Church Discipline
Messenger Dox
Call to worship:
pastor michael champoux
Genesis 3
song:
O church arise
Historical reading:
pastor zachary mcguire
Westminster Confession of Faith 30.1-4
song:
Lord have mercy
Confession & Pardon
pastor brett eckel
song:
Doxology
song:
Lord I need you
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Church Discipline
Introduction
On August 25, 2020 Forbes published an article by Brent Gleeson entitled, “9 Powerful Ways To Cultivate Extreme Self-Discipline.” The article begins with this quote from Plato: “The first and best victory is to conquer yourself.” The article then gives these nine ways to cultivate self-discipline:
Know your strengths and your weaknesses
Remove temptations
Set clear goals and have an execution plan
Practice daily diligence
Create new habits and rituals
Change your perception about will power
Give yourself a backup plan
Find trusted coaches and mentors
Forgive yourself and move foreword
Our western culture finds itself in an interesting spot wherein we love and value discipline in certain areas of our lives and not others. It’s popular to admire discipline in certain spaces – fitness, healthy eating, accumulating wealth, working hard, building a brand, success in sports, music, or other media. At the same time our culture hates discipline in other areas – sexual ethics, overvaluing money, neglecting family or church for work, etc. I would suspect that we are adverse to discipline in many areas of our lives because many, maybe even some of you, were not disciplined as children. Maybe you didn’t discipline your children when they were young. Maybe some of you with small children don’t discipline them even now.
But it is fascinating that, even though we like to pick and choose, our culture instinctively knows that discipline is good. Discipline in work, athletics, and education is valued and highly esteemed in our culture. Even Forbes is publishing articles about discipline. But broach the topic of discipling children or church discipline, even to many Christians, and you probably will not be very popular. American evangelicalism hates church discipline and many churches have proved as much by ceasing to practice church discipline.
But is that the way of Jesus? That is the question we must ask together as a church today as we finish our summer series on a practical theology of the church. For June and July we have been in a topical sermon series about the church. What makes for a faithful church? What are the essential elements of a Biblical church? We have answered those questions the last two months by thinking through preaching, the sacraments, church membership, Elders, Deacons, evangelism, and giving. This morning we finish this series with the topic of church discipline.
What did the Lord Jesus teach us and even command us about church discipline? What does God expect of Christ Community Church? Is church discipline an archaic, even unloving, practice? Should church discipline be abandoned for a more culturally sensitive approach? What does Scripture teach us about church discipline?
God’s Discipline For His People
The first point we must note is that God has always disciplined his people by removing them from his blessed place. In our call to worship Pastor Bobby read from Genesis 3 where yhwh banished Adam from the garden after Adam fell in sin:
23 therefore yhwh God sent [Adam] out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3.23-24).
In a similar way yhwh banished Cain after Cain murdered his brother Abel. Genesis 4.16 says, then Cain went away from the presence of the yhwh and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Like Adam, in sin, Cain goes east of Eden away from the presence of yhwh.
After God gave his people his Law, their law-breaking would result in God’s discipline, even death. Not only did God threaten his people with individual discipline but there was also a threat of community discipline. When the Lord gave his Law he warned Israel that if they did not keep the covenant they would be exiled from the Promised Land and in time they were exiled from the land for 70 years. God disciplines his people because he loves us and wants us to flourish. Listen to what Hebrews 12 says:
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears (Heb 12.5-17).
God disciplines his children because he loves them. Often times God disciplines his children individually through his providence. But God also structures his Kingdom in such a away that the community is involved in the discipline of those who profess faith. Israel was commanded to enforce God’s Law in the community. Also like Adam, Cain, Israel, and others, God’s discipline often involves removal from God’s blessing in God’s community.
The Lord Jesus and Church Discipline (Matt 18)
This is not merely an old covenant reality but it is also true in the new covenant community – the church. We hear this from the lips of the Lord Jesus himself in Matthew 18:
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matt 18.15-20).”
In this pericope Jesus commands us to practice church discipline. Jesus says if a member of the church is living in open unrepentant sin we must go to them and call them to repent. If they repent, praise God! If not, we are to go to them again with two or three witnesses. Notice the continuity between the old covenant and the new covenant here. In Israel a member of the community was not to be charged guilty of sin without two or three witnesses. Deuteronomy 19.15 says, a single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
Jesus then says that if the member of the assembly continues in unrepentant sin the church must be told about it and they are to be treated as a gentile and a tax collector. That means we are to view them as an unbeliever. They have been warned that if they continue in sin they are walking away from Jesus and they should be viewed as such. The unrepentant sinner is no longer a member of the church; they are no longer welcomed to the Eucharist. We don’t have the same fellowship with them like we did when they were covenanted with us in the church.
