Good morning. Want to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew, uh, chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. As you're turning there, let me just tell you that I have been very busy and very encouraged by my last couple of weeks. You don't get to see all that the Lord is doing. You don't get to see all that I get to see. I was telling someone this week, maybe it was last, that I'm convinced pastors become pastors for the same reason that ushers become ushers at baseball games. Have you ever known a guy who was an usher at a baseball game at Kauffman Stadium or Busch Stadium? I've known a few. You know, it doesn't pay that well, but they just really love baseball. And they get to see baseball up close and personal day after day after day. And the privilege of serving the Lord as a pastor is you get to see redemption up close and personal day after day after day.
And so I've met with several of you over the past several weeks and hope to continue to do that. And let me just tell you what's going on and why I'm so encouraged. You know, part of, part of God's movement in a group of people involves him undoing so that he can do a new thing. I often tell folks that before God can raise, R-A-I-S-E, us, he sometimes has to raze, R-A-Z-E, us. There's sometimes an undoing before God does a new work. And part of that undoing, part of that knocking over old sinful idols and so on and so forth is a revealing of sin, an exposing of sin to the outside world, to the light, a turning of things that had been hidden in darkness for quite some time out into the light. And I'll tell you point blank, that's never comfortable. It's never comfortable to go through that. It's never comfortable to walk with someone through that. But the Lord is doing that in our midst, and He's doing that because He is wanting to do a new work in our midst. And so you should, I just want you to be encouraged. There's no way you can be as encouraged as I am because I get to see it up close and personal, but I want you to be encouraged. The Lord is doing that in this church, and I hope that he's doing that actually in your life. That's part of what we're going to talk about today in Matthew chapter 18, and we're going to start reading in verse 15.
Says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault. Between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
Now, in our discussion of the presence of God, of the manifest presence of God, the part of that passage I just read that'll jump out to us is verse 20. For wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them. And that is in fact going to be the emphasis of this message. We're going to focus on this idea that somehow in the gathering Christ is uniquely present.
But I want to point a few things out about this text. I want you to notice the progression of benefits in this passage, the progression of benefits. There's a bit of a 'but wait, there's more' kind of vibe. Going on here. You guys like to watch infomercials? I was talking to somebody who actually enjoys infomercials. I like— his hands, yeah, yeah. I like watching infomercials too. And one of the things that always happens in the infomercial is, you know, "But wait, there's more!" And then you get another thing on top of it, and then another thing on top of that, and another thing on top of that. And so like half the infomercial is "But wait, there's more!" Now usually though, in infomercials, they bring out lesser stuff. Like the "But wait, there's more!" is like a steak knife. You know, and then the next, "But wait, there's more," is another steak knife. And so on and so forth. But what we see in this text from verses 18, 19, and 20 is a progression of blessings in the other direction. Not from greater to lesser, but from lesser to greater.
So there are 3 promises in those 3 verses. You can look at your Bibles, 18, 19, and 20, 3 promises, and they progress in a bigger way, not a smaller way. The first one is what? "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." That sounds like a pretty big deal. But wait, there's more. He says in the very next verse, "Again I say, if two of you agree about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." You see the progression? At first he's saying, if you bind or loose anything on earth, it will be bound or loosed in heaven. Bind or loose just means forbid or permit. He's giving the church the authority to legislate, okay? And you're gonna be like, that's kind of scary. Well, it is if we don't follow God's word, right? So he's giving us this authority to bind and loose, to permit and forbid. And then He says, but wait, there's more. And He actually shows us that that blessing, that privilege that the Church has, that authority is rooted in a larger authority. He says, actually, it's not just your ability to legislate, to bind and loose. If two of you agree on anything on earth, about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in Heaven. You see how it's gotten bigger?
6 · Oswald identifies verse 20 as the climactic promise and explains the logical relationship indicated by "for"—Christ's manifest presence is not just another blessing but the foundational blessing from which all other church privileges (binding/loosing, answered prayer) derive their power
And then He goes one step further and He shows the true privilege, the ultimate privilege of the local church. It isn't the ability to legislate, it isn't the ability to agree on things and see God grant those desires, those requests. It's bigger than that. It's the biggest one in this series. Verse 20, "For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them." Now note the word "for." Jesus is saying, "Let me explain where these benefits come from." These benefits are rooted in the Church's ultimate benefit, the Church's ultimate privilege, which is the presence of God. The ability to do these other things is rooted in this one ultra-special privilege, the highest privilege, the unique privilege of the people of God, the presence of God.
