Read Matthew 18:15-35, Mark 9:38-50 and Luke 9:49-50. The disciples had argued which of them was the greatest, who would have the most power and authority in the coming kingdom, next, of course, to our Lord. It could well be that they were not very happy with each other at this time. Our Lord addresses the problem of forgiveness, a lesson they, without a doubt, needed at this point.
1. List the three steps or stages that our Lord gives in dealing with a brother that has sinned.
a. Go to your brother privately and reprove him. If it works, you have gained your brother.
b. If that doesn’t work, take one or two witnesses with you, and try to deal with the problem.
c. Bring the issue before the church.
2. Before Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, our Lord makes a statement that has been debated for much of church history. The verb tenses are very important here. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind (present active) on earth shall have been bound (future perfect passive) in heaven; and whatever you loose (present active) on earth shall have been loosed (future perfect passive) in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” What do you think is being bound or loosed?
The context strongly suggests it is the brother who has sinned, the actions and guilt of that brother.
3. What do you think our Lord is telling Peter and the other disciples by this statement?
He is saying that whenever they make a decision about a brother who has sinned, they will only be echoing the decision already made in heaven.
4. Our Lord closes with the statement, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” What does this mean in the context of these verses?
When the church makes a decision regarding the discipline or forgiveness of a brother who has sinned, they have the authority to act because our Lord (The High Judge) is in Spirit right there in their midst.
5. How did Jesus reply to Peter’s question about how many times He should forgive his brother?
He should forgive him seventy times seven. This does not mean a literal 490 times but as many times as is necessary.
6. What parable did Jesus give about forgiveness?
It was the parable of the unforgiving debtor who was himself forgiven.
7. What is the point of this parable?
If God has forgiven us so great a debt, we should forgive those who sin against us.
8. What statement did John make to Jesus?
We tried to stop someone from casting out demons in your name because he was not following us.
9. What was Jesus’ response to John?
Do not hinder him; he who is not against you is for you.
Read Luke 9:51-56. The Feast of Dedication (Modern day Hanukkah) was approaching (December 18, AD 32), and Jesus started towards Jerusalem to attend this feast. He will not return again to Galilee until after His resurrection. This will be the first of three trips to Jerusalem: to attend the Feast of Dedication, to heal Lazarus, and to celebrate the final Passover and die on the cross. In between these trips, He will retreat from Jerusalem to the area just east of the Jordan river in Perea and the area around the village of Ephraim to the northeast of Jerusalem, but He does not go back to Galilee.
10. Luke states that our Lord steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. What do you think this means?
To steadfastly set one’s face means to set one’s mind to or be determined to do something. It involves a self-commitment to do or accomplish something. Our Lord realized that the time had come and that He would not be returning home until after the resurrection. The coming ordeal was not one that He looked forward to, but knowing that it was the will of the Father, He set His will upon accomplishing it.
11. Why didn’t the Samaritans receive Jesus and His followers?
Because He was traveling to go to Jerusalem. While they may have welcomed Him, if He was just coming there, they did not welcome Him, knowing they were only a stop on His trip to Jerusalem, the capital of a nation they did not like at all.
12. What was the response of James and John to this rejection?
They wished to call down fire out of Heaven to consume this village. They knew the stories of how Elijah had called down fire from heaven upon those who had opposed him (2 Kings 1) and probably felt that this was justified in this instance. After all, the Samaritans were rejecting not just a prophet of the Lord but the Messiah Himself. Here He was, on the way to Jerusalem where they were convinced that He would declare Himself King and finally begin to set up the promised kingdom at last.
13. What was our Lord’s answer to James and John?
He told them they did not understand; He came to save, not destroy. They could not fathom the idea that He, the Messiah, was about to go to His death. They felt sure that the kingdom was coming and that any opposition to it was wrong.
Read Luke 10:1-24. The Lord had already appointed the Twelve He had chosen to go out and carry the message of the coming Kingdom to others. Now He sends out seventy others to go to the towns to which He is coming.
14. Matthew records a similar statement of our Lord before he appointed the Twelve (Matthew 9:36-38). While Matthew may have chosen to include the passage out of chronological order because it applied to the sending out of the Twelve as well as the Seventy, it is just as likely that our Lord made the statement on both occasions, which were very similar in nature. What does He tell these Seventy to pray for?
Pray that the Lord would send out workers into the harvest.
15. What do you think He meant by this statement?
That God would send forth more people with the message of the coming kingdom.
16. Why do you think Jesus told these to carry no purse, extra clothes, to greet no one on the way, to stay at the first house they were received in and not go from house to house?
