The One and the Ninety-Nine

I. Christ Made Present 00:01

Lord, as we come together and we study your word, I pray that it would not just impact our understanding, but, Lord, that it would change our lives. We trust that you are working in our midst today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Yesterday we had a memorial service for a friend of mine that I grew up with. We hadn’t seen her in many years, but I was really impressed with the understanding that there’s something important here in this place: that as she went throughout her life, and her family moved on, they wanted to meet here to celebrate her life and to mourn her loss. And it was really just a beautiful moment of… the plan of God is that the church would make Christ present at all of these moments. And in even the greatest loss, Christ was made present in the gathering, in the coming together, in the prayers and the understanding of our hope.

And so I just wanted to say what we do… Sometimes (I know this never happens to you), but sometimes you can wake up on a Sunday morning and think it’s a lot to get to church on a Sunday morning with five children. I’m not talking about anybody in particular. Sixth on the way. I mean, it’s just a lot. And sometimes it can feel like that. But especially yesterday, I just was so grateful for the community that we’ve built and maintained for these decades. And there are so many people that have been blessed by our willingness to just not forsake the fellowship of the saints (Heb 10.25), and just to gather and encourage one another and be together.

II. Twelve Men 01:39

And so I want to start with a level of gratitude there. We’re going to talk a little bit about what Jesus was saying. We’ve been reading all of these passages in Matthew, and it’s fascinating to read it from this perspective. Jesus picked twelve men, and he invested in them for three years. And now there are billions of Christians, because he picked twelve men and invested in them for three years. It’s really an unbelievable plan. In fact, it’s the type of plan that we would argue with God about: “God, are you sure? You want some fishermen, you want a tax collector, you want these randoms? You want them to go change the world?” The answer is, of course, yes.

And when we pay attention to our understanding of what Jesus is doing, we can start to think of it outside of the specific story and in the context of how he wants us to live today. We can start to think of it from this idea that he’s teaching them how to build a Christ-centered community, how to build the church. And that’s what I think is happening specifically in these stories, these parables. I want to break our framing of this, especially the ninety-nine and the one. It’s a wonderful Sunday school story, and I love all the craft paper. I mean, how many times have my kids come in with the sheep all decorated, all this stuff? And it’s great. But there’s something about it for us that should challenge us. We shouldn’t just accept it as, “Oh yeah, I know that story.” It actually was meant to change the way that we live and exist together. That’s the idea of this teaching.

III. The One and the Ninety-Nine 03:21

So the title today is “The One and the Ninety-Nine.” Okay. Let’s start with the first point, which is that Jesus is trying to change the disciples from an in-group focus to an outward focus. And so we’ll just jump right in, and we will begin again with our Gospel, in verse 12:

12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. Matt 18.12–13

This is a foundational principle of what it means to be the body of Christ, the church. We are not allowed to close our hearts to those who fall away. We’re not allowed to discount those who we see who are struggling, or maybe who haven’t been around, or maybe you know for a fact that they’re living contrary to what God has called them to. We don’t get to dismiss them. We always are challenged to hope for restoration and redemption. And we go so far as to give those people our attention. That’s what he says. The Good Shepherd recognizes the need of the one who goes astray and transfers his attention to that one, because it is so important to be a part of that redemption.

We’re really familiar with this story, and so you might be thinking, “Well, duh. Yes, of course, that’s what church is.” But it runs completely counter to how men have built groups from the beginning of time. In fact, I’m going to use Mormonism as an example today. I’m not looking to beat up on Mormons. I just happen to know some stories from some time that I spent in Salt Lake City with some Mormons on a mission trip out there. There were the people we met with who were ex-Mormons, who were trying to give us insight into the culture. They said, “Yeah, the minute that I wasn’t doing everything perfectly, I was ostracized, isolated, and alone.” And it could be any man-made religion, but that is the norm. In fact, it probably occasionally affects our own hearts. We don’t want to deal with the problem child. We don’t want to deal with the person who’s irritating, or who doesn’t show up, or who isn’t at the workdays, or is this, that, or the other. We find reasons to ostracize people.

But Jesus is laying down the foundation: no. Actually, the one on the outskirts, the one that you feel is falling away, the one that maybe is lost, that’s the person we run towards. That’s the person we pay attention to. Let’s not get caught jockeying for our own position and attention in the church. What a waste of time and effort. Our effort should go to those who need it, the lost. And so, yes, of course, I’m not saying that the people who are here don’t get loved or cared for or anything like that. Of course not. But let’s put our attention on those who need our attention. That’s the invitation here. We don’t get to ostracize people. We actually are invited to love those, especially those who are struggling or falling away.

