Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Matthew 18:1-14.
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:1-14, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we ask for wisdom and revelation from above. You promise that those who ask you will, you will supply in generous portions. So, Lord, we want to understand what this text means. We pray for the Holy Spirit to come and to unpack what this means.
The very words of Jesus that are authoritative, we want to understand and take it to heart. Lord Jesus, we want to meet you because you are the Word. And so we open up our heart wide and we ask that you would come and meet us.
You’ve been knocking all week on the door of our hearts. We want to meet you in this time. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Well, a quick update about the basketball league. Since I shared about it last week, we did well. My family was there. Thank you for David and Jane and Elijah and Jackie showing up. Jackie’s holding her breath. She’s worried I’m going to brag. So I’m going to be very careful what I say. Our team did well. I did not take many shots because the first half my body was in shock, just running.
My heart was failing me because the court, this is a big court, and just running one side to the other, I was tired. So I think by the first half I’m in shock.
Second half I settle down. By the end of the game I felt like I’m ready to actually play. But given that, my stats are not bad. One for three shooting, two points, that’s not great. But eight rebounds, that shows some effort. Eight rebounds is pretty good. Four, four assists, some no look passes that were pretty impressive. Two steals.
So I had a Draymond Green stat line. So just to give an update. And we won because we have some young people who play good defense.
I was joking with the people, this is a church league and there’s some non-Christians there and there’s some evangelism that needs to be done. But I’m having some fun. So I said, okay, we won, so let’s go undefeated this season. And then one of the older brothers said, no, we’re just doing for fun. And I said in my heart, no, we’re here to win.
We are here to win. We’re here to shine the light of Jesus, to exercise, to try our best, but certainly we’re here to win. It’s strange that me as a 50 year old father and my son is playing basketball at the same time. And there’s something about sports that brings out this competitive fire. Maybe I see it less in Asians. This is just my general feeling when I’m watching basketball. The Asians follow the rules. The Asians don’t want to make a mistake. The Asians don’t want to be yelled at by the coach.
And so maybe when the lights are bright, the Asians tend to shrink a little bit because they’re afraid. So I’m just trying to coach my son. Just don’t worry, don’t worry about the coach yelling at you. Just try your best.
And then he tells me some of the trash talk that came out during the game and it’s like, why didn’t you say this? Why didn’t you go at that person a little harder? Because he thinks that you’re nothing. And then after, I always have to repent.
This is not right. In terms of competition, we want to bring out the best in us. We want to show that we’re not small, we don’t want to shrink back, and we want to give our best.
Competition brings out the best in us, as long as we don’t cross the line, as long as we don’t injure people and get violent and get technicals and get things thrown out of the game. Competition is good for a young person to bring out the best in them.
But imagine if you had this mindset of I am the best Christian, and I know theology better than others, and I’ve been a Christian longer than others, and look at the impact I’ve had and how many people I’ve led to Christ, and look how big my church is.
If you have this mindset as a Christian, you’re in trouble.
If I look at this text, Jesus starts by bringing a little child, and this is a seven-year-old boy, girl, or younger.
And think back to when you were 7, 6, 5, what did you know?
The only memories I have when I’m a 5, 6, 7 year old is on my way to kindergarten. I’m getting on the bus, and I step in some poo, and the whole day I’m like in shock. I’m so shy, I can’t even face anybody. I’m so embarrassed that I have poo on my shoe. And the whole day I’m just hunched over covering my feet.
That’s how scared I was as a five-year-old going to kindergarten for the first time.
Luckily, somewhere along the way, a teacher saw me, and she wiped it discreetly in the corner, and I got through the day.
It’s like the only memories I have are this and me feeling like I was abandoned. Even though I’m at church, my parents were at a meeting and some miscommunication, and I thought I’m like literally the only person left at the church.
And I’m like crying, like I thought my parents abandoned me. Or I come home from school, and my parents were both working and something, they got stuck at work, and I’m knocking on the door, no one’s opening, and I’m just crying in the front of my door.
