Discipline That Aims at Rescue

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] through our sermon for today, and we're going to continue on in 1 Corinthians. Today we're looking at 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 8. Just a word of introduction. Remember, this is a letter to a church that's struggling. They're struggling in a lot of ways with dysfunction, lawsuits between believers, immorality running rampant, and arrogance about both wisdom of the world and spiritual gifts, as we'll see. And so there's a real lack of unity in the church, and there's just a lot of... Think about it like right now you take your car to the shop, and sometimes there's just one thing wrong, and they're like, oh, we can fix this. But this would be like if just a heap of scrap was brought to the car repair shop, and the guy's like, you know how they have the clipboard? And they're like, here's my pen. They're like, ah, this is going to take a while. There's a lot going on in this church. There's a lot of problems. There's more than just a carburetor. So Paul has his work cut out for him, and it's a long letter.

[1:05] But so Paul, just a few reminders, Paul had lived there in Corinth, but he had gotten reports from some tattletales in the church, which was good because he needed to know. And he was aware that people didn't think that much of his talents. They didn't think he was a very good speaker, but that doesn't bother him. And that's because he didn't come to preach himself, but he came to preach Christ and Christ crucified, Christ and the cross. And that saves all people, and it makes all believers equal in the eyes of God. So it doesn't matter if somebody's smarter or better than somebody else, because in front of the cross, we're all the same. Paul knew that. Human wisdom can't comprehend this concept of the cross. And so Paul is asking his readers to set aside human wisdom, which sees the cross as foolishness, and to embrace what God is doing through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit has a role all throughout this letter, and one of them is the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Paul is asking his readers to set aside human wisdom, which sees the cross as foolishness, and to embrace what God is doing through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is the power by

[1:59] which all these things happen, but also that there's this wisdom that's from God that looks like foolishness to the world, and the Spirit's involved in that too. And then, as I said a couple weeks ago, this gives us this great freedom to let go of what other people think of us, which is a great freedom, and it allows us to shrink so that Jesus can grow. So that when people meet Jesus, when they meet us, when, I'll just say it in a different way, when people meet us, they meet Jesus. And that's important. They meet us too, but we want them to really meet Jesus first, right?

[2:32] So today we're going to look at a specific case of discipline in the church, and church discipline is not a popular topic. Can you imagine if we had a 12-week sermon series on church discipline? How fun would that be? This is like, it ranks just below tithing on the list of the funnest sermon topics. So we'll have the 12-week sermon series on tithing right after that one. And then the church will totally be empty after that, no doubt. So, but I think we're going to find, as with everything that God does, that there's love and beauty even in difficult things like discipline. And you know what? There's love and beauty even in a difficult thing like tithing, this beautiful sense of giving of ourselves, and actually the pure joy that can come of it if we do it with the right heart, you know what I mean? So there's love and beauty even in difficult things like discipline. So I want you to listen for that redemptive word, and we're going to have a mini quiz afterwards to see if you've identified the redemptive word in the midst of all this discipline. And so we'll see if you catch it. And I'm going to ask the young people first, and there's only a few of them here today. So I'm going to ask them first, because I want them to pay

[3:34] attention, especially my children. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I would never do that. Okay, so let's go to our reading, 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 8. The Apostle Paul writes this, I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you, something that even pagans don't do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning and sorrow and shame, and you should remove this man from your fellowship. Even though I'm not with you in person, I am with you in the spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan, so that his sinful nature will be destroyed, and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. You're boasting about this. It's terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch? Get rid of the old yeast by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is really what you really are. Christ, our Passover

[5:07] lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your discipline. And we ask that you would add your blessing to this word as it's preached in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, pretty straight away, the cure for this problem is pretty severe. So I go straight to sort of the ultimate penalty that you can have in a church. Paul says there's no need to have a formal process to decide if there's guilt, right? He's already decided it, and the penalty is expulsion from the church, sort of really excommunication, what that means, because he's not in communion. He's not in communion with the church. He's not in communion with the church. He's not in communion with the body anymore, excommunicated, at least from that congregation. And honestly, this is hard for us. We don't like this idea of kicking people out of the church, because we always want people to come to church. And if we kick somebody out of church, that's like going the wrong direction. We think we should try to fill the pews as much as possible. We can't fill the pews by kicking people out, right? But that's what Paul says to do.

[6:17] So who found the redemptive word in the midst of all this harsh judgment? Young people, Blythe is looking at me kind of sort of slant-eyed here like, I'm not sure. Did you find any redemptive word? Any young people? Well, take volunteers. I won't pick on anyone, although I'm looking at the pet's voice. Did you hear the redemptive word? We have to go back and have Andres go back to verse 5 on the screen there. Maybe you can show up. No. Did anyone see it? Okay.

