World Peace Starts With You

Good afternoon, everybody! A very, very big thank you to the children for all their time and effort in putting that beautiful music together for us. Certainly it's always a highlight of the feast and we definitely appreciate it. So thank you to the kids. Thank you to the parents as well. I know that whenever we have kids and whenever our kids are practicing to sing in the choir, my wife will have that music running constantly in the background. When she's cooking, when the kids are bathing, when we're driving around. So we hear those songs a lot. So a big thank you to both the kids and also to the parents for making that happen. It's good to see you all. The Feast of Tabernacles is most certainly an incredible and joyous occasion. Is it not? It's one of those rare occasions in life in which we celebrate an event in the future. Ever thought about that? Most often in life we celebrate things in the past. Things that have already happened. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and on and on. Things that have happened in the past. But the Feast of Tabernacles is different. It's one of those rare exceptions in which we celebrate an event in the future. An event that has yet to come. Something we earnestly, eagerly look forward to. An event that is as profound as it is certain. The return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom right here on planet Earth.

And with that establishment of His Kingdom will come peace. Peace. True peace. Lasting peace. The likes of which this planet has never seen before. This is the time of year during which we focus on those things. We hear the scriptures. We read them. We focus on them. We expound them. We visualize them. Some of the most beautiful and captivating scriptures in the entire Bible are scriptures that paint the picture of the millennium. These scriptures give us a small little glimpse of the world and the peace that God has in store for us during His Kingdom. But have you ever wondered how? How? How is all of this going to be possible? Peace has eluded mankind for our entire history. We've never been able to come to even come close to peace. We've never accomplished even a tiny bit of it. If anything, all you need to do is look around in the world today and you could easily make the argument that peace is even eluding us even further. It's getting further away. And as we know, it's not through a lack of trying.

We've tried. And we're going through an election cycle right now. What is the one thing that, you know, candidates often talk about is how what they're going to do to try and establish peace. This is nothing new. We've tried but failed miserably. So how exactly is God going to bring about lasting peace to this earth? You know, growing up in the church, I always imagined that after Christ's return, God would bound Satan, reveal His truth, pour out His Spirit, and boom! World peace would just break out across the planet. And as I've gotten a little bit older, I've come to appreciate that while there is certainly a lot of truth to that, the reality is a little bit more complex.

Yes, Satan will be bound. Yes, people will finally understand God's truth. And yes, everyone will have access to God's Spirit, but there's more to it than that. See, God isn't just going to wave a magic wand or snap His fingers to instantly create world peace. After the return of Jesus Christ, people will need to learn His ways, as we heard about in the first message.

They'll have to willingly repent, be baptized, get His Holy Spirit, and then commit to walking in that way. And this transformation won't happen overnight. It'll be a process. It'll take time. It'll take effort. It'll take commitment, just like it does for us today. And as has already been mentioned a number of times as this feast, you and I, sitting in this room and joining us in the webcast and other God's people around the world, we have been called to be part of God's family, to be called His children.

It truly is a priceless calling. But with that calling comes an expectation. An expectation which is quite simple. We are to live His way of life, to walk in His paths now. His way of love, His way of truth, and yes, His way of peace. And in so doing, our lives are to serve as a shining example and as a template for all those that will come after us.

This is all part of God's plan for us, but thankfully He hasn't left us to just try and figure it out on our own. You know, instead He's given us everything that we need to succeed. He's given us His truth, His laws, His faith, and perhaps most important of all, He's giving us His Spirit. And beyond that, He's equipped us with specific practical tools embedded as little jewels, as little nuggets throughout the Bible, throughout His Word, as a way of helping us, as a way of providing extra guidance and extra clarity and extra assistance to help us along the way.

So the purpose of my message today is to highlight one of these tools. I want to look at one of these tools, a tool that is not only a practical and powerful, but also absolutely critical as it relates to our pursuit of peace. And my hope is that by the end of this message, we will all be inspired to use this tool a little bit more, or even more, as we strive for peace, for unity in God's spiritual family.

So the tool is found in Matthew 18. If you could please turn with me to Matthew 18, or read the slides, Matthew 18 verse 15. And again, this is a scripture, this is a passage we know well. This is a tool we know well. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone, and if he hears you, you've gained a brother. Verse 16. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established, and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.

But if he refuses to hear even the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. So again, we know the scripture well. Nothing new here. We've heard it. We've read it. Probably reflected on it. We've probably invoked this. Put this into practice.

