Context of matt 18

17 Transfig.v5 Jesus is clearly God, but 22 He says He's going to be turned over to men.

Who is the greatest? Who best fits the description? Is there anyone in the context who has humbled Himself to be a little child?

That's why he says, whoever welcomes a child like this welcomes me! I became weak for you. But if you can't handle being among the weak, you will reject me just as you will reject a child, and to reject me is a fate worse than death.

Looking at Matthew 18, perhaps the most familiar section is vv 15-20. Where we are told the appropriate steps if a brother sins. Though that is probably the most familiar section it is probably one of the least practiced sections. When Jesus gave this he expected that it would be put into practice. He gave us these tools thinking we'd need them. Was He wrong? No, we don't avoid following these instructions because we're so holy that we don't have any conflicts. We avoid following these because we don't trust that they'll work. When a Matthew 18 opportunity presents itself we say, "I think I know a better way to handle this. I think I'll just keep my mouth shut." Or we say, "Boy, I'm not sure I know how to handle this, I better go talk to Bob, Joe, and Mary about it."

Well what's the right thing to do? To understand this passage a little better I want to back up and look at what led up to Jesus' instructions.

What was it that brought up this whole issue of going to your brother when he sins? Does it only count if he sins "against you?" What would that mean? Have you ever had a brother sin against someone else and not against you? Key in understanding this would be the question who is a brother to me?

Things are intensifying. Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Christ, and in two minutes is being called Satan for suggesting that Jesus not go through with the cross. Jesus says you are an offense to me, why? You have in mind the things of men, not the things of God. Yet Peter gets taken up on the Mount of Transfiguration and sees Jesus in all His glory. But when He comes down he repeats this stuff about being handed over, and they're all troubled. It's like Jesus is taking them on a big roller coaster. Up and down, up and down. Then just after the transfiguration we have the temple-tax coin incident. Some IRS men come to Peter threatening an audit if Jesus doesn't pay? (perhaps) and Peter, worried about Jesus future, not wanting His political career cut short for tax evasion says, "He'll pay it." But Jesus rebukes him, saying, "Who pays taxes, sons or strangers?" But then he goes ahead and pays it miraculously. So Peter and the disciples in all this confusion about who Jesus really is come to Him with this question: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" (If you are so powerful that You can feed the 5000 and get money from fish, read our thoughts, and be transfigured before us, why are you putting up with abuse and predicting that You will be killed? No one could kill you if you don't let them. And you wouldn't let them do that, would you? Who really is on top here? You or them? Are we serving the greatest, or a flop?)

The Facts:

1.	At that time

2.	The disciples came to Jesus and asked

3.	Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Why were they asking this? What answer were they expecting? Why did they have questions re: who was greatest? Who in the context was contending for the position of greatest? Why was there any doubt in their minds about who was the greatest? Notice they don't seem to be competing among themselves here. The question is not, which one of us will be the greatest? Or, "Master, allow one of us to sit at You right hand and one at Your left." The question is, "Who is the king? Who really reigns supreme? Are we serving the Master or the slave?" Jesus answers in a very unique way. "You won't even be in the kingdom unless you repent!" What does it matter who the ruler is if you aren't even there? (A little boy asked, "What's the biggest roller coaster at Disneyland?" Then when the family went he got sick on the way. It didn't matter what the biggest rollercoaster was. He didn't get to see it.) You won't get to see the kingdom or the greatest One in it, if you don't become more like little children. In what way? Their humility. "Whoever humbles himself as this little child. He is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Tell me then, who is the greatest example of humility we know? Jesus. Think about it. He's pointing to the disciples becoming like children as an act of humility. But He was God become man, and becoming humble unto death, even death on a cross! Which is a greater act of humility, a man becoming like a child, or God being put do death at the hands of His own creatures? The latter. So who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus is.

(Why is receiving a little child in Jesus' name receiving Him? because whoever humbles himself receives Jesus, so whoever receives a humble one receives Jesus in that person! If I receive a Bible with a $20 bill in it I also receive the $20 bill! The humble one is the abode of Christ! He does not dwell in the proud or the self-sufficient. He is only at home and welcome in the heart of one who sees his own need and is unwilling to be self-sufficient.)

Anyone who receives the humble, the weak receives Jesus, for they have gotten the spirit of the kingdom. If you only have time for the strong, the influential, the powerful, you don't have any time for God because He is the weakest of the weak. But, if you want to have God in You, if you want to receive Jesus, just welcome the weak, the broken, the helpless, the children into Your life, and You'll get Jesus in You, living out His compassion. The spirit of God does not come to us by lots of pleading. It comes when we act by faith on our convictions. When we welcome a weak person, and our natural compassion level is not high enough to love them, then is when Christ comes in and we receive Him, the very attributes of Christ that we need for the task at hand. The Spirit of God does not come and fill us and give us good feelings in a vacuum, but always for a purpose for a ministry, to live out Christ's compassion through our hands and feet and heart again.

