Missions Paul

The Kingdom of Christ is less about rules and more about the state of the heart. It is possible to keep the rules but with a cynical heart. It is possible to give but without generosity of heart. It is possible to apologise but without contriteness of heart. It is possible to appear to be the finished article but without anything of worth under the surface. So let’s move into a new chapter and into a difficult passage:

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” (Matthew 19 v 1-12)

The main central point in this passage is not the divorce or whether we have grounds to do it. It is this, the hardness of the heart breaks everything that was good. The sin is not the divorce, it is the hardness of heart. The threat to marriage is not the grounds for divorce it is the hardness of heart. From the beginning the heart was good but then it hardened and as it did rules were needed and Moses had to write them.

But the key to life is a soft heart.

A soft heart is large and incredibly patient.It is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. A soft heart does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. It does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honour. It is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. A soft heart joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. It is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. It never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. (TPT 1 Cor 13:4-7)

Can you now imagine the scene if the Pharisees had soft hearts and what their discussions would have been? Can you imagine what kind of questions the Pharisees would bring with soft hearts? Can you imagine all those years ago what Moses would have written if marriage partners had soft hearts? Can you imagine marriages today with soft hearts? Hard hearts kill everything. Divorce happens a long time before the divorce papers. It happens because one or both partners have hard hearts.

If we go to this passage looking for the rules on whether we have grounds for divorce and whether people should remarry etc, then we have missed the whole point. This has always been about the hardness of the heart.

May our prayer today be ‘soften my heart Lord’!

The unmerciful servant’s life ended badly because of hypocrisy.

Recently on Facebook I read a trail of statuses from people who were offended by a certain Church leader who had said something he probably shouldn’t have said. The statuses were led by a person I knew quite well and who had on numerous occasions said many a thing he shouldn’t have said!

A hypocrite is a person who purposely deceives others. They appear right, all the while they hide or deflect the reality of their wrongness. They deny the invitation of grace because they deny their own sinfulness to either themselves or their world. The moment we deflect our own wrong in order to expose the wrong in others is when we become a hypocrite.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (Matthew 18 v 32-34)

Almost a century before his parable is told the word ‘hypokrite’ was being used. It means ‘an actor’ and referred to the theatrical mask that was worn. It became to mean the figurative masks that are used when we pretend to be someone or something we are not.

Hypocrite – he looked like he had received, understood and been transformed by mercy until he met that one person that brought the worst out of him.

Hypocrite – his harsh treatment of that one person not only insulted but it denied all knowledge of the mercy he had received from his master.

Hypocrite -he desired justice for that one person but it was not true justice, it was fake, for true justice is only found within mercy which he had received.

Hypocrite – he gave out justice for that one person which he never wanted for himself but what he gave out he ended up receiving himself.

This hypocrite ended his life in torture. For the way we are is the way we stay.

(These messages from this passage on forgiveness are not for those outside the Church. It is for the body of Christ. It is not to say that we must not follow the justice of our legal system for we must. It is for the body of Christ, the Church and how we treat each other.)

There was no conscience, zero self-awareness, no acknowledgment of his own conduct, he was blinded to his own sin.

The mercy that was originally given was not passed on and people saw and they talk.

“When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.” (Matthew 18 v 31)

The ‘other servants’ believed if your debts were forgiven that you should forgive your debtors also, it may have been a cultural rule.

They were outraged. They were ‘deeply grieved’ (NASB) and ‘greatly distressed’ (ESV).

So they reported him because people are watching and people talk.

“Who did? Which person reported me? Who threw me under the bus? Give me their name!” It’s not in the script but the spirit of it is and I have heard these questions numerous of times.

There are 2 stories in this story of Jesus. The story of mercy and the story of justice. The unmerciful servant is in both. When the heart is damaged the person receives the benefits of mercy and forgiveness but isn’t changed by it. They carry the spirit of entitlement rooted in their hearts and demand everything due to them and even what isn’t due but they believe it is! Justice demands details, contexts, agendas and quotations and who said what and who to. The problem with this kind of justice is we forget that there is a fellow servant (the second servant) suffering and hurting having been thrown into prison. The unmerciful want justice when it suits them. They are more important than the trail of hurt people behind them.

