Matthew-065

 

Today, I would particularly like to draw our thoughts to the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning friendship. There is something indescri­bably beautiful about friendship. I am sure that once we have experi­enced friendship, it just changes our lives and the way we look at things. It brings a certain warmth into our life. It fills the emptiness and coldness that is in our hearts. I wonder if you have a friend who warms your heart every time you think about this friend.

Sometimes, it’s so nice to hear a person talking about a friend, and to see his or her face beginning to glow. “Do you know my friend? Do you know that person?” And he starts describing that person, and the more he describes that person, you see his whole heart and face warming up. There is something about that person that just warms his heart. There is something about that friend that brings a glow into life. Do you know of some person that whenever you think of that person, some sweetness, something beautiful comes to your mind? How wonderful to have a friend that brings such sweetness to your life! There are so few of such people in the world, that the very thought of that person brings a kind of unspeakable comfort to your mind. How many friends do you have who are like that?

If you had one such friend, you are exceedingly, exceedingly fortu­nate! And if you had two such friends, you are super blessed! And if you had three such friends, I have run out of adjectives to describe how fortunate you are! A friend who is so close to you that hardly a word needs to be said; you feel completely at ease with the person. The mark of a true friend is that you don’t have to think what to say next. It’s so tiring if you have to. The silence seems to frighten you.

Have you ever noticed when you are good friends, you don’t have to say anything? Just being together is all the speech that you need. You don’t have to keep saying, “We have been silent for two minutes now, and I’m thinking desperately of something to say.” The silence is so awkward, so embarrassing. Have you noticed that with a good friend, the silence is perfectly lovely? You don’t have to say anything. In other words, you don’t have to entertain the other person. You don’t have to think, “Oh, that person must find me very boring, so let me think of a joke quickly,” and you try to tell a joke. But your joke was a bit flat so you try to think of another one. The situation becomes more and more desperate because it isn’t a friendship, but it is like an audience you have to entertain. Isn’t it so restful to have a friend you sit with side by side, looking at the lake or whatever it is, and you don’t have to say anything? Why? There is an inner understanding, an inner harmony.

Do you have a friend like that? I wonder. It’s so hard to find such a friend. Such a friend is rare as jewels! But jewels are much more common than friends! You can get a jewel if you are willing to pay, but where do you find such a friend? You cannot buy him with money. The problem is that not only are such friends hard to find, but it’s also hard to build this kind of friendship. Why is it hard to find such a friend? When you are that intimate, you feel that you are that vulnerable to be hurt. We are afraid to be hurt, so we build a wall of defense.

How do we deal with these two things: this depth of friendship and the fear of being hurt? This is exactly what the Lord Jesus is teaching us in this very passage in Matthew 18 that we are looking at today. We want to look at this passage to learn something about the kind of friendship that God wants us to have. Can you think what the church would be like if the whole church were a church of bosom friends, friends who understand one another in the heart? Oh, how we long for such friendship!

Yet we are afraid of it! We are afraid because to build such a friendship, you have to be open, and it makes us so vulnerable. When you are open, you could get hurt. If you are closed, at least people are banging on the wall, and hopefully, you can build a very thick wall, where they can just hurt their hand if they knocked on it hard enough; or if they want to bang their head on it, that’s their business. So you close yourself up for defense. If you don’t open yourself, you will never have friends, but if you open yourself, you might be hurt. What is your choice going to be?

 

The moving friendship of Ruth and Naomi

One of the most beautiful accounts in the Old Testament, which touches my heart every time is the relationship between Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth’s husband, Naomi’s son had died. Naomi is leaving to return to her motherland, Israel, and she says to Ruth, “Leave me now. My sons have died. I have no more son to offer to you, so you are free to go. You have no further attachment to me.” But Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law. She says, “I will stay with you” in Ruth 1:16-17, and I never tire of reading those words:

The last words are an oath: “May Yahweh do so to me and more if I allow even death to part me from you.” It is a love that is stronger than death: “Not even death will part us. So I swear before God.”

