Latest / Reformed Thinking / Do Not Despise the Little Ones: Heaven’s Valuation of the Humble (Matthew 18:10–11)

Transcript

Do Not Despise the Little Ones: Heaven’s Valuation of the Humble (Matthew 18:10–11) · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
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is this expectation of, well, total precision.
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It is like. Engineering, right?
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Very mechanical. Yeah, you break your arm.
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The X-ray shows that jagged white line, and the Doctor
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points at the film and says there is the problem.
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We like things to be visible. We want to categorize the world
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around us. And the truth is we do the very
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same thing with human value. We have built these these
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internal social X-ray machines. Oh, that is a good way to put
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it. We measure a person's worth by
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their followers, their tax bracket, their eloquence, or
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just their sheer visibility. We are constantly looking for
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the jagged white line that proves someone actually matters
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in the grand scheme of things. Yes, we look for the visible
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metrics. Right.
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But when you step into the text of Matthew chapter 18, Jesus
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takes that social X-ray machine and, well, he shatters it
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completely. Welcome to reform thinking.
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Today we are taking a deep dive into the severe warning Christ
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gives to the ambitious. We are focusing squarely on
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Matthew 18 verses 10 and 11. It is a heavy text.
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It really is. Our mission today is to unpack
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Christ's unyielding command against despising the so-called
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little ones and to look at how heaven's valuation completely
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overturns our worldly metrics of worth.
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So for you, the listener, living in an age obsessed with
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influence, platform building, and constant upward mobility,
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this text provides A striking recalibration of how Christians
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must view the obscure and the weak.
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And what is captivating about this passage is the sheer
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Trinitarian weight behind it. I mean, Jesus does not hand down
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a moralistic suggestion to just be a nicer person, you know?
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He roots the value of the lowly believer in the Father's
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meticulous Providence and the Son's effectual grace.
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Yeah, it is not a suggestion at all.
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Not at all. We are looking at the mechanics
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of heaven brought to bear on how you treat the quiet,
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unimpressive person sitting alone in the church Pew.
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So I want to set a ground rule for our conversation today.
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We are going to stick strictly to the text, relying heavily on
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Reformed theology and the Westminster Confession.
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We want to bring the full weight of this biblical warning to bear
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on modern church practices, and we're going to do it without
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flinching. I.
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Love that. But to grasp the shock of
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Christ's warning in verse 10, we actually have to back up to the
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beginning of Matthew 18. We need to see the specific sin
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Jesus was addressing first. Because context determines the
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cure, you cannot understand the remedy until you properly
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diagnose the disease. And the disease infecting the
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disciples at this moment is, well, it is unchecked worldly
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ambition. Let's look at the literary flow.
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Starting in Matthew 18, verse one, the disciples come to Jesus
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and ask a question that exposes their entire mindset.
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They ask who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?
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Such a revealing question. Right.
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I picture them acting like corporate executives jockeying
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for a corner office. They are trying to apply a
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worldly ladder climbing mentality to a Kingdom that
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operates on entirely different physics.
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The psychological reality of 1st century ambition is on full
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display here. I mean, the disciples have heard
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Christ teaching, they have witnessed his humility, yet they
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are still tethered to the political and social
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expectations of their era. They just can't shake it.
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Yeah. They are evaluating the Kingdom
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of heaven through the lens of earthly empires.
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The carnal mind naturally assesses value based on who
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takes up the most space in a room, who holds the most
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leverage, or who presents the most polished image.
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We naturally gravitate toward the influential.
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Men admire, influence, absolutely.
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The world praises those who rise above others and command
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attention. So the disciples are looking for
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a hierarchy of glory. They want to know who gets the
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prime real estate at the right hand of the king.
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And Jesus answers their ambition in a way that must have felt
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like a bucket of ice water. He does not point to Peter.
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He does not point to John. He calls a little child, places
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that child right in the middle of this group of grown,
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ambitious men, and says that unless they become like this,
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they are not entering the Kingdom.
