Matthew 18: What God Removes to Build His Community

Introduction

At Holy Trinity Clapham in London, the church is coming out of a long building project. Throughout the series "When God Builds Community," the team has shown before and after photos of the building. What struck Andy Monks, who is preaching this Sunday evening, is not only what has been built, but everything that had to be taken away. The week before, the last site cabins finally left the grounds.

That is the image he holds on to for Matthew 18: when God builds a community, some things have to be removed. In each of us there are attitudes, burdens and habits that Jesus wants to take away.

According to him, the chapter gathers five short teachings from Jesus addressed to his church. Each one helps us understand what it takes to build a community, but each also invites us to look within: what does God want to remove from my life tonight?

Message outline

1. Entering with humility: ending comparison

The chapter opens with a question from the disciples: "Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (Matthew 18:1). Andy Monks sees a quarrel here: the disciples compare themselves and try to work out which of them is the best.
This race for greatness, everywhere in our culture, creeps even into the circle of the disciples.
Jesus' first word is very direct: "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3). In other words: we need to change.
In verse 4, the one who humbles himself like this little child is the greatest. Instead of thinking "higher," we need to think "lower": how do I take the last place, how do I serve from the bottom?
For the preacher, the rest of the chapter depends on this. It is not possible to build God's community without starting from this humble position.
The challenge is personal: have I caught myself in a mindset of comparison? Am I better than him, more mature than her, more gifted than the others? If so, we need to hear Jesus' word again, change, and enter the kingdom once more with humility.

2. Taking sin seriously: looking at our thumbs rather than pointing fingers

Earlier sermons in the series had already spoken about stumbling blocks in Matthew 16 and 17. What is unique to Matthew 18:6-9, Andy Monks points out, is that Jesus is not talking about outside causes: he addresses us, right where we make others or ourselves stumble.
Jesus wants to go to the root of what leads others, or ourselves, into sin. The tone is grave: the millstone, the hand, the foot, the eye. There is a real price to pay.
Cutting off, throwing away, tearing out: this is the image of a separation. Our sin separates us from God, and Jesus died on the cross to remove that separation. Here, by his Spirit, he calls us to identify what makes us fall and to separate ourselves from what separates us from him.
The preacher offers an image: a church that uses not its index fingers but its thumbs. When people hurt each other, which always happens in community, the question is not first "who is at fault?" but "what is there in me that makes others stumble?"

3. Going after the one who drifts away

Verses 10 to 14 tell the well-known parable of the hundred sheep. In Luke's Gospel, this story is often titled "the lost sheep." In the Bible Andy Monks reads, the passage in Matthew carries a different title: the sheep that goes astray.
The nuance matters. A lost sheep makes us think of someone who has never known Jesus. A sheep that has gone astray is someone who was part of the community, who followed Jesus with the others, and then drifted away to live their own life.
Many recognize themselves in this: growing up in church, then drifting away for a time, as a teenager or at university. "If you are back in the community, praise God."
The word "one" comes back several times: God has a heart for each person. Verse 14 says it: "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
Andy Monks confesses that he has often noticed someone's absence, at church or in an Alpha course, wondering what had become of that person, without ever picking up the phone to write or call.
The challenge: to have God's heart for those who drift away, including in our home groups, and to take action. And to pray that those who wander will return to the fellowship of those who follow Jesus.

4. Handling drama: private before public

The fourth point makes the congregation smile: how do we handle drama in God's community? Some people, the preacher admits, rather enjoy drama.
From verse 15, Jesus gives a model for the moments when sin arises, when someone hurts us, when drama is looming: "If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone." Then, if he does not listen, take one or two others with you, then tell it to the church.
Jesus thinks "private before public." Our culture thinks the opposite: we talk about it with lots of people, we make noise, we involve more and more people, and only at the end does someone suggest: "What if you spoke to him directly?"
Even the last step is surprising: the one who refuses to listen to the church is to be for us "as a Gentile or a tax collector" (verse 17). Yet Matthew, who wrote this Gospel, was himself a tax collector. Tax collectors were then considered the worst of the worst, those who stole from people and mistreated them. And Matthew's life was transformed by the way Jesus treated him.
For Andy Monks, this means that even if nothing gets resolved, we must offer the other person as much grace as possible: the same grace Jesus showed Matthew, and us.