Where do you find such friendship, loyalty, openness, and self-giving attitude? “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother,” (Pro. 18:24) is something so exceedingly beautiful! I think that the most beautiful thing in the human life is this kind of friendship, not just any kind of friendship. I challenge you to tell me something more beautiful, because I cannot think of it.

You and I have had plenty of friends, and when the crunch came, you discovered what kind of friends they really were. When I was a non-Christian and I did not know God, I had a lot of friends trailing around, especially when I had something in the pocket which attracted the friends. Such friends are interested in you, but it seems that the real interest lies in getting to your pocket. I think you know this kind of friends. You will discover that your friends will also disappear the day your pocket is empty.

So when we are talking about friendship, we are not talking about this kind. We are talking about the friendship that Ruth portrays: “Where you go, I go. Don’t ever ask me to leave you. And not even death will separate us because where you will die, I die. I will be there right beside you. Even in death I will be there with you, buried beside you.” What a friendship! This kind of friendship, is of total self-giving and loyalty, not seeking what you have in your pocket. A friendship that doesn’t turn away even from death, that can stand the test of the supreme sorrow, is really friendship!

 

The spiritual friendship of Jonathan and David

Or when we think of David and Jonathan, how beautiful is that friendship! David said of Jonathan, “Your love is better than the love of women.” David should know. When it comes to women, David was something of an expert. That is not exactly to say the best thing about him, I’m sorry to say. David knew an awful lot about women, but he was able to say of Jonathan’s love, “Your love is better than the love of women” (2 Sam. 1:26). Why? It was not a purely external and physical attraction. The love was spiritual and that love is stronger than death.

Too often, the love between a boy and a girl is basically the love that is external, and when the physical attraction has passed, the friend­ship dies. The problem in human relationships is that the friendship is frequently based on external things. It’s not a spiritual friendship that overcomes every external problem. This is so important to bear in mind. If you love a person because that person is beautiful, then if that person has a car accident, presumably, you will not love the person anymore because the beauty has been destroyed.

If you love a person for his riches, and one day, he becomes poor, then you don’t love him anymore because he hasn’t got any more riches; what attracted you about him is gone. Or if you love a person because he is so intelligent, then if he has a car accident and suffers brain damage, you don’t love him anymore because he is not the scintillating wit that he used to be. He can no longer crack witty jokes, and he can’t study with such effectiveness anymore. His brain is damaged.

I knew a person in London and that is exactly what happened to him. One day, when he was crossing the road one day, a car hit him and he suffered brain damage. He was to be a brilliant medical student, but with his brain damaged, he couldn’t even keep up with the basic courses in any other subject, so he was no longer fit to continue his education. Now if you love a person because he is so brilliant, because he is so witty, what happens when he loses these things?

Love that endures is because the bond of union is spiritual, not physical. Where can you find that friendship?

 

The Lord Jesus teaches the principle of spiritual friendship

Let us turn to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18:15-20 dealing with exactly this kind of questions. This passage is related to the principles of spiritual friendship that we have been talking about.

 

How to deal with sin among Christians

What do we learn here? We noticed that one of the reasons why we are afraid to be open is that we are likely to get hurt. The result is that we shut ourselves up. Here in verse 15, you have an example of a brother who hurts you. It’s very important to know the context of this whole passage. The whole of Matthew chapter 18 deals with one fundamental issue, namely the problem of sin in the church, sin among Christians. How do you deal with the problem of sin among Christians? That is the context of this passage.

What happens when someone sins against you in such a way that might cause you to stumble? How do you react normally? You go away with a long face. You sulk. You are bitter. You are upset that they treated you in this shameful manner. Or you might even decide: “I’m not going to church again because these people have dealt shamelessly with me!” You feel hurt, and as a result of feeling hurt, you shut yourself up.

The result of sin is always to close down all communications. Have you noticed this? If you are in a bad relationship with someone, obviously, your communication either slows down or stops com­pletely. The sure mark of any sin between two people is the lack of communication. This is the tragedy of it all. What happens whenever someone offends you, or you offend someone? As children say, “I’m not talking to you anymore!” By that, all communications are shut down. It’s like when two countries go to war, they say, “I terminate diplomatic relations with you because you have offended against me. I withdraw my ambassadors and you withdraw yours. If you don’t withdraw them, I’ll kick them out and that will solve the problem! We’re not on talking terms anymore.”