But today, what I'd like to do is I'd like to dive into it just a little bit deeper. I'd like to go just beyond the surface and expound on it a little further. You know, what Christ is providing here for us is a framework or a formula for reconciliation. He understands that when it comes to imperfect people, us, conflict is inevitable. It's inevitable. I'm sure he would prefer it wasn't. But he's pragmatic. And so what he does here in Matthew 18, his words, his instruction, his guidance, is he provides to us a practical framework and guidance on how to address conflict or issues as they arise.

Now one of my favorite sayings is a saying by Ronald Reagan.

And there's so much wisdom in this. Peace is not the absence of conflict.

It's the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. This is central to Christ's teaching, to recognize that conflicts may arise, but to always seek the path to peace.

You know, that's the purpose of this powerful tool that Christ has given us here in Matthew 18. It's not just about resolving the issue, but about restoring relationships, fostering unity, and ultimately maintaining peace in your spiritual family.

So let's dive into it. Before we get to verse 15, the context of this passage or the context of this chapter is important. You know, in Matthew 18, when you look at it as a whole, you know, Matthew 18 is a critical chapter for Christian ethics. Christ addresses a number of crucial elements or Christian principles on how we should relate to one another, interpersonal principles, if you can call them that, particularly as members of his family, of his church. And it's fascinating to note that it starts with a question.

It starts with a question. At the time, the disciples came to Jesus, verse 1, saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

You could argue that this is the question. This is the question. You know, you get a sense that this was a common debate amongst the disciples, right? This isn't the first time it's mentioned. It's mentioned in other places. The disciples are constantly jockeying for position, trying to figure out who's going to have the greatest position in the kingdom and trying to figure out who's going to be above one or the other. And what's fascinating about this is this question touches on a deeply rooted issue in human nature, the desire for personal greatness, wanting to be better, wanting to be greater, wanting to be exalted above others.

This mindset lies at the heart of many of the challenges that we face as a society. This question, or this mindset, is often the source of many conflicts, the majority for sure. Verse 2, then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Surely I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Christ's response to this question is critical. It's crucial. Basically what he says to the disciples is, you're missing the point. You're missing the point. Unless you be converted, and that word converted means to change, to repent, to turn. Unless you be converted and humble yourself, you're not even going to make it into the kingdom. Not to mention being the greatest. You're not even going to make it in.

This is a rebuke, a stern rebuke, on Christ's part to the disciples, and he warns them of the dangers of pride and the importance of humility. And you know, there's so much that can be said about the humility of a little child. I mean, just watching these kids up here, the sincerity, the gentleness, they don't care about status or position. They're quick to forgive. They rarely assume intent. Again, just an inherent gentleness and humility about them. And what Christ is saying is, that attitude, that mentality, that is what greatness looks like in the kingdom.

So this is the introduction to this passage of Scripture. Christ then expounds on a number of different principles, and then we drop down to verse 15 where we get into the actual framework.

Now, the essence of this framework rests on a singular principle. On a singular principle, if you take nothing else away from this message, please take this. The ultimate goal and desire of this framework should always be reconciliation. Always.

Second Corinthians 5 verse 18 says this, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the will to himself, not imputing their trespasses to him, and has committed to us the word or the ministry of reconciliation. The primary purpose of Christ's life and death was reconciliation. The reconciliation of mankind back to God. This is what God is doing. Look at his Holy Day plan. His Holy Day plan gives us this blueprint. It gives us this map. In his life and his death, Jesus Christ has set an extraordinary example for us of what reconciliation should look like. You know, following his example, the purpose of us invoking this framework should always be reconciliation. Never vengeance, never personal gain, never retribution. We should never try and invoke this framework to try and shame our brother or embarrass our brother. The goal should always be reconciliation.

So I ask you to keep that in mind as we go through this. That is an overarching principle of this framework. So let's dive into the framework, and I will say that the framework has three steps, as we know. For the purpose of this message, we'll be covering the first step, and the first step only, and I think you'll see why in a moment. So verse 15. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. So what we're going to do is we're going to break this first step down into little sections, and we're going to evaluate the little sections. There is so much wisdom in this first step alone. A ton of practical advice. The first thing it says here is that if your brother sins against you—now notice Christ uses the word sins—the implication is that there is a fairly significant and obvious or clear offense that has been committed. We don't want to be approaching our brother or sister for minor or petty infractions, or if someone uses the wrong word or has a different opinion or doesn't laugh at our hilarious jokes. The expectation here is that we should only be approaching our brother when again a clear and significant offense has been committed. If the expectation that we would be approaching our brother or petty things, we would be approaching each other all the time, non-stop. Instead, this tool should be implemented or exercised judiciously, wisely. We are to have a certain amount of grace and tolerance and patience with one another, and that's an important consideration as we move through this framework.

