Latest / Reformed Thinking / True Greatness in the Kingdom: Humility, Conversion, and Care for Christ’s Little Ones (Matthew 18:1–6)

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True Greatness in the Kingdom: Humility, Conversion, and Care for Christ’s Little Ones (Matthew 18:1–6) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. We are absolutely thrilled to
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  have you sitting down with us today.
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  Yes. It is great to have you with us.
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  So the mission of today's deep dive is to examine 2 extensive
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  systematic theological expositions.
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  Focus squarely on Matthew chapter 18 verses one through 6.
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  And right off the bat, we need to establish the lens we are
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  looking through today. Both of us approach this
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  material as Protestant Christians who adhere to the
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  Westminster Confession of Faith. Right.
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  That means we are reading these sources and this biblical text
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  through a distinctly Reformed theological framework.
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  Our objective today is to unpack what these authors reveal about
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  the true nature of Kingdom greatness.
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  We are also going to look at the absolute necessity of divine
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  conversion and take a very sobering, unflinching look at
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  the terrifying wrath of the Lamb against anyone who causes a
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  believer to stumble. So before we get rolling, I have
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  a question for you listening. How often do you assess your own
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  spiritual standing using corporate metrics?
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  That is a harsh question to face.
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  It really is. Do you measure your faith by
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  your visible success, your influence, or your theological
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  knowledge rather than biblical loneliness?
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  Consider this deep dive a diagnostic mirror.
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  Get ready for a theological breakdown that confronts our
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  idols of self-sufficiency head on.
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  The contrast we're going to look at today between human
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  expectation and divine reality is just staggering.
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  The sources we are analyzing do not treat this passage as a
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  quaint collection of moral suggestions for being a nicer
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  person. No, they definitely do not.
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  They view it as a radical, systemic dismantling of human
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  pride. I mean, the human heart
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  naturally gravitates toward distinction.
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  We seek prominence. We seek authority.
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  We seek influence. And the problem is we bring
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  those those exact same worldly instincts right through the
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  church doors. We just dress them up in
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  religious language. Precisely.
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  But Christ's response to his disciples in this text
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  fundamentally shatters that paradigm.
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  We're going to look closely at the Greek grammar, the
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  historical context, and the systematic theology embedded in
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  these verses to understand why true greatness in God's Kingdom
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  is the complete opposite of what fallen humanity assumes.
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  I want to set the scene because the context of Matthew 18 verse
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  one changes everything. If you just read the verse in
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  isolation, it sounds like a harmless theological question.
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  Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum.
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  But we have to ask what just happened prior to this scene?
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  Yes, if you look back at chapter 17, Jesus has just experienced
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  the transfiguration. Peter, James, and John saw his
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  face shine like the sun and his clothes become white as light.
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  They saw Moses and Elijah. They heard the voice of the
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  Father. And immediately falling that
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  glimpse of absolute, radiant divine glory, Jesus gives them a
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  very somber prophecy regarding his impending betrayal and
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  crucifixion. He tells them flat out that the
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  Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of man,
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  and they will kill him. And in jarring, almost comical
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  dissonance to that heavy revelation of his impending
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  death, the disciples come to him and ask who then is greatest in
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  the Kingdom of heaven? It is a staggering lack of
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  spiritual awareness. Jesus says I am going to a cross
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  to be slaughtered and the disciples essentially respond
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  with got it. So which one of us gets the
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  corner office? It is a remarkable display of
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  fleshly ambition. It shows a striking
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  misunderstanding of the covenantal Kingdom.
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  The disciples are looking for a crown without a cross.
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  They want a throne without a tomb.
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  Spot on. They are still viewing the
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  Kingdom of Heaven through the lens of Roman geopolitical
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  structures. Think about the world they lived
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  in. Rome operated on a strict
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  hierarchy of patronage, power and military dominance.
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  In the minds of the disciples, the Messiah is about to
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  establish an earthly reign in Jerusalem, overthrow the Romans,
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  and they are jockeying for cabinet positions.