[6:47] So be saved. Yes. Thank you. So even though he's out of the church and they're really, really sound severe, we're going to hand him over to Satan, which really I think means sort of hand him over to all the consequences of all his poor decisions and take away basically the care, not the care, but sort of the community of the church and get him out there on his own to sort of wake him up. And the idea is then that he'll go, oh, what have I, you know, what have I lost? And maybe on the last day, even though, you know, he won't have this body and maybe he can come back, he'll have saved his soul because right now his soul's in jeopardy. So Paul cares about that. All right. So the redemptive word is, it's not just punishment. The discipline isn't just punishment. There's this goal in the end that even the sinner is saved at the end. So that's the redemptive word. So I always, I always want to remember that, that this isn't pure punishment, but there's redemption as a goal behind it. But we're talking about, there's two goals behind it and we'll get to what those goals are. So I want to take this apart a little bit. And I want to just go back to the beginning. You don't have to show it, Andres, but Paul starts with his disappointment. He's, he's honestly surprised that there's a man

[8:00] in the congregation that's having an affair with his father's wife. That's what it means. He's having an affair with his stepmother. Right. And that's wrong on all sorts of levels. One is it's his father's wife. So that's adultery, but it's sort of incestuous too. And the old Testament talks about this, right? And there's this comment that can be made about this. And it's, it's, it's he de It needs to not only look better than the world. Now it can look better than the world, but not be better than the world. You get what I'm saying? It needs to look better than the world, but actually also needs to be better than the world. And Paul says, not only do you look worse than the world, you are worse than the world. You are two steps back and you got to get this straightened out. So here's this major principle, and if you're taking notes, this is the one that's worth writing down, which is when the church does something that reflects negatively, okay, when the church does something that reflects negatively on itself, it's not just that the church has problems, but that it impacts other people's ability to come to Jesus and be saved. So this is really important because it gets in the way. It's a stumbling block to other people who are on a journey to salvation.

[9:39] They see the church being all messed up and they go, oh, I'm not sure I want to join this club. This looks, I don't want more, I don't need more problems in my life, right? So it's really that simple, is the church being dysfunctional and toxic gets in the way of other people's ability to come to Jesus and be saved. And it happens all the time. And so, you know, I'm going to make a quick list here of all the bad things that churches do that get in the way, like church leaders having affairs or sexually harassing people in their congregation or outside of it. Toxic leadership. Have you heard of toxic leadership? You know, where the pastor or the chair of the church is just some kind of sociopath or something. They just very hard to get, you know, very, they just scream and yell and are manipulative and mean, and it's just a power trip for them. And that happens in churches. It's crazy. Don't get me started on money in churches. Money is led to many churches getting into all sorts of trouble. Whether it's theft, whether it's money laundering, whether it's money laundering, whether it's financial fraud, or if it's just that they talk about money all the time and the pastor's a millionaire. You know, it's not great.

[10:50] As much as I'd love to be a millionaire, thank you. I'm glad I'm not a millionaire as a result. Thank you, George. I remember the time of the very wealthy man. Oh, yeah. He was a super-souper. You know, he looks like a villain. He's a pastor. He looks like a villain. It's not fair to talk about his looks, but he really looks like a villain. He looks like a James Bond villain. And. And he looks like I'm I'm a very wealthy man and he has three private jets. Three? What do you need three for? I don't know. You only need one. You don't even need one. You need a you need a scooter. You need an electric bike. You need something. I don't you don't need that. He needs to be humbled, but not my place. So don't get me started on money, although we got started on money. Don't get me started on idolatries like Christian nationalism or on the other side, which is total accommodation to the culture there. There are actually mirror images of each other. I would like to thank the people who are here tonight. They're the same problem. And the first thing that always disappears in these idolatries is what? The cross.

[11:51] If a church stops talking about the cross of Jesus Christ, it's giving in to something else, and Satan is rejoicing that day. So we have to talk about the cross, because that's the first thing that Paul is always about, the cross.

[12:06] So right now, I think the church with the big C, not our church, but hopefully not our church. Somebody told me our church is like the Taliban. That's a story for another time, because we put a sign up in our parking lot. Anyways, I don't think they know who the Taliban is.

[12:25] Anyway, the church has such a bad reputation that I don't know when or how we'll get out of it, except by being faithful to the prompting of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can get out of this jam. So when I was an engineer before I went off to seminary in Minnesota, I made a mistake. I made a mistake in some of my works, and a co-worker was really nice, and they're like, you know what, there's oopses, and then there's attaboys. Oops is when you make a mistake. Attaboy is when you do something smart. And I made an oops, and they're like, you know, we can fix this, but that's an oops. And then they said this. They said, right now, everybody's going to remember you for the oops.

