Church Discipline - 4. Why?

one. What, why, when, and how. And the first three weeks we've been talking about what church discipline is. I've laid two foundations that I think are really important for just being able to understand church discipline. The first of those was discipleship. And so we defined a disciple of Jesus as someone committed to believing and obeying whatever Jesus says. So it's not just someone who's prayed a prayer or walked the aisle. It's someone whose whole life is now devoted to Christ and this process of growing as a Christian, this process of sanctification. And if we understand discipleship that way, then it becomes obvious why discipleship is really all about discipline. both formative and corrective. We talked about how church discipline is really just like the top of a pyramid, and you shouldn't just think about that alone, but think about that in conjunction with this whole base of the pyramid, which is formative discipline. Everything from what we call the spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible and praying at home to the discipline of gathering with other believers to study God's Word and to be kind of instructed and encouraged and sharpened day to day. So there's this much broader pyramid that is really what discipleship is all about. So church discipline fits into that bigger picture. Then the second foundation we talked about is church membership. And so, of course, for one, Jesus never intended for discipleship to be a private, individual affair. Part of what following Jesus means is to be vitally connected to and participating with a community of disciples in a local church. But then further, we looked at Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, the two places in the Gospels where Jesus actually mentions the word church. And there he talks specifically about church authority. He gives to his church the keys of the kingdom of heaven. and the authority to bind and loose, which we interpreted to mean making authoritative rulings or judgments concerning who's in and who's out. And this means that churches aren't meant to just be sort of a fuzzy, nebulous group. They're supposed to be clear boundaries. The church has an authority to say, well, who should be baptized, who should be participating in the Lord's Supper, and who should not. There's an in and an out. And obviously, if we're going to understand discipline, we need to understand membership, because they're really just kind of two sides of the same coin. They go together. All of that then helps to flesh out and provide the foundation to understand the way we've defined church discipline, which you can see that on your, by the way, the notes should be on the back of the prayer sheet. So if you flip over, you'll find those. And the definition is printed there, which is that church discipline is when the church confronts a member in his sin, and if he refuses to repent, ceases to regard him as a Christian. So when someone is committing just, they're clearly not committed to believing and obeying whatever Jesus says. There's some clear violation of that. So say, you know, Fred is committing adultery. And then no matter how many members of the church come to Fred and reason with him and plead with him and say, Fred, you cannot follow Christ and live in unrepentant adultery, if he refuses to listen to the church, he won't repent. Well, then at that point, the church would remove him by discipline or excommunicate him, which means that we no longer regard him as a Christian. Now, we don't infallibly know his heart, but we have to judge based on the evidence that he's just not living like a Christian. He's not showing evidence of being a true disciple of Jesus. And Jesus is commanding us in church discipline not to treat him like a Christian, which means we're no longer gonna call him brother. We're no longer gonna share Christian fellowship with him. And we're no longer gonna celebrate the Lord's Supper with him. And that's really what church discipline is. I'm just trying to paint a picture of what it is. Now today, what I want to talk about is why. What's the purpose of church discipline? Why would we do that? And so this one, I just want to open up. How would you answer that question? Why church discipline? Okay, so one would be for the purity of the church. Good. Nick? I was going to say that coupled with the purity of the individual being disciplined. Okay. So hopefully he will come to repentance, recognize his shame. Yeah, so we want to purify, we want to restore, we want to do spiritual good to the person who is being disciplined. Good. Any others? Okay, yeah, obedience. The glory of God honoring Christ. Great. Any others? Hayden? I mean, Lord willing, the person that is receiving the discipline would eventually repent. Right. It's a loving way to hold them accountable in hopes that they will. Right. So for the good of the individual. Yep. Great. Emily? To make clear who's part of the church, who's like Christians or everything, correct? Yeah, so sort of the witness of the church. Yeah, clear about who is in, who's out. Great. A warning, yeah, there's a protection that we'll see that's actually mentioned a lot in scripture. Nick? Healthy fear, perhaps. You know, like Ananias and Sapphira when they fell dead. That healthy fear that establishes to the rest of the congregation that... Right. Yeah, connected to the protection, the purifying. Yeah, there's a reminder of fear. This is what sin leads to. Good. Well, what I want to do is, as you see on your sheet, I have these organized in four purposes. You guys have, I think, hit on all of them to some degree, which is great. But the first one I want to talk about is to restore the offender. So purpose number one is to restore the offender. So if this person is actually a believer, what we hope through the process of church discipline, they will be brought back to the path. And if he's an unbeliever, what we hope that through church discipline, he might come to be genuinely converted rather than being a false convert. So the restoration of the offender. Now, where in scripture might you go to kind of show this is a purpose of church discipline? Okay, yeah, what does that say? Okay, yeah, so it talks about we're seeking to restore someone who's