Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Take five minutes for everyone to quietly read Matthew 18 to themselves. How does the rest of Matthew 18 help you understand 18:15-20?
2. What does Jesus assume about life in the church in 18:15-20?
3. Jesus assumes that when we see one another falling into sin, we should seek to help each other. What can our church do to help create that kind of culture?
4. How can we do that without turning into a place of legalism and self-righteousness?
It is possible for a church to proclaim the gospel from the pulpit, but then undermine the discipleship of the members through its ministry philosophy. If I teach you through the philosophy of ministry of my church that the Christian life should be customizable, easy, and attractive, what will you do when God’s Word is cutting, difficult, and stubbornly resistant to your efforts to adapt it to your preferences? In time, an anemic discipleship in the church will result in eventually undermining your doctrine. Itching ears will gather teachers to themselves who will tell them what they want to hear.
Does the Bible say anything about how to do church?
[Page 823] 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” - Matt 18:15-20
Before we look at this text itself, I want to examine the whole of the chapter and see how the setting helps us make sense of why Jesus brings up this teaching about sin, accountability, and the authority of the church.
Matthew 18:1-4, Be Humble
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.
Greatness is defined by childlike humility. Jesus didn’t just say you must turn and become children (He did), but He also said: “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest.” In what ways are children humble?
- They receive help—they are not too proud to admit they are in need.
- They receive correction—they don’t have everything figured out and are in need of outside help to correct them.
Matthew 18:5-9, Be Warned
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!
Jesus here uses some of the most severe language He ever uses to describe what will happen to the individual who “causes one of these little ones” to sin. Now, Jesus is probably speaking about children proper—but He also just called all of His disciples to become like children, so I think there is an intentional double entendre going on. Jesus is referring to all who “believe” in him (Mt 18:6) as children, and then threatening terrifying judgment on those who lure children of God into sin. Jesus doesn’t say that those who cause His disciples to sin will have a millstone tied around their neck and be drowned in the sea—He said it would be better than what will happen to those who do such things! So He pronounces a in v. 7 “Woe to the one by whom temptation comes.”
But then he goes on:
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.
Jesus’ dramatic words of warning are not only reserved for the world and the ways it tempts God’s children; He shares sobering words to His children as well. Jesus will judge the world for what it does in normalizing sin and luring God’s people into it—but that does not mean that we do not have a responsibility to take our own sin seriously. Here, Jesus echoes the same words used in the Sermon on the Mount regarding lust: rip out your eye, tear off your hands and feet—do whatever it takes to cut sin out of your life—or you will go to hell. Christians are people who are by no means perfect, by no means sinless, who stumble and fall in many ways…but we are not content with letting the gangrene of sin grow in our life. We do whatever it takes to excise it from our life. And if we don’t. If we let it fester, we will prove to be not a Christian. We will demonstrate that we never genuinely believed, and we will go to hell. We should be serious in our fight with sin.
Matthew 18:10-14, Be Seeking
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.
After warning about the danger of sin coming to us from the world, and then warning how we must take it seriously, notice the subtle pivot Jesus makes here. Do not despise the other children of God—why would you? He compares them to sheep who wander off. You may be tempted to despise fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when they begin to wander off into sin. Don’t do that. What should you do? Jesus asks you in v. 12, “What do you think?” and then tells the parable of the 99 sheep who remain, and the one who wanders off. The shepherd leaves the 99 in the safe pasture they are already in, and he seeks out the one who has wandered off and recovers that lost sheep with much rejoicing. “So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Mt 18:14).
Matt 18:21-35, Be Merciful
In response to Peter’s question about how often we must forgive, Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant, who despite being forgiven an insurmountable debt by the king, chokes and imprisons a neighbor who owed him a pittance. The mercy that was extended to him by the King for so great a debt, was not extended to his own (much smaller) debtor. So the king throws him into jail until his debt is paid. “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Mt 18:35).
So, the frame around Jesus’ famous teaching on church discipline in Matthew 18:15-20 is that all of Jesus’ disciples should be humble like children, willing to admit their need for help and willing to receive correction; we should be warned about the deadly dangers of sin that and their eternally damning consequences; we should be like the shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep who wanders astray, fulfilling the Father’s will that none of His own should perish; and lastly, we should be as unfailingly merciful to one another when we sin against each other as the Father has been merciful to us.