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  They want to know who gets to be the Prime Minister, the
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  Secretary of State, the highest ranking official in this new
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  administration. They are completely blinded by a
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  competitive spirit that contradicts the entire analogy
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  of faith found throughout Scripture.
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  Scripture constantly declares that God opposes the proud but
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  gives grace to the humble. They're arguing about a
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  hierarchy that Jesus came to dismantle.
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  And the sources we are looking at make a massive point to say
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  that this fleshly ambition is not just an ancient problem
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  isolated to 12 guys in the 1st century.
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  They draw heavy modern parallels here.
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  They specifically critique current trends in the broader
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  evangelical landscape. They argue that the seeker
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  sensitive movement and the prosperity gospel have
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  essentially baptized the same fleshly lust for status.
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  Did you think about how modern ministries often measure
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  greatness Today? We look at numerical growth.
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  We look at weekly attendance. We analyze social media metrics,
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  the size of the building, the production value of the worship
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  team, and budget surpluses. We've taken the model of a
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  Fortune 500 corporate boardroom and pasted it directly over the
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  local church. We celebrate pastors like they
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  are rock stars or visionary CEO's.
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  The sources argue we have replaced the foolishness of the
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  cross with pragmatic self actualization, assuming that if
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  something is big and successful by worldly standards, God must
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  be blessing it. This raises the massive
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  theological error of moralism and merit based standing.
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  The disciples believed that greatness was something they
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  could achieve, earn or leverage based on their proximity to
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  Jesus or their own merit. But Kingdom status cannot be
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  achieved through discipline, regimen of self humbling or
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  climbing a corporate spiritual ladder.
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  Greatness in God's Kingdom is bestowed by the King upon the
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  spiritually bankrupt. This aligns perfectly with the
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  Westminster Confession of Faith. If we look at Chapter 3, which
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  covers the eternal decree, in Chapter 11, which covers
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  justification, we see that our standing before God is entirely
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  independent of our perceived greatness or our intrinsic
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  qualities. God does not look down the
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  corridors of time, see who is going to be a high capacity
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  leader and choose them based on their potential.
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  Chapter 11 is clear that God justifies sinners not by
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  infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their
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  sins and accounting and accepting their persons as
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  righteous for Christ's sake alone.
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  We are justified by an alien righteousness, the imputed
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  righteousness of Christ. The disciples question rejects
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  the indicative of grace, which says they are already chosen and
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  loved, and replaces it with a legalistic pursuit of prestige.
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  They want something they can take credit for.
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  So, bringing this directly to you, the listener, are you
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  building a personal Tower of Babel in your own religious
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  life? This text functions as a
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  diagnostic mirror. The desire for worldly greatness
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  even within the walls of a church is essentially an attempt
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  at self defecation. It is the original sin of Eden
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  repackaged. When the serpent said you will
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  be like God, he was appealing to that desire to be elevated, to
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  be autonomous, to be recognized. When we try to climb a spiritual
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  ladder to assert our superiority over others, whether that is by
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  flaunting our theological pedigree, our perfect attendance
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  or our volunteer hours, we are acting completely contrary to
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  the nature of the Kingdom. And that brings us to how Jesus
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  handles this. He doesn't hand them a
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  leadership syllabus or a list of 10 steps to become a more
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  effective influencer. In verses 2 and three, he
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  performs a living parable. He calls a child over and places
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  him right in the middle of this group of grown men arguing about
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  their resumes. The cultural reality of the
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  child in the ancient Greco, Roman and Jewish world is the
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  entire key to understanding this living parable.
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  Today, in the 21st century West, we tend to view children through
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  a lens of romanticized innocence.
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  We think of them as pure, untainted and morally sweet.
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  But that is a later cultural myth that denies the biblical
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  reality of total depravity. The sources we are examining are
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  crystal clear on this. Children are born with fallen
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  natures. They inherit the guilt and
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  corruption of Adam just like the rest of us.
