Forgiveness Status and
Entering the Kingdom, Matthew 19:13
Matthew 19:13 NASB “Then {some}
children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray;
and the disciples rebuked them. [14] But Jesus said, 'Let the children alone,
and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to
such as these'. [15] After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.”
What is interesting is those three verses talking
about the children are always connected to the next event and precede the next
event in every synoptic Gospel. You can't understand the one without the other;
they are integrally related.
Matthew 19:16 NASB “And someone came
to Him and said, 'Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal
life?' [17] And He said to him, 'Why are you asking Me about what is good?
There is {only} One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the
commandments'. [18] {Then} he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, 'YOU
SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL;
YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; [19] HONOR
YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. [20] The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am
I still lacking?
Matthew 19:21 NASB “Jesus said to him, “If
you wish to be complete, go {and} sell your possessions and give to {the} poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” That statement
right there is the interpretive key to the whole section. Because, what do you
have to do to be saved, to have eternal life? You have to believe, not follow.
“Follow me” tells me this in not about how to get to heaven or be
justified; it tells me that this is about discipleship, not about getting
saved, getting eternal life, i.e. going to heaven when you die.
Matthew 19:22 NASB “But when the young man
heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much
property.”
Most people stop there. We have so atomized these
Gospel accounts and looking at these individual sections that we lose the fact
that in the original there were no chapter divisions and no verse divisions,
and no little headings telling us that it goes from this to this. What is hard
for many of us is that we have to mentally removed those verse divisions and
remove those chapter divisions so that we can actually catch the flow of what
is going on here.
Matthew 19:23 NASB “And Jesus said to
His disciples, 'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God'.”
Once again we see this interchange between kingdom of
heaven and kingdom of God. They are synonymous but what does that have to do
with what is going on?
Matthew 19:25 NASB “When the disciples
heard {this,} they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?' ” We
read that and think: How do we get into heaven? As we have noted many times,
the word “saved” does not just mean getting into heaven when you die. It has
other allusions and many times it is talking about how to experience the
fullness of our new relationship with Christ, not just getting it.
Matthew 19:26 NASB “And looking at {them}
Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things
are possible'. [27] Then Peter said to Him, 'Behold, we have left everything
and followed You; what then will there be for us?' ” There is that word
“followed” again. [28] “And Jesus said to them, 'Truly I say to you, that you
who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His
glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel'.” What does He say? “You who have followed me”. Their reward
in the future is connected to how well they followed Jesus.
Matthew 19:29 NASB “And everyone who has
left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for
My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.
[30] But many {who are} first will be last; and {the} last, first.”
There is a lot there, it will take some time to go
through it, it is pretty simple but what we have to realize is that this has a
context. So what we are looking at is the broad themes of this context going
back to chapter seventeen that focuses on forgiveness, status in the kingdom,
and entering the kingdom.
One of the most important things that you have heard
me say many, many times is that you have to understand context. Context to
Bible study is like location to real estate. So often we go to passages and
take them out of context. We may be drawing implications from some of those
verses but we have to make sure that we understand what is being said and what
is not being said in the original context when Jesus is talking.
This is one of the great values and importance of
verse-by-verse Bible teaching. You will not learn this, a pastor will not learn
this if he is doing topical studies, like “Five things you have to do to have a
happy and productive marriage”, or “How to be successful in your job”; these
little sermonettes that people get where pastors just take verses out of
context.
Let's have a little review, turn back to Matthew
chapter seventeen and sort of walk our way through these chapters and remind
ourselves of what has been going on.
At the end of chapter sixteen Jesus is going to take
three disciples and exercise a politically incorrect activity called
discrimination. He is going to take the three up on to the Mount of
Transfiguration where they are going to get some additional insight and
revelation, and an additional look at Jesus that the others don't get. Modern
man and human viewpoint looks at that and says, Oh how unfair of Jesus. That's
what happens in human viewpoint, you impose a false standard and you get the
false answer.
What has happened in this particular section is that
Jesus has just begun to teach them something at the end of chapter sixteen.