The second thing that is interesting about this framework is it says, go and tell him his fault. Now, Christ obviously gave this instruction in a time or in an era prior to texts, email, phone calls, Twitter, TikTok, all the different things, but I think there's a lot of wisdom in going and speaking to your brother. This should always be the case, and the preference, frankly. If you find yourself in a situation where you're having to invoke this framework, speak to the individual. Avoid texts, avoid an email.

As you all know, you've all been on both the sending and receiving ends of these kinds of communication where tone is lost, emotion is lost, regardless of how many smiley and winky faces you may use, tone gets lost. So the preference should always be pick up the phone if you have to, if that's an option, but the preference should always be go and speak to the person. You know what's interesting about this to me? This is usually the opposite of what happens in society. Think about it.

Someone gets offended or someone sins against the other person. The person that's sinned against is like, I'm not going to go and talk to that person.

That person sinned against me. And so because that person sinned against me, that person has to come and speak to me. I'm not going to go and speak to that person. It's their job. It's their responsibility.

They have to come and apologize. And what happens here is this devolves into a situation where ultimately two parties ignore each other or avoid each other, even worse. And usually that just makes the situation so much more intenable, so much worse. We probably all know people or relationships that have soured tremendously over the years because one person has done something to another person and neither of them have got the courage or the ability to speak to each other. And so what happens is this devolves into feuds or to arguments that people for years don't settle these things. I heard a story the other day where there was an individual who had an issue with a family member and this went on and on and on and eventually for years they just didn't speak. They refused. None of them had the humility to approach the other until one day the person got a phone call and said, oh, your brother's dead. That individual never had the opportunity to settle and to reconcile.

The point is, take the first step.

Take the first step. If someone has done something against you, follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Take the first step. This is what he did. He gave himself. He gave himself as a sacrifice to us while we were still sinners. He took the first step. Now, in some cases you may need time.

That's okay. Even preferable, perhaps, to take some time. You don't want to rush right into this. Today someone has done something against you and immediately you're chasing them down the hall, trying to reconcile and address this. Take the time. Think about it. Pray about it. Meditate on it.

And in that time, the individual may, and this is the ideal situation, the individual may even recognize it on their own and apologize. But it's okay to give it time. But the point is this. Don't let it ruminate. Don't let it fester. Don't let it start growing into bitterness and resentment. The other thing I think that is interesting is, Christ is saying, go and speak to this individual.

You know, Christ is saying, go and speak to this individual.

It may be possible that this individual is not aware of their sin.

In which case, you're helping them. You're pointing it out to them.

So here's the big question. The big question is this. What is the best way to do this?

What is the best way to approach your brother? Sorry, I don't have any golden rule, golden wisdom. The answer is, it depends. Obviously, it depends on a number of different factors. It depends on the relationship you have with the individual. It depends on the situation. It may depend on the type of sin, the impact, etc. So there could be a number of ways stylistically in which you may want to approach your brother. That said, this is where the context of the chapter becomes important. You'll recall Christ's rebuke of the disciples, imploring them to repent and humble themselves and exercise humility. That same attitude is critical in how we approach our brother. Galatians 6 verse 1 tells us, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a wine in a spirit of gentleness. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. So approaching your brother with a spirit of gentleness and humility is critical. It's important that we avoid correcting or rebuking or instructing or accusing our brother in this context. Generally, that is not productive. The other thing that I find really interesting about this passage is we are told to consider ourselves. Consider ourselves. Verse 3 says this, for if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

This verse serves as a sobering ego check, a powerful reminder that in comparison to God, we're nothing. We're nothing. We are all limited. We are all imperfect. We all have struggles. We all fall short. And none of us, frankly, are in a position to lecture another about their sin. Yes, we're there to help them and to love them and to help them overcome. But certainly in this context, giving a lecture about how bad the person is or how tremendous this person's sin is, is generally not going to be helpful. Instead, we should address the situation with humility, recognizing our own need for grace. This is the attitude that sets the stage and the foundation for genuine reconciliation. As a side, I did also ask chat GPT what would be the best way to approach your brother. And they actually did chat GPT, did actually mention these things.

But the other thing that they had mentioned was to listen. To listen. And I think that's an important part of this framework as well, is if you're approaching your brother or your sister and you're having this conversation, listen to what they have to say. There may be something else going on. There may be a situation that you're not aware of. And so, do not make this just a one-way dialogue where you're getting in, you're approaching your brother, you're telling them their sin and how you're offended and trying to get out. Listen. So that's approaching your brother.

