Church Discipline - Brandon Allen

Matthew 18 and the Context for Church Discipline

Beloved if you have your Bible open it up with me to Matthew and the 18th chapter and find your way to verse 15. I confess I spoke with your pastors we're going to be looking at Matthew 18 this morning at the request of your pastors looking at verses 15 and I noticed one minute before coming up here that your bulletin says we're going to end in verse 18 we will not be ending in verse 18 this morning we're gonna be reading verses 15 all the way through verses 20 and that is an audible that I'm not willing to make and I hope that you can see this morning why it's so important to see 19 and 20 in the context of what we read here.

Open with me Matthew chapter 18 find your way please to verses 15 through 20 and if you are able please rise with me for the reading of God's Word and let's begin this time reading and hearing what God has himself inspired in his Holy Scripture.

Please follow along with me this is the Word of God. 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 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.

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. 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.

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 for where two or three are gathered in my name there am I among them. This is the Word of God.

Beloved please take your seats and keep your Bible open to this passage as we continue through and examine what God is revealing here in his Word. Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 20 is one of those passages that is chalked full of content.

I love these six verses and I love them for this reason because what we have here is Christ the head of the church speaking directly to the members of the church you and me. He is opening up to us in these six verses his mind for how this thing that he himself instituted how he would have you and I to walk together in love how he would have you and I to walk together and live in fellowship and further we have opened in these six verses what this thing is the church that Christ has instituted what authority and what delegation he has given to local congregations just like this one these keys that were handed to Peter the opening the binding and the loosing have not passed down by succession to Popes or to bishops or to presbyters there is a real authority that God has delegated to local bodies like this and Christ Jesus opens to us here his mind for how he would have his local churches to be organized.

I want to open this time of looking at these verses by putting this question to you a question for your consideration how do you answer why did Christ lay down his life. I want you to think about that there's different ways that you and I can answer that.

But why did Christ lay down his life. This is what the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 27. And answer to that question he says so that he this is the Lord Jesus might present the church to himself and splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish love.

This is why church discipline matters. This is why it matters that a body of believers like this who have covenanted to one another not make peace with sin in their own lives or even in the lives of these brothers and sisters that have been reconciled by Christ because Christ laid down his life not just so that you and I could be freed delivered from the penalty of sin but so that you and I might be delivered from the power of sin and by degrees in this life and its full consummation in life to come delivered even from the very presence of sin.

The holiness of Christ's body matters to him. The holiness of Christ's bride matters to him. And he declares I laid down my life so that my bride the church could be presented with splendor presented in holiness to myself without blemish.

Before we come into verses 15 through 20 proper if you have your Bible open look with me back up to the very beginning of chapter 18 and I want you to see the context what has been taking place up to this point.

The passage that we read a moment ago back in verse 2 of chapter 18 we see the disciples have come to Jesus and they've asked they've put this question to him who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus in response takes a child that's in their midst. The other gospel accounts tell us that he takes this child up into his arms where this child probably remains for the remainder of Jesus's teaching.

Here Jesus has this child very likely in his arms. And then in verses 3 4 Jesus begins to teach them that you and I must become like little children. In verses 5 through 6 he continues to teach us that you must take care of God's children to lead one of God's children astray it would be better to have a stone tied around your neck and thrown into the ocean because God fiercely loves his children.

In verses 7 through 9 Jesus is teaching us that it would be better to lose one member of your body and for your entire body to be cast into hell. He continues in verses 10 through 14 to show us how tenderly Jesus loves his sheep.

Not the way a shepherd would love a physical animal but Jesus description of how he loves and cares for his sheep is much more the way that a father loves for his children. If one goes astray out of 99 it's not a matter of indifference to Christ Jesus.

He says I will leave the 99 to go after that one animal because Christ's sheep are precious to him like children are precious to a father. You children in the room this morning boys and girls direct your attention up here at me.