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The visual of that moment is arresting.
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Christ. The sovereign King addresses
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their pride by placing a child in their midst.
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But we have to be precise with the language here, because the
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Greek term used in this context is oh, Micron.
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Yes, Micron. This is not restricted to
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biological infants. Jesus is using the child as a
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living illustration, but he is designating a specific type of
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citizen in his Kingdom. See, the modern mind immediately
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jumps to a Sunday school image of literal toddlers.
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But Jesus is casting a much wider net, isn't he?
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He is, He is designating born again believers who are lowly,
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weak, dependent, unimpressive and easily overlooked by the
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natural lie. The ones we tend to walk right
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past. Precisely.
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These are the poor in spirit. They might be timid, they might
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be limited in their theological knowledge, or they might be poor
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in outward social standing. What unites them is not their
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biological age, but their lowliness right.
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They have little that impresses the natural eye.
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They are small, the estimation of men, yet exceptionally dear
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to Christ. OK, hold on.
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I have to push back here for a second.
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Go for it. The apostle Paul tells us in
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First Timothy to give double honor to elders who roll well.
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The Bible clearly respects leadership, theological
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maturity, and capable administration.
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If we are supposed to honor strong, capable leaders, how is
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a preference for them considered a carnal sin?
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I mean, are we supposed to pretend that mature leadership
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does not matter? That is a necessary distinction
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to make, and I'm glad you brought it up.
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Giving biblical honor to an elder for their labor in the
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Word and doctrine is entirely different from the sin Jesus is
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addressing here. Paul commands us to honor godly
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character and the faithful execution of an office.
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The sin of the disciples is not that they respect godliness, it
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is that they are obsessed with rank, utility, and prestige.
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Oh wow. Pride creates a human scale of
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value where we assess people based on what they can offer us.
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On that human scale, the polished and the noticeable rise
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to the top, while the lowly and needy fall to the bottom.
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That is a harsh reality. It is a proud man might speak
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grandly about Reformed doctrine, and he might have all the right
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theological categories in his head, but if he dismisses the
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weak because they offer no social advantage to him, well,
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the spirit of Matthew 18 has not mastered his heart.
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Honoring an elder is obedience. Despising a weak believer
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because they are not useful to your ambitions is a rejection of
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Christ's value system. That distinction clears it up so
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well. It is the difference between
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honoring faithfulness and worshipping utility.
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Yes, the disciples are clearly still infected with this worldly
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ranking system. They are looking at the child,
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but still thinking about the corner office.
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Jesus knows human willpower is not enough to stop this kind of
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partiality, which is why he escalates the conversation.
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He issues a severe warning, moving from a general lesson on
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humility to a targeted command. He moves from illustration to
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imperative. The language he uses is
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uncompromising, striking at the very root of spiritual
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arrogance. Let's get into the grammatical
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precision of this command in Matthew 18, verse 10, Part A.
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Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones.
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The Greek verbs here reveal the mechanics of how this sin
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operates. The verb translated as take heed
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or see is horrate. It is a present, active
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imperative. Meaning it is continuous action.
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Right. It demands constant vigilant
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watchfulness over 1's own heart. Christ knows the temptation to
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look down upon others is a lingering threat to the purity
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of the Church. You do not check this box once.
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You stand guard against it every single day.
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You are standing watch at the gate of your own mind, looking
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out for this specific intruder. And the intruder is the word
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despise. The Greek verb is katefrani.
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Yes, Katefrani is a compound word.
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It joins kata meaning down and froni, meaning to think.
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Literally, it means to think down upon.
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It describes the mental act of assuming a position of judge and
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determining that another person is of lesser value, lower
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status, or simply insignificant. It is the core of intellectual
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and spiritual arrogance. And if we look at the historical
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context of that specific word, it completely changes how I view
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modern church interactions. The Greco Roman world had a very
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specific use for this concept, right?