stumbling, someone who's going astray. We want to restore them, bring them back. Great. Anywhere else? Yes. Right. Yeah. Hey, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his soul or spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Yeah. So, and then one other important one would be Matthew 18. Uh, in Matthew 18 verse 15, he just talks about going to someone who's sinning and he says, if he listens, you have gained. or one, your brother. So that tells us something really helpful and important about sort of the attitude with which we would go to someone who sinned against us. I'm not going to them just to set them straight, to pound them down, to exact justice. I'm going to them to gain my brother. to win them. I'm going to them with this desire to see them restored. I should be motivated by love for this erring sheep. And then, so you could say, okay, well, there in Galatians 6.1 we see someone in the church who's just sort of stumbling. Well, if they don't repent and then you actually discipline them and you remove them altogether, is that when we just sort of cut them off and think, you know what, at this point, You know, restoration, forget that. We're just done with you all together. That hope is gone. Well, I think that's where what Hayden points out is really helpful. So 1 Corinthians 5.5, Paul is talking about, you know, he's calling on the church to excommunicate someone. And he says, deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. So even at this final stage of excommunication, it's still with this hope for this person's salvation, their spirit to be saved in the day of the Lord. Now, I think this language of delivering him to Satan, I think that's really a way of saying, release him from the security and the protection and sort of the spiritual blanket of the church into the world. Just send him out into the realm of Satan. Out into the forest where there's just this roaming devil and there's not the protection. And I think essentially what Paul's communicating is this is a person who has refused reason, who has refused rebuke, who won't listen, and all you can do is let him go. And what you're hoping is that they are going to experience the fruit of their choices in this life and thereby come to their senses and be brought to repentance rather than remaining hardened in sin until the end. I mean, it really reminds me of the story of the prodigal son. He goes. And it's not until he's sort of out in the wild and he experiences the fruit of his choices that he comes to his senses. And then he comes back. I think church discipline is saying to this person, you can't enjoy the privileges and benefits of Christian community while indulging in sin at the same time. That's just handing over to Satan. But it's not vindictive. It's not to punish this person and exact justice on them. It's with the goal of restoration. And you know, just like God, the father in the story of the prodigal son, well, we as a church are to be eager and ready. That the first sign of this person repenting and coming back, we are willing and eager to embrace them. There's at least one case in scripture that seems to be of restoration of someone who was disciplined by the church. In 2 Corinthians 2, verses 6 through 8, Paul says, for such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him." That's the kind of attitude and heart we should have. We want to see the offender restored. Yeah? I was just going to ask if James 5, 19, and 20 might be also a great passage for that, where it says, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death. That will cover a multitude of sins. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great encouragement as well. We want to see wandering sinners brought back. That should be our heart. Well, a second purpose of church discipline is to protect other believers. So number two, to protect other believers. And I think the New Testament teaches us that allowing someone who's obviously and outwardly not living as a disciple of Jesus to remain a member of the church is actually dangerous for the rest of the body. Can anyone think of any examples or places in scripture that would teach us that? David? Great, yeah, so beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yeah, that's dangerous, good. I think one of the ones that comes to mind for me is 1 Corinthians 5, verse six, that same passage we talked about before. Paul says, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? I think the idea there is that sin spreads. I mean, you could think of it like cancer. If you have this member of our body, the church, who is just not actually following Christ, I mean, it's cancerous. It's just like leaven spreads through the whole loaf. Well, Paul's saying that's how sin works. That person's example and influence is detrimental for the rest of the body. In Jude chapter 1 verse 4, Jude writes that there are certain people who have crept in unnoticed, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to say, these are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear. So just what an image. Here we are gathering for the Lord's Supper and eating together and certain people there are like a hidden reef. this unseen threat and danger. People who he describes as perverting the grace of our God into sensuality. These are people, it sounds like you're around them and they just subtly and slowly relax your concern for holiness and sort of numb your sensitivity to sin. Jude says watch out for them. In Romans chapter 16 verses 17 and 18, Paul says, I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. This is a reminder, I mean, these people create division in the body. They deceive younger, less mature believers. It's a reminder just allowing that false teacher to just live in the church is like letting a wolf live in your sheet pen. It's dangerous and destructive. Just one other example, there's many other places, but one other that kind of stood out to me. Because sometimes we think of it, well, it's dangerous for immature believers. But interestingly, in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists all these different trials and afflictions he's faced as an apostle. And in verse 26, he says, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. He doesn't really flesh it