If a child sends and a father loves his child what will that father do when his child sends. What's the father going to do. He's going to discipline his son. The scriptures tell us. And your own experiences can tell you that a father who loves his children will discipline his children.

Not out of indifference not out of frustration and anger. But a father who does not want to see sin consume and ruin his children's life will discipline his children. And this is how Jesus proceeds in verses 15 and 20.

He loves his children believers he takes and he calls them children. And here we are taught that because God loves his children he will discipline his children for their good. The doctrine. If I could summarize down these six verses the doctrine that I want you to see this morning is that Christ has commanded and equipped the local church to discipline her own members.

Christ has commanded. This is the first part of what we're going to see. Christ has four directions here in the first several verses. Every single one of them begins with the word if and it's followed by an imperative verb.

If this happens then you are to do this. And Christ could not speak with greater clarity here. And then in the latter part what we're going to see is three separate ways that Christ has further equipped his church to do what he commands here Christ has commanded and equipped the local church to discipline her own members.

To look with me if you would in your Bible. And our first heading I want to open up these four directions concerning discipline and local churches. This is the first thing that Christ gives us here in verses 15 through 17.

Private Confrontation and Reconciliation

Four directions concerning discipline and local churches. And the first is this. If your brother sins against you go and correct him privately. These are my words a summation of what Christ is teaching us in verse 15.

But if your brother sins against you you are to go and correct him privately. Listen to God's very word in verse 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. Now here's what we have in verse 15. We have four separate sections that we can divide verse 15 up into. Christ is giving us here firstly a condition if this happens and then he proceeds with a command marching orders from the king and the head of the church you are to do this.

Then he gives us a method how he would have us to do what he commands. And he concludes this first exhortation even with the reward. And if this happens here is your reward for the condition. Look with me in your own Bible and see Christ is saying if your brother sins against you notice who Jesus is speaking to here.

Jesus isn't speaking to the offending party. He's not saying something that is certainly true. When you and I offend somebody else by our sin we should own it. We should take responsibility for that. We should be the ones who go and seek for reconciliation.

But that's not who Jesus is speaking to. Jesus says when your brother when your sister when somebody sins against you this is the condition. And by this he's not referring to a judgment upon secret motives.

This is an actual transgression. Somebody has done something towards you that breaks the law of God. This isn't someone doing something completely innocent but you know you know you know that they had ulterior motives.

This is somebody breaking the commandment of God towards you. This might be somebody lying behind your back or slandering you before others. This may be something like as simple as forsaking the gathering of the Saints.

Or you've been reconciled into a body and Christ has commanded every one of you to lift up songs and hymns and spiritual songs for the edification of one another. And by their absence they are not doing fulfilling some of those duties of worship and fellowship that Christ has commanded them to.

This may be something as simple as them going out and living in their vocations like a wicked Gentile living in such a way that the Gentiles are reviling the church on their account. The people in their vocation look at a life unrestrained and indulging in sin and say they're a member of heritage.

Tulsa. This is how people at heritage live and are thereby bringing shame upon every member in this congregation. This is the condition the innocent party. Jesus speaks to them and says if your brother sins against you and then he follows it with the command.

Two imperative verbs. Here go and tell him his fault. This is an imperative. This is not a suggestion. This is not simply the wisdom of Christ Jesus for you and I to take and do what we will with. This is the head of the church saying this is how my household is to be arranged.

This is how the members of my household are to act. This is how the members in my body are to love one another and to bear with one another's burdens. If your brother sins against you you go and tell him his fault.

Notice again. Jesus isn't saying here be ready to forgive but Jesus is saying you go and take the responsibility to be reconciled with that brother and then notice how he continues to qualify this with the method that you and I are to use.

How specific Jesus is. How clear Jesus is with us. He says go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. John Calvin commenting on this passage says as the greater part of men are driven by ambition to publish with excessive eagerness the faults of their brethren.

