Unless You Change: become like children. How entering and embodying Heaven’s reality on earth requires becoming like a little child.

Causing Little Ones to Stumble. God is not willing for any little one of his to perish. It would be better to be judged or cut-off in this life for causing a little one to loose or wander from their faith than to have to answer to God for it.
God himself is invested in ensuring not one of the vulnerable who trust in him will finally wander or be lost.

Judgement: and the church. If God is not willing for even one of his little ones to be lost, we had better not “sweep it under the carpet” when such sin threatens the church. Such sin is better “pointed out”, exposed and dealt with now.

Forgiveness: and the church. Last weeks passage had hope to “win” the unrepentant brother/sister from their sin (and its consequences). What are we to do when someone “listens to us” after their sin has been exposed?

In Favour of the Vulnerable: divorce.
Jesus takes on those who abused divorce laws for their own benefit. How do we relate Jesus’ challenge to his disciples who preferred to preserve their own autonomy, rather than honour their promise?

Upending Status: from first to last

Upending Merit: from last to first

The Genetics of Greatness

Lowliness is a theme in Jesus’ repeatedly returns to in his teaching. Several years ago we explored Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount” which Jesus opens with the statement - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven...”

Jesus is saying - blessed are those who have nothing, spiritually speaking, to show for themselves. Blessed are those who have accrued no spiritual wealth or credit to boast in. Blessed are those who have no spiritual track record to rest upon and no grand accomplishments to point to. That is ultimately what Jesus has in mind .when he speaks about changing and becoming like a child. It is to recognise one's complete dependance upon one's heavenly Father.

We are all to embody a humble dependance upon God’s mercy.

But Jesus also speaks of the Little ones as those who are vulnerable in their trust of Jesus - those the under-shepherds must be especially careful and tender with - because God the true shepherd wills that not any of those who trust him should be caused to stumble or wander away from the faith.

When we Forbear with another’s sin, we are not ignoring or hiding the sin itself. We are making a judgement that this sin does not warrant a personal confrontation now. If the sin is one that might cause a little one to wander or stumble from faith and perish (Matt 18:6-14) it MUST be exposed and confronted - both for the sake of the “little ones” and for the sake of brother/sister who has sinned. Better judgement in this life (milestone/sea), than to leave it to judgement in the life to come (a lake of fire).

But as Jesus’ brother James (3:2) says “we all stumble/sin in many ways”. Where the person knows their sin and is already repentant, or where the sin is quickly rectified, or where someone’s sin is in genuine ignorance, the scripture says we have other measures available to guide our response - Forbearance, Admonition, Exhortation etc.

In Matthew 18 Jesus tells us to treat the unrepentant sinner who endangers the church flock as either a Pagan/Gentile (it is the same word) or as a Tax Collector.

This isn’t quite an explicit direction to separate from others - though that is one way Paul will apply Jesus’ teaching (see below).

A Pagan is one who refuses to acknowledge God’s authority over them and seeks to serve themselves first (see Matthew 20:25-28). A tax collector is one who “preys” upon the vulnerable to their own profit.

1 Peter 5:1-3 especially warns Church leaders against acting in such a way.
Paul regularly gives instructions against such influential & troublesome people (1 Timothy 5:20, 1 Timothy 6:5, 2 Timothy 3:5, Titus 1:10–11, Titus 3:10-11).

NOTE - I don’t think that Jesus exercises every believer will need to exercise this kinda action. Nor is Jesus setting out how church members in general should typically respond to sin. Jesus is primarily addressing the disciples - those who exercise Jesus’ authority with respect to God’s flock..

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE IN OUR CONTEXT?
Hopefully, it will almost never need to happen!

As I (Steve) said in the sermon, I’ve only had to confront such threats to God’s sheep very rarely.

Only rarely have I had to confront or “expose” someone’s grievous sin. Only once have I needed to follow through the full pattern Jesus describes in a way that needed the church as a whole to be made a witness.
*A believer had defrauded another vulnerable believer of $1000.
I confronted the person who defrauded their brother and exposed their sin - I had to bring two others into the process because the person refused to acknowledge or confess their wrongdoing. It was ultimately explained to the church that this person could not return until they confessed and repented. At first the person simply dug their heals in. They then wrote an apology letter that blamed others, and expressed no repentance or remorse. It took quite some time before they were eventually willing to write a letter of both repentance and sorrow which was read to the church. The person was welcomed back with love and joy (Compare 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2:5-11).

However, in this passage I think Jesus more likely envisions some action like that which Paul writes to Timothy & Titus about dealing with unrepentant troublemakers ((1 Timothy 5:20, 1 Timothy 6:5, 2 Timothy 3:5, Titus 1:10–11, Titus 3:10-11). It is not about disciplining just anyone who struggles with sin!

In our context, it may look like a staff member speaking with a divisive or damaging person. If they won’t listen, perhaps 2-3 of us may need a conversation to ensure the situation and the person’s response is correctly understood before action is taken.
If someone is considered a threat it should be made known publicly and in our context the Bishop (the role Paul gives to Timothy) will almost certainly be informed if not involved - to ensure the church and senior ministers (overseers) are responding with integrity.

This rarely happens in today’s context because
i. Even grievous sin is often swept under the carpet, or
ii. when sin confronted, someone simply disappears down the road to another church.

However, this process is not something that any of us are to enact on our own. It is an expression of the whole church, and is done with the hope of “winning” a brother from their unrepentant sin.