Church Discipline

We're going to open to one Corinthians chapter five this morning. We're gonna read a situation that is quite messy. If you're into soap operas, this is better than that. This is a juicy bit of a scandal that you can read about in the Corinthian church of two thousand years ago. It's actually not something that seems too far from where we might also find ourselves.

One Corinthians chapter five verse one. In the ESV, the title to this section is called sexual immorality defiles the church. Paul writes to the church in Corinth. 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 and you are arrogant. Or do you not rather mourn?

Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I write to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.

Since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging the outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.

Purge the evil person from among you. So far, our reading, heavy words. Who are you to judge me? Said a voice in a quivering tone. Her eyes wild with emotion like a cornered animal.

Don't you think that you have problems too? Haven't we moved on and progressed as a society? The one line arguments were coming thick and fast. The atmosphere was tense. The conversation staccato and bullet pointed.

It felt like a fuse had been lit and that at any second, something was going to blow. And anyway, the lady continued, if this is how you guys are going to treat me, then I may as well leave. I always knew Christians were hypocrites. I thought I could trust you, but you've shown me just how legalistic you are, pastor. As the pastor got into his car after being asked to leave, not so politely, he said to himself, just another Tuesday night in the ministry.

Church discipline. Church discipline. I don't know if that is a word that you are familiar with, but for pastors and elders, it's a phrase that sends shivers down the spine. Church discipline is the practice of censuring or reprimanding church members when they are perceived to have sinned in the hope that the offender will repent and be reconciled to God and the church. In a time when the church was more widely accepted as an authority on morality, on how to live a life, the correction from church leaders, suspect though never a fun thing, was probably received more willingly.

Today, with the influence of the church waning and general suspicion in western societies rising up against all sorts of institutions generally, the idea that the church has any right to impose its values on me. Well, that just gets our backs up. This morning, I wanna ask you, does the church have a right to tell you how to live? Before you answer too quickly, what is your attitude going to be if the church was to do that? I mean, I guess we can say they can, and I guess we might say they have authority, but will you accept that?

If you were to place yourself in a situation like this, how would you respond? Would you receive words of advice? Would you receive words of correction well, or do you think you would respond like this lady, this hypothetical lady? I'm not referring to anyone that I've ever met. If you're asking yourself, yeah, if this is retelling a specific story, it's not.

But how would you respond to an issue or a situation like this? Now the reason I think we should talk about whether a church has any right to discipline or correct anyone is precisely because no one at the moment in our church is under church discipline, so it's good to talk about it now before or if it happens. Now the area of church discipline is probably one of the most daunting things. I say this as an elder and a pastor that fears it, that really, really dreads that that issue or an issue like that coming up. It's never one of the happiest moments in church life when someone has to be disciplined.

Because every time, questions arise. How fair is this? Do you have the right to do it? There are clichéd statements about forgiveness, and grace, and compassion, and love. How unloving it is to do something like that.

Accusations fly. You people are proud. You are divisive. You're self righteous. You're judgmental.

And if we're honest, as church members and as elders, we fear what it will say about us as a local church if we appear to punish someone for sinning when we know that Jesus has forgiven us also of so much. And yet, the practice of warning, the practice of correcting and disciplining church members is not just tied into, it is rather tied into the very identity of what it means to be a church. We see this in the basics of the theology of the church, which theologians call ecclesiology. The ecclesia is a Greek word for the church, and ecclesiology is the theology of the church. In the Belgic Confession, one of the statements of faith that our church ascribes to, we receive a rundown of almost bullet point statements of what constitutes a church.

This document, the Belgic Confession, is a collection of theological statements that outline the most basic beliefs about who God is, who man is, mankind is, the world, how to be saved, and so on. That confession, that collection of statements is very old, being written about five hundred years ago during the reformation. It's called the Belgic Confession because it was written in that part of Europe. Now the reason I bring that into it is we're going to read a statement that it gives us about what constitutes the church. What is the church?

We're gonna look at article 29. It's, you know, I guess, almost like a little paragraph with this title. The Belgic Confession written in 1561 during a time of immense persecution of the Protestant church, the reformation church of the time, was written and sent to King Philip the second, a Catholic king, to explain to him why Protestants or Reformed people were not heretics rather. And so article 29 explains the marks of the true church. It says this, we believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully by the word of God what is the true church, for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of the church.