The next part of the scripture is between you and him alone. Now, this is one of the most important tenets of this framework. We ought to try, in this step, we ought to try and keep issues strictly confined to the people in question. Never spread the sin to other people. This happens far too often. We've all seen it. Where someone has sinned against someone else and that person then goes and errs the sin to everyone else except the individual. Proverbs 26 verse 20 tells us this, where there is no wood, the fire goes out, and when there is no tail-bearer, strife is the opposite of reconciliation. It only propagates conflict. If our goal is peace, then this is something that we should all take seriously. So with the first step, we are to approach our brother and approach our brother alone. We ought to try and keep the matter contained. Then it says, if he hears you, so if you've taken these steps, you've approached your brother, you've had an attitude of humility and gentleness, you've made known his son and the impact that it's had, and if he hears you, you've gained a brother. You've gained a brother. This is the goal.

You know, there's something extremely powerful about two people having an issue and then reconciling after the issue. You know, I reflect back to a personal experience I had when I was a teen. I attended church back in Johannesburg, and there was a kid that I didn't care for too much. He didn't care much for me either, if I'm being honest. Anyway, we got into an altercation one day after church. I don't recall how it started or why it started, but what I do recall is that it ended with me chasing him down the hallway with a can of hairspray.

I don't remember where I got the hairspray. I don't remember whose hairspray it was or what kind of damage I was expecting to inflict. All I remember was that he was a lot bigger than me, and I needed a weapon. And so it was extra firm hold, so there's that.

Anyway, the next week, he approached me. He approached me. He let me know that he didn't appreciate what I had done. He called me out. He was kind. He was sincere. He was gentle. And as a result, he won me as a brother. We ended up being best friends for 20 years.

For 20 years, best friend I ever had.

You know, even at that age in our youth, the approach was effective. I suspect many of you have got similar stories. Maybe not involving hairspray, but hopefully with a similar outcome. This should always be the goal.

It should always be the goal. As we heard in the first message, God's way works, and God's way benefits us. This guidance or this framework is no exception.

Now, usually speaking, when we look at this framework in Matthew 18, we look at it through the lens or from the perspective of the person approaching the other person. We often look at the framework through the lens of the person that didn't commit the sin in this case.

But both parties have got a duty or responsibility to reconcile. Both parties are accountable.

You could argue that the individual who committed the sin, the individual who is being approached in this context, probably has a greater influence or a greater bearing on the outcome.

We've all seen the scenario play out. Person A does something to Person B. Person B goes back to Person A. He speaks to the person, approaches the individual about their sin. Person A gets defensive, justifies it, argues, refuses to apologize, or worse. Gaslights the other individual and tells that individual, well, it's your fault. You're the reason that I sinned.

I've seen this play out numerous times. I've done this. I've done this. And the result is that the situation is now even worse than before. Instead of reconciliation, the situation is now devolved into division. Not a great outcome. As we noted earlier, there is a right way and a wrong way to approach someone. The same is true for being the individual who is being approached. How we respond if and when someone approaches us is critical. And it can mean the difference between reconciliation or escalation. Escalation up through the rest of the framework. How we respond is critical. So how should we respond? Now, I'm not a psychologist or a counselor, but I did take some time to think about this and put together what I perceive to be a useful and a thoughtful response.

The first thing, if you are approached by somebody, if you have done something and this individual approaches you, the first thing you should do is thank the person. Thank the person. You know how much courage it takes to approach another individual?

In humility and gentleness, seeking peace, seeking reconciliation? That's not an easy thing to do.

So the first thing is to thank the person. The second thing, if you have certain, admit it. Admit it. Admit it. There's no shame in admitting it. Third, apologize. Apologize.

And fourth, ask what you can do to make it better. What can I do? I'm sorry, you're right. What can I do to make it better? And then the fifth thing, follow up. Follow up. Do what you said you were going to do to make it better. Follow up by sending a text, a phone call, an email. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention today. Thank you so much and I apologize. I will do everything I can to make it better. By you following up, what you're telling that other individual is that you heard them, that you care, and that you committed. The key is that the attitude of humility needs to be inherent in both parties. In both parties. Not just one. Both parties bear responsibility of reconciliation. Both parties should be trying to pursue peace. Both parties should be trying to walk in the footsteps and follow the example of Jesus Christ. And when that happens, when both parties share this attitude or this mindset, the outcome is reconciliation. And when reconciliation is achieved, both parties win. You know, I think back to the story that I shared earlier involving my friend. As a result of the way that the situation was handled by both parties, we both benefited. It wasn't just him that won a brother. As mentioned, I won a brother. I won a best friend out of this. You know, what started as an altercation ended as a lifelong friendship. A friendship that I will value for the rest of my life. All because both of us were willing to handle this situation with humility and a desire to reconcile. Now, before I take too much credit for the way the situation was handled, my father was standing right behind me. His father was standing right behind him.

