Matthew 18 (Part 2) :5-14

Question for you this morning, do you ever, do you ever question the love of God? I think if we were honest with ourselves and with others this morning, we would probably admit that we do from time to time, some people more than others. In fact, there's probably some people who live in a perpetual state of wondering if they're loved by God. And that could be because they had a really bad example of love from the home in the home. And that then, you know, that speaks of the importance of, of providing a home where our kids are loved and cherished so that when they, when they open their hearts to the Lord, there's an understanding of that that just kind of naturally dovetails with what they've already received. Some kids didn't get that in, in, in their upbringing, and you may be one of those. And for you, dealing with the love of God may be more like a hurdle than something to be, you know, embraced just easily, you know, for you, it's just, it's a challenge. And then, and you know, there's that group of people. And then there's, I think what probably is the bigger piece of the pie are those who struggle from time to time, you know, with the love of God, you know, sometimes. In fact, we might even say that most of the time we're fairly secure. And then when we go through times of difficulty, we question, you know, and it's kind of basically the Job syndrome, you know, where Job was doing great up until the enemy started just hammering him, and then he began to wonder if God was fair, just, and even kind. And I think we can relate to that to some degree. And then I think probably a much smaller piece of the pie are those people who absolutely never ever question the love of God. They're just constantly fat and sassy and happy, and they're like, yeah, God loves me, of course, yeah, no problem, bye. And we just want you to know we hate you. That's not true. I'm joking. No, that's, God bless you. If you're one of those people who never ever questions the love of God, yeah, consider yourself hugely blessed. But I think the majority of us are those who are challenged at times with really embracing the love of God in our lives. And so I wanted to share that this morning to kind of preface the fact that the verses we're going to be covering today in Matthew chapter 18 are statements that Jesus makes essentially to an unbelieving audience about his children. Have you ever sat and listened to parents talk about their kids? I mean, I've obviously done it. Not only am I a parent, I'm now a grandparent, four kids, three grandkids. And we all love to talk about our kids, don't we? I mean, just wait until I... You know how grandparents used to just have a couple of pictures in their wallet? I've got dozens of albums on my tablet. Just get me started about my grandkids. You'll be there for hours. Yeah. But you know, when people talk about their kids, they're just, they're adoring, and they're just my kids. And, you know, the rest of us are kind of going, yeah, okay. But you know, it's the love of a parent, isn't it? When I read through these verses that we're about to read through here in Matthew chapter 18, you know what I hear? I hear a parent talking about his kids. In this case, kids is the children of God. And I trust that that includes us today. So what that means is this is God talking through Jesus, who of course is God in human flesh, about you and I, and he's talking about how important we are to him. He's talking about how much he loves us. He's talking about how he protects us and takes care of us. So those of you like me, who from time to time struggle with issues related to embracing and walking in the love of God, this is a little love letter from Jesus to you. Now, once again, it's almost like it's spoken to unbelievers. It's spoken to people who are outside of the family of God, about the family of God. And the thing I want to remind you of, we covered the first four verses of this chapter last week. You guys remember? It basically started with the disciples asking Jesus a question. Let's look at it again. It says, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So you need to be like a child. What is he saying that they need to be children? No, no, no, no, no, any more than what he said to Nicodemus was he needed to go back into his mother's womb to be born again. It is a picture. It is a symbol. In this case, a child is a picture of humility, meekness, and trust. You know how children just naturally just trust? They're very trusting. In fact, so much so that as parents, when they're little, we've got to kind of train them not to. And that's sad that we live in a world where that's necessary. But, you know, we got to tell our kids when they're a little, you know, little boogers running around. We've got to say, hey, listen, you know, if there's a stranger, you know, who comes up to you and talks to you, you need to be very cautious. Don't ever take anything from a stranger. Don't ever go anywhere with a stranger. And, you know, it's really sad, isn't it, that we have to tell our kids things like that, but we have to. And you know why? Because they're trusting. Somebody comes up to a kid and goes, hey, young men or whatever, kids are just, you know, but, you know, that's a quality in adults that Jesus said is, he calls it childlike, and it's absolutely required. It's required that we would put our faith in God in a childlike manner and just say, I trust you. God, I trust you. So humility, meekness, and that attitude of trust are those childlike qualities that Jesus is displaying now in front of them all by bringing a child, putting this child in their midst and saying, you want, you guys want to know what greatness is all about? Here's a child. This is greatness in the kingdom of God. This kind of humility, this kind of meekness, this kind of just total willingness to trust. There it is right there. That's it. