Biblical Church Discipline, Part Nine

Matthew 18:15-20

This is part nine and the last message in our series on Biblical Church Discipline. I realize that this topic of church discipline has been a little controversial, so after New Years we will move ahead into chapter six of 1 Corinthians and tackle the topic of sexual purity! J  We left off in Matthew 18 which details the most extreme form of church discipline called excommunication. This passage is very similar to where we began in 1 Corinthians 5 where Paul commands the church in Corinth to expel the wicked man from among you because he refused to repent of a gross sin of sexual immorality. We could have stopped there and pulled out a principle like this: If a Christian won’t repent, kick the bum out of church. At one level, that would be an accurate interpretation of 1 Cor. 5 and Matt. 18. That is what these two passages are about: removing the unrepentant sinner from church fellowship. In fact, that is what this morning’s message is about—if a Christian won’t repent, kick him out of church, but by itself it is an incomplete picture. That is why I preached eight sermons about church discipline before we arrived at the final step of excommunication. We have laid the foundation of Biblical church discipline that is rooted in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Fifty percent of Scripture is formative—teaching and training in righteousness, and fifty percent is corrective—rebuking and correcting. If we ignore either the formative or correctives uses of Scripture then we are greatly imbalanced. This is the essence of Christian discipleship and the foundation of a healthy church.

As much as we would like to avoid it, and as much as I have avoided it for the first eight messages, there does come a time when the corrective use of Scripture will lead to the final step of church discipline—removing the unrepentant sinner. With the first eight messages as background, let’s move forward into this difficult topic. Jesus clearly laid out the steps in Matthew 18. Step One: ^15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. Step one is loving, corrective church discipline and we pray that most times we practice this it will have the positive result that Jesus states—he will listen to you and you have won over your brother. But if this first step does not lead to repentance, then Jesus gave us Step Two: ^16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ And if step two does not lead to repentance, you move to Step Three: ^17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; If this public pronouncement is not effective, the fourth and final step of excommunication is necessary: and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

The key to this whole process occurs at step two. Do you remember why two or three witnesses are necessary for step two? If you recall from last time, Jesus was directly quoting from Deuteronomy 19, which established the O.T. judicial principle of requiring two or three witnesses to convict someone of an offense. Do you see why Jesus specifically used binding legal type language? Because a final decision of excommunication is a binding decision by the church. Verse 17 lays the groundwork for vv. 18-20. ^18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. If you are not careful you might think that Jesus decided to radically change subjects in v. 18 when he started talking about binding and loosing. The binding and loosing means that the church’s decision to excommunicate the unrepentant person would be a binding agreement in the eyes of God. This is exactly what vv. 19-20 means. ^19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ^20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” The two or three people who are in agreement through prayer are the same two or three people who served as witnesses in v. 17. Jesus said that if these two or three people come together in prayer, he would be present with them—that is, his authority would rest upon them.

Understanding this divine authority takes the step of excommunication to a whole new level. It is not merely a matter of a few men in the good-ol-boys club deciding to kick someone out of their club. This is an intensely spiritual issue with spiritually binding authority from Jesus himself. This is why it is not to be taken lightly. This is why it has taken me a full eight messages to get to this point. It is serious business.

Let me point out a common objection that is raised at this point. Jesus said that the end result is that we treat this unrepentant person like a pagan or a tax collector. Many have objected to excommunication by saying, “Well how do you treat a pagan or a tax collector? We are supposed to love them, right?” Yes, of course we are supposed to love them, but that does not mean that we don’t remove them from the church membership. Think about it from the perspective of a pagan or a tax collector in the first century. If you were a worshipper of one of the Greek or Roman gods, would you assume that you had any association with Christianity? Of course not, because paganism and Christianity were and are at odds with one another. A first century pagan would never assume that he was part of the Christian church and a first century Christian would look upon a pagan as someone outside of the church in need of repentance and salvation. That same Christian should show love to the pagan share truth with the pagan, but he would never assume they were of one heart together. If the last step of church discipline only means that we must forgive the person and shower love upon them, even though they are unrepentant, then what was the purpose of the whole process in the first place? To treat someone as a pagan or a tax collector means that we recognize that they are outside of the church fellowship and are in need of repentance before they can return to full fellowship.

I want to summarize several principles that relate to Matthew 18 and the larger Biblical picture of corrective church discipline leading to excommunication.