7 · Oswald establishes the interpretive foundation by distinguishing between God's omnipresence (unconditioned, universal) and the special manifest presence Jesus promises in verse 20 (conditioned on gathering in His name), arguing the presence of conditions in the text proves Jesus is not talking about omnipresence
This is a special kind of presence. Now, I want to make sure that we are still on the same page about that particular note, that this is a special kind of presence. What I mean is, we see in this verse, verse 20, that Jesus is letting us know this is not describing the omnipresence of God. Do you know why I know that? Because Jesus is saying that there are conditions to this presence. Right? So, the omnipresence of God, the fact that God is everywhere at all times, there are no conditions to that. In fact, there are no limitations to that. That's the omni part of omnipresence. There are no conditions that must be met for His presence to be omnipresent. So, we know Jesus is talking about a different kind of presence here. And we've been talking, if you're new today, we've been talking a lot about this difference and trying to figure out ways to describe the difference between saying God is everywhere and God is here. This sort of felt manifest presence of God. We know that's what Jesus is talking about here, because if He was talking about omnipresence, there would be no limits, there would be no requirements. But He's saying there are requirements, that people have to be gathered two or three in His name, and then He's with them in a unique way, not just in this general, like, everywhere kind of way. So this is a special presence.
8 · Oswald establishes the sermon's controlling theological claim—that God's special presence is what makes the church special—and traces this principle through redemptive history, introducing the Old Testament concept of "Ichabod" (the glory departing) to show that when God's presence leaves, His people become ordinary and powerless
And the truth is, it's that His special presence is what makes the church special. That's probably the main point of this series, probably the main point of this message, one of two probably. His special presence is what makes the church special. The presence of God has always been the thing that has made the people of God special. All the way throughout the Scriptures, that's the deal. When the presence of God is there in a special way, the people of God are unique, they're special. When the presence of God departs, the Old Testament term some of you might know is "Ichabod," the glory of the Lord has departed. When the presence of the Lord departs from a people, the people are no longer special. They're no longer uniquely capable. They're very average. They're reliant on their own resources, on their own power, and things go downhill pretty quickly from there.
9 · Oswald surveys redemptive history from Old Testament Israel through the incarnation to Revelation, showing the consistent pattern that God's people prosper when His presence is with them and fail when it departs, using examples like Israel's military defeats, Mary's blessing (Emmanuel), and Christ's threat to remove the lampstand from unfaithful churches
In the Old Testament, we see that where the glory of the Lord has departed and this small group of people who were outnumbered by all of their enemies, who had no power in and of themselves, suddenly kind of came back to earth and suddenly had no power over their armies, over the enemies, and had no power, no unity within their own ranks. Suddenly when the presence of the Lord departs, their specialness goes away. You know, this goes all the way through the Bible. Why do you think it is that Mary is so blessed? Why do you think the angels are singing at the beginning of the Gospels? Because Emmanuel is here. God is with us. The Lord is amongst us. That's what makes something special is the presence of God. And we go all the way through the Scriptures and we see that God's people are special when God's special presence is there. And when God's special presence isn't there, God's people aren't special anymore. Jesus says this to the churches in the book of Revelation. What's the threat? What's the thing that Jesus is going to do if they don't repent? He says, "I will remove my lampstand." It's just a picture of this special presence that Jesus gives to His people and has given to His people forever.
10 · Oswald makes the theological argument explicit: all secondary church blessings (legislative authority, answered prayer) are dependent on and derive their power from the foundational blessing of God's special presence, and when that presence departs, those derivative powers vanish
So this is a special presence that makes the people of God special. The idea here in this text is that all these other blessings the blessing of the authority to legislate, or the blessing of the ability to gather together and agree on something and see it done in heaven, all of those special blessings are rooted in this, the presence of God. And when this goes away, those things go away too. You don't have the power anymore to do those things. You don't have any power once this goes away. This is the essential element of what it means to be the people of God. The presence of God in our midst.
11 · Having established that God's presence is the foundational blessing, Oswald pivots to the first functional implication: how the presence of God reorders our relationship to secondary blessings, preventing them from becoming idols
Now, if that's true, and I can tell you wholeheartedly I'm convinced throughout Scripture that it is, then the second point we want to talk about this morning is that this presence gives us perspective on lesser blessings. This presence gives us perspective on lesser blessings.
