Exploring My Strange Bible - Of Millstones and Guardian Angels - Gospel of Matthew Part 25

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

This episode takes us into Matthew Chapter 18. Jesus was taking a road trip, and then he decided to go on a solo march towards Jerusalem for Passover. He had been trying to invite his disciples specifically (his closest followers). This chapter focuses on resolving conflicts and relational problems within the kingdom of Jesus. It is full of practical teachings about what the kingdom of God looks like on the personal, individual relationship level. It starts here, with Jesus urging his disciples to become a student of their own character flaws and how they hurt others without knowing it. It invites followers of Jesus into a journey of self-learning.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, in this episode, we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew. These were teachings that I did a number of years ago when I was a pastor at Door of Hope Church in Portland

and we worked through slowly over a couple of years the whole Gospel of Matthew. This episode takes us into Matthew chapter 18. Jesus has been on a long road trip from the northern Galilee region of Israel-Palestine, where he just did a lot of his work in the first couple years of his mission. Then he started on a slow march towards Jerusalem for Passover. And he'd been trying to invite his disciples, specifically his closest followers, into a whole new vision of the world, the kingdom of God vision, which has a whole upside down value system than the way we're raised to normally

think about other people and status and how you live as a human being. Matthew chapter 18 represents kind of a stop on the road trip where Jesus takes his disciples aside and tries to help them understand what this upside down kingdom looks like when it comes to resolving conflicts and relational problems within the community of Jesus. Matthew chapter 18 is full of very, very practical teachings about what the kingdom of God looks like on the personal individual relationship level. Here, it's going to start with Jesus offering a very strong warning. It's one of his most famous warnings using vivid imagery. But essentially, he's going to urge his disciples that one of your most important tasks as a follower of Jesus is to become a student of your own character

flaws and how you hurt other people without knowing it. And the more you become self-aware of how you hurt other people without knowing it, the more you will become a life-giving member of Jesus' family to the people around you. This is a very practical and profound teaching that Jesus gives. It invites followers of Jesus into a journey of self-discovery, of self-learning, and of growth of transformation. So really powerful stuff. Let's dive in and learn together. Hey everybody. How are you guys? Happy Sunday. I'm great. I'm great. I'm really tired, but I'm doing good. Welcome to Door of Hope. It's good to have you guys here. It's our Sunday gathering, and we are going to do what we always do, and that's open the scriptures and look to the words of Jesus

and learn and have him, as is the case today, deliver a swift punch in the gut for all of us. Happy day. I invite you to open a Bible or turn one on and turn to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 18. And to orient us, as we've been going through Matthew, just kind of taking a slow route, we're in this section. I think it helps us to orient, you know, what sections we're in as we go through. And so we're in what I call the road trip section. Jesus was on a road trip. He was way far north in this town called Caesarea Philippi, and he had this really key conversation with his disciples about who he is, and he asked them who they think he is. And he starts really trying to make it clear to them that he believes that he is

the Messiah. He's the king of Israel and the king of the world. And that he's beginning this march to Jerusalem where he's been announcing the kingdom of God and it's all going to come together in a culmination. And he's going to Jerusalem to be enthroned and to become recognized as the king. But for Jesus, what that means is very different than what that means for the disciples. Because in their mind, we've been seeing what they think it means is Jesus is going to go, you know, rock him, sock him, this kind of thing, right? He's a king. So what do kings do? They go in and crush their enemies and, you know, vanquish their foes and be elevated and enthroned and so on.

