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.”
Message: The Discipline of the Church
Time: Matthew, one of the 12 apostles, is credited with this book, despite the fact that he did not sign it. Dating it's writing is difficult, but most agree it to be AD 60-65 since it does not mention the destruction of the temple in AD 70. A Jew, he includes 50 direct citations and many other indirect citations from the Old Testament.
What the Lord is Saying:
Church discipline is a defining characteristic of the church - whether it is a part of sacraments or a separate distinction it signifies that a person is not allowed to be a part of the visible church fellowship and therefore is not to partake of the Lord's Supper.
The reason church discipline is important is the church is commissioned to walk in holiness and be free of flagrant sin and false teaching. I Peter 1:13-25 includes - As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. In addition - love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. The church is the obedient children and we are not to engage our lives in a manner that mirrors our behavior and actions of our life before Christ. Instead, we are to be holy and act holy in all of our conduct. The congregation of the church or the visible church is meant to be different from the world. Yesterday, in Sunday School we talked about characteristics found in Christians that are distinct from the people of the world like Joy and Happiness (something I've always struggled displaying), forgiveness, be encouraging, showing comfort, humility, peace. Admitting your sin is one I hold in high value for I am a person that makes mistakes often and there is no harm in stating you made a mistake. I think also honesty is important. Thus, in church discipline we need to be a people that encourage repentance to keep the church pure and set apart.
To me church discipline comes about when you have someone in the Body that does not agree that a sin has been committed or is not willing to change from their behavior.
In this passage today from Matthew 18, Jesus is explaining the practice of discipline or seeing sin in your brother and confronting it. Step 1 in the process - see the sin and tell your brother you have seen it. I can't say in my life I have much experience in this. I think I attempt to bring attention to people their sin when we share the gospel and ask them questions about the ten commandments, but in general it is quite hard these days to confront sin. Step 2 is to bring someone else. Step 3 is to bring it before the church. Step 4 is to treat the person like an outsider in the church. Basically, if someone is unwilling to see their sin then they have no business being in the church. Sounds simple, but the practice I think is more difficult.
Our goal in all of this is restitution. We do not treat the person as evil. We also hope that forgiveness will follow. Disciplined sinners that turn from their sin are to be restored.
2 Cor 2:5-11 -- Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. 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. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Summary: In church discipline, we need to be a people that encourage repentance to keep the church pure and set apart.
Promise: The most important thing we can do to advance the church's purity is to pursue holiness ourselves so that we need not come under official church discipline.
Prayer: God, you are gracious and good. In life, you tech me that in me I struggle being good. There are times when we waiver further from you and your ways and seek after things that do not give you glory. We are called to be in a Body of believers and yet even in this community we can waiver from you. Discipline is difficult. Correction is hard, but help us Father to always lean toward grace and forgiveness while also dealing with sin. The church is meant to be a light for all to see and so if there are those in our community that are not living holy lives, show us who they are and then I pray that we would have the courage to confront them and they would have the courage and recognition to then turn from their sin. Lord, help us be always a holy people.
Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am now working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of August is about the Body of the Lord - the Church recovered in the Reformation; July was the right use of God's Law; June was justification by faith alone; May, Christ Alone; April, salvation by grace alone; March, the sovereign providence of God; February, the doctrine of revelation, Scripture; January, the doctrine of God.
Christ's Body
The Body of Christ - The Church is the Body of Christ and Christ loves the church. We are to imitate Christ and see that the Church is how Christ carries out His purposes in the world. The Head of the Church - Christ is Head of the church and he only has final authority and gives life to the church. Life is found only in Jesus Christ our Lord. - The Church We Can See - Belonging to a church is not optional, for anyone. We are meant to live in a community with other believers, to hear the Word of God preached, and to grow. The Church We Cannot See - What we see is the Visible church, the invisible church only God knows because He is omniscient and that is the Church we cannot see.
Truths about the Church from the Apostles Creed
Church Unity - The church is bigger than our local assembly; there are core beliefs among the invisible church. One People Throughout History - God has only one people; throughout the world there are people that share doctrines and truths despite their being differences in where we attend or belong. God's Holy People - By being in Christ, though we still have a fallen nature, God has set us apart as holy, as his saints. True Catholocity - God's people includes men and women from every tribe and every tongue that hold to the biblical gospel. The Apostilic Church - we are fellow citizens with all people from all tribes and tongues throughout history, united by being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets teaching, thus apostolic, with Christ Jesus being our cornerstone.
What the Church Does and Believes
Preaching Christ and His Commandments - A church needs to be committed to faithfully preaching the Word of God. Administering Sacraments - Sacraments (The Lord's Supper and Baptism especially) need to be part of a church existing, but they also need to be rightly administered.
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