They were not to lose sight of their one important task of carrying the message of the coming kingdom to others; anything else is unimportant in comparison.
The Applications:
What are the applications of these passages to our lives today? Identify as many as you are able.
1. It is to be noted that when the time came for our Lord’s trip to Jerusalem, which would within a few months result in His crucifixion, He set His will to take those steps and go there. Sometimes we only view our Lord as omnipotent God and forget about His human nature. Did He want to go and die? Certainly not! This was not something He would enjoy at all. Indeed, in the garden, He prayed, if there was any other way, let it be that other way. However, above all, He was determined to do His Father’s will. And when the time came to go, He determined, He set His will to go.
So we, too, must remember that doing God’s will is not often an easy thing to do. It will often be hard and difficult and not at all fun. We must set our minds to do it. It requires a commitment ahead of time. This is not to say that the work of God can be accomplished by sheer human determination and strength of will alone. Not at all! Apart from the supernatural empowerment of the Spirit of God within us, the work of God will not be done. Yet God also uses our will and determination. Note the juxtaposition of these two ideas in 1 Corinthians 15:10 where Paul speaking of his apostleship, states: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” This idea is also found in Paul’s letter to the Philippian church (Philippians 2:12-13) where he writes: “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
2. How do we respond to opposition to our faith? The disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven and destroy those who would oppose our Lord. Indeed, the history of the visible church echoes that idea. Spread the gospel with the use of force. Either recant your pagan ideas and accept the teachings of the church or die. This was a common method of winning converts. This is also the common philosophy of the world today, namely, destroy your enemy before they destroy you!
While we may not physically attack those that would oppose us in our faith today in the culture in which we live, do we respond in love for them and seek their salvation, or do we wish them harm and ill? Do we rejoice when misfortune befalls them? While our actions may be blameless, what about our attitudes?
3. I am convinced that we, as believers and the church as a whole, have lost our vision of the harvest. We have begun to carry purses and wallets and are more concerned with how much money is in them than the task to which we are called. We have become concerned with the extra clothes we have picked up along the way, not seeing that they have weighed us down and we carry a burden that is not needed. We have become more concerned with what kind of house we stay in and spend more time going from house to house, seeking the best accommodations and spending less time out in the fields where we ought to be.
As this age is drawing to an end and the return of the King is ever nearer, how much more important is it to be at the task given to us of being the workers God has sent out to the fields ripe for harvest! We must not let anything distract us from the immediate task at hand. The time is short!
4. Sometimes, we think of the Twelve Disciples as a homogenous group with very few conflicts. In truth, they were just like us. Get a group of twelve different believers from different backgrounds, and they will have conflicts within their own group and no doubt with other believers outside their group. Then as now, there would be someone who acted wrongly against another brother. Out Lord instructed His followers how to deal with this.
The goal is to win your brother back, not to prove yourself right. The principle used is to keep the issue between as few people as possible. If it can be settled between just you and your brother, do it that way. If not, take one or two witnesses. These will act as confirmation and protect both the accused and the accuser. NOTE: If this settles the issue, it ought to remain between these few and not be published abroad. If this fails, the last resort is the church.
Unfortunately, most of the time, our goal is not to win back our brother but vindicate ourselves. We begin by bringing the issue to others in the church instead of going to the person himself. As a result, the whole church knows about the problem. Now it is almost too late for private reconciliation or any reconciliation at all. We might have vindicated ourselves; we might have been in the right; we might have won the battle, but we lost the war, and we have lost a brother.
5. While I am convinced the main application of Matthew 18:18 (and 16:19) deals with apostolic authority, there are important applications for us today. Our Lord gave to the original Twelve and to a few others after them, such as Paul, special apostolic authority. This was the authority to act on behalf of the Messiah in the foundation and administration of the church. This authority was given to them; it was and is not passed on from person to person, nor are there any apostles today in this strict sense of the word. To Peter and these others, our Lord said you have the authority on earth to lay the foundation of the church. Your word is binding. Then He tells them whatever you bind (forbid) on earth shall have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose (allow) on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. An interesting statement! He is telling them, the decision they make will have already been made in heaven. They are only reflecting that which God has already done! They will be so guided by the Spirit that what they say is but an echo of heaven.
This is that confusing point where the free will of man and the sovereignty of God coalesce. On the one hand, looking from the locked temporal viewpoint of man, we are free and responsible to make a decision. From the eternal perspective of God, who exists within and without time at once and who is independent of it, we have only done as He ordained we would do. These truths, seemingly contradictory, surface many times through the Scriptures side by side. “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” (I Corinthians 15:10).