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They did. In the philosophical discourse
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of the 1st century, cataphrony was the specific word used to
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describe the aristocratic disdain the Stoics and
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Epicureans held for the uneducated masses, the elites
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looking down on the commoners. Yes, the wise and noble
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philosophers would think down upon those who were ruled by
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their passions or those who lacked the wealth and leisure
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time for intellectual contemplation.
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They viewed the physically weak, the enslaved or the uneducated
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as lesser beings incapable of achieving true philosophical
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virtue. And Christ takes that exact
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word, that posture of aristocratic snobbery, and says,
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do not bring that poison into my house.
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He is looking at the cultural air the disciples breathed and
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demanding a total reversal. He stands the worldly hierarchy
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on its head. The Roman world was built on
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patronage, power, and utility. Christ exposes the carnal
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tendency to categorize people based on those metrics.
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You know, this feels like a direct indictment of the intense
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pragmatism we see in modern evangelicalism.
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I am thinking specifically of the seeker sensitive church
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planting movements. When you look at contemporary
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church planting data, it is staggering how much effort is
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put into demographic targeting. It is a devastating polemic
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against the corporate church model.
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You see strategies that explicitly target the upwardly
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mobile They want the affluent, the young professionals, the
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influencers. Denominations funnel massive
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resources into affluent suburban centers while treating the rural
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poor, the inner city and the elderly as secondary concerns.
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As an afterthought. Yeah, it is treated as a the
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smart business strategy. You find the people with
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disposable income and social leverage, and you build around
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them. The modern church growth
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movement calls it strategic efficiency, but Heaven calls it
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ketaphrona. This is the very essence of the
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sin of partiality addressed in James chapter 2, brought into
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the modern pulpit and sanitized with business terminology.
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That is a heavy charge. But it fits the text perfectly.
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Measuring A believer's worth by their demographic appeal or
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their professional success is what Jesus is forbidding here.
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The world says value the strong target.
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The influential Christ says beware of despising the weak.
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I want to raise a practical question for the listener
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because this is where the theology meets our daily lives.
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We often think of the word despising as open hostility.
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We picture cruelty, mocking or actively pushing someone out the
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door, but how does a well meaning Christian accidentally
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think down upon a fellow believer without ever speaking a
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single harsh word? That is the insidious nature of
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this sin. It highs beneath highly
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respectable forms of efficiency. Contempt often masks itself as
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impatience or selective concern. Selective concern.
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I like that phrase. A believer might never say
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anything cruel, but they despise the little 1 to calculated
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neglect. It happens when you refuse to
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listen, when you treat a person's concerns as trivial, or
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when you show visible irritation toward their weakness.
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So it is treating a struggling member as a nuisance.
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Yes, it is treating them as an interruption to the ministry
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rather than recognizing that they are the object of the
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ministry. The proud heart says inwardly,
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this person matters less. This soul requires less of my
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time. This believer is not as useful
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to the overall vision. You do not have to be openly
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hostile to despise someone, you just have to treat them as
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disposable. Can you give an example of what
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that looks like in church leadership?
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Think about an elder board meeting.
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If the board spends 2 hours discussing how to retain a
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wealthy donor who is upset about the music, but spends 2 minutes
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discussing the pastoral care of an elderly widow who can no
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longer drive to church, that board is practicing cataphrony.
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Man, that cuts deep. Because how many times are we at
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a church function and we find ourselves gravitating toward the
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polished people we look for? The ones who can help our
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careers, the ones who are easy to talk to while quietly
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avoiding the awkward, timid person standing in the corner?
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We all fall into that trap, which is why the imperative
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horrid stand guard is vital. Our hearts are factories of
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partiality. Jesus does not base this command
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against contempt on general social courtesy.
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He does not say do not despise them because it hurts their
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feelings and damages their self esteem.
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He anchors the command in a shocking revelation about the
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unseen realm. Let's look at the second-half of
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verse 10. For I say unto you, that in
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heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father,
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which is in heaven. Earthly disciples might brush
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aside the weak, but heaven does not treat them so lightly.