This is not because the lost one is more valuable. Let’s make that clear. Sometimes our culture likes to make it as though the very act of transgression, or being on the outskirts, is valuable. That’s not true. In fact, we want to transform the person who’s lost into the person that’s found. We want them to join the ninety-nine and be a part of us. They don’t have value because they’re lost. They have equal value as all of us. They just have a greater need. And the ninety-nine… in fact, the way the church ends up going is, it’s not just the shepherd that goes and gets the one. The ninety-nine are recruited: “Let’s go get the one.” All of you are commissioned today to look around you and say, “Who is struggling? And how can I reach them with the love of Christ?”

IV. Not the Will of My Father 07:38

And then he continues to make his point very clear:

14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Matt 18.14

Have you ever rooted for somebody to fail? Rooted for somebody to fall? I know I’ve been tempted that way. I know I have done that. So I would hope that maybe somebody knows how that feels. But it’s like sometimes you see somebody, and you’re just so frustrated, you’re like, “I just want them to fail.” They’ve been so hurtful, or they’ve done these things, and then you’re celebrating the train wreck of their life. We’re not allowed to do that. We’re invited to pray for them. We’re invited to reach out to them. We’re invited to love them as Jesus did.

And in fact, Jesus, who was sitting up in heaven (I’m using some anthropomorphic language here), looked at the world, saw all of us, the train wreck of humanity, and said, “I’m going there to find those lost sheep.” Every one of us are the lost sheep, and we all got welcomed into the family of God. So no matter how annoying, infuriating, or even wicked someone is, we join Christ in hoping for their salvation. And even more so, sometimes that means we act like Christ in reaching out to them and laying our lives down for them. That’s the transformation that the church made on the world. That’s the upside-down kingdom that Jesus introduced to man-made religion and philosophy.

And in fact, you don’t actually get to have an enemy. Your enemies cannot be people. Our enemies are the strongholds and arguments, all the things that hold themselves up against the knowledge of Christ (2 Cor 10.4–5). But people are not our enemies. The only way to conquer an enemy in Christianity is to make him your brother, or her your sister. That’s literally the only path to winning against somebody that you have resentment against: reconciliation, bringing them in. And so Jesus is not just telling a trite little story about sheep and shepherds. He’s challenging his people to never become people who are the in-crowd people, the “it” people: “We are the group. We like us, and we don’t like them.” We aren’t allowed. It’s just not a part of who Jesus is. For he wills that all would be saved (1 Tim 2.4).

V. If Your Brother Sins Against You 09:49

So what happens now if your brother sins against you? This follows logically. Jesus is laying out principles. Okay, so you’re finding the one who’s fallen away. But what happens when one of the ninety-nine turns over and, you know, gives you a little shove, and you’re like, “Baa!” because you’re a sheep? And so you’re really upset with them. What do you do at this point? Well, let’s read what Jesus says here:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” Matt 18.15

That’s such a beautiful passage: the idea of people who are broken now being restored to that brother relationship, that sister relationship. And in this moment Jesus is bringing some heat once again, because what did he say? He said, “Go and tell him his fault between” who? “You and him alone.” How many times have we complained about someone? I’m in confession here, okay? We already got absolution, so I don’t have to feel shame about this. But I have complained about people before to not them. Another practice that is not allowed in the church. You actually aren’t allowed to be complaining about your brother’s sin. You are challenged to go to him, go to her. It’s really remarkable that Jesus gives zero room for our human tendency to tear people down behind their back. We’re not building a family that way.

Now, here’s the question. If you aren’t going to do that, what are you going to do? “I’m offended, but I’m not going to go talk to that guy,” or, “I’m not going to go talk to that girl.” Well, you have two options. Either, number one, the thing that you are upset about is not important enough for you to be upset about it, and so you have to forgive them. Or, number two, you need to pray for God to give you courage to do what he says. Those are your options.

Now, we can definitely live in radical forgiveness, and probably most of the things that we are upset about are worthy of us forgiving them, seeing as our standard is Jesus, torturously murdered on a cross, saying, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23.34). He didn’t have to tell them about their sin in order to forgive them. He just offered it. He wasn’t going to leave them there, but he offered forgiveness. We can do that. But there are going to be times where you really need to go confront your brother. Otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have said it. He’s laying out something that I think is really hard. In fact, there’s another time where he’s talking about how a man and a woman have to remain husband and wife and they don’t get to get divorced, and his disciples go, “Jesus, this is a hard saying. Who can do this?” That’s like what I’m feeling here too. Who can do this? Well, by the Holy Spirit living in Christ, he can in us. It’s not about how good you are. It’s about how good he is in you.

