Sinning & Winning (Matthew 18:15-20)

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Good morning, City View Community Church. Take two. Good morning, City View Community Church. Let’s all rise. As we prepare our hearts for worship.
We gather expecting an eruption of the sacred. An in breaking of the holy that will mark off our time from what preceded to what will follow in powerfully transformative ways. In silence, prepare your hearts for the sacred to break in.
To all who are weary and need rest. To all who feel alone and want community. To all who mourn and long for comfort. To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares. To all who fail and desire strength.
To all who worry and want peace. To all who sin and need a savior. To all who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And to whoever will come. This gathering offers are welcome.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us sing to our Maker. Now.
In my mother womb you formed me with your hand known and loved by you. For I took the bread when I doubted. Lord reminds me I’m wonderful be made. You’re an artist and a potter of the Kansas and place. And to make all things work together for my future and for is you make all things work together for your glory and for your name.
Nothing has been wasted, no failure or mistake. You’re an artist and a potter. The canvas and a blade. To make all things work together for my future.
Let lo my good unique work together for your glory.
It’s all your name. You make all things work together for my future and for my.
Work together for your glory.
Your name.
When I down and Lord, remind me my wonderfully made. You’re an artist and a potter. The canvas and the place I know nothing has been wasted, no failure or mistake. You’re an artist and a potter. Understand?
A flame. You make all things work together for my future and for my good. You make all things work together for your glory and for your name. When I doubt it, Lord, remind me I wonderfully made. You’re an artist and a potter.
On the canvas and the plain I know nothing has been wasted. No failure or blame. You’re an artist and a potter of the can.
You’re not finished with me. You’re not finished with me yet. You’re not finished with me, Lord. You’re not finished with me yet. You’re not finished with me.
You’re not finished with me yet. You’re not finished with me. You’re not finished with the end.
Let’s read Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 17 to 18. Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not Share in their guilt. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people. But love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the Lord. The scripture reminds us that true love means clearing our hearts of bitterness and choosing to seek peace with others as we sing. Take my life. Let it be. Let’s offer God our relationship, our anger and our hearts, asking him to use us as instruments of his love.
Take my life, Consecrated Lord to thee. Take my hands and let them move as the impulse of thy love. As he impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be with them beautiful for me. Take my voice and let me speak Always only for my keep. Always only for my king.
Take my silver and my gold. I love, my good, I withhold. Take my moment and my days. Let them flow in deep pray let them flow and be.
It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own. It shall be thy royal throne. It shall be thy royal.
Take my heart, it is thine own. It shall be thy royal throne. It shall be thy royal throne.
With our hearts restored, he has done great things. We will stay together.
We will see and we too.
We will not be burned by the fire.
He is the Lord.
We got by the blood of hell. Protected, gathered up. We will be in the house of Zion. We will sing in our heart restored.
We will sing together we will sing and we go.
In the dark of night, before the dawn.
My soul is not afraid for the promise morning of our O God of Jesus be the same. We will be in the house of fire. We will sing with our hearts before we have done great things. We will sing together we will sing and we, we.
Every vow we broke.
You are the faithful one and from the dun to the grave find us again the great shallow. We will see the rock of fire. We will restore the sun rain.
Please remain standing as we answer the catechism questions today. Question 18. Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? No. Everything is against the sovereignty, holiness, goodness of God and against his righteous laws.
That’s a downer. How about a little bit more good news? Here’s the next question. Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?
Amen. Please be seated.
Good morning and welcome to City View Community Church, where we as a church are made to magnify Jesus and sent to serve others. My name is Reeve. I’m a pastoral resident, church planning resident here. And if you are a guest with us, we’re so glad that you’re here. I encourage you to scan the QR code on the screen, fill out the connection card so that we know you were here and we get to reach out to you at the end of the service.
Our pastors Kyle and Brandon will be out in the lobby and they would love to meet you as well. And if you did fill out that connection card, they have a gift back for you as well. If you’re following the church’s Bible reading plan, we recently finished 1st Chronicles 29. From verses 14 onwards, we see David proclaiming these words, but who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you and we have only given you what only comes from your hand.