Be the Church (Matt 18:15-20)
(1) Sin must be confronted
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. - 18:15
If you are reading from the NASB, you’ll notice that they do not include the words “against you” in the text. That is because the NASB is an extremely literal translation, and the earliest copies of our manuscripts of Matthew do not include those words. So, the text instead simply reads: “If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault.” In the life of the church, we are not limited to confronting sin only when it is against us. You can see this clearly in Luke’s version of Jesus’ teaching here: “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,” (Luke 17:3).
The first principle is simple, but hard. Sin must be confronted.
But what about…
“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” (Prov 19:11)
This is often used to justify not confronting someone in their sin. I don’t think that this is what that means; this proverb encourages you to be slow to anger. Good sense will keep you calm, so as to overlook an offense. But that is likely because most of the time, what offends us isn’t sinful. We can just be overly sensitive! Someone can say something with no ill-will in their heart at all, and we can get easily upset, and this proverb is encouraging you to not respond in anger right away, overlook the offense. What you may think is a sin at first blush, may turn out in the clear daylight of a calm mind turn out to be a misunderstanding.
Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
- Prov 27:5-6
In Galatians 6, Paul states, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted,” (Gal 6:1).
We confront with gentleness and humility, not like a group of sharpshooters eager to find fault in one another. We are aware of our own proclivity to sin, tempered by our own flaws, but compelled by love to speak the truth.
(2) Sin must be confronted privately
…between you and him alone…
You should confront this person directly and privately. While there are times where the particular nature of the sin is so complex it may be appropriate to first seek counsel from a trusted counselor or pastor, when someone is walking in sin, we have a responsibility to speak directly and privately to the person in sin. If you are thinking, “But I need to first talk with other people first to verify that this is sinful before I confront the person,” then you probably shouldn’t do it. When we talk to someone about their sin, it is love. When we talk about someone’s sin to others, it is the sin of gossip. Sin is shameful and embarrassing and should be kept as private as possible. Which is why the confrontation should be alone and it is also why it should be done promptly. Jesus commands you to “go and tell” your brother his fault. There is an active energy you must exert because if this person continues perpetrating their sin, they are going to continue to not only harm themselves, but publicly shame themselves as well as shame the church of Christ.
(3) Church discipline’s aim is salvation
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
This word for “gain” is the same word that Peter uses to describe wives married to unbelieving husbands who, by their pure conduct, might “win” their husbands to Christ (1 Pet 3:7). It is the same word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9, where he talks about how he became a Jew to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks in order that he might “win” them to Christ (1 Cor 9:19-22).
Remember what Jesus said earlier about the destructive nature of sin? Remember what he said about the Father’s will that none of his own should perish?
When we are caught in sin, we are on the path to destruction. If we listen to the correcting voice of the Father as it comes through the mouth of our brother and sister, we will prove we are one of His children by heeding his voice. We must humble ourselves like children and be willing to listen. As we encourage and correct one another, we help preserve each other on the path to salvation. In 1 Corinthians 5, when we reach the tragic conclusion of church discipline—excommunication—even there, salvation remains the goal: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” - 1 Cor 5:4-5
The process of church discipline is never to punish a sinner, but to save a brother. If your brother repents of his sin, you are to extend the same mercy you have received in Christ, instantly and without qualification.
(4) Sin must have credible evidence
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. - Matt 18:16
Jesus here quotes the law code from Deuteronomy: “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” (Deut 19:15)
If your brother refuses to listen to your confrontation, it may be because you are wrong. Your interpretation of Scripture, your interpretation of the brother’s actions and choices, may have been wrong. And we must be humble ourselves like children. So we seek out one or two others who we believe it would be appropriate to include, who are wise, who have the ability to discern the situation according to Scripture well. Very practically, at this point, this would normally (but not always necessarily) be a good place to loop a pastor in to the issue.
If the other witnesses agree that a real sin has occurred, they return with the original individual and confront the sinner. If the other witnesses disagree and think the person who brought forward the charge is wrong, then the mistaken brother must seek out the person they accused and seek their forgiveness.
