Jesus' Little Ones

[0:00] This morning, our scripture reading comes from Matthew chapter 18, and there it is on the screen. Listen to God's word. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

[0:17] And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[0:30] Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

[0:42] But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it will be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

[0:56] Woe to the world for temptations to sin. For it is necessary that temptations come. But woe to the one by whom temptations come. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

[1:12] It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

[1:25] For it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. See that you do not despise these little ones.

[1:36] For I tell you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and if one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that went astray?

[1:55] And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than the ninety-nine who never went astray. So, it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

[2:11] If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

[2:32] If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

[2:43] Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven.

[3:01] For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. This is God's word. Amen. All right.

[3:21] Thanks, Alfie, for reading. That's great. It's nice to meet Alfie this week. But, yeah, let's come and meet someone more important. Let's meet with God as we listen to his words.

[3:32] Let's pray. Our Father, thank you that you are the speaking God, the living God. Please speak to us now through these words, through my words.

[3:44] Would you show us Jesus and make us the church you want us to be? In Jesus' name. Amen. Great. Well, the Christian life is all about Jesus, right?

[3:56] That's what we believe. If you're a Christian, come to Jesus. And you have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus saves you. Although you can be forgiven when you then meet a Christian to think it's all about the church, right?

[4:08] Become a Christian. What do you do? Well, you join a church. And you start going to church. And you meet with the church. And you serve at church. It's all about the church, it seems. And sometimes you meet people, well, can I be a Christian and not go to church?

[4:20] And they say, well, you say no. Church is essential. But that's, of course, what is the church really, right? It's not that surprising. Where do you hear about Jesus?

[4:32] Well, here in the church. Where do you grow in Jesus? In the church. Because this is the family of God. This is Jesus' followers coming together, meeting together.

[4:42] No wonder that is where you meet Jesus, where you hear about Jesus, right? It's almost like the church is a bit of an embassy. You know, I want to go to Cambodia. How do I get there?

[4:53] Through the Cambodian embassy. You know, I want to come to Jesus. I want to grow in him. It's through the church. But then it's so sad sometimes when you hear stories when, well, the church isn't what it's supposed to be, right?

[5:06] People come to church. They need help. And they need Jesus. And instead, they get hurt. That's so sad, right? It turns people away, not just from the church, but from Jesus.

[5:17] And so, as a church, we want to be, you know, the church that God wants us to be. Matthew wants that. I mean, we've been going through Matthew's gospel. And, of course, Matthew, it is a gospel.

[5:28] It's all about Jesus. And yet, there's so much for his disciples here, right? Matthew regularly, he has all these stories. And then he interrupts it and gives us a block of teaching.

[5:39] How to live as one of Jesus' disciples. How to be church. And, well, as we're going into chapter 18 today, that is what is happening. We're breaking up the stories and we have a chapter of teaching.

[5:51] And this one especially about the church. What should we be like in the church? You know, it fits in a way. The past few chapters, we've seen Jesus starting the church, right?

[6:04] Israel's rejected him. I'm going to do something new. I'm going to build my church. Well, what is that church like? Let's listen to what Jesus says. I hope we want that, right?

[6:14] We want to be Jesus' church. We want to be his ambassadors here, his embassy. Well, let's listen. And as you won't be surprised, it's all about Jesus.

[6:26] What are we going to hear today? Okay. Now, from this chapter, I'm saying, okay, it's how we treat each other, how we treat each other as a church. So, actually, the first few verses is slightly different, right?

[6:38] Where does Jesus start? He starts almost with ourselves. Because, as usual in the Bible, how we live is based on who we are.

[6:49] And so, Jesus starts with, look, we need to see the church as Jesus does. See ourselves as he sees us. And maybe, you know, I don't know how you see yourself.

[7:02] The disciples, they came to Jesus with quite a high view of themselves, right? As usual, they don't get it. Verse 1. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

[7:16] Who is the greatest? In Greek, there's a kind of so then. In light of what we've seen in the past few chapters, who is the greatest? Because, you know, it can be great to be the church, right?

[7:26] The past few chapters, if you are the church, if you're Jesus' disciples, you are, you know, one of the followers of the Messiah. You're going to be rewarded when he returns.

