"Church Discipline" Matthew 18:15-35 The Fourth Membership Vow: 4) Do you agree to submit in the Lord to the government of this church and, in case you should be found to be sinning in belief or practice, to heed its discipline? What is church discipline? Often the only time we ever think about church discipline is when someone is caught in adultery--or something else that's really drastic. But Jesus thinks that every sin is hateful, and calls his church to deal with sin in a proper fashion. VERSE 15 1) You are to deal with the sinner only--don't go spreading it around. (v15) Lev. 19:17: "You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." Let me ask a couple questions: 1--Why do you confront your brother? Because forgiveness is a transaction. It requires two parties: one to repent, the other to forgive. You must always be ready and eager to forgive, but actual forgiveness takes place after the offender repents. God himself is ready and eager to forgive our sins in Jesus Christ, In fact, he is so eager, that he sends the Holy Spirit to work his salvation in our hearts but God actually forgives us, when we repent. That is why I John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So you confront your brother because you want to forgive him. 2--What sort of attitude should you have when you rebuke your brother? 1) you must seek his interests--not your own if you go with the desire to prove yourself right, you yourself will sin if you go with a delight in rebuking, you will tear your brother down you must go in humility, recognizing that you yourself are a sinner saved by grace, and that one day he will probably have to rebuke you as well! Therefore treat him as you yourself would like to be treated! 2) you must seek to say things in a way that will lead to repentance if you speak harshly, you will alienate your brother most people don't like being confronted if you are harsh, they will react I'm sure you all know how this works: How many times have you rebuked your kids with a raised voice? did it lead to heartfelt repentance? or did it lead to fear and resentment? Or kids, how often have you gotten angry at your brother or sister when they took your toy? When people sin against you, it ususally doesn't help if you respond in anger 3) rather, you must respond in love You must repent of your own anger and bitterness, and then gently show your brother his fault. You must come with a heart that is ready and eager to forgive. VERSE 16 2) If he will not listen, take one or two people with you Dt 19:15-21 But what if you are the only person who knows about the sin? (they don't have to be witnesses of the sin, they have to be witnesses that you have indeed confronted him properly) The witnesses you take with you must decide whether there are proper grounds for your confrontation It may be that your confrontation has been too harsh; it may be that you need to come in a spirit of love and gentleness. Or it may be that the person who sinned may not realize the gravity of his sin, and having others there may bring him to his senses. Who should you take with you? Someone neutral. Someone whom the other person respects. VERSE 17 3) If he still will not listen take it to the church This is a last resort. If the person recognizes that he has sinned, and simply doesn't care, then you are left with no other option. Or if he is not convinced that he has sinned, and will not listen to the neutral people whom you brought, then you must take it to the church. But wait, there was no church in Jesus' day, was there? In the Greek translation of the OT, the word "ekklesia" is used frequently to refer to the assembly of God's people, Israel. By quoting from Deuteronomy, Jesus is saying that there is continuity between the OT church and the NT church So if the sinner still refuses to repent, after you have carefully and lovingly shown him his fault, and brought one or two witnesses with you, who have also tried to win him back, then you must bring the matter before the church. In Deut 19, this meant bringing it to the priests and judges, who would decide the case. These functions are continued by the elders in the NT Heb 13:17: "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable." So the elders would hear his case, and seek to convince him of his sin and need for repentance. If he will not listen, then it is clear that he is unrepentant and has no desire to walk in the way of Christ. So, Jesus says, treat him like a heathen, or a tax collector. In other words, treat him like an outcast who doesn't belong to the church. In First Corinthians 5, Paul applies this teaching: Read 5:1-5 v5--notice delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Flesh doesn't mean his body --it means the destruction of his sinful habits and tendencies. So this man is handed over to Satan, with the hope that he will be restored in the end. And indeed 2 Cor 2:5-11 suggests that indeed he was restored. But it doesn't always work that way: I Tim 1:18-20 tells another story. II Tim 2:17-19 tells us more about Hymenaeus II Tim 4:14-15 tells us more about Alexander So what should we say of those who have been excommunicated? They have been cut off from Christ, and from his church. God may call them back, and we must pray that he will, but they have rebelled against Christ, they have spurned his grace and have trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant. Therefore, we should treat them as enemies of the gospel. Excommunication literally means "cut off from communion" This comes from Paul's command not even to eat with someone who claims to be a Christian but remains "sexually immoral, covetous, an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or an extortioner" This is a last resort; Excommunication is only to be used when a person has demonstrated by their refusal to repent, and their continued life of wilfull sin, that they have no desire to live as a Christian. We must still love them, but from a distance, with a clear warning that we can no longer treat them like Christian brothers. VERSE 18 Notice how the verse is structured: it says that the earthly decision comes first. It doesn't say that whatever is bound on earth, has ALREADY been bound in heaven, rather, the decisions made here on earth are important to God. Look back a page at Mt 16:19 Here Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom, telling him that whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth, will be loosed in heaven. In this verse the "you" is singular, referring to Peter. In chapter 18 the you is plural. Jesus tells Peter that he is the one who will open the kingdom of heaven --and at the day of Pentecost, he does exactly that. He is the one who stands up and preaches the first Christian sermon, opening the gates of the kingdom of heaven in his proclamation. But there is more to it than just Pentecost. Chapter 18 shows that the function of the keys has been given to all the apostles --and through them to the church. Today, as I preach to you, I am utilizing the keys of the kingdom, to open the kingdom of heaven to all who will hear and believe. In the exercise of church discipline the elders bind and loose on earth, again, using the keys of the kingdom to exclude unrepentant sinners from the kingdom of God, in the hope that they will be brought to repentance. VERSE 19-20 Then Jesus