1. Follow all commands for rigorous self-examination first. This cannot be emphasized enough. If rigorous self-examination is necessary at the most basis level of formative and corrective church discipline, how much more necessary is it when Christians enter into the possibility of removing a brother or sister in Christ from their fellowship. One of the most dangerous things a Christian can ever do is to look outward before looking inward. In Isaiah 57 the Lord said, “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.” You cannot help another person see their own spiritual bankruptcy until you first see your own.

2. The motivation must always be love. This goes hand in hand with the first principle. If you discover that you hold any malice or any desire for revenge toward the person you are confronting, then you must remove yourself from the process immediately. Your motivation is love for the person but also an equal love for God’s truth and his glory. If you love God and you love your brother, you will want to help restore him to the God that you worship.

3. The main purpose of excommunication is purity of the church. In 1 Co 5:6 Paul wrote, Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Paul was referring to the man who had been sleeping with his father’s wife. The church in Corinth had not only refused to confront this man, but they were somehow boasting about it. Paul used this Jewish principle of the unleavened bread of Passover to remind the church that sin is to the church as leaven is to dough—it quickly and completely penetrates the whole thing. Jesus said the same thing to the disci0les when he warned them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Here is a piece of bread. Now who thinks they can remove the yeast from this bread? It’s too late, isn’t it? Paul commanded the believers in Corinth to “get rid of the old yeast.” This is another way of saying what Paul said a few verses later: “expel the wicked man from among you.” If such a man is unrepentant, the only recourse is to get rid of the yeast of sin before it penetrates and effects the entire church.

4. The secondary purpose of excommunication is complete restoration of the individual back into full fellowship with the Lord and with the church. Paul and Jesus both hold out hope that an unrepentant sinner will one day repent. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, we should never cease to stand at the gate and wait for the prodigal to return. And then when they do return, that is a cause for celebration. What do the angels do when one sinner repents? Jesus said that the angels celebrate when even one sinner repents. Angels have never experienced what it is like to repent and be redeemed, yet they celebrate it. How much more should we celebrate when one of our own repents? And I don’t mean that we should only celebrate when a formerly excommunicated person repents, though that is great cause for celebration, but if repentance is one of the driving forces in our Christian growth, then we should celebrate repentance at all levels at all times. When our children repent of their sins, we should celebrate that. I don’t mean that we need to have a cake and ice cream every time your child repents. If we did that our kids would be ceaselessly repenting for all the wrong reasons! But let’s say one of your children apologizes to you or to a sibling and you can tell they are sincere, why don’t we say something like this: “Billy, I know that may have been hard for you to apologize, but God is pleased when you repent like that. Angels rejoice in heaven when we repent of our sin and draw closer to Jesus. I had someone tell me that they were convicted by last week’s message. They told me that they have had a fairly large unresolved conflict with another Christian brother and that they realized they need to take care of it as soon as possible. Do you know what I did when I heard that? I celebrated! Several times I commended this person for listening to the promoting of the Holy Spirit. I told them that I knew this would probably be a difficult process, which was all the more reason to celebrate his obedience to the Lord. Then I put my hand on his shoulder and prayed that God would honor his obedience and that the Holy Spirit would do his work of conviction in this other man’s life as well. That is one way to celebrate repentance and we should be doing that for one another all the time.

5. Excommunication must be carried out by Godly leaders who are accountable to the church. This is similar to the first and second principles but goes even deeper than these. If you recall, the very first thing I said in the very first sermon on church discipline is that there has been and continues to be abuse in this area because of ungodly leaders. As I have often said, as go the leaders, so goes the church. Godly leaders who are approved and chosen by the church can lead the church into truth and godliness, but a leadership that is unaccountable to anyone but themselves is like dry tinder waiting for the match of abusive leadership to be lit.

6. Excommunication must only be done in an environment of Biblical church discipline—both formative and corrective. If our a church is not teaching, training, rebuking and correcting as a practice, which are the foundational elements of church discipline and discipleship, then we must not suddenly make a giant leap to the step of excommunication. This is yet another reason why I laid eight weeks of foundation before teaching about the final step of excommunication. If our church has a healthy environment of love and accountability, then asking an unrepentant brother or sister to leave will not seem like such a drastic step. I have said all throughout this series that in order for any of this to work, we need to be willing to give permission for others to lovingly confront us. I have given my elders this permission and I offer it to the whole congregation as well. Are you willing to give this type of permission? If you are a member of Grace, whether or not you remember, you already have granted this permission.