This is what I remember for five, six, seven. Like I, I knew I knew nothing. I don’t, I can’t do anything. And Jesus says, this little child is the greatest in the kingdom because he’s so dependent on me.
And he says, you need to turn and become like this. And this reminds me that the way up is down. The world’s way is up. The world’s way is I will show you that I’m on top through my achievements, through my athleticism on the court, through my achievements, through my degrees. I will show you how much I know.
And we bring this mindset even into the church. And then we put pastors on a pedestal, and they are like the first tier Christian, and everybody else is a second tier peasant. That’s the feeling.
And especially in Asian cultures, we revere people like a pastor and people in authority, people in position. That creates this weird dynamic where it seems like, okay, this person with degrees and this person with Bible knowledge, and this person is somebody, somebody that’s better than me and closer to God than me, and I don’t know anything and I need to learn from this person.
And Jesus says, become like this little child. This child knows nothing, is totally dependent on his parents for everything. And this is how you should treat me. I am your Shepherd.
Why don’t you come to me for everything? You can’t do anything apart from me. You can do nothing.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5, ESV)
John 15.
So the way up is down. So for the Christian, we go down lower and lower and lower.
But there are some people in God’s church who actually go the way of the world and think, because I am a pastor, because I do have a big church, because I do have a degree and I can quote verses and I can quote from theologians and I know all of this, and to make you feel like you know nothing and you need me in your life.
That kind of strange dependence, I think, is dependence on a pastor and a leader is just completely wrong.
If anything, I should be modeling and showing how I actually, I’m so incapable, I actually so inadequate. And so don’t look to me. Let’s all together look to Jesus, because he is our Shepherd. He is the senior pastor.
Let’s learn from him. He is the Word. Let’s study his life. Let’s study the words that he preached. So the way up is down. And we know people who do it the way of the world in the church. And it goes into. Jesus starts by saying, be like this child.
And then he says, receive people like this child, meaning you’re humble because you’ve lowered yourself. And because you’ve lowered yourself, the way you treat other people is very gentle.
And you know people in your life, maybe it was your family member, maybe it was a parent, and they were not humble, and when they treated you, it was not gentle. And they went to church, and you saw that picture and said, this is hypocritical. I don’t want anything to do with church. Or you saw some pastors, and they were proud and they were harsh.
Completely opposite of the Christian. A Christian is supposed to be humble. And because he’s humble, he handles people with gentleness. He can receive a little one.
Think of the mindset of a pastor or a church leader who’s proud. They look at you and they think they’re better than you. They look at you as somebody that’s just going to serve them. you’re just adding to their number. you’re just adding to their workforce. you’re just a pawn. you’re just a tool that they’re going to use.
Think of the mindset of a pastor who looks at you and says, you’re just a number. I will be good to you as long as you’re with me. As soon as you’re against me, as soon as you leave me, you’re not my brother. you’re not my sister.
Think of a mindset of a pastor who thinks this way. How did they get that way? They did the opposite of verses 7 to 9 when it came to their own sin. Very gentle, very forgiving.
Ignoring their sin when it came to other people’s sin, pointing out every minutia of sin, even things that are not sin. And if you’re in that kind of a church, what happens is you stumble and you fall away.
And this is the warning. Jesus says, if you’re that kind of a leader, you should be drowned. Tie a millstone around your neck and drown. That is the opposite of a Christian leader who treats people that way.
And you and I know people who’ve been there. Maybe you are part of a church like that.
It is exactly opposite of what God says in his Word. He says in verse 7:
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matthew 18:7-9, ESV)
And then if you go back a verse, it says the verse that I quoted, verse 6.
6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6, ESV)
So when it comes to our sin, a proud pastor, a proud leader, will minimize his own sin or her sin and will amplify the sins of the congregation and call out things that are sin, which are not even sin. It is just their preference. It’s just their tradition. It’s just whatever. It’s whatever they feel in the moment, but they call it a sin.
And if you are the kind of person, like, if you think, well, alcohol is fine with me, and I don’t stumble with alcohol, and it’s not a sin to have a sip on a good occasion.
