June 10, 2018 What To Fear No Discipline by Pastor Josh Sheldon

I'll keep your finger there in Matthew 18.

Al Jackson is a Southern Baptist pastor, a well -known theologian, and in an article that he wrote for Nine Marks, he wonders how meaningless church membership has harmed the church, has harmed particularly that convention called the

Southern Baptist Convention. And the assumption in that question is that there is a membership that is meaningless.

And it is, in his estimation, a rampant thing. He complains that many people are members of the

Southern Baptist Convention, but for most of them, it ends up making no difference in their lives.

The great problem, he goes on to say, is that being kept on the rolls as a member, while having no particular participation in that membership, leaves too many with, very dangerously, a false sense of security in their salvation.

Almost in the sense of a Roman Catholic doctrine, whereby being a member of the church, you're automatically saved.

Now that's not what they preach, that's not what they teach, of course. But it becomes like that, it's being kept on the rolls, attending regularly, calling yourself a member of the church, and yet it makes no ultimate or final or daily difference.

You know, there's a two -way street here, and both directions on this street lead away from the biblical model of the church's and its members' roles.

If I could call that street something, I think I would call it Failure Boulevard. The church has failed to practice its

God -given mandate of discipline, which as many of you heard when John read from chapter 18 of Matthew, that's what that section is about.

And the individual member has failed to place himself or herself under that church authority, which is by Jesus then commissioned to exercise discipline amongst all the members.

Now by this we do not mean that someone lords it over the rest of you. For example, the one who stands up here on the dais and preaches to you, all of us together are under this one umbrella.

And it's a doctrine, it's a practice, it's an uncomfortable thing that has fallen by the wayside too much, and that's what

Al Jackson is bemoaning here. That membership and all that comes with it is being left on the wayside because it makes us uncomfortable, it takes away my rights, it makes me cringe to think that you are going to say

I'm less independent than I care to be. The church has had a great failure here.

And this failure, as Jackson well points out in this article that I read, it harms almost everything that the church stands for, and it leaves some assured that they are saved when they are not, and those who are saved are marking time in their march towards the image of Christ because of what's being left behind.

It's discipline. The word alone can cause these severe reactions. I say the church is going to practice discipline.

Some people respond to that like people who have allergies to bees or peanut allergies which are both severe things to have, and they hear this word and they swell up and they start to sweat and froth at the mouth, their face turns red, their breath becomes strained, they hold back their rage.

Discipline. It makes strong men quake and humble women suddenly find their independence gene.

Because who are you to tell me what I'm supposed to do? Discipline striking fear into the hearts of men.

You can't judge me. This is none of your business. You have no right. Well the answer is, and we will get to this in the scriptures.

Yes we do. Not I, because I'm the pastor, yes we do.

The church has the right. The church has the mandate. We could say the church has the privilege by the authority of Jesus Christ himself.

With the keys he gives the church, we must obey his word and practice everything that he tells the church we must do.

It is not a fearful, it is not a burdensome thing to follow the ways of the Lord. It is for our good.

It is hard, but it is not fearful. It is difficult. But if it comes from our

Lord Jesus Christ, from his very lips, can we not just assume it must be for our good?

It must be for our good because what is it ultimately for? His glory. Too few churches practice biblical discipline.

It's not just myself as your local pastor, not just Al Jackson, the Southern Baptist theologian.

John MacArthur bemoans this as well. Let me read to you a quote from him.

In a day when commitment is a rare commodity, it should come as no surprise that church membership is at such a low priority to so many believers.

To neglect or to refuse to join a church as a formal member reflects a misunderstanding of the believer's responsibility to the body of Christ.

He goes on, to become a member of a church is to formally commit oneself to an identifiable local body of believers who have joined together for divinely ordained purposes, including instruction from God's word, serving and edifying one another, participating in the ordinances and of course the ordinances are what?

