Church Discipline - The Purpose (Matthew 18:7-14)
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Transcript
Well good morning uh my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to Matthew chapter 18. we used to have bibles in the rose if you don't have a Bible we will have the the words on the screen but if you have a Bible go to Matthew chapter 18 we're going to spend the next three weeks walking through Matthew 18 and we're going to be talking about Church discipline if you were to study Church discipline there are places in the Bible that reference it there are places in the Bible that give you examples of it.
But to kind of look at the process by which the Church addresses sin Jesus lays that out in Matthew 18 and this is kind of the go-to passage for walking through how ought we to address sin in the Church body and so we're going to spend three weeks looking at that i want to tell you that first will be Matthew 18 verses 5 through verses 5 through 18 and then we will be looking at Church discipline in the next three weeks we're going to talk through the i'm about to get real baptist on you the purpose of Church discipline that's what we're going to.
Look at today then the process of Church discipline and then the posture of Church discipline so the purpose is why why do we practice this what's the point what's at stake next week we'll look at the process which is where a lot of people usually start which is just how do we do this and then we'll look as we in Matthew 18 at the posture kind of what's our heart as we walk this out and so that's what we'll be doing.
For the next three weeks but i want to read a quick definition of Church discipline it's the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing sin and waywardness so it's the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing sin and waywardness that discipline is uh it comes it brings with it some difficulty it brings with it some intensity it brings with it some correction but it does it for a good purpose so i want to give some examples of where discipline i've seen it in my life and two things that are very important football and chicken.
But disciplined football teams win you don't have a really good winning program not with any level of consistency that is not also disciplined and i've been on football teams that were disciplined and that meant that practice was more difficult but playing for that team was better and i've been on teams that weren't disciplined and practice wasn't that bad but the games were terrible because we lost and it's not fun and the point of being on a team so when you're on a disciplined team.
And when you see a disciplined team you know that there's a lot that goes into that there's a lot that was corrected there was a lot that was changed and there's some people who aren't on the team anymore because they were pursuing discipline but they were pursuing something better and beyond that we see this not just in football but also in important things like chicken there is one fast food restaurant that if they have a line of cars wrapped around the building i will still pull into the parking lot and that is chick-fil-a.
Because those people know what they're doing they are disciplined when popeyes came out with that chicken sandwich which is delicious by the way that popeye's chicken sandwich is amazing but popeyes was not ready for their sandwich to taste that good they just weren't if you see a lion wrapping around the hardee's you know something has gone wrong i'm not getting in that line i'll be there forever but you can get in a line that wraps twice around a chick-fil-a and they'll still get you your food it's crazy.
But they're disciplined that means there's some people who are on the team and some people aren't there's some people that they had to correct there were some things they had to change but it was for a good purpose chicken and the Church practices discipline which is a form of correction but it's for a good purpose ultimately joy ultimately salvation you see that's what we're looking at today is why would we care about this as we talk about the process next week and Church discipline gets a bad rap in the u.s especially where it's this why would we judge people why would we correct people can't everybody just follow their own path and you can follow.
Your own path if you aim to get nowhere in particular but we aim to get somewhere very particular and therefore the Church disciplines for holiness and for for joy and if we don't understand why we don't understand what we're looking at today the next week may seem cold it may seem mean some of the process as we walk through it but if we understand why we actually see that it's beautiful and loving so what's at stake it's a matter of life and death it's a matter of heaven and hell.
Jesus does not mince words as he walks through this passage so let's pray for our hearts that we would take sin as seriously as he does so that we might pursue joy like he wants us to God we ask for your help don't take sin as seriously as we ought we make little of it and therefore we make little of you we take it lightly and therefore we take you lightly and i pray that as we read the words of Jesus this morning that you would strike us with the weightiness and the reality of sin.
So that we might change and be brought into your joy in Jesus name amen chapter 18 verse 5 whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea so this is Jesus speaking when he says one such little one he's referring to the verse before it we don't have it on the screen.
