Matthew 18: The Greatest in the Kingdom

Jesus confronts our worldly understanding of greatness by teaching that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who humble themselves like little children and truly trust God.

• Being like a child means trusting God completely rather than striving to be better than others
• Humility isn't thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less often
• Biblical conflict resolution follows a clear process: address sin privately, then bring witnesses, then involve church leadership
• Social media call-outs violate God's intended pattern for resolving conflicts among believers
• Forgive others because you have been forgiven much, as illustrated in the parable of the unmerciful servant
• When others cause offense, intercede for them in prayer before taking action
• In church relationships, we should lower expectations of people and raise expectations of God

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Chapters

• 0:48 The Greatest in the Kingdom
• 3:43 Humble as a Child
• 5:42 Radical Resistance to Sin
• 8:02 The Parable of the Lost Sheep
• 11:09 Biblical Conflict Resolution
• 14:09 The Unmerciful Servant
• 16:37 Forgiveness in God's Kingdom
• 19:37 Closing Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, matthew, chapter 18, and today's title is the Greatest in the Kingdom. The Greatest in the Kingdom. If you're a sports fan at all, then you have probably heard of the phrase the GOAT, and that is an acronym which means the greatest of all time, and you have these debates in like every sport, and probably the most famous is who is the greatest basketball player? You know, you've got like Michael Jordan, lebron James, kobe Bryant, all the different ones and there's always this idea of wanting to be great and thinking that if you can achieve the top, you can be the most talented, you can be the best at your craft, whatever it is, then you will achieve greatness, and then the goal is to be the greatest of the greats, right? Well, when it comes to sports and business and all those kinds of things, of course that's what you want to do, but when it comes to the kingdom of God, jesus challenges us to think of greatness in a very different way, and I can't wait to talk to you about it. So we're going to get into all that in just a moment. So we'll get your Bibles out. Turn with me to Matthew, chapter 18. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment and like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. I've been seeing so many of you starting to rate our podcast and all of that. I love you. Please give us a five-star review and then tell us what it is about engaging with God's word that you love so much. When I go to podcast, I will read the comments and it helps me to understand what I'm expecting, so make sure you do that for us. Also, make sure you're going to Facebook, to the Bible Breakdown discussion. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and you can get links to all of this by going to thebiblebreakdowncom, because the more we dig, the more we find.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Well, as you are getting your Bibles out and ready, remember that the overall theme of Matthew is that Jesus is the King, king Jesus. And the overall goal of this whole book is Matthew is telling us, and he starts off in chapter 1 with just kind of blowing our hair back by saying I have proof that Jesus is at least the rightful king of our earthly kingdom, but then he spends chapter 2 through 28 saying but he is so much more than simply an earthly kingdom. And as we have been walking through, we see the kingdom of heaven slowly being just grounded and the foundation being laid for the kingdom of God. That continues even until today. But what we're going to see today is this idea of what it is to be the greatest in the kingdom, and if you've never read this before, I'm really interested to hear. I want you to let me know down in the comments below if you have any idea about what the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is before you read it. And then we want to read, and then let's see what it is. So let's read together. We're going to read the whole chapter. We're going to come back to this greatest in the kingdom idea because it is so very different than what we expect you ready. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Chapter 18, verse 1, says this about that time. The disciples came to Jesus and asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Jesus said I tell you the truth unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.

Speaker 1: 3:59

But if you cause one of these little ones who trust in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and drowned into the depths of the sea. What sorrow awaits the world because it tempts people to sin? Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting? So if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into internal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both your hands and feet. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the fire of hell. Beware that you don't look down on any of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven, their angels are always in my presence, in the presence of and. So, once again before we move on and we're going to come back to this at the end Jesus is using hyperbole. He's not saying that you should go and cut something off. He is saying be radical with your resistance of sin, but radical as in like make important decisions, not cut body parts off. Okay, make sure. Disclaimer. The Bible breakdown podcast said do not cut your hand off, just stop doing the bad things. All right, here we go.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Verse 12. If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won't he leave the 99 others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than the other 99 that didn't wander away. In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish.

Speaker 1: 5:44

If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen. Take your case to the church and then, if he or she won't accept the church's decision, treat that person as a pagan or as a corrupt tax collector. I tell you the truth whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven. Whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this if two of you agree on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you, for where two or three gather together as my followers, I am, and there among them. We're going to come back to that one at the very end as well. Then Peter came to him and asked Lord, how often shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times, no, not seven times. Jesus replied, but 70 times seven.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought who owed him millions of dollars he couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife and his children and everything he owned, to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him. Please be patient with me, I will pay it all. Then his master was filled with pity for him and so he released him and forgave his debt. But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him just a few thousand dollars and he grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little bit more time. Be patient with me, I will pay it, he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait and he had the man arrested and put into prison until the debt could be paid in full. And when some of the other servants saw it, they were very upset. They went to the king and they told him everything that had happened. Then the king called the man in that he had forgiven and he said you, evil servant, I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you? Then the angry king sent the man into prison to be tortured until he had paid the entire debt. That is what my heavenly father will do to you. If you refuse to give, forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.

