Sunday Message – Today Jesus 105 29/10/06

<Luke 17:1-4>
WOE TO THE PERSON WHO CAUSED OTHERS TO SIN
Read <Luke 17:1-4>
• Each time we read the Bible, we will know that God’s concern is often placed on how
we interact with the people around us
• The Bible always tells us how we should face God and people
• Every one of us has different relationships. E.g. relationship of father and son,
siblings, husband and wife, colleagues, etc
• What is the most important relationship among all? The most important relationship
is the relationship with God, our Father.
• If a person does not have a right relationship with his Creator, he will not have a good
relationship with anybody
• The reason for this is he has not seen the acceptance and love of God. Therefore,
everything he sees is incorrect, which leads him to complain over the smallest matter.
E.g. He will complain about food, the people whom he deal with or even when he is
driving
• Apart from our relationship with God, the relationship between spouses is the next in
importance. This is why we should always think of our wives, on how we can bless
her, protect her and love her
• Other than these two, there are also important relationships that our God had
prepared for us. This include our relationship with our parents, children, relatives etc,
• Thus, God wants us to watch over ourselves on how we think, judge, speak when we
interact with others. It means to be filled with the word of God when we think, judge
or speak
• If we cannot control these, we will lose out in a lot of things / areas

• The people around us are all prepared by God. They are our wisdom and rewards.
Thus, we should not put them down or make fun of them intentionally or otherwise
• In order to have a correct relationship, we will need to have an altar in our lives.
When we have that, we will naturally display the love and strength of God in our lives
• Our church’s message does not teach us how to deal with people superficially. God’s
teaching to us is to interact with people sincerely and be concerned over their lives
• We may know that we need to love but without a successful prayer life, we will not be
able to love others truthfully
• No matter how good a person may be, if he has not been born again, there is no way
for him to edify anybody. A person who is born again is able to give others true
blessing
• Some people may think that they will definitely bless their own children whom they
love dearly. However, is it really blessings that they are giving their children?
• E.g. A father teaches his child how to become a successful person. When the child
grows up, he really becomes a very successful man. However, his success makes him
unable to believe in God. Thus, what the father teaches is not really a blessing for the
child
• If we look at the children whose parents are successful individuals but do not know
God, they are often unhappy. This is because the successful parents will expect their
children to be as successful as themselves, thus giving them a lot of pressure. If the
 children are not successful, they will have inferior complex or feel guilty. On the other
hand, if they do become very successful, they will become very proud.
• It does not only apply to the children. Anyone who does not know God but is
successful will tend to become proud or arrogant and those who have failed will
become inferior. Therefore, neither of them is able to edify others.
• E.g.: some parents will ask their children to tell “white lies” in order to gain some
benefits. However, for us, the children of God, we should only teach our children that
it is alright for us not winning all the time, and it’s alright to lose to others. God will
give us rewards and blessings in other areas when we do that.
• Therefore, it is crucial for a person to receive the correct information. Otherwise, they
may cause damages to their children or others, instead of doing them good
• Although some Christians might have heard a lot of messages, they will always hurt
others if they have yet to format their lives with the word of God or realise the true
value of life

