MATTHEW EIGHTEEN

Hugo McCord

This octogenarian, both retired and tired, became freshly energized when Prof. Don Gardner, needing to be away, asked me to fill for him in a Bible class at Cascade College. Cascade students have eternity ahead of them, and each one is worth more than any teacher can impart. On March 9, the assignment was chapter eighteen of the Gospel of Matthew. That chapter deals with 12 principles spoken by the great Teacher.

1. The Kingdom of Heaven, 18:1. What Matthew calls “the kingdom of heaven” (3:2), Mark (1:15), Luke (17:20), and John (3:3) call “the kingdom of God.” That approaching kingdom, announced both by John the immerser (Matthew 3:2) and by Jesus (Matthew 4:17), was not to be an earthly monarchy established and maintained by physical swords.

When Jesus noticed that a crowd of his admirers “were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him King,” he “withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone” (John 6:15, NASV). Later, he relieved the mind of Governor Pilate by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). However, Jesus’ apostles, even after he had taught them for three years, still looked for their leader to wear an earthly crown, as shown by their question: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

If “the kingdom of heaven” was not to be “of this world,” what was its nature? The New Testament gives three marks of identification:

First, the kingdom is the church, as seen in six similarities: (1) the king of the kingdom is the head of the church (Colossians 1:13, 18); (2) the seed of the kingdom is the seed of the church (Luke 8:11; Acts 2:41, 47); (3) The keys of the kingdom opened the doors of the church (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:38-39, 47; 5:11); (4) a birth of water and the Spirit puts a sinner into the kingdom and into the church (John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13); (5) The Lord’s Supper is in the kingdom and in the church (Luke 22:29-30; 1 Corinthians 10:16); and (6) both the kingdom and the church are indestructible (Matthew 16:18; Hebrews 12:28).

Second, the kingdom is a spiritual, invisible reign of Jesus in the hearts of all Christians. Though they are “poor in spirit,” they are rich, for “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). In this second portrayal, the kingdom is not the church, for, though Christians own the kingdom (“theirs”), they do not own the church. In this second portrayal, the kingdom is not the church, for it does “not come visibly, nor” do “people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,” because the kingdom is “within” (entos) all Christians (Luke 17:20-21, NIV). But “the kingdom of God” as the church did come visibly and audibly, with what “seemed to be tongues of fire” and with “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind” (Acts 2:2-3, NIV). Of the kingdom as the church, one can say, ‘Here it is”: in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, Sunday morning at nine o’clock, A.D. 30 (Mark 9:1; Luke 24:49; Acts 2:1-4, 15).

The entrance of the kingdom into a sinner’s heart, into everyone “born of water and the Spirit,” cannot be observed (John 3:8). One can see a sinner as he is “born of water” in baptism, but unseeable is the kingdom of heaven (its principles) coming to be “within” him.

By comparison, as a sinner at baptism goes “into Christ” (Galatians 3:27) and Christ goes into him (John 15:4; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27), so a sinner at baptism goes into the kingdom (John 3:5) and the kingdom goes into him (Luke 17:20-21).

The “kingdom of God” is not “eating and drinking” (Romans 14:17)--nothing external. It is “righteousness and peace and joy in he Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Marvelous is the wisdom of heaven in planning an invisible and spiritual kingdom of principles to take over a man’s life from the inside of him, and marvelous is the love of heaven that earnestly desires that all people let “the kingdom of God” reign in their hearts.

Third, “the kingdom of God” is the “Father’s house” with “many rooms” now being prepared by Jesus (John 14:2-3; Acts 14:22, NIV). Already granted to Christians is a “citizenship” in “heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Those who remain “faithful even to the point of death” will “enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22; Revelation 2:10, NIV). “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50). That future “kingdom of God” will be “near” when everyone “will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and glory” (Luke 21:27-31, NIV).

