DBG - October 11 - Matthew 16-18

In this chapter Christ’s identity and mission are discussed.

vs. 1-4 – This parallels Mark 8:10-12.  This continues the discussion from the previous chapter concerning Christ giving a sign to His enemies to prove He was the Messiah.  It would not have changed their minds.  He had given them numerous signs before and they ignored them.  An interesting feature of this passage is the ages-old saying that you may have heard something like this: “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.  Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”  Christ says that His enemies have enough sense to read the signs in nature of weather changes but not enough to see Who He is.  He again says that they only sign they will receive is the sign of Jonas from Matthew 12:40 

vs. 5-12 – This parallels Mark 8:13-21.  Christ takes the opportunity to warn His disciples against the teaching of the Pharisees.  He compares it to leaven, which is a picture of sin.  Just a little dash of leaven (yeast) to a dough makes a huge difference in baking.  Just a little wrong in the teachings of the Pharisees made a huge difference.  They had corrupted the Jewish religion, which was the way God communicated His truth with mankind from Sinai to the Cross.  There is a little comedy here as the disciples mistake His teaching for a rebuke for not bringing enough provisions for their trip.

vs. 13-20 – This parallels Mark 8:27-30 and Luke 9:18-21.  Caesarea Philippi was a city about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.  At the time it was the center for Philip the Tetrarch’s government over an area north and east of Galilee.  Christ asks the disciples who the people believed Him to be.  There was still much confusion on the issue.  Peter gives the true answer: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Christ responds by blessing Peter.  No, Christ is not telling Peter he was to be the first pope.  He is prophesying of what Peter will do in the Book of Acts.  He will preach the gospel first Pentecost to the Jews and then to the Gentiles with Cornelius.  The foundation of the church is not Peter,  it is Christ (Ephesians 2:20).  The command to not tell is a command to let God’s work progress in God’s time.

vs. 21-28 – This parallels Mark 8:31-9:1 and Luke 9:22-27.  Christ’s earthly mission is drawing near its climax in Jerusalem.  He begins to prepare His disciples for what is to come.  Peter, who had just had such a great moment, is rebuked for denying what would come.  Christ then elaborates on the high cost of following Him.  It is worth it, no matter what we may face.  Note that He compares it to carrying a cross.  Now, we look back and think of that as Christ’s cross.  I do not think it is.  The disciples have no idea that He will be crucified, so there is no deeper meaning here.  It is exactly what it says: carrying your device of shame and execution.  We are to die to self in order to experience new life through Christ.

In this chapter is the Transfiguration.

vs. 1-13 – This parallels Mark 9:2-13 and Luke 9:28-36.  Christ takes the inner circle of disciples to a mountain apart from the rest to witness Christ in His glory.  Note the living example of the Bible - the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) bearing witness of Christ and his mission.  Peter lets his zeal get ahead of his brain again, and offers to build three homes for them to dwell in.  The bright cloud that surrounds them is the shekinah glory of God, out which the Father testifies of Christ’s identity.  They are told to tell no man what they had witnessed for the time being.  Christ explains that the prophecy of Elijah returning from Malachi 4:5 had already been fulfilled in John the Baptist.  Peter writes of these events in II Peter 1:16-18.

vs. 14-21 – This parallels Mark 9:14-29 and Luke 9:37-43.  While Christ and the inner circle of disciples were on the mountain, a man had brought his demon-possessed son to the disciple for healing.  They could not help the troubled young man.  Christ heals the young man and rebukes His disciples for not having enough faith to perform the action.  It is not our great faith that makes the miraculous occur.  It is our little faith that prompts a great God to move. 

vs. 22-23 – This parallels Mark 9:30-32 and Luke 9:43-45.  Christ continues to prepare His disciples for what is coming at Passover.  He tells them plainly that He would die and rise again after three days.

vs. 24-27 –The tribute mentioned here is the Jewish Temple Tax of Exodus 30:13.  It was a half-shekel of silver paid each year by every Jewish man.  Christ’s response is essentially that He, as Lord over the Temple, could well be exempt from the tax.  Yet, for the sake of example, Christ submits to the tax.  The fish mentioned here is believed to be a type of tilapia called musht.  They carry their young in their mouths and have been known to carry small pebbles and even bottle caps in their mouths also.  Many today call these fish “St. Peter’s fish”.  The coin was a full shekel, enough to pay for both Peter and Christ.