But i'm going to read it to you so just listen he says he's talking and spencer looked at this two weeks ago but he's talking to his disciples he brings a child among them and he says whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of the heaven so he brings a child in and he says this is how you get into the kingdom of heaven he just gave these two examples that you believe and that you humble yourself.
And then when he says one such child he's moving from a physical little child to speaking about those who believe those who have humbled themselves and joined the kingdom so he's not talking about little kids anymore he's talking about believers which makes a difference as we walk out this passage so now when he talks about one such child he's talking about those who have believed and when he talks about little ones he's talking about believers he's talking about Christians so this is addressing sin in the Church he says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea that is an aggressive statement that should cause us to pull up he doesn't just say it'd be better for you to be dead it'd be better if you had never been born he actually goes into kind of morbid gruesome detail on some sort of like mafia style hit that you would have a millstone tied around your neck and you'd be thrown into the ocean he wants to force us to picture this.
Because he wants to force us to pause and realize the weightiness of tempting someone towards sin now he does not mean this literally in that we ought to say you know what you've been a temptation get in the boat we're going out on lake murray that's not what he's getting at but he does mean this factually in that sin is this serious that we ought to take sin seriously Jesus means this when he says it that we ought to see and to know the weightiness of tempting someone he keeps going.
Verse 7 woe to the world for temptations to sin for it is necessary that temptations come but woe to the one by whom temptation comes we don't pronounce woes very often prophets do but we don't this isn't a phrase we usually use and what he means is sorrow pain destruction is a pun the one who does this that's what woe to the world sorrow pain and destruction is upon the world because of temptations to sin then he says it must come that's part of a fallen world.
But he says woe to the one by whom they come a few examples of this is when mr t says i pity the fool i pity the fool who would do this what he's saying is if that happens pain is coming if you cross this line pain is coming if we were standing outside of a fence and on the other side was a attack of of barking dogs and we said woe to the one who jumps that fence we would all understand in that moment what that meant.
When you cross that line there's pain and destruction it does not go well for you and so he's saying woe to the one by whom temptations come and immediately we should understand that we do not take temptation as sin as seriously as Jesus does some of us need to reconsider how we interact with our friends some of us older brothers and sisters need to reconsider how we deal with our younger brothers and sisters and what we lead them into some of us need to begin to consider how we speak to those in our community groups.
Because some of us flippantly give out counsel when we are not considering the weight of leading someone towards holiness i remember in high school i was often running late for class and i would be moving very very quickly to try to get to class until i saw someone else who was running late for class that was in my same class and then we would both slow down and walk together because as long as you had someone who was in it with you it wasn't going to be as bad he didn't want to be the only person showing up late.
But for mostly might as well add two more minutes to this and some of us are actively tempting others to sin because we want them to co-sign what we're doing and if it's okay for them to do it then it's okay for us to do it and we can feel okay if we'll both participate in this together some of you need to be greatly considering how you interact with your boyfriend or your girlfriend because woe to the one by who temptation comes.
Jesus is not kidding when he says it is deathly serious he takes it with blood earnest dead earnest seriousness and we don't much of our tv shows much of the plot are taking sinful things and making them funny making them light much of the stories we read and things we celebrate are just taking sin and making us become very accustomed to it and think it's normal and nice and fine woe to the world for temptations to sin verse eight he keeps going.
So he's turned from you being a tempter to now talking about you uh as you are receiving temptation verse 8 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 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.
Now again he does not mean this literally but he does mean this it's he's using hyperbole he's giving us a very big aggressive word picture so that we would understand the weightiness of the situation but your hand is not actually what causes you to sin your hand participates in your sin but we have temptations outside of us and we have our desires inside of us that lead us towards sin but the reason why he says this is so that we would understand that there are certain things that we ought to be willing to face hurt.
For we all be willing to take some pain for so that we might not be harmed you all understand the difference between hurt and harm when you go to the dentist he hurts you for your good when you eat candy it deliciously harms you does this make sense when you go to the doctor there are times where they hurt you because there's something inside of you that's harming you and they're going to cut it out eventually the harm catches up with us eventually the harm does begin to hurt.