David’s proclamation is this acknowledgment that Lord, all I have is yours, and that truth remains true for each and every one of us. The God who cheerfully gave Himself to us loves the cheerful Giver as well. If you came prepared to give this morning, you can do either online, on the website or in the giving station at the back. I was in my trivia group this past Wednesday and I kept thinking to myself, I’m forgetting something. I am forgetting something and I don’t know what it is.
And then Thursday morning I was doing announcements and I forgot to invite them to kickoff. That is not good. But don’t be like me. So we celebrate kickoff in the fall and it is a time where you get to invite that person that you’ve been thinking of, whether that’s a neighbor, a family member, someone in your circle they react to. Like it would be awesome if these people could come and see my church.
See what a Gospel proclaiming church looks like. This is your time to invite them. It’s a place for them to come and see not just this community, but the God who is behind this community. And I was told to echo Brandon’s words from last week as well. The desserts are plenty, but the cleanup laborers are.
So if you’re willing to stay a little longer and help up, that would be greatly appreciated as well. Every third Sunday of the month at 6:30pm the church gathers to pray. This is the time dedicated to acknowledging that without God, this church, this family of believers simply would not exist. It is God who sustains. It is he who guides.
And our prayer will always that be that when we depend on him, he is glorified through us. So I encourage you to join us as we pour our hearts out to the Lord. We clothe ourselves in prayer so that when the world sees us, they don’t just see the church, they see the God who is clearly evidently working in and through us. Speaking of depending on the Lord, here’s a quick reminder that we will be having a meeting at the end of the service regarding our vision to plant churches. As exciting as new opportunities are, it is important that we humble ourselves and acknowledge that it is God.
It is him who has brought us thus far and we need him to lead us again. In moments like this, Brandon will give us a little bit more information about childcare and everything that goes in there. But for now, let’s bow our heads in prayer, praying that bring for the church plans as well as the sermon that Brandon will be giving us.
Praise be to you Lord, the God of our Father Israel. From everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power, the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom you are exalted as head over all wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you and we have only given you only what comes from your hand. We’re foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors.
Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your holy name comes from your hand and all of it belongs to you. I know my God, that you temple the heart and are pleased with integrity. Heavenly Father, we pray these words of David to be true to each and every one of us, that we have an acknowledgement in every sort of mission and vision we step into, have and look forward to. Lord, we pray that we acknowledge that everything comes from you.
And Lord, we are not worthy of this grace. But you have abundantly showered us with it, first in the abundance that you’ve given us, but most and always in our minds the abundance of your son who saved us from death and brought us into life, all those who have placed their faith in him. And I pray Lord, that as we think of this church, plant this awesome adventure that this church gets to participate in, that you open our eyes not to look at a mirror and see how good we are, but to look at the cross, see how good you are, to see that Lord, you are the God who’s guiding us, leading us, and you will always be the one who holds us. And as we partake in this endeavor to plant a church, I pray that you open our eyes. You help us see the things we need to see.
You help us act the way we should act, always acknowledging that all things come from you.
And Lord, we also pray that in any sort of questions that arise, doubts or conversations that take place, that you would be amidst each and every one of us, leading us to fresh pastures where we are filled with the food that you give us. Lord, may we have holy conversations and be wholly devoted to what you are doing in the life of this church. We also pray, Lord, for the word of God that is going to be preached to us. Lord, I pray that your spirit that was at work in Brandon as he was preparing it be the same spirit that is speaking to this congregation. Lord, I pray that this message is not coming from a place of flesh, but being led by the Spirit of God, and that we, as open, with open arms, are receiving the words of God, and that we are able to acknowledge the same way Samuel did.
Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. May our hearts receive the word of God. Listening, Lord. Come, have your way in us.
In your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.
Good morning, church. You can go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Matthew 18, Matthew 18. We’re picking up in verse 15 this morning. Matthew 18:15, as you’re turning there. When I served as associate pastor of a church down on the mission field in Columbia, we ran into a tough situation where a member of our congregation was caught in grievous sin, in an adulterous affair.