And so, here's what this section is about. These are four chapters. We're right in the thick of every story and teaching is about Jesus striking at the heart of this misunderstanding and trying to address it and show them that the kingdom of God that He's here announcing, we've been through this over the last year. It's the upside-down kingdom, and he's going to become king by giving up his life. He's the suffering servant king of Isaiah, and he's going to conquer the kingdoms of this world by letting their evil conquer him, and him conquering it with his love and resurrection life. And so that's, and they

don't get it. The disciples don't get it. And so because they fundamentally misunderstand who Jesus is still, they fundamentally misunderstand what it means to be a community of his followers. And that's specifically what chapter 18 is about. And it's kind of like this. You know, there's, it said he's going to deliver a swift punch to the gut. You know, there are teachings of Jesus that make you feel warm and fuzzy and the love of God. And then there are other teachings of Jesus that terrify you. Can you guess which one today is? So, I'll find a way to make some light moments, but there's not going to be a lot today, just so you know. But this misunderstanding, it's like Star Wars.

It's like Star Wars. So December 15th, you guys. December 15th. And I don't know. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do the Thursday night 1201 thing. But I'll get in there within the first week. Anyway, I'm too old for that. So I need my sleep.

That's what I'm saying. So December 15. So here's what those of us Star Wars enthusiasts, here's what we know. We know that the debacle that happened 15 years ago, the tragedy to hit the Star Wars universe, happened because of a fundamental misunderstanding. And that fundamental misunderstanding was that Star Wars is a children's story. And so that basic misunderstanding produced characters like Jar Jar Binks,

who are an insult to the Star Wars universe, in my humble opinion. And so it's just ridiculous. It was just soinks, right? Who are an insult to the Star Wars universe in my humble opinion. And so it's just ridiculous. It's just so ridiculous, right? And so it's a misunderstanding because what you know, what you should know, the Star Wars universe is a dirty

and dangerous place. It is not a place for children. This is a sci-fi slash western slash drama. And the opening scene of the first movie is not Jar Jar Binks. It's Darth Vader crushing the cartilage of a man's throat. And you hear it. You know what I'm saying? You guys with me here? That's the Star Wars universe. It's dangerous, right? And so here's what, so we're all wondering, what is J.J. Abrams going to do? Is he going to get it right? Anybody? No one that cares about this? It's a big deal to me. I know it's a big deal to Cameron,

at least, so there you go. We talk about it quite a bit, actually. So, there's, but that's the point. If you fundamentally misunderstand what something is, you're just going to go and perpetuate even more misunderstandings, right, and more misapplications, and so on. And that's the heart of the road trip, right? That's the plot tension of the road trip section of Matthew. The disciples don't get who Jesus is. He's trying to communicate to them, and they just don't understand. And therefore, they're going to misunderstand what it means to be a community of his followers and try and follow Jesus together. Look at the question that they asked at the beginning of chapter 18. This was from last

week, but look at the first sentence. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, Jesus, who's the greatest person in the kingdom? What does it take to be the most important influential person in the community of your followers? And Jesus is just like, aye, aye, aye, what this kid, have we not talked about anything at all over the last couple years. So what does Jesus do? Right? He doesn't actually say anything. What he does, he teaches a visual parable first, and he gets a child, and he puts a child in their midst. And he says, be like this.

You actually have no clue what the kingdom of God is about until you all become like this. And so following Jesus and entering into the kingdom of god it's this it's a fundamental challenge to all of our ideas about what it means to be human and civilized and live in society and it's different than how we were all raised in our families it's the upside down kingdom where the most important is the least important and the word having influence means letting other people impose on you and serving and loving others and coming underneath them. That's what it means to live in the community of the servant king. And so, what he's going to go at for the rest of this chapter is Jesus knows that we don't get it, and he knows that we're going to screw it up, and he knows that

we're going to hurt each other as a result in the community of his disciples. And so here's what he says, verse 6. He says, It's better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble. Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come. If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble,

gouge it out and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two and be thrown into the fire of hell. See to it that you do not despise one of these little ones. I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. I mean, what do you think? Let's say that there's a man, and he has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away. Isn't he going to leave the 99 on the hill and go look for that one who wandered off? And when he finds it, I'm telling you, he's happier about that one than about the 99 that didn't wander off. And so in the same way, your Father in heaven isn't willing that any of these little ones should perish.

