Matthew, former tax collector, disciple to and friend of Jesus, likely wrote his gospel to fellow Jews.  Soaking it in references to the Old Testament, Matthew aimed to convince them that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah who’d come for the Gentiles too.  Matthew’s gospel is organised around five blocks of Jesus’ teaching: chapters 5-7 on the message of the Messiah; chapter 10 on his mission; chapter 13 on his kingdom; chapter 18 on his community; and chapter 24 and 25 on his future.  Having looked at Jesus’ action in chapters 8 and 9 two summers ago, in this series we’ll look at his teaching. 
 
In Matthew 18 Jesus teaches about how God’s people are to live alongside each other in what would become the church, and particularly how they’re to handle the sin that will inevitably remain part of their community until Jesus’ return.  Some of Jesus’ hardest teachings can be found here.  In response to a question about their status compared to each other (v1), Jesus warns his disciples of the dangers of hell for those who look down on those the Father values (v3-4, v10-14), cause others to sin (v5-7) or give in to sin themselves (v8-9).  In response to Peter’s question about how to handle personal grievances, Jesus reveals the astonishing degree to which his disciples are to forgive one another (v21-35).  Yet Jesus’ words are also incredible and inspiring, as we see the authority he has given to his church (v15-18), are reminded of God’s great forgiveness of us (v27 and v33) and are promised that he is with us (v19, cf. 28:18-20).
 
We’ll start our series a little earlier, in Matthew 17, to see the context of this teaching.  Having finally realised who Jesus is – “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16) – what it means for him to be the Messiah (16:21) and what it will mean for them to follow him (16:24-28), the Father gives the disciples an extraordinary glimpse of Jesus’ glory at his transfiguration (17:1-13).  But we quickly crash back down to earth as we see the disciples at the bottom of the mountain unable to perform an exorcism due to their lack of faith (17:14-21) and confused about their status in the world (17:24-27).