Message Notes

INTERMEDIATE SUNDAY SCHOOL 26 May 2024
STUDIES IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Text: Matthew 18

Subject: “If your brother sins against you” Matthew 18:15

INTRODUCTION

15 “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Matthew 18:15-17

PROBLEMS IN LIFE

1. Problems will always come up

2. The question is how to deal with the problems when they arise

MODERN DAY APPROACH TO PROBLEMS

1. Many take to Facebook

2. They air their grievances

3. They feel they have a right to say what they wish

4. Is this the correct Christian approach to dealing with problems?

A GREAT SET OF ADVICE GIVEN BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

Step #1

Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Matthew 18:15

a) Discern what the problem is

b) Is it “a sin problem?”

c) The aggrieved party is to see the erring brother “alone”

d) If the erring person listens, the problem is resolved

e) A brother is regained

f) The Lord teaches us how to regard another believer

i) He is not an enemy

ii) He is a brother!

Step # 2

But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

Matthew 18:6

a) If the erring brother will not hear

b) One or two people may be asked to assist

c) Two or three witnesses

i) Every word may be established

ii) The truth is made known clearly

STEP # 3

And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Matthew 18:17

1. If the erring person refuses to hear

2. The Church may be informed

3. Remember:

a) This is a sin problem

b) This not a petty squabble

4. If he refuses to hear the Church

a) He will be like “a heathen” (an unbelieving Gentile)

b) He will like a tax-collector

OUR CHALLENGE

1. To learn how to regard each other properly

We are brethren in the Lord!

2. We are to seek to gain a brother and not to put a person down

3. We are to be fair-minded at all times

4. Only if a person has proven to be unrepentant then the inevitable would have to happen

5. Firm action would have to be taken against the unrepentant individual