12 · Oswald argues that church history demonstrates what happens when churches retain structural authority but lose God's presence—they abuse their power for evil because without God's presence, even legitimate blessings (authority, unity, resources) become dangerous and destructive rather than beneficial
Think about it this way: there were periods of time in church history when Ichabod had happened, the lampstand had been removed, perhaps from a whole denomination, But they continued to legislate. They continued to bind and loose. They continued to agree. And what did all that come to? Nothing. And what did they use their power for, good or evil? Evil. You see, they had this power, this authority, it was gone, the special presence of God was gone, and suddenly a group of people, the people of God who once had authority and power, suddenly have none, and they actually start ruining people's lives, ruining whole nations and countries, and ruining the world. You see, having special authority or power goes really bad once we stop having the special presence of God. And there's a pattern there throughout all of Scripture that starts in Genesis. Where when the presence of God has departed, all the blessings of God get us into trouble. Really, the presence of God is the thing that we need to put the blessings of God in perspective. And when we lose the presence of God, we lose our capacity to rightly process the blessings of God as right blessings, as lesser blessings.
13 · Oswald applies the principle personally: all idolatry (disordered loves) happens when God's presence becomes less real to us, and the cure is not removing the lesser blessing but restoring God's presence, which automatically repositions all lesser loves to their proper place
So the presence of God gives us a perspective on lesser blessings. And this is true in your personal life as well. Psalm 16 says, "At God's right hand, in His presence, are pleasures forevermore." You know, all of your problems related to idolatry, idolatry meaning you love something more than you should, you love it more than God, you've got an inordinate affection for this thing or that thing, you're using it in a way that God doesn't want you to use it, it could be your marriage, it could be health, it could be money, it could be your job, it could be approval, A million things. It's got an inordinately high place in your life. Well, how did it get there? Well, the thing that's supposed to be there began to be less real to you. And how does it get fixed? How does that stuff go back to where it's supposed to go? The presence of God. It's brought back into your life and suddenly your job has its appropriate position. Again, or your expectations for your spouse are no longer to fill God's role but just to be the man or woman that God's created them to be.
14 · Oswald applies the theological principle to a specific pastoral concern: you may be reluctant to commit fully to this church because of how it has handled secondary matters (buildings, budgets, staff), but the solution is not withdrawal but pressing in together to seek God's presence, which will sort out all those secondary concerns
God's special presence makes the church special, and it gives us the ability to sort out all of his lesser blessings. This is important because we're going to start talking about committing wholeheartedly to this church. And one of the reasons why you would be tempted not to do that is because you feel as though this church has done a poor job or is doing a poor job navigating the lesser blessings that it has been given. What I mean is this, I'm gonna call you to make this gathering the priority of your week. I'm gonna call you to make this church the priority of your life. I'm gonna call you to make this church the priority of your giving, to make this as big a deal as it possibly can be. And the reason for that is because I believe that God's gonna give us his presence in this group together as we press in. And I'm gonna talk more about that this week and next. But here's the problem. How does a church navigate buildings and staff and budgets and committees and music and microphones? How does it handle those things? If it doesn't have the presence of God, not very well. If it does have the presence of God, those things are put in their proper perspective.
15 · Oswald addresses and refutes the simplistic solution (the "sophist" approach) that church problems would be solved by stripping away all secondary structures, pointing out that you remain after the structures are removed, and the presence of God is not automatically gained by subtraction
Now, do you know what a sophist is? It's someone who thinks they've figured something out, they really haven't, they're being a simpleton. The softest approach to this problem of secondary blessings in the church is to think that the way to fix this, because the church keeps getting hung up on these lesser things, buildings and budgets and programs and staff, the way to fix this is just to take all that away. And then those things aren't there anymore. Let's just simplify it all. Let's just strip it all away. That's called the 20-year-old perspective. We've all been there. I've been there. I've thought the exact same thing. Well, the way to fix this is just to remove all this nonsense and then we'd be okay. Here's the problem. You know what's left after all the nonsense is removed? You. And that was the problem all along. And you know what's not brought in just because you strip away? The presence of God.
16 · Oswald uses the eschatological vision of the new heavens and new earth to illustrate the principle: material blessings will exist there without becoming idols because God's overwhelming presence keeps everything in proper perspective, showing the solution is not removing blessings but increasing awareness of God's presence
Think about it this way. The presence of God will dominate the new heavens and the new earth. And there will also be food and buildings and people and treasure and sports and all sorts of other things. How will those things not consume us and become sins and idols? Because the special presence of God dominates the landscape and we never lose our bearings. Ever again. Because His glory is so undeniably there that we would never again be tempted to worship any of these lesser things. They just are what they are. They're blessings, but they're not everything.