Christ seasonably meets this fault by enjoining us to cover the faults of brethren as far as lies in our power. For those who take pleasure in the disgrace and infamy of brethren are unquestionably carried away by hatred and malice since if they were under the influence of charity they would endeavor to prevent the shame of their brethren.

Jesus is saying go and correct the one who has offended you but notice the manner the method that he is telling you and I must use. Go and do it privately in so far as it depends upon you. No one else needs to know about this.

This means every transgression that happens in the life of a church body like this one. The pastors don't need to know about everything. All of the members don't need to know about everything. But as you and I will stumble in many ways Christ says and seasonably meets this with a remedy that one another would go and privately correct these things we would bear with one another in love in this way.

And then Christ annexes at the end of verse 15 this reward if he listens to you you have gained your brother beloved. This is where church discipline normally ends. All of these verses are instructions for discipline in the household of God.

This is to the praise of Christ Jesus to the glory of God through Christ Jesus. This is where church discipline normally ends and nobody else ever knows about it. This is a mark of a healthy church when sin is dealt with like this in a manner that no one else needs to know about it.

A church that is marked constantly by the practice of church discipline and everything doesn't have to escalate to something that is public and in the sight of men in and outside the church. Christ is going to further prescribe that such times are necessary.

But it is a mark of a healthy church when the members are not afraid to go to one another like this when the members are not so infatuated with themselves that they avoid such confrontation but are willing and love to go even when the outcome is uncertain how that conversation will go if your brother sins against you.

This is Christ's first directive. Go and correct him privately. But what if he will not listen. This is the defense. The flesh is always ready to put up. But what if the person will not listen. And for this Christ continues.

Secondly if he does not listen take one or two others and go. This is in essence what Christ Jesus is saying. If he cannot be prevailed upon privately without anybody else having to know then you are to go and find one or two others and go back to him.

This is what he says in verse 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. Now here's what Jesus is doing.

Jesus is opening up that this is what justice requires. This is language reminiscent of Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with an offense that he is committed only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.

Jesus is opening up that this is what justice requires and that justice and proceeding according to this course is required in his household. But further Jesus is laying down this requirement as a protection against the offended party.

A man who is easily offended. A man who sees faults in everything and ulterior motives in everything who'd be ready to deputize himself as a one-man instrument of church discipline is here bound by Christ to go and to seek one or two others who will agree that there's any grounds to the charge at all.

The first remedy is for you and I to go and that the very first thing before we ever talk to anyone else would be go and talk to that person. But then Christ says thereafter if you cannot prevail upon them you go and open it to a smaller number as possible.

You find one or you find two other individuals and you go back to ensure that what your charge is actually is a valid charge. And you go with one or two others by whatever means to try to avail and win this brother back before he wanders completely away from the faith.

But still Jesus is not done here. What if he still will not listen. Would you just pause at this point and marvel at the clarity of Christ Jesus. Jesus was a wise teacher. He just didn't use big words and speak in such a way that we read his teaching and have no idea what he's talking about.

Jesus knew how to speak to ordinary people like you and me. And what he's doing here by repeating if he does not listen. If he does not listen. If he does not listen he is addressing and stripping out the rug beneath the feet of your and my lamest excuse.

What is the number one excuse that you and I use to not go to someone that we know we need to confront and talk to. Oh but I know that they're not gonna listen. I just know that when I go to them from my experiences in the past from the way that they're acting I can't go and confront them.

It would be pointless to do so because I know they're not gonna listen. Jesus repeats three times here. If they do not listen then do this. They do not listen. Then do this. If they do not listen then do this.

Listen to the patience of Christ Jesus. How much more long-suffering he is with people like you and me. Then we're ready to be with each other. Jesus says you've gone to him privately and he doesn't listen.

You've gone back to him with two others and he doesn't listen. And he repeats. If he does not listen then you rally the entire church to go. This is Christ's third directive. If still he will not listen and rally the entire church to go.

This we have in the first part of verse 17. If he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church. And by this telling to the church this is not simply a proclamation. This is not simply making the person sin known and then driving to the final action.