And we were gently encouraged to handle the situation in this way. But I'm glad that they were.

We learned an important lesson. And again, we both benefited greatly from it.

Not to mention, how do you think God views a situation like that? How do you think God views when his children have a situation and he just watches? And he sees this play out where both parties put whatever it is aside, put their own pride and their egos aside, and seek peace.

Seek reconciliation.

How do you think he sees that?

I have to believe he's pleased. I have to believe he's pleased.

So that's step one of the framework. Step two of the framework. If that doesn't work, then go to grab a couple of witnesses and go and take them with you. Step three is take it to the leadership of the church. And there may be certain situations in which this escalation is required.

But, like with the first step, this escalation should be done judiciously, prayerfully, with wisdom. That said, I do believe that the overwhelming majority of issues can and should be resolved in this first step between these two parties. Again, this should always be the goal. And if both parties are committed to following the example of Jesus Christ, and both parties seek peace, and both parties prioritise reconciliation, and both parties are truly wanting to come together with humility, there's no reason why it's not achievable. And Christ knows this. He understands that if everyone does their part, and if everyone is seeking reconciliation and shares in the same attitude, then the other steps would not be needed.

But He includes them anyway, and I think a big reason why He includes them anyway is to make the point that we are to do everything in our power to reconcile. That we are not to leave a stone unturned. If we have an issue, do everything we can to fix it, for the sake of peace, for the sake of reconciliation. Just as He did. He literally could not have done more so that we could be reconciled to God. He gave up His majesty, came down to earth, made Himself a servant, ultimately gave up His life.

All so that we could have a relationship with Him and with the Father. This should leave no question in our minds as to the importance of this to God. No question. You know, this is not something trivial. I want to turn your attention to Ephesians 4 as a final scripture. You know, Ephesians, the first three chapters of Ephesians, is so eloquent. You know, Paul's letter to Ephesus, he so eloquently starts building up and playing up the amazing plan that God has in the first three chapters. And the beauty of what Christ has done, what Christ is doing, and what Christ is still willing to do for us in the future. The fullness of what He's working out here. He's church and He's family. He then comes to a punctuation, to a head, in chapter 4 and verse 1. And this is what He says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you. There are certain scriptures and there's certain verses in the Bible that I like to scratch the word you out and put my name.

This is one of them. And I'm going to put my name there. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you, Stephen, put your name there, to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.

With all loneliness and gentleness. With long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. As we've heard so many times already this feast, we have an incredible calling. An incredible calling. We have been called to God's spiritual family to be His children. To be His children. But with that, there is an expectation. We are to endeavour to be diligent, to make every effort to get along.

To live in peace. You know, an inheritance in the scripture is an inference or a suggestion that it's not going to be easy. Look at the words, long suffering. We're not here long suffering at Panama City Beach, bearing with one another. So there is an inference, a suggestion, that it's not going to be easy. It's not always going to be puppies and roses. And like with any family, issues will arise. We should expect it. Even amongst people with God's spirit.

The goal is that we should try and avoid these issues as much as possible, but it's important to be realistic. But what should truly set us apart as God's family, as His children, is how we handle these issues.

How we handle these issues. We should do everything in our power to pursue peace, to humble ourselves, to be reconciled back to our brother, regardless of who is at fault.

This is a big part of our calling. It's a big part of agape that we've heard about. And this is the example set by Jesus Christ Himself, in that He sacrificed everything, everything for the purpose of reconciliation. What an example. What an example.

The Feast of Tabernacles depicts an amazing time.

A time in the future when Jesus Christ will return to this earth.

A time when He will usher in a new world. A time synonymous with joy, happiness, prosperity, and peace. Real peace. Peace.

Lasting peace. Peace which will cover the entire planet.

So how is God going to make this happen?

Look around.

Look around.

He's starting right here with you.

He's starting with you watching the webcast.

So as we enjoy the rest of the feast and ultimately head home, back to our local congregations, let's be mindful of the incredible role God has for us in His great plan.

We are called to be children of the living God. We are called to be His first fruits and an example for all of mankind.

So let's follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let us seek reconciliation and never forget.

World peace starts with you.