17 · Oswald applies the theological principle directly to the congregation's hesitation about committing to the church: your concerns about the church's dysfunction or the pastor's competence are real but secondary—the solution is pressing in to seek God's presence together rather than pulling back, because God's presence will sort out all secondary problems
And so what I'm saying to you is that this call to draw near to the local church, to press into the local church, to make the local church this sort of central part of your life is— wow, I'm kind of worried because, you know, I could get hurt because I think they do things that are dumb. I think they don't have their act together in this way or that way. I don't know if I really think Chris is a good guy. Whatever the thing is, listen, the answer to all of those problems is not to pull back. The answer is to press in and seek the presence of God together and watch all of those things get sorted out in a remarkable way. This is relevant for your personal life. Sometimes, sometimes the answer is to get rid of X, Y, or Z. Sometimes that's the case. Many times you are just chasing your tail if that's your approach. Because the real answer is to begin to experience the presence of God in a real way again. That's the thing that puts everything else in perspective. That's the thing that sorts everything else out. God's given you a million blessings. He's given you a million things that you don't deserve that are amazing, and you'll be tempted to worship every single one of them until His presence is an ongoing reality in your life. And the same is true for our church.
18 · Having established that God's presence gives perspective on blessings, Oswald signals the second major functional implication: God's presence also provides power to endure the hard things God calls us to do
So that's what Jesus seems to be doing. He seems to be saying, "I'm going to give you this, but wait, there's more. I'm going to give you this, but wait, there's more. This is the ultimate. This is the thing that all of these other things are rooted in. I will be with you." But that's not all Jesus is doing. Jesus is also saying that the presence of God gives us power for our burdens. It's not just to give us perspective for our blessings, it's to give us power for our burdens.
19 · Oswald identifies the pattern in Jesus' teaching: whenever He calls His people to difficult obedience, His primary comfort is not positive thinking or self-affirmation but the promise of His presence—specifically applying this to the hard work of church discipline commanded in verses 15-17
You know, in so many words, Jesus is saying, I want you to do something really hard. We're going to talk more about verse 15 through 17 here in a minute, but Jesus is calling us to a really hard thing. He's calling us to have hard conversations with people we love about their sin, and ultimately perhaps if they refuse to repent, to ask them, to tell them in fact, that they are in our eyes appearing to be no longer a follower of Jesus, or appearing to have not been a follower of Jesus. That's a hard thing. It's a hard thing to walk through the process of walking with someone who doesn't want to repent of their sin. But you know what I found is this pattern. It's here, it's all over. What does Jesus comfort us with when He calls us to hard things? What does He comfort us with? He calls us to hard things all the time, and then He usually gives us some comfort, some assurance. Well, what is the comfort or assurance? It's always, "But I am with you." His assurance, His comfort for the hard things He calls us to isn't that we should look on the bright side, or isn't that it'll all work out, or that you're good enough, strong enough, and gosh darn it, people love you. It is, "I am with you."
20 · Oswald interrupts the exposition to address the congregation directly about his conversations with staff this week, prophetically warning that God's blessing through His presence will necessarily bring hard callings (mission field, repentance, evangelism), but always accompanied by the promise of His presence
Jesus' constant sense of comfort when He calls us to hard things is to tell us that He is with us. Now this week I was talking, Dave and I were talking, we were just talking about being excited about what God's doing, and I just had this moment, I verbalized it where I just said, God is working, it's amazing, He is blessing us, and it's going to mean a lot of hard things. God's going to call some of us to the mission field, Lord willing. God's going to call many of us to repent of things we've been keeping in hiding for a long time, bring up things we didn't even know that we had to deal with. For a long time. This sense of God blessing us with his presence is going to create a lot of hardship as well. We're going to be called to be more evangelistically serious. We're just called to do a lot of hard things when we're getting serious about pursuing God. But every single time he does that, he says in so many words, and I'm with you. That's the power you need to do the hard thing Jesus is calling you to do. Is that He is with you.
21 · Oswald exposits Acts 14:27, focusing on the Greek word translated 'with' to show that Paul and Barnabas testified not that God used them as instruments but that God was in their party doing the work alongside them—His manifest presence empowered them through brutal missionary hardship
You know, I was reading in Acts 14 this week, and Paul and Barnabas return from a brutal missionary journey. Paul is stoned, looks like he's dead. It's one of Paul's most difficult missionary journeys, but it's also one of his most productive. Many people come to know the Lord Jesus. And so after this missionary journey, he sails back to a more comfortable environment in Antioch. Antioch is this rocking, God-loving godly group of Christians that just are for Paul and for Barnabas. Antioch's a good place, a safe place. And they go back— I almost said fly— they sail back to Antioch. And verse 27 of Acts 14 says they declared all that God had done with them. They declared all that God had done with them. Now that word 'with' is way more important than you would think. Just reading it. Because that word "with" isn't that God used them as an instrument. It isn't God used this, God wrote with this pencil, God hammered with this hammer. That's not the way that this word is displayed. That's not what this word means. This word means that God was in their party, in their midst. He did something with them. Like I went with my family to Worlds of Fun. So that after this very difficult missionary journey, Paul comes back, Barnabas comes back to this church in Antioch and says, it was brutal, but we did it all with God. Like, He was with us. We knew He was with us. His special presence made that trip special.