[13:06] It's going to take 10 attaboys before they'll start thinking you not as the oops. Did you get that? Like 10 to 1. I don't know if that's really true. I hope not. It seems kind of harsh. And I think I got a few attaboys. I'm not sure if I ever kind of got back to even. Maybe that's why I left and became a pastor. I'm kidding. No, they liked my work. They liked my work. I had more than 10 attaboys after that, I think. But anyways, at this point, the church has so many oopses that it's going to take a millennium before we get out of this, I think. Unless the Spirit does something powerful. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?

[13:50] Right? Right? Remember what Jesus says, Matthew 18, 6. Jesus says this, if anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Tell us how you really feel, Jesus. You know, this is one of those really stark moments from Jesus. He's like, do not let other people, he's talking about children, but I think these could be children in the faith too. Do not let other people go astray. Do not make them stumble. And the church cannot be so toxic that a seeker comes in the doors and goes, I want nothing to do with whatever this is. I don't need another problem. I've got enough of my own. I came here looking for help, not for more trouble, right? So I want to be assured of why that Jesus cares about it, Paul cares about it.

[14:53] So this transgression in the body, this man and his sexual immorality is so severe and it's such a big oops that actually Paul skips the normal process. That Jesus sets up of confronting a sinner with their sin and asking them to turn away and bringing somebody else along if they won't listen. Do you know this process? Jesus talks about it. And then only then if they won't listen and won't repent after this sort of prolonged process, only then to expel them from the church. So Paul is on fire right now. He's like, I'm going to skip all those steps. This is the monopoly version of church discipline, right? Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to jail, right? You're going, all you have to do is just go to just kick this man out of the church. Don't do all the other stuff. And why skip it, right? So I don't know. I have two choices and they both actually could be true. Why would Paul skip this thing? This is really a command from Jesus that Paul is skipping.

[15:54] One, it's such a big and open sin. It's publicly acknowledged. Everybody can see it. And it reflects so negatively on the church that there's just no need for the process. This is just, this is one and done. You don't get any, you know, you don't get any chances to repent. You need to go out.

[16:09] Or this one seems a little more likely to me. He doesn't trust this body to actually confront the sin because some of them were proud of this behavior. He talks about it. You're boasting about it. You shouldn't be boasting about this man. You should be ashamed of this man. So there were some people who in the church who didn't even understand that this was wrong. You get that? So he didn't trust this body to actually have a good process to figure it out. He said, He just said, I have to assert my authority here with the power of the Spirit. And Jesus will be present with me while you, while with you and with me while you have this meeting in my absence. And you have to throw this man out. He, you know, the people who thought maybe it was brave or progressive of this man to have this relationship with his mother-in-law. But Paul probably thought the church can't handle this. They can't handle that. They need to, they need to send him out. So then, again, we get to this redemptive clause. The man is, we think, kicked out of the church. We don't know. We don't know if they followed Paul's advice. That's the interesting thing. But there's a so that clause in there, right? Why do this? Why deprive a man from the community of the church?

[17:15] Doesn't he need the community of the church if he's in sin? Doesn't he need people coming around him sort of telling him you made a mistake? Let's fix this. Evidently, it was so severe that this was the kind of thing that needed to happen so that he would wake up. On the front side, Paul does. And it's not just the man. Paul needs to repair the reputation of this church. And that has some weight to the issue. The reputation of the church and the ability of people to come to Jesus has some weight to Paul. And so this man has to go out so that that can be repaired. But also, Paul says the man has to go out so that someday he may save his own soul or his soul may be saved. So Paul cares about the man. But he cares about the church. And so there's a sort of balancing act going on here.

[18:09] And Paul wants him to wake up to the seriousness of his sin and repent and in the end come back to faith himself. If you've read the Narnia books, you know that they all end the same way. Pretty much all end the same way. And if you haven't read the books, you should read the books because they're like children's novels, but they read really well for adults. And you can read them to your kids. But you get to the end. And they're... They all end the same way. The protagonists, you know, the kids, they're usually kids. They're given a task early on in the book. And all along the way, they make all sorts of mistakes, all sorts of oopses. But in the end, you know, with the help of a few sort of unexpected sources, they end up where they need to be. And it kind of gets resolved. But then they always stand in the presence of the lion, who's really Jesus. I'm sorry to ruin it for you, but the lion is Jesus. I'm just going to give it to you. The lion is Jesus. And then there's Paul. And then there's this accounting. There's this accounting of the journey. And the issue of their failures always comes up. It always comes up. You know, the lion's like, you made some mistakes. You know, not like this, but more like, you made some mistakes.