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  So Jesus is not pointing to the child as an emblem of moral
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  purity. He is not saying you need to be
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  seamless like this little boy. That would be impossible.
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  Instead, you have to look at the social and legal status of a
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  child in that society. Under Roman law, specifically
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  the concept of patriot patestas, a father had absolute life and
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  death power over his children. A child had zero legal standing,
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  they had no social clout, they own no property, they had no
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  inherent merit to bargain with, and they lived in utter
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  dependency on others for their sheer survival.
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  A child was a non person in terms of societal influence.
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  By bringing the child to the center of these ambitious
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  disciples, Jesus completely reverses all societal
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  hierarchies. He takes the person with the
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  absolute lowest status in the room and makes them the focal
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  point of his teaching on greatness.
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  I love that clarification because if we misread the child
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  as an example of moral purity, we end up right back in the
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  works based religion we just condemned.
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  Jesus says truly. I say to you, unless you turn
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  and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of
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  heaven. Let's look closely at that word
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  turn. Our sources spend a lot of time
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  doing a grammatical exegesis of the Greek verb used here, which
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  is straffied. For those of us who haven't
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  dusted off our Greek grammars lately, it sounds like this
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  isn't just a gentle suggestion to change your mind or turn your
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  life around. It carries massive theological
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  weight. Could you give us the explain it
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  like I'm 5 breakdown of what that specific tense actually
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  means and plain English? Absolutely.
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  The parsing of Straffy is critical to understanding the
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  reformed view of salvation. It is an aorist passive
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  subjunctive. Let's break that down.
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  OK, let's hear it. The aorist tense generally
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  points to a specific puntilier action, something that happens
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  at a point in time, but the key is the passive voice.
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  Think of the difference between active and passive.
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  If you are active, you are doing the action.
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  If you are passive, the action is being done to you.
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  The sources call this a divine passive.
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  It signifies that the turning Jesus is demanding is not a work
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  of the human will. It is not the result of
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  synergistic cooperation between man and God, where God does his
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  part and you do your part. It is a monarchistic sovereign
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  act of God upon the human soul. Monarchism simply means one
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  working God alone is doing the work.
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  You do not turn yourself into a state of Kingdom readiness by
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  trying harder. You must be turned by the
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  regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
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  OK, let me pause you there, because I want to make sure I
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  grasp this completely and I want our listeners to catch the
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  magnitude of it. Think of it like a drowning man
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  at the bottom of the ocean. He is completely unconscious,
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  lungs full of water. That is a grim picture, but very
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  accurate. He doesn't look up, see a
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  lifeguard and consciously grab the lifeguards hand to help pull
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  himself up. The drowning man is passive.
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  The lifeguard dives down, grabs the lifeless body and pulls him
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  to the surface entirely by the lifeguards own strength.
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  The man is acted upon. Is that what the sources mean by
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  the divine passive? That is a perfect illustration.
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  The man at the bottom of the ocean cannot contribute to his
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  rescue in the same way fallen man is spiritually dead in
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  trespasses and sins. This grammatical detail
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  absolutely shatters theological frameworks like Arminianism and
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  Pelagianism. Pelagianism argues that human
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  nature is essentially uncorrupted and that we have the
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  natural ability to choose God without any special grace.
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  And Arminianism teaches that while we are fallen, God gives a
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  sort of universal grace that allows everyone the free will to
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  either accept or reject salvation, making the human
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  choice the deciding factor. Both of those systems suggest
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  that felon Man possesses some residual island of ability to
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  initiate his own salvation, but the passive voice in Straffy
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  denies that completely. You cannot initiate the turn.
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  God must perform a radical intervention.
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  And this ties directly back to Westminster Confession Chapter
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  X, which deals with effectual calling.
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  The confession states that in this calling man is altogether
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  passive therein, until being quickened and renewed by the
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  Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call.