We have two, baptism, your initiatory right into salvation as the church confirms your testimony, baptizes you, raises you up in newness of life, that whole ordinance, that whole practice that we have, affirming your testimony and bringing you into the body of Christ the church.

MacArthur, his divinely ordained purposes including instruction from God's word, serving and edifying one another, participating in the ordinances, stop there again, what's the other ordinance?

The Lord's table and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost and he then shows that even without the word membership, the idea of membership permeates the

New Testament. Now I'm not arguing this morning any more than I did last week to force anyone into membership.

Your conscience is between you and God, but conscience must be held suspect even by the conscience owner.

The word of God must be that constraint by which we force our conscience into the mold that the scriptures present.

I am arguing that the keys to the kingdom were given to the church and that it is by membership that one enters into that society where those keys are deployed.

We fear much about joining a church, about committing ourselves to a local body of believers.

We fear that perhaps we will be placed under this discipline by some sanctimonious overzealous pastor or body of believers who's going to be nosy and break into my life and try to learn all my secrets and for every little lack of compliance

I'm going to be brought before the church and humiliated, disciplined. None of that could be further from the truth.

But rather than fear those things, and I call them false fears, rather than fear those things, fear being in a place that ignores this crucial building block which

Jesus Christ gives us for your good, for my good, for all of our good.

Christ Jesus himself gives this to the church. It's part and parcel with the keys to the kingdom.

Fear rather than your privacy being intruded, fear being in a place that doesn't care enough about you, that doesn't love enough of you, doesn't love you enough, excuse me, to do this, to practice this which again,

I say again, I say again and again from Jesus Christ himself is for our good.

No, fear being a place that ignores this, that doesn't care about your sanctification.

Fear rather than you being intruded upon, fear being in a place that has left the keys locked away in some dusty dresser, stored up in some far away storage locker.

So our passage this morning is Matthew 18, 15 through 20, otherwise known as the Lord's Teaching on Church Discipline.

This is the second of a short three -part series on this subject of membership and why do we here with most

Reformed churches, if not all, hold this to be a high and lofty doctrine, an assumption of the apostles.

John MacArthur said it permeates everything in the New Testament. Last week I said it was assumed by the apostles.

We're saying really basically the same thing. And so this three -part series, last week on chapter 16, 13 through 20,

John read you that passage again just to remind you of it. The keys to the kingdom given to Peter, well not just to Peter the man, it doesn't go from Peter to a man to a man to a man, we know that, to the church.

This morning, that aspect of the keys that looses, and we're going to speak about that this afternoon in the afternoon service before we take up the

Lord's Table. Next week, God willing, from Matthew 28, again

Jesus' presence with his people, tying all these three together, 16, 18, 28, the binding aspect of those keys, the opening of the door, the bringing in this morning, the context, what we're going to speak about is church discipline, but the overall context has to do with something a little different.

It's about sin. It's about sin. Sin's ugliness in God's eyes, beyond our ability to picture or even imagine.

And before our Lord delves into these few verses on church discipline, before that, he speaks about sin.

In Matthew 18, verses 1 through 6, it's about those whose view of sin is so light that they would actually entice others to sin.

Whoever receives one child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened about his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

That's a horrible way to die, but Jesus is saying, rather than face God having behaved like that with one of these little ones, rather than go to God with that on your docket, you'd be better off this other way.

In verses 7 through 9, we find that cutting off body parts is better than to engage in the sin that those body parts would help us to delve into.

Verses 10 through 14 is the parable of the lost sheep, that one of the hundred who wanders off and the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes and finds that one.

And what has that one wandered off into? The pastors of sin.

Understand what is leading up to this section that we commonly call church discipline. Understand how severe this teaching is about the sin that leads up to all this.

What we have here is Jesus' view towards the sin that so instantly entangles us, his demand upon us for how we must view sin and how we must respond to it.

Now this morning it is not my intent to speak to you about how we do church discipline. There's a variety of positions on just how this is supposed to work.