But people are watching and people talk.

We have heard so many times during our lives that if people apologise then forgiveness will flow. If people come on bended knee and are truly sorry promising not to ever do it again then that would be the end of the matter. It all sounds very justifiable.

In the context of Jesus teaching on unlimited forgiveness the story continues:

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. (Matthew 18 v 28-30)

That servant owed an unpayable amount which was cancelled. But he was owed a payable amount which he refused to cancel.

So what is needed for forgiveness?

“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ This is not a quote from the verses we have just read of the 2^nd servant who owed a payable amount, it is verse 26, from the servant who owed an unpayable amount. But the words are the same:

He fell to his knees.

He begged.

He promised to recompense.

It is identical. So what is needed for forgiveness? It is not those 3 things, otherwise the 2nd servant would have been forgiven.

It must be a heart matter.

The unmerciful servant had received grace and forgiveness but he hadn’t truly received anything at all. He was simply living off the benefits.

There was no gratitude for being released from his debt. He had not truly understood his own salvation experience. There was within his heart an entitlement and coupled with pride he was carrying a deep sense of injustice especially when it came to his own experience.

When your heart has been captivated by grace shown to you then grace flows naturally. When your sins have been washed away in a complete salvation experience then you copy your Saviour in ‘saving’ others also. When pure loving mercy has shocked you to your senses then you understand that forgiveness is more powerful than repentance.

I have heard this all my life. There are many Bible verses to back this up and I understand what people mean. Usually they are longing for the ‘sinner’ to come to their senses and stop doing the ‘sin’ to come and apologise and then the sinned against can proclaim forgiveness over them. Sounds perfect doesn’t it? What happens if the perfection doesn’t happen or in that precise order?

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.” (Matthew 18 v 23-27)

It was an incalculable amount but it hasn’t stopped people trying to work it out! Anything ranging from 2.5 billion to hundreds of billions of dollars!!

It was an overwhelming and unpayable debt.

The servant could not repay it. So a life of slavery for himself and his family was what they faced. Such bond-slavery is still the reality for many in our world today.

It is an incredible story isn’t it?

Forgiveness is not settlement of differences. It is not justice.

Forgiveness is giving what is not deserved. It is cancelling debts and it is releasing the person with no strings attached.

Forgiveness is birthed through ‘pity/compassion’. How does that come to us?

Was it because he fell on his knees?

Was it because he begged?

Was it because of a pathetic attempt of a promise?

What would happen if those 3 things are not there? If someone will not repent do you still forgive? What if they are dead?

No repentance no forgiveness! Really? If that be really true then we have been set up to carry in our life a whole lot of unforgiveness!

We can only find the answer if we turn the cross of Christ into a courtroom.

Christ forgave you even when you were not repentant. There are 2 miracles: the miracle of forgiveness and the miracle of a repentant heart (a changed life). If God’s forgiveness relied heavily on a repentant world then we have a God who is battling with unforgiveness because the world lies unrepentant.

The miracle of forgiveness is for you the one who is sinned against and settles your wrath. The miracle of a changed heart because of that forgiveness is for the sinner and as this story tells us these miracles at times don’t always happen and can lead to worse situations for the unrepentant heart.

Has someone hurt you and it is impossible to approach them to tell them? Has someone hurt you who is no longer here? Has someone hurt you who refuses to apologise? Then your prayer is still forgiveness, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Their story isn’t over. But yours doesn’t have to become twisted and broken because of the sin of the unrepentant.

In response to Peter’s magnanimous suggestion that he could forgive 7 times, Jesus tells this parable, only told in Matthew.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold^[h] was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (Matthew 18: 23-34)

And for today before going more in depth with the parable I dwell on the next verse: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (v35)

God has given mankind the freedom to choose.

We choose to love which blesses or we choose to sin which hurts.

Today you may be the victim because someone made the wrong choice.

When we are the sinner we cry for mercy. But the natural response when we are sinned against is to cry for justice.

The blood of Abel in Genesis 4 cried for justice. It was a prayer of ‘Get him God.’