isn't willing that any of these little ones should perish. How you doing? That was a little intense. So, execution by drowning, self-mutilation, hell, angels and sheep. I mean, there's a lot of different images uh but this all actually flows together as one coherent movement of thought jesus knows that his disciples of any every generation are gonna not get it and we're gonna as we grow to follow jesus and try and live in

the upside down kingdom it's so counterintuitive and strange we're not going to, as we grow to follow Jesus and try and live in the upside-down kingdom, it's so counterintuitive and strange, we're not going to get it. And one of the things that's going to happen as a result of that is that we're going to fail at following Jesus as a community, inevitably, and we're going to hurt each other. And Jesus wants his disciples to take our own character flaws that are going to overflow the bounds of our own lives and hurt other people. He wants us to take those with deadly seriousness for our own sake and for the sake of others. And all of these images kind of fit together

as these two statements about that. And next week, he's going to know that we hurt each other, and so he's going to give us some tools for conflict resolution. That's next week. And then the week after that, he's going to teach us how to forgive each other. So it's like he's going to tell us, try, do everything you can not to hurt each other, but you're going to anyway. So then learn how to deal with your conflicts once you have hurt each other, and then once you've dealt with it, learn how to forgive each other when you still hate the person. And there you go. He's talking about life in a church community.

And he knows that it's going to be difficult. And so first, as we're just going to explore this week, these difficult things about dealing with the darkness inside of us. So think of what he does. He has this child here that he just pulled into the middle. And he says, y'all become like this if you want to have any clue what the kingdom of heaven is about. It's about dialing back your egos, all the things that Josh explored. It's becoming a new human again, a sense of wonder, a sense of non-judgmentalism towards others. And then look what he does. This is, you have to kind of think of what's happening visually. He has a child here, and he says, y'all need to become like this little one.

And then you can just kind of see him now pointing out to the circle around him. And he says, now, if anyone causes any of these little ones, and he doesn't mean children anymore. He says he means any of these who believe in me among the disciples here. And so he's calling his disciples little ones, which is kind of cute until you realize what I think what he means is that little people are amazing. But how many of you actually remember life on the playground? It's savage on the playground. You guys know what I'm talking about. There's nothing more merciless, you know, than a fourth grader empowered by the pack of friends, you know, with the nerd. You know, this is a brutal scene. Some of you lived them. Some of you were the bully,

and some of you were, anyway, you get my point. So, Jesus knows, he knows this. He knows if he's calling us to be like kids, he also knows we're going to act like kids and that we're going to hurt each other. So he calls us his little ones. And here's his warning. He says, if anyone causes another little one, another disciple, to stumble, quick execution by drowning would be a preferable fate than that. So let's, two things here. Stumbling. Now some of you actually don't have the word stumble in your English translations. If anyone causes another little one to what?

To sin. Any others? Just those two. There are some others, but those are the two main ones. So here's what he's talking about here. He's a Bible geek. So he's borrowed this, actually, this phrase from Isaiah chapter 8, and it's this image of somebody who's trying to pursue and move towards God, but something is an obstacle in their way, and they stumble, which could just mean you fail, you fall down. So, he's talking about how here's

one disciple, follower of Jesus, and then here's another follower of Jesus. And this follower of Jesus has some really messed up character flaws. And so they do something to someone else who's a disciple of Jesus. And their reaction, you know, say they like hurt this people, this person. And then what this person does is like hurt them back. Or the way they react also causes them to not follow Jesus, and they don't follow his teachings or something like that. And so his point is like when this person does that to this person, and then they are caused to stumble, like you'd actually rather be drowned than be the cause of another follower of Jesus' to sin or to stumble. And it's more than just tripping. I mean, the image is like falling over.