out, but even the Apostle Paul viewed false believers as dangerous on par with all those other things he lists. So clearly there's a danger here and church discipline protects other believers by sort of formally marking those who are false. It warns the members of this body that this person is not rightly representing Christ. It also makes it sort of easier to warn other people, you know, if that person's off with another, you know, Christian's at another church and say, hey, like our church excommunicated that person. That's not gossip, but that's a very clear way to say that there's something not right here. Also, as was mentioned earlier, I think church discipline protects us by being a wake-up call to the whole body. I mean, every time someone is disciplined, it reminds us that that's where our sin would lead if we don't fight it. I think of what Paul says in Romans 11. He's writing to Gentile Christians, and he's really talking about the attitude they should have to unbelieving Jews. Who in a sense, I mean, he describes them as these unbelieving Jews have been broken off from the root of the covenant community. They're very similar to this idea of a member being disciplined. And listen to how Paul exhorts them. He says, do not be arrogant toward the branches. You will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you. provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. I think church discipline should be a reminder to us of the kindness and the severity of God. This reminder we stand by faith. And God is just and he's holy and yet he is gracious and kind. And that should cause us to hold firm to him with a holy fear. So the second thing, yes, church discipline protects other believers. Number three, so third purpose. Church discipline is to preserve the witness of the church. To preserve the witness of the church. And as we think about this, you know, one of the key reasons why God designed for there to be local visible churches in the first place is because the witness of these local churches is part of how God is seeking to be glorified in the world. We could look at Ephesians chapter 3 verses 8 through 10 where Paul says he was called to preach the gospel so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. We can think of 1 Peter chapter 2 where it talks about how we as the church are a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. I think Jesus calls the church to be a light on a hill, the salt of the earth, Clearly, the church is meant to be this wonderful picture of the power of the gospel, of the glory of God and what He has done in our midst. But when the church tolerates unrepentant sin or false converts, that witness is marred. We become like Israel. who, you know, in many multiple times it says, the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you. You know, Israel's unholiness and unfaithfulness, instead of bringing glory to God like they were supposed to, it gave opportunity for the Gentiles to blaspheme God. I think this is a big reason why Paul is so outraged in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, when he says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. He's telling the church, what will the watching world think? They will shake their heads in disgust, and instead of being convicted, instead of falling on their face and saying, God is really among you, they'll laugh. Because you're just like them. In fact, in this way, you're immoral, even in a way they're not, and that can give them this sense of self-righteousness and this sense of relief. But how different it will be if, as a church, there's discipline that promotes and preserves and cultivates purity in the church. I mean, just think of the difference if, you know, unbelievers, it's like every person they meet who's a member of this church or any other church, they're like, all of these Christians are just, they're honest, they're humble, they're kind, they're loving, they have integrity, they're hardworking. There's no sort of immorality among them. As we heard in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 4 where it says, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness, let it not even be named among you. I mean, if that's the case, and it's like every Christian people meet, it's their sexual morality, impurity, covetousness, it's not even named. It's just not there. And what a powerful witness that would be. How people would think, wow, this gospel is changing people in a striking way. Or then in those cases where there's a member of a church who does fall into deep sin and they're refusing to repent, how much better a witness it would be if when that happens and this person's like, yeah, that guy's just, he's always a jerk at work, he's always kinda cheating people, he's not really honest, and you find out, well, yeah, the church removed him. The church didn't put up with that. Well, that helps to commend the witness in the right kind of way. So church discipline is intended to preserve the witness of the church. That's number three. And then number four. Yeah. The kids of ours that are coming and watching how we're living need to see that kind of consistent witness as well. Because that is what is out there is the numerous children we keep they know who to look to to say, they sound and act like my parents, or my parents don't sound like them, and you just have to look up to them. Amen. And then number four, so the last purpose is to glorify God. So church discipline is for the purpose of glorifying God. And this is, of course, the great overarching goal above all. The Bible tells us that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God, and that would include church discipline. That's the preeminent thing. Now, I think remembering that the glory of God is the overarching purpose is helpful in two ways in particular. I think this serves as an antidote to pragmatism. I think it's an antidote to pragmatism. Because if you just think of the other purposes sort of in isolation from this one, well, it's easy to just be thinking in terms of what are other people gonna think? And what sort of effect is this likely to have? And I think if you just do that, well, there's gonna be times when, from a worldly perspective, I mean, from a human perspective, it's like, it