The blood of Jesus is not ‘Father get these murderers’ but “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

What name needs to be mentioned that would cause you to react with? They may have died years ago. The event is not far from you. Is there unforgiveness still there?

Eva Mozes Kor died in July of 2019 as she was once again visiting Poland. She was a survivor of Auschwitz. “Forgive your worst enemies,” Kor said in a video recording of her last visit to the Auschwitz Museum posted to its official Facebook page. “The moment I forgave the Nazis, I felt free from Auschwitz and from all the tragedy that had occurred to me,” she added. Eva and her twin Miriam were cruelly experimented on by the ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele but survived until the liberation of the camp in January of 1945. They lost their parents and two other sisters there. Before she died this year Eva was filmed at the site and she told of how she forgave Mengele:

“After we were set free I went home, closed the door and picked up a dictionary. I wrote all the nasty words I could find from the dictionary and spoke them out clear and loud. I then said “In spite of all that I forgive you.” I found that as a little victim I had power over the Angel of Death and I wasn’t hurting anybody. I had an interesting thought that he could never change my forgiving him. I am in charge of it. It was a very powerful feeling. If I can forgive him I can forgive anyone who ever hurt me.”

Who still needs your forgiveness?

So what happens then? We spend lots of time in conflict management, we deal with the sinner in accordance to how Christ teaches us, we ‘loose them on earth’ meaning we declare they are forgiven and we bring them back into the community of the church. What happens if that person goes and sins all over again?

Look at these verses:

This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent.” (Amos 1:3)

This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent.” (Amos 2:6)

“God does all these things to a person—twice, even three times—to turn them back from the pit that the light of life may shine on them.” (Job 33:29-30)

There we have it, on the 4^th time the sinner is not repentant!

So magnanimous Peter doubles what every Jew holds to and chooses the perfect number!

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18 v 19-20)

Jesus says there is no number, don’t even keep a record of how many times.

Aren’t we relieved for ourselves that God doesn’t keep count?!

This last week I sat with a Pastor and his leadership team as they discussed a plan of action regarding conflict with a small group of people within the church. I am often in this situation. It isn’t because the church in the UK is in a poor state it is simply because where people gather conflict will emerge sooner or later.

Into the context of a community of disciples, the church, now instructed in how to manage conflict Jesus says these 2 sentences that are often quoted at badly attended prayer meetings!

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18 v 19-20)

What do we know so far?

Jesus has been describing us, the church, where we are going to great lengths to preserve mutuality (v1-5); being careful how we act or speak so as not to cause hurtful stumbling (v6-9); caring for those who are the least (v10-14); restoration of those who fail (v12-17) and total forgiveness (v21-35). This is the binding (declaring guilty) and loosing (declaring them forgiven) of heaven. These are the values of Christ’s community that sets itself apart from all other communities and that shares in the culture of heaven?

Even as I write that last paragraph again I sense Christ’s presence on the church who practice this.

This Sunday I will be in a church service and we will know we are in the presence of Christ, we will experience Him in worship and during the preaching of His word, in prayer and as we listen to the testimony of someone giving thanks to God. But His presence is not just with us then but also when two or three people are gathering to bring correction of a wayward brother or sister with the aim of forgiveness and restoration.

In the Jewish law (Deuteronomy 17 and 19) two or three witnesses were needed to establish a case in their court of law. Jesus says as you establish what has happened in the conflict and begin to establish peace then He is with us.

This is not about prayer but His presence in church conflict management.

The presence of God is here in our difficulties and the emotional draining moments of confrontation.

When trying to bring a balanced judgment He is there.

When you are trying to find the right words so as not to cause further hurt He is there.

When we are focusing on the ‘little ones’ in their vulnerable, marginalised state, He is there.

When we are bringing forgiveness to those who need it He is there.

And even when the person resists and refuses to listen to the group of believers and walks away from the church carrying their unchanging sinful life He is there.

How we are indebted to Matthew’s gospel that reveals all the incredible miracles and extraordinary events where the presence of Christ obviously is but also reveals that in the ordinary and the painful moments of church conflict He never leaves us. Matthew ends his gospel as we know by telling us that Jesus will be with us to the end of the age.