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  Conversion is not a simple psychological shift.
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  It is not a choice you make out of your own natural wisdom after
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  weighing the pros and cons of Christianity.
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  It is a resurrection from the dead.
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  You were entirely passive in your regeneration, just as
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  Lazarus was passive when Jesus stood outside his tomb and
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  called his name. Lazarus didn't decide to come
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  back to life. The voice of the Son of God gave
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  life to a decaying corpse. The monarchistic nature of this
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  turning means that God the Holy Spirit does all the heavy
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  lifting of bringing a dead heart to life.
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  And that theological reality forces us to severely evaluate
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  our standing before God. Think back to the child in the
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  middle of the room. Just as a child brings nothing
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  to his Father's house except his total need for provision, the
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  Sinner brings absolutely nothing to Christ except the sin that
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  requires cleansing. This confronts the idol of the
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  self-made myth that is so prevalent in western culture.
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  We love the narrative of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
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  But if you believe your entrance into the Kingdom of heaven
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  depends on your ability to muster up enough humility by
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  your own strength, or to manufacture a sufficient amount
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  of repentance, you misunderstand the gospel entirely.
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  You cannot self generate the lowliness required for the
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  Kingdom. It must be wrought in you by the
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  sovereign spirit. This demands a complete
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  repudiation of self exalting religion.
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  You are not a partner in your regeneration, you are the
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  recipient of it. I want to challenge you, the
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  listener right now. Take a hard look at your
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  reliance on your own accomplishments.
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  When you think about your standing before God, do you
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  mentally approach Him holding up your theological knowledge?
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  Do you point to your ministry resume, the fact that you teach
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  Sunday school, or your moral track record?
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  Do you think, Well, I'm certainly better than my
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  neighbor. This text demands that we drop
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  all of those filthy rags at the door.
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  You bring nothing. You are the beggar at the gate.
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  And realizing that bankruptcy transitions us beautifully into
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  verse 4, where Jesus redefines what true greatness actually
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  looks like for the regenerate believer.
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  Jesus says whoever humbles himself like this child is the
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  greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
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  Now wait a minute, I struggle with this.
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  If the text says we have to humble ourselves to be the
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  greatest, doesn't that inherently create a paradox?
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  Aren't we just trying to be humble so that we can be great,
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  which is just ambition in disguise?
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  That is a really common question, and it is the tension
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  the sources address. The answer lies in understanding
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  the shift in the Greek grammar between verse 3 and verse 4.
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  We just established the divine passive in verse three.
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  You must be turned by God monarchistically.
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  But in verse 4, the Greek uses a reflexive verb type in and say,
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  which is is translated as humbles himself.
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  The action shifts. This is the practical outworking
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  of the divine turning. It is the active, conscious
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  choice of the believer. But it is not a theatrical
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  display of false modesty, like a politician kissing babies to
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  look relatable. Nor is it simply being brought
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  low by painful external circumstances, like losing a job
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  or facing an illness, which can happen to anyone.
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  The humility Jesus is describing is the conscious, active
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  renunciation of pride by a soul that has already been
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  regenerated. Because God has sovereignly
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  turned you and given you a new heart, you are now equipped,
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  enabled, and called to actively lower yourself.
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  You don't humble yourself to earn the greatness.
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  You humble yourself because you have already been given a new
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  nature that desires the lowest place.
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  That distinction is crucial. If we look at this through the
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  reformed understanding of the three uses of the moral law, it
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  clears up the paradox entirely. Let's review those briefly.
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  The first use of the law is civil.
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  It restrains sin in society through the threat of
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  punishment. The second use is pedagogical.
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  It drives us to Christ by exposing our guilt and our
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  absolute inability to keep God's standard.
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  But the third use is normative. It guides the believer in how to
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  live a life pleasing to God. Because you are already
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  justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ you're
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  standing in, the Kingdom is entirely secure.
