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Introduction The Lord Jesus Christ loves his Church with a purifying love. He is preparing her for the final consummation of their relationship in the marriage feast of the Lamb. He is perfecting her through his blood. Out of love for her and desire to honor himself, the Lord Jesus established three essential marks, three essential activities, that distinguish his true Church from every other institution in the created order. Without one of these three marks an organization is not a true church. The Lord instituted the faithful preaching of his Word as an essential mark or characteristic of his Visible Church. There is no true church without the preaching of God's Word. The Lord also instituted the proper observation of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Without these, there is no church. Lastly, the Lord instituted church discipline for the preservation of his honor and the good of his Church. The three things that God has said makes a church are the three things that the Church in general in the U.S. is trying to get away from. Of the three essential marks, the one that has become a thing of times gone by is church discipline. Yet, Paul says that the Corinthian church is in great danger and in grievous sin by not practicing church discipline. I. What Is Church Discipline? It is a God-ordained, authoritative process to keep Christ's body pure and bring unrepentant members to repentance that may culminate with a declaration that a person whom we thought was a brother is not a brother. This process also establishes the boundaries of the Visible Church. A. Matthew 18 focuses on the repentance/reconciliation aspect of it. 1. Notice the context leading to verse 15. a. The shepherd goes after the lost sheep to bring him back to the fold, 12-13. Mt. 18:12-13– What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheepthan over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. b. In a sense, when the whole church pursues discipline, the shepherd AND the 99 sheep go after the wandering sheep. 2. Peter understood that the main gist of what Christ was teaching was reconciliation and restoration. a. Look at the question he asked. Mt. 18:21– Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" b. Jesus's answer further emphasizes reconciliation. Mt. 18:22(and the parable that follows) – Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. B. 1 Corinthians 5 focuses on the purity of the Body of Christ, 6-7, 11, 13. 1. The church is the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the Temple of Christ. 2. To allow one who is unrepentant to be identified with that body is to say that Christ himself is sinful. C. Both aspects of church discipline may lead to a declaration that the one whom we thought was a brother is not brother. Mt. 18:17– And if he refuses to hear them, tell itto the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. 1. It is important that you understand that church discipline does not cause anything. 2. It matches what the Bible says and what somebody is saying or doing and declares what the Bible says concerning a person who says or does these things. D.It is an authoritative process. 1. The final proclamation is a command. Mt. 18:17b– … let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. 2. When done according to the Bible, it is a declaration of what is done in heaven. Mt. 18:18 – Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 3. It is done in Christ's authority, 1 Cor. 5:4-5. E. It is done by the church, 1 Cor. 5:4-5. Mt. 18:17– And if he refuses to hear them, tell itto the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. 1. The church is the entity that names a person a brother/sister. 2. The local church is the entity that baptizes and admits a person to the Lord's Table. 3. This teaching has been historically called the power of the keys, based on what Christ told the Church. Mt. 16:18-19– And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Mt. 18:18– Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. F. Church discipline establishes the boundaries of the church - Paul speaks about these boundaries when he teaches that there are those who are "inside" and those who are "outside," 12-13. G.Church discipline protects the lordship of Christ. 1. 1 Cor. 5 speaks against the idea that one can believe in Jesus as his/her Savior and not take him as his/her Lord. 2. It is exactly because this man didn't follow the lordship of Christ that he is being turned over to Satan. II. The Basis of Church Discipline A. The basis, the foundation of Paul's call for personal and corporate purity is the work of Christ for us and our position in him, 7-8. 1. All teaching in the Bible keeps coming back to Christ's person and work. 2. The greatest indicative of this epistle comes later when Paul says, "Christ died for our sins." 15:3. B. Because Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to him. Mt. 28:18– And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." C. And he delegated that authority to his Church through the apostles. Mt. 16:18-19– And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Mt. 18:18– Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 1. When the Church practices discipline in obedience to her Master, she is declaring what God has already declared. 