Pastor's Blog

And how often are we that honest that we will prayerfully go to our brother or our sister who has trespassed against us. And we will tell them what they have done. We almost can wonder if Jesus has it quite right here. Because so often we feel as if somehow I should take the blame. And that is what would lead us when we go to that place and say," I have harbored bad thoughts about you." There will be time to clear that up, if that is so. But don't start out with that if there has been a trespass against you by your brother. Go, Jesus, say, go and tell them their fault, what they have done. Not how you have felt, or how your own heart has harbored bad things. But go and tell them their fault. We can can see in the words of Jesus here, in this verse and in those that will follow, the earnest desire to find the truth. The earnest desire to find the truth. Because haven't we experienced so many times that it is rare that there is only one side to the story. It is so rare, that it is so clear cut that someone is dead wrong and the other is dead right. That may happen, but much more often it seems it takes two and it has taken two. And I believe that what Jesus is desiring to do here is to ensure that the truth emerges, in order that there might be restoration and peace between those who are at odds.

Go and tell him his fault, privately, between him and thee alone. And here I believe that we have seen damage done when we resort instead to gossip, instead of going and telling him alone between him or her and you. Rather, we go and tell others what they have done to us. And then attempt to come back and somehow apply the church law to that individual. But have we followed this church law of Jesus in the way that we ought to follow it. "Go and tell him his fault between him and you alone". What does this show? It shows how you love them. It shows how much you care. It shows that your are not prepared to continue living in such a way that you are at odds with this brother or sister. It show that you want peace and restoration. And may that be our hearts as we go to such a place, that we might be praying, not that they would be proven wrong, not that they would fall on their face in front of us in sorrow, but that we might be restored one with another as brothers or sisters. May that be our earnest prayer, that there could be restoration, because in your heart you care, you really care. You want there to be peace, you want there to be joy between the two of you. You don't want to have to avoid them for the next many years to come.

So powerful words from Jesus. And it says that if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. If he hears. I believe what Jesus means by this, is that if he receives this that you have told him, and there is restoration, there is peace, then you have gained your brother. You have your brother back again. And if you think of the person or people that you have had the greatest difficulty with even within the family of God, deep in your heart, isn't it so, that you wish it was different. You wish that you could be at peace, you wish that you could embrace them. Maybe it is long lost friends that have come to odds and can no longer get along well. They drift apart, but yet deep in in the heart, there is a desire; I wish, I wish I could embrace him, I wish I could embrace her. I wish we were one with one another. Care enough to go speak to them.

Pastor Steve Wuori

So now as we look into the church law, such as it is known, and we should probably go slowly, because we often assume things that aren't really there. In the 15th verse, "moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, so we see there first of all two things. We have a brother and that could be a natural brother, but it could also mean, I especially think, a spiritual brother. And I think that it would be fair that we could also say sister, because we are all one or the other. And so we can conclude that it is a brother or sister. This applies to all the children of God. And by that he is "thy brother", that implies that you are both believing children of God. And also he has trespassed against you. There is no question about that. Jesus said so. We don't have to interpret whether there has been a trespass here, but he says if thy brother shall trespass against thee. So, it is very personal, this one. It is something that is often the most painful when a trespass, when an offense has been created against me personally. And you can feel that. You feel wronged. You feel the urge to get back at them, and you start looking into the 18th chapter of Matthew, to think about how that might apply down the road, don't you, don't I? But here it says, he has trespassed against thee. What do you do? Go and tell him. First of all, the onus is on you, to go and to tell him. Philip, when he was observing the chariots coming by, coming from Jerusalem and back to Ethiopia, the Spirit said to him, "Go and attach yourself unto that chariot." The Spirit did not even tell him there was a special man inside of the chariot, He just said, "There is a chariot going by, go and attach yourself unto that chariot," and when he got there, he discovered a man who was reading from Isaiah. The Ethiopian enuch could not understand what he was reading. Philip was able to open the Scriptures to him and reveal to him the Lord Jesus Chirst and that man was converted there. Because when the Spirit said, go, Philip went. And therefore the exhortation is, go!

How many times when someone has trespassed against us, do we simply not go? We just don't go, we just avoid them. We just figure that we are not going to get along, we sort of lick our wounds and think I am just going to go on about my life and it is all the luckier if I don't run into that person again. But here it says, "if your brother trespass again you, you go and tell him. What do you tell him? You tell him his fault. And I think that many times there are great errors made here, that do damage even unto this beautiful order that Jesus has put before us. Because sometines when we do pluck up the courage to go, we start up with something like this. "I have harbored bad thoughts about you. And they respond and say, "I am sorry that you have harbored about me." And then you are no place. You are no where at all. Don't go and tell him your fault. We will come to that later on. Go and tell him his fault.

Pastor Steve Wuori