Welcome to our newest post about Sharing Your Faith! In his regular posts, Ryan Bentley will be stirring us to share our faith with others, by looking at passages of scripture and giving practical tips. We hope you enjoy the blog below!

Oh! Hello, didn’t see you there. It’s been a while, let’s catch up.

Last time we got together I told you about Matthew 25, where Jesus is talking about how to treat those we serve. I had a lot of fun, you can find it here if you wanna catch up,

This time I want to bring you to where God’s heart brings me every summer. We’re still in Matthew just a few chapters behind in Matthew 18:15-20, but we’re going to look at it a little bit differently…

Matthew 18:15-20

“If your brother or sister sins,
go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.

If they listen to you, you have won them over.

But if they will not listen,
take one or two others along,
so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

If they still refuse to listen,
tell it to the church;

and if they refuse to listen even to the church,
treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

We don’t have the time in this platform to go over the last portion of this scripture, but it’s worth a gander, I left it in there because I like context.

I’m more interested in verses 15-17. This is typically the pattern churches follow to “gain a brother back”. It’s used for accountability and reconciliation when someone sins or stumbles in the church. It’s a great model, when followed well. For me, this verse is MASSIVE for the HEART behind the approach.

The Heart Behind The Approach

Real quick, let’s walk through it.

1. If you have a brother who is in sin, you go to them solo. Honestly, sometimes all we need is someone to listen and care for us to come back to the fold.

2. If that doesn’t work we bring 2-3 people. Now these aren’t 2-3 randoms, but people who love and care about the person in sin.

3. Then comes the uncomfortable portion, you bring the whole church into it. Now I take this to mean church leadership and a wider community. Church here is Oikos which means community, so essentially you’d be bringing in people who are like family to the person in sin.

4. If that doesn’t work then you treat them like a Pagan or a Tax Collector.

Many have taken this to mean to excommunicate the person and cut them out of your life. Now I like to approach this differently, using a saying that is taught in Sunday School, What would Jesus do?

What Would Jesus Do?

Now isn’t it funny, Jesus wants us to treat people like Tax Collectors. Do you know of any Tax Collectors Jesus knew?

I know one!

He wrote the book of the Bible we just read from!

Ain’t that a thing, Jesus explicitly says to treat someone who is in sin and won’t repent like one of his disciples…

Not interested? Well Jesus also says to treat them like a Pagan.
Again we ask, How does Jesus treat Pagans?

Well;
He ate with them.
Healed them.
Healed their families.
Fed them.
Cast Demons out of them.
and continually invited them into his kingdom.

When it comes to sharing our faith, we need to get away from this idea of those who are in and those who are out. We need to create a perpetual motion of invitation. Constantly inviting those who don’t know Jesus to come to know him, and those who do to know him deeper. Esther-Maria wrote a marvellous blog about eternal life starting now, and it’s true! Eternal life does start now. But that isn’t just for those who know Jesus, it’s for those who don’t know him as well.

So when I sit on a park bench, and God brings this to mind, It brings me to a place surrender and peace. Knowing that I am to walk in the ways of Jesus, constantly inviting people to come to know him deeper. And a place of Peace, seeing that while I was once far off, now I am brought near, and if I ever were to fall, if I ever were to wander, Jesus would always, ALWAYS invite me back.

Ryan Bentley
Ryan moved from Birmingham in 2020 to be part of Redeemer along with his wife Sarah (our families worker) and his two kids, Rhys and Torah! He serves the church full time and his aim is to equip each of us to share the gospel with those around us on a daily basis. You can join his Faith Sharing meetup HERE or find more of his wisdom on Instagram.