says to the disciples that if two or three of them are gathered together for the purpose of binding or loosing, then the Father will do it. This is why I will not presume to excommunicate by myself. For church discipline to be valid, there must be at least two elders. But Jesus doesn't say, "two elders" he says "two of you" Yes, but to whom is he speaking? He is speaking to the disciples --those who are called to be shepherds and overseers of the flock after his death. Verse 18 is clearly talking about the apostolic power of binding and loosing from chapter 16, applying it to the church. Verse 19 is expanding upon this: We sometimes apply this verse to public worship, or to prayer meetings. It is certainly true that Jesus is present with two or three people in worship or prayer. But Jesus is also present if only one person is praying. This verse is talking about discipline. Jesus is present with the church as it rebukes sinners. He gives his authority to the church to excommunicate those who refuse to repent. And he says that when two or three are gathered in his name to exercise discipline, he is present to judge the sinner through them. No one is excommunicated from the church apart from Christ's own sentance It is his authority which is being exercised. His authority, which he has given to his church. Then Peter, always eager to leap to judgment, steps in. He has understood what Jesus has said. As long as the person is repentant, you can't excommunicate him. But, Peter thinks, at some point the repentance becomes meaningless! at some point I can say, "if you really were repentant, you wouldn't sin against me, therefore I don't have to forgive you, and we can kick you out of the church!" So he asks, VERSE 21 Jesus' response tells us a lot about what repentance and forgiveness is all about. It functions as a picture of what church discipline should look like. As long as the person repents, we must forgive. VERSE 22-27 The sinning servant deserves judgment, yet he repents, and promises to pay back his enormous debt. There is actually no way a servant could ever pay back a debt of 10,000 talents. This would be equivalent to 200,000 years' wages! The point being, this servant will never be able to pay his debt to the king. But since the servant repents, the king forgives him. VERSE 28-34 But then the servant goes and finds a fellow servant who owes him 100 days' wages. And when he learns that the other servant can't pay him, he throws him in prison. When the other servants saw this, they went to the king and told him what had happened. He called the wicked servant in and said "verse32" VERSE 35 This is in the context of Jesus's teaching about church discipline. When a sinner repents, we are to forgive. The reason is because God has forgiven us. Jesus himself was excommunicated by the Father, so that we might have communion with Him. [hung on cross, forsaken by God, wrath and curse] So also we are to forgive others when they repent of their sins. And notice the warning: God takes repentance and forgiveness very seriously. If your brother repents, you must forgive. If you do not forgive others, then God will not forgive you. This is perhaps the most important lesson any of us can learn as a believer. Martin Luther said that the whole of the Christian life is nothing but repentance. Perhaps we should add that the whole of the Christian life is nothing but repentance and forgiveness! I would encourage you to take this seriously in your families: Fathers, take the lead: when you sin against your wife, ask her to forgive you. Don't merely say, "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry" is something you say when you do something by accident, when you accidentally drop spaghetti sauce on the carpet! State clearly what you did wrong, and then ask her to forgive you for it. If you were angry with her, say, "I was wrong for being angry, please forgive me." And then wives, don't just say, "Oh, that's okay." ITS NOT OKAY!! Sin is never OKAY rather, say, "I forgive you." This goes for everyone. When you sin, confess your sin to God, and to the one you sinned against. Then ask forgiveness. And when someone asks forgiveness for a specific sin, you are obligated by God to forgive. Forgiveness is a transaction. It is a decision which you make. You don't have to feel like forgiving. But you do have to do it. But let me make perfectly clear what this means: When you repent, you are saying, "I have sinned, I don't want to sin, and by the grace of God, I will strive against sin" When you forgive, you are saying, "I do not hold this sin against you, and by the grace of God, I will not hold this sin against you." Once you have forgiven someone, you may not bring it up again, to hold it over their head. There were once two roomates in college, one was a neat-freak, the other was a complete mess --there were clothes and books and papers strewn all over the room, so that it was impossible to walk across the room (I was not involved in this--I heard about it second hand) The neat freak confronted his roomate one day saying, "your messiness shows complete insensitivity to me, please do something about it!" The complete mess agreed. But he failed. Several times. Each time he repented, and honestly tried to do better and the neat-freak forgave him, and admitted that there was some improvement Then came the fateful day when the complete mess was a complete mess, and the neat freak came back from class and exploded: YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!! YOU ARE ALWAYS A MESS!!! The complete mess looked up, "But my friend, you forgave me for those other times, how can you now hold them against me?" Forgiveness means forgiving from the heart. You don't have to feel like doing it, but you do have to do it! Jesus warns us that God will only forgive us, if we forgive one another. Now I know that this is incredibly hard. You will fail. But what do you do when you fail to forgive? Ask repentance!! Do you want to be a better husband? Do you want to be a better wife? Do you want to love your brothers and sisters as Christ has loved you? Then learn how to repent and forgive. Practice it everyday. If you make a habit of repenting, you may even get pretty good at it. Some of you may have heard me say this, but it's worth repeating: There is one couple I know who have a simply wonderful marriage. Their kids tell me it hasn't always been this way. In fact, they've had a lot of problems in the past. But today they reflect Christ and the church better than any couple I've met. When I asked them what their secret was, they said, "repentance and forgiveness. If you get good at that, and find a woman who is good at that, you WILL have a good marriage." This is what church discipline is all about. It starts at home. It starts with you. It starts with being willing to repent of your sins, and humbling yourself before your wife, your husband, your kids, your parents, and yes, even your co-workers and fellow students. When you sin against someone, REPENT Imagine the witness that this can be! You've all seen the bumper sticker that says, Christians aren't better people, just forgiven? Well, let's change that: Christians aren't better people, they just repent and forgive, because they're forgiven!! And when your brother sins against you, show him his fault, with an eagerness to forgive him!