Now, of course, there are times where there’s serious wrongdoing, where you have to pull in your home group leader and you have to say, “Hey, I’m really upset this thing happened, and I don’t think I can handle this alone.” That’s fine. Get some counsel. But maybe even don’t tell him who you’re offended at. Maybe care about your brother enough, even though they offended you, to not spread gossip or complaining against them. It’s really a remarkable way of living. I’m feeling very convicted this morning. Not that I complain about any of you. All of you in this room, I never complain about you, ever once. You guys are wonderful. But think about this. We have to change the way we live. That’s what Jesus does to us. He comes up and he says, “Let’s be different. Let’s do it differently. Let’s build a kingdom of people who love one another enough, who care enough to confront one another when there’s something going on.”

And so you can find a trustworthy person in pastoral authority, often your home group leader or your priest, and you can have a conversation and say, “Hey, I’m really struggling with this. I’m angry. I think I need to confront a person, but I don’t know what to do.” Please lean on the pastoral authority that God’s given you, the people in your church that are in your corner, that are praying for you. We are far too casual in our treatment of one another: “Oh, that’s just Bob. I can complain about Bob,” you know. We are so dismissive. Everyone here is a child of God. I think about how defensive I get when I feel somebody’s wronged my child. Most of the time I have to let it go, because the 5-year-old doesn’t need a 33-year-old coming in and defending him, you know. But the point being: imagine that everyone sitting here is actually a child of God. How would you treat them? Now, I know we know this, but we have to challenge ourselves to see it this way and to live this way.

And the likelihood that the conversation, if you end up actually confronting somebody, goes way better than you could have expected is so high. I’ve had a few of these conversations. They almost always go better than your fears. And it especially works well if you don’t come in there to tell them all the ways that they’re stupid and evil, and you just approach it with the actual goal in mind of reconciliation.

VI. Two or Three Witnesses 15:07

In fact, if your whole thought reading this (if your brother confronts you, then you get the witnesses, you get the church) is like, “Oh, we’re going to find a way to correct my brother,” you’re doing it wrong. What you’re finding a way to do is reconcile with your brother. Now, sometimes that means your brother has to change. But sometimes that means you have to change. Okay?

In this particular example, we’re going to continue going. So you’ve confronted the person, and they said (Bob, let’s say, said), “I didn’t do anything wrong.” What do you do next? Or they continue the behavior, whatever it is. Well, next:

16 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. Matt 18.16

Now the bar for your offense gets a little higher. You have to find two or three trustworthy people who also think that Bob is doing that thing wrong. How many of our grievances would we easily be able to find two or three people to say, “That’s right, that was wrong”? And how many of them are like, “Wait, hold on, you want to talk to Bob about what?” This is a sanity check here for you. Maybe the reason Bob isn’t listening to you is because you’re wrong. So go talk to a couple of trustworthy people, a couple of witnesses, and if they agree, then let’s go talk to Bob. Not because we want to show Bob how bad he is, but because we want to rescue Bob. We want Bob to be rescued from his sin and reconciled with the body.

If you have a problem with somebody in this church, you should reconcile, because they’re in the family of God. They’re brothers and sisters in Christ. You’re not allowed to just hold on to resentment here. Not because God’s a rule maker and “you cannot do this,” but because it will poison you. It will change your heart towards them over time. It’s not good to hold on. In fact, forgiveness is the healing balm that withdraws the poison of resentment. You’ve got to get that stuff out of you. It’s not good for you, and it’s not good for them. You need to be willing to be wrong when you enter these conversations. Like I said, that’s why we get the two or three witnesses.

VII. As a Gentile and a Tax Collector 17:23

Now, let’s imagine there’s a clear case. Bob is really off the rails here. In this moment, the three witnesses, all of you guys, are like, “We’ve got to talk to the church.” And so Jesus says:

17 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. Matt 18.17

And some part of us is like, “Yeah, Bob is out. We just condemned him with the church.” No, that’s not the point here. What Jesus says is, it’s so important that you don’t ostracize people that before you cut Bob off from your life, you have to go talk to the church about it. You have to go talk to your pastor, your priest. You have to go have a serious conversation with the elders and say, “Look, I just can’t live with Bob anymore.” (I’m sorry, Robert, by the way. It’s just so easy to use the word Bob. It just flows off the tongue. I’m not hiding any messages in this sermon.) So we’re dealing with Bob over here. And you go to the church because you want to rescue Bob, not because you want the church to come down on him, not because you want to cause a problem, but because if you don’t, you know that you in your heart will sin against Bob by unforgiveness. And you know that if Bob continues in this way, he is heading down the path of destruction.