Is the sin that brings confrontation sin in general or is it sin against me personally? Does telling it to the church mean telling it to the elders of the church or is it telling it to the assembly of the church?

Is the unrepentant sinner even allowed to be on the premises? There's all kinds of questions here and I'm not going to sort through all that this morning.

Rather than that, I want us to see that these verses, Matthew 18, 15 through 20, give us a clear, concise instruction.

And here's where we're going to focus this morning, which is on the church. If you have questions about how we here at Providence Bible Church practice discipline, we can discuss that later.

And for now, as I read these verses again, and I'm going to read them very quickly, 18, 15 through 20,

I want you to listen to how this clearly links to last week's message. Matthew 16, 13 to 20.

John just read that to you. In Matthew 16, we had one of three references to the church.

And here in Matthew 18, we have the other two. And as I read this again quickly, listen especially to verse 18, where binding and loosing are mentioned again in 18 from chapter 16.

Verse 18, Jesus says 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 will 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 or a tax collector. Verse 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.

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.

So again, binding and loosing, the same terminology we had in chapter 16, verses 13 through 20.

And while in chapter 18 keys are not specifically mentioned, the binding and that loosing that Jesus speaks of clearly ties the two together.

Think of it this way. Binding and loosing is a matter of sin and repentance therefrom. Christians are responsible to take part in this process of binding and loosing.

And the authorization to bind and to loose is inherent in the keys which open and close what?

The doors. The doors to what? Jesus said it clearly when he gave the keys to Peter and threw

Peter to the church, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven.

Let these words, as Jesus says in another place, sink into your ears. The keys are possessed by the body politik, the church body politik, meaning you, the assembled members.

The church is the stage on which the kingdom of heaven is displayed on earth. So the keys to the kingdom are the means by which sin is dealt with.

The keys to the kingdom are the means by which we in the church deal with sin. And we're speaking here of the sin that continues to plague us even after conversion, even after we've been bathed by the blood of Christ and forgiven our sins.

And do we not all fall into sin daily, constantly?

And praise God that we have a verse, a promise like 1 John 1 .9, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Catholic errors notwithstanding, the church body, the local, discreet, physical, independent body of believers holds those keys.

And as we said last week, their use is not an option. It is not an option whether or not we will use those keys to bind and to loose because binding and loosing is a grave responsibility.

The weight of which is easy to see just in the surrounding context of Matthew 18. Our duty as Christians is to exercise our divinely granted authority through membership in the church, through membership in the church.

I need to delve off for a second here, just for a second. I was misunderstood last week and as I listened to my message again and double checked my notes and made sure

I read them the way I had written them down, I did not say, if you don't join the church formally you must go and we're going to exit you, we're going to open that door, we're going to use that key and boot you out.

That is not what I said, that is not what I meant, that is not what I mean. And yet, this duty, this authority that Christ gives to the church, that Christ grants to the church, that Christ insists that the church perform and execute, this duty that is inherent in those keys, that binding, that loosing, is not an option.

You don't get to take or leave it. I don't get to take or leave it. Whether it's hard for us or easier for us, whether we enjoy it or not, it makes no difference at all.

Christ, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is the one who gives us this command.

They were not given to a man, these keys were not given to church leadership, they were given to, not given to the

Pope, they were given to ordinary, everyday, run -of -the -mill Christians like you and me, and this is key, no pun intended, this is key.

The exercises of these responsibilities that is represented by the keys are meant to be and can only be exercised by the body politic, by which

I just mean the church members in this local, discreet, physical place.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus spoke of being a light on the hill that shines with the good deeds of the Father, where the

Lord speaks of us being perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Here in Matthew 18, he tells us really what that looks like.

It looks like churches populated by Christians who are concerned for each other in the way that God is concerned, and concerned with each other for the things that concern

God. Am I elevating the importance of this for you? I pray

God I am. My purpose is not to explain, again, how we, disciplines to be administered,

I want you to come away with the certainty that your God -given duty as a Christian can only be executed within the confines of membership in the church.