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? Because, you know, Jesus knew that their definition of greatness would be something quite other. It would be patterned after the world. And isn't that the case? Many of us, we think the same thing. Let's put these two definitions side by side. Let me put this on the screen for you. If we were to take this piece of paper here, this digital piece of paper, and as we have here, put greatness across the top, we would start with the definition that all of us were pretty much raised with in the world. And it would go something like this. In the kingdom of man, greatness is defined as essentially personal pride or the ability to have esteeming oneself highly and independence. We like those because in independence, we see strength of character. And in such a way that people say, you know, that whole picture of the self-made man, you know, on the cover of Money magazine or whatever to kind of just communicate to all of us, this is a strong, self-confident individual. The world thinks that's extremely cool. And it would define that as greatness. That guy's great. And of course, that's the mentality that the disciples used when they came to Jesus and said, so who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? This is what they're thinking right here. Jesus knows that he can't just answer the question straight without giving them some insight. So that's where he brings in the child, right? And that's where we come up with the kingdom of God and the definition of greatness in the kingdom of God, which is that childlike humility, that meekness, if you will, that willingness to trust, i.e. faith in God. That's greatness right there. Now, here's why I've kind of gone back over these first four verses for us. Because now as we get into verse 5 and onward in the chapter, Jesus is going to repeatedly use the phrase, these little ones. And I want you to know who he's talking about. He's talking about believers. He's not referring literally to little children, okay? The passages, he's already established here in these first four verses that child-likeness is to be desired in the kingdom of God. In fact, it is the definition of greatness in the kingdom of God. And now that he's established the character traits that define those in the kingdom of God, now he's going to speak about those children. And he's going to call you children. He's calling me a child too, in that sense, because we're to emulate that whole character aspect of a child. So let's go ahead and we'll read through these verses. He says,

Pray with me just real quickly here. Father God, open our hearts. May we receive today according to your word in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. So he's gone through this whole issue of greatness. He's brought this child into their midst. And now we understand that this reference to children refers to believers. And now he goes on and he begins talking about us. And he begins by talking about the closeness, the intimacy, the identification that he has with children. You know, we love to identify with our children. Look at how closely he identifies. He says in verse five, he says, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me." Okay? In other words, it's kind of like the position of an ambassador. When an ambassador for a nation goes to meet dignitaries from another nation, he goes in the name of that nation. Jesus is saying that there is such a close identification between his children and himself that when they receive us, they receive him. And we're not talking about receive for salvation here, okay? They still got to receive Jesus Christ personally. They need to understand their sins, you know, have separated them from God and Jesus died on the cross for their sins. This doesn't mean that if somebody accepts and receives you, they're going to heaven because it's the same as receiving Christ. That's a different receiving. It literally means that they will receive you as if, or I see it as if they have received, they have opened their hearts to me in a very real sort of genuine sense of the word because there's an identification there. You know, one of the things I never would have understood until I became a father was how you can live through your children. I never understood that. I'm not sure if it ever happened with my parents. I'm not sure I ever gave them any reason to want to live through my life necessarily. But there's this weird kind of vicarious thing that when you see your children do things that are commendable, you know, and you appreciate, you know, a parent just kind of, you know, we're proud, we're proud of our kids. And it's like, you know, when your kid does something amazing, you're kind