But often the harm doesn't hurt at first and often the help hurts so that we don't meet the harm so what he's saying is we ought to be willing to take on some pain some discomfort we ought to be willing to cut some things and some people off so that we might enter life he takes this deathly serious there's the gravity to the situation james 1 14 says this so it's not that our feet lead us into sin it's not that our hands lead us into sin.
If that were the case just so you all know if you really meant literally this there had been some maimed disciples proclaiming the Gospel the 12 wouldn't have made it out you guys Peter when he cut that guy's ear off in the garden Jesus was a put the ear back on give me your hand Peter your hand made you sin it's not it's not what he means but he means for us to aggressively take it this seriously james 1 14 and 15 says.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire so there's something outside of us that our desire responds to there's some kind of temptation outside of us that we co-sign in our hearts then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death keep that up for just a second there's some things that we're told about sin in Scripture that those who sin are a slave to sin that sin has mastery over us there's this picture that that james gives us that sin starts off small it's conceived.
And then it's born and then we feed it and then it grows and then it brings about death there are some of you in here today who have a pet sin that you are slowly feeding and you are convincing yourself that it is manageable but as long as it stays here as long as i just keep it this it's not as bad as that it's really not that often it doesn't happen that much it's better than it used to be i i quit doing this i don't do that what that guy does and that's awful we have some sort of pet sin and we're confused about what happens sin enslaves us and leads us to.
Death some of you have some baby sins that you need to kick you need to punt your baby sin before it gets too big you need to now you need to take it aggressively seriously i have a two-year-old son yesterday i spent a good bit of my day wrestling with him as i spend most of my time at the house fighting with my children for fun sometimes not for fun but one of the things i really want y'all to know is that.
When i'm fighting with my son and it looks like he's winning i'm pretending i could take him if i wanted to some of you right now have something that honestly you could get rid of but you're letting it grow and some of you right now are telling yourself i could get rid of this so i'll wait a little longer and that's already part of the problem it may be bigger than you think and when it is full grown it will enslave you and it will kill you and you can't you do not have time this is every time we hear that someone had a pet tiger which we're cool with in america america you have.
A pet tiger you have a pet line and then we find out that the tiger bit somebody's arm off or that you know siegfried got attacked or whatever were we shocked every time i hear he's like oh siegfried got attacked by a lion i wasn't like oh what it's like yeah it was a lion man that's what they do and some of you have a sin that is a pet lion that is growing that wants to devour and destroy you and you keep telling yourself that it's cute or that it's.
Okay and it is not and it brings about death so what is at stake here well he says it in verse 8 and 9 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 crimpled or lame then so we have life on one side then with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire those are our options held out before us is life i love that description.
Because it's full enough for us to understand what he means life fullness joy delight vibrancy you ever say ah this is the life or man i wish i could just get to this a lot of us are looking forward and saying if i could just get to that if i could just have this then i'd have life i'd finally find it i'd be full i'd be complete and what he says is no that's in the lord and it's held out for you that you might have life.
But the other side is eternal fire which i think we don't talk about often enough i don't know if we fully wrap our minds around that i don't know if we fully believe that he says it's better for this life to be a little more difficult for you to be a little lame for you to limp your way into real life than for you to strut into hell eternal fire that it lasts forever and it is excruciating the terms that the Bible uses.
For hell that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth that there is it's outer darkness that there is a fire that is not quenched and worms do not die meaning there's internal and external torment forever that the seriousness of sin is displayed in the end result of it and the reality is is that sin is not serious because hell is bad hell is bad because sin is that serious you see we look at this and we say who is God to judge and who is he to try to tell me this and shouldn't he just love us and shouldn't he just forgive us sin isn't that big of a deal and really what we.
Mean when we say sin isn't that big of a deal is that God isn't that big of a deal he's not that holy he's not that glorious he's not that worthy of worship he's not that worthy of devotion he's big enough to help me but not big enough to need me to devote everything to him one of the beautiful things about the old testament law is that the punish the punishment fit the crime there were other laws in other places where the punishment seemed way out of proportion with the crime still something to get your hand cut off those sort of things.