Your God -given duty can only be exercised that way. If your brother sins against you, temptations to sin will come, that's verse 7.

So we can be sure that sin will affect us in at least a couple of ways. On the one hand, you or I, wittingly or unwittingly, will be the purveyor of sin to a brother or sister in the

Lord. That's one way. On the other hand, you or I could well be the recipient of the same.

These two words in Matthew 18, 15, against you, are most likely not even really original.

Jesus just said, when your brother sins. But when Peter responded, he understood it to be personal.

18, 21, he asks the Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me?

And that's the way Jesus answers that question. So it seems best to me to take the

Lord's word with at least both meanings. Let's assume Jesus meant sin generally.

If your brother sins when a brother or sister has behaved in a way that implicitly denies their gospel profession, then the keys of the kingdom of heaven are brought to bear.

If the sin is more personal, as Peter assumed and the Lord answered, he made no correction when

Peter said against me, the same process unfolds. In either case, what's that issue here?

Sin. Sin. The whole surrounding context in Matthew 18 is about sin.

In either case, Christ's words here in Matthew 18, 15 -20 apply. So you see, with conversion to Christ comes responsibility.

When you say, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I am a Christian, I am a disciple, I am a follower, well we all say, hallelujah, praise

God, his spirit has worked to bring another sinner to repentance. God's spirit has changed a heart and granted faith so that one could repent.

We would all say with you, hallelujah. And after a time when you can think again, when your mind comes back, when the joy and the sheer childlike happiness brings you back down to earth for a little bit, we have to tell you that with that conversion comes responsibility.

You become responsible to serve God by worshiping him in company with his people. You know, tonight when you get home, read the first 12 chapters of the book of Exodus and take note how often service to God, let my people go that they may serve me, told

Moses this will be a sign to you, on this mountain you will worship me, not Moses alone, the you is plural, that's the nation.

See how often in those first 12 chapters, service to God is corporate worship of him.

And keep reading and read on and on and on and see how the nation as a whole takes mutual responsibility for this worship.

Jesus said the great command, excuse me, is to love your neighbor as yourself.

The apostles Paul and James both said that that imperative satisfies what? The entire law.

Now love your neighbor as yourself is from Leviticus 19. Chapter 19 verse 19.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself but two verses before that and part of really the same paragraph, it says you shall not hate your brother in your heart but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him.

You shall surely rebuke your neighbor slash brother for their sin and not bring sin upon yourself for failing that and Jesus says what that means is to love your neighbor as yourself and what the

Lord Jesus Christ says is this is the other great command. What's the great command?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And Jesus goes on, he doesn't say number two, understand, he doesn't say secondary to that or slightly less important to that.

He says the other is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Who's meant by brother?

Who's meant by brother? It cannot have meant then an Amorite or a Philistine. They were uncircumcised pagans.

They weren't in Egypt nor were they at Sinai. They weren't in Egypt to be redeemed and they weren't at Sinai to hear the law.

They hadn't seen the mighty acts of Yahweh though they were about to when Joshua brought the people into their land.

Brother in Leviticus 19 .19 meant a fellow citizen.

It meant a man or a woman who had been redeemed from Egypt by the same great act of God.

It meant a fellow confessor who said with all Israel, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

And with loving concern for each other and a keen eye on God's honor, we'll help each other along.

Brethren, it is no different for the church. They, Israel, redeemed from Egypt.

We, church, redeemed from this present evil age. They, Israel, redeemed out of bondage, out of slavery to men.

We, church, redeemed out of bondage, out of slavery to sin. That's all of Romans 6.

They, Israel, by God's mighty arm sending plagues down upon Egypt until their captors had no strength left to hold them.

We, by God sending plagues down upon Christ Jesus until He had absorbed in Himself as He hung on the tree the penalty for our sin.

But the same God who by His mighty arm drew Israel out of Egypt drew us out of sin.