Jesus knows that this is not easy and not pleasant. No one in his or her right mind enjoys church discipline. But in verses 18-20 the Lord Jesus puts his own stamp of approval on the practice of church discipline. He says where two or three witnesses have gathered to call a sinner to repentance, he is with them – the two or three speak with his authority. When the church excommunicates an unrepentant sinner, Jesus himself is removing them from his place and his blessing.
The Unrepentant Sinner Must Be Removed (1 Cor 5.1-5)
In 1st Corinthians 5 we see St. Paul commanding the church at Corinth to practice Christ’s command of church discipline. We read this pericope at the beginning of our sermon. Paul reprimands the church for failing to address a man who is bragging about committing adultery with his stepmother. In verses two and five the text says, let him who has done this be removed from among you…deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Here St. Paul applies the command of the Lord Jesus in the church at Corinth. This man was living in open unrepentant sexual sin. Jesus commands us to treat him as a gentile and tax collector, to remove him from membership and access to the Eucharist and to view him as if he doesn’t believe the gospel. The Bible even uses the language of delivering him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh in hopes that the discipline will save his soul.
Jesus teaches a similar principle earlier in Matthew 18 when he said this:
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire (Matt 18.7-9).
It is far better to enter eternal life crippled than to go to hell healthy. Like the parable of the prodigal son who had to hit rock bottom in order to come to his senses and return to his father (Luke 15.17), it would be better for the unrepentant sinner in 1st Corinthians 5 to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Church discipline is not rooted in the self-righteousness of the church. The Lord Jesus gave church discipline with the goal of repentance in mind. We do not excommunicate unrepentant sinners because we think we’re better than them. The church must excommunicate unrepentant sinners in hopes that they will repent and obey King Jesus.
The Repentant Sinner Must be Restored (2 Cor 2.5-11)
And that’s exactly what happened at the church in Corinth. We also read from 2nd Corinthians 2.5-11 where Paul rebukes the church for not reinstating the man from 1st Corinthians 5.1-5. By the time Paul wrote 2nd Corinthians the adulterous man from 1st Corinthians 5 had obviously repented but the church would not reinstate him to membership. Paul says the punishment has been enough and the church should forgive him and comfort him. Church discipline had been effective for God’s glory and for the good of God’s people and now the church must restore the man.
The church is commanded to reaffirm their love for him so that he is not overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. The motive of church discipline is love. It is not hatred, or self-righteousness, but love. The goal is not to overwhelm someone by excessive sorrow but to turn his or her heart back to King Jesus in repentance.
In 1st Corinthians 5 Paul commands the church to turn this man over to Satan in hopes that his soul will be saved. Now that he has repented and the church will not restore the man, Paul warns the church not to be outwitted by Satan. Satan does not want church discipline to work the way Christ intended. Satan wants the church filled with hatred and self-righteousness but the goal of church discipline is repentance and so when the unrepentant sinner repents, our reaction must be forgiveness, love, and comfort.
The Lord Jesus Cursed Outside The Camp For Us
We must practice church discipline for unrepentant members of the church and we must restore them in forgiveness, comfort, and love when they do repent and the root of it all is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a church we must always call sinners to repentance because we understand that we are all sinners who have repented. The gospel tells us that there is one true God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who created us in his image and gave us his Law. In Adam we all broke God’s Law and are guilty of sin.
Romans 3.23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We heard once again in the confession and pardon that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1.8). We collectively confessed “we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. We have sinned by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved God with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Because we are sinners we all deserve eternal conscious punishment in hell.
But God offers us forgiveness, comfort, and love in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal second person of the Holy Trinity who was made incarnate when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus lived a truly human life yet without sin (Heb 4.15). Jesus always obeyed God’s Law in thought, word, and deed; by what he did and never left anything undone. Jesus always loved God with his whole heart; Jesus always loved his neighbor as himself. Jesus was righteous on our behalf.