In this chapter Christ deals with offenses and forgiveness

vs. 1-4 – This parallels Mark 9:33-37 and Luke 9:46-48.  The disciples are squabbling over which of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is my opinion that Peter is in the middle of this and it involves the fact that James, John, and he had witnessed the Transfiguration while the others did not.  Christ gives an object lesson to them using a small child.  Children were not as well thought of in that culture as they are in ours today.  Age brought respect in society.  Christ stresses faith and humility as keys in the Christian life. Christ is trying to get the disciples to not look upward toward being great but instead to look below them at the lost and hurting.  The priority in not in lifting righteous men up, but in strengthening the lost and struggling.

vs. 5-10 – This parallels Mark 9:42-50.  To offend in this context is to lay stumbling blocks to hurt someone.  Whoever opposed the weakest and lowest of God’s children would face the judgment of God.  The gravity of this teaching is shown in the measures Christ gives to avoid offenses, which repeat instruction from Matthew 5:29.

vs. 11-14 -  The Parable of the Lost Sheep.  This is Christ’s purpose in this chapter.  He wants the disciple to not look down on others but to help lift them up.  He reiterates the value of even the little one.

vs. 15-17 – This section shifts the discussion from not offending other to how to handle being offended.  Here is a very important and practical framework for dealing with conflict.  If you have been offended or injured and it has not been made right, first go privately to seek reconciliation.  If they refuse, take two or three respected witnesses to judge between the two of you.  This does not mean taking people to gang up on the offender, but rather to let cooler heads evaluate and give their judgment.  If this does not work, take it to the church.  This form of church discipline puts community pressure on the injurer to repent.  Hopefully this extreme step brings them to repentance and restoration.  If not, the last step is to cast the offender out of the community of believers until they repent. 

vs. 18-20 – There are few passages of Scripture so abused by taking them out of context as these are.  They are an intricate part of the discussion of reconciliation, which is the theme we see preceding and following these verses.  This is not a promise of the presence of Christ is two or three are gathered.  In vs. 18-19 the authority of the church body is described.  In vs. 20 Christ promises to guide such a body in situations such as conflict resolution.  He is promising that the two or three (see verse 16) operating as the Bible instructs us will be guided by Christ’s authority (“in My name”).

vs. 21-22 – Note that Peter is the one to ask the question.  He has been in the middle of the trouble since the Transfiguration.  The rabbis taught that you only had a responsibility to forgive three times.  Seven was going above and beyond.  But Christ turns the question on its head.  It’s not about the number of times you forgive, but how fully you forgive.

vs. 18:23-35 – The Parable of the Unjust Steward is used to drive home the truth of forgiveness that has been developing.  In this story, the steward owes his king 10,000 talents of silver, which are worth around $840,000,000.  To put this into perspective, one of the wealthiest men of the era, Crassus, was said to be worth 7,100 talents.  Imagine then this debt being equal to the wealth of the richest person in the world, plus 30%.  Unable to pay, the king invokes his right to seize the man’s possessions and family to help pay the debt.  The man begs for mercy and the debt is forgiven.  He immediately finds someone who owed him 100 pence (denarii), which is about $960.  That is 0.0005% of the value he had just been forgiven.  Does he show mercy to the man who comparatively owed so little?  No!  He throws the man in prison until the debt could be paid.  The king calls the steward to account for his actions.  His rescinds his forgiveness and the man is tortured until he could pay the unpayable debt, that is, for the rest of his life.  The meaning is clear.  We have been forgiven so much by God, so we should so forgive others.  We should model God’s forgiveness to the world.

Every believer should spend time understanding and practicing the teachings of Christ in Matthew 18.  We must guard our words and actions lest we hurt others.  This is especially true of doing so willfully, but out of great love for another we should try to do so even accidentally.  So many problems in our church, ministries, families, and work places could be solved if we only put such love into action.  If you hurt someone, seek forgiveness and reconciliation.  If you have been hurt, readily give forgiveness and reconciliation.  It is one of the greatest object lessons we can give to the lost world of how Christ forgives us.

Our hymn today is “The Ninety and Nine.”  The text was composed in 1868 by Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane.  It came to the attention of Ira Sankey in 1874, who set it to music and became his signature solo during D.L. Moody’s Gospel campaigns.  Remarkably, there is a recording from 1898 of Sankey singing this song.

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare;
Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

“Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine
Has wandered away from Me.
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep.”

But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry;
’Twas sick and helpless and ready to die.

 “Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way,
That mark out the mountain’s track?”
“They were shed for one who had gone astray
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.”
“Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?”
“They’re pierced tonight by many a thorn.”

And all through the mountains, thunder-riv’n,
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heav’n,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”