of like, it's like you did it, you know? Wow, that's pretty sweet. You know, my kid did, you know, all of a sudden I'm feeling really good about myself because of what he did, which is really kind of crazy. But there's just this identification in parenthood. Jesus is talking about this same identification to the point where he says, when people receive you, they receive me. There is a total connectedness. There is a total oneness there to the point where when Saul of Tarsus was still raging against the Christian church, persecuting believers, putting them to death, he's on his way to Damascus. The Bible says this bright light from heaven shone, knocked him to his knees, and this voice from the heaven spoke to him and said, it said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church? Oh, wait, that's not what he said. He said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul said, who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Did you ever notice that personal connection, that personal connectedness? So when a believer's going through rough time, when you're hurting, when you're in pain, and somebody says to you, where's Jesus in the midst of all that? You say, oh, he's right there. He's feeling it all. He knows it all. He understands it all. He feels it all. And when somebody does something against you, they do it against him. Remember, Jesus said that there's going to come a time when all the nations, all the kingdoms of the earth will be gathered before him at the last day, and he will separate some on the right and some on the left, and he will begin to speak to them about what they did and didn't do to him. And he'll say, you didn't, you didn't, you didn't. And on the right, he'll say, you did, you did, you did. These are things you did do. And those on the left will say, when did we see you this way and not help you? And when were you sick or in prison and we didn't come and visit you? Jesus will say to them, when you did not do it for the least of these, my brethren, my little children, if you will, you did not do it for me. And those on the right, Lord, when? When did we see you hungry? When did we see you sick or in prison? When did we go and visit you and so forth? When you did it to the least of these right here, you did it to me. See that personal connection. It's this powerful, intimate thing that I even have a hard time finding words to describe, but it's there. And Jesus wants you to know that it's there. And Jesus is going to hold people accountable as he goes on in verse six. Look at verse six. Look what he goes on to say. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, your Bible may use the word stumble, which I think is a good word. It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck to be drowned in the depths of the sea. In other words, death by drowning would be an act of mercy compared to the judgment that awaits the person who purposes in their heart to cause any of you guys to stumble. That's how God feels about it. He will not tolerate it. And he will call to account any who try to take you down into sin or cause you to stumble into sin. He kind of goes on in this passage in verse seven, and he says, woe to the world because of all the temptations that are going to cause people to sin. Which means when he says, woe to the world, it means the world is going to answer in a general collective sort of a sense for all of the sin that has ravaged this world that God created. But then he goes on in verse seven and he says, but woe to the one by whom those temptations come. In other words, individually, just as much as he individually takes care of and watches over you, he individually keeps a record of understanding of those who try to cause you purposely to stumble. And he says that situation will be dealt with. Woe to those because God never forgets. I don't know if you've ever had a big brother looking out for you, but you do now. I grew up with a big brother, just a couple of years older than me. And when I was littler, he used to stick up for me. You know, if the neighborhood bully or some other kid was pushing me around or something, my brother would get in there and he'd defend me. And then, and I really liked that, but I thought that was pretty sweet. I liked having a big brother, let me tell you right now. And frankly, I think that's what big brothers ought to do. Unfortunately, we got into our teenage years and my brother decided I needed to be a man, much to my chagrin, I kind of lost my get out of jail free card. And he thought that I needed to, if I shot my mouth off, I needed to fight my own fights. Yeah, anyway, so that kind of came to an end. But you know what? I read these verses and I see that I still have somebody looking out for me and so do you. And he's watching everything. I mean, and one of the things these verses say to us is that you and I don't need to be concerned about vengeance. We're not gonna do the getting back thing. You know why? Jesus is gonna. Handle that God's Word says in no uncertain terms vengeance is mine says the Lord right that's his to take care of it's not yours To take care of if you if you strike out to take care of vengeance if you try to get back at somebody who hurt You that is the most vengeance that person will ever get and God will take his hands off