And it was brought to the attention of the elders. And so we were starting to think through our response to what this, to what to do in this situation. It’s a good question. What should a church do when sin is discovered, as it certainly will be in our midst?
Let me rephrase the question, though, just slightly. What should a church do in a situation like that? In light of what we heard last week in the paragraphs right before this? If you were here last week, I’m confident you did not miss the point that Daniel helped us see when little ones stray. God, that was so weak.
Daniel was not that weak when he was bringing the word. Okay, learn from him. God pursues them. So what does that then mean for us? Jesus, in our passage this morning, tells us in no uncertain terms.
He gives us the practical outworking of God’s care for his little Ones, Ones, believers, the church. This is how we, as his hands and feet, we are the body of Christ, after all. How we, as his hands and feet, pursue the straying because God does not want any of them to perish. And so our big idea is really just trying to pull last week into this week’s passage. It’s this up front.
We’ll work it out as we go through the passage. But love little ones enough to confront sin. Love God’s little ones enough to confront sin. Our confronting sin is an expression of God’s love for them, his pursuit of them to help them put sin to death in their lives, to be killing sin so that it is not killing them. So we’re going to look at this idea, this passage in two halves this morning.
In the first half, we’ll get the process for confronting sin to ensure that it’s done in a loving way. And then in the second half, we’ll get the promise that God gives us, Jesus gives us when we confront sin, which is tied to prayer, of course. So they will not quite be balanced just, you know, a little bit longer on the first half. So. So if you’re panicking because the sermon seems like it’s going long, you’re probably right.
So let’s start with the process, though. Matthew 18, 15, 17. I’ll read it for us. If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. They still refuse to listen. Tell it to the church. If they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or tax collector.
Now, remember, in the original manuscripts, there were no headings. In fact, there weren’t even verse numbers or chapter numbers, which means originally Jesus audience would have heard it like this. Or Matthew’s readers would have read it like this. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. If your brother or sister sins go and point out their fault.
You see the logic there? There’s an immediate flow that I think is lost if we, if we, you know, include the headings, basically we can almost translate it because your Father’s not willing that any of these little ones should perish. So if your brother or sister sins, like, as a result of what I just said, if your brother or sister sins, this is one of God’s primary mechanisms for Keeping his little ones in the faith. Faith is, by the way, the church confronts sin in its midst. So we need to get a few preliminaries that are here in the text before we actually lay out the process itself.
First thing we have to see if we’re going to do this well is Jesus says, if they sin, if they sin. So we are dealing here with a clear flouted of God’s good commands. We are not confronting based on our personal preferences and pet peeves. We’re not talking about gray areas or annoyances. We are talking about actually breaking God’s law.
I also have to say here, just because of how we so often talk at City View, we are not dealing with internal sin because we know that sin, everything we do, is tainted to some extent with sinful desires. And so you could, you know, see somebody serving. You know, they’re doing what Reeve just told them. They’re the ones who stayed after kickoff to clean up and stuff. And one of you walks up afterwards and says, hey, you know, when you were serving, I’m almost positive that there’s a little part of you that thought, see, I’m one of the good ones because I stayed after to clean up.
And so I just want to rebuke you in the Lord’s. And that’s not what we’re talking about, right? Okay. We’re talking about, like. No, no, no.
I actually, bro, God’s law, it says, be truthful. And look, when you told that story and I was there for that story, that’s not how it happened. And you made yourself look better and that other person look worse. Like, that’s what we’re talking about here. If they sin at the same time.
Notice that it says if they sin, not if they really sin. Which is, I think, how most of us read this passage. Like, when it says sin, we must be talking about what we so often euphemistically refer to as moral failure. Like one of those big sins that would get you fired from ministry or something like that. That’s not what we’re talking about.
There are no sins that are excluded here. We’re just dealing with sin. Any sin whatsoever. Of course we are. If you can think back to two weeks, angry Brandon, if you remember that time, like, there’s this infection that we have that threatens to kill us eternally.
And even if the infection is small currently, it threatens to grow. And so we deal with it immediately. So this is like somebody coming and saying, look, I don’t know how bad this is, but, like, you got A mole on the back of your neck that looks different this week. You might want to, like, get that checked out. Like, it’s that same idea.