But you, and you, but you give a drink and you’re drinking in front of somebody who actually struggles with it. And because of the freedom that you have in Christ, you are taking in some alcohol, but somebody observes you or in your presence, you encourage somebody else to take alcohol, and you don’t even know their story.
And they go down a spiral of alcoholism. It’s bad enough that you are the cause of that person’s sin, but in that case, that person can turn it around, hopefully, and not be gripped by alcoholism and still make it in the end because they’ve experienced victory in Christ over alcoholism.
But if you are a harsh pastor and you are harsh to your people, that leaves such a bad taste in the mouth of a congregation and a church member. And they leave your church and equate this pastor with the Heavenly Father and with Jesus the Shepherd, and they say, I want nothing to do with Christianity. I will never step foot in a church ever again.
Who knows people like that? Okay, I think most of us. That is what Jesus is saying here.
If you stumble a person and they sin, committing alcoholism is a sin. Being drunk is a sin, but you can recover from that. But if the chief sin is, I no longer believe, I don’t believe in Jesus anymore because of the poor witness of this church and its leadership, and I will never step foot in a church again, because if this is how they treat you, I want nothing to do with Christianity. Jesus is saying to these people, watch out, judgment is coming.
The parable of the lost sheep.
We have to look at this passage along with Luke 15. So just turn with me briefly there.
Jesus shares this lost sheep parable. Verses one and two we read,
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: (Luke 15:1-3, ESV)
And if you jump down to the parable of, the concluding statement of the parable of the Lost Sheep, it says in verse 7,
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7, ESV)
So, this parable of the Lost Sheep has to be taken into the context of who the audience is. Jesus is speaking to Pharisees who need no repentance, who look at their own life and they think, well, I don’t need to repent. I’m pretty holy, I’m pretty righteous, I’m a good person, look at all that I’m doing for the Lord.
And they are calling out the sins of the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the very people that Jesus is saving. The people who know their need, the people who know their brokenness, the people who are depending on Jesus for life, the very little ones that Jesus is saying, the Pharisees stand above them, look down on them, and say, Jesus, why are you fellowshipping with sinners?
Look, we are the righteous ones. You should be talking to us. And Jesus says to the ones who think they need no repentance, you’re the 99. I didn’t come for you. Let me go after the one.
Because otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. If we’re all precious in God’s sight, why would God leave 99 precious people to go after one precious person? It doesn’t make sense. But if the 99 are the people who think they don’t need repentance, those people are not saved. Jesus is not going for them, but the people who know their brokenness, who know their need. Jesus says, I came to save the lost, I came to heal the sick. You are my audience. You are who I’m coming for.
Not the ones who sit on top of others in their self-righteousness who think they don’t need to repent.
So that’s the context, the lost sheep. So going back to this text, let’s bring it all together. How can we be humble like it’s a verb? We have to humble ourselves. We have to lower ourselves. But how can you actually achieve humility?
For a Christian, there is no greater quality than humility, in my opinion. For a Christian leader, there’s no quality I look for in a person than humility. It is the greatest quality.
It is the first thing. We need to turn away from pride, turn back, and become a child. It’s like an about-face, turn around, be converted. That’s what it means.
It is so serious what Jesus is saying here. We have to get it this humility, this conversion to become like a little child. How can we achieve this humility besides just lowering ourselves and being on our face in the Lord’s presence? What are we doing in its presence?
How do we achieve this humility that allows us to become less like a grown up who thinks they have all the answers of life, to more like a little child who knows nothing and who knows they know nothing?
How can we turn and become like this even as we age, even as we acquire some knowledge in this world? How do we maintain this, this humility? And Jesus unpacks it for us.
Here and here I think we see the lion and the lamb, the lion, the land, the lion of Judah, the lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. We see that the two-sided Messiah, Jesus Christ.
When it comes to our own sin, sin, we have to be fierce like a lion. When it comes to other people’s sins, we need to be gentle like a lamb. I think that’s what he’s saying here. That will make you humble, that will keep you humble. The leader who says, well, I’m not a sinner.
