys your body. Father, let us grow up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.