And we know that because of Christ's fourth direction he's gonna follow this up immediately with if he refuses to listen even to the church. The implication here is that the church is being informed in order to rally every member to go and to win this brother back.

This is how tenderly and how specifically Christ loves every single member in his local churches. You rally the entire church and you tell them go and gain your brother back. Boys and girls look up here at me again children discipline is good.

Discipline is painful in the moment. I'm sure experientially many of you can attest to that. Discipline is painful in the moment. But the fruits that it bear is for your good now for your good in the rest of this life and for all of the life to come.

Discipline is good. You young children in this room if you have a mother or a father that spanks you you are blessed be of above all of the children in this world have a mother and father that loves you enough to discipline you when you sin you are blessed above all the children in this world.

And today I would say to you thank your parents and thank God for giving you such parents who love you. And for this reason because you and I will stumble in many ways and right now your bodies are weaker than one day they will be right now your minds know less things than they one day will which means you are not able to cause the damage that one day you will have the strength and the intellect to cause.

And if your sin is not exposed and self-control is not taught to you now if simulated consequences don't teach you the evil and the destructiveness of sin now and you will grow up to experience real consequences of a far greater magnitude.

We all children and adults stumble in many ways and discipline a parent who will discipline his son or his daughter is a good thing. You covenant members who are here this morning especially you who are covenant members here at this local body at Heritage Tulsa you likewise are going to stumble in many ways.

You will stumble in many ways breaking God's law in your thoughts and in your words and in your deeds. But look around this room right now. Right now in this room you have a pastor who is giving watch over your soul who will stand before the Lord Jesus and give an account for how he watched over your soul.

Right now in this room you have brothers and sisters that you have covenanted to to fulfill the duties that Christ has given to you as church members towards one another. You have family in this room who is covenanted before the Lord Jesus that they will not sit idly by and watch sin destroy you.

We all sin in many ways here is a comfort for you. Church discipline isn't just a taboo doctrine that some are willing to practice and others are afraid to touch or to talk about church discipline is a blessing.

That you would belong to a body where you are loved enough by people to not just have them sit back and take the easier course while your soul is destroyed. You in this room this morning who are not members of a covenant body.

Maybe you're visiting this morning maybe you've been visiting here for a long time and you're not sure that you want to be a covenant member of a local body. Or that it's important I would say to you look at this passage as we work through it.

Look at these directions from the head of the church and take this for your reproof. Where are you when the church is rallied to go and gain this brother back. You who are content not to covenant yourself to a local body you are utterly left outside of all of these proceedings.

These are the commands of Christ. But they can they demand a context and condition that you and I would belong to such a body. This isn't a proclamation to the visible church all around the world to see and to rally and go find a believer.

This is something that takes place in congregations like this where one another is known and where one another has been walking and keeping each other accountable. Where a church body like this can be rallied to go and to gain a specific person back where pastors are giving watch over specific souls but they will stand before the throne of the Lord Jesus and give an account name by name by name.

Don't take these directions in a very broad and general sense these are directions to a local covenant body just like this one. And if you are content not to be a member and a covenant body not to covenant to one another your fulfillment of the duties that Christ Jesus is given.

And how in the world are you going to obey what Christ Jesus commands of his disciples. Here Jesus has given us three directions even to rallying the entire church to go but he's not done. His fourth and final direction follows.

But what if he still will not listen. And this is in essence how Jesus responds if he does not listen and remove him from the privileges of covenant membership. This is the final action. This is the final direction for someone who will not repent even under all of these remedies.

If he does not listen then remove him from the privileges of covenant membership. This is the second half of verse 17. And if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

In theological terminology Jesus is speaking here of ex communication excommunication. In Jonathan Edwards words this is a punishment executed in the name and according to the will of Christ whereby a person who hath heretofore enjoyed the privileges of a member of the visible church of Christ is cast out of the church and delivered unto Satan.

