Responsibility to Others

In one paragraph

This message walked through Matthew 18 as a single unit, reading it as Jesus teaching His disciples about their responsibility to one another and to the vulnerable. Pastor Jonathan connected that thread across four episodes in the chapter, from the child Jesus placed in the middle of the disciples all the way to Peter's question about forgiveness. The disciples had been arguing about who was the...

Read together

1. Matthew 18:1-6 disciples arguing over who is greatest in kingdom of heaven, Jesus calls a child and warns against causing little ones to sin
2. Matthew 18:7 woe to the world because of stumbling blocks, inevitable they come but woe to the one through whom they come
3. Matthew 18:8-9 if hand foot or eye causes you to sin cut it off, better to enter life maimed than be thrown into eternal fire
4. Matthew 5:29-30 cited as earlier parallel passage about hand and eye causing sin, clearly about lust
5. Mark 9 cosigning Matthew on the eye hand foot passage, adds where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished
6. Isaiah 66 identified as the source of the worm does not die and fire not extinguished language Mark quotes
7. Matthew 18:10 see that you do not look down on little ones for their angels continually see the face of the Father
8. Matthew 18:12-14 parable of shepherd leaving 99 to find one lost sheep, not God's will that any little one perish
9. Matthew 18:15-17 if your brother sins go to him privately, then take two or three, then tell the church
10. Deuteronomy 19 source of the two or three witnesses principle quoted in the church discipline passage
11. Matthew 18:18-20 whatever you bind or loose on earth, if two agree on anything it shall be done, where two or three are gathered I am there
12. Matthew 18:21-22 Peter asks how many times to forgive a sinning brother, Jesus answers seventy times seven
13. Matthew 18:23-35 parable of the unforgiving servant forgiven 10000 talents who refused to forgive fellow slave 100 denarii
14. John 16:33 in the world you will have tribulation but take courage I have overcome the world
15. Romans 12 if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all people
16. Matthew 6 forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors from the Lord's Prayer
17. Matthew 6:22-23 the eye is the lamp of the body if your eyes are good whole body full of light
18. Matthew 17:24-27 temple tax story Peter defends Jesus Jesus says sons are exempt but pays anyway via coin in fish's mouth
19. John 13:34-35 new command to love one another as Jesus loved us so all will know we are his disciples
20. Mark 6:45 quoted by Monique as the son of man came not to be served but to serve

Talk about it

1. Pastor Nathan talked about how the disciples kept missing the point or failing to understand, and asked if we ever feel that way ourselves. Where in your own life do you find the gap between knowing what is right and actually doing it?
2. Jesus used a child as an object lesson, saying that whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in him to sin would be better off with a millstone around his neck. What does that strong warning stir up in you about your own responsibility toward younger or newer believers?
3. The doctor told Pastor Nathan that the numbing drops would make him feel great but that he could not get better as long as he was numb. Where in your life might you be numbing a pain that God actually wants to heal?
4. When Jesus says to go to a sinning brother in private first, the goal he names is restoration, not condemnation. What makes that kind of humble, private approach so difficult in practice, and what would it take for you to attempt it?
5. The unforgiving servant had just been released from a debt he could never repay, yet he seized a fellow slave over a much smaller amount. Pastor Nathan said that people who know they have been forgiven are forgiving people. Is there a relationship in your life where that connection between received forgiveness and given forgiveness is being tested right now?