[7:37] The disciples, they were there on the mountain with Jesus. They share in his ministry. Last week, Peter didn't need to pay any temple tax. Jesus paid it for him.

[7:48] Peter is now his son of God. Isn't that exciting? Isn't it so great to be the church? You know, shouldn't the church be really impressive? And Jesus says, no, you don't really get it.

[8:00] What does Jesus say? Well, verse 2, and calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[8:15] Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You need to become like a child. That's what Jesus says. And you've heard it through the whole passage, right?

[8:26] A child like this, one of these little ones. Jesus thinks we should see each other as children. And of course, children, what does that mean, right?

[8:37] I don't know. Children are different to different cultures. Does it mean we all need to be very cute? Does it need to be, we need to be innocent? You don't know children very well.

[8:49] Do we need to be carefree? Do we need to be childish? No, right? What does Jesus say? Whoever humbles himself like this child. Because children, they don't really have anything to offer, right?

[9:03] Children, they're not impressive. They had a very low status back then. Children have nothing to offer. And children are weak. They're powerless. They're needy.

[9:14] They're so dependent on their parents. And in a way, that's the kind of people Jesus has been saving, right? You read through the gospel, what kind of people come to Jesus?

[9:26] Well, they're weak and powerless. They have a loved one they can't save. And they come to Jesus and they have nothing to offer. They just say, Lord, have mercy. I need your help.

[9:36] And this woman from the Gentile woman, this last week, the man with his son. I can't do anything. Please help me. That kind of attitude, right?

[9:47] That is the kind of people that Jesus then loves. And he heals the children. And, you know, he welcomes them. That is, you know, the kind of people that Jesus saves.

[9:59] And so, in a way, that is how we, how he says, well, that's what you should be like. People who come to Jesus needy, humbly, nothing to offer, just, Jesus, I need you.

[10:13] And, you know, I know I don't deserve it. I'm unclean. I'm not acceptable. But, Lord, you have mercy. That's how Jesus sees us.

[10:24] Not the greatest, right? Weak and humble sinners. That's who we are. Knowing you're like that. And then Jesus says, well, that's the greatest person. The person who really knows how weak and sinful they are.

[10:38] It's very different, right? But that is how we should see the church. And Jesus says, well, start, first of all, with yourself, right? Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, right?

[10:49] We need to, Jesus points the finger, how do you see yourself? As weak and needy, hopefully. Needing Jesus. It sounds weird, right?

[11:01] You'd think, oh, no, Jesus is building this kingdom. He wants great people. He wants powerful, independent people. No. Jesus doesn't want it. He wants people who depend on him. Weak and needy.

[11:12] In fact, if you are so great, Jesus says, well, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless you humble yourself. And if you think, Jesus, I don't need you.

[11:23] I'm so great. Well, Jesus says, sure. You won't need me then. You won't have me. Now, weak, needy sinners, right? That is the kind of people Jesus loves. Jesus, you see the gospels and he's so compassionate and loving to the weak and needy, to the sinful.

[11:40] All right? The tax collectors and the prostitutes and all those people. That is Jesus' heart. And that's the people he loves. So, yeah, how do you see yourself? Yeah, as a child.

[11:54] Humble. Nothing to offer. Because maybe, no matter how, you look on the outside. As Jesus has been saying, what's your heart like, right? Deep down, so full of sin.

[12:04] Full of idols. Full of things that we love more than Jesus. Now, if we're honest, yeah. We're not really anything. Not that all the other stuff isn't true.

[12:16] Not that we're not children of the king. Not that we're not holy and blameless in his sight. Just if we're really honest about who we are in practice. Weak, needy sinners. And not just us, right?

[12:28] Others as well. The people here in the church, actually, they look great. But if we know each other, really, then we're weak and needy. All of us.

[12:39] Including me. Including Kevin. All of us. Even my wife. She's a weak and needy sinner. You wouldn't know it. But that's what we are like. And in a way, that's then how we should see each other, right?

[12:52] And seeing other people as sinners. That can sound like I'm looking down on them, right? They're all sinners here. But hopefully, you see, that's not the case, right? It's a level playing field.

[13:03] We're all in the same boat. We're all just children. All weak and needy sinners. And I don't have to prove that I'm better to you. Because we're just both weak and needy.