Let me read for you one of the membership responsibilities at Grace Church that comes from our Membership Application. There are seven commitments of the application and this is the last one.

·        To be accountable to the church for any sin which might need church discipline.

If you are a member of Grace, then you have signed your name to this commitment. This is only one of seven commitments of the application but it does represent a desire to give permission for loving accountability. If you are a member I would ask you this: do you still hold to this commitment? If you are not a member, I would ask you this: why not? If you are a believer who feels comfortable at our church, why would you not desire to become a member? I firmly believe that Biblical church discipline—that is, discipleship—is inseparable from local church membership. The effectiveness of the former is dependent upon the latter; which leads to our next point.

7. Excommunication only applies to church members. Many churches have been sued by former church attenders because the church practiced excommunication with them. Every legal opinion I have ever consulted always warns against excommunicating someone who is not a member or who has not signed onto a statement of informed consent in regard to church discipline. Do you see the benefits of church membership? Join today and you too can be excommunicated! Seriously, excommunication can only apply to church members, but that really is a reason to become a member because by signing the commitment of membership responsibilities, you are fully identifying with this body of believers and willing to come under its authority and work for the glory of God together with us. I encourage you to read this little booklet called Membership Matters: The Biblical Priority of Local Church Membership, that is available on the back table. Also, please notice that we will be holding our membership class by the same name starting the first week in January. Please read over the bulletin insert and consider signing up for those six sessions.

8. Excommunication should be a reason for sorrow and tears. When Paul questioned the pride of the Corinthian church in allowing the sinful man to remain in their church, Paul wrote, Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief? If the process of excommunication does not break your heart, then you should have no part in it. We celebrate repentance but we weep over unrepentance and rebellion.

9. When the church is assembled in Jesus’ name, then Jesus’ authority is binding in the decision of excommunication. In 1 Co 5:4, Paul wrote, “When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” Paul is describing an application of Jesus’ principle of excommunication with binding authority. All of the elements of Matthew 18 are present in 1 Cor 5. 1 Cor 5 is a direct application of Matt. 18.

10. When done according to Biblical principles, excommunication is a loving act. Excommunication is the last thing that can be done in the realm of human effort. If a person refuses to listen to the counsel and warnings of a Godly church body, then nothing more can be done for them in that church or any other church. The most loving thing that a church can do is to hand that person over to Satan. It is somewhat similar to refusing to enable a lazy son or daughter. If your thirty year old son comes to you every six months to ask you for a couple of thousand dollars, you are hurting, not helping him to grow. When a church refuses to confront sin it means they are endorsing that sin and enabling the sinner. The most loving thing you can do for a lazy son who begs you for money is to cut him off. Likewise, the most loving thing you can do for an unrepentant church member is to cut him off from fellowship and hand him over to Satan. God has said that there is nothing else we can do. It is a spiritual battle that must be fought in the spiritual realm. Yes, pray for the person, but don’t pretend that everything is OK.

11. Church discipline in general and excommunication in particular works best when the church is a beautifully vibrant family of believers. The church has to be a place where the person leaving will genuinely miss out on the fellowship of the body. The church has to be so healthy that the person who is asked to leave soon realizes what he or she is missing. After all, it does no good to be kicked out of an unhealthy church!

This concludes our series on Biblical church discipline, but I hope it does not conclude our understanding of church discipline and Christian discipleship. This is not just something we can put on the shelf, because my original premise still applies—we cannot be a healthy church without the regular practice of Biblical church discipline. Without it our relationships will suffer; our personal purity will suffer, our hypocrisy will increase, our evangelism will be fruitless, our Lord will be mocked and his Kingdom will be marred. Either we allow the transforming power of Scripture to teach, train, rebuke and correct us or we don’t. Either we give permission for others to help us grow or we go it alone. What kind of Christian do you want to be—growing in grace or crippled by sin? What kind of church do you want—a healthy community of believers or a helpless crowd of people? What kind of God do you worship—one who looks down on his children and is powerless to help them, or One who longs to grant ever increasing repentance and faith? As for me, I choose grace, a healthy church and a powerful God. What about you?

Rich Maurer

December 3, 2006