Matthew 18-19

1
Matthew 18-19
2
Matthew 181-5(Humility)

• Both the Apostles and the Church grew in
  importance.
• The Savior discussed several issues relative to
  the church and its leaders.
• The first was His concerned with humility.
• Doctrine and Covenants 11210, was one of
  President Hinckleys favorite scriptures).

3
Matthew 183-4

• Humility is important for both a leader and a
  member of the church.
• The attribute of absolute dependence upon a
  higher power. This is especially true regarding
  the Atonement.
• An infant who dies is utterly dependent upon the
  Atonement of Jesus Christ for salvation (Mosiah
  316,19).
• In other words, the Atonement is in effect in
  their lives.

4

• Matthew 186-14
• Causing little ones to stumble.
• Little Ones Converts to the new kingdom
• Matthew 186
• Millstones were large round stones about three
  feet in diameter.
• It required the power of a donkey to turn the
  mill. It would drown someone easily if they were
  cast into the sea (they were sometimes called
  Donkey Millstones).

5

• Matt. 186
• What is meant by the statement Whoso Shall
  offend one of these little ones?
• Little ones are children and those who have
  become as little children by conforming to the
  principles of the gospel. To offend one of
  these little ones, to cause to stumble or falter
  because of false example of doctrine, is a
  grievous sin indeed. The Savior taught that in
  some cases it would have been better for a person
  never to have been born than for him to have
  blocked the eternal progress of another
  (McConkie, DNTC, 1420).

6
Matthew 188-9

• There are two ways to look at this second
  reminder
• Members of the Church should avoid sin of every
  kind.
• Those members who commit extreme sin and cause
  others to do so should be removed from the body
  of the church.

7

• Matthew 1810
• Despise not one of these.
• Greek To look down on, treat with contempt,
  condemn, despise, disdain, think little or
  nothing of these little ones. In other words, all
  members are equal.
• Matthew 1815-20
• Dealing with the sinner! Leaders are told to
  confront those who have sinned in an effort to
  reclaim them (DC 102).

8

• The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
• Matthew 1821-35
• The debt of 10,000 talents was equated with each
  mans sins. It was an insurmountable debt! In
  other words, the debt could never be paid back.
• 1 talent 75.6 pounds
• The 100 pence debt (a reasonable debt) was
  equated with the most another can do to you. It
  would be equal to 100 days of work.
• This was 1,250 times less debt owed!

9
Matthew 181-192(The 4th Discourse)

• There are two things we should be really good at
  in this life
• 1. Forgiving others
• 2. Repenting
• We should be doing plenty of both!

10

• Application
• Since God had forgiven the disciples of their
  sins (something they could not do for themselves)
  they should therefore from their hearts forgive
  every one his brother their trespasses (DC
  649-11).

11
Matthew 19(The 5th Narrative)

• Divergent Views concerning Divorce
• In relation to the different opinions upon this
  subject among the Jewish authorities in the time
  of Christ, Geikie says
• Among the questions of the day fiercely debated
  between the great rival schools of Hillel and
  Shammai, no one was more so than that of divorce.
  

12

• The school of Hillel contended that a man had a
  right to divorce his wife of any cause he might
  assign.
• If it were no more than his having ceased to
  love her, or his having seen one he liked better,
  or her having cooked dinner badly.
• The school of Shammai, on the contrary, held
  that divorce could be issued only for the crime
  of adultery, and offences against chastity. If it
  were possible to get Jesus to pronounce in favor
  of either school, the hospitality of the other
  would be roused, and, hence, it seemed a
  favorable chance for compromising Him.

13

• Rabbi Akiba (Hillelite) said, If a man sees a
  woman handsomer than his own wife he may put her
  (his wife) away, because it is said, if she find
  not favor in his eyes. The school of Hillel
  said, If the wife cook her husbands food ill,
  by over-salting or over-roasting it, she is to be
  put away. On the other had Rabbi Jochanan (a
  Shammaite) said, The putting away of a wife is
  odious. Both schools agreed that a divorced wife
  could not be taken back Rabbi Chananiah said God
  has not subscribed His name to divorces, except
  among Israelites, as if he had said I have
  conceded to the Israelites, the right to
  dismissing their wives but to the Gentiles I
  have not conceded it. Jesus retorts that it is
  not the privilege but the infamy and reproach of
  Israel, that Moses found it necessary to tolerate
  divorce (Dummelows Commentary, 347-348).

14
Marriage and Divorce

• It focused on the hard heartedness of the
  Pharisees.
• Marriage is a very important aspect of Jewish
  society.
• Matthew 193
• In other words, is it alright to get a divorce
  for any reason?
• The Savior responded by declaring the higher
  law! (Matthew 194-6, DC 131-132, Moses 318-25).