[13:15] I don't need to pretend to be someone I'm not. Because it's okay. The church is just weak and needy sinners. Because that's who Jesus loves. Right? And that's how we should see ourselves.

[13:27] That's why we do things like confession. Remember last week, we did a time of confession? It's just to help us keep seeing ourselves. We are weak and needy sinners. And that's it.

[13:37] That would be a good church. But then what should we do? If that's how we should see ourselves, how should we then behave? And Jesus says, well, if we see each other as Jesus does, then we care for each other as Jesus does.

[13:53] And because when he then talks about how we should treat each other, there's so much connection between Jesus and us, right? And in a way, we're supposed to be followers. So, of course, we're going to do what Jesus says.

[14:05] How about verse 5? Whoever receives one such child in my name. You're receiving someone in Jesus' name, like Jesus, because of Jesus. Right?

[14:16] It's like he does. He tells the parable of the lost sheep. And he says, well, this is the father's heart, to go after the one and leave the 99. And he, well, that's what you need to do.

[14:26] Right? Do like the father does. In that last section about sin, again, you know, where two or three are gathered, I'm with you. You know, you're doing this in my name. You're doing this with me.

[14:38] Be like me. In a way. Well, but what does that then mean, caring for the church? And there's lots of stuff I could say about that. You know, love one another as I have loved you.

[14:49] But there are some particular things that Jesus singles house here that all have to do with him. And I think the first thing that we should really work hard at is, well, if people need Jesus, if we know we all need Jesus, don't leave people away from Jesus.

[15:06] That's what Jesus says. Don't leave people away from him. If Christians need Jesus, you know, help them come to him and don't leave them away. I think that's verses like 5 to 10 or so.

[15:18] All right? Now, you may wonder, where do I get that from? Verse 6, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin. Now, of course, you don't want to get people to sin, right?

[15:32] You know, Jesus came to die for sin. Of course, we don't want that. But there's something particular here. It's not just any sin. It's talking about making them stumble. Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, to kind of trip them up, to hinder them, to obstruct them.

[15:50] And it seems to be a contrast with verse 5, right? Verse 5, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin causes them to stumble.

[16:04] And so it's the opposite of receiving. As a church, we should be welcoming, receiving. And to trip people up is the opposite. And I'm not now talking about welcome gifts and how friendly the ushers are.

[16:21] That's not really what I'm talking about. You know, what does it mean as a church to receive someone? You know, you accept them as a Christian. Yeah, you're a follower of Jesus.

[16:31] We are Jesus' family. Come and join us, right? You receive them. You accept them. But then to not receive them is almost to not accept them, right? To say, well, you can't be part of us.

[16:45] Maybe because, well, you're not like this. Or you don't do like this. Therefore, you are not welcome here. And if we are Jesus' community, and if we're the access to Jesus, that's a serious thing, right?

[16:57] You're almost saying, well, if you can't come to church, well, basically, you can't come to Jesus. You can't come to Jesus because you're not like this. You can't come to Jesus because you don't do this. I mean, to give a very clear example, maybe the letter of Galatians written about Judaizers, right?

[17:15] There were people in the Jews who came to the churches in Galatia who said, well, if you want to be a real Christian, you need to be circumcised. Sorry, Gentile Christians, you know, you need to be circumcised if you want God to accept you.

[17:30] Now, you're a Gentile. You want to come to Jesus and you say, sorry, you're not circumcised. Then you're blocking access to Jesus, right? You're tripping people up.

[17:40] You're obstructing them. That's a terrible thing to do, right? I mean, you hear how angry Paul is. You block people from Jesus or you kind of lead them into trust something else.

[17:55] Then maybe, okay, I'm going to get circumcised. And now, you know, I can come to God because I'm circumcised. Then you've stopped trusting Jesus. You've started trusting your circumcision. That's the thing, right?

[18:06] Instead of people coming to Jesus, needing Jesus, you're making them trusting something else. You're pushing them to something else. I think that is the stumbling that he's talking about, the opposite of receiving.

[18:19] Now, we don't do that. You don't have to get circumcised here. I'm very thankful for that. Some churches, they do that. Yeah, we have certain ways of dress, certain ways of, you know, you need to, you can't have a TV and you can't drink alcohol.