[19:18] Or like, this happened. You know, you can imagine his paws coming down. Serious cat look. And the lion never says, oh, well, it's okay. Grace, grace, grace. You know, it's fine. You know. No, he says, yeah. You made some big oopsies there along the way. You really messed up, you know. And you had a few attaboys, but you need 10 to 1, so you're not there. You didn't make it up. And it's when they own up to it that they really grow. And they really see that the love that the lion had for them all along, and even the tough conversation was love. Isn't that interesting? And that conversation, that tough conversation at the end was actually love. And it feels like love to them in the end, right? And after that tough conversation, the lion says, let's celebrate. You know, like, we made it. And they do. So there's, but there's no shortcut. There's no shortcut to that grace at the end. They have to have an accounting of it. And I think that's what Paul wants for this man. There's no shortcut to that. Let's just forgive him and hope for the best. He needs to go through a journey where he owns his own sin, where he does a lot of repair work with his family, right?

[20:33] There's no shortcut to grace for him. He has to repent. He has to ask a lot of people for forgiveness. It's going to look like a seventh step in Alcoholics Anonymous. I think it's the seventh step. He has to ask his father for forgiveness. He has to ask his stepmother for forgiveness. He has to ask the rest of the church for forgiveness. And he has to ask Jesus for forgiveness because Jesus went to the cross for those sins and all our sins, right?

[20:56] And this is one of those, I think, delightful, unresolved stories in the Bible. I love the Bible. It has some open-ended questions in it, right? In one passage with Jesus, there's a rich young ruler who wants to follow Jesus. And Jesus says, of course you can follow me. You just have to sell everything you own. And then you can come and follow me. And he went away sad because he was very wealthy, right? And we tend to think, well, that was the end of him. But it doesn't say.

[21:26] Maybe he does. Maybe he doesn't. We don't know. Maybe he does sell all this stuff. And he gets on his horse. The last thing he keeps is his horse. And he runs with the horse and catches up with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and joins him and goes to the end with him. We don't know, right? And the same is here. So this is what I would love to happen.

[21:46] God, may he grant this wish that when I get to heaven, I want to meet this man. And I hope he's there, right? That he's an actual person. You know, this is not a fairy tale. This is an actual man. Like, this is very historical, right? This is not an Narnia book. If this man came to his senses and the church discipline woke him up and he came back into the body someday. And if we could meet him in heaven and even though there's no crying there, he would start crying, telling the story of his own journey, of how he was thrown out of the church. But it woke him up, kind of like the prodigal son who went to the distant land and said, what am I doing? You know? And went on, maybe even went on to all sorts of other sins before he woke up. And then one day he understood the cross of Jesus. And he went, oh. Oh. And he got down on his knees and he prayed for forgiveness. And he set about all that hard work of repairing all those relationships. And he'd be praising God all the time while he's telling us this story in heaven, right?

[22:41] And I would love for that to happen in heaven. And I hope it does. But you know what? It might not. I'm not in control of that, right? I'm not in control of what he did. But that's the goal of the discipline of the church. And we don't do it very much. We don't talk about it much. But it's not to punish. It's to help and heal. It's to care for a person. But also to care for the body so the body can function. And sometimes the body can't function if there's this really toxic, open, dysfunctional sin happening in the body. It needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed with some real decisiveness as Paul does. And of course we have a process for doing it. You can look in the Constitution. It's all written up there. You know? We have a deacon board that works on things like this. So just so you know that our church has and can and will, if God wills, would need to be exercised church discipline. But church discipline is also care. It's care for the soul. It's the hope that a person will be redeemed and be made whole by the work of Jesus. And I would only end with this. These things, the church repairing its reputation, church with a capital C, sinners coming back to God, the strength we need to do church discipline because that's the hardest work I've ever done as a pastor,

[23:55] is church discipline. It's the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done as a pastor. It's not easy. If it's fun, you've got a problem. If you think it's fun, you're not the right person for it. You're supposed to not like it, right?

[24:06] The Spirit is powerful. This is what we end with. The Spirit is powerful. The Spirit can change a heart. The Spirit blows where it will. It does what it wants. We stay open to the leading of the Spirit, and who knows? We may be part of the Spirit's work of bringing a lost sheep back to the fold. And so if you know somebody who's left the church or been pushed out of a church, you know somebody who's at odds with the church, think about them this week. Let the Spirit speak to you this week. If the Spirit prompts you to call them up, call them up. We're part of this healing process, even for people who have been disciplined by the church or people who have been hurt by the church. So that's your work for this week. It's summertime. You think you're on vacation. You're not. Pray to the Spirit this week.

[24:53] Ask if there's somebody you need to call and reach out to. Ask if there's somebody you need to talk to with the power of the Spirit and the cross of Jesus, and have some conversation about inviting them back into the body. Let's pray.

[25:05] Father, thank you again for this difficult word. Thank you for hope in the midst of discipline, for care in the difficulties. Give us courage to discipline when needed, but also to care. And give us all courage this week to listen to the Spirit and find people that we need to reach out to. In Jesus' name.