Speaker 1: 8:19

Wow, there's so much in this chapter that I want to talk about the three main things, and that is the kingdom of heaven, the greatest in the kingdom. Then I want to talk about what it looks like to deal with conflict in the kingdom of heaven and then, at the very end, I want to talk about what we're supposed to do when we see evil in the kingdom of heaven. So here's the first one. Notice how and Jesus is going to talk more about what it looks like to have kingdom leadership in chapter 20. But in this chapter he says okay, you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, don't strive to be better than anybody else. Strive to trust God more than anybody else. Because see, that's what humility is.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less often. In other words, you're self-aware, but you're not self-obsessed. You know who you are, you know who you're not, and that's now settled. And so, therefore, your faith is like a little child. And if you think about it, think about the faith of a little child, the way it's supposed to be anyway. And that is the faith of a little child. They just trust. Children are just naturally trusting of things. If you tell a child something is so, they believe it. It's just the way it is, and that's good and bad at the same time.

Speaker 1: 9:32

And so Jesus is looking at all of these grown men and women all around him and he's saying you know how. You know what it is to be great in the kingdom of God. And he's saying you know what it is to be great in the kingdom of God. To be great in the kingdom of God is to absolutely trust me. Completely, to trust me as a little child with trust that's how much. And to be humble, in other words, to not think of yourself all the time, but to think of yourself less often. You're so secure in who you are, in me that you don't have to sit here and focus on me. We don't have to define the relationship all the time, but we know. You know who you are in me. You trust me. That's what it is to be great. So it's got nothing to do with what you achieve. It's got all to do with who you become and you become a trusting child of God. I just trust the Lord. That's what it is to be great. When you are great in the kingdom of God, you trust God the most. So trust is what we should be striving for.

Speaker 1: 10:28

The second thing I love is Matthew 18 actually outlines for us what it looks like to deal with conflict in the kingdom of heaven. And that is this that Jesus said if you have a believer and they sin against you, the first thing is to go to them privately. Now let's put this in today's context. Jesus is saying go to them privately, then if they don't listen, then you take one or two others, and then, if they don't listen, you take the case before the church. Now what does this mean in modern context? That means when somebody sins against you, you go to them privately. Can I just say something real quick? All right, social media is not private.

Speaker 1: 11:04

I think some people think that social media is not like putting it out there for the whole world. But especially if your account is not private, the world sees what you put on there. Therefore, if somebody, let's say, let's say somebody lies about you, somebody gossips about you, and you go on social media and you say something, if somebody let's say, let's say somebody lies about you, somebody gossips about you, and you go on social media and you say something, you know there are people out there who lie about other people and I just think that's wrong. You know what that is. That's a sin. That is directly not what God tells you to do.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Jesus says if somebody sins against you, gossips of sin. So if someone gossips against you sins against you. That does not mean that you go air out your dirty laundry on social media. That means you go to that person privately. If you're not brave enough to go to them privately, then you're not brave enough to deal with the sin. It does take bravery, but is the relationship worth it? So let's just say somebody gossips about you and you find out about it. Then what you do is and that creates a whole nother problem of whoever tells you most of the time people will tell you something then don't want you to do anything about it. I'll be honest with you. I tell people now, hey, before you tell me something, I may have to do something about it. So be careful. If you tell me something, right. So you have to be careful with that. You find out someone's lied to you.

Speaker 1: 12:23

According to the Bible, the next step is you go to that person. Let me use an example. Let's say I'm a completely fictitious name. Okay, listen, if your name is Joe, I am not talking to you. But let's say I find out that a guy named Joe has been talking bad about me. My job, according to God's word, is to call Joe on the phone. Hey Joe, can I meet with you in person? Can I meet with you privately in person? Okay, we don't send them a text message, we don't air it out over a phone call. We go meet with them in person and we point out the offense.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Hey Joe, I have heard that you have been saying that I don't wash my feet. I don't know, I'm just making it up that you, that you don't, have been calling me stink. Okay, listen, I just need to know if that's true and if the Bible says that that person listens. Yeah, I was saying that I got mad about something. Hey, listen, I was wrong, I'm sorry. You know what you're supposed to do. We're supposed to forgive. Hey, it's fine, I do wash my feet. Now you know that I do. We good? Yes, we're good. Now it says you've won that person back. They feel better, you feel better, it's good. But then here's the thing what happens if you go to Joe privately and you say hey, man, you've been gossiping. And then they don't know. No, that wasn't me. That wasn most likely the person who first reported. It is one of them.

Speaker 1: 13:36

You take one or two others and then you go back again in person and you say, hey, joe, right over here, susie and Ashley making up names Okay, listen, they are the ones who told me that you say I've been not washing my feet. Okay, listen, here we are. I'm not mad at you that you say I've been not washing my feet. Okay, listen, here we are. I'm not mad at you. It did hurt my feelings. I just want to make this right man. And then he says then okay, confirmed by two or three witnesses about what happened. And then, if he repents and then you say you know what? I don't know, whatever's going on here, I'll take my ownership, part of it, then everything's good. Then, if that person still refuses, then you take the case to the church.