your situation You know I've I've seen this happen in Christian community where people might come to me and express something that happened to them That was unfair or unjust and I I hear what they say, and I and I think to myself. You know what that's that's legitimate That's a real legitimate. They've been truly wronged, and I'll think wow you know that's cool Because you know the Lord's gonna take up their cause Because I believe that I according to these words. I believe God's gonna take up the cause of those who have been duly wronged because of their faith and so forth and then eventually ultimately Somebody will say something that person who's been wrong will say something or do something to try to get back And you know at that point. I'm just kind of like dude. You blew it now. You're on your own You're that's it. God is not going to rush in and Exact vengeance upon a situation where you took the matter into your own hands if you take it into your own hands That's it. It's it's done. That's yours now to deal with So you know we don't we're not gonna do that you know what I mean, we're just not gonna do that God says vengeance is mine and And and and he is perfectly capable of doing that sort of thing Okay, you know this whole idea of putting a stumbling block. I'll just tell you this really quickly If you need an example a good biblical example of you know you might be thinking well What does it mean somebody purposely trying to get you to sin or something like that? There's a there's a great story in the Old Testament Where You remember the character Balaam Balaam was a was a seer He was not a Jew and he was lit But he was living in that region at the time when Moses was bringing the nation of Israel Toward the promised land and the king of Moab Saw that the nation of Israel was about to pass Through his country, and he was afraid of them so he went to Balaam And he said I want to hire you to curse Israel and and Balaam eventually came along with the king and not only did he not curse the nation of Israel out Out of his mouth came incredible blessing just in fact is some of the most beautiful scripture in the Bible about just God's love and provision and stuff for his people and so forth how God sees his people and And then you know and of course Balak is all upset. He's like hey, man I gave you money to curse these people and you just blessed him. What's all this about and Balak said hey, dude I told you you know I can only do what the Lord tells me to do and say what he gives me to say and And then you get to the end of the chapter and it says Balaam went home and Balak went home and you think well That's it. That's over done But then you read the very next chapter and You start reading about how the Moabite girls I'm sure all the pretty ones Came kind of dancing down the hill into the camp of Israel and started inviting the men To participate in their pagan Religious festivals, and then they began to seduce them into sexual immorality Do you know that it's not until we get to the book of Revelation That this whole thing of what Balaam did is exposed If there are references To it a little bit in the Old Testament, but in the book of Revelation where Jesus is dictating letters to the churches Let me show you let me show you what Jesus says He says But I have a few things against you You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam Who taught Balak look at this to put a stumbling block? Before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality in this interesting So Jesus gives us insight into what Balaam did after he failed to curse the Israelites It doesn't give it we you know, we're not told this in the Old Testament It makes it sound like after they got done They just kind of went their ways But what Balaam did is he went to Balak and he said listen, buddy. Let me give you a little tip here You're not going to defeat these people with swords and arrows It just ain't gonna happen and you've just seen how curses are not going to come to rest In fact what came out of my mouth, that's blessing That's what God wants to do those people and you can't do anything to fight against it But let me tell you something you want to know how to bring these people down to the dust Get them to sin Yeah, just get them to violate their covenant relationship with God and you won't have to lift a finger God will destroy them for you and That's exactly what we see happening in the next chapter in the book of Numbers when the Moabite women come down to engage the men sexually the Bible says that a plague broke out among the people a plague that That actually had a death toll of 20,000 people so in part what Balaam did worked 20,000 people that's a pretty serious judgment, but you know what Jesus is saying here in Matthew chapter 8 or 18, excuse me That's nothing compared to what's in store for the man who brought that stumbling block that's nothing and He is trying to express to you and I how much he cares and How much he is willing to protect you and I when there are some who come along? To seek to bring us into bondage to sin Verses 8 and 9 are actually you know if this sounds familiar That's because we actually went through this in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus said it but remember now he's really speaking more to an unbelieving