2. The Church is not causing the outcome, just matching the situation to what God has said. 3. That is exactly what Paul is urging the Corinthian church to do. 4. That is exactly what the Holy Spirit urges us to do. III. Several Important, and Loosely Related, Points to Note concerning Church Discipline in This Passage. A. Notice that the absence of church discipline is not a sign of humility, but of pride and arrogance, 2 and 6a. 1. Perhaps we think that judging others in the way the Bible tells us to do it is hypocritical because we know we are sinners too. 2. Yet, the proud and arrogant position is the one that does not stand up for the honor of God, the purity of the church, and the good of the brethren. 3. Only the sinner is qualified to judge in the way the Bible calls us to judge. a. That is to say that only the one who truly knows he is a sinner and who knows that it is only by the grace of God that he is not in the same situation as the person who fell into sin who is fit to judge. b. If one is not convicted of his own sins, he is not fit to judge (Mt. 7). 1) His judgment will not be mixed with mercy and grace. 2) He will be self-righteous in his judgment instead of Christ-centered. 3) He will greatly damage the honor of God, the reputation of the Church, and the people around him. B. Church discipline is painful, 2. 1. Grief is present in church discipline because God was dishonored. 2. Grief is present because there is a loss of fellowship that takes place – not keeping company and not eating in v. 11 and purging in v. 13. C. It is the church that pronounces the final verdict on the state of the person under discipline, 4. 1. No one person, including the apostle Paul, has the power to excommunicate on his own. 2. It is not a private judgment. 3. We don't get to decide who is a Christian and who is not. 4. That's the job of the Church. D.Church discipline always has the goal of restoration of the person being disciplined, 5. 1. But one thing we can clearly see here is that this action is done with the purpose of bringing this person back to the Lord, which, in this situation, it did just that. 2 Cor. 2:6-8– This punishment which was inflictedby the majority issufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you oughtrather to forgive and comfort him,lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirmyourlove to him. 2. Jesus says the same thing in Mt. 18 – this is the passage right before the famous discipline passage (which is followed by teaching on forgiveness). Mt. 18:12-14– What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheepthan over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. 3. Paul is not saying this is one way to deal with the situation – he says it is THE way to deal with it. a. When we don't practice church discipline, we are neglecting the very means the Lord has appointed to help us change to be more like him. b. So, not to follow God's direction in church discipline is actually to be cruel and unkind to the one trapped in sin. E. Church discipline helps preserve a clear line of demarcation between the church and the world, 9-10. 1. In a previous letter Paul had told the Corinthian Christians to stay away from immoral people, 9. a. The Corinthian Christians, either because of an honest misunderstanding or so that they didn't have to obey him, decided that Paul was talking about the immoral people of the world, 10. b. Since not having contact with them would be impossible, they decided just not to do anything about it. c. But Paul actually meant that one who is in open, unrepentant sin should not be allowed to remain comfortably among them. 2. Notice that there are different standards for the church and for the world. a. The absolute standard of morality is the same: the Law of God – but there is also a standard of expectation according to the nature of the person. 1) The world cannot do anything but sin. a) We should expect the world to be sexually immoral, covetous, extortioner, idolater, drunkard, etc. b) It should not surprise us when somebody who is outside of Christ acts according to his/her nature. 2) But the Christian has been changed. a) The Christian has been given a new nature. b) He has been freed from the dominion of sin – listen to these passages and jot the references down so you can re-read them later. 1 Cor. 6:19-20–Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who isin you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 2 Cor. 5:14-15, 17– For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again…. Therefore, if anyone isin Christ, he isa new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Gal. 2:20– I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the lifewhich I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. b. We should expect the world to act according to its nature, and we should expect the church to act according to her nature. 1) We should expect the person outside of Christ to display drunkenness, covetousness, etc. 2) And we should expect the Christian not to display these behaviors. 