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Christ lifts the eyes of his disciples above earthly
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appearances and teaches them to see the little ones in the light
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of the Father's cosmic administration.
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Now anytime angels get mentioned, things can get weird
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quickly. People start talking about
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feathers and individual fairy godmothers.
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We need to filter this verse through proper reformed and
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geology. The Westminster Confession of
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Faith, specifically Chapter 5, gives us the framework here.
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The Westminster Confession declares that God's Providence
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extends in a most special manner to His church.
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God orders all things for the good of His elect.
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When Jesus speaks of their angels, we must avoid the
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superstitious errors found in Roman Catholicism or secular
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mysticism. Reformed theology rejects the
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idea of the personal guardian Angel who acts as an independent
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mediator you can pray to. Yeah, there is no biblical
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warrant for playing to an Angel to find your car keys.
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Definitely not relying on Hebrews 1.14.
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We understand these angels as ministering spirits sent out to
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attend to those who are to inherit salvation.
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They are servants of the sovereign decree, executing the
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Father's providential will under his direct command.
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The text is not meant to satisfy our speculative curiosity about
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the mechanics of how angels operate in the unseen realm.
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So what is the focus? The focus falls entirely on the
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high value of the little ones in the sight of doubt.
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The text says these angels always behold the face of my
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Father. There is an ancient Near Eastern
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court metaphor happening here that is crucial for
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understanding the weight of this statement.
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In biblical and ancient royal imagery, to the hold the face of
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a king is to stand in a position of extreme nearness, favor, and
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readiness for action. In earthly courts like those in
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Persia or Babylon, only the highest ranking, most favored
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officials had unhindered access to the King's face.
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Let me try an analogy. It is as if the CEO of a massive
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global corporation has his absolute elite top tier
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executive team completely focused on the daily well-being
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of the lowest paid mailroom clerk.
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That captures the shock of the statement perfectly.
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The angels assigned to watch over the lowliest, most broken
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believers are not low ranking entry level spirits.
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They stand in the immediate, glorious presence of the Father.
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They have constant, unhindered access.
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They always behold His face. If the Father has dispatched the
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highest created beings in the universe to watch over the
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obscure St., what does it say about me when I find that exact
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same St. too burdensome to talk to you for 5 minutes after the
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church service? It says that you are
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contradicting the order of heaven.
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To despise a little one is to think lightly of someone the
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Father honors. John Calvin noted that this
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doctrine should strike an absolute terror into the hearts
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of those who oppress or neglect the weak.
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Absolute terror. Yes, if an injury is done to a
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little one, that injury is immediately seen in the throne
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room of God, because their representative angels are always
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before His face. So we are not just offending a
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person, we are offending the court of heaven.
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What is neglected below is seen above.
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What is belittled on earth is brought before the very face of
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the Father. The little ones are protected by
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divine regard. The Father's meticulous watch
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care establishes their worth in heaven, but the text moves
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forward to show how the sun's mission establishes their worth
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on earth. Matthew 18 verse 11 says for the
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Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
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Before we get into the theology, we have to address the textual
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criticism surrounding this verse.
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If a listener opens a modern translation, verse 11 might be
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missing entirely or relegated to a tiny footnote.
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It is a significant textual issue.
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Modern critical editions like the Nestleone text often omit
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verse 11 because it does not appear in certain early
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Alexandrian manuscripts, primarily Synapticus and
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Vaticanus. Right.
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The modern critical assumption is that a later scribe inserted
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it here, borrowing the phrasing from Luke 19.10 to smooth out
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the transition to the parable of the lost sheep.
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So if the oldest manuscripts do not have it, why do Reformed
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scholars retain it and preach it as part of this passage?
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For several reasons. First, it is overwhelmingly
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attested to in the Byzantine majority text tradition, which
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represents the vast bulk of historical manuscript evidence.
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The majority of the texts have. It yes.
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Second, and perhaps more crucially for exegesis, the
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internal literary structure of Matthew 18 demands it.