 

Sin shuts down communication – the basic principle of friendship

Now that is a problem. How can we have friendship if we shut down all communications every time we have an offence? Never was communication so essential as at that moment! If we are going to save the friendship, we have to communicate. And that is exactly what the Lord Jesus is saying. Don’t say to the other person, “Because you’ve offended me, I’m not talking to you anymore. I treat you as the scum of the earth. Just get out of my sight! You’re a pain in my neck, a sore in my eye.” No. What should we do about this matter? Keep the line of communication open. The problem with us is we don’t understand the very basic principle of friendship. What is the basic principle of friendship? It is communication. You cannot have friends without communicating. Many people desperately want friends, but they don’t communicate. Their notion of communication is to be always talking about themselves. I’m sorry, but most people find that rather tedious. You might be the most interesting person in the world, and surely you have a tremendously exciting life, but the problem with most people is that no matter how interesting is your life, they don’t really want to hear about it. I am sure that you have already discovered that. Communication has to be more than telling other people about yourself.

What is communication? If you think that communication is simply talking, then you might soon find that other people will put on ear mufflers. They don’t particularly want to hear the sound of your voice anymore! Communication is much more than talking, and we are very poor at communicating. Do you know how to start com­municating? If you want to make a friend and you want to open up the line of communication, don’t bore them to death about yourself. Rather, try to find out something about the other person. This is the first step in communication. Ask them, for example, what is their name? You would think that’s ridiculous! That’s too simple. Do you know that many people have talked with each other for ten minutes and have not asked what the other person’s name is? That is very good effort at communication! Next time you see him, you will say, “What is your name? I talked with you last time for ten minutes, and I forgot to ask for your name!” That is a real problem.

Communication is to be built on real concern for the other person. If you are concerned and interested in the other person, at least find out a few things about his life if he cares to tell you. But don’t do it by way of inquisition. “When were you born?” He might say to you, “Are you a customs officer? What are you asking all this for?” No, it’s just taking interest in the other person, opening yourself to that person. It’s not forcing yourself down the other person’s throat, but receiving the other person to you. And the way to receive the other person to you is to show that you are really interested and concerned about that person.

But sin and offence close down these lines of communication. What should we do? This is the problem in the church. I see in the church, a whole group of people who are extremely defensive. I take it that everyone has been hurt at some time or other, otherwise you wouldn’t be that defensive. Often, when I ask some people some­thing, they almost want to run for their lives. They think that maybe the pastor’s job is to convert everyone, so you’d better run away from him fast! Otherwise, he might just grab you by the neck and stuff the gospel down your throat! After all, a pastor is a very scary guy. He is forever trying to convert everybody, so I’d better run for it! Or maybe the quickest defense is to say, “I was baptized.” In other words, the message is, “You don’t have to start converting me. Just leave me in peace.”

I can see that most people are very closed. We are very closed to one another because we are really a bit scared of each other. We are scared of what you might do to me, or what I might do to you. So we become very defensive. If we do that, we will never enter into friendship. We just cannot communicate. This is the Lord Jesus’ message here: We must remain open, even at the risk of being hurt.

 

Taking up the cross is: Willing to be hurt

If there was ever a message about taking up the cross to follow Christ, we can begin to see it. There is so much riches in the words about taking up the cross and following Christ. Unless I am willing to be hurt, I will not take up the cross for Christ. Taking up the cross means I accept the cost of being a disciple, namely, I accept the will­ingness to be hurt. And I have been hurt many times. If I won’t open myself anymore, because I’m afraid to be hurt, I shouldn’t be serving God anymore. I say particularly to the Training Team, in serving God, you are going to be hurt many, many times. Your good intentions will be misunderstood, your actions misinterpreted, and you are going to be hurt again and again, but we have been called to take up the cross. We accept the willingness to be hurt.