3. Notice also that this passage speaks of a good and necessary interaction with this sinful world. a. But in this interaction, the Church and the Christian do not act like the world. b. There is a clear line of demarcation between the Church and the world and church discipline helps preserve this demarcation through church membership and through removal from membership. c. Paul here is elaborating on our Lord's prayer for his Church. Jn. 17:14-18– I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 1) So, we interact with the world as a clearly different and distinguishable entity. 2) We interact with the world, not on the world's terms, but on Christ's terms. 3) It has never worked to relate to the world on its term and church discipline is here to remind us of that. IV. What Should the Corinthian Church Have Done? A. What they should have done and what we must do is clearly described by our Savior – turn to the passage. Mt. 18:15-17– Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell itto the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. B. The very first thing we must notice about this passage is that it introduces the theme of restoration, not condemnation – "If he hears you, you have gained your brother." 1. Our Lord is clearly calling us to do something much more loving and redemptive than simply confronting others with a list of their wrongdoings. 2. He wants us to remember and imitate his shepherd love for us – to seek after others to help them turn from sin and be restored to God and to those they have offended. "If it is hard to accept a rebuke, even a private one, it is harder still to administer one in loving humility." D.A. Carson C. Notice also that before it becomes an issue that the whole church is drawn in, it involves a much smaller circle or people – one on one. 1. How would that have looked like in the Corinthian situation? a. Another brother who noticed how this man was looking at his stepmother should have come to him and attempted to rescue him. b. Signs of sins are often present if we care enough for people to notice them. 2. Notice, though, that in order to do what our Lord commands, we must know each other. a. Talking to others about their sins cannot happen in a relational vacuum. b. It really doesn't work out to talk to people only to point out how they have sinned. c. And we will not be able to recognize the signs of struggles with particular temptations if we don't know the brethren. D.Mt. 18 implies earnest pursuit. 1. It is introduced by the parable of the lost sheep, which the shepherd goes through great pains to find. 2. The way that it is written implies a continued going – present active imperative = keep on going. 3. It does not say that it is an earnest pursuit by the pastor of the church. a. It does not say, "call or e-mail the pastor so that he can go talk with someone who you noticed needed help." b. You go and you talk and you pursue. E. What if the brother/sister refuses to listen to me? Enlist the help of one or two other Christians to come along with you. 1. This statement has at least three implications. a. If the brother/sister listens to you, you do not continue the process. 1) You do not inform other people who are not already involved of the sin that was committed. 2) You accept that brother/sister as a brother/sister – no "I forgive, but…" b. It assumes that the brother/sister actually sinned, that is, transgressed God's law. 1) He/she must listen to you and repent as long as you are saying what God says about what he/she did. 2) He/she does not have to listen to you in the sense of having to repent if you are confronting them with a matter of preference, opinion, or liking. c. It requires that you continue the process. 1) We may be willing to talk with somebody about his/her sins. 2) But we may be as willing to be satisfied with talking to him/her and leaving it at that. 3) Yet, if we are truly confronting our brother/sister out of love for him/her, we cannot stop till all the avenues for repentance have been exhausted. 2. These brothers come to help the two brothers/sister resolve their conflict and become witnesses when the lack of repentance on either side becomes apparent. F. If there is no repentance, the rest of the church must be involved. 1. Because the Bible teaches a representative form of government in which the members of the church choose elders to rule over them, the church is accessed through the elders. 2. Even here, we are not quite to the place where the Corinthian church was. 3. Once the elders get involved, there is still a pursuing of the brother/sister. V. The Last Part of Our Lord's Instructions Brings Us back to 1 Cor. 5: Treat Him as a Heathen and Tax Collector. A. Treating the one who was named a brother as a heathen and a tax collector is equivalent to handing him over to Satan, 5. B. It is worth repeating that even at this point the goal is restoration – that his soul may be saved. C. This is an authoritative declaration – it is done in the name of Christ, 4. Mt. 18:19-20– Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. D.It is a public declaration – when you are gathered, 4. E. It is a binding declaration – it requires the whole church to act in a certain way, 11, 13. 1. The governing thought for us to understand how we are to act toward this person is that he is no longer named a brother. a. I am convinced that the greatest difficulty in understanding this passage comes, not from the passage itself, but from our confused relationships. b. There is very little difference in our practice between the way we relate to other Christians and the way we relate to non-Christians. c. So, when Paul says that we are to relate to this man as we would relate to someone in the world, we have no idea what he is talking about. 