In the context of conflict within the community we come to these well-known and often misused words:

“If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have beenloosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18 v 17-18)

It is identical to the words given to Peter in Matthew 16: 19, “… whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” but here Jesus is speaking to the community of believers not to just one leading disciple. It is also similar to John 20:23, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

These words are disturbing especially to the church in the West where our faith is wrapped in individual autonomous lifestyle and we are stripped from the power of community even though the world is searching for it. The world steps into the church with its desire for connection and relationship and finds a church that is fighting and so leaves. Conflict will ever be before us but the church needs to be able to manage it far better in order to see it flourish.

Unfortunately the church has always battled with its papal leaderships excommunicating members for all kinds of reasons and using these verses to back their actions. Thankfully churches do not practice swift excommunication these days, but is there a place for it?

Remember the Apostle Paul who declared that the man in the church at Corinth having an incestuous affair with his step-mother be removed from the community? He did it for the credibility of the community but also the purpose that the man may realise his sin and repent and be saved. (1 Corinthians 5) So there is a time and place isn’t there? On the subject of sex, all forms of abusiveness should be got rid of, we are in times when shamefully Pastors are being outed for their abuses of the innocents and rightly so!

However you can always find a small group within a community who regularly sharpen their knives to oust the ‘sinner’, demanding their Pastor to be more decisive and purge the evil from among them. After all, Israel didn’t remove their evil tribes and those people led to the nation’s downfall. But how about the ‘sinner’ the ‘little one’ is preserved and forgiven and restored and the knife-sharpening crew are purged?

I don’t think Jesus is giving more power to the elbow of the hierarchy of church leaderships. He seems to be focused throughout on the ‘little ones’, those at the bottom of the pack, the marginalised, those who cannot stand up for themselves against the mighty. We have read how he warns us not to cause them to stumble (v6); to leave the 99 and chase after the 1 little one (v12) and to call them ‘brother or sister’ (v15); and to go to great lengths to restore them and if that is not possible then to treat them as unsaved (v15-17), in order to seek for their salvation and we will read about forgiveness without limit (v21-35). This is the binding (proclaiming the person guilty) and the loosing (proclaiming them forgiven) the church battles for.

So perhaps this text is about the values of the community. Each member going to great lengths to preserve mutuality (v1-5); being careful how we act or speak so as not to cause hurtful stumbling (v6-9); caring for those who are the least (v10-14); restoration of those who fail (v12-17) and total forgiveness (v21-35). Is this the binding and loosing of heaven? Are these the values of Christ’s community that sets itself apart from all other communities and that shares in the culture of heaven?

There are times when disciples fall away from the church for all kinds of reasons and often it is too late because they had not drawn into their lives proper accountability partners to help them from falling. Jesus has something to say about this:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matthew 18 v 15-17)

In some translations such as KJV and the ESV they have the words, ‘if your brother or sister sins against you’. The ‘little ones’ are now ‘brother or sister’, members of your community and Jesus has in mind the ‘church’ which is the second time he mentions it.

Some in the church love these translations of the verse and quote it often as they storm off to confront a brother about the hurt they have caused them.

This has nothing to do with getting even nor about someone dealing with their hurt or anger.

This is all about reconciliation back into the community of believers.

This is all about taking responsibility for each other.

This is all about spurring one another on, iron sharpening iron, accountability and making sure disciples don’t fall away.

There are 4 strands:

• Personal confrontation and to be done in private because ultimately you want your ‘brother or sister’ to be reconciled to God without anyone else knowing their sin.
• Go again if there is no change and this time take a few members of the community of believers with you.
• If there is no change let the church know. In the time of Jesus he is probably not thinking of 100 people sat in pews listening to the preacher denounce someone for sinning but rather smaller groups.
• If there is no change then let them go and treat them as unbelievers. This means to urgently and prayerfully seek for their salvation and to see them not as disciples with their responsibilities and privileges within the church.

May the Disciples of Christ remain in position! That must be our prayer and focus of activity. This is not about what to do if you get your feelings hurt but rather about making sure no more fall away.