Speaker 1: 14:18

I would recommend church leaders and say hey, listen, church leader, my pastor, joe, joe, been talking about my stinky feet. I don't have stinky feet. Ashley and Susie are the ones who told me about it. I've been talking to Joe about it. Joe doesn't want to repent of it. It's really embarrassing to me. What are we going to do? And then they go to Joe and they say Joe, come on man. And they try to talk sense into Joe.

Speaker 1: 14:39

And then the Bible says that if Joe will still not stop talking about your stinky feet, well then you know what you do. You treat that person as a pagan or a tax collector. You know what you do to those people. You don't throw them out. You just start over and start talking to them about the gospel. Hey, you know what it is to be a Christian. It's to follow Jesus. Jesus says we don't gossip about people. In other words, it doesn't mean you throw them away. It means you then start sharing the gospel with them. You start over with them. Okay, so let's review that again. Go to them privately. Then you take one or two and then you take that case to them before the church.

Speaker 1: 15:08

Can I tell you, as a pastor we try to walk this out that we will go to someone privately and I will tell you. There have been times when people have come to me as a pastor and they will say, hey, so-and-so's doing this. I will tell them have you went and talked to them? No, I haven't. Okay, well, the first step of church discipline is that you go talk to them. I'm not willing to go talk to them, well then, I'm not gonna do anything about it right now. You need to give them the honor of going to talk to them, and then we go to the next step. Okay, well then we'll bring it. And so that is how you bring peace and joy and order into the house of God is by privately, two or three, and then before the church, and then finally.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I love how the final story of Jesus is now talking about what forgiveness looks like and he's saying the reason why you are supposed to forgive is because you have been forgiven of so much. Remember, he said that he goes, this guy goes to this king and he owes millions of dollars, and the king forgives him, but instead of then forgiving someone who only owed him a little bit, he doesn't forgive him. So that is a parable of saying God has forgiven you of so much. Then you should be willing to forgive someone of a slight to you. But then what do you do if you see that?

Speaker 1: 16:23

Here's a question I get all the time as a pastor. What do you do if you see somebody not walking in forgiveness, holding grudges, doing this kind of stuff? Well, notice what it says that the bystanders did. The bystanders, when some of the other servants saw this it says in verse 31, they were upset. In other words, they grieved their heart and they went to the king and told him what happened.

Speaker 1: 16:45

So you know, what your first step is Is, first of all, to be grieved in your heart and to go to the king. Go to the one who's done all the forgiving, in other words, take it to God. Your first step as a Christ follower is to intercede for that person. Watch what God will do when you do that. Can I tell you I've seen that happen so many times in my life that when I hear of someone who is holding grudges, who is gossiping about somebody else, who's doing whatever, can I tell you, as a pastor, a lot of times I will get so much pressure to kind of lay the hammer down on people and I will say you know what we're going to do.

Speaker 1: 17:18

First, we're going to intercede for them, because I want forgiveness as well, and so we're going to intercede and we're going to pray, and I can I tell you, a lot of times, as a pastor, I've gotten like a lot of grief for that. We shouldn't be praying, we should be doing. Well, what do you think prayer is? I'm not saying that's all we're going to do, but it's the first thing we're going to do. Prayer is to be our first response, not our last resort. And can I tell you, it is amazing to me what happens when we start to pray and seek God and watch what he does. So in all of this, can I tell you something that is true In this life, there's going to be conflict. Can I say this to you as well?

Speaker 1: 17:59

For all of my friends out there who have been hurt in church, can I tell you, one of the number one reasons why you were hurt is because you lowered your expectation of God and you raised your expectation of people. You thought and that's okay, but you thought that because people were in church and because people were claiming to be Christians, they were never going to sin. They were never going to sin, they were never going to be wrong. Can I tell you, we're all at a different growth rate in the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is full of sinful people trying to walk out their salvation. That doesn't mean that that's an excuse. That doesn't mean that it's okay. It just means we should always be careful to realize that in the kingdom of God, bad people hurting people are going to hurt people. Therefore, we lower our expectation of people and we raise our expectation of God, and so when bad people do bad things, sometimes with bad motives, we don't blame it on God. Instead, we are part of the justice of God and we start to intercede for them. We offer forgiveness for them, we take steps and boundaries where it is necessary, but we do it in a God honoring way, just like we want them to do for us. It's a heavy chapter, but it's an amazing chapter to understand what the greatness of the kingdom of God is, and that is that we just trust God, that he is going to work it all out for his goodness.

Speaker 1: 19:12

Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you know that we are sinful people and that we are going to bump heads with one another from time to time. However, instead of throwing us away, you give us kind of action steps on how we are able to walk together. My prayer today, god, is if there's someone listening or watching this and they're struggling and they're dealing with the sins of others, god, that you will give them the grace to take the next step and to realize that the grace that you show that other person is the same grace that's being extended to them as well, and I'm thankful that you lead us through the hard things. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, in the name of what God's word says in Matthew 28, verse 19,. It says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, jesus says, and make disciples of all nations. That's my prayer, for me and for you. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Matthew, chapter 19.