Look at how holy I am, look at how great I am. Look, look at, everybody looks at me. Look at how much Bible and faith theology I know. And I’m going to correct everybody else in the congregation.
He is being a lamb, gentle with himself, herself, and then ferocious like a lion and pouncing on the congregation and their sins. Jesus is inviting us to turn back, not be proud, be humble, be up, do the opposite of that leader, that Pharisee.
Instead, we look in the mirror. I hope you do this at the end of every day, and you’re just on your face and say, Lord, what did I say that was wrong? What did I think that was wrong? What did I do that was wrong? How did I treat people in a wrong way? What did I say to somebody that was wrong?
And you just go down the list, and there will be hundreds of things by the end of a week.
If you’re ferocious like a lion, this is not condemning. This is just humbling you and allowing you to realize I really need Jesus.
Like last week I said, yes, you can overcome sin. I’m not talking about sinless perfection. We can never achieve sinless perfection. There’s only one man who is ever sinless. His name is Jesus. But we can overcome patterns of sin, and we have to start with looking ourselves in the mirror and being ferocious like a lion and say, how did I sin today?
And being very honest with yourself in your thoughts, in your words, in your actions, in your motives. Just ask the Holy Spirit, invite him into that place. He will convict you of sins that you’re not even aware. You didn’t, you were not even aware at the time.
Maybe as you’re saying something or thinking something or feeling something, you know it’s not quite right, but you don’t. In the moment, you’re not ready to acknowledge it, but by the end of the day, you acknowledge it before the Lord. You get into a lot of trouble.
When we minimize our sin and amplify the sins of others, if you do that, you’re going to resent people. If you’re going to do that, you’re going to blame people. If you do that, you’re going to make yourself a bitter person, a cranky person, or a victim.
If it’s everybody’s fault the way that I am, it’s like a child who says, I am the way that I am because of my parent.
It could be true, but at some point, when will we look in the mirror and say, okay, my parents played a part, my background played a part. But I can’t just blame that for the rest of my life. I can’t blame my circumstances for why I am the way I am.
At some point, we have to say, I am not a victim anymore. I’m an overcomer because of Jesus. I can’t blame other people who annoy me and who irritate me, and that’s why I’m irritated. No, it’s our own issue.
If we respond in irritation, it’s our fault. If we’re angry, it’s our fault, and we just have to own it. Okay, the other person did sin, we have to deal with it. And Matthew 18 talks about it. You do it, you go to that person, you point out that sin. Hopefully, it’s not pointing it out with anger or irritation. You go there, and then if it doesn’t work, bring another person, you bring the church.
So there’s a way that we can do it that’s not in the heat of the moment. It’s not in anger, it’s not in irritation. But coming back when you’re cool-headed, you bring the issue up that this person, you sinned against me.
But we just react, and then we’re in a bad mood, and we blame the other person. It’s your fault that I’m in a bad mood. It’s your immaturity. That’s why I’m dealing with it. And that’s why I am the way that I am.
A Christ follower who is becoming like a child is genuinely humble. Because the line of Judah, when it comes to our own sin, we go with this type of intensity that you would like in sports. That kind of intensity.
You channel it in looking at your heart, your soul, your emotions. How was I today? How did I act today? How did I speak today? How did I think today? What was I thinking about that person when they were sinning? How did I judge that person? How critical was I in my speech?
How much did I grumble because this person did this? How much did I lack thanksgiving? How much did I not praise the Lord? How much did I not go to the Lord Jesus for help?
If you, if you, if you take the stance, this line of Judah, that if I. My hand causes me to sin, I’m going to cut it off. That’s. That’s ferocious. Like, you don’t want to go to hell, so you’re going to. you’re going to pluck out your eyes.
Not literally, but that type of fierceness when it comes to our own sin. The lion of Judah, you deal with it head on. You don’t blame it. You don’t minimize it. You take full responsibility. I am where I am. It’s on me.