Now I just want to pause here before we proceed and I want to deal with some objections and some questions and cases of conscience. And the first objection that I imagine gets raised at this point Jesus is prescribing to teat to regard this man like a Gentile and tax collectors.

But did not Jesus eat with sinners and tax collectors. Wasn't this the slander that was brought against him the way that he regarded sinners and tax collectors. And in response Jesus is the one who is teaching here.

Jesus's point here is not to regard these people that will not repent the way the new covenant regards Gentiles and tax collectors. Jesus is admonishing that you and I are to regard them the way that Gentiles and tax collectors were regarded under the Old Covenant.

A Gentile was someone who was born outside of the Commonwealth of Israel. They were not the descendant of Abraham. They were not the descendants of promise. They were not entrusted with the Word of God in the worship of God.

They were someone who were outside of these privileges. And a tax collector was someone who was born inside the people of God. But a tax collector in the Jews eyes was someone who had so forsaken their birthright by aligning themselves with the enemies of God even the Romans to tax and extort the people of God that they were likewise to be regarded as those outside and removed from the covenant privileges.

And Jesus is saying here while the new covenant invites all to come while the new covenant is composed of Jew and Gentile and even those who have lived in the past such wicked lives even as the tax collectors as Matthew the one who pinned this down had Jesus is saying who you are to regard in that way as someone who professes the name of Christ Jesus but will not be called to repentance or bear fruit in keeping with their repentance.

Listen briefly to the testimony of Scripture. For how God says you and I are to regard those who will not be called to repentance. This is not an isolated interpretation of Matthew 18 something God repeats frequently in the scriptures how to regard those who will not be called to repentance.

And Romans 16 17 he says avoid them. 2nd Thessalonians 3 14 take note of that person and have nothing to do with him. Titus 3 10 have nothing more to do with them. 2nd John 10 do not receive him into your house.

Or 1st Corinthians 5 11 through 13. I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or an idolater reviler drunkard or swindler.

Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders. Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. It's a question.

What does it mean in 1st Corinthians 5. What we just read there we are not even to eat with such a one. Here's what I think the Apostle Paul means by that I think Paul is arguing not to the centrality of the issue but out to the very boundaries of how far you and I are to take this prescription of Christ Jesus under the holiness of the church.

It certainly includes church discipline and excommunication removal of somebody from the covenant privilege of coming and taking of the Lord's Supper in the communion of the Saints. I think Paul is arguing here all the way down to the dinner table and saying that when someone will not be called to repentance when they profess the name of the Lord but they refuse to act and to obey the Lord Jesus the new believers are not even to invite them into your homes.

And a context that would communicate everything's okay the way for the holiness of Christ and his church and for the good of this person who is living in self-deception and denial. But the only context in which we would have them seated around our dinner table is a context in which they are being called to repentance.

Question is excommunication. Then permanent is what Christ is prescribing this fourth direction permanent and an irreversible decision of the church. And the answer is no. The answer is no. The very hope of excommunication is repentance and restoration.

Listen to the words of 1st Corinthians 5 again in verse 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh for this reason so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.

Church discipline exists because the holiness of God's people matters to him. Church discipline exists because God loves his people and even this is an instrument by which he grants repentance. The very hope of excommunication putting someone out of the church is that this removal of the covenant privileges would sober them and wake them up to see what sin is ravaging in their life and that they might be brought to repentance thereby and reconciled back into the church.

Church discipline is not final and permanent. The very hope of it and the very hope in a body like this where someone would be put out is that they would be granted repentance and welcomed back into the arms of God's people.

Question. Must church discipline always proceed in this order. Christ is giving us here in chapter 18 four directions. He's very specific. He's very clear. Must church discipline always proceed in the order that we see in Matthew chapter 18.

And the answer is no. Where it can it must where you can go to your brother. And you can confront them alone to help them see their sin and call them to repentance privately without anybody else knowing about it.

You must proceed in that way. But when the sin is already public it's beyond concealing. And it's heinous to a degree that it's a high-handed offense before God. It is at times necessary to go straight to the final action of a church putting someone out of their covenant privileges.