22 · Oswald synthesizes the two functions of God's presence established so far: it provides perspective on blessings (preventing idolatry) and power for burdens (enabling obedience to hard callings)
God calls us to His presence. He says, this presence is going to help you sort out all the lesser blessings that I've given you as well. And this presence is also going to help you endure and give you power through all of these burdens that are part of following Me.
23 · Oswald acknowledges the tension every listener feels—the promises in Matthew 18 sound universal ('anything,' 'whenever'), but our experience doesn't match them—and signals he will now address the conditions and requirements the text places on these promises
Now the question becomes, well, how do we apply this? What's the hitch? There's got to be a hitch, right? Jesus says, anything you ask for, I will give you. I've seen that not work repeatedly. Jesus says whenever two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst. I've been to a lot of gatherings where I didn't sense the presence of Jesus. What's the catch? Or what's gone wrong? Why is our experience not matching this promise?
24 · Oswald introduces the narrow gate motif to explain why the promises feel universal but don't always manifest: just as salvation and the kingdom have spacious blessings accessed only through the narrow gate of Christ, so the church's experience of God's presence is spacious once entered but requires going through a narrow gate of specific conditions
Well, there's a lot of good things in this text. There are a lot of amazing joys and freedoms and privileges in this text. I love it when Jesus uses universal words like whatever and anything and whenever. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That's part of what it means to be a son of God, the sense of total freedom and liberation. There's a breezy, unconditional quality to these promises. Whatever you agree on, whatever you bind, whenever you gather. But to get into that big, roomy, breezy, freedom-based pasture, There's a gate, and the gate is narrow. And this is the gospel, this is the kingdom, and this is also, unfortunately, has to do with the presence of God. All of these big, bold, glorious things that await for us, you have to go through the gate, and the gate is narrow. To become a follower of Jesus Christ and enjoy the sonship of the Father, to be, to be a son of God, a daughter of God, to enjoy all this freedom, you go through one gate and one gate alone, and His name is Jesus Christ, by whom there's no other name under heaven or earth by which men may be saved, right? So there's this one way to get into salvation. There's this one way to get there. The kingdom's the same way. The kingdom is this amazing place, tons of promises, tons of assurance, but there's one way. You go through this gate, Jesus Christ, to get to all of that.
25 · Oswald identifies the narrow gate for this passage: gathering 'in His name,' and challenges the congregation to consider that the promise may be true but they have not been gathering in His name as deeply as they thought, rather than diluting the promise to match their experience
And all the promises that Jesus has for us in this passage, there's one way that he prescribes we get to those promises, and that's when two or more are gathered in my name, then I will be specially present in their midst. There is a way forward, but it's clear that it's not just any old way. The way forward is to gather in his name together, and Jesus will then be present in our midst. Now, that doesn't match our experience, and if we use experience as our guide, we will say, well, this verse must mean something else. I'm going to erode the promise of God, dilute the promise of God, because clearly it doesn't match my experience. And I would say, what if it does match your experience, just the other piece of it What if it's a lot harder to gather in His name than you realize?
26 · Oswald uses the Matthew 17 mustard-seed-faith passage to illustrate his interpretive approach: when Jesus makes an extreme-sounding promise that doesn't match our experience, the problem is likely our failure to meet the condition (genuine faith) rather than Jesus overstating the promise
You know, in the last chapter, Jesus, in chapter 17, Jesus tells the disciples after they couldn't cast out a demon, they're like, why couldn't we do it? And He said, you don't have enough faith. And they're like, well, give us more faith. And Jesus says, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell this mountain to be picked up and thrown into the sea. And there's two conclusions. Either Jesus is lying, or I don't have faith the size of a mustard seed, or when I sometimes do have it, I'm not inclined to throw mountains.
27 · Oswald makes explicit his theological conclusion: gathering 'in His name' is far more demanding than it sounds—it requires significant sanctification and Holy Spirit work to get a group of sinners genuinely focused on Jesus rather than their own agendas, and this difficulty explains why we don't experience the promised presence more often
Jesus says, "My special presence will be with you in a special way when you gather in my name." You can dilute that, or you can just say, "Wow, it must be harder than I realized to gather in his name." It must take a lot of sanctification and work of the Holy Spirit for a group of people to gather actually focused on Jesus in the kind of way that Jesus is describing. I'm totally fine accepting that because I know my heart, and I know how difficult it is to do anything the way God wants me to do it. And I also have been in churches long enough to know that we are like herding cats, and it isn't as simple as it sounds for all of us to come. With a common agenda to seek the Lord.