seems like this might backfire. You know, if I actually just do what the Bible says, it doesn't look like it's gonna work out. I mean, there's gonna be times where it's like, okay, I understand church disciplines for the purpose of restoring, but it's gonna feel like, well, every indication from a human perspective is that Disciplining this person, it might just drive them further away. I'm afraid that they're just never going to come back. And then it's like, well, maybe we just shouldn't do it. Or we think, well, the purpose of church discipline is so that we can be a good witness. We want to preserve the witness. You know, more and more we live in a culture that they have a very different idea of what a good witness is and, you know, what's right and what's wrong. And we can think, well, if we excommunicate this homosexual, what's the world going to think? This may actually, in their mind, be a very negative witness about the church. But I think this is where if we remember that ultimately the overarching purpose of church discipline is to bring glory to God, that reminds us that it's not ultimately about what other people think. It's not even ultimately about sort of what consequences are going to ensue, but it's ultimately about obedience. I mean, it's ultimately, we just want to be faithful to do what the Bible says and then trust God with the result. And if we're just seeking to glorify God by obeying Him, then things are going to work out the way He intends. going back to when Keith was preaching in Genesis, by disciplining a brother or sister, it's really denouncing sin to the whole world, and saying, we don't want you, we're turned from you, as opposed to what happened in the garden. I just had that thought. Yeah, great way to put it. Thanks for sharing. And yeah, so as we think of trusting God with the results, I mean, just think through the Bible, how many times there are these very surprising outcomes, you know, situations. I mean, just one that came to mind was when God sends Elijah to go and rebuke Ahab for murdering Naboth. And if you've been following this story, I mean, it's like the last thing we're expecting is Ahab to like listen or respond. I mean, like what indication is there that this man would respond positively to a rebuke from Elijah of all people? And yet in 1 Kings 21, Ahab hears this rebuke, he humbles himself in sackcloth and ashes, and there's some degree of repentance. It doesn't last forever, but there's a real change that we never would have expected. It's a reminder that God is the one who changes hearts. God is the one who's in control. We just want to be faithful to him. A second thing about remembering that the overarching goal is God's glory, or the overarching purpose is God's glory, I think it helps us to maintain balance. We've mentioned multiple different purposes, And, you know, those purposes are going to be somewhat in tension with one another. You know, for example, you know, if all we focus on is, okay, if there's someone who's sinning, going astray, well, we need to protect the flock from sin. We need to preserve our witness to the world. That's all we're focusing on. Well, I think we're going to tend to excommunicate too quickly. We can easily start to become too harsh. We can just start viewing people as dangerous and trying to hold them at arm's length instead of lovingly and patiently working with them through whatever they're struggling with. There needs to be that aspect of grace because we're all saved by grace. We all struggle with sin. On the other hand, if we're just focusing on, well, the purpose of church discipline is restoration. And we're just thinking about that. Well, I think our tendency can be to go too slow. You know, to let people just stay a member in hopes that somehow something's going to change when really they shouldn't be. Because we're not really even considering the weight of what is our witness like? What is this person's impact on the body? We need to hold those things together in the right balance. And I think at the end of the day, if we just see, well, the overarching goal is bringing glory to God. I think that is helpful for how we balance these things. We go before and we face a situation and we say, what would bring glory to God? Our God who is holy, who is loving, who is gracious, our God who has sent Christ into the world to die for sinners, to seek and save the lost, and yet calls us to holiness, and has given us this gospel that displays all of these things together so beautifully. How do we reflect that as God's people, as his church? I think that overarching purpose, keeping that clear, will help give us that balance. All right, so those are the four purposes of church discipline I've distilled. Any questions about any of those things before we close? is really dominant in contemporary evangelical Christianity? I think that there's just not a lot of churches, from what I understand, that are practicing church discipline. I do think pragmatism just, yeah, it's pretty dominant in just the whole approach to the church and Christianity in America. So yeah. Rachel? Yeah, so pragmatism, I mean, it's basically the philosophy that says what works must be good. So I'm gonna be guided in my choices by what works, what the outcome is gonna be, rather than sort of the principle of what has God commanded, yeah. Yes? He was, yeah, which I think is a reminder that, yeah, I mean, churches can err too, you know? And at the end of the day, you know, we, like, our conscience is captive to the word of God and to the Lord himself. So, yeah, there's a balance there as well, that the church is not infallible either. All right, well, Lord willing, next week we will pick up and I want to focus on when is church discipline called for? So what kind of sin would result in church discipline? But we'll pick that up next time. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time to be instructed from your word. Thank you for the clarity of your word. We do pray that you would Help us to keep these purposes in mind as we pursue faithfulness and church discipline. Lord, we pray that even as we reflect on the need for church discipline, that we would be spurred on to be faithful disciples ourselves. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.