And so you go to the church, and then he says this crazy thing: “Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” “We hate those guys!” No, that’s not the point. What it means is: treat him like he’s in need of salvation and redemption. Pray for him. Yes, cut him off from the fellowship. That is actually implied here, that he is no longer able to join you for worship on Sunday mornings. Bob, I’m sorry. Mend your ways. But the point of that is to get him to join us again. We never lose the thread of reconciliation. The point isn’t, “We don’t want to see Bob anymore.” The point is, we want to see Bob healed. How would you treat a Gentile and a tax collector if you were an early Christian? You’d try to bring him to the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. That’s how you treat him. So you treat Bob the same way: “Yeah, you’re not living as one of us anymore.”

Now, all the things that you’re forgiving: you’re thinking about, “Okay, does this rise to the standard at which I need to confront this person? Is it the type of thing where, if you told a church elder about it, they’d say, ‘Sorry, you can’t come to church anymore if you don’t fix this’?” If not, you might just need to forgive them. Now, I will say, sometimes having the conversation is still very beneficial, because you want to be right with your brother. But we’re not complaining about him elsewhere. We’re talking to him. If it’s serious enough, we’re getting the witnesses to come along. We’re getting the church to come along. And then, when he becomes as a Gentile or a tax collector, we treat him as somebody in need of the love of Christ. So we pray for him. We reach out to him. We hold the invitation to repentance open to him. We beg him to join us again. We treat him as the lost sheep, the one that the ninety-nine will go after. This is all a part of our focus on those who need the love of Christ.

And so we continue here. We are not allowed to have enemies. I’m just making that very clear.

VIII. Binding and Loosing 20:49

The next point God makes (and this is why I say that this is about the way the body of Christ is governed, the way the church, the community that holds the presence of Christ, is governed): he starts talking to us about, again, the government of his people.

18 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. 19 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. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matt 18.18–20

That is a really heavy statement. The earlier ones felt very practical, very pastoral. This one feels very, like, “Wow, the kingdom of God, and binding and loosing. And what does that even mean?” I’m glad you asked. This means that our purpose as the body of Christ is to bring about the purposes of God on earth; that we’re supposed to do things that affect heaven and earth; that we actually have a mission that we’re on. We’re not just here to form a club. We’re not just here to hang out. We’re not just here because we like you guys. We do like you guys, but that’s different. We’re here because we’re bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. That’s what we were just singing about here: as in heaven. That is our job.

Which means we actually are fighting a really intense battle, a battle for the hearts and minds of men, a battle for the salvation of the whole world. We’re about the same business Jesus was about when he said, “Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4.17). Change. Because God is invading our space to make it all his space, till the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God (Rev 11.15). We are claiming territory for God to bring his salvation. And I know that sounds really highfalutin. What it means is that the drug addict next door can be saved, that the bondage he’s in can be broken. That the people down the road who are dying of loneliness… Oh my gosh, I’ve seen that so many times in these articles: people are dying because they’re alone. Where’s the church? There are people dying of loneliness. Well, I want to be their friend. Point them to me. They probably don’t want me as a friend yet. I get that. Maybe we’ll start with somebody a little bit less intense. But I’m going to try my best: “Let’s be friends.” Let’s not let people be alone. If you know somebody who’s alone, treat them like the one who’s been separated from the ninety-nine. Go get them. People can die from loneliness. That’s crazy, but so true. Now, there may be other reasons they end up passing. But the whole idea here is that people need each other, and they need the body of Christ. They need the love of Christ.

All of this is about bringing what God wants to do to us. So when it’s saying binding and loosing, it’s talking about people. It’s talking about releasing people from their bondage, binding up their wounds. It’s talking about healing and restoring people. It’s not talking about some crazy thing: “I’m going to bind treasure in heaven on your behalf,” and all this stuff. Like, yes, maybe that could be something that somebody says at some point. But let’s get past all of the language, and let’s just say that people out there need to be loosed from their bondage, and the evil in this world needs to be bound and destroyed by the power of God. Our weapons are for the tearing down of strongholds, for arguments, every lofty idea that holds itself against the will of God.

And then we talk about this very controversial verse here: “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.” Who’s ready to believe for a Corvette? I’m here. Somebody join me. We’re going to just bring it all down. Obviously not what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about believing together for the purposes of God. He’s talking about the government of his church. He’s talking about binding and loosing and all that. It’s all in the context of trying to build a people who will contend for the welfare of the world.