But what shall we do when the lines of communication begin to break down? This is what the Lord Jesus says in verse 15, “Go to your brother and talk to him.” Do everything possible to keep the lines open. Even though you are the one who has been hurt, he is the one who should apologize, you take the initiative and talk to him. Don’t let the lines of communication break down. This principle is so important I beg of you to learn it. Has anyone offended you so that when you see him in church, you quickly turn the other way? And when he has gone by, you think, “He’s passed by, now I can behave normally again.”

It takes courage to be a disciple of Christ, to go to the person and talk, because you have been hurt. If we go to him again to talk, our fear is that we will be hurt a second time. Being hurt once is enough. If he says, “It’s all your fault, not my fault. What are you talking to me for? You’re the one who should confess!’” You will say, “If I hadn’t talked with him, I’d be hurt only once. Now I’ve talked to him, I got hurt twice.” So we get scared.

 

The Lord Jesus’ teaching is based on “Love your neighbor”

The Lord Jesus is teaching us that at all costs, by whatever means possible, please keep the line of communication open. In fact, the Lord Jesus’ teaching is based on Leviticus 19:17. It’s a very important passage:

How do you incur sin because of him? You hate him. But the Scripture says, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor.” If he has offended you, don’t hate him but reason with him.

Then notice verse 18, which I think many of you are aware of:

You should not take vengeance to hurt him back because he has hurt you. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We are very familiar with that part. This demonstrates how close to the central teaching of Scripture is maintaining an open line of communication. It deals with loving one another. It deals with the very root of our relationship and how to implement this teaching practically, how to love your neighbor practically.

 

Love your neighbor: Open the lines of communication

We have often heard “love one another,” “love your neighbor.” How? You can start by opening the lines of communication. Has someone offended you? Don’t hate your brother in your heart, the Scripture says. You will do something more dangerous if you don’t speak to him. You are going to hate that person in your heart. Notice the crucial words, “in your heart.” You may not show it outwardly. When the person comes, you are too sophisticated to turn your back. So when the person who has offended you comes, you smile at him, talk with him, but you say in your heart, “This hypocrite! Rubbish!” Outwardly, you put on a show and say, “Okay, I can stand all this,” but you hate him in your heart.

The most important thing is that no matter how small the problem is between two people, talk it out. Get it out of your system. Otherwise, although he offended you, you are going to build up hate in your heart. If you build up hate in your heart, you are going to end up as the one who sins because hatred is sin, don’t you see? So his offense has stumbled you into sin. The whole of Matthew chapter 18 has to do with stumbling in such a way as not to be able to rise again. The Lord Jesus said that in the nature of this world, it is inevitable that temptations will come. It is inevitable that your brother or sister is going to offend you at some time through inconsiderateness, thoughtlessness, whatever it may be. And you are going to build up resentment against that person. Don’t do that. We are all imperfect people. I may have offended you in some way in my thoughtlessness. I am inconsiderate and I may have done something to hurt you, but I didn’t know that.

So two things happen. The first is, you build up resentment and bitterness against me. Secondly, I don’t know what is my fault. So how can I improve if you don’t tell me what was my fault? Both of us are hurt because you didn’t tell me what was my fault. So by communicating, both of us are blessed. You don’t have to hate me anymore and I can correct my mistake.

That is what the Lord Jesus is telling us. If we want to build a community of love, we have to start with this basic of building up communication with one another. We must really learn to communi­cate. I would to God that every time I hurt someone in my thought­lessness, that person would come to me and say, “You hurt me by what you did.” I would be so grateful to know what I did wrong. Then I can apologize, I can put it right.

 

If two people cannot communicate, take the following steps:

1. Take one or two witnesses with you

Supposing I tell you your fault and you accept it, there is no problem. But what will happen if you don’t accept it? I don’t have the assurance that you will accept it. The Lord Jesus has a way of dealing with that too, as we read on. The first step is to go and tell the person by himself alone, with no one else present. Make it person-to-person communication.