We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it even though they are physically there. Meaning, you know, in every church, there's going to be people that don't believe in the gospel. But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves the church. The true church can be recognized and has the following marks. The church firstly engages in the pure preaching of the gospel.

Secondly, it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them, so the Lord's Supper and Baptism. And thirdly, it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs according to the pure word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only head. By these marks, one can be assured of recognising the true church, and no one ought to be separated from it. Is that a surprising trait to you?

A surprising trait. What makes a church a church? Would you have ever said a church is a church when it practices church discipline and corrects its members for their faults? Would you have ever thought of a church that way? I think if you were to ask a normal everyday member of a church, what makes a church?

They might say things like, its worship service must have a sense of being filled with the Holy Spirit. What makes a church a church? It must have an outward looking nature to engage with the community. The church must be recognised for the way that it, I don't know. You know, has a playgroup for mums or has a creche or or whatever.

That is the mark of a true church. Well, here are three marks of the church. The church must be recognised for, can be recognised by preaching the word of God, administrating the Lord's Supper and baptism truly, and disciplining its members if it arises. Now the command to practice church discipline is not simply given to us in the statement of faith. It is obviously derived from God's word itself.

In two Thessalonians three fourteen and fifteen, this is what Paul tells the Thessalonian church. After they've received his letter, already in his time considered to be the word of God, this is what he says to the church. Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them in order that they may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.

It's not a take it or leave it statement, is it? It's not like, well, if these words sort of fit with you, that's fine. You know, just hang around. Here's a commandment that God gives the church that if someone does not align themselves with the word of God, they must be warned that they are at odds with God's will. We also see that this warning may occur, and we see it in this passage as well, through intentional separation, which is in a church, I guess, church order and function called excommunication.

That is asking someone to leave the fellowship of the church. Okay. So if the church has been given this authority or this command to discipline its members, what is the ultimate purpose of this discipline? Is it to punish someone? Is it to, you know, to get them?

Is it to have an excuse to avoid someone that you don't like at church? What's the ultimate end or the purpose of church discipline? Second question I wanna ask is what warrants discipline? What do you need to do to have this happen? Does every misstep or mistake or whatever need that sort of intervention?

Is a white lie the same as domestic violence? What warrants discipline? Well, Jonathan Edwards, a theologian two or three hundred years ago, an amazing thinker, an amazing pastor as well, in a little essay entitled The Nature and End of Excommunication. That's an ominous sounding title. He addresses some of these issues.

And Edwards suggests that sin that warrants discipline is sin that is both visible and influential. Sin that warrants discipline is both visible and influential. It is a sin that is lived out in the world and has wide ranging consequences. No one can read minds. You know, that's an obvious statement.

No one can read minds. No elder, no pastor, no church member knows what is going on in the heart and the mind of the person next to them. There may be all sorts of stuff that is harboured inside someone's heart, but so often, sooner or later, undealt with sin is lived out in lifestyle. It may be months, it may be years. Sooner or later, if it hasn't been dealt with, it will come out.

And it may be necessary when this sin is finally lived out that it is of such a significant nature that the church must make their voice heard about it. This is what the apostle Paul alludes to in our passage in one Corinthians five that we read this morning. The calibre of sin is highlighted here in verse 11. Let's have a quick look at that. This is sort of the criteria or some of the examples that Paul says these are significant sins.

Verse 11, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality, which is what this case was about, or greed, or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler. This list, however, is not exhaustive. I mean, we read Galatians five and there's some, you know, overlap there. Some words, some titles, some issues mentioned there as well. This is not an exhaustive list, but if you were to study each of these areas, you'll see that this is influential stuff.

This is stuff that impacts and influences members in the church, spouses, husbands, wives, kids, friends. Think about greed, how it affects others. Think about what becoming drunk can do. It's not just a personal thing. It influences others.

Think about being a swindler, swindling people out of money. These are sins that are both visible and then influential. What are the purposes, however, of dealing with this? That an organisation like the church is given the mandate to point it out and to warn people not to live that way. What are the purposes of church discipline?

Well, firstly, church discipline seeks to keep the church pure. In one Corinthians five, there's an account of church discipline Paul calls for. A man was caught up in adultery. He urges the church to remove him from their ranks and says in verse six, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.