audience back then he was talking to believers But he he begins to warn people about the radical need to separate themselves from sin By saying if your hand or foot causes you to sin if your eye causes you to sin cut it out gouge it out You know whatever better to be crippled or lame or or blind? Than to have all of those things and be thrown into eternal fire. Jesus is using hyperbole here you guys He's using the language of symbol God's Word never tells us to mutilate our bodies and his audience would have known that it would have they would have known that he Was using that kind of wild exaggerated example to make a point that there are times when we need to Radically separate ourselves from the things that cause sin in our lives It's you know this this this language of cutting as is not by any means Weird you know to the Word of God, I mean good grief in the Old Testament. What was the covenant sign of God's people? Circumcision what is circumcision cutting away of the flesh? What is that all about? It's about circumcision of the heart It's about cutting away the flesh the sinful nature from man's heart this whole idea of cutting has always been part of of that idea of Separating us from sin and and frankly. It's a it's it's a bloody mess. It's not a easy convenient Sanitary thing to do you know in terms of what it takes to be separated from sin But Jesus says you know it's worth it and so forth And then he's gonna go on and he's gonna say when I think one of the most comforting things about about you and I But he's memory he's talking He's talking to other people's talking to people outside of the kingdom of God And he says see that you do not despise one of these little ones and again. He's not talking about children. He's talking about believers For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father Who is in heaven? It's a beautiful passage? But he says see that you don't despise These little ones of mine. Why would they despise us? Why? Well because the character traits that we have taken on in Christ which are what humility? Meekness and a and a willingness to trust those aren't things that the world Looks to they can appreciate them to a degree But that's not greatness And they will despise those who actually have them and so he says see that you do not look down on these little ones Why because they're angels? Always behold the face of my father in heaven this this passage has been used as a proof text for saying that we have guardian angels and Particularly people will translate this that every child has a guardian angel once again. He's not talking about children talking about believers But and frankly I don't I don't think that there is sufficient proof for you And I to be able to say everybody has a guardian angel. I what he said is they're angels plural Just they're angels the angels what angels the angels that God has dispatched to serve the sons of God Those who are being saved that's what the Bible says that angels are all about they're there to serve They're there to help they're there they're there to aid and support and and so forth, but he says they're angels Always behold the face of my Father. And it's a way of just saying, don't mess with my kids. Because you know, I'm watching. We're keeping an eye on this thing. We know what's going on. You and I, we so easily forget these things and we think, oh, God doesn't see this. Why isn't God doing something? Why isn't He responding? Why doesn't He care? God cares. He sees everything. He knows exactly what is going on in your life and in mine. And we need this reminder. And then in this final statement, verses 12 through 14, he says, what do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than the 99 that never went astray. And then he says, so, and this is the conclusion, it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that even one of these little ones, again, believers, should perish. And what better way to express this final statement of his love for you and I, but to use this simple parable of a lost sheep and a searching shepherd. Very, very simple parable. There's not much to it. But it speaks of God's love to us on so many levels. And let me just give you the four levels very quickly that I believe this thing talks to us about. It tells us, first of all, that the love of God is an individual love. Did you notice that? He will leave the 99, because there's safety in numbers, and he will go and look for, he will go and search for the one that is lost. I'm willing to bet that somebody in this room here today was once a lost sheep. I'm not talking about before you came to Jesus, I'm talking about knowing Jesus, knowing the way of salvation, and then you wandered off. And we talk about the love of God in a general sense. God loves us. God loves people. For God so loved the world. This passage tells you God loves you personally. You singularly, not only, but you. He loves you. You know, that's something that we would probably say we believe, but when it really hits us, it's life changing. I'll never forget one time, years ago when we were still up in Montana, I wasn't very old in the Lord at all, but somebody had a word from the Lord for me. And this person just walked up to me at the service and said, I've got a word of the Lord for you. Okay, cool. And sometimes you've