15

• Matthew 197
• The Pharisees rebutted by saying that Moses
  allowed it!
• Matthew 198
• The Lord tried to impress this upon his
  disciples that it was only because of the
  hardness of the hearts of the people, because
  they failed to keep the commandments that the
  Lord had given them that Moses granted the
  putting away of the wife.
• Today the laws are different, and sometimes
  wives put away their husbands, but a marriage in
  the Temple of the Lord should be one that should
  be considered sacred and holy, never to be
  violated in any way whatsoever because it means
  that those who enter such a covenant shall
  continue after death and have eternal increase
  and build a kingdom.

16

• Now, if there is ever a divorce between a man
  and a woman married in the temple for time and
  all eternity, it is because they, one or the
  other or both, have violated the covenants that
  they made at the altar of the Lord otherwise they
  could not separate, and the Lord never intended
  that a man and a woman be separated in death, but
  that this marriage was one for eternity. There
  was no separation in death, and one of the
  greatest sins that can be committed is for a man
  and a woman to separate after they have been
  sealed in the house of the Lord to become sons
  and daughters of God and members of his
  household, and to have children come to them,
  sent by divine approval to be in that household
  not only for time but for all eternity (Joseph
  Fielding Smith, C.R. April 1961, 49).

17
Matthew 199

• The Savior stated that the only good reason for
  divorce was when the trust of the marriage was
  shattered by adultery.
• Otherwise, if he divorced to marry another, it
  was the same as committing adultery.

18
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said

• Even in the Church today the saints do not abide
  by the full and perfect law. It is somewhat as it
  was in the days of Moses divorce is permitted
  because of the hardness of the hearts of the
  people, and the Lord permits his agents to
  exercise the power to loose as well as the power
  to bind. Under our circumstances divorced persons
  who remarry are not always guilty of the crimes
  they would be if the highest gospel standard were
  in force (Mormon Doctrine, 203).

19
Eunuchs Matthew 1912

• (Bible Dictionary page 667)
• Born from their mothers womb impotent
• Made of men celibacy
• Made themselves castrated
• These men were trusted over harems for obvious
  reasons.

20

• Matthew 1916-22 The Rich Young Man
• The cost of discipleship. The question seemed to
  imply that salvation could be earned by doing one
  good thing.
• Matthew 1918 Which?
• A good question. Living at a time when Judaism
  was extremely fractured with various religious
  parties.
• There were 613 laws in the oral law.
• The man was perplexed as to which commandments
  he should keep.
• The Savior told the man to keep the written law
  of Moses.

21

• Matthew 1921 Be perfect!
• He was living the commandments of the law of
  Moses, but the law of Moses will not save a man
  in the Celestial Kingdom.
• If one would be perfect, one must shed the
  material things of this world and follow the
  Savior.
• He was content with doing just one thing to
  inherit eternal life.
• He was not willing to live the Law of
  Consecration.

22

• Matthew 1923-24
• There have been those who claimed that the
  needle referred to here was a small gate not
  meant for large animals to pass through.
• There is no evidence for such a gate.
• The statement was meant to be an exaggeration.
• In Jewish literature, Rabbi Raba said
• This is proved by the fact that a man is never
  shown in a dream a date palm of gold, or an
  elephant going through the eye of a needle
  (Talmud Berakoth 55b).
• Jesus saw wealth as a hindrance to spiritual
  progress!

23

• Elder Talmage taught in Jesus the Christ that
  some interpreters insist that a rope not a
  camel, was mentioned by Jesus.
• Elder Talmage mentioned that it had been
  asserted that the term needles eye was applied
  to a small door or wicket set in or alongside the
  great gates in the walls of cities and the
  assumption had been raised that Jesus had such a
  wicket in mind when He spoke of the seeming
  impossibility of a camel passing through a
  needles eye.

24

• It would be possible though very difficult for a
  camel to squeeze its way through the little gate,
  and it could in no wise do so except when
  relieved of its load and stripped of all its
  harness.
• If this conception be correct, we may find
  additional similitude between the fact that the
  camel must first be unloaded and stripped,
  however costly its burden or rich its
  accoutrement, and the necessity of the rich young
  ruler, and so of any man, divesting himself of
  the burden and trappings of wealth, if he would
  enter by the narrow way that lead into the
  kingdom.
• The Lords exposition of His saying was
  all-sufficient for the purposes of the lesson
  With men this is impossible, but with God all
  things are possible (Matthew 1926).

25

• Matthew 1927
• Peter said Behold, we have forsaken all, and
  followed thee what shall we have therefore?
• The Savior gives a gentle but firm rebuke.
• The responsibility was that they would judge the
  12 tribes of Israel. Their reward was eternal
  life!
• Matthew 1930
• The Savior hinted that some outside the
  apostolic circle would prove in the end more
  worthy than some of the apostles.