But when it comes to other people’s sins, the Lamb of God, gentle, receiving a little one, being very careful not to stumble. You might be bothered, and you say something to a church member. Next Sunday, don’t come back. The following Sunday, they don’t come back, and you just dismiss it. Well, I don’t.
I don’t know. Maybe they moved away. You don’t even pause for a second. Maybe I said something, maybe I did something. That’s why they didn’t come. There are many leaders. They look at the thousand people in their congregation and they don’t think about the hundreds and maybe thousands along the way that they destroyed spiritually. They only look at, well, look at the people who are with me. Look how good I am. Look how loyal they are to me. They don’t consider, did I say something? Did I do something?
The person, the fact that that person doesn’t go to church anymore. Is it my fault? They never pause to consider, maybe I should be drowned. Maybe the Lord is really upset with me because of how I handled his sheep.
And notice if you look at John, Matthew 18, and Luke 15, the parable of the lost sheep. Why do sheep get lost? It falls squarely on the shoulders of the church leaders, the Pharisees. It’s because of them, they, the church. The sheep get lost because of poor leadership in the church. Don’t you see that?
So these leaders, God is going to hold them to account. But we should learn the lesson. Let’s be very careful not to stumble one another.
That means we have to work out our issues. If you don’t work out your issues, it’s going to spill out eventually, you’re going to stumble somebody eventually.
And then this passage, you’ll come back to it with fear and trembling. Did I cause this brother sister to abandon their faith? Woe is me, Lord. Please may I never do that again.
Please, Lord, may I seek out this person and apologize and repent and shed tears before this person. I never. I never should have treated you that way. That is the heart of somebody who is ferocious with their own sin and is a lamb toward other people.
Let’s practice this in our prayer closet. Okay? Let’s pray.
Lord, this is a very difficult text that you unpack for us today. Lord, we puff ourselves up with pride. We think we know better than other people, even spiritually. We look down on them.
We think we are the ones that we should teach and disciple and lead. We minimize our sins. We amplify the sins of other people to make ourselves feel better. Please, Lord, help us to turn from this mindset.
The way up is down, is to become like a little child. A seven-year-old, a six-year-old, a five-year-old who knows nothing, is utterly dependent. Lord, if we’re ferocious with our own sins, like the lion of Judah, we would realize our utter need for Jesus. We don’t rely on Jesus because we don’t, we minimize our sin. We think we’re okay. We think we can get by day after day, week after week, year after year. We don’t look in the mirror. We don’t. We focus on other people’s sins.
No wonder we don’t run to you, Lord, you give us a clear motivation out of a desperate need. Because our sins are so many. That’s why we need you. That’s why you came to die on a bloodied cross for the sins of this world. It’s for our sins. They are many, Lord. Help us to handle and treat and receive one another like a little child. We see the heart of the disciples always shooing away the little children. They are unimportant to them. They think they are the VIPs.
Lord, you had so much to teach them. You invited the little children to come. We see your heart. We see how humble you are, how gentle you are. We want to be like you. So, Lord, thank you for the homework that you give, that we’re not going to focus on other people’s sins.
We’re not going to complain about other people’s issues. We’re going to look squarely in the mirror and the mirror of God’s word. We’re going to invite the Holy Spirit in our prayer closet to convict us of all of our sins. They are so many, Lord.
Not maybe all in terms of actions and behaviors, but in terms of our attitudes, in terms of our thoughts. Forgive us, Lord. We repent, Lord. We turn back. We’re going the wrong way. We turn and help us to become like little children again. We understood this at conversion.
But Lord, we’ve grown in the wrong way. We’ve grown proud in the church. We’ve stumbled others in the church. Forgive us, Lord. Lord, we’ve stumbled our own family members. Forgive us, Lord. Our sins are many.
Thank you, Lord, that you invite us to come as we partake in the Lord’s Supper, you have these broken pieces of bread. We come to you in our utter brokenness. We’re broken by our sins, Lord, but we come that you would make us whole again. Thank you for Your Body that was broken and Your Blood shed.
Please, Lord, meet us during this time as we close out this service. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.