The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day six)

Jesus is introducing a new kind of community to the disciples. He is answering the question, “How should we relate to one another?” No longer are they to pursue personal greatness through jockeying for position, but through mutual care for one another; the kind of care that goes to great lengths to preserve the other through accountability, forgiveness, and restoration.

Peter was intrigued. “How many times should we forgive each other? Surely, there is a limit?”

Jesus responds with a question of his own, “Is there any limit to God’s mercy?” There is no limit, save for the person without mercy.

Our merciful care for one another is fueled by God’s limitless mercy towards us. Our mercy should have no end, because his doesn’t.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day five)

 “If your brother sins , go and show him his fault in private;”

Last week’s text pictured drastic metaphors that communicated God’s Holiness and tolerance of sin. When we learn about God (Holiness) and love Him more deeply, we begin to have the same perspective about our own sin (Romans 7).  Now, Jesus extends the parameters of addressing sin, to include fellow members of the local Body of Christ.

None of the prescribed conversations and confrontations in this week’s text seem pleasant. In fact, they seem awkward and uncomfortable. Yet, Jesus plainly and unapologetically gives guidance for dealing with the sin of another saint.  As we obey, He does grant authority, underscores power in unity, and promises His presence. Sin is a big deal to a Holy God. Addressing it, personally and/or corporately, reflects God’s grace, love, kindness, and Holiness.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day four)

Our theme this summer has been Better Together.  Now we see the truth of our theme played out in Scripture.  Verse 20 says, “For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst.”  When we join together in prayer, there is power…God is with us.  God inhabits our prayers as an individual, but there is special authority when our prayers are joined with others.  It is for this reason that we have a prayer list at church.  We join in concert to lift up the needs of others to a loving God…knowing that He will hear and answer us.

Isn’t it amazing that we can pray here in Texas, others can pray in Indiana, or in England, or on the other side of the world in Thailand, and God hears us in unison.  Time zones are no barriers to an infinite, omnipresent God.  Our theme is more than just a slogan…we really are Better Together!

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day three)

“Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.”

How much weight do the decisions and actions of the community of Jesus’s disciples carry? Jesus says that these decisions and actions invite heaven’s presence and power into circumstances, or they close off the channels of heaven’s presence and power into circumstances. Jesus once told the Pharisees that they shut the door of the kingdom in people’s faces – that “you yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” This is of a piece with what Jesus says here. The stumbling blocks, the barricades, the willful blindness to heaven’s activity in the lives of people – these indicate a hellish conspiracy and collusion to prevent lost people from finding life. A church can represent the kingdom of God on earth. A church can also bolt the door.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:15-35 (day two)  For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” vs. 20

What an incredible testimony for togetherness. When we gather together in the name of the Lord, the Lord is present. Not a passing acknowledgment of the gathering, present, in their midst. I would hasten to add the the passage doesn’t add the disclaimer “wherever two or more are gathered in a sanctuary…” Jesus simply says “wherever.” What an encouragement and challenge this should be to each of us. We are to be on mission at all times, claiming the name and presence of Jesus and expecting him to lead, guide, challenge, and correct. This constant companion, in the form of the Holy Spirit, is the promise and a hallmark of our faith. Are we actively invoking his presence outside the church? Are we behaving like the Lord is in our midst?

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:5-14 (day seven)

For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come. vs 7

When initially reading this passage, it really makes you stop and think. Why would Jesus want me to cut off my foot and gouge out my eye? After a period of trying to figure out if you could survive like a pirate with an eye patch and a peg leg, you then begin to think about the root of what Jesus was really saying. He was saying that:

1. Temptation will come.
   • • It is a part of human nature that we will be tempted. Even Jesus Himself endured temptation. There is nothing new about the temptations of today. The vessels may change, but the fight remains the same.  1 Corinthians 10:13 
2. Temptation is necessary.
   • • Just as Jesus was able to overcome temptation, so can we. Not only can we overcome it, but when we do, it will make us stronger. Romans 5:3-5
3. Temptation needs to be removed.
   • • In order to fight these battles effectively, we need to cast aside the sins and weights that are holding us back and fix our eyes on Jesus, and He will help (perfect) our fight. Hebrews 12:1-2

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:5-14 (day five)

“it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned….  It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame… It is better for you to enter life with one eye…”.

This passage contains some of the most shocking language and images that Jesus ever uses. Amputation. Drowning. Gouging. I like what Jon Bloom says about this passage, “Extreme danger calls for extreme measures of escape. Yes, the mutilation imagery is a metaphor, but it is not hyperbole.  We know it is a metaphor because the literal loss of a hand or an eye doesn’t get to the root issue of sin. But radical and painful amputation of stumbling blocks out of our lives may be the only way to escape falling headlong into sin’s insidiously deceptive snare.”

So, how do we acquire this same perspective that Jesus has. What would help us feel and think this same way about sin and temptation?  Start with an understanding and reverence for the holiness of God. (Fear of the Lord) seeing and sensing God for Who He really is. Bloom continues, “For the Christian, the fear of the Lord does not compete with our joy in the Lord.”

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:3).

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:27)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10)

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 18:5-14 (day four)

There are at least two lessons to be learned in our Re:Verse passage this week.  First: to cause an innocent one to stumble will bring dire consequences.  Death by drowning would be more desirable than the fiery consequences of hell.  Second:  when someone inevitably stumbles, we are to pursue them with all of our being to restore them.  This is known as accountability.  We leave the ninety and nine and search for the one who is lost!  The inter-connectivity of a church family leaves no room for isolationism or island living.  If a fellow believer is straying or has lost their way, we are accountable to seek to lead them back to fellowship with God.

How many times have we said, “It’s none of my business”?  Our culture has convinced us not to judge.  Judgment though may be obvious when biblical commands are broken and are evident to all, but we don’t want to say it out loud.  The standard is God’s…we need to encourage those around us to hold to that standard.