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Verse 11 is the vital bridge. It connects the Father's
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Providence in verse 10 with the parable of the wandering sheep
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in verses 12 through 14. That makes sense if you remove
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verse 11. The transition from the angels
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beholding the Father's face directly into the parable of the
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99 sheep is abrupt and disjointed.
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Retaining the verse maintains the logical and theological flow
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of Christ's argument. He moves from the Father's care
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to the Son's mission, to the practical illustration of the
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Shepherd. Assuming it's rightful place,
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let's look at the Christology of this verse.
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Jesus uses the title Son of Man. That title carries the immense
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weight of Daniel Chapter 7. The Son of Man is the exalted
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Messianic King, vested with absolute divine authority, to
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whom dominion and glory are given.
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Yet he came in humiliation. He did not arrive to applaud the
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accomplished or flatter the strong in their imagined
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self-sufficiency. He came to save the ruined.
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His mission is not admiration, but redemption.
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He does not enter the world because men are worthy, but
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because they are entirely undone.
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This brings us to a massive theological crossroads.
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Jesus says he came to save, not to offer a potential salvation.
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Let's really pull this apart, because the difference between
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definite atonement and Arminianism completely changes
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how we view the people sitting in the pews around us.
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The contrast is stark. The Armenian system, originated
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with the remonstrance in the 17th century, posits A Savior
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who just makes men salvable. In their view, Christ's death
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provides a universal remedy, but the application of that remedy
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depends entirely on the free will of man.
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It leaves the final determination up to human
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choice. Which implies there is some
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spark of greatness, some sliver of moral competence left in the
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lost person to make that correct choice.
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If salvation depends on my wise choice, I can still boast.
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Exactly. I mean spot on.
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The psychological impact of our many in theology is that it
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subtly preserves human pride. But Reformed theology, adhering
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to the biblical doctrine of total depravity, clarifies that
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man is completely dead in his trespasses.
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Completely dead. Christ did not come to try to
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save. He came to actually secure a
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salvation that is certain. This is definite atonement.
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The verb to save gathers up the whole weight of redemption,
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rescue from guilt, condemnation, and the dominion of sin.
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He effectually saves those given to Him by the Father.
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I am thinking of Ezekiel 34 where God indicts the false
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shepherds of Israel. They fed themselves, ignored the
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disease and did not seek the lost sheep.
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Ezekiel 34 is a devastating critique of leaders who viewed
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the flock as a resource to be consumed rather than
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responsibility to be protected. Jesus stands in Matthew 18 as
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the true shepherd. He opposes everything those
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false shepherds represented. He actively seeks out the weak.
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I want to ask another question for the listener, focusing on
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the phrase that which was lost. We love merit, we love rank.
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We love feeling like we bring something to the table.
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How does that one word lost completely level the playing
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field at the foot of the cross? Lostness implies total
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helplessness. It implies disorientation and
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the absolute inability to recover oneself.
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A lost sheep does not calculate the coordinates and guide itself
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home. It just wanders.
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It is exposed, wandering and perishing, unless the shepherd
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actively seeks it out and carries it back.
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It destroys any sense of moralism.
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Completely. We do not care for the weak out
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of some sense of moral superiority.
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We do not look down on them because we think we are better.
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We care for them because we recognize that we were all
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equally destitute. We were all that lost sheep.
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Yes, when Jesus says He came for the lost, He strips man of all
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imagined spiritual strength. To look down upon the weak
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believer is to oppose the very direction of Christ's own heart.
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He came downward in humiliation to seek the lost.
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Pride moves upward in self exaltation.
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You cannot embrace the gospel of grace while maintaining a spirit
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of contempt for the needy. Having laid down these
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theological realities, the Father's meticulous Providence,
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the heavenly Sentinels, the Son's definite atonement, we
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cannot just leave this in the realm of abstract thought.
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We need to look at how this alters the life of the listener.