This maybe could kill you. So you’re going to want to have somebody look at it, deal with it. Like, that’s what we do. Even. Even if it’s small at this point.
All right, first, luminary, if they sin. Second, notice that it says, if your brother or sister sins. Jesus is still, as he has in this whole chapter, he is still talking about God’s little ones, those who come like children to God the Father, believers. In other words, we are talking about the family of God. We are not called to confront the world in this way.
Paul makes this explicit in the second most important passage dealing with church discipline. First Corinthians 5. Here are verses 12 and 13. Paul says, what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. This is important. Christians love judging the world. It’s our favorite hobby, you would think. But it makes no sense.
So often what we’re doing is rebuking somebody. We’re saying, hey, look, I noticed that you’re not really following Jesus. You know, you, my neighbor, who doesn’t claim to follow Jesus, like, what are we confronting exactly here? Now, there’s a time and a place, of course, to confront the world in broad terms. That’s the confrontation of the Gospel itself, not this.
I think it’s important to point that out because there may be some. I mean, you may be sitting there even now thinking, yes, exactly right. Like, this is why I don’t like Christians or Christianity, because I’ve seen this so often. It feels like the church is judgmental and unloving on the one hand, and then also hypocritical, because all of our rebuke is aimed outward. They could almost quote the proverb Jesus quotes to us, physician, heal thyself.
Like, deal with your own sin. And that is absolutely what Jesus is saying here. We, the ones who are claiming to be under the lordship of Christ, confront one another in our sin in this way. Although this phrase, if your brother or sister sins, also draws out the personal relationship, the love that undergirds all confrontation and rebuke. Like, we deal with family stuff differently.
There’s something happening in your family. Like, you perk up in a different way. That’s how we are to treat one another. In contrast to Cain, you know, am I my brother’s keeper? Jesus says, yes, yes, you are your brother’s keeper.
Your sister’s keeper. And that is the family of a God as a whole. So we deal with sin. Third preliminary. We do have to assume we’ve learned the previous lessons.
This is the fourth sermon in this series. Remember, this chapter is very tightly connected, so we gotta assume we’ve learned what Jesus has already said. Part of that includes the seriousness of sin that we talked about two weeks ago. This infection that threatens to kill you. Like that’s one of the reasons why we deal with sin so urgently.
Yes, but also the humility of the first week of the series. Do you remember how this series began? The disciples came and said, which one of us is the greatest? And that is the attitude we often bring in to rebuke wrong. Because I’m better than you.
I have something I would like to tell you. No, no, no. We come with the humility of a little child who goes, I shouldn’t be here. I know that. I’m ignorant, I’m sinful, I’m all of these things, and yet I’m following the Lord’s command here.
This is part of why the process unfolds as it does, as we’ll see. Because there’s this sense of like. Even as you rebuke, you need to consider the possibility that you actually might be. Be wrong. You might have misunderstood something in the process.
You might have misread a situation, and so you come humbly, not guns blazing. Paul says this. Galatians 6:1. Kyle took us through this passage not too long ago. Brothers and sisters, there’s the family again.
If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted. That’s it exactly. This is gentle, humble rebuke, wary of the temptation, in particular the temptation to pride. To think I’m probably the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Earlier in Matthew, even in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says things like, don’t judge, or you too will be judged, and goes on to say, you know, you got like a speck in your neighbor’s eye that you’re pointing out, but what about your own eye?
Speaking of sermons Kyle’s preached not too long ago, anyone remember this one? Yeah, yeah. The plank in the eye. Right? Like that idea.
And so it’s that same idea here also. This, like, chastens our rebuke, humbles us before we head into confrontation. It means there should be, in every rebuke, there should be an instinct towards grace.
There, but for the grace of God go I. There is not A sin that has been committed in humanity’s history, that is not possible for me, the seeds of which do not lie in my heart. And so all I am, as a fellow sinner, offering the help that I would like to receive when I stumble and fall.
I think this means we also don’t go looking for sin. You know, if your brother or sister sins not, you better go check and see if your brother or sister sinned. Those are different commands. Certainly. Jonathan Edwards, great American theologian, offers some wise words here.