They, Israel, with a code of conduct from Mount Sinai. We, church, with a code of conduct from the

Mount where Jesus stood. A brother is what? A brother is, of course, a

Christian. But to inquire a little further, let's say you have, as many of us do, a friend in the faith who goes to another church.

Let's say further, he is, as we are Baptists, that friend is a Presbyterian. And we as Reformed and Baptist believers, we would have many points of contact with their doctrines, especially in soteriology and what we call monergism, that God alone saves, that we put no part of ourselves into the transaction.

He and He alone. We have many points of contact. But there's also points of disjunction.

For the Presbyterian to not baptize a baby by sprinkling would be a chargeable offense. For us, it's the opposite.

We would charge one with sin if they did it. We say it's wrong. Baptism is not the new circumcision.

They say, no, it most certainly is. And as Abraham circumcised his household, so we will baptize ours.

Who is the brother in Matthew 18 .15 then? It's a fellow believer committed and joined together in a body of believers in mutual accord and responsibility.

It is a local assembly whose doctrines and practices have been set forth and agreed to. The brother is a fellow church member.

You have taken responsibility for him and he for you.

And I use he here in the most generic sense. He slash she. You've taken responsibility for him or her and he or she has done so for you in this local discreet body.

This is what it means to use the keys for binding and loosing. Remember, it's not optional. Jesus didn't spend so much time on sin and what to do about it for nothing or so that he might be ignored.

And we don't as individuals have these keys to this kingdom that he insists we use. Only Jesus has sole ownership of the keys.

Only Jesus acts alone and independently. Not us. We do act.

And we must act upon this. In accord with what the Lord gives us. But for us,

I cannot make decisions the way Jesus can. Of course, neither can you. And many counselors said,

Solomon, there is safety. It's exactly how we operate this thing here. Last week when we covered

Peter's confession and Christ's first mention of the keys in Matthew 16, we pointed out how it was a more important moment in the sweep of biblical history than we often think.

And now here in Matthew 18 and 15 through 20, we have the same issue. Too many churches treat all this as a relic from a world so ancient as to be almost alien to us.

They fear seeming judgmental. Something that today is especially despised.

Especially by judgmental people, if you think about it. They fear making people feel badly about themselves, harming their self -esteem and that sort of thing.

Too many churches, too many people avoid churches that take Jesus at his word here. They fear being the object of a judgmental spirit.

They fear joining a church that's legalistic, like a bunch of holy fruit inspectors, examining you closely for any blemish and any bruise and then calling you on the carpet publicly, embarrassing you.

I think it's often the case that these are just defense mechanisms, intentionally exaggerated so as to justify our conclusion to not follow what the

Lord says here. Because it makes me uncomfortable. Because I don't think it's right for me.

Because I don't see this word in the New Testament at all, those sorts of things. But let me tell you, even if all these fears were true, even if they were, there is something more to be feared than these things that I think get conjured up.

There is something more to be feared, more to fear is being cast adrift. More to fear is to be that one sheep that left the hundred and went off and you have a shepherd, small s, not

Christ Jesus, but the under shepherd that he has delegated this responsibility to, who says, I will not go after them.

I've got 99, that's good enough for me. I'm not going to care about that one off in the land of sin, off eating from that bad pasture.

Fear that more than these other things that we build up, that we manufacture, really.

Fear being in a place that has so little concern for you that they don't care about your sin.

They will not try and point it out to you. They will not take it seriously and plead with the

Lord and with you for your restoration. Fear that. More to be feared than these ideas that you may be in a judgmental or legalistic church.

More to be feared than that is to be in a position where you're not even accountable. Just come and go as you please, live your life as you will.

The same thing Al Jackson, the Southern Baptist theologian bemoans. Fear being in a place that cares not enough about the

Lord's Word to care enough about you to follow what the

Lord's Word is for us. Fear that. Fear this, that if you should sin, and Solomon said there is no one who does not sin, if you should sin, and 1

John 1 .9 says that we need Christ's forgiveness fairly regularly, do we not?