And so I think what he's getting at is the ways that Christians hurt each other, and then how that hurt can drive someone away from following Jesus altogether. I mean, how many of you know someone, and don't raise your hands, how many of you are the someone who's been so hurt by another Christian, you actually are disillusioned with Jesus altogether? I wonder if that's ever happened in the history of the church. And Jesus knows that's going to happen. He anticipates it, and he offers this warning against it. It would be preferable to, here, let me show you a picture of one of these millstones, because there's plenty of them around Israel and Palestine from the first century. He said,

I mean, it's a big basalt stone, and it would be rotated around and grind up wheat and grain and this kind of thing. So he's saying it would be preferable to stick your head in that huge stone hole, have it strapped to you, and to go walk to the plank in the deepest part of the Sea of Galilee. That would be preferable than to own through your own sin someone else being hurt and walking away from Jesus. That is so intense. So whatever he means by that, he actually, he means what he's saying here. He wants us to take with utter seriousness the ways that we hurt each other within the church community. And look at what he says here.

He develops a thought, and it's really profound what he says. He says, So he pronounces this woe, this sorrow, on we live in a world that's so screwed up, and even the best, most healthy families have their quirks and unhealthy areas or whatever. We live in a world that just constantly is making us all stumble and presents all these challenges to us through our families, through our teachers, and our employees, and our people we work with, and our roommates.

We're constantly making each other fall over all the time. Woe to the, what a mess. The sticky web that we have woven. And we constantly are all bringing out the worst in each other. Woe to that world. But woe also, oh, and look what he says. Woe to the world. He says such things, it's inevitable. Such things must come. Or some of your translations have, it's inevitable, Jesus says. It's inevitable that you all are going to hurt each other and make yourself disillusioned with being followers of Jesus, but also woe to the person through whom stumbling blocks come. Now, we wouldn't use quite this

language, but I think this is what he's saying. So, think about, so you grow up in whatever, in a family, and it's a normal family, which means it's screwed up in different ways. And so whatever, you know, mom or dad or siblings or something, and so you grow up super insecure, unstable, low sense of self-worth, and so that generates all these, you know, survival techniques in you to make yourself feel stable and safe and so on. And so that might be by, you know, like being bossy or outbursts of anger or being the bully on the playground or whatever. We all have different ways of dealing with our fears and insecurities. And so then you have a, you know, you have a whole childhood of those behaviors ingrained in us. Woe to the world, right? Where

a beautiful little innocent baby spends a decade on the planet and becomes a really screwed up little creature. Woe to that we live in such a world. But woe also to that human grows up and then goes on to perpetuate all of that in their own life and never does anything about it and then just repeats the cycle. I think that's what he's saying. Just the fact that I grew up in a world that was screwed up and that hurt me doesn't, in Jesus' eyes, let me off the hook for perpetuating all of that through my own choices and misbehavior. Do you see what he's saying here? So what a mess. What a mess we're in. He knows we're going to do it, but at the same time, we're all responsible. Jesus really

wants each one of us to become a student of our character flaws that are going to spill over and hurt other disciples of Jesus within the community of faith. And he cares about this. We should care about this for our own sake. And I think that's what he means in this next section about self-mutilation. How many of you want my job this morning? I'm trying to unpack all of this. Holy cow. So, this isn't actually the first time Jesus talked about this cut off your hand, gouge out your eye. Do you remember? Do you remember? We've come across this saying before. This is very characteristic of Jesus. When he's serious, he will use shocking, even violent imagery to shake you awake. He's serious about this. So we saw then, this was

back in chapter 5, and it was where Jesus was talking about sexual desire and lust. And the little movies, we look at another human and we play the little movie, and they're an object in our little fantasy world or whatever. And so, and he said, he said, who looks at another person and lusts after them in their heart. And then here's what he recommends. So, cut off your hand or your eye if that's the problem. Now, just think two seconds about that. He just said, where is the root problem? It's in your mind and in your heart. Is gouging out one of your eyeballs really going to solve the root issue? Do you really think Jesus thinks that's going to solve the root problem of lust? But did it get your attention?