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Let's start with the head. This challenges us to identify
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our idols. Do you, the listener, secretly
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ranked believers according to their usefulness to you or their
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usefulness to the church? It requires deep repentance.
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We must repent of the evangelical pragmatism that
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treats the poor, the weak, or the slow growing as secondary.
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We naturally gravitate toward the articulate, the mature, the
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socially admirable. We must crucify the instinct
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that measures a souls worth by its demographic reach.
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That is the head, now the heart. This passage offers immense
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comfort for the weary. I want to speak directly to the
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listener right now who feels small.
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Maybe you feel unnoticed in your congregation.
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Maybe you are burdened in your conscience, timid or painfully
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aware of your own weaknesses. You feel like you do not matter
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compared to the great Christians around you.
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To that listener, the pastoral consolation of this text is
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significant. You are not forgotten.
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The sovereign God who decreed the ends of the earth from the
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beginning has commissioned heavenly Sentinels to attend to
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your soul. That is a beautiful truth.
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Your tears, your struggles, your quiet temptations, they are
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matters of intense heavenly concern.
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You may be small in the eyes of men, but you are not small to
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God. Your witness does not place you
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beyond Christ's notice. It actually makes you the exact
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kind of person this text gathers beneath His protecting word.
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Now let's look at the hands, the practical operations of the
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local church. Pastors and elders have a
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massive responsibility here. Shepherds must take
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extraordinary care not to mirror the world's preferences.
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There is a relentless temptation in ministry to devote
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disproportionate attention to the wealthy, the influential and
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the publicly useful, while assuming the obscure can just
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wait. Building ministry success on
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personalities, platforms and charismatic influencers.
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Creating AVIP section in the Kingdom of God.
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Which is a complete betrayal of Matthew 18.
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The test of a church's spiritual health is not its budget, its
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attendance or its social media reach.
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What is the test then? The test is how the least
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visible members are treated. The elderly St.
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Whose public usefulness seems past the poor believer with no
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prestige, the new convert struggling with old sins.
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If a church ignores them to focus on the upwardly mobile
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Christ is dishonored. There is also a strict
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implication for anyone listening who is outside of Christ right
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now. The doorway into the Kingdom of
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heaven is not self importance, it is total need.
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You cannot clean yourself up. First, the world tells you that
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your worth is proven by yourself.
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Sufficiency. Christ says salvation only
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begins when a Sinner admits they are ruined.
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You must abandoned all hope in your own religious performance,
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your pride, your morality. Because the Son of Man came for
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the lost. Right.
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You must cast yourself entirely on His sovereign grace, because
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only the lost will seek Him rightly.
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Let me put a question directly to you, the listener.
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Are your daily interactions in your local congregation shaped
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by ambition or by conformity to the heart of Christ?
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Next time you walk into your church for you, who are you
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looking for? The person who can elevate your
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status or the person Heaven is currently watching.
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That is the diagnostic test of our practical theology.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, let's summarize the core
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thoughts we have unearthed. The Kingdom of heaven completely
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reverses worldly greatness. The Father actively honors the
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lowly by stationing his angels before his face on their behalf,
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and the Son effectively saves the loss.
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It is a vision of the Christian life utterly opposed to pride
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and holy, shaped by grace. I want to leave you with a final
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provocative thought, something to Mull over on your own that
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builds on what we have discussed today.
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If the angels of the little ones always behold the face of the
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Father reporting their condition in the throne room, is it
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possible that our own seasons of spiritual dryness or our own
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unanswered prayers are directly tied to how we privately treat
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the most obscure, frustrating person in our local
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congregation? What if Heaven's discipline in
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your life right now is a direct response from the heavenly court
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defending a little 1 you quietly ignored or pushed aside?
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That is a staggering implication if heaven defends them or
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neglect of them invites heaven's rebuke.
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Thank you for joining us for this session of reformed
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thinking. We encourage you to examine your
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own heart before the Lord, to look at how you measure the
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people around you, and to smash the worldly X-ray machine.
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Until next time.