Matthew 17:22-18:9

Offenses 101
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

Matthew 18 is a chapter that focuses very much on offenses, and we get the first lesson on offenses in the last verses of Matthew 17.  There are plenty of things within Christianity that the outside world will find offensive, the cross of Christ being the most offensive of all. There also plenty of truths that the world will find offensive, and we should certainly stand on those truths in love, regardless of what the world thinks. That being said we should be careful not to cause unnecessary offense on superfluous matters.

Jesus then goes on in Chapter 18 to teach the disciples about the Father's heart for each of His little ones. It takes child-like faith to enter the kingdom of God, and we should be careful not to offend any of His little ones. We should also be very careful  to remove any cause of stumbling in our own walks, even if extreme measures are necessary.

Description of the book of Matthew

As you come to the New Testament the first three books you encounter (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are referred to as the "synoptic" gospels. They are called the "synoptic" gospels because for the most part, they have a "similar view" of the life and ministry of Jesus. Though they account for much of the same narrative regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, they are not identical, nor are they intended to be. They assemble the accounts in different contexts, and contain different amounts of detail, but they are all important. God always seeks to establish a matter on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so having these 3 synoptic gospels about the life an ministry of the Son of God is in no way redundant.

Matthew’s gospel communicates to us the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. From His lineage, to His birth, to His miraculous ministry, to His teachings, to His crucifixion, Matthew will time and time again point out that these things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…”.