Now this is obviously metaphorical, to play on words. The idea here is a bit of dough that has yeast in it. Yeast works its way throughout the dough and influences the entire batch causing it to rise. Now the reason Paul is talking about bread here is he's dealing with the issue of the Lord's Supper as well, the Passover lamb. Jesus is mentioned here as bread and the lamb.

He runs. He doesn't play on words here. But in essence, he's saying, this sin is going to influence the church. You think it might just be a little corner. It's going to somehow infect or affect the whole batch.

Get rid of that yeast. A little leaven of sin, Paul says, can influence the whole lump of the church. God, the church, and the gospel message itself, Paul says, is dishonoured and held in contempt when gross acts of sin are not dealt with. And more than that, if the church does not deal with that sin, it will influence and affect other church members as well. So the first thing is to keep the church, Christ's special bride, pure.

The second thing is that other church members may learn what is good or bad. If a visible act of sin is left undealt with and it leads to negatively influencing others, so too does the act of good discipline lead us to be influenced towards holiness. Verse two talks about it this way. Paul says to them, and you are arrogant about this situation. You are proud about this situation.

Or do you not rather mourn? The Corinthians had an issue of pride. It was spiritual pride. I mean, this was the same church that messed up with all the spiritual gifts, and Paul had to write to them about the Lord's Supper. People were actually getting drunk at the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Supper wine.

The poor were not eating from the bread because the rich provided it and only they had it. It was a messy, messy church. And they held themselves up as a proud church, a good church. Paul says, you don't know. You don't have the priorities all wrong.

You're proud about the bad things when you should be mourning about those things, when you should be grieving about those things. And so Paul is saying, you have to deal with this so that everyone else knows that this is not alright. You have to deal with it so that people around you will know what is good and what is bad. The example of this we find in the Old Testament with Israel. It's a wonderful example.

Many times throughout the book of Deuteronomy, the nation of Israel, God's people, are warned not to disobey or they will experience God's discipline. He tells them. He warns them. Throughout Deuteronomy, there are a bunch of warnings about Israel and what will happen if they disobey. And every time there's a little verse that's more or less, or a phrase that's repeated in this way, we find an example of that in Deuteronomy 13 verse 11.

When Israel disobeys and God disciplines them, all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you. That's repeated again and again and again. Why? They will know what is good and what is bad. Israel warned not to disobey.

God knows they will, and when God's punishment is given, it serves a purpose of teaching people what is right and wrong. Everyone will hear about God's unhappiness, and they will be filled with a holy fear that will not allow that wickedness again. And then thirdly, and I think probably the most importantly, the purpose of church discipline is to seek the salvation and the restoration of the individual. When gentler means of correction have failed, then the elders of the church and the church members themselves should use this form of church discipline to bring conviction so that the person may be convinced, persuaded of the seriousness of their lifestyle, that they will seek at the end of the day forgiveness and restoration, not simply with God, but with the church as well.

The apostle Paul is still speaking about the case in the Corinthian church. He writes that the church, and these are very, very stark words. He says, the church, with God's permission, will hand him over to Satan. The church must hand him over to Satan, verse five says. Now Jonathan Edwards suggests here that we find the last Hail Mary attempt of disciplining.

This is the final stop for the church. This is the absolute last bit of influence the church has. It's excommunication. It's asking someone to leave. And this act of putting someone out of the church is a terrifying declaration that this person may be in the process of being disowned by God Himself.

That's a very somber, terrifying thing to think about. Now, of course, we don't know the mind of God. We don't completely know who God's chosen people are. We don't know exactly who are saved and who are not. Indeed, we also know that the church has made mistakes in the past when it came to excommunication.

Martin Luther, the leader of the reformation himself, was excommunicated from the church in his time. So the church doesn't necessarily get that right either. But there is a tangible component here where the loss of church fellowship, the loss of that sense of warmth and love and acceptance from fellow believers, the loss of that is a foretaste of the loss of warmth and love of God Himself at the end of time. It is meant to be terrifying. It is meant to be utterly humiliating.

It is meant to make us sad. To be handed over to Satan into his cold, cruel hands is intended to be the last ditch effort to call a brother or a sister to realise the separation from God that they are going to be under. Through their unrepentance, they have set themselves up as an enemy to God Himself. But here is the kicker. In the same verse, have a look at that verse five.

