Intro | the Community Lesson Last week, we were reminded that the three synoptic gospels tell the one story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection in relatively the same order and same way. While each writer was carried along by the Holy Spirit, they each spoke from God in their own voice. Matthew organizes like a teacher, portrays Jesus as a teacher, and equips his readers to be teachers. Our text in Matthew 18 is the fourth of five discourses describing the character of the Kingdom. The first was in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, known as the discipleship lesson. The second was 10, the sending out of the 12 disciples, the mission lesson. The third was in Matthew 13, the parables (i.e. sower, mustard seed, etc.), the hidden lesson. The fifth section will begin in Matthew 24, the Oliver discourse about the end times, the last days lesson. Each of the five sections ends with the phrase, “When He finished saying these things,” connecting Jesus with Moses who wrote the five books of the Pentateuch and predicted a second and better Moses would rise (Deut. 18.15ff).

The fourth is here in Matthew 18, the description of the church, the community lesson. Read More