[18:35] And you need to wear like this. Of course, we're not like that. But, you know, do we give a certain impression sometimes? You can just put people off implicitly.

[18:47] Imagine, I'm not saying this is true, but this could happen, right? Imagine, you know, sons and daughters. We reach out and this woman becomes a Christian. And that's wonderful, right?

[18:58] And while you, you know, you're from Watermark, you invite her, please come to Watermark. And she starts coming on Sunday, joins the CG. CG, that's great. But how welcome do we make her feel?

[19:10] I mean, she'll be in the CG and she is from some developing country, speaks poor English. And then everyone else in the CG, they're wealthy and they have this great job and they're all sorted and they're so educated.

[19:25] And she is struggling. And before CG, they go to this expensive restaurant that they can't, that she can't afford. How will she feel? I think she slowly gets the message, well, I'm not sure if this is for me.

[19:38] I don't really belong with Jesus because Jesus' community, that's all, you know, people who are sorted and with good jobs. And I'm not. I'm a mess. That's terrible, right?

[19:49] Again, I'm not saying we are like that. But it can happen with some churches, right? No, I mean, I hear other stories. I hear someone who's just new here and so many people come in and welcome them and say, hey, can I help you?

[20:05] That's great. But that would be so sad, right? If someone or maybe a domestic helper, they come here and because we just, you know, church is really geared towards this kind of people.

[20:17] And if you're not like that, well, sorry, you're excluded. I mean, Jesus hates that, right? This woman who he has saved, who he wants to come here to church and receive him and, you know, receive all the help and everything from this family and actually we exclude her.

[20:35] That would be terrible. I mean, you can see how strong Jesus' language is, right? Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and we will be drowned in the depth of the sea, right?

[20:54] Jesus thinks this is really important, that we just, we welcome people. We receive people. Someone's a Christian, whoever they are, they should be welcome here because they're part of the family.

[21:04] They should be joined, yeah, in this family here, they should be so welcome. Jesus says be ruthless with that, right? He goes on. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.

[21:19] It's better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. Now, Jesus says those verses a lot. He also says them, like in chapter 5, about lust and those kind of things.

[21:32] But in context, I think, yeah, this is the sin of kind of putting stumbling blocks before people, obstructing people from Jesus. You know, being as a church, just not receiving people because they're different from us or something like that, or they don't do something.

[21:48] We need to be just really so inclusive as a church. That's what Jesus wants. Jesus is so inclusive, he welcomes everyone who comes to him. That's what we should be like as a church.

[21:58] What it looks like in practice, yeah, that's something for us to work out. But I think that's the idea here. You know, people need Jesus. And so as a church, we want to be a community that keeps no one from Jesus.

[22:15] But of course, what then? What's the other side of that? Because Jesus goes on. It's not just we want people to come to Jesus. Well, if people really need Jesus, we don't want them to leave Jesus, right?

[22:29] We want to pursue those wandering away from Jesus. If people need Jesus, of course, that's what you do, right? And Jesus tells this parable. Look, there is this man, and he has this hundred sheep, and one of them wanders off.

[22:42] And of course, the man will go out and pursue that sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine and rescues the one sheep. And, you know, it shows the really individual care, right?

[22:54] This man cares about every single sheep. He doesn't say, oh, I've got ninety-nine sheep left. It doesn't matter about the one sheep. I'm going to buy ten more sheep next week. Who cares? No. My one sheep is walking away.

[23:07] I'm going to get that sheep. And that is what God is like, right? Verse 14. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

[23:19] God doesn't want any of them to perish because that's the problem, right? A sheep wanders away, they perish. They meet a wolf or the bear or they fall off a cliff or whatever. Same with the Christian who leaves Jesus, right?

[23:34] You're in church. You're following Jesus, except you wander away. You walk away. You're going to die in your sin, right? We don't want that to happen to people. And so we want to get them back.

[23:45] That's what Jesus wants. That's what the Father wants. And what does that then look like? Well, verse 15. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, right?

[23:57] If someone sins, well, that's a problem that needs addressing. Because, yeah, well, sin is a problem, right? Sin is deceitful. Sin enslaves us.