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that, that's a purpose statement, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. This is the purpose, the ultimate purpose. If we hand him over to the world outside of the warmth and the love and the care of the church, they will go on with what they're doing. Satan will have his way, and they will reap the consequences of that sin, Paul is saying.

That's the destruction of the flesh. Whatever the consequences, the natural consequences of that sin is, they will bear it. But hopefully, through that process, their souls may be saved. They may physically be broken down. They may die as a result or a consequence of that sin, but if their souls are saved, it was worth it.

If they are saved for all eternity, it was worth it. That they may be saved on the day of the Lord. And so it's for this reason, it's for this reason, believe it or not, that church discipline is actually an act of grace. To our elders here this morning, John, Gary, it's critically important to keep this in mind when and if those tricky cases arise. The purpose of discipline is to save a brother or a sister.

To our church members, the rest of us here who have concern and worry for those we know are knowingly living in sin. This is the purpose of church discipline, not to get even, not as an excuse not to deal with them. It's not to prove moral superiority of how bad you are and how good I am. It's a call for someone to be restored to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in which we all share. Maybe just as a final sort of explanation, how is church discipline then enacted in the church just so we know what our sort of methods are here?

Well, firstly, a church can withhold according to scripture the sacraments from someone. I have had to deal with this situation where we've said, we don't believe it's right for you. There is stuff in your life that needs to be dealt with before taking the Lord's Supper, and it was an offence. It was perceived very poorly, but that is the right of the church to say you are not in communion with the Lord, and therefore, will not be in communion with your fellow believers. That is an option, a course of action the church does have.

The second thing is the church can publicly admonish or call to repentance that individual. And then finally, the church can remove that person from their fellowship and the denomination through excommunication. So again, I ask, if you were to go through that process, if you were to have your name publicly listed, publicly mentioned in a church, or if you were to be told you're not allowed to take Lord's Supper, how would you respond? Would you struggle? And why would you struggle?

In your eyes, does the church, God's church, the bride of Christ, have the authority on scripture to tell you how to live? Or have we, in some way, and I've put up my hand here, been influenced by culture that makes it hard for us to accept the idea that someone has the right to interfere with my lifestyle? The issue of discipline will never be an easy or pleasant thing for both church leaders or church members to deal with, yet scripture tells us, at times, it will be a necessary thing for the good of the church itself. So as we wrap up, be praying for your church, pray for your elders, pray for your pastors because they will need plenty of wisdom and plenty of grace. But to all of us, I also say especially when we are tempted to get our backs up at the idea that an organisation may tell me how to live, or when we feel we can't or we shouldn't say anything, on the flip side, remember the gracious but firm words of Jesus to a woman caught in adultery in John eight.

Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more. May God give us the grace and the wisdom and a deep and lasting love for the purity, the uniqueness, the specialness of the church, God's people. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words. We receive them as words from you. We ask, Heavenly Father, that you will correct areas in our life and our thinking that have been misshapen through many, many voices. We ask, Lord, that you will have your way in our lives. Where there are issues, even issues that we know we are harbouring in our hearts and our minds, we know that really they have not been dealt with. But I ask for your special grace and your special strength and an incredible amount of conviction to change those things.

Father, we know that you love us and that you care for us, and as a good father disciplines his children, we humbly submit ourselves to your hand. We ask, Lord, before anything messy arises, Lord, that you already have dealt with that because you are gracious and you are kind. But if, Lord, there are people, brothers and sisters, that, for some reason, are influenced in such a way, Lord, I pray that you will give our church the strength, the perspective, the endurance, the tact, the love to, in grace and in truth, remind and encourage those who have fallen to come under the care, under the rule of God again. Father, we pray that your church, that at the moment is just racked with all sorts of sin. Some massive institutional sins, sins that have gone on for years.

Father, that you will cleanse that. And we know, Lord, you care far more about your church than about the individuals that are trying to prevent and hide these things. And so, Father, we pray, expose it. Let the brilliant laser like truth find them out. And Father, rescue and redeem your fallen church.

Lord, I pray for anyone here who doesn't know you, who realises even right now as they hear and have heard these words that they are not right with you, that they have not cared for a long time about not being right with you. And Father, that as they hear these words, they may be convicted in their hearts, that they will have a desire, a thirst that cannot be quenched by any rationalisations, any excuses, but that they will seek your forgiveness, that they will make a commitment to live a life for you, that they will bow the knee, obey your word, and be saved on the day of the Lord. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.