He writes, the spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints, that they are low in grace and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and being quick to discern and take notice of their deficiencies. But the eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home. I love that home, right? The eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. Certainly that is the attitude we should have, which means if you’re the one who’s always rebuking, you’re almost certainly the one in need of rebuke.
Like, that’s a good test for you. If you’re just like a sin pouncer, like, go ahead and deal with that pride first. No one likes a tattle. And I think that’s kind of the attitude that we have here. Then finally, last preliminary history, note the redemptive purpose of this discipline, this act of discipline.
Because Jesus says, if your brother or sister sins, go and point out their faults between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. This is why we do church discipline. We do it to win them over, to win them over, not to hold it over their heads. But there’s this act of grace again.
I mean, this is the shepherd going after lost sheep. We saw this last week. That shepherd, he goes off in search of the lost sheep. And when he finds it, what does he do?
Brings it back, sure. But I mean, more than that. He rejoices, right? He’s glad, truly. I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander.
So he’s delighted because of this. And so you, when you’re now, as an instrument of his grace, going off in search of that lost sheep, you find it and what do you do? Push it over. Tell it not to be so stupid next time. No, there should be the same, like rejoicing, delight, especially when you remember that you yourself are a lost sheep that he went off in search of.
And Saved. And when we use this phrase, win them over, like this is talking about salvation. In this case, we’re talking about God preserving us in our salvation. But it’s often used in the New Testament of people being saved. Initially, it’s the same word that’s used in First Peter 3:1, when Paul or Peter is talking to wives of unbelieving husbands and says, look by the purity and reverence of your lives, like your goal is to win them over without words.
Or First Corinthians 9, Paul says, I become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. Just before that, he says, my goal is to win as many as possible. You see, we’re talking about salvation here. Bringing people to Christ, or in this case, here in Matthew 18, bringing people them back to Christ. That is the redemptive purpose of all church discipline, even at its extreme point, when we get to excommunication, which we’ll look at in a moment.
But here is Paul again, 1 Corinthians 5, and he’s talking about a person who is being booted from the congregation because the severity of their sin and the hardness and unrepentance in their hearts. Paul says, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. Whew, that sounds punitive, vindictive. No, it’s not that at all. Right, hand him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
That’s the redemptive purpose. We want them to be saved. Those are the preliminaries. But if you don’t have these in your mind, the seriousness of sin, the family obligations in the church of God, humility, that instinct of grace, the redemptive purpose. You are not ready for this process.
Like, you should not be the one to walk into it. But I have great faith in you. So we’re going to assume we all got those preliminaries. Now, what does the process look like exactly? Let’s look at it.
We’ll go kind of verse by verse, almost step one there in verse 15. Step one is just go yourself. Go yourself. If we certainly could translate this. When.
When you see a brother or sister sinning, it’s on you to address it. Who is responsible to address sin in the church? Yeah, you should all be pointing like this right at me. I’m responsible. Okay?
We’re all of us responsible with all of those preliminaries in mind. But Jesus says, go point out their fault. Can I just point out to you this is a command of God. This is not a suggestion, if you’re willing to take it. So we go in obedience to God’s command, which means in step one.
Also, there’s things we don’t. Step one is not sulking. If that’s sin, that offense is against you. Step one is not indifference or apathy. Like, well, who am I to judge?
You know, live and let live. Nope, that’s not what we’re called to. Step one is not waiting for them to move first. Like, well, if they come and say, like, I could use some accountability here. Well, then, yeah, I’ll talk to them.
No, like, we go. Go step one. Go yourself. Step one also has this delicate, important balance between minimum exposure and yet a robust response. Jesus calls us to deal with it decisively, but privately, and that is important.
One commentator said it like this. The offender should be spoken with, not about. That’s a good word for a lot of us. Y’ all ever heard a prayer request before? That was just gossip.
And you’re going, why are you talking to me about this? Go talk to that person about this. Like, we need this reminder. Absolutely. So we don’t fall into gossip.
We go ourselves. And here, of course, we are just drawing on the passage that Julie read for us earlier, Leviticus 19.