But one of the things that was revolutionary about the Bible when it says an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth what it meant was the punishment needs to fit the crime and this God who sets up an equitable system for punishment says that the reality of rebellion against him is eternal hell and it fits the crime hell was made for Satan to be punished in i don't know what cartoons have told you he does not rule there he is destroyed there.
But it says it's prepared for Satan and his angels and that we who join him go with him that is terrible and destructive and we need to understand the weight of unrepented sin because it leads to death and death in eternal hell some of us have not wrapped our minds around that in the way we approach sin some of us have not wrapped our minds around that in the way we approach telling other people about the hope in Christ verse 10.
We're going to pause on verse 10 for a second because what he says here is a little confusing he says the see that you do not despise one of these little ones again talking about believers for i tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven i'm going to read that again see that you do not despise one of these little ones for i tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my.
Father who is in heaven all right so this picture here is that angels actually stand at the very face of God they stand in front of him this is one of the things that gabriel says when he comes and tells john the baptist is daddy which i can't remember is zechariah or zechariah so we'll call him john the baptist's daddy he tells him you're going to have a son and when he says how do i know gabriel says i stand in front of.
God seriously and then he says you don't get to talk anymore until he's born there you go you now have a sign that i stand in front of God and have authority so he's talking about this picture of an angel standing before God these angel these spiritual beings i want to read a few verses to help you understand what angels do it says the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them so these angels are sent to protect this is old testament.
But they're sent to protect those who believe psalm 91 11 he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways hebrews 1 13 and 14. this is talking about the excellency of Jesus how he's greater than the angels it says to which of the angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until i make your enemies a footstool for your feet are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.
Look at that again are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation Jesus says do not look down on these little ones do not look down on these believers do not look down on these that you would earlier talked about don't tempt them don't lead them into sin he says don't look down on them and he says do you not know that God uses powerful spiritual beings to minister and to care.
For them and they stand before God these powerful spiritual beings who serve these believers actually stand in front of the face of God and so what he's saying is do you not see how elevated and glorious angels are they they had that mark in their mind and so he says do you not realize that they serve those who belong to the lord those who are little ones those who are children of God do you not understand that when you deal with a believer you're dealing with a son or a daughter of the king these angels get to stand in front of the very face of.
God and they are sent to serve sons and daughters of the king do not look down on them and here's what this means if you see a prince and they have a royal guard around them they are not a prince because they have a royal guard they have a royal guard because they're a prince so having angels care for us does not exalt us we are exalted and therefore angels care for us but we are exalted because we have our father be the king of heaven through the work of Christ this is immensely encouraging that.
God protects those who belong to him that all of us who are tempted and tried and wayward and who actively desire sin that God has angels around us guarding and protecting us and he doesn't take it lightly because we belong to him if you've placed your faith in Christ so he says don't look down on a believer you fail to understand the position they have in Christ this is not to exalt angels this is not to make us pray to angels it's to make us understand the exalted position we have in Christ as we relate to the.
Father verse 12. what do you think if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray and if he finds it truly i say to you he rejoices over it more than the other more than over the 99 that never went astray so it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish sin is a destructive leads towards death and eternal hell.
But it is not God's desire that any of these that belong to him should follow that path and he leaves the 99 to pursue the one that's missing now i don't i'm not super familiar with sheep i grew up in edgefield county i do know that when a cow gets out that's the one they go look for i know that when you call your hunting dogs back the one that doesn't show up is the one you go looking for and you do leave the other ones to go.
Look for it or you risk all of them and send them back out to run again hoping that that one will join it what he's saying is something that was obviously true to them if you have a hundred sheep and one's missing don't you leave the hundred and go look for it yes you don't go look at your account and go oh we only have 99. yes you go i'm missing one and you go look for it and when you find the one you celebrate that's this he says it's not the father's will that any of them should perish do you hear that do you hear his heart.
For you that he desires to redeem and to save i think we read this sometimes and we say well does Jesus really mean that does he take sin that seriously is it that deadly serious yes because he left heaven to come to earth to die on a cross for our place he takes sin deadly seriously he takes it with blood earnest seriousness so much so that he would shed his blood that he would lose his life so that we might be redeemed he's the one who comes searching.