However, what happens if he says, “No, I don’t accept this. Really, it’s your fault, not mine.” Then what shall I do? I don’t know how to handle this situation. I’m stuck. Well, the Lord Jesus has a way to handle this too. What you do is you bring two or three others along. Matthew 18:16 says,

There are two or three people altogether. Then you speak to this brother or sister once more, in front of the witnesses.

If you say, “That’s too much hassle. This is getting too complicated.” No, think well on this matter. You are working to save the life of the church. What is the life of the church but the love that communicates one with another? Don’t say, “It’s too much of a hassle!” It’s not purely your personal matter alone. That person’s salvation may be at stake. He may do the same thing to someone else, and that other person may do the same thing to yet another person. And other people are being stumbled one after another if you don’t deal with this. So don’t just think of yourself and your own convenience. Think of the life of the church as a whole. When you think of that, you won’t say it’s too much of a hassle. You get two or three people along to witness.

It’s not getting two or three people to gang up with you to crush the other person. The two or three witnesses are not there to take your side, and they may not necessarily take your side. They are going to be witnesses, and witnesses have to be impartial. They have to look at the facts as they really are. They are also there to witness that you are dealing with this matter in a correct, loving and charitable way.

Notice, “do not hate your brother in your heart” is a command about loving. The witnesses will then testify before the church that you have conducted yourself in a proper way.

Supposing you got two or three witnesses and you started shouting at this brother, “What did you do? You’re a hypocrite! You’re a non-Christian!” These two witnesses are certainly not going to take your side. They will report to the church that your behavior is wrong, not the other person’s behavior. Only with two or three witnesses can the church really understand what the relationship was at that particular time when you went to tell him his fault, whether you behaved as a Christian should.

 

2. Bring the matter before the whole church if the brother is very closed

Having done this, what happens if you have told this brother his fault in front of the witnesses, but he still doesn’t admit his fault? He is obviously a pretty stiff-necked type, not a person who is open, but very closed. So the matter is brought before the whole church.

If he still persists in his closed and stubborn attitude, then what happens to him? He goes straight out of the church. That is the way the Early Church conducted itself. The church kept all its lines of communication open. Any person who was not open, who tried to close down the lines of communication between people were promptly thrown out. It was as simple as that.

 

3. Treat as a Gentile if not open to each other as a Christian should be

Verse 17 says,

What does this mean? The kingdom of God is given to the church. The church has become the new “Israel of God,” and that is exactly what Paul calls the church in Galatians 6:16. And the Lord Jesus said, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, (Israel) and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Mt. 21:43) That means to say, anyone who is not in the church, not belonging to the spiritual Israel of God, is not a Christian. He is treated as a Gentile, which means a foreigner. He doesn’t belong to the commonwealth of the spiritual Israel. He is not a citizen of God’s kingdom.

So a Christian who fails to behave as a Christian, who is closed even to two or three brothers, or closed even to the whole church, shows that he doesn’t know what it is to be a Christian. A Christian, by definition, is one who is open to others, to the brothers and sisters in the church. If you are not open to the brothers and sisters in the church, not open to one another, you prove thereby that you don’t really know what it is to be a Christian. So here, the Lord Jesus gives us the most important teaching, the teaching about openness to each other. And any person who fails to be open is cast out of the church. He is treated as a Gentile or a tax collector.

The Jews did not associate with Gentiles or tax collectors. They regarded the tax collectors as turncoats, as traitors to the nation for collecting taxes for the Romans, the oppressing power. They would have been treated rather like how we used to treat the Wang Jing Wei government, the puppet Chinese government that functioned under the Japanese. We treated it as “han jian,” as traitors. We would never associate with this kind of people.

So Christians who did not behave like Christians are therefore treated as Gentiles and tax collectors, that is, you don’t associate with them. Paul says those words exactly in 1Corinthians 5:11,

This severe measure is to bring him to his senses, to show him that he is not a Christian lest he imagines he is a Christian. All discipline in the church is meant to bless, to help to save that person who is sinning. By not disciplining that person, he is allowed to think that he is still a Christian, and so he can go on sinning.

By warning a Christian who sins that he is no longer a Christian if he continues in this conduct, you are helping him to realize that he must change. If he doesn’t change, he will not be saved. But too often today, the church lets people behave in every unbecoming way, and so the church goes downhill.