Matthew 16:21 NASB “From that time Jesus began to show His
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third
day.” We are going to see that focus on His coming death, burial and
resurrection mentioned several times in the coming chapters. The question is,
why? The answer is, because He is training them so that they can assume
leadership in this new organization that will come into being after His
ascension, which is the church. So He is training them for when He is no longer
here. We have to keep that in mind.
What He is training them about is discipleship. There
is only one of the four Gospels that really emphasizes discipleship, and that
is Matthew. Matthew records the last commandment of Jesus to His disciples, and
that is, “Go and make disciples”. And again and again and again through
Matthew, Matthew emphasizes the higher standard Jesus is setting for those who
want to be more than just couch potatoes in their Christian life. That is, we
have to follow Jesus and we have to take up our cross and follow Him. All of
these are commandments related to what is involved in growing and maturing as a
believer, and they have nothing to do with our ultimate goal after we die. But
people confuse that all the time.
On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus reveals His
glory to a subset of His disciples--Peter, James and John—and at least three
things are accomplished. First, they saw the glory of the Lord. They come to a
better and higher level of understanding that he really isn't just a man, He is
the eternal God. They see His glory.
God the Father speaks to them. After Peter starts to
put his foot in his mouth God the Father says basically, “Shut up Peter. Listen
up. Don't talk; listen to my Son”.
Moses and Elijah appear and they talk to the Lord,
according to the Luke account (this phrase isn't emphasized in Matthew) about
His soon coming death. In Matthew 17:9-13 Matthew brings out this same
dimension. So Luke says Moses and Elijah are talking about His soon coming
death, and then Matthew says when they came down from the mountain Jesus
instructed them not to tell anybody about what they saw until the Son of Man
was risen from the dead. He is teaching them again about His death and
resurrection. In vv. 14-20 of chapter seventeen, when they came down from the
Mount of Transfiguration they discovered that the other nine disciples we
getting into a problem with the Pharisees over casting a demon out of a young
child, and they can't do it because they don't have any faith. Jesus in His
emphasis on the lack of faith is showing them that of they are going to succeed
as disciples then they have to operate not on the world's modus operandi, they
have to operate on Jesus' modus operandi. They have to operate on faith; they
can't achieve the right thing the wrong way. They have to do God's work God's
way and any other way is going to be ineffective. They have to understand that
they have to trust Him, correctly apply His teaching, and correctly apply Bible
doctrine.
As they return and go through Galilee (Mark 9:30-32)
Jesus again warns the disciples that He will be crucified and that on the third
day He will be resurrected. This is seen in Matthew 17:22, 23. But they just
don't get it yet. They are still thinking the Messiah is going to be glorified
and will bring in the kingdom.
In the next lesson that Matthew relates in vv. 24-27
He reminds them again that He is going to be crucified. Then apparently James
and John went their way and He and Peter were going on to Capernaum, and then
the question is raised about paying the temple tax. Jesus miraculously provides
the payment for the temple tax, teaching Peter that God is going to provide for
his logistical needs.
What has happened in chapter seventeen is that Jesus
has discriminated against the other nine and taken these three, and has given
them some special training and lessons that are for them alone, and also for
Peter alone, and aren't for the others. This generated a certain amount of
jealously among the others and they start asking this question: Well these guys
are getting some special privileges. Are they going to be sitting next to Jesus
in the kingdom? Who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom? And they start
focusing on the issue of status. This is what leads Jesus to shift gears in the
training, starting in chapter eighteen.
Matthew 18:1 NASB “At that time the
disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?' ” This has to be understood to set the context not only for chapter
eighteen but also for chapter nineteen. The last verse in chapter nineteen
says: “But many {who are} first will be last; and {the} last, first.” That
frames everything between 18:1 and the end of 19. That is so important to
understand.
So the issue here is, who is the greatest? Jesus
decides to give them a little object lesson and brings in a little child. The
child is introduced at the beginning of the chapter and we go back to the child
at the end of the chapter and the series of events.
Mark 9:33-37 gives us Mark's account.
