The Kingdom of God

"At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! ... Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven... Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven" (Mat. 18:1-7,10-18,21,22).

I would like to make a very simplistic point here today, and that point is that we should always be seeking to think more like Jesus, so that we can be more like Jesus, and bring more glory to the name of Jesus while we are in this lifetime. Everything I've copied here from Matthew 18 was spoken by Jesus, and all of it reveals a whole lot about how he thinks, and what the nature of God is like. The first revelation of the mind and nature of Jesus in this passage is that we must be like little children before him if we expect to be blessed by him. This means that we should not be seeking great things for ourselves, but rather we should appreciate what we have and where he's brought us from; and be content with our worldly and spiritual status. It was in fact that misguided mentality of his disciples that motivated his words in the entire chapter. This also means we should be dependent on him like a child is with its parents. And again this means that we should be innocent in our motives, and our words, and our deeds like a child. Next he shows us that even as no one should do harm to a child, neither should anyone do any hurt spiritually or otherwise to someone who is depending on him like a child. And he minces no words in describing the severity of recompense that will come upon anyone who dares to do so. The next revelation of the mind of Jesus shows us how he views his children who have gone astray. He did NOT give us a parable about the Father, himself, and the angels sitting around in heaven analyzing the reasons why someone has fallen off their faith, and being critical of their failure to be steadfast. Rather he shows us that the only thing on his mind when someone falls astray is getting them back to his care and safety. In fact he makes it clear that his mind is more on that than it is on those who are doing well. After that he goes on to show us something else very revealing about the mind of Christ. Jesus plainly tells us that when someone has erred from the faith in any way, that our motive and mode of operation toward them needs to be just like his, which was clearly revealed in the parable of the lost sheep that he had just told.

If someone in our midst has caused a problem of some kind, our motivation and thinking should be to gain them back to what is good, rather than to humiliate them or demean them to other believers. It's amazing how considerate and courteous the heart and mind of God is, and how much he does NOT want to make a spectacle of someone who is failing the faith in some way. The act of going to a person privately about their sin is just plain gracious, especially when we could just go tell it instead. Then if they won't receive us, to take someone else with us to them again, privately; is really just a beautiful thing when you think about it. The last resort is to tell their fault before the congregation if they refuse the second or third witnesses, and even then it is merely to bring them back to the place of blessing. Only if they refuse that are they supposed to be cut off from the fellowship, and even that is only until they repent and come clean of their misdeed. Last but not least, he hammers in the nail of forgiveness really tight, letting us know that we should ALWAYS be ready to forgive anyone who is willing to sincerely admit that they have done wrong to us. Not only so, but in giving us the hypothetical number of four hundred and ninety times that we should forgive a repentant brother in a day; what does that say about how many times God will forgive us if we sincerely repent of wrong? So what we have seen here about the mind and nature of Jesus is quite revealing, and we should always keep ourselves in a spiritual condition where these are the normal ways of our thinking and doing as well. Everything we have seen here is about humility, innocence, redemption, and forgiveness. Oh yeah, also that God will accept or bless no one who refuses to think and live in these modes of thinking. Jesus is not some candy cane in the sky, and he made it abundantly clear that severe wrath will be awarded to all who resist those who abide in his manner of thinking, and his manner of living. In fact the last parable of the chapter, which I did not copy above, graphically details that reality. I can tell you by personal experience that there is a whole lot of redeeming grace and goodness in this chapter. God bless.