 

A church should be a society of friends

My earnest longing is that we, as a church, will really learn to open up to one another. It’s so difficult. Really, learn to open up to one another. Be willing to accept the risk of being hurt, and communicate with one another at all costs so that we may build up understanding. How can we understand one another, how can we become friends if we don’t communicate? You don’t know who I am, I don’t know who you are, how can we be friends? The result is that friendship never grows because there is non-communication. The only way you can make friends with everyone is to communicate. You may realize that if you had not talked to the other person, you would never have such a precious friend. But thanks be to God I had the courage to open up to that person, so I have one more dear, precious friend! That is how the church is meant to be. It is a society of friends, if you like, a society in which each person is truly open to the other.

What is the use of such friendship? What in fact, is the use of the church at all? What do I need a church for if all I do is come to church on Sunday, sit and listen to some boring preacher, who rambles on and on about friendship, then after all this, I go home? What was the point of being in church at all? What do you need a church for? You might as well sit at home, turn on the TV and listen to some TV preacher. If you don’t happen to like him, you can turn off the TV, or change the channel to something more exciting. But if you sit in church, you cannot turn off the preacher. He goes on and on, boring you to death, and you wonder, “I wish I could press a button and he would disappear through the floor!” In fact, many people say to me, “Why can’t I be a Christian and stay at home?”

 

The importance of agreement in “two or three” people

In between Matthew 18:15-20, you see the phrase, “two or three,” and there is a vital principle about the Christian life. The Christian life simply cannot proceed as God meant it to proceed unless there is openness, a union, an agreement between at least two or three people. To put it plainly, without that, there is simply no spiritual life, because there will not be power or progress. Let me share with you three points on the spiritual unity of two or three in this passage.

 

1. The unity of 2 or 3 is effective in witnessing to the truth

In verse 16, we see that two or three people are required to establish a witness to the truth. Why do you bring two or three witnesses? According to the Old Testament principle, truth is established in the mouths of two or three witnesses. So there needs to be two or three people to establish witness to the truth. This is what makes the effectiveness of the church, which is so important.

The church is often non-effective today, because people don’t see that harmony of witness. It is all depending on one particular Christian or another particular Christian. But the witness of two people in Scripture is incomparably greater than that of one person. Understand that very well. Deuteronomy 32:30 shows you how immeasurably greater is the effectiveness of three people as compared to one:

Notice, one person chases a thousand and two people chase two thousand, is that correct? No, read again: “One chases a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.” Where there is one, you chase only a thousand. A thousand is quite a lot, but one chases only a thousand. Where there are two, they put ten thousand to flight. Two is not double but ten-fold! God’s power works so much more greatly through two people than through one person. That is the very interesting picture! The first point is the effectiveness of the unity of two or three in witnessing to the truth.

 

2. God entrusts authority and power to 2 or 3 to battle against sin

In this passage, Matthew 18:15-20, we are talking about the battle against sin. And in the struggle against sin, one person is so much weaker than two. Have you ever noticed that when you have to face a difficult situation, two people who are in harmony with one another, can face that situation so much more triumphantly than if you have to face it alone? Likewise, in the struggle against sin. We often lose the battle against sin because we are fighting alone. We don’t trust another person to stand with us, to take our problems as their problems, to fight shoulder to shoulder with us. If we did that, we would have found the battle so much easier to win. You are a great warrior if as one person, you could put one thousand to flight. But if there are two such warriors, they would put ten thousand to flight, not just two thousand. That is a precious lesson indeed!

This second point on the spiritual unity of two or three is in verse 18: authority and power:

This authority seen in this context is given not to one person only. “Truly I say to you,” the “you” here is plural, not to some particular individual. That is, if you, two or three people, act together in harmony, with one spirit and one mind, whatever “you” (plural) bind or loose on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven.