Since the day that Paul was baptized, probably in A.D. 33, he was in “the kingdom of God” that came with observation (that is, the church), and from that day he began cultivating “the kingdom of God” that does not come with observation (Acts 2:1-4; 22:16; Colossians 1:13; Romans 14:17). But in 67 A.D. he had not yet entered “the kingdom of God” in its third meaning. However, he had confidence that the Lord “will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18, NIV). Also, Peter was looking forward to “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11, NIV).

2. Selfishness and Pride, 18:1. The apostles asked Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Their question was not prompted by a desire to serve humanity, but a craving for personal recognition, a craving to outshine others. Actually they knew that their question was out of order, for at one time they held back (Mark 9:34), but they were so self-centered they brought it up anyway.

That same selfishness and pride are seen in Salome, the mother of James and John, as she requested of Jesus that “one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” (Matthew 20:21, NIV). Jesus’ reply ought to have taught her and her sons: “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:26). Also he pointed out that he, himself, was no exception, saying “the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

To be a Christian, one must “deny himself” (Matthew 16:24), yes, he must even crucify himself (Galatians 5:24). His former self no longer lives; instead, Christ lives in him (Galatians 2:20). He has been born a second time, not from his mother’s womb, but “of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5), becoming a “new self” (Ephesians 4:24, NIV), a new person.

Salome and her two sons had plenty of pride and selfishness, but the “righteousness” of “the kingdom of God” calls for self-renouncement: “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33, NIV). Christians do not listen to psychologists who build up self-esteem; instead, Christians say, “We are unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10). Instead of trying to outshine others, they go through a mental and spiritual revolution causing them to consider others as “better than” themselves (Philippians 2:3).

3. Humility, 18:2-5. No doubt the apostles, grown men, were shocked as Jesus picked up a little child and held him “in his arms” (Mark 9:36, NIV). And what Jesus said was shocking too:

I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me (Matthew 18:3-5, NIV).

Heart-touching is the thought, and far from child-abuse, that to receive a little child in one’s arms is to receive the Lord Jesus! One should note, however, that Jesus did not baptize the little child. Infant baptism started with Tertullian in 200 A.D.

4. Causing Someone to Sin, 18:6-7. Better it is to be drowned than to cause “one of these little ones who believe in” Jesus “to sin” (Matthew 18:6, NIV). In parallel, a girl’s clothing or lack of it could cause a man to commit “adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

5. Causing Yourself to Sin, 18:8-9. A man’s wrong use of his eyes could cause him to be “thrown into the fire of hell” (Matthew 18:9, NIV).

6. Angels and Little Children, 18:10. Jesus did not teach that there is a special “guardian angel” who protects little children. If he did, he was wrong, for millions of “little ones” have been murdered by abortion doctors. “Nearly 30 million babies have been legally killed in the United States since 1973” (JOPLIN GLOBE, April 1, 1993).

But Jesus did teach that the angels assigned to “little ones” do “always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). Those angels do not have the authority to prevent little ones from being slain, but they know that the souls of those innocent unborn ones are safe from temptation and sin, and they know that “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). (Here “the kingdom of heaven” cannot mean the church, nor can it mean the invisible reign of Jesus in human hearts, but must have reference to the future “heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18). Heart-touching is the thought that smiles come on the faces of children’s angels when they first see them in heaven!

Children’s angels do more than look on the Father’s loving face. Along with all the other angels, they are “ministering spirits sent to serve those” who were not killed in the womb, those who grew and became Christians, “those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). What the angels do in serving Christians is unknown, but heart-touching is the assurance from God’s word that they are serving all Christians. Sometimes, for special purposes in the Father’s providence, “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” (Psalm 34:7), but not always.

7. Seeking the Lost, 18:11-14. Some Bibles omit verse 11, “the Son of man has come to seek and to save the lost,” but that heart-lifting thought is in all Bibles in Luke 19:10. The Savior does not rejoice if 99% of Cascade’s students are what they ought to be because he is grieved if one of them fails him and turns away.