And did it make you think that he is deadly serious? Absolutely. And notice here he added the foot this time, right? So now we've got the hand and the foot and the eye. Here's what you need to do. You need to, if you're a guy, go to the Proverbs study. And every time you come across, as you read through the book of Proverbs, every time the eye, the hand, and the foot is used in the poetry of Proverbs,

then you'll get it. You'll get what Jesus is saying here. The eye is a very Jewish image of how you see. It's kind of intuitive, isn't it? But it's about how you see the world, how you see people. And then the hand is what you do, your actions, what you do and how you treat people because of how you see. And then the foot is about the path that you're on, the life path. And so, in this case, it's about how you see people, how you see yourself and how you see people, how you treat people because of that, and then how those instances

and how you treat people become habits and patterns and so ingrained that they shape who you're becoming. They shape your path and the kind of person that you're becoming. And all of this is in the context of how we mistreat each other in the church community. So let's just get really practical, and I think we can illustrate this. So how many of you have ever been in one of these conversations in a church setting or whatever, and it's the prayer request slash gossip session. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Have you heard about so-and-so? We should really pray for them, you know? And here's why. Here's the story, something that they did, something that

happened to them, you know, it's private or used to be private or, you know, that kind of thing, and it doesn't put them in the best light at all. It's actually something that's maybe embarrassing, and so we should really pray for them. So what's happening right there? All right, so we're putting this holy veneer over gossip, but there's a deeper issue. And does gossip hurt people in a church community? You're kidding me. I mean, people walk away with enormous wounds and pain because of the sin of gossip against them. So what's happening there? So if I'm doing the prayer request gossip thing, what does that show? It shows something about how I see that person, right? My eye. So I don't see that person's dignity as worth protecting. I don't see that person as important as me or as valuable

that I should, you know, maybe think twice about who I share really personal stuff with about this person. And so I don't value them. And so what is that then informs my behavior, the prayer request gossip session. And then what happens when like I just, I don't even think about it anymore. I actually think I'm like helping and caring about people. But actually this is really destructive. And then it becomes a habit.

And just years go by and we just constantly all do this to each other. And what happens in a church community that's shaped by that practice and by people who are becoming holy gossips, you know? I mean, that church becomes a toxic place. It becomes a place where in theory we're following Jesus, but actually none of us will be honest with each other because we've all been burned by each other, you know? And so for all the people who don't leave, that church community is just, I'm not, no way I'm going to share with my community group or whatever. What happened last time?

You guys know what I'm talking about. And so that's what he's talking about. And so Jesus, he says, take that with such seriousness. Why do we hurt each other? Woe to the world that we get hurt by others, it screws us up, and then we perpetuate it.

But woe to each of us for just keeping the pattern going. And so Jesus says, you want to take this with deadly seriousness. You need to do whatever it takes to address your character flaws. And it's not going to be convenient. It's going to feel painful. And he uses these very visceral, shocking images, right, of self-mutilation. It's so unpleasant to have to own up to a deep flaw

in your basic way of treating people. And then to, like, go call those people and make the relationships right and own that, and then to be like, okay, I guess I need to go work this out with my mom, finally. And then, actually, probably that means like beginning to see a therapist and so on. It's good. Like, it's difficult, and it might even mean more radical changes in our lives that we need to make. And according to Jesus, it's worth it. And according to Jesus, it's worth it. It's worth it because the stakes are really high.