(5) Persistent, unrepentant sin must be brought before the Church
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. - Matt 18:17
Here, Jesus teaches us that if the additional witnesses do not lead to the sinner repenting, then the entire congregation is to be brought in.
What does “church” mean?
“Church” is the Greek word ekklesia, which literally means “an assembly, congregation.” It does not mean "pastor" or "elder team" or "denominational board." When Jesus commands us to "tell it to the church" the church is the entire congregation and it is they who possess the final authority in the matter (Note: the authority to use church discipline is not something a pastor or team of pastors can wield). It is the word used repeatedly throughout the New Testament to refer to Christians across all space and time “The Church”, and to refer to local congregations who have covenanted together to gather regularly to worship, hear the word preached, take the sacraments, and practice the kind of accountability structure that Jesus is describing here. We see this in Paul’s explanation of church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” (1 Cor 5:12-13).
We must judge those inside the church. We must not judge those outside the church. Paul understands that there is some demarcating line that divides those who are in and those who are out of the church. This (and what Jesus will go on to say in vs. 18-20) is one of the Biblical proofs for church membership. The members of the church are those who are “inside” the church who have agreed to participate in this kind of accountability structure. Those “outside” are those who have not—they may show up at church (as we see in 1 Cor 14:23), but they are not a part of the church, not members.
Jesus is speaking before the church (as we know it) exists, right? So what did he mean by that?
Yes, Jesus is speaking before the church exists as it does after Pentecost. But Matthew is writing his account of this story after the church exists. Jesus would have been speaking Aramaic to his disciples, but Matthew wrote in Greek. Jesus would have probably used the Aramaic word for assembly when talking. So when Matthew chooses the word “church” ekklesia, he is choosing a word that is already well-defined for the audience who would have been reading this gospel.
Doesn’t “telling it to the church” violate the principle of privacy earlier?
We only “tell it to the church” after all other means have been tried and exhausted. Sin eventually will make itself known, eventually will become public. How you intimidate or berate or belittle your spouse in private, will eventually become public. Your deep resentment and bitterness towards other people will eventually splash out. Your secretive sin that you have worked so hard to cover up will grow and become known.
Decades ago, long before most of you were around this church, long before I was, there was a terrible example of this. A member of this church who was in a leadership role was in the midst of an extramarital affair with a co-worker. His wife was aware of the affair, but for reasons that I do not entirely know, did not seek to follow the steps Jesus laid out here in Matthew 18. She—and anyone else who was made aware of the affair—chose not to act. Eventually, the other husband found out about the affair and showed up at the workplace of the Quinault member, and got into a fist fight with him, resulting in a news story in the Tri-Cities herald, where a trustee of Quinault Baptist Church had the reality of his affair broadcast to our city. Would it have been difficult and humiliating for this wife to tell the pastor and confront her husband? Would she
What does a Gentile and tax collector mean?
Jesus was speaking with a Jewish audience who would have automatically understood Gentiles and tax-collectors to be outside of the covenant community. Jesus here says that once a sinner has demonstrated a persistance in their unrepentant sin, despite being confronted by the one, by the two to three, and then even by the whole congregation, then they are to be regarded as outside of the covenant community. So we remove them from the membership of the church and our relationship with them now changes from "brother or sister" to that of evangelism towards a non-Christian.
(6) The Church on earth, no matter how small, has the authority to speak for heaven
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” - Matt 18:18-20
Why does the church have the authority to do something like this? Because Jesus authorizes the church to do so. The church is the earthly institution that has been given the authority to speak on behalf of heaven--to bind or loosen. The church can "bind" by bringing members into the church, and can "loosen" through removing unrepentant members out of the church through church discipline. This authority is credible because of two factors that Jesus highlights here: (1) agreement (vs. 19) and (2) gathering (vs. 20). When a church agrees together on who the members of the church are and when they gather in the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ is spiritually present with them and grants them authority to speak on His behalf--even if the church is as small as two or three people. Our church has around 100 members. But a church doesn't need to be this big to have the authority to bind and loosen.
Now, is it possible for the church to misuse this authority? Of course.
Is it possible for husbands to misuse their authority in the home? Of course.
Is it possible for parents to misuse their authority with their children? Of course.
But the abuse of authority does not invalidate its legitimate use.