For the one that is lost and some of us have been playing with sin and we need to understand the weight of that we need to understand that we ought to give some things up so that we might have life some of us need to cut off sin where it's growing that it's better if something's tempting you it's better for you to enter into life with no cell phone that gets the internet then to enter into hell some of you it's better to enter into life with no boyfriend no girlfriend than to hold hands as you walk towards destruction some of you it's better to enter into life without that promotion that meant that you.
Had to compromise your morals so that you could have it that you had to play ball some of you it's better to enter into life than to walk into hell wealthy some of you it's better to say no to any type of romantic relationship because your desires lead you astray and it's better to walk into life than to wander off into destruction and as we fail and as we sing Jesus has come to redeem he hasn't come to redeem those who have kept it together he hasn't come to redeem those who have behaved.
Well he wants us to understand the weightiness of sin but the response is to be found by the one seeking you because all we like sheep have gone astray we've all gone our own way and chaste after sin and we need the redemption that is in Christ that he would come searching for us that he would shed his blood that we might have forgiveness and that we might have life as we repent this isn't well-behaved people and bad people this is those who.
See their sin and repent and those who don't and that's why we practice Church discipline because we work towards repentance which leads us into joy he says that none would perish and that he would rejoice that's why because sin leads to destruction repentance leads to joy there's a song that i sing to my boys a good bit my dad used to sing it to me when i was growing up it's one of my favorite hymns it's softly and tenderly and it says that softly and tenderly Jesus's calling calling o sinner come home says why would you linger.
While Jesus is pleading pleading oh sinner come home and when you read this passage i can picture Jesus walking around looking for that lost sheep and he's just calling for it he's not angry he's not trying to scare the sheep he's trying to get the sheep back softly and tenderly he's calling and he's saying come home and some of us right now are holding on to our sin and staying away from Jesus and we are wrong and we are foolish and the end of that is destruction.
But if we repent and we run to him he rejoices he doesn't scold he wraps us up joyfully celebratorily grabs us some of you maybe need to make work more difficult and cancel your internet subscription some of you maybe need to be lonely for a month as you get rid of some friends be awkward for a month as you join a community group and get some new ones who are also sinners but hopefully or at least trying to point us in the right direction some of you need to lose a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
Today so that you might begin to walk towards life we ought to repent because the stakes are high some of us need to risk relationships with those we love as we correct sin in them because we love them enough and we believe the words of Jesus that there is life and there is rejoicing and there is eternal hope but there also is anguish and pain and destruction for all those who run head long away from the lord into their own glory standing fully under the weight of their own sin and rebellion in Christ we have hope that he died.
For sin that he died for sinners and that in him we might believe and some of you need to place your faith in him today you need to confess that you're a sinner and you need to tell him i need you to save me he does not put to shame any who would call on his name you're a lost sheep you're stuck begin to cry out he hears you he comes he's looking for you some of you need to repent right.
Now and place your faith in him and he does forgive and he rejoices and there is hope and there is life and some of you who are Christians need to understand the weight the hope that you have in him and that he desires none of us should perish and you need to repent of some sin that you've held on to it for a long time and you've told yourself it's okay it is not let's pray God we pray that none would perish.
But that everybody in this room would know the weightiness of sin would see the end result and lord we may limp we may hurt we may hobble but let us walk into life as we repent of sin as we change and as we're forgiven but we pray right now in this room those who are wrestling with their sin wrestling with themselves that they would see you clearly that they would hear your voice they would listen to your call and that they would come to you.
And if that's you don't hold back don't fight he's offering you life he's offering you salvation he's offering you hope there is doom and there is destruction on the other side take the sacrifice placed in Jesus's life for you lord we pray that by your Holy Spirit you would call they would answer they would enter life we pray lord that you would help us to repent of sin to confess sin to take it seriously as we take you seriously that you might have.
So much glory so much weightiness that we would see clearly how wicked and depraved we are and that we would see clearly how glorious is the hope in Christ for those who believe because it's about his righteousness and his behavior not ours in Jesus name amen.