Fear that if you are not part of this body, and I don't mean this one body, I mean the local body, a church that practices this and takes these words seriously and follows

Jesus and takes Him at His word, and you should fall off and you should be in that wrong pasture, you should be that one sheep that has wandered off.

You should be that one who needs to cut off your right hand because it has led you into sin, gouge out your right eye because it has led you into sin.

Fear that if you are not accountable and in this body the way Jesus would have you to be, the only one who can get you back on track is you.

You've taken yourself from without the authority of the church and the care and the loving concern that Jesus gives the church.

This gentle persuasion to come back to repent of the sin that we will show you, that maybe one on one someone will show you your fault and bring you back into the fold.

Not to stand you up here and make you confess all your sins and embarrass you, but to restore you to the image of Christ, to bring you back to the good pasture

He sets before us all. Fear being in a place that would say, well, it's up to you and let's see how that works out for you.

Go in peace and we'd like to see you again on Sunday. Don't forget to tithe, but doesn't give a hoot about the sin that's got you entangled and wrapped up and is drawing you away from the image of Christ and not towards it as we all together bring one another.

Fear that. God often speaks of His people as sheep.

It's a metaphor that Jesus especially liked. In John chapter 10, it's all about Him as our good shepherd.

And it's in John chapter 10 when Jesus says that, it's one of the evangelists I am statements that are throughout the book of John.

These are very profound. Jesus said before Abraham was, I am. Jesus said,

I am the light of the world. The Lord said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me because I am, He said, the way and so forth.

The Lord said, I am the living bread. In John chapter 10,

I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd.

Do not fear joining a church that practices how Jesus says to recover the lost sinner. Fear joining a church that does not.

Fear joining a church whose pastor fears to preach the whole counsel of God. Fear a pastor who has no semblance to the good shepherd.

The one who takes after that one misguided sheep. More to be feared than the possibility that the keys will be used to open the exit door is that they won't be used at all.

Fear that, outside formal commitment to a local body, you are outside the scope of how

Jesus Christ says to confront sin. Yours and others.

We fear being the target of this accusation. It's not an accusation and you're not a target and neither am

I. It's a together, a corporate, a body politic, loving concern for one another and fealty, loyalty, faithfulness to Christ's word that drives us.

I say again, fear that you might be in a church that does not care enough about you or Jesus to follow this word.

The keys must be used. The keys must be executed into the authority and the function that Jesus Christ gives them.

You cannot help us use the keys to dismiss someone who refuses to acknowledge and repent of their sin without these keys.

You cannot take part in hearing their repentance when the Lord works to convict them and brings them back.

I've told the story before, I'll tell you again very, very quickly. When Tom Jaton, Conley Owens and I were on a missionary trip in the

Philippines back in 2013, we had the privilege, we had the unbelievable honor.

This thing was just jaw -droppingly awesome. As one of the churches I preached at, we stayed for the communion service and after the communion service, a man came back and he was giving testimony to the church.

And as it was translated, I don't speak Tagalog at all. What it was, was a man who had been put out of the church.

The keys of the kingdom had been used for the exit door because sin had been established, sin would not be repented.

They say, you need to go, tax collector or a pagan is how we will treat you.

And what we had this unbelievable blessing of seeing was 20 years later that very day when

I preached their communion service for them, we had taken the table, we had taken the elements and that man stood and what I found out he was doing was repenting of his sin.

20 years after the church came together with tears and found him unrepentant of established sin and put him out, fear being in a church that has not that kind of courage.

Fear being in a place that has not that kind of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to your benefit.

Solomon wisely said in many counselors there is safety, the many are you. I've always had a strong confidence in the collective wisdom of the church body.

The safety is in our collaboration, our mutual efforts to guide this onto smooth waters and protected harbors.