So what are we agreeing about in this church? We’re believing for the growth of Saint Michael’s Christian Academy, that there are students who need the love and care that is provided by our teachers in that space. And so we’re getting together as a church with our elders, and believing and praying for that, and believing that when two agree on earth, anything they ask, God will do it for them. We’re also believing for families here. Everybody has said this: “The family is under attack.” Honestly, yes, 100 percent. But let’s not get so doom and gloom about it. Look at the families here. The message of Saint Michael’s is: the families are strong. The families are flourishing. But we’re believing for those who need that. We’re praying together and agreeing, as the elders, as the church. We’re getting together and we’re believing the verse, the promise that Jesus has given us.

IX. Where Two or Three Are Gathered 25:38

And then, finally: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Do you believe that Jesus is here this morning? We’re gathered in his name. We are West Coast. We’re chill, dude. We’re casual. We are not quite as highfalutin as some places I’ve been, in Europe and on the East Coast. You know, when I was in Europe, a lot of the Filipino aunties, because they saw me wearing a collar, would come up, and they’d grab my hand, and they would bow to my hand and touch their forehead to my hand. I was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill, dude. It’s all good.” No, but something in me was like, “Oh, this is awkward. This is weird.” But what were they doing? They weren’t bowing to me. They were bowing to the fact that I was representing Christ as a deacon. That’s my job: to represent Christ to his church as a deacon, to serve his church as Christ served the church. And so I’m not saying, “Please, please, please don’t do that to me.” That’s not what I’m talking about, those gestures. If that’s your culture, I understand; that’s awesome and wonderful.

But I am saying, when you get up for Sunday morning, let’s prepare our hearts to meet the King. So how do we do that? We get dressed up a little bit. My kids sometimes want to wear board shorts and tank tops. It’s like, “No, we’re going to put a button-down on.” The definition of button-down gets a little loose with them, you know. But you tell them to dress a certain way, or to show up at a certain time, or to sit in a certain place, to do these things. Why are we doing this? Because we’re honoring the presence of Christ. It’s not about us. I don’t wear this robe so I look cool. I don’t come here hours before the service to prepare because I really just want you guys to see all the production and all the fun things. We do all this because we want Jesus to be honored in our midst.

In fact, I don’t even preach sermons so that you are benefited. I hope that that happens. But I am preaching because I feel called by Jesus to proclaim his word, and that’s been affirmed by our elders. And so they said, “Jesse, you get to go preach today.” So I’m here to represent Christ to you in that function. But if it becomes about just making you happy, I’ll say nicer things. We can do different things. I’ll send you to a TED talk, man. Those TED talks, man, they get you going. I’m like, “Wow, this is amazing. I’m learning all this stuff.” No, it’s because I want to honor the King who’s in the room, and hopefully I can represent his word to you.

That’s part of the beauty of the liturgy. It treats Sunday morning as though Jesus is actually here. We have candles. We have incense. We have funny robes. We have paintings everywhere. I mean, this is not how somebody would design a gathering space. I don’t know if you’ve been to a meeting space or a conference center. It’s not this. We do this because we’re saying that something different is going on in this space. And we don’t do anything else here. Did you know that? We don’t do shows and theater, and we don’t have people come in and do concerts. We don’t do that. This is a worship space. This is for meeting Jesus. That’s the whole point of this building: being in the presence of the King. Jesus was telling us that, ultimately, the sign of God’s government, as he wraps up these statements on how to live as this Christ-centered body, is the presence of the King, represented in our midst when two or three are gathered together in his name.

And so, while, yes, you and your buddy and your other buddy who get together at your house to pray, Jesus is there too, there’s a specialness, there’s an important nature, to coming together as the body of Christ on a Sunday morning to have the marriage supper of the Lamb, because you’re meeting Jesus. So maybe in the midst of the chaos of getting the five kids ready, and your wife pregnant, making breakfast and cleaning up… I mean, I’m sure… And when you’re thinking about all of this, maybe just stop for a second and say, “What am I preparing for? What am I going through all the hullabaloo for? I’m going to meet the King. So it requires something of me.”

And the promise, of course, is that if you show up, he will always be there. It’s really remarkable. It’s like, “Yeah, but I really sucked this week. I was really terrible at everything I did, or I messed up, or I sinned, or I…” It’s like, “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be there.” He keeps his appointment with us. Don’t have any enemies. Love your brother. Seek the one. Abandon the ninety-nine; they’ll be fine. Get out there and find the person who needs the love of Christ, and share it with them, because he is here. Amen.