28 · Oswald begins unpacking 'gathering in His name' by ruling out superficial interpretations (saying the phrase, singing songs) and establishing the true meaning: submitting to Christ's royal authority with glad hearts, which is constantly threatened by our pride and inclination to gather in our own name instead
Let's talk about this. We're going to talk about it more next week, but let's talk about this. What does it mean to gather in His name? If it means saying, "In Jesus' name," at the end of our prayers, we are set because we do that a ton, right? If it means singing songs about Jesus, we are set. We do that a ton. What does it mean to gather in His name? Well, "gather in His name" is the sense of submission. It's the sense of gathering under the royal authority of Jesus Christ. It's the sense of gathering under His rule and reign over all things in glad-hearted submission to Him. Friends, as we've said for the last several weeks, the thing that's going to mess this up is pride. The thing that's going to mess up our ability to gather together in Jesus' name is the inclination we have to gather in our own name. And it is far more pervasive than you might realize. And gathering in Jesus' name is far more difficult than you might realize.
29 · Oswald makes the crucial connection between Matthew 18's context (church discipline and sin) and the presence promise in verse 20: gathering in Jesus' name specifically requires deadly seriousness about sin, and God's special presence is consistently tied to the purity of the body—the church must be a refuge for sinners but not for sin
The immediate context here tells us there is one essential element to gathering in the name of Jesus, and this might explain, in fact, why We, many of us, may have gone for decades without really truly experiencing the presence of God. And that is, immediate application of this passage tells us that one of the things it means to gather in the name of Jesus is to be deadly serious about our sin. The whole chapter is about that. The whole chapter is about treating sin seriously, the way Jesus treats sin. One of the things that is an absolute must about our gatherings is we must gather to see this place as a refuge for sinners, but not a refuge for sin. Gathering in Jesus' name means understanding that consistently we see His presence is tied to the purity of the body. If you're keeping notes, that's the fourth point. His presence is tied to the purity of the body.
30 · Oswald establishes the biblical-theological principle of corporate impact of individual sin, tracing it from Old Testament 'sin in the camp' through Acts (Ananias and Sapphira) to Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians, arguing that hidden sin in the congregation does in fact affect the quality of corporate worship gatherings
You may be thinking, so you're saying that my personal sin and my indifference to my personal sin, my hiding of my personal sin, can affect the quality of a worship gathering? And I'm saying yes. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches a principle in the Old Testament referred to as sin in the camp. And it's fairly consistently displayed that when people, when God's people get together to do something God's called them to do, but that there is a member in their midst who is claiming to be one thing but is really another, it disturbs the entire thing. It really does affect the quality of the gathering. And do you know that that's actually a part of the New Testament as well? Very early on in the book of Acts, this comes into play with a couple named Ananias and Sapphira. And later when Paul is writing 1 Corinthians, he lets them know that they must exercise church discipline on this immoral brother for it is a fact He was inspecting the quality of their gathering, the purity of their gathering.
31 · Oswald clarifies the realistic standard: the goal is not sinless gathering but gathering without excuses, cover, or indifference toward sin—gathering with seriousness about sin in alignment with Jesus' redemptive purposes, and this requires both individual and corporate action
Friends, we will never gather as people without sin, but we could, Lord willing, gather with people without excuse for sin, without cover for sin, without indifference to sin, We could gather in Jesus' name, Jesus' royal reign, who is all about redeeming people from their sin. And that's what this chapter is about, and that seems to be the application point of what it means, at least in part, to gather in Jesus' name. It means to gather with an attitude of seriousness towards sin. Specifically, this text, which I'm going to take you through all the way, just help you to see the application of this call. This text tells us that the sinner must deal with his sin in one particular way, and that the church must deal with the sinner's sin in one particular way.
32 · Oswald signals the sermon's climactic movement toward application while clarifying his pastoral intent: he is not offering tips but calling for repentance, specifically the end of hiding, secrecy, and excuses about sin, driven by a greater desire for God's presence than for protecting pride
So what I want to do with the remainder of our time is talk to you about that. And let me be honest with you, I don't want you to walk out of here informed. I want you to repent. I'm not giving you like 5 fun facts to have more presence of God in the church. I want us to repent. I know it won't all go away. What I'm asking to go away is the hiding and the secrecy and excuses. The condition isn't that we gather as people free of sin. The condition is that we gather as people serious about sin with a sense of urgency toward it and that we want the presence of God more than we want, our own pride, our own cover, and so on and so forth.