To keep us from excesses, to hear the testimony of the one or two witnesses. To deliberate together as a body politic, that term

I keep using, this is just us together, that's all it means. And deliberate and say, yes, that was a sin and no, we haven't heard repentance or no, that's not the sort of thing that we should put someone out for.

Whatever the case is, you're the safety net. We together, the many counselors in whom we find this safety.

In Matthew 16 verses 13 through 20, last week's passage, the keys to the kingdom of heaven, the church, and the kingdom of God are all intertwined together.

And now we can add something from Matthew 18, 15 through 20. Did you notice this? At the end of that little passage,

Jesus says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

There am I among them. In John chapter one, do you remember when

Nathanael met him? Jesus said to you, you will see greater things than this.

You will see the angels descending and ascending on the son of man, meaning himself.

Christ Jesus is that bridge by which heaven and earth are united. It's by his presence, there

I am among them. It's by his presence, by our adherence to his word, and by the safety of many counselors that what we bind here on earth, we can be confident is bound in heaven.

Jesus, there I am among them, that bridge, angels descending and ascending upon him, our deliberation, our loosing, our binding, because of him and his presence bound in heaven.

As what we do together, the safety and counselors for your good, for Christ's honor, is then agreed with in both places, heaven and on earth, because Christ Jesus is that bridge between the two.

That's why we are confident that what is bound here is bound in heaven, what is loosed here is loosed in heaven.

Verses 19 through 20 cap this whole thing off. Jesus says, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

That terminology again from chapter 16, and whatever you loose on earth will 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, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am

I among them. And just a few observations on this, I know I already gave you some of this, but just a few observations and we're done.

First is that binding and loosing, just as in chapter 16, verse 19, they're paired with the agreement of heaven and earth.

And now we add that our Father in heaven will do this for us. God the

Father, directly and personally involved, just as in Matthew 16, where Peter said, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my

Father in heaven. God the Father, directly to Peter, God the

Father agreeing with us. Again, to borrow

Jesus' words, let this sink down into our ears, what this means. The Father, doing these things for us, not at our beck and call, of course, but we must note that as it was the

Father who revealed to Peter this bedrock truth of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, so he here remains involved with us, as though he were personally concerned, as I believe he is, with the proceedings that Jesus gives the church.

And note also, note also just how it is that earth is founded by Jesus, and we are bound to be in line with heaven.

More than just heaven, with God the Father himself, it's because Jesus is now in heaven. Jesus now in heaven, his spirit here with us on earth as we gather in his name, and by his spirit, by our submission and obedience to him, we find the authority of God the

Father binding and loosing in coordination with us. With you and me?

Yeah, in a way, yes, but more importantly with his Son, whose presence here ensures and ensures agreement there.

Matthew 18, 15 through 20, it tells us how to loose on earth that conduct which is not in accord with heaven.

It tells us how to exercise the keys that Jesus gives us. In that case, it seems negative, and I have to admit, it sort of is, because we're going to open the exit door with that key and loose.

But there is also, in that same context, in Jesus' own words, through rebinding, if you will, upon repentance, we open that door again with the keys of the kingdom that he gives us.

There are many people today who fear to enter a church that takes all this so seriously.

And to take it seriously does not mean that every day we're looking for someone to bring under the auspices of church discipline.

That's not what it means at all. This is unpopular.

This is hard teaching. As Jesus said in John 6, 67, after his hard teaching, he turned to the disciples, do you also want to leave?

Many people today fear this. I say again, fear not this.

Fear being in a place that doesn't love you or the Lord who saved you enough to bring all this to bear.

Amen. Our Lord God, thank you again for this day and for this word that you've given us for the wondrous grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ who gives us such a loving thing as this and binds us together in him.

As he prayed in John 17, he is in you, we are in him, so we,

Father, as we are in Christ Jesus are in you. We pray, Lord, that you would just be with us and all these things that you would,

Lord, guide and direct us and be pleased with the way we do all things here in this church and receive much honor and glory in this place.