Mark 9:33 NASB “They came to
Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He {began} to question them, 'What
were you discussing on the way?' [34] But they kept silent, for on the way they
had discussed with one another which {of them was} the greatest. [35] Sitting
down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he
shall be last of all and servant of all.” We just saw that in Matthew 19:30.
This sets the context, it tells us that we are not
talking about how to get to heaven when you die, how to make sure that when you
die you are face to face with the Lord; it is talking about something beyond
that. It is talking not about getting into heaven but the quality and the
extent of our appreciation and understanding in serving the Lord for all
eternity—what happens when we get into the kingdom.
Mark 9:36 NASB “Taking a child, He set him
before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, [37] 'Whoever
receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me
does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me'.” This is not about children at all.
The child represents something, and in that culture the child didn't represent
humility and it doesn't represent people who are not self-absorbed. In that
culture in the ancient Near East children had no status whatsoever.
What Jesus is getting at is that to be a disciple you
have to understand it is not about status, it is about service. When you focus
upon serving the Lord the status question becomes irrelevant. Jesus is saying
you have to be like this little child, a nobody. In the eyes of the world
nobody is looking at you to be somebody special because you are a servant of
Christ, and you have to recognize that that will be a negative and not a
positive in the eyes of the world. That is the basis and foundation of this
particular lesson.
The whole issue here is getting rid of this idea that
I have to have status in this Christian life. The disciple has to focus on
service and not status. We see that “enter the kingdom” is a phrase that is
often thought to be a synonym for getting into heaven, but the context here
tells us that entering the kingdom means much more than that. It means enjoying
all of the dimensions and privilege that are in the kingdom. What are the
conditions for salvation? The conditions for salvation are clearly stated in
numerous places in Scripture—Ephesians 2:8, 9. The process of salvation is not
something you can do on your own. Salvation through faith by grace is not of
yourselves, it is not of works lest any man should boast. You don't do
anything; it is just a matter of trust. Cf. John 20:30, 31.
Jesus is talking about the life of the disciple and
what is expected of them as disciples, and that they are to become like this
child; they are to become non-status-seeking believers seeking to serve God and
not man.
Then He goes on in Matthew chapter eighteen to talk
about the dangers that can come. These little children represent the humble
disciple who is serving the Lord. They aren't seeking status but service. So
those who might cause such a disciple to go off course into false teaching or
heresies—identified as stumbling in the next few verses—will come under
tremendous discipline.
Matthew 18:7 NASB “Woe to the world
because of {its} stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks
come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” Then in vv.
8, 9 He warns that this is so serious that you need to take whatever extreme
measures that you can (He uses hyperbole) not to be caught up in a situation
where you are taken off course, you need to stay on course as a child-like
disciple. And this is going to involve forgiveness, and that is what starts to
get developed in the next section.
There are two parables. The first is the parable of
the lost sheep. This is so important because they are all sheep. That means
they are all believers. One of the sheep gets lost and the shepherd goes to
look for it. There is a verse in here that says the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. People often take that out of context and use
it for salvation, but the context is talking about the believer who has
stumbled and has gone off course into apostasy or false teaching.
Matthew 18:14 NASB “So it is not {the} will
of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” They are
already a little one, a humble disciple, but they have stumbled and have gone
off course. The perishing here isn't the lake of fire; it is divine discipline
and judgment in time and the loss of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. As
Jesus transitions here He is warning that anyone who causes a disciple to
stumble is headed for divine discipline and a loss of eternal status at the
judgment seat of Christ.
This parable of the lost sheep is unique to Matthew.
The Father seeks the lost sheep, He is going to forgive the lost sheep, He is
going to restore the lost sheep, and that sets the stage for the next lesson
which is introduced in verse 15.
Matthew 18:15 NASB “If your brother
sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won
your brother.” The emphasis here is that probably if you have another Christian
who is putting a stumbling block before you, is going to lead you astray, take
you off course, you need to go deal with that. You need to talk to them personally.
This is then expanded in the next section by Peter's
question: How often do I need to forgive my brother who sins against me?
Seventy times seven, i.e. you are always going to forgive him. This is the crux
of this whole section and is critical to the Christian life. Jesus uses that
question to develop the disciples' training, and our training.