33 · Oswald reads Jesus' teaching on childlike humility from Matthew 18:1-4 and applies it to hidden sin: true greatness comes through humble vulnerability, not through maintaining a false reputation of holiness, and it's easy to slip into hiding as a way of keeping pride intact when surrounded by others who appear to have it together
So look right at the very beginning of chapter 18, verse 1. First thing I'd say to someone who is hiding their sin is it's time to get real with your sin. It's time to get real with your sin. Verse 1 of 18: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' Friends, you will never be greater than when you humble yourself. You will never be greater than when you humble yourself. You will never be less, you will never be smaller, you'll never be weaker than when you hide so as to keep your pride and reputation intact. If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, if you want to enjoy the blessings of the gospel, Jesus has made it pretty clear. We have to humble ourselves and admit that we have nothing to boast in. Friends, it's super easy to believe that at one moment for conversion, and then when you get amongst a bunch of people who seem like they have their stuff together, to start to act like you've got your stuff together too. It's pretty easy to creep into secrecy without ever knowing it as a means of keeping your pride intact. So that you look just as holy as the other person who's also faking it, by the way.
34 · Oswald reads Jesus' hyperbolic commands about cutting off hands and gouging out eyes, resisting the urge to soften the language and instead emphasizing Jesus' call to radical, extreme seriousness about sin—getting real and taking drastic measures rather than tolerating sin
So Jesus says that one of the ways that we get serious about this is we humble ourselves. Now look at verse 8. I'm skipping a few things because I'm going to go back and show you how the church interweaves with the sinner. But look at verse 8, "And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire." I don't want to weaken this right now by overqualifying it. If you are tempted to cut anything off or gouge anything out, will you call me first? Okay, that's the only qualifier I'm gonna make, because the truth is we weaken this thing to where it doesn't mean anything anymore. What he's saying is be real about your sin, be radical with your sin, take your sin seriously.
35 · Oswald expounds verse 5 to show how the church should receive those who become vulnerable about their sin—not with judgment but with the tender care given to children—and personally pledges as pastor to receive sin confession with grace rather than harshness because he knows his own weakness
That's one of the things it means to gather in in Jesus' name. Now, he also addresses the church, how the group should interact with the sinner, with the broken person. He says in verse 5, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. I don't think Jesus is saying be good to children here. I think he's saying be good to people who have become as vulnerable as children. And I just, as one of the people that some of this stuff is going to pass through, I want you to know that as the Lord empowers me, I would never judge you or be hard on you as you obey God in exposing your sin. That I'm guilty of many things. I have a lot of weaknesses and a couple strengths, and one of them is I know myself well enough to know it's really hard for me to judge anybody else. And God's calling the church to do that. God's calling the church to hold, to just greet people who have gotten real with their sin with care, like a vulnerable child. To literally just say, I'm so glad I have the opportunity to care for you right now. I am in no position to step on your throat over this. I'm just praising God that you are being obedient.
36 · Oswald applies Jesus' warning about causing little ones to stumble to the corporate culture of the church: when we project false holiness and create an 'echo chamber of self-righteousness,' we make it harder for others to confess sin, which is itself a form of causing others to stumble
He also says in verse 6 and 7, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. I think there are many application points for that particular verse, and I just want to bring up one. We can create an echo chamber of self-righteousness in this church that makes it hard to be real, and makes someone who feels called to confess scared to do so. We can create an echo chamber of self-righteousness. We can make it appear as if we've got our act together when we don't. We can maybe forget all of the things we struggled with when we were first Christians, or maybe just fail to admit that there are things that we still struggle with to this day. And we can create an environment that makes it much harder for someone to humble themselves and be real.
37 · Oswald interrupts the exposition to speak directly and vulnerably to the congregation about his own sense that God is calling him to step back and let the Spirit work, then issues a direct appeal: do you want God's presence enough to get serious about sin, understanding that this church will be a refuge for sinners but not for sin?
I had a sense as I worked quite hard on this message this week that this was going to be not so great of a message with a great outcome. Sometimes I can tell the Lord says, "Be weak and let me step in." In fact, I think the Lord is saying that a lot to me. Get out of the way, get out of the way, get out of the way. This isn't a message I want anyone else to hear but you. And I want you to respond to it with faith. Do you want the presence of God? Do you understand how it changes your ability to have perspective on all the other blessings in your life? All the good things He's given you, money and sex and food, that those things are gifts from Him, but they fall under, they're meant to be set under this massive blessing of His presence. And if you don't have that, it's hard to understand this. Do you understand how Jesus is calling you to do some hard things, but He's always telling you one thing: I'm with you. You're going to be okay because I'm with you. Do you want to walk in mission with God to the point where that's— if that's not true, you're dead? Like we saw in Pakistan? I want to walk in mission with God that way. I want the presence of God for our church. I want the presence of God in this special way to make our church a special place. But I know that what that means is that we've got to gather in His name. And one of the things we must do to gather in His name is to gather with a seriousness towards sin. This will always be a shelter for sinners, but it must not be a shelter for sin.