1. What it means by “causing others to sin”?

• Today’s verses tell us that if anyone had sinned against us but had also asked for
forgiveness, then we should forgive him. However, we must know what it means
by “causing others to sin”
1) Causing others to commit sins
(1) Causing others to go astray by giving wrong teachings
• It is a very serious sin to cause others to go astray by giving them the
wrong teachings
• If a person’s teaching causes others not to think about the things after
death but only concentrate on the present, that person is causing others to
go into eternal destruction
• In <1 King>, there was a king named Jeroboam. He was afraid that the
Israelites would only follow God and not him. Thus, he had established his
only temple, decreed, teachings and laws. As a result, 19 Kings after him
all followed his steps and not follow the steps of David, which was God’s
way. (Need to mention what happened to the 19 kings after that?)
• If a person teaches the wrong ideology and people follow him, he is
bringing curses to all his era and descendants
• <James 3:1> tells us that those who teach will be judged more strictly.
Therefore, we must take extra caution when we teach
• However, sometimes we are not given a choice whether to be a teacher or
not. E.g. Parents are always the teachers of their children. If you are the
only one in the family who knows God, you will be the teacher in your
house
(2) Encouraging others to go against God
• God will get rid of such people personally
• Do not think that the altar message is complete. In fact, nothing is
complete except for the Word of God
• The altar message is shared to a congregation. Thus, it will not always be
complete. What is important is that the message must make people to
know God better, and make people want to follow and get closer to God
• There is bound to have some doubts among the congregation due to the
incompleteness of the altar message. Therefore, it is necessary for anyone
 who has doubts to seek clarification with the Pastor or Reverend, as
prolonged doubts will cause disbelief eventually
(3) Causing the weaker ones to sin by our personal enjoyment
• 《1Cor 8:9-13》

• We are free to do anything in the Lord. However, not everything we do will

benefit others
• No matter what we do, we ought to know the reasons for doing it. After we
had known the reason, we can do it with freedom. However, if others have
fallen as a result of our actions, then it will be better for us to stop doing it
(4) Causing others to sin by not rebuking them
• If we do not stop someone from sinning, we are causing them to sin. Thus,
if we do not rebuke someone who is sinning, we are sinning ourselves
• However, we will need to have wisdom before we rebuke someone
• We are causing division in the church, if we rebuke someone openly and
directly in the congregation

2) Causing others to sin by losing the love of God

(1) Causing others to fear God by imposing strict legalistic teachings
• We are bringing curses upon others if we caused them to fear God and the
Pharisees are always doing it
• Although it is not wrong to reason things out with others, if we only talk
about reasoning and cause others to feel guilty and fear God, then it is
incorrect
(2) Punishing and driving people out using only rules and regulations but not love
• Those who only speak about legalism will not talk about love. They do not
teach out of love
• The church should never drive anyone out, even if there are people like
Judas Iscariot in the congregation. The church is like a hospital. It is filled
with all kinds of patients
• The church needs to give people time and space to breathe
• We must definitely follow the altar message but we should not oppress
others using the message
(3) Judging and accusing others without love
• We will definitely hurt others if we do not judge them out of love and
concern
• Sometimes, we pass judgement on others because of we were hurt by
them before
(4) No mercy and no forgiveness
• We will cause others to fall / sin if we do not show any mercy and forgive
others even when they have repented

2. How to rebuke and forgive people?

1) How to rebuke people?
(1) It should be done out of love. Speak the truth in love <Eph 4:15>
 • When we want to rebuke someone, it must be done out of love and not out
of anger
• Therefore, it is best for you to keep quiet when you are angry
• You will have the courage to face the person you want to rebuke if you are
really doing it out of love. Moreover, you will leave the outcome to God
(2) Before we rebuke someone, intercede for him and examine ourselves first
• We are not in the position to rebuke someone till we have interceded for
him
• Must know that not everyone is willing to listen to our rebuke. This is true
even when Jesus Christ was rebuking the people. In fact, the number of
people who will listen is much lesser than those who do not listen
• Therefore, we should just leave the outcome to God after we have rebuked
someone
(3) Rebuke someone in accordance to God’s principle <Matthew 18:15-20>
• God’s principle is to talk to the person first in private
• If he refuses to listen, bring along one or two who are spiritually more
mature to talk to him
• Tell it to the church after he had refused to listen
• If he still doesn’t repent, we should just leave him alone and treat him like
a gentile
• However, even when we are rebuking somebody we must realise that it
will take some time for a person to change
(4) Start with a blessed, beloved identity
• We do not rebuke for the sake of rebuking. Neither are we doing it in hope
to find faults with a person
• When we rebuke a person, we must try to restore his identity
• When you rebuke your children, you must teach them to do things
according to the identity of God’s children and not just simply hit or scold
them.
• It is very common to see how a couple will quarrel when they do not see
their true identities

2) How to forgive people?

