Matthew 18:10-20

The Good Shepherd's Heart
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

In this passage we took note of the great value that God places on each individual soul. We see 3 times in the passage the phrase "one of these little ones". That heart is also reflected in the parable of the Shepherd who leaves the 99 to go after the one sheep that goes astray. God is not content to just let His sheep wander off without pursuing them. 

It's in this very context that Jesus gives great detail on how to handle situations where we are sinned against. We often refer to as the passage on church discipline, but see the heart through the whole process is that of restoration.  In each one of these steps we see God's heart is pursuing His wandering sheep who is sinning against others. The goal in all of it being that the offender might be "won" or "gained", and brought back into a right relationship, both with God and men.

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…”.