Matthew 18:23 NASB “For this reason
the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts
with his slaves.” There is a servant who owes the king a vast amount of money.
[25] “But since he did not have {the means} to repay, his lord commanded him to
be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to
be made. [26] So the slave fell {to the ground} and prostrated himself before
him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ [27] “And
the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the
debt.”
The servant is forgiven that debt but doesn't learn
the lesson of forgiveness. Matthew 18:28 NASB “But that slave went
out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he
seized him and {began} to choke {him,} saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ [29] So
his fellow slave fell {to the ground} and {began} to plead with him, saying,
‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’” But the first servant, the
forgiven servant, says, no I am going to throw you in prison until you pay the
debt.
Verse 30 gives us an understanding of these pronouns.
“But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back
what was owed.” He, the forgiven servant, would not forgive the fellow servant,
and threw the fellow servant into prison until the fellow servant paid the
debt.
Then in verse 33 the master calls him in: “Should you
not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy
on you? [34] And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers
until he should repay all that was owed him.” The master is going to take the
first servant that was forgiven so much and says: You are going to be thrown
into prison until the fellow servant pays you everything.
What is the point? It is that the only way the fellow
servant is going to be able to erase the debt is for the wicked servant to
forgive the fellow servant. The point of the passage is that we have to forgive
one another. The only way for the wicked servant to avoid the divine discipline
that will come from not forgiving is to forgive the debt of the fellow servant.
It is in that context that Jesus has raised the bar on
what it means to forgive one another that Matthew inserts the confrontation
with the Pharisees over marriage. They say, where is the escape clause? How do
we understand it? Jesus says granted there is an exception but here is the real
issue: God created man and woman to be married together forever; He didn't
create them to get a divorce. What you have to do when you have tough times in
your marriage is to forgive one another. He is applying in the first part of
Matthew 19 what He has been talking about in two thirds of the previous
chapter. That is essential if you are going to be a mature disciple who is
serving the Lord.
The disciples understood that. That is what is emphasized
in their response. Matthew 19:10 NASB “The disciples said to
Him, 'If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better
not to marry'.” The point that Jesus is making is, granted there will be times
when that other person is just not going to be cooperative at all; in those
cases there is an exception. But the mentality that you have, no matter how
much you have been hurt, offended, embarrassed, you have to forgive and move
forward. That is the issue.
That is the context as we come to the last two little
critical episodes that we see. Matthew 19:13-15 is the first episode:
[13] “Then {some} children were brought to Him so that He might lay His
hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.” They hadn't learned
the lesson from the beginning of chapter eighteen. [14] “But Jesus said, 'Let
the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom
of heaven belongs to such as these'.” And in the synoptic Gospels, Mark and
Luke, it says exactly the same thing: “Do not prohibit them for as such is the
kingdom of God”. Luke adds in 18:17: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it {at all.}” This isn't
talking about justification; it is talking about being a disciple.
This is talking about the standards of growing and
maturing as a believer. This is going to talk about the importance of forgiving
one another and it is going to emphasize that there is a standard of greatness
that is predicated upon not seeking personal status but serving the Lord.
To the unbeliever what we have to express and make
clear is that eternal life when we die is not based on being humble, is not
based on forgiving one another, is not based on having a great marriage, it is
not based on ritual, it is not based on doing anything at all. Jesus Christ did
it all; He paid it all. At the cross He said: “It is finished!” That means paid
in full. He paid for sin. So the gospel message is a gospel announcing that sins
have been forgiven, your debt with God has been erased; accept it as a free
gift. That is justification by faith alone.
But to the believer it doesn't stop there. We ask the
question: After salvation, then what? After salvation we are called to be a disciple,
to follow Jesus, to grow to maturity, and to exhibit Christlike character. It
is impossible on our own. We have to walk by the Spirit. We have to make a
decision each and every day, and dozens of times during the day to be a
disciple of Jesus and follow Him. Or am I just going to live my life my way? We
will find out how well we do at the judgment seat of Christ. The challenge is:
What is our focus?