And that's where the hell piece comes into this. Because the question is, what kind of, am I becoming a person whose heart is becoming slowly bent towards hell? Now, let's go with the hell image. Again, anybody want my job right now? I'm happy, happy to give it to you. Hell. Okay, so here's, this is the second time Jesus has brought up the image of hell in the Gospel of Matthew, and he'll bring it up one more time. And each time, we're kind of unpacking it. The last time Jesus used it was in chapter 13. And there, the key idea was in one of his parables. And the key idea, that I'll just kind of repeat,

because it's key for right here, is that for Jesus, contrary to how most people think about what hell is, for Jesus, hell is a future reality, but before that, it's a present reality. And it's something that we create. Look at his line from Matthew chapter 23. He says, woe to you. The gloves are off with the religious leaders of Israel by Matthew 23. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You're hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then once you've succeeded,

you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. Now, just stop. Just think about what hell is in this sentence. He's not talking about something the Pharisees are doing in the future. He's talking about something that they're doing now. They are religious hypocrites, and Jesus thinks religious hypocrisy is so destructive and so evil that to perpetuate it and create a community that perpetuates religious hypocrisy is generating hell. You're perpetuating hell. Do you see what I'm saying there? It's a basic point. Because often we read over this phrase and I don't think we let it sink in.

For Jesus, hell is at least something that we create now through our own sin. And then what happens is that that sin becomes so ingrained and it shapes us and then your feet and the path of where you that sin becomes so ingrained, and it shapes us, and then your feet, and the path of where you're going, and so on, and so then it becomes a future reality, and how do the two of those go together, and so here we'll finally do just a quick study about this word, hell, and where this image comes from, and it's geeky in Hebrew and Greek, and you know me, but this is really significant, and hell is an important part of Jesus' teaching, so we should pay attention. So here's our English word hell,

which itself has a really interesting history in the history of the English language, but we don't have time for that. So hell, our English word hell, and in the New Testament, the word hell translates the Greek word right underneath it, which is the Greek word Gehenna. And here's what's really interesting, is that Gehenna is actually not a Greek word. No native Greek speaker who didn't live in Israel would even know what that word is. And that's because it's a Hebrew word spelled with Greek letters. You with me? So it would be like, you know, when I say, arigato, konnichiwa, and it's like, hello, goodbye. And if Iigato, konnichiwa, and there's nothing, hello, goodbye. And if I spell that in English letters, right, but that's not an English word,

I'm just spelling a different word from another language. Are you with me here? So that's what's happening here. So this is actually a Hebrew phrase, gai hinom, spelled with Greek letters that gets translated as hell in our New Testaments. And here's what the Hebrew phrase means, Translated as hell in our New Testament. And here's what the Hebrew phrase means. It's a phrase that means the valley of Hinnom. Gai is the Hebrew word for valley. Hinnom is the Hinnom.

That's not already clear right there. Okay. So what, so, and so it's an actual valley. It's a place. And you can go there today. Would you like to see a picture of it? Of course you would. So I forgot to ask Jessica's permission to show a picture of her descending into hell. So she came at the 8 a.m. and anyway, it's a bit of a surprise. So

there you go. When I was a student in Jerusalem for a year and our apartment was not far from hell, from Gaihanim. So it's an, there it is. You're looking at it. It's a valley. And what makes actually Jerusalem a hill is not so much its height. There's another hill, the Mount of Olives, that's actually taller than it. What makes Jerusalem so prominent is these two deep valleys that surround it. One is the valley of Hinnom, and then that swings around and becomes the valley of Kidron, Gai Kidron. So, Hinnom Valley. And here is where this whole image comes from, all this imagery of hell in the New Testament. It's this phrase, and this valley is full of dark, evil memories in the Jewish mind. And you don't have to be a scholar, like just go read the Bible

and you can learn all about this history. So in the book of 2 Kings, we hear about one of Israel's kings about 600 years before Jesus. His name was Manasseh. And he introduced into Israel the worship of a Canaanite god named Molech. And Molech was the god who ruled the underworld, the world of the grave. And you could buy Molech's favor with the blood of babies, by sacrificing babies. And so Manasseh introduced into Israel the practice of child sacrifice and the worship of Molech. And he did it, and he built a number of royal-sponsored altars in the valley of Hinnom. The remains are not there anymore, but we know it was in that valley. And so that's one practice, right? The offering and burning of the babies in worship of Molech. The God of Israel

was so angered, he was so incensed by this practice, through the prophet Jeremiah, and go read Jeremiah chapter 19, he talks about how Manasseh and the Israelites have lit the fires of Hinnom to consume the innocent. And God is so angry, he's going to bring his judgment and his justice on Israel for this heinous act. And the form of that judgment is this, that God's going to allow the ancient empire Babylon to come and attack the city of Jerusalem. And besiege it, cannibals, destroy the walls, that whole thing. And then all of the slain Israelite soldiers and people who die in the battle, Jeremiah 19, their bodies, their corpses will be thrown into Hinnom as recompense for what they did to these babies.