This is God giving his law. He says, don’t hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor. Frankly, if you don’t go and point this out, it is an act of hatred for your brother or sister in Christ. Like, you don’t love them enough to help them deal with their sin.
And, of course, that’s where this passage wraps up, as we saw when Julie read it. Love your neighbor as your sister. Love your neighbor. I would want somebody to deal with sin in my life, so I will deal with it in somebody else’s life. So we have this frank discussion of sin, pointing it out, likely asking questions in the process, because we’re coming humbly, knowing we might have misread the situation.
But that is love. Hatred would ignore the infection and let the person die eternally. All of this means. Then we should be doing this regularly, like you should be confronting sin, doing church discipline daily, probably weekly at least, because we all sin a lot. So this is just.
It’s just the little stuff. We just deal with it like we nip it in the bud to the extent that we can. Do you know somebody who’s forsaking, gathering with believers regularly? Go and point it out. Do you hear somebody speak a careless word?
Yeah, that’s never happened. Right. But just imagine for a moment, go and point it out.
Unrighteous anger, whatever it is, like, go and point it out. Our dearest desire is that as we do it, they listen, they recognize the truth of what you’re saying and the love that’s motivated it, and they repent. And then you get the gospel waltz together. It’s a beautiful thing. If you don’t know the gospel waltz, what we do here in Journey Grief.
But, you know, we’ve kind of. We’ve named that sin. We’re going to dig deep, what’s the sin beneath the sin. And then we’re gonna get to rehearse gospel truths together. In fact, you as the one who’s bringing that act of discipline, that word of discipline, might be the one who gets to remind them of the gospel truths that they’re apt to forget in their shame over.
And then we can talk about what obedience looks like together. That’s the hope. It doesn’t always go that way. And so that’s verse 16, then. And step two, step two.
So step one, go yourself. Step two, bring others. Bring others. Not a bunch of others, two or three others. Why?
Because we are going to establish this matter by the presence of witnesses. And that’s why Jesus mentions these two or three. And you get the quote there from Deuteronomy specifically, because that’s how you. How many witnesses were required in the Israelite court of law? So to get this, you know, like, legal standard here.
Now, how exactly is this establishing the matter, These. These witnesses that are here? I think there are a few options and probably all of them are on view. First, we may be trying to establish whether or not it was actually sin, which can be hard to discern on some occasions. We have this sometimes as parents, maybe you’ve experienced that too, where Amy and I have a different view of what should have happened in a conversation with a kid.
Generally speaking, try and picture this if, you know, the two of us. She thinks I was too strong. I’ve never thought she was too strong. Just want to be really clear about that. And so I was trying to say, like, I don’t know, I think you should.
Should confess, repent, that kind of stuff. And I’ll be like, I don’t know, like, I feel okay about that. And so it can be hard to discern sin. That’s all my point there with that illustration. It can be hard to discern sin.
So maybe we bring a few other people in and go, yeah, or I can kind of see the other side maybe, though, we’re just trying to ramp up pressure, to ramp up holy loving pressure on this person who didn’t listen sin, whose heart got a little bit harder, who got defensive. Have you ever gotten defensive when somebody rebuked your sin? No, it’s just me. Okay, this is awkward. You guys are very quiet today.
I don’t know what’s happening here. You get defensive. And so we get this kind of like, larger group now pleading with the person, almost like an intervention. By the time you get to an intervention for somebody’s alcoholism or something, probably every person in that room has all already said something to them. But it’s a little different when the whole group comes together and they talk about this together.
So that’s like, what’s happening here. It’s a holy intervention. Especially if others, these two or three others, have seen the sin pattern or witnessed the offense itself. Like, I love this verse 16 because our Lord is so realistic and loving here, because most of us do get defensive and we almost need that second round, but it’s still gentle, reasonably private and patient. But there’s a third possibility of what these two or three witnesses are doing, and that is that they are serving as witnesses, that the process itself was carried out well in accordance with Christ’s commands here, witnesses that this actually happened.
