Meditate on it

Section 74 SIN AND FORGIVENESS BETWEEN BRETHREN (Autumn, A. D. 29.) MATT 18:15-35 Subject---the need to forgive others repeatedly, in proportion to the grace God had showed us. "For this purpose it would be convenient, where it may be, that reproofs be given privately. “If thy brother offend thee, tell him his fault between him and thee.”" BI, Swinneck "For what end we are to reprove him. Not to please ourselves, or to gratify our private resentments-not to triumph over his infirmities or to display our superiority to him; not to insult him, or to make ourselves merry with his faults; but that we may win him over from the camp of the aliens, and restore him to his rightful owner." -Daniel Rowland "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. ” -Matthew 18:20 Lit., “into my name.” When two or three are drawn together into Christ as the common centre of their desire and faith.-Vincent's Word Studies Section 75  JE

Mark 9:38-50 Luke 9:49-50 "John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me."   -Mark 9:38-39 An important distinction: "The man wasn't teaching false doctrine or living in sin. He simply did not join up with the disciples." -Believer's Bible “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." Mark 9:42 "Character depends upon small things. If a small act of goodness receives its reward, an act of evil, made apparently small by the trifling insignificance of the person against whom it is committed, receives just as inevitably its punishment. In short, there is no smallness in good and evil that men may

Section 73 MATT. 18:10-14 MARK 9:33-37 LUKE 9:46-50 Summary: Continuation of commentary on children and the angels that watch over them.  The lost sheep vs. the 99. The idea of "guardian angels" whether specific to individuals or as a collective force watching over believers is clearly taught here, as well as in Hebrews 1:14: “ See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven ." Mat 18:10 " Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? " Heb 1:14 Despise (kataphronēsēte). Literally, “think down on,” with the assumption of superiority.-Robertson's Word Pictures "If they are important enough to engage angels, the Lord Jesus, and God the Father, then clearly we should never despise them, no matter how unlovely or lowly they might appear." - Believer's Bible I appreciate

Matthew 18:7-9 Mark 9:42-50 Luke 17:1-2 Point 3:  Avoid offense; do not provoke others to sin.  Don't be the conduit through others are prompted or weakened. God considers not only our actions, but the impact that those actions have on others. "It is a lamentation that those who were made to be to God for a name and for a praise should be to him a shame and dishonour."  Matthew Henry on Romans God takes great offense when there is hypocrisy. " You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.  For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. ” Romans 2:23-24 Example: Bathsheba and David's baby dies as a consequence of his sin: David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” 2 Samuel 12:13-14 Exa

Passages under reflection: Luke 9:46-50 Matthew 18:1-5 Mark 9:33-37 Point 2:   As an illustration of kingdom greatness, Jesus directed them to become child-like. "And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” -Mark 9:35-37 “ Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven ." Matthew 18:3 "To illustrate servanthood Jesus set a little child from the home (cf. Mar_9:33, perhaps Peter’s child) among the disciples. To be a “servant of all” included giving attention to a child, the least (cf. “the very last,” Mar_9:35) significant person in Jewish as well as Greco-Roman society which idealized the mature adult

Passages under reflection: Mark 9:33-37 Luke 9:46-50 Matthew 18:1-5 Point 1:  Jesus addresses the question among the disciples---who is the greatest in the kingdom?  He corrects their understanding of "greatness." "Jesus and His disciples came to Capernaum for the last time after an absence of several months. When they were in the house Jesus candidly asked them what they were… arguing about on the road (en tē hodō, “on the way”; cf. comments on Mar_1:2). Once again His pointed question opened the way for additional teaching (cf. Mar_8:27, Mar_8:29) ." -Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC) "The peerage of the kingdom I. The question. It showed ignorance, pride, selfishness. II. The answer. Learn: The way of entrance. The principle of recompense, not merit; not personal worth and greatness. The acknowledgment of unworthiness even to get in at all." -H. Bonar "The question of the disciples brings them very distinctly before us, and mak

Summary of Events: Return to Galilee, Jesus shares the upcoming events of the Passion with his disciples. Jesus pays temple taxes with a coin from a fish's mouth. "But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying." Luke 9:45 "Not so much from any awe with which they regarded him, as from the delicacy of the subject itself, and their own sorrow, which shrank from knowing it more fully."-Fourfold Gospel The disciples did not relish the thought of Christ's passion anymore than I look forward to reading about it---two thousand years removed, it still bothers.  They must have felt unmoored after being under his care and provision--the thought of losing him must have been sharp. ************************ With the story of the temple tax, I find it interesting that Jesus took pains to clarify the underlying principle--that neither Jesus nor Pete

Summary of Events: The transfiguration The healing of the demonic boy The boy had a self-destructive epilepsy attributed to demons and had been struggling with it since he was young.  Because of lack of faith, the disciples were unable to heal the boy. Mat 17:17  And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”  "The disbelief of the people was a constant grief to Jesus, but it must have been especially so in this case, for it fostered and perpetrated this scene of weakness, mean-spiritedness, misery, and suffering which stood out in such sharp contrast with the peace, blessedness, and glory from which he had just come." -Fourfold Gospel "And when he was come into the house,  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, asked him privately, How is it that we could not we cast it out? And Jesus saith unto them, Because of your little faith " Mark 9:19-20

Section 70 THIRD WITHDRAWAL FROM HEROD'S TERRITORY  Subdivision B  THE GREAT CONFESSION MADE BY PETER  (Near Cæsarea Philippi, Summer, A. D. 29.)  MATT. 16:13-20 MARK 8:27-30 LUKE 9:18-21  "Concerning the term Son of Man: "Over eighty times throughout Scripture, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man. I believe there is a two-fold reason He uses this term more than any other. First, it speaks of His humility and His ability to relate. He desires to be numbered among us. Second, it speaks of His position prophetically. Dan_7:13 foretold that Messiah would be known as the Son of Man."-Jon Courson "He does not, in the case of these mixed cavillers, argue from Scripture, but from the natural world, and he points out that, had they eyes to see and a mind to discern, they might mark tokens in historical events, in the moral and spiritual world, which attested his Messiahship as clearly as any specially given sign from heaven."-Pulpit "Jesus me

Section 70 THIRD WITHDRAWAL FROM HEROD'S TERRITORY Subdivision A PHARISAIC LEAVEN  A BLIND MAN HEALED (Magadan and Bethsaida. Probably Summer, A. D. 29.) MATT. 15:39-16:12 MARK 8:10-26 The Pharisees and Sadduces argue with Christ, asking for specific signs "to test him." Jesus responds that "an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign." Mark adds the detail that Jesus "sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign?" The Bible Knowledge commentary explains the context of their request: "In Mark, there is a distinction between a miracle (dynamis) and a sign (sēmeion). The former evidences God’s presence and power in Jesus. An appeal for a miracle can be a legitimate expression of one’s faith (e.g., Mar_5:23; Mar_7:26, Mar_7:32). But such an appeal is illegitimate if it arises out of unbelief, as was true of the Pharisees." "The Pharisees did not demand a spectacular miracle, but that Jes