On Line Bible Study - for the week June 23 -29, 2008

Lesson 341 Matthew 47

First . . . The Child:

Matthew 18: 1 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, "Who gets the highest rank in God's kingdom?"

2- For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me."

This is so simple conceptually, and so difficult practically! Any parent can remember the helpless, humble, innocent selfishness of their children. We bend over backward for them with no thought for reward. That’s how infants and small children are naturally. Jesus tells us in order to enter the kingdom of heaven that’s how we must become intentionally. He goes on to point out the reality of our influence on others:

6-7 "But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't. You'd be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse—and it's doomsday to you if you do.

So here is a challenge: when people see you coming do they consider you as making things “worse”, or “better”? Recognizing that sometimes things have to get worse before they get better, that’s not the point Jesus is making. In the long haul we need to be persons who lighten loads that people carry, not make them heavier.

Now Jesus reiterates what he said in Matthew 5:29-30:

8-9 "If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You're better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You're better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.

10"Watch that you don't treat a single one of these childlike believers arrogantly. You realize, don't you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with my Father in heaven?”

There is an important difference, however. Recall in Matthew 5 Jesus was speaking explicitly about sin of a sexual nature. Adultery is committed not only in the act, but in the anticipation of the act. In this case, if your eye causes you to even consider another with lust, the sin has been committed. But here, in Matthew 18, anything we do that causes sin – not only in ourselves, but in others – is deserving of this extreme action.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is making it clear that nothing is more important than the “kingdom of heaven”.

Then we read on:

12-14 "Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? And if he finds it, doesn't he make far more over it than over the ninety-nine who stay put? Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn't want to lose even one of these simple believers.”

Heaven is jealous! God is determined not to lose even one! If only we could feel the same way! Heaven – in the bye and bye, but equally as important – in the here and now – is to be experienced, enjoyed, by everyone! And woe to us if we do anything that prevents anyone from experiencing the fullness of the kingdom of heaven.

The Scriptures quoted above are from Eugene Peterson’s The Message. We will finish Matthew 18 next time.