This is horrifying, you guys. But this is a dark image that is buried deep in the Jewish mind. And so what is this valley about? Who lit the fires of Gehenna? Who lit the fires of Gehenna? The Israelites. People did, right? As an act of evil, right? And distorted worship. They think they're worshiping the gods, but really the gods have distorted it and calling evil good and so on. And so we're killing innocent life by lighting fires in Hinnom. And so what is God's judgment? God's judgment is to give Israel over to its own evil and allow Israel to suffer the consequences of its own evil and the poetic justice of their dead bodies being thrown into the very valley where they consume the innocent. Are you with me here? So all these images are being thrown into Gehenna. We're lighting the fires of Gehenna. This is all

rich in Jesus' teaching. And this is God's justice. He's not going to allow evil to remain in His city. He's going to remove it. And so, in Jesus' teaching, we've talked about this before, the mission of Jesus' kingdom is to get the hell out of earth and to get the hell out of you and me if we would just allow him to do it, which is what he's talking about right now. But this image of hell is this image of this defiant, like, don't tell me what to do. I'm just fine, Jesus. I'm really not as bad as you're making me out to be that I'm okay. And Jesus is just like, don't be naive, right? We all have hellfire burning in us, and we all keep contributing to it. And if we don't let God heal us, He will, as a just God, be obligated to at least remove us from His city so that we don't perpetuate it anymore. And that's the image of hell being removed from outside the city in the

book of Revelation. It's a fate of our own making that God gives us over to, and that is His justice. And that's the consequences. And the Bible doesn't separate between those two, like did we make it or did God make it? It's all one deal in the Bible. And so, this actually doesn't make it less terrifying, it makes it more terrifying. It's that we actually currently choose these behaviors, and we choose to perpetuate hell. And Jesus is like, look at the path you're creating for yourself. Like, do whatever it takes to get serious about the hell burning inside of you, and at the path you're creating for yourself. Like, do whatever it takes to get serious about the hell burning inside of you and then the hell that you're creating for yourself and that God will give you over to because He's good and just. It's the paradoxical mercy of hell in Jesus' teachings. And so, do it for your own sake, at least for your own sake.

And so do it for your own sake, at least for your own sake. But he never keeps it self-focused. You should also do it. Address the flaws and the sin inside of you that hurts others. You should do it for your own sake. You should also do it for the sake of others. Look at where he goes from here. Verse 10, he says, See that you don't despise one of these little ones.

Their angel always sees the face of my Father in heaven. Now, how many of you have heard of the idea of little children having guardian angels? Anybody? Heard of this idea? Do you know where in the Bible that idea comes from? Right here. Right here. And unfortunately, just based on a real misunderstanding,

it's a beautiful idea. I just don't think you can find it in the Bible anywhere. So who are the little ones in this teaching of Jesus? Who are the little ones? He's not talking about children. He's talking about us, right? His disciples as his little ones. And also, this is interesting, if you had a guardian angel, where should that guardian angel be located? It should be with you, you know, guarding you. It should be here on earth.