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  You are not striving to act humble so that God will finally
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  accept you or promote you. You walk in grateful obedience
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  because He already has accepted. You You are not great because
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  you are humble, because you were made great in Christ and seated
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  with Him in the heavenly places. You are entirely free to be
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  humble. The pressure to perform is
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  completely gone. When we view this through the
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  broader scope of the New Testament, we must contrast this
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  active Christ purchased humility with what the sources call a
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  Diotrephesian spirit. That is a reference to
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  Diotrephes, a man mentioned by the apostle John in his third
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  epistle. John writes that Diotrephes
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  loves to have the preeminence. That Diotrephesian spirit is
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  obsessed with status recognition, having the final
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  say and being the loudest voice in the room.
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  It is the exact spirit the disciples were displaying in
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  verse one. But.
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  The regenerate believer is called to something entirely
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  foreign to the flesh. We are called to the mind of
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  Christ. In Philippians 2, the apostle
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  Paul gives us the ultimate theological anchor for this.
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  He writes that Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of
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  God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
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  emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in
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  the likeness of men. And being found in human form,
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  he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
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  even death on a cross. True Kingdom.
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  Humility is a participation in that very mind.
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  It is a grace purchased by Christ and applied to us by the
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  Spirit. So if you are listening to this
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  and feeling exhausted by the constant demand to prove
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  yourself here, the incredible freedom this text offers, you do
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  not have to climb a spiritual ladder.
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  You do not have to constantly defend your reputation, Polish
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  your image, or prove your worth to everyone around you.
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  True Kingdom elevation is found by stepping downward.
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  You can stop competing with other Christians.
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  You can stop keeping score of your spiritual achievements
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  versus theirs. You were invited to completely
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  rest in the lowliness of the Lamb.
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  But this inward posture of rest doesn't just stay internal, it
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  naturally flows into outward action.
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  So if true greatness is this inward lowering of ourselves,
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  how does that actually play out when we walk into church on
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  Sunday morning? How do we treat the people
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  around us? That moves us to verse 5 where
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  Jesus says whoever receives one such child in my name receives
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  me. The teaching moves from the
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  internal, invisible realm of the heart to the external, highly
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  visible realm of community relations within the Church, and
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  defining the word receive here is absolutely vital.
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  The Greek concept does not imply A passive, reluctant tolerance.
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  It does not mean merely refraining from despising
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  someone or ignoring them politely.
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  To receive means to actively embrace, to make room for at
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  your table, to invite into your home, and to honor those whom
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  the world considers small, unimpressive, or weak.
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  In worldly systems, people naturally make room for the
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  wealthy, the highly talented, the successful, and the
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  influential. We want to network with people
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  who can offer something in return.
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  But Christ commands his followers to extend gracious,
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  loving recognition to the lowly believer who has absolutely
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  nothing worldly to offer. In return, you receive the
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  person who cannot advance your career, who cannot boost your
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  social standing, and who might even cost you time and
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  resources. And the motivation for this is
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  found in the phrase in my name. When you receive a lowly
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  believer in Christ's name, you are valuing them based on an
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  entirely different metric of worth.
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  Think about how radical this is. A believer is not valued for
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  their natural charisma. They are not valued for the size
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  of their bank account or their ability to fund the new building
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  project. They are not valued for their
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  administrative usefulness to the Church institution.
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  They are valued simply and entirely because they belong to
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  Christ. That is their dignity.
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  It doesn't matter if they are a janitor or ACEO, if they bear
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  the name of Christ, they are royalty in the Kingdom and they
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  are to be received as such. This touches on one of the most
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  beautiful and staggering doctrines in Reformed theology,
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  which is the doctrine of union with Christ.
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  Look at the end of verse 5. Jesus says Whoever receives one
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  such child in my name receives me.
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  Christ identifies so intensely, so intimately with his flock,
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  that he considers an action done to the lowliest, most obscure
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  member of his body as an action done directly to himself.
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  Think about the gravity of that for a moment.