[24:08] Someone is caught in sin. That sin can lead them away from Jesus, right? So if you see that, if someone does that to you, you want to act on it. You want to pursue that person and talk to them and try to win them back, right?

[24:21] If they listen to you, you will have gained your brother. That's the aim. You want to gain them. Get them back. Get them back to Jesus. Now, that sounds like every single sin.

[24:33] Do you do this for every single sin? Of course not. I mean, we just said, right, we're all sinners. Christians still sin. It's normal that Christians sin. I guess there are sins that you expect and sins that you don't expect.

[24:47] You know, there's the one-off selfish action versus this real pattern of ongoing selfishness or ongoing temper problems.

[24:58] Right? Or it's just a really serious sin. Very serious, clear sin. I'm not talking about someone who is a bit anxious. And, of course, you know, you should trust God.

[25:09] But we wouldn't really, okay, you're really too anxious. Watch out. If someone's having an affair, right, then we're having a serious, clear sin that seems to be a pattern.

[25:19] And, right, something like that. Where every sin falls, that requires wisdom. But still, sin is deceitful. So you want to talk to them. As he says, go and show them his fault, just between the two of you.

[25:32] You know, go humbly. And, you know, hey, you did that last week. Can we talk about it? Can we, I don't know what you think of your action. Do you think it's okay?

[25:43] You want to ask questions? Maybe you didn't understand the situation. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding. And, you know, I think it's a sin. I want to look at the Bible with me and just look at it together.

[25:54] And, you know, if we agree it's a sin, then, yeah, maybe we should do something, right? Just humbly. Not proud, not, hey, you're a sinner. I'm going to get you.

[26:05] No. You want to help them. And it sounds very uncomfortable, right? Some cultures find it easy. But here in Hong Kong, people are so independent. Really, people, you know, I can survive by myself.

[26:19] And to confront others or to just want to talk to them about something they did, that feels so uncomfortable. Especially because I'm a fellow sinner, right? Who am I to talk to this person when I'm sinful, maybe even more sinful deep inside?

[26:35] Well, we need to overcome that. Of course, we don't come with any pride, right? We know the first point. We're all humble, needy sinners. But we should come. Because they're perishing, right?

[26:48] I don't know. I find my phone so addictive. I find myself regularly missing an MTR stop. I'm on the MTR, and I'm just reading something, and then, oh, man, I missed my stop. And sometimes you see people walking on the street, and they're so engrossed.

[27:03] And you see that person, and they're walking on the street, and they're going to cross a road, and there's a bus coming. You're not going to just, well, that's their business. They're okay. No, you want to talk to them.

[27:16] You want to shout and grab them, right? You care. That's caring about this person. Caring and saving them from perishing. Again, ultimately, that's what Jesus did, right?

[27:26] Jesus, he saw us perishing. He came into the world, died for us. He wants to have us back. So we want to stop this person, right? It's not punishment to then warn them and grab them.

[27:38] It's love. Talking to someone about sin, ongoing sin in their life, is love, not punishment. I mean, this passage will go on to church discipline.

[27:51] What happens if he doesn't listen and if he still doesn't listen? But all of that ultimately is love. Love for the sinner. And, of course, love for the rest of the church, that you want to protect them.

[28:03] Love for the world and Jesus' witness. But here, love for the sinner. And so you don't give up. Jesus doesn't give up. You don't give up. So if they don't listen, well, verse 16, if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

[28:21] You want to get some backup. Hey, it's not just me saying this. It's not just me who thinks that the Bible says this is sin. Look, these others think so as well. Bring an elder. Bring your CG leader.

[28:33] Maybe they will listen to them. And if they still don't listen, well, yeah, maybe the elder should get the whole church involved so that the whole church can call this person, look, you're going down the wrong path.

[28:46] You're walking away from Jesus. Come back. That's what you want. You're going to do anything you can to stop them leaving Jesus. And so this is quite a long process.

[28:58] Yes, it ends in discipline, but it is long, patient, persistent, prayerful, loving, pleading. Of course, ultimately, there's an end point.

[29:08] If they don't even listen to the church, then you have to wonder, well, how do these people see themselves? How does this person see themselves, right? If the whole church says, look, this is a sin.