8. Offenses, 18:15-17. When a fellow Christian “sins against you,” Jesus prescribed a three-step procedure. However, if you are a mature and caring Christian, you will train yourself not to be offended easily. You will train yourself to take some wrongs without a word in response and you will pray for the one who has offended you (Matthew 5:44). “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is his glory to overlook an offense” (Proverbs 19:11). You will remember that love “is not easily angered” and “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV). But if your brother’s wrong against you is such that his soul is endangered, then love for him will lead you to follow Jesus’ three-step plan.

However, Jesus’ plan is in reference to a personal sin “against you” (Matthew 18:15). It does not mean, before you criticize an article in a religious journal or a preacher’s public sermon, you must first take your criticism to that writer or preacher privately. If you eliminate the words “against you” (as does the NASV), and so remove the private, personal offense, you make Jesus say something that is nonsensical: “if your brother sins” go to him in private, causing you to ask, “since every brother sins, who is to go to whom?”

If Jesus meant that all offenses, not personal ones only, are to be settled privately, he did not practice what he preached. He corrected the Sadducees publicly while crowds of people listened to him (Matthew 22:23-33). And he “spoke to the crowds and to his disciples” about the sins of the Pharisees (Matthew 23:1f, NIV).

Jesus’ teaching only makes sense if the words “against you” are retained. And that is the way Peter understood Jesus, for he asked, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” (Matthew 18:17; cf. Luke 17:3-4). Peter did not ask, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin, and I go to see him privately?” No, Peter used the words “against me” just as Jesus had used “against you.”

9. Apostolic Authority, 18:8. Because Jesus knew that he was to leave the earth, he told his representatives, his apostles, that they would be empowered in his behalf, that they would have authority to bind or release any religious practice. And actually he told them that whatever they bound or released had already been bound or released in heaven before they spoke about it. Only one Bible that I know makes plain what Jesus actually said to the apostles: “Whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:8, NASV), that is, before such binding and loosing is put on your lips it had already been done in heaven.

10. Concerted Prayer, 18:19-20. Not only is the prayer of one righteous man “powerful and effective” (James 5:16, NIV), but the power is enhanced when “two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for” (Matthew 18:19, NIV).

Jesus promised that the result of concerted prayer is that “it will be done for you” (Matthew 18:19). However, one must remember that God knows what is best for all of us, and therefore every petition should be modified to ask the Lord to grant it if it is “according to his will” (1 John 5:14).

11. A Heavenly Visitor, 18:20. Jesus is in every Christian by his indwelling Spirit from the day of his baptism, and, as long as he behaves himself, goes with him everywhere he goes (Galatians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Colossians 1:27; Hebrews 13:5). A thrilling thought is the promise also that “where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). Large crowds are fine, but they are not necessary for Jesus to be present! He partakes of the communion with us (Matthew 26:29). He sings with us (Hebrews 2:12).

12. A Forgiving Spirit, 18:21-35. Everyone who sins against us and repents must be forgiven, not by our lips only, but by our hearts (Matthew 18:35; Luke 17:3). If we do not forgive “men their trespasses, neither will” our “Father forgive” our “trespasses” (Matthew 6:15).

However, Peter asked Jesus if there is a limit to the number of times he should “forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21). Perhaps Peter was calling to mind the “seven times” Cain was to be avenged against a killer (Genesis 4:15). Perhaps Jesus, in his reply, was calling to mind the “seventy-seven times” Cain’s descendant, Lamech, demanded vengeance (Genesis 4:24), for Jesus raised Peter’s “seven times” to “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). Thus Jesus made unlimited forgiveness a major principle of Christian living. Who among us humans could ever have conceived of such a magnanimous ideal?

However, even God himself does not forgive sinners unless they repent (Luke 13:3). We are to “pray for them that persecute” us, said Jesus, and he set the example in praying for his murderers (Matthew 5:44; Luke 23:34), but even Jesus’ prayer was not granted until his murderers repented and were baptized (Luke 23:34; Acts 2:23, 37-39).