And then Jesus offered his righteous life to God on the cross – in our place condemned he stood. The cross is where Jesus took the curse of sin for us – the elect, God’s people, the church. Galatians 3.13-14 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. We rightfully deserved covenantal cursing because we are sinners – we broke God’s Law but Christ took the curse in our place. The penalty for our sin is not swept under the rug by God, but Jesus took that curse in our place and gives us his righteousness by faith.
God has always judged sin by removing a sinner from his blessing in his place. We saw that with Adam, Cain, Israel, and even members of new covenant local churches. God did this most fully and finally with Jesus on the cross. Hebrews 13.12 says, so Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
In time and space Jesus of Nazareth took our curse outside of Jerusalem – away from the temple, which represented God’s blessing and presence. Theologically Jesus was outside of the gate of God’s blessing as he bore our sin on the cross. Jesus was removed from the community as he hung on the cross and he endured God’s eternal wrath for all of the sins of the elect. Jesus endured God’s judgment, God’s punishment, for the church.
And the result is that Jesus died and was buried. His flesh was delivered over to Satan so that our souls might be saved. And God did save our souls when on the third day he resurrected the Lord Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is our declaration from God that our sins have been paid in full. There is no more sin left to atone for. On the cross Jesus declared, it is finished! At the empty tomb we see the Father’s declaration – it is finished!
Now everyone who will place their faith in Jesus alone will be saved from God’s wrath against their sin. Faith entails three facets – 1) knowledge; 2) assent; and 3) trust. The first component of faith is knowledge. You must know who Jesus is and what Jesus did. This is, in part, why our liturgy is saturated with the gospel. Partly, it’s the reason why we preach the gospel from every passage of the Bible every week here at Christ Community Church. What every human being who has ever lived needs more than anything is to hear the gospel of Jesus.
But knowledge is not enough to save you. There are plenty of people who know the story of Jesus or the facts about Jesus but do not have faith. You must also assent to this knowledge of Jesus. You must receive the stories as true. You have to take this knowledge to heart and assent to the validity of these truth claims.
But even knowledge and assent together fall short of saving faith. You must know, you must assent, and finally, you must trust. You must transfer your trust to Jesus Christ alone. You must rest the full weight of your hope for forgiveness and eternal life on who Jesus is and what Jesus did.
If you have genuine faith it will be revealed in your repentance. If the Holy Spirit works regeneration in your heart, if God gives you the gift of faith, the result will be that you will repent. To repent means to confess your sin and turn from your sin. In repentance we acknowledge that we are sinners who need forgiveness and we continue to repent throughout our lives. We seek to obey God’s Law and when we fail we repent knowing that Jesus already paid our debt; Jesus already bore the curse for us; Jesus already went outside the camp for us.
If we have faith, if we have repented and continue to repent, then by the power of the Holy Spirit we try our best to obey King Jesus. We obey God’s Law from a justified position. And if we are going to obey God we must practice church discipline. Jesus explicitly commanded us to do so in Matthew 18.15-20. St. Paul recapitulated Jesus’ command in 1st Corinthians 5.1-5 and 2nd Corinthians 2.5-11.
In our Christ Community Church covenant of membership we all agreed together to this statement:
“That we will exercise Christian care and watchfulness over each other, and faithfully warn, exhort and admonish each other as occasion may require. That we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but will uphold the public worship of God, and the ordinances of His house.”
Church discipline is a way that we fulfill our covenant obligations to each other. It is not the only way but it is a nonnegotiable way. Christ Community Church, we must obey Jesus over everything.
Conclusion
If we return to that Forbes article and review their nine steps for self-discipline, which are:
Know your strengths and your weaknesses
Remove temptations
Set clear goals and have an execution plan
Practice daily diligence
Create new habits and rituals
Change your perception about will power
Give yourself a backup plan
Find trusted coaches and mentors
Forgive yourself and move foreword
If we consider this recommendation once more we see God has given us these helps in the local church. Sure, some of the Forbes vocabulary is silly and culturally infused, but the basic idea remains. The community helps us recognize our strengths and weaknesses. The community warns us against temptations. The church has a clear goal and plan – the glory of God and the good of our neighbor through the gospel of Jesus.
The church gives us habits and rituals that help us practice daily diligence. The Spirit through the means of grace changes our perceptions about ourselves. We have trusted mentors and coaches in the Elders, in more mature saints, and in the church triumphant who came before us. And in the church we find the forgiveness of Jesus and the path foreword following the one who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14.6).