Authority is put in the hands of a team of two or three people. If you can function in harmony as a team, God is willing to entrust his authority to you, that is, you can make decisions. To bind and loose in verse 17 means that if you decide this person shall be from henceforth cast out of the church as a tax collector or a Gentile, that is, he shall be bound, it is carried out. If, on the other hand, you de­cide that the person shall be loosed or retained, it is also carried out.

That is something very important. The church has authority, not merely entrusted to one individual. Sometimes, it is entrusted to one individual. The same words were said to Peter, in the singular, but here, it is spoken to the church. This apostolic authority that was invested in Peter in Matthew 16:19 can now be exercised by any group of people who truly have a spiritual unity. Notice carefully, a spiritual unity.

We may have an organizational unity. That is not the same. You are not functioning by the Spirit of God. You can get two or three people who can agree on an idea. You can get two or three criminals who can agree to rob a bank. That kind of agreement is not the one we are talking about here. We are talking about the spiritual unity in which two or three people together, yielded and obedient to God, are doing God’s will. God is willing to entrust that apostolic authority to a team of two or three people who function together in spiritual unity. There, we must learn the secret of power.

 

3. God will grant his favor to spiritual unity

The third point is favor from God in Matthew 18:19,

If you have spiritual unity, if you agree with one another with a spiritual openness before God, what you ask before God will be granted to you. Do you know why? If there can be unity at the spiritual level, whatever you ask will be in accordance with God’s will, because the Spirit of God is the one who gives you that agreement, that unity. What you ask will certainly be granted to you. How wonderful that is!

Sometimes, we struggle alone in prayer. We pray and the doors of heaven seem to be like brass and we cannot get through. But when you have two or three people in the unity of spirit praying together, and God grants it to you! It is like this again and again! It is so wonderful! It’s because God delights to answer where he sees love among his people; a love that he has put into our hearts and bound us together in his love. He delights to answer such prayer.

 

Summary of the blessedness of “unity in two or three”

Let us therefore learn this spiritual unity of two or three, so that firstly, we may witness to the truth.

Secondly, that we may have this power and authority to make spiritual decisions whether to bind or loose in the battle against sin. This is so that we may have the spiritual authority to do God’s work, not to glorify ourselves! The moment you think of glorifying yourself, God takes away the authority. Have you experienced how hard it is to serve God without his power? You cannot do anything. But when you have this power and authority, you become effective in God’s work.

The third point is to have favor before God. How wonderful when you ask him, and he grants it to you! When you need victory over sin, he grants it to you. When you need any particular encouragement, he grants it to you. When you pray for a brother or a sister in need, he grants it to you. In your financial needs, he grants his favor to you, not because you are making use of him, but because you are living totally for him. The Lord Jesus says, “My Father in heaven will do for them as they ask.”

 

Begin to build friendship in church with at least one other person

Therefore, we see these three important points that the Lord Jesus teaches us in this passage. I earnestly pray that you may begin to build a friendship starting with one other person. At least the two of you will be a start for the gathering of “two or three.” Openness with everyone at the same time is a bit difficult. If you look around and say, “There are so many people, how am I going to be open?” Start with one person. God wants us to build a one-to-one relationship for a start. Try that first.

Pray to God: “My God and Father, I’m going to open myself to that person, and I’m going to take that person into my heart. I’m going to build a relationship with that person so that we can build each other up in Christ.”

Get a prayer partner so that you pray for that person constantly, and that person prays for you. Isn’t it wonderful to know that there is one other person who will always be praying for you, namely your prayer partner?

The Lord Jesus reduces the minimum number down to only two or three. He knows our weakness and he brings the challenge down to our level. If you cannot communicate with everyone at the same time, communicate with just one or two. Build a close spiritual relationship with that person, then you will have a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And through learning to be friends with one another, you will learn friendship with God that Christ has brought to us.

I pray that you will truly begin to do this very thing. Build a bridge to a fellow Christian, and in due time, God will have all of us linked together one to the other. If you build one bridge to one person, I build one bridge to one person, everyone is building bridges, and soon, we would all be linked to one another through this bridge building, this opening ourselves to each other, wouldn’t we? Then, the church will truly experience these three things: Witnessing to the truth, power and authority, and favor from God.