What is the opposite of receiving? Causing to stumble. What would you expect to be the opposite of receiving? Rejecting, not receiving, making unwelcome. The opposite of causing to stumble? Steadying, uplifting, not hindering. What is the biggest cause of stumbling, then? Rejection, an unwelcoming attitude. What does it mean to receive someone? To uplift them, steady them, strengthen them, not hinder them. So if we don't receive Jesus are we causing Him to stumble? No, we end up on the short end of the stick. It would be better for us to drown with a rock tied to our necks than to not receive Jesus.

Anyone who receives the humble also receives whom? Jesus. Could we also say that anyone who does not receive the humble in Jesus' name does not receive someone? Who? Jesus.

Not receiving a humble one does what to that humble one? Causes him to stumble, but not receiving Jesus does what? Well, he doesn't say, but apparently the damage is not to Jesus, but whatever it is is so bad for the one who doesn't receive Him, that he would be better off drowned in the bottom of the ocean, tied to a big rock (the idea is lost and forgotten, never to return).

Here's Jesus' question: What are you going to do with humility? When I go to the cross in a little while, what will you say about me then? What if I don't turn out to be the Messiah you've expected? Will you be so caught up in earthly power and prestige that You do not receive me? (illustration about a child interacting with a powerful and famous person, but not treating him any different from a common person?) There could be nothing worse than not receiving me, so let me tell you how to know if you are receiving me or not. Watch you r attitude toward the humble. If you can't stand them, you're missing me, and missing me is the worst thing that could happen to you. If you are causing the humble to stumble, you aren't receiving me, and rejecting me is a fate worse than death.

What does it mean to be humble? Resting in the work of another. Saying, "Not, I, but Christ." Letting God love you. Not being so consumed with Your human performance that you don't see your own condition and fall on the mercy of God.

We need to address this issue of agreement. I've talked to two different people who won't aren't committing themselves to the SDA Church partly if not mostly because of the division they see. I know of other SDA members in this area who would like to come over and help us and be part of a smaller church, but cannot handle the disagreeable atmosphere here. We can't act as if unity is optional, nice, but optional. It is not, it is essential. We need to start breaking down the walls and barriers. If there are some who are only Christians in name here, this will be the test. For you can't love your enemies–especially your church enemies if you aren't letting God love you.

Thus he predicts that much woe will come to the world because of stumbling blocks. These are things that make a child who believes in Him to stumble. What kinds of things would they have to be, then?

What is a stumbling block? Where do they come from? Two kinds Matthew 16:23 things of man. Romans 9:33–things of God. (also 1Cor1:23)

Verb skandalizo

In matthew 5:29 eye, hand offend you?

11:6 Blessed is he who does not take offense at me.

13:21 Rocky soil is offended at persecution because of the word

13:57 They were offended in His hometown

15:12 Pharisees offended that things that come out defile, not things that go in

17:27 Miraculous Temple Tax coin lest we offend

18:6 Whoever offends one of the little ones

18:8 hand or foot offends

18:9 eye offends

24:10 many will be offended during persecution

26:31 All will be offended because of me this night

26:33 Peter said, "I will never be offended (stumble?)"

Jn 6:61 hard saying, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend where he was before?

16:1 After warnings of persecution, "I'm telling you this so you won't be offended.

1Cor 8:13 eating meat causing a brother to stumble

2Cor 11:29 Who is offended w/out Paul feeling it?

Noun skandalon

13:41 The angels will remove all things that offend from the net

16:23 Peter was an offense to Jesus

18:7 Woe to the world because of offenses though they must come

18:7 Woe to the man through whom offenses come

rom 9:33 God places the rock of offense

11:9 David says, "may their table be a stumbling block

14:13 No man judge anymore except whether brothers are putting a stumbling block in each others' way

16:7 Mark them which cause divisions and offenses and avoid them

1Cor 1:23 Jesus a stumbling block

Gal 5:11 The offense of the cross

1Pet 2:8 A rock of offense

1Jn 2:10 He who loves gives no occasion of stumbling

Rev 2:14 Balak taught Balaam to cast a stumbling block before Israel (idolatry)

Woe to the world because of scandals. What are the two kinds of scandals in the context? Peter is a scandal to Christ, and Christ avoids being a scandal to the tax collectors.

1.	It's possible for humans to us to be a trap for others, even for Jesus while He was here. This word doesn't mean that You forced someone else to stumble, but that you were in the way. This is the trip wire, not the karate-chop to the knee. Could Peter force Jesus to stumble? No, but he was a stumbling block to Him.

2.	It's possible for Jesus to be something that trips us up. It's possible for us to become offended at Jesus. Is it Jesus' fault that we trip? No, but He is in the way, and praise God for that! Many of us would have blindly gone down the wrong path to our death if we had not tripped on Jesus.

If that's all your experience with Jesus it is indeed woeful to Him to have been a stumbling block to you.

Have you tripped on Jesus? Have you seen Him stooped low at your feet, seeking to make you clean and found yourself offended? Good, that's the beginning place. (There's no other way to come to believe in Him. All of Jesus disciples were offended at Him when He was crucified.)

We can be a godly stumbling block to others just as Jesus was, and it can be a painful experience. If someone is headed down the wrong path and we are following Christ, we will be a stumbling block to them. The problem is not being a stumbling block, it's the reason you are being a stumbling block that is important. (1peter)