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  Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in
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  unapproachable light, sovereign over the cosmos.
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  Yet he says that treating an unnoticed, struggling, perhaps
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  socially awkward believer with sincere kindness and hospitality
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  is an act rendered directly to the savior of the world.
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  Christ is not detached from his people, He owns them.
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  They are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.
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  When Saul was persecuting the early church on the road to
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  Damascus, Jesus didn't ask Saul, why are you persecuting my
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  followers? Yes, Saul, why are you
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  persecuting me? The union is absolute.
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  I want you to look at your local congregation through this
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  specific lens this Sunday. Look around the sanctuary.
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  Does the structure of your church mirror worldly
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  hierarchies? Do the wealthy donors or the
• 20:49
  most talented musicians get preferential treatment, special
• 20:53
  parking spots, or exclusive access to the pastoral staff?
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  Meanwhile, does the struggling single mother, the socially
• 20:59
  awkward teenager or the quiet elderly widower get completely
• 21:04
  overlooked and left to slip out the back door unnoticed?
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  This text challenges the ecclesial implications of our
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  theology in a very uncomfortable way.
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  If a church speaks endlessly about doctrinal orthodoxy, reads
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  the Puritans, and brags about having the most precise
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  systematic theology, but fails to receive the humble and the
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  weak in Christ's name, that church is betraying the very
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  gospel it claims to defend. True orthodoxy must result in
• 21:29
  true humility toward the weakest members.
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  You cannot separate your Christology from your
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  ecclesiology. How you treat the Church is how
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  you treat Christ. Reality makes the sheer tonal
• 21:39
  shift in verse 6 all the more jarring.
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  We move from this beautiful, tender invitation of receiving a
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  child in the name of Christ to an absolutely terrifying
• 21:48
  warning. Jesus pivots entirely, directing
• 21:50
  his words toward anyone who causes a little 1 to stumble.
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  The Greek word used here is Standalazai.
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  It is the source of our English word scandalize, but we need to
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  understand that in the biblical context, it means far more than
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  just offending someone's delicate feelings or making them
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  upset. It means to put a snare or a
• 22:07
  stumbling block in someone's path that causes them to trip
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  and fall into sin or ruin. Let's read the verse so we can
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  feel the full weight of the terrifying wrath of the Lamb
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  presented here. Jesus says.
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  But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to
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  sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone
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  fastened around his neck, and to be drowned at the depth of the
• 22:28
  sea. That imagery is incredibly
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  visceral. Jesus doesn't pull punches here.
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  He goes straight to one of the most horrifying executions
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  imaginable. The source has been considerable
• 22:37
  time analyzing the historical reality of the millstone
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  mentioned here, the Mill Los Onicos.
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  We need to be very clear about the imagery Jesus is evoking.
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  In the ancient world, there were generally two types of
• 22:47
  millstones for grinding grain. There was a domestic hand tool,
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  usually turned by two women sitting facing each other, which
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  was relatively small and manageable.
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  But the text specifically uses the word onikos, which refers to
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  a donkey. This was a massive commercial
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  sized stone weighing hundreds and hundreds of pounds that had
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  to be turned by a beast of burden.
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  Jesus says it would be better for a man to have that massive
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  stone fastened securely around his neck and be thrown into the
• 23:14
  open ocean far from the shore. The Jewish people were generally
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  not seafaring people. The sea represented chaos,
• 23:22
  darkness and the abyss. Drowning at sea was one of the
• 23:25
  most feared and cursed ends in the ancient mindset.
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  Fastening an immense weight to someone's neck and throwing them
• 23:32
  into the abyss guarantees a violent, inescapable,
• 23:34
  terrifying, and completely hopeless death.
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  Yet Christ uses this graphic, horrifying imagery to make a
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  theological point. A swift, watery death with a
• 23:43
  massive stone dragging you to the lightless bottom of the
• 23:45
  ocean floor is an act of profound mercy compared to the
• 23:49
  eschatological judgement awaiting the person who harms
• 23:51
  one of his believers. Let that sink in.