[29:21] You need to change this. And they don't want to. Well, Jesus says, if they don't even listen to the church, let them be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Those who are not part of the community, not part of the family.

[29:36] Treat them like that. That sounds like punishment or exclusion. But just to say, who was Jesus? Jesus was the friend of tax collectors. Jesus loves Gentiles.

[29:47] Doesn't mean you stop loving them. Doesn't mean you stop interacting with them. It's just you see them differently. You don't see them as a brother or sister wandering away. But at some point, if they really refuse to listen, you know, so many people have told them that they need to stop this sin and they refuse it.

[30:06] Ultimately, you have to say, are they a humble, weak sinner? Are they one of Jesus' little ones? Or are they ultimately a hard-hearted, yeah, someone who is just not a Christian?

[30:16] Yeah, because the Christian life is about repentance. It's not about a standard of holiness, but Christians are those who repent. We know we are weak, needy sinners who constantly need to repent.

[30:29] Someone refuses to repent. That's not a good sign. And so ultimately, you might have to say, sorry, I can't treat you as a Christian anymore.

[30:40] Please come on Sunday. Please come and hear the Word of God with me. But, you know, you can't be a signed member. You can't have communion. Please come to CG. I'd love you to be there, but you can't lead it.

[30:54] Huh? Because I'm going to treat you as someone else. I'm going to love you not like a fellow Christian. I'm going to love you like a non-Christian. I think that that's where this passage ends. And it's just your hope and prayer that they will see that.

[31:09] Now, that sounds like a very big thing, right? Because we just talked about welcoming and, you know, letting everyone come to Jesus. And this then seems different. Are we hindering people from coming to Jesus?

[31:23] Well, I don't think so. This is, first of all, this is a real church thing, right? It's not something you do as an individual. This is about a whole church deciding something about a person.

[31:33] And Jesus assures us he is in it. Verses 18 to 20, they're a bit weird, but they make sense, right? Verse 18, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

[31:46] And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

[31:56] For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Now, we love that last verse, but do you hear the context? This is a church, well, binding and loosing, making a decision about, you know, this person who just doesn't want to repent.

[32:13] How should we treat this person? And Jesus says, I'm with you. You know, what you decide, it's done in heaven. That's what it reflects. I'm with you. And so, yeah, the church has this serious responsibility if that's needed.

[32:31] You lovingly, carefully pursue someone, but ultimately, yeah, you might have to do this. You're seeing the person as Jesus does, right? If there's no repentance, then, yeah, Jesus probably doesn't see them as one of his little ones.

[32:45] So maybe we treat them differently. I hope you can see the principle. There's lots of case studies we could talk about and details and nuances. I hope you see it in the context, right? You love someone like Jesus does.

[32:56] But who is this someone? But again, this is only a very last resort, right? If we're a good church, it never comes to this stage. If we're a good church, it never gets beyond stage one.

[33:09] Why? Well, that first point. We see each other as Jesus does. We see each other as humble, weak little sinners. I think that's the problem, right?

[33:20] If someone comes to you and, you know, why would I talk to you about your sin? Because I think you're a needy sinner. Because I know that, like me, you're weak.

[33:31] And so I want to help you. The problem is when I think, oh, you're okay. You probably know the better Bible than me. You can sort this out. I don't need to talk to you about this.

[33:42] You'll be fine. That's when I don't talk to people, right? If I don't see them as Jesus does. Or if someone comes and talks to me and I think, oh, I'm okay.

[33:53] I can sort this out. I don't need help. That's when I don't listen, right? It's when I don't see myself as Jesus does. That is when I will not listen.

[34:04] And that's when things start going the wrong way. So, again, if we want to love each other like Jesus does, let's see ourselves as his little ones. Humble, weak, dependent sinners.

[34:19] It goes back to the gospel. How do you see yourself? Are we okay? Are we great? Are we strong? Or, yeah, are we people who are so weak and powerless that the Son of God had to die for us?

[34:31] And has to keep looking after us every day of our lives. Otherwise, we will not make it. That's who we are. And that's wonderful that Jesus does that. Let's make sure we do the same thing.

[34:43] Let's love each other as Jesus does. As Jesus' little ones. Let's love each other as Jesus does.