And where are these angels? These are angels up in heaven that are in God's presence. This is really profound. Jesus is saying, let's get concrete. Think about Door of Hope. Think about the person that you like least here at Door of Hope. I'm totally serious. Think about the person that you like least here at Door of Hope. And Jesus' response to you would be, don't even think of elevating yourself over that person or thinking that you're better and treating them accordingly. That person has a personal advocate

before God advocating on their behalf, so you're messing with the wrong person. This is this courtroom imagery here. He's painting God's presence as a place where every one of His disciples has a prosecuting attorney, right? Or excuse me, a defense attorney, right, who's defending. Sorry, I really messed that one up. So, a defending attorney. Actually, do you know who the prosecutor is in this heavenly scene? Prosecutor. It's the Satan, right? That's the role that the Satan, the accuser of the disciples. Anyway, tangent.

So a defense attorney, an angel who represents them before the Father. And for the person that you like the least and that you're most likely to look down on and to mistreat, Jesus says, don't. You're totally messing with the king's kid, you know? Like, they have a personal ear right to the king. Don't. It's a bad idea. Even if you don't love that person, the Father does, and He cares for them, and an angel will speak on their behalf if you're not going to. That's the idea here. He's getting in our face, basically. And then you can see how the parable of the sheep goes right from here. That's the idea here. He's getting in our face, basically. And then you can see how

the parable of the sheep goes right from here. Like, the man cares about all of his sheep, but if there's one sheep that's been hurt or wounded and caused to be driven off because of being hurt by another disciple, that activates the father's heart in a serious way. When one Christian hurts another Christian and makes this one draw away or pull away from Jesus, it's like God's heartbeat starts pumping faster, and then it's all about that person. Jesus' heart beats for the lost and the perishing, and we don't want to put ourselves on that side of Jesus. You could just boil it, you could just boil it down to this. If I'm not going to address my own sin

for my own sake, I should at least do it for their sake because God loves the people in my church community way more than I do. And I should treat them accordingly. I think that's his point. How you guys doing?

So, man, what do you do with a teaching like this? I think what we do is be honest and repent. Like, really be honest with the ways that I have friction in my relationships within the church community here. And Jesus knows it's going to be hard, and he knows we're going to hurt each other, but that is not an excuse to not do anything about it. And the stakes are really high. The destiny that you're paving for yourself

and that God will, in his justice, give you over to, that's at stake. Not to mention the people that God loves and that Jesus lived and died for. That's also at stake. And so as we go to this time of worship and taking the bread and the cup, I just, I encourage you,

some of us need, we really need to, like, repent and really finally own up to some stuff that's wrong with us and that hurts other people right here in this community. And so, man, I encourage you to, as we take the bread and the cup today, because this isn't just about Jesus bringing the hammer. He is being really forceful with us. But just, like, I'll conclude with this. Think about the same Jesus who's saying these words and getting in our face is the same Jesus who's marching to Jerusalem to do what?

To actually bear into himself all of the consequences of the sin and the evil that we perpetuate with each other. And so as far from wanting to annihilate us, he's actually going to his own death on our behalf because he would rather love us and save us than do away with us. And that's the Jesus that's uttering these words. And so as we take the bread and the cup, we're eating these symbols of Jesus's love and commitment to us despite how we hurt each other and how screwed up we are. And that's good news, but it's good news that messes with you and that won't allow you to remain the

same, that forces you to change. And so some of us need to come, man, some of us maybe feel like some of these patterns of selfishness or sin, and we heard other people, they feel so impossible, like how could I ever, this has been with me for so long, since I was a kid, or whatever. And you're right. It probably does seem impossible that you could change. But it also is very improbable that a crucified Messiah should come out of that tomb as a new creation, and that he should give his own life, presence, and spirit to his followers to do things that don't seem possible. And so I would challenge your categories of what's possible. And it doesn't mean it's going to be magic, but it does mean that with Jesus, there's always a way forward because of his

love and his commitment. And so some of us, we just need to be reminded of that truth. So I don't know what you need to do as you take the bread and the cup today, but Jesus is serious and we should be honest with him and with ourselves. Amen. Let me close in a word of prayer. You guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible. We'll continue exploring Matthew in the episodes to come, so we'll see you later