• 23:54
  The wrath of God poured out in hell is so severe that being
• 23:58
  drowned with a multi ton stone is considered a better
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  alternative. We need to clearly define what
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  it means to cause someone to stumble or to scandalize to
• 24:07
  warrant that kind of judgement. It means actively luring a
• 24:10
  regenerate soul into moral ruin. It means using your influence to
• 24:15
  encourage a believer to sin against their conscience.
• 24:18
  It also means snaring them in false doctrine that leads them
• 24:21
  away from Christ. And it is worth noting that the
• 24:23
  sources draw some really sharp modern parallels here.
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  They point fingers directly at modern frameworks, specifically
• 24:29
  citing things like mysticism, liberal theology, and even
• 24:32
  critical race theory as examples of doctrines that cause little
• 24:35
  ones to stumble by replacing the gospel with worldly
• 24:38
  philosophies. And we must explicitly state
• 24:40
  right now to everyone listening that we are not taking a
• 24:42
  political side on those cultural debates or endorsing those
• 24:45
  specific labels. We are not making a political
• 24:48
  endorsement, rather we are impartially reporting the texts
• 24:52
  view through the eyes of our source material to show you how
• 24:56
  strongly the authors feel about modern ideologies they believe
• 25:00
  act as stumbling blocks. They view these frameworks as a
• 25:03
  spiritual felony that damages the flock by leading vulnerable
• 25:07
  believers away from the sufficiency of Scripture and the
• 25:10
  simplicity of the gospel. If we connect this fierce,
• 25:13
  almost violent protection to our systematic theology, we look
• 25:16
  again to the Westminster Confession, specifically Chapter
• 25:19
  5 on Providence and Chapter 21 on worship.
• 25:23
  Christ is the fierce protector of his covenant people.
• 25:25
  His providential care over the Church means he is not
• 25:28
  indifferent to the injuries done to his flock.
• 25:31
  When false teachers introduce heresies, or when abusive
• 25:34
  leaders crush the spirits of the sheep, Christ sees it.
• 25:37
  He watches over the weak believer, the tender conscience
• 25:39
  and the vulnerable St. with a jealous love.
• 25:42
  The severity of this warning reveals two sides of Christ's
• 25:44
  character simultaneously, His perfect, unyielding justice
• 25:48
  toward those who destroy, and His immense, fierce love to
• 25:51
  those who are vulnerable. We often like to focus solely on
• 25:55
  Jesus as the gentle shepherd who gathers the lambs in his arms
• 25:58
  and carries them in his bosom, and he is that.
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  But he is also the conquering king and the righteous judge who
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  will call corrupters, abusers and false teachers to a
• 26:07
  terrifying account. His wrath is the necessary
• 26:10
  counterpart to his love for his sheep.
• 26:13
  That is a heavy, sobering reality and it forces us to ask
• 26:16
  the So what question. We have covered a massive amount
• 26:20
  of theological ground today. We have talked about monarchism,
• 26:23
  the Greek Aoris passive, the Roman laws of childhood, the
• 26:26
  imputed righteousness of Christ, and the terrifying judgement of
• 26:29
  the millstone. But as reformed thinkers, we
• 26:32
  know that knowledge without application falls incredibly
• 26:34
  short. Theology is meant to be lived.
• 26:37
  We need to look at the head, the heart and the hands.
• 26:39
  What must we believe, what should we feel, and what must we
• 26:42
  do in response to Matthew 18? Starting with the hands, the
• 26:45
  practical action, there is a very specific pastoral mandate
• 26:49
  derived from this passage for office bearers, specifically the
• 26:52
  elders and deacons in a local church.
• 26:54
  This text is a divine mandate to completely and utterly abandoned
• 26:58
  the corporate CEO model of leadership.
• 27:00
  The eldership is not a position of earthly authority to be
• 27:03
  wielded for personal glory, perks, or platform building.