2. With this governing thought in mind, we see that the command not keep company with this man means that we don't keep company with him as we would with a Christian. 3. We also see the command not to eat with him as the command not to eat with him as we would with Christians (likely the Lord's Supper). 4. There is no union between us and him. a. There is no sweet fellowship in Jesus Christ. b. We are members of different kingdoms. c. We serve different masters. d. We speak different languages. e. True, deep, sweet fellowship is impossible! 5. The words that Jesus uses, treat him as a heathen and a tax collector, tell us that this person is the object of our earnest evangelism – that's how he treated heathen and tax collectors. 6. We cannot be best friends with one who is outside of Christ. VI. What Is Excommunication? A. The word itself means out of communionand it means to be place outside of the communion of the visible church. B. In Mt. 18:17b, Christ defines excommunication as being like a foreigner and a tax collector. 1. These were two categories of people who were outside the covenant people of God. 3. Therefore, to excommunicate someone is to declare that by his impenitence, he has shown himself to be an unbeliever. C. In 1 Cor. 5:5, Paul defines excommunication as turning the person to Satan in hopes that that will work repentance in him. D.Excommunication declares a person to be a very dangerous place. 2. Outside of fellowship with believers. 3. Unable to feed on Christ in the Lord's Supper. 4. Outside of the promises of the New Covenant. Heb. 10:31– It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. "To excommunicate a person is to deprive him of Christ's protection, and to deliver such a person to him who rules beyond the boundaries of the church, that is, Satan." Wilhelmus à Brakel VII. How Do We Relate to a Person Who Has Been Excommunicated? A. First of all, the excommunication of a member of the church should cause mourning, 1 Cor. 5:2. 1. The mourning should cause the church to search its own corporate conscience to see whether part of the fault lies at its own feet. 2. We should never have an attitude of "good riddance" when someone is removed from our midst. 3. We must have the same attitude as the father did in anxiously waiting for the return of the prodigal son. B. We relate to him as we would relate to an unbeliever who has made mockery of the name of Christ by pretending to be a believer. Mt. 18:17b– … let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. 1. Foreigners and tax collectors were not looked upon by the audience of Jesus's time as those people that were fun to hang out with. 2. As a matter of fact, they were socially avoided. 3. Jesus seasons this understanding with the way he treated foreigners and tax collectors. a. Heathen and tax collectors were the object of Christ's evangelism, not fellowship. b. The compassion that was shown to them was the presentation of the gospel, not hanging out with them. Mt. 9:10-13– Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, thatbehold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that,He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what thismeans: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice."For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." C. To be exhorted to treat someone like an unbeliever seems so benign to us. What is the big deal? 1. We often think this way because we treat the world as if it was the church and the church as if it was the world. 2. We are more patient and loving and caring and enjoy more the company of unbelievers than unbelievers. 3. This is often done under the guise of being salt and light. 4. Yet the Bible says that the saltiest salt and the brightest light are found in loving the brethren, not the world. D.How does it look like in real life? Do I have to avoid him? Do I run when I see him? 1. The answers are kind of and no. "If opportunity is there, or if in some edifying manner we can create an opportunity, then, while manifesting the distance and separation between us and him, we must lament his wretched condition and exhort him to repentance." Wilhelmus à Brakel "Excommunication cannot sever the natural and moral bonds by which men are mutually held together. Rather this separation ought to be extended only to those parts of intercourse which would seem to imply [involvement in] and [approval of the sin]." Francis Turretin 2. We are going to be seeking this person out, not to hang out, but to call him to repentance. 3. We want them in church to hear God's Word preached.
Our God, who is jealous for his honor and the good of his church, has appointed this process. A painful process, to be sure, but one that drives us to Christ because it shows our insufficiency. We serve a Savior who loves to help us obey him in our weakness and who is purifying us every moment. Even church discipline is a loving instrument in our Redeemer's hand. Praise him for that!
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/08/turning-one-over-to-satan-1-corinthians.html
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