And this is exactly the case that we see in first Corinthians 5. Question. Final question. In case of conscience what if a member of my family or my co-worker is the one who has been excommunicated. What if it's a member of my family or a member in my workplace a co-worker who has been thus executed.

How am I to interact with them then and here I would just quote Jonathan Edwards because I think he is exactly right. He says the excommunication doth not release children from the obligation of duty to their parents nor parents from parental affection and care toward their children nor husbands and wives released from their duties proper to their relation and so of all other less relations whether natural domestic or civil.

Edwards is saying what is emphatically true. You do not get to use one command in Scripture to nullify another command in Scripture. God does not contradict himself. You do not get to use these directions here to uproot and to throw away the fifth commandment and what is required in the fifth commandment which according to the very catechism that you use what is required in the fifth commandment is a showing of honor not just of children to their parents but every last one of us showing honor to those whom the Lord has appointed in positions of superiority over us.

Assume the Lord has appointed in positions of inferiority beneath us or even in our mutual relations as equals. God has commanded the fifth commandment. And you and I do not get to use church discipline instructions to undermine what God has instituted beloved.

Just see here before we proceed to how Christ has equipped the church. Would you just see here what a wise physician Christ Jesus is. Jesus is a wise physician where a mild medicine will do. Christ prescribes by degrees where no other remedy will prevail.

Christ is not afraid to go in with the scalpel and even to amputate when necessary a member of his visible body for the good of the rest. Just as we would respect a physician just as we would have no respect for a physician whose remedy for everything was to cut off a member of your body.

Nor respect for a physician who would only ever prescribe a mild medicine while he watched you die of something that could be resolved. So can we look at Christ and marvel at how wise he is and how tender he is in the care of his church where a mild remedy will do he prescribes him and where something a more severe action is required he loves his bride too fiercely to ignore you members again here at Heritage Tulsa just for your practical instruction everything that we are learning here.

These are not just tertiary theological points to keep in the back of your brain. If it has not already happened in the life of this body the day will most likely come when such proceedings will make their way all the way to the fourth directive when this body will be confronted with a difficult scenario in difficult times to deal with.

How do we love this body and obey Christ Jesus. And when that day comes I want you to remember how clearly Christ has spoken. He doesn't leave you and I to our own devices to try to figure out how to best secure unity in the bond of peace.

But he has spoken clearly as the one who is infinitely and eternally wise that you and I might receive and rest upon his wisdom and proceed with this lamp for our feet and this light for our path even when we are uncertain how it is all going to turn out.

Christ is the one who has given us these directives. And wherever you sit here right now and you're provoked in your flesh your conscience is stirred up this morning because you know that someone has sinned against you and you are waiting and long past waiting them to come and seek forgiveness from you and take this take this with resolve today that wherever there is lacking and delayed obedience you will take it up to the glory of Christ Jesus and go and reconcile with that person today.

For those of you in this room you members of heritage and all others beside very likely the day is going to come when many of you according to the providence of God are uprooted from this city and taken away for whatever reason and planted somewhere else.

And should the Lord do that in your life whether near or far in the future. Remember what we learn in these verses. Make no peace covenanting to a body that is too loving or too welcoming or too concerned with peace to love and oversee your soul in this way to belong to a body where sin is not dealt with and members do not love one another enough to confront them in this way.

Make no peace covenant to such a body but labor to find a place that will do and delight to do what Christ commands here this much for the directions the four directions that Christ has given to his bride the church.

Christ's Authority, the Father's Power, and His Presence with the Church

And now more quickly I want to show you in these last three verses three ways that Christ has equipped local churches to discipline. This is who Christ is speaking to. He's speaking to local churches and here he opens up for our comfort and for our consolation.

Three ways that he himself has equipped the local church to engage in this discipline just to bring you up to the highest level for context and understanding how verses 18 19 and 20 relate to what came before this.