38 · Oswald reads the church discipline passage (verses 15-17) and applies it directly: Jesus Himself follows this process with you, calling you to repent now through the sermon and your conscience, and if you refuse you are escalating His responses, then references David Platt's 'Sin in the Camp' series to emphasize the call for the whole church to link arms in pursuing holiness together
Lastly, let me leave you with this admonishment. Verse 15 again: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother." But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. I want to ask you a question: Do you think Jesus practices what He preaches? And if so, do you understand that you've sinned against Jesus in multiple ways, obviously, and that He will come to you and ask you to repent? And do you understand that if you refuse that, you are escalating His recourses? This is for Jesus, it's for you, it's for me, it's for the church. If He has come to you, He is coming to you now and speaking to your conscience and calling you to repent. Do not turn Him away. Do not harden your hearts as they did in the wilderness. He is dealing with us. Allow yourself to be dealt with, please. There's a wonderful series on this subject called "Sin in the Camp" by David Platt. And David Platt at the very beginning of the series said this to his church. Now I don't think it's fair, I don't think I would say it anyway, but his church is like several thousand so he could say this easier than I could. I wouldn't say it anyway, but he said point blank, "If you don't want the holiness of God in your life, don't come back." And his point was to say, I don't totally agree with that, but his point was to say, can we all get on the same page here? Can we all link arms and pursue the holiness of God together? Can we all be serious with our sin? Can we all be vulnerable about our need for a Savior, about our need for redemption?
39 · Oswald concludes by connecting church discipline to the cross: Jesus endured separation from the Father so you could experience reconciliation, which removes the need for secrets and makes repentance possible, then offers practical next steps (men's accountability group) and calls for this day to be a turning point in treating sin seriously
Jesus forecasts this awful scenario in which people will be separated from their local church because they refuse to repent. And I just want to remind you that our faithful Savior endured separation from his Father to pay for your sin. He endured alienation. He endured the wrath of God. He was cut off outside the camp to make atonement for you, to give you the freedom to see progress made in your life and sanctification. And to remove the need for secrets. So today we're gonna sing a couple songs, and I pray that you will, in that process, seek the Lord, sort this out. We've got a men's accountability group started online, and it's primarily focused on sexual integrity. If you'd like to be part of that, you can email me chris@savgracekc.org, and I can add you to that list. But there are many other areas of application that may be appropriate, and I just encourage you, come on, please, please, let's let today be a special day in your life when you made a resolution to treat sin as seriously as Jesus does.
40 · The closing prayer rehearses gospel promises of Christ's tenderness toward the broken (bruised reed, contrite spirit, rest for the weary) while reiterating the sermon's core claim that gathering in Christ's name requires corporate longing for holiness, and asks the Spirit to work conviction that hiding sin is no longer worth it
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we praise You for being faithful and kind to us. You say in Your Word, "Come unto Me whoever is weary and heavy laden, and I will give them rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." and I'm lowly and humble. You say in your word, a bruised reed you will not break, that you are meek and kind and loving. In the midst of his sin, David rightly says, a broken and contrite spirit you will no way refuse. Jesus, you say in your word that blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness Blessed are the poor in spirit. You keep calling us to embrace humility, embrace brokenness, embrace transparency, and you do that because you love us and because you love your church and have purposes, historical, world-changing purposes for your church. And You know, You call us repeatedly that You will give grace to the humble but oppose the proud. Lord, we can gather in this place for a million different reasons, but if we don't gather as people genuinely longing for holiness, we've not gathered in Your name. If we as individuals don't gather with a deep, life-changing, behavior-changing, truth-sharing desire for holiness, we've not gathered in Your name. If we as a church don't gather with a genuine joy over every sinner who repents, a genuine smallness and tenderness and gentleness toward the brokenhearted, then we haven't gathered in your name. Lord, may our journey toward gathering in your name start with an acknowledgment that you hate sin. You hate it so much that you died to remove it from your people, to make a people who were not your people, people, and to wash us, Lord, to sanctify us, to go on sanctifying us progressively. Lord, in your Spirit today, do a work that changes our lives. We identify It's simply not worth it to hide anymore. It's simply not worth it to keep on sinning. Give us a heart that's serious toward it. In your name.