Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas
Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas
This sermon will explore Jesus' teachings on handling conflict and sin within the church community, emphasizing the importance of direct confrontation over gossip, and the role of courage and kindness in this process.
Hello Church! Today we are going to talk about the kingdom of God and the counterculture lifestyle Jesus leads us into. Jesus leads us out of established beliefs and relational patterns and into a completely new way of living and loving.
The kingdom of God is revolutionary. Revolutions bring about profound and transformative change.
You might have learned in school about the Copernican Revolution. This happened around 1543 when Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, “discovered” that the earth was not the center of the universe. He said the sun was the center. This was a completely new way of thinking and understanding. The sun does not revolve around the earth, the earth revolves around the sun. Instead of the earth being the center of the universe, the sun is the center. The Copernican Revolution.
Many parents go through a Parenting Revolution. At some point the child is no longer the center of the family. Instead of the parents revolving around the child, the child learns to revolve around the parents. This is healthy and puts the marriage relationship first in the family. It also teaches the child they are not the center of the universe. This trains the child in humility and is the beginning of discipleship in the life of the child. (Many families need a parenting revolution!).
We have our own personal revolutions. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). This means a revolution takes place: we remove ourselves from the center of the universe and recognize that Jesus is the center. We begin to follow him, listening to him and obeying him. We learn to orbit around Jesus instead of him orbiting around us.
When we do that, when we remove ourselves from the center and put Jesus there instead, we begin to learn a new way of living and loving.
Today we’re going to look at some teachings of Jesus that introduce this new way of living. Jesus gives us specific instructions today about how to handle it when we are sinned against. How to handle it when people mistreat us, dismiss us, or hurt us.
Remember, Jesus is leading a revolution. His ways are not our ways. His ways are counter-intuitive and require us to move forward with love and courage.
Jesus is leading a revolution. His ways are not our ways. His ways are counter-intuitive and require us to move forward with love and courage.
In this passage, Jesus is teaching us the counter-cultural way to handle someone who sins or has sinned against us. This way is the Jesus Way. It is the way we do things in the kingdom of God.
1. Go to the source Jesus says when someone sins against us, go directly to that person. Go to the source. He says, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you” (18:15).
Go to the source. How revolutionary! He outlines a three step process: Go to them privately, one on one. This usually works, by the way. This approach is so counter-cultural and effective that when we have the courage to go to someone directly, privately, kindly, and “point out” what is harmful, they tend to receive it well.
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