• 27:07
  It is a station of lowly sacrificial labor.
• 27:11
  Office bearers are called to minister to the least of these.
• 27:14
  Their greatness is not measured by the size of their pastoral
• 27:18
  staff or the number of books they have published.
• 27:20
  It is measured by how faithfully they care for the overlooked,
• 27:23
  how patiently they sit with the grieving, and how gently they
• 27:27
  instruct the confused. An elder should be defining
• 27:30
  theological terms with pastoral clarity to feed the sheep rather
• 27:34
  than showing off technical jargon to appear intellectually
• 27:37
  superior to the congregation. Leadership in the church is a
• 27:40
  race to the bottom to get underneath the sheep and lift
• 27:43
  them up. And that leads us to the
• 27:44
  physical expression of this entire sermon from Jesus.
• 27:48
  God hasn't just given us words, He's given us the visible word,
• 27:52
  which is the sacraments, specifically the Lord's Supper.
• 27:56
  When we gathered from the communion table on the Lord's
• 27:58
  Day, we are experiencing the great leveller of all human
• 28:01
  hierarchy. Think about the physical act of
• 28:03
  communion. There are no VIP seats at the
• 28:06
  Lord's Table. There is no bottle service.
• 28:09
  There is no velvet rope for the high tides.
• 28:11
  Donors, the wealthy corporate executive and the impoverished
• 28:15
  laborer receive the exact same elements, a piece of broken
• 28:18
  bread and a cup of wine. There is no greatest at the
• 28:21
  table. We all come with empty hands.
• 28:24
  We all come as entirely needy children, bringing absolute
• 28:27
  nothing but our spiritual hunger and our bankrupt ledgers to be
• 28:31
  fed by a sovereign Father who provides the meal.
• 28:34
  The Lord's Supper confirms the indicative of the gospel that we
• 28:36
  have been discussing this entire time.
• 28:39
  As we partake of the broken body and shed blood of Christ, we are
• 28:43
  tangibly reminded that His sacrifice is our only claim to
• 28:46
  greatness. We do not participate as
• 28:47
  individuals boasting in our personal sanctification.
• 28:50
  We participate as a corporate body of redeemed sinners sharing
• 28:53
  one bread. This sacrament visually and
• 28:55
  physically reinforces that our standing before God is a gifted
• 28:58
  standing. It is completely independent of
• 29:00
  our worldly resume, our social class, or our intelligence.
• 29:04
  We rest entirely on the finished substitutionary work of the
• 29:07
  King, who provided the meal at the cost of his own life.
• 29:10
  It is the feast of the lowly. So as you go forward this week,
• 29:14
  I encourage you to approach your faith, approach your local
• 29:18
  church, and approach the communion table completely
• 29:20
  stripped of your resume. Stop keeping score.
• 29:23
  Stop trying to figure out where you rank among your peers.
• 29:26
  Rest entirely on the finished work of the King.
• 29:29
  And as we wrap up our time together, I want to leave you
• 29:31
  with one final provocative thought derived from this
• 29:34
  material to ponder on your own. Consider the staggering,
• 29:37
  paradoxical reality of the Gospel.
• 29:40
  The King of the Universe, who possesses the absolute sovereign
• 29:43
  authority to tie a massive millstone around the neck of the
• 29:46
  wicked and cast them into the abyss, willingly chose a
• 29:49
  different path. He chose to have the crushing,
• 29:51
  suffocating weight of God's infinite wrath placed upon
• 29:54
  Himself at Calvary. The judge became the judged.
• 29:57
  He became the ultimate little one, allowing himself to be
• 30:00
  despised, rejected and crushed into the pure justice of God so
• 30:03
  that rebellious, ambitious, ladder climbing sinners like us
• 30:06
  could be adopted as beloved children.
• 30:08
  Ponder that as you go about your week.
• 30:11
  Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive on reformed
• 30:14
  thinking.