(1) Eternal forgiveness. Unlimited forgiveness
• <Luke 17:4> is to emphasise that God’s forgiveness is eternal and
unlimited
• Are we not able to forgive others? We must always remember that the
brother whom we cannot forgive has the same Lord and Father as us. His
relationship with us cannot be changed forever
• No matter who the victim is, God loves both of us
• We might be the victim now but there are also times when we are weak
and hurt others or do the wrong things. Therefore, we are no different from
the person who has hurt us
 • If a person cannot forgive another person, he will not be able to face the
other person or sleep peacefully at night
• If you do not forgive, you will feel guilty when you have fallen, thinking
that God will not forgive you also
• However, when we have forgiven others, we are able to see the love and
comfort of God
• God will forgive and forget all our sins forever
• Likewise, we should not dig out the wrongdoings of a person or of our
children when we quarrel with them or when we are disciplining the
children
(2) Our hearts have already forgiven a person when we are compassionate and
intercede for him
• We have already forgiven a person, if we have a compassionate heart and
intercede for a person who wronged us even before he apologised to us.
This is the most wonderful
• The Bible tells us that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy,
it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-
seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love
never fails.”
• If we have love, we are able to embrace and forgive every sin. However,
we are not talking about the superficial love of man, but the indefinite love
of Jesus Christ
(3) Forgiveness that will edify others
• The Lord’s forgiveness is done with wisdom. It is to edify others and to
enable one to stand up again
• We can see from <Matthew 5> that each time when Jesus Christ forgives
someone, He will tell that person the area in which he must renew. This is
to ensure that person will not receive any accusation

3. How do we not cause others to sin? How do we forgive and edify others?
• Only those who live in the love of God and are sanctified are able to do it
1) We will have a sanctified life only after we are being loved
• Only after we have seen the love and compassion of God on us, we are able to
love righteousness and lives
• We can forgive others only after we love their lives
• Where do we get the authority to forgive others, or to rebuke others?
• It comes after we are living in God’s love and are living a sanctified life
• If a messy person rebuke you for being messy, he will not have any authority
to make you listen to him
• Therefore, we must have a sanctified life before we rebuke others

2) How can we discover the great love of our Heavenly Father?

• We must discover the great love of our Heavenly Father from the altar
 • We need to have the altar set up in our lives. This means renewing ourselves
with the love of God after we have listened to His word
• We can only discover His love when we live in His word and communicate with
Him daily

3) How can we maintain a sanctified life without any bondage?

• We cannot love others by endurance. We must have the sustainability to see
the love and forgiveness of God for us
• We cannot love others simply because we have seen how adorable that
person is.
• Our perspective can only be changed only if we can sustain our lives

4) We live to love God and to bless others

• Very often, we are angry with others because we love ourselves too much
• We will not be too egoistic after we realised that God is supportive of me
• We should not love or forgive others by endurance. True love must come from
the indefiniteness of God

Sharing and Prayer Topic

1. Two ways to cause others to fall: ①causing others to sin ②causing others to
lose the love of God → Diagnose: Did you do anything intentionally or
unintentionally that have caused others to sin, recently? How do my actions or words
cause others to sin? Discover the destructiveness in reality

2. The Lord teaches us not to cause others to sin. Instead, we should do more
things out of love, when rebuking others and edify others by forgiving them
→ Discover: Is there anyone whom God wants me to rebuke? Examine: How should I
rebuke in accordance to God’s teachings? Discover: Is there anyone who wronged me
recently? Examine further: How should I be praying in order to forgive and bless
others? Ask the Lord for His guidance…

3. Only those who are living in God’s love and are sanctified are able to have
the most beautiful rebuke and forgiveness → Diagnose: Am I living in God’s
great love daily? As such, do I have the confirmation that God is with me and
supporting me in every step I take? Do I have great hopes for tomorrow? Testify: How
can I discover God’s great love in all things?