5. A testimony: where two or three are gathered

The preacher tells a personal story. Years ago, he was in a long-distance relationship across two continents. The relationship was good, but he sensed from the Lord that it was not what God wanted for either of them, and he ended it by phone.
Soon after, he learns that the young woman is getting married. Years later, back in that country, he runs into her on the very first day and realizes that a part of him is still ruffled that she moved on so quickly. A mutual friend then passes on a proposal: to meet up, the three of them.
She did not go and talk about it with others and did not create drama: she kept the matter within the private setting Jesus describes. The conversation is honest. She shares the pain she felt at the breakup. Both ask each other's forgiveness and honor each other as brother and sister in Christ.
Before parting, she shares that she and her husband have long been waiting for a child who has not come, and asks him to pray for them. A few weeks later, the friend who was present at the meeting calls him: the couple is expecting a child, conceived the very week of that prayer. For the preacher, it is one of the greatest miracles he has seen.
He then rereads Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." The verse applies to any gathering of believers, but its context is specific: Jesus promises to be present when two or three come together to deal with a sin, a hurt, a drama.
The encouragement: step into those difficult conversations, because Jesus promises to be there, and miracles can come out of them.

6. Always forgive

The series follows the apostle Peter. Until then, in this chapter, he was listening. At the end, he speaks up and asks how many times he must forgive a brother or sister who sins against him: up to seven times? Jesus answers that we must go far beyond that (verses 21 and 22).
Andy Monks notes that translations render this number in different ways, but the image is the same: multiplied forgiveness. Forgiveness is not always a single event. Sometimes we have to forgive again and again, the same people, for the same pain, for the same sin.
The parable of the unforgiving servant (verses 23 to 35) shows Jesus' heart for forgiveness. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wants to settle accounts with his servants: for the preacher, this desire to settle accounts is the heart of God. Our sin is like a debt to him, and God wants all our debts to be settled.
The first servant begs, and his master, moved with compassion, cancels his debt. But this same servant refuses to cancel the small debt of his fellow servant. The king then asks him whether he should not have had pity on his fellow servant, as he himself had been shown pity.
What Jesus wants for his community: that each one receives his forgiveness, then offers others what they have received. When others hurt us, to go and forgive them and show them the same grace he has shown us.

7. A community that attracts, and a time to repent

All of this seems very hard. Yet Matthew 19:1-2 shows that Jesus, after finishing this teaching, leaves Galilee for Judea, and a great crowd follows him. For Andy Monks, a community that lives these things becomes attractive to a world that needs hope and community. Crowds may want to follow Jesus, and the church may go on being built.
But the challenge remains the one from the start: when we build, some things must be removed, whether it is a sin that keeps repeating or a spirit of comparison.
The message ends with a time of silence and repentance before communion: that the Holy Spirit would show what must be removed and give the courage to repent of it.

Key takeaways

When God builds a community, he also removes: attitudes, habits and sins that hold up the construction.
Everything starts with humility: leaving the race for greatness and comparison to take the last place.
Taking sin seriously means looking first at ourselves, with our thumbs rather than with an index finger pointed at others.
God has a heart for the one who drifts away from the community, and he calls us to go to them, in practical ways.
In a conflict, private comes before public, grace remains on offer to the end, and Jesus promises to be present.
Forgiveness is repeated: the one who has been forgiven offers others what he has received.

Personal application

In what area of your church life do you compare yourself with others? What would it mean for you to take the humble position of a child?
Is there a root in you that makes others or yourself stumble? What do you need to separate yourself from, with the Spirit's help?
Who comes to mind as you read the parable of the sheep that goes astray? Could you send them a message or call them this week?
Facing a tension, have you talked about it with others before talking to the person concerned? What private conversation could you dare to have?
Whom do you need to forgive, perhaps once more, for the same hurt?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why speak of a sheep that goes astray rather than a lost sheep in Matthew 18?

For Andy Monks, the sheep in Matthew 18:10-14 is not first of all someone who has never known Jesus, but someone who was part of the community and has drifted away. The Father does not want one of these little ones to perish: the church is called to have the same heart and to reach out again to those who drift away.

What does "where two or three are gathered in my name" mean in Matthew 18:20?

The verse applies to any gathering of believers, but Andy Monks stresses its context: it follows the teaching on how to deal with a fault between brothers and sisters. Jesus promises to be present when two or three come together to deal with a sin, a hurt or a conflict.

How do you resolve a conflict in the church according to Matthew 18?

Jesus puts private before public: first go to the person one on one, then with one or two others, then tell it to the church. Even if nothing gets resolved, Andy Monks reminds us that the Gentile and the tax collector remain people to whom grace is owed, as Jesus showed it to Matthew.