Study of Matthew May 19, 2024 Discussion Question: Are you filled with the Holy Spirit that produces obedience? Matthew 18:15 – 20 Today is Pentecost Sunday. Today we celebrate the promise of Jesus made to the Disciples in John 14 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. At funerals they focus on the beginning of the Chapter 14… But when Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus reveals this unity of the Father and Son and then states: John 14:12 – 17 Note the connection of the Father’s plan for you to have a place in heaven that is tied to our knowing and believing the Father and Son and having the Holy Spirit abiding in our lives. The pivotal verse is vs. 15 “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Here in Matthew, Jesus moves from us obeying HIM in how we treat children to how we treat each other; specifically, those that sin against us. The empowering of the Holy Spirit is not just so we will shout and speak in tongues though that is certainly a part of it… the Holy Spirit also comes to empower us to obey! 1. Avoiding Loss (vs. 15 – 17) Gained (some say won back) means to win over or to avoid loss. o An ancient mercantile term for exchanging or trading one good for another but specifically to exchange what is mediocre for the better. The phrase “Trading up” was developed. o James 4:3 “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” Jesus instructs us to avoid loss in our relationships. HE gives steps for this when a person sins against us. o Go to the person first o If that does not work take 1 or 2 witnesses (not 10…not facebook) o Then go to the church if in fact it is a brother or sister in Christ. We are to be a people that trade up… we want to trade the trespass for renewed relationship with our brother. Trespass means to sin, miss the mark, do wrong Every conflict does not mean someone has sinned against you. “When my thrust as a person – my hopes, dreams, wants, needs, drives – runs counter to your thrust, there is conflict. To sacrifice my thrust is to be untrue to the push and pull of God within me. To negate your thrust is to refuse to be reverent before the presence and work of God within you. Caring, confronting and integrating your needs and wants with my needs and wants in our joint effort toward creating Christian community is what effective living is all about.” (David Augsburger, “Caring Enough to Confront” found in “Building a Church of Small Groups” page 89) On Pentecost Sunday be reminded that the power of the Holy Spirit will aid us to avoid loss! 2. Authority (vs. 18 – 19) Jesus gives us power. HE grants us authority. Some take this as we have power to bind the devil… God will send an angel one day to bind the old serpent and cast him into a pit for 1000 years and then God will throw him into the lake of fire as his eternal punishment. This passage is not about you binding satan… if it is then someone is loosing him every time you bind him. Jude 9 “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” The word for bind here is to tie off, fasten, declare to be prohibited and unlawful. o NOTE the context: when we are dealing with a brother/sister that has sinned against us. We have been given the power, in our relationships to do some binding! o When things begin to unravel, Jesus has granted us the power to do some binding o We have the power to tie some things off so they do not unravel. We also have the power to loose… that is to unbind, release from bonds, to set free, to discharge from prison, let go. In our relationships with those that sin against us we have the power, the authority to release people from the sentence of sins against us. Jack Hayford states, "The grammar is profound. A literal rendition of the verbs shall be bound and shall be loosed into English is that each 'shall already have been bound or loosed.' The verb form in each case reflects action achieved in the past that now becomes effected in the present." Jesus has already accomplished the work on our behalf through HIS death and resurrection. NOW we get to apply that action in the present! On this Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the Power of the Holy Spirit that grants us authority to set the captive free! 3. Assurance (vs. 20) We can walk with assurance that the promise Jesus made is still in effect today. John 14:15 – 17 “If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” We live with the assurance that God is with us. When we gather in HIS name! Doing HIS work! HE is here! Take the insider trading information and trade up! Righteousness for unrighteousness!