got to be careful when people do that, because they come off half cocked or whatever, but we're supposed to test everything. But he just said this, he just said, God just wanted you to know, he loves you. It was like a bomb went off in my head. And I just, I instantly, I just started bawling. You know, I mean, before that, if somebody would have said to me, does God love you? I would have gone, I would have said, yes, of course he does. And so doctrinally, you know, I knew that he loved me. But when God said that he loved me, I was a mess. I was absolutely a mess. I just sat there going, God loves me. You know, it was just the most incredible thing I've ever been through in my life. To understand in that moment of time, he loves me. Wow. That's amazing. Because, you know, we all know ourselves and we know the truth. We're not that lovable, you know, and then he comes along and says something like that just blows us out of the water. So it tells us first that his love is an individual love. Secondly, it tells us that the love of God is a patient love. You know, sheep are notoriously stupid animals and they get themselves into all kinds of dangerous situations by their foolishness. And that's enough for some people to look at you and just say, and maybe you've heard these words before, Hey, you got yourself in this mess. You get yourself out. Anybody ever told you that? God won't. He won't. He's just going to come looking for you. That's all. He's going to come seeking you. It's amazing. He so patiently bears with our foolishness and loves us anyway. This last few verses also tells us that the love of God is a seeking love. I'm impressed by the fact that the shepherd didn't just sit and wait for the sheep to come back. You know, he didn't just kind of like, Hey guys, you know, we got it. We got one that just did a head count. One of the sheep is missing. So you know what? Just start a fire. We're going to hang out here. We'll see if it comes back. You know, if it doesn't come back by tomorrow, we're just, we're gonna head back, but no, what you see here, and Jesus is telling us this story for a reason, you guys, he wants you to know the heart of the father is to set out after those who have wandered away. It is a seeking love. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And then finally, the love of God is a rejoicing love. I love this part because he says in this passage that once he finds that sheep, will he not rejoice over that one sheep more than the 99 who never got lost? You know, that's the, that's a rejoicing love. Do you know, it's so funny, we're, we're sometimes kind of the opposite of that. Have you ever lost one of your kids, like in the mall or, or somewhere and you just, they got away from you and, and, oh, I never forget. We were in Colorado or somewhere at a pizza place. And I think it was Alyssa when she was just a toddler. We're in this pizza place ordering pizza and suddenly Alyssa is gone. And I, and of course, what do you think of as a, as a parent? Somebody snatched her, right? We were up here ordering pizza and she's gone. We look outside, we don't see her. We look through the, and it wasn't a big store. We're looking around. I'm, and I'm starting to panic. You know, I'm like, oh dear God, my little girl, you know, she's like two and, uh, you know, you instantly just start praying Jesus, Jesus, you know, and, and, and then one of the guys from the back comes out with his little girl, Hey, somebody came back here. You know, she just wandered in the back, you know, and, and went in the kitchen in this restaurant. And we're like, oh, but if you ever noticed what you want to do to your kids, when you see them after they do something like that, you want to beat the tar out of them is what you want to do because you're kind of like, don't you ever scare me like that again? And we make it all about us. Do you know how much you scared me? Do you know how worried I was? My mother used to say to me when I was a teenager, I just sat here and just thought you were lying in a ditch somewhere dead. No mom, no ditches tonight. I just love, I love, I love how Jesus doesn't do that. There's no wagging finger. There's no shaking. There's no moral kind of, you know, don't, you know, listen, no, he's just, you're back. It's that, that heart of the prodigal father, remember the, when the prodigal son, he sees his son a long way off, he runs, runs to meet him, throws his arms around the kid, brings him back home and says, we're having a party. My son was lost and now he's found. That's the heart of the father. You guys, he loves you so much and his is a rejoicing love over you. So what we've seen in this passage in these verses five through like 14 is that we've seen how he identifies with us to the point where when somebody does something against us to us or whatever, they do it to him. We've seen how he defends us and he will hold accountable those who wrong us. We've seen that he looks out for us and we'll search for us and we've seen how he restores us with rejoicing when he brings us back into the fold. Now I don't know about you, this is pretty nice stuff to hear. I mean this talks to me about how much God loves me and I need to meditate on these passages and think more about them and I need to really embrace this stuff. Thanks for watching!