If there is the need to escalate further, in essence, to confirm that this person who is rebuked has remained unrepentant. And that would then take us to step three and verse 17, and that is tell it to the church. So go yourself, bring in two or three others, and then finally you tell it to the whole church, to the regular gathering of believers, those who are inside, to use Paul’s language in First Corinthians 5, it is time to make it public and again to increase pressure in that way. Almost certainly this would be in a member meeting here. This is not the Sunday morning anyone can come, but this is a closed door member meeting, offering that final chance to repent.
And if there is still a hardening of the heart and unrepentance, that final step then is excommunication, where they are removed from membership in the church and no longer able to participate in the Lord’s Supper, for example. Now, I got to say something here that’s maybe just a little bit beyond the text, but kind of the contemporary application of it, because we live in a very different culture in society. Just a couple of caveats. We do this, we follow this process. Sometimes the offense that’s being talked about is also a breaking of civil law.
Abuse is the most obvious one and often happens, of course, in churches. In that case, there is an additional step which is we bring it to the authorities too. Like, we are not competent to deal with those legal matters. And churches have gotten themselves into all sorts of trouble when they’ve kind of gone like, well, we don’t want to dishonor Christ, so we’ll keep it private and hidden. It always comes out anyway.
Your sin will find you out, as numbers says. And so we would take it to the authority. Of course, the other caveat here is that some sins are so public and so grievous that we jump to this step. Because what’s happening in excommunication is that we’re saying, based on the evidence of your life, we can no longer affirm that you are Christian. To the best of our ability.
And we are fallible. We know that to the best of our ability as a church, we are not confident that you are actually saved, regenerate, born again. And that’s what membership is, is to say, yes, you are. And so we’re going to remove that membership. We’re going to say, no, we don’t think that.
So you can imagine if somebody has a history of abusing children, for example, and that has been brought to the authorities now, and they’re arrested and they’re on the front page of the paper and stuff, it is probably pretty important in that situation to go, yes, we removed him, her from membership for this reason. They can work themselves back into it through a process of repentance. But it is important for us to keep that in mind. Those are extreme cases, needless to say. But notice what Jesus says here in excommunication.
He says, you treat them like a tax collector or a gentile. What does that mean? These are not terms we use today, except in church settings. Well, it would mean that we would treat the person like they had betrayed the covenant and the covenant community, because that’s what a tax collector did back then, working with Rome against the people of God. Or you would treat them like they are not currently living under the covenant, like a gentile, of course, somebody who goes, yeah, I’m not a part of the covenant.
Why would I live like I’m part of the covenant? Why do we treat them like Christ? That. Because that’s exactly what they’re doing. They are betraying the covenant.
They’re not living under the covenant. That’s exactly what’s happening. Again, there’s no evidence that they are truly a Christian, so we can no longer affirm their salvation. And that covenant language is important. Like, that’s why we speak of covenant membership here at City View, because we actually covenant together.
The members of City View to pursue holy holiness as individuals, but as a community like to pursue holiness, which means then to pursue each other. If you don’t believe me, let me quote from our covenant. So here’s a membership covenant, which if you’re a member, you signed at some point, I hope. If not, I’d like to point that out to you, and you should deal with it. But hopefully all of you have actually signed this.
You commit, for example, to this. It says, I covenant to walk in holiness by God, the grace as an act of worship to Jesus Christ, who has saved me from my sin so that I can live a new life. And when I sin, I commit to confessing my sins to Christian brothers or sisters and seek help to put my sin to death. There’s the humility, by the way, going well, yeah, I’m on need to be rebuked, aren’t I? Because I know there’s going to be sin in my life.
Okay, so that’s on the individual side. But on the corporate side, we also say this.
I covenant to connect deeply with other believers in truly transformative community that we might love, honor, encourage, serve. And then here are the important three. For our purposes today, admonish discipline and confess to one another.
This is why membership matters so much. By the way, some of you are on the fence about membership here at City. Let this be a shove in that direction. I was going to say nudge, but no, no, shove in that direction. Our class starts September 27th during explore hour and get more information about that, of course.
But this is why membership matters so much. Membership is how we mark off who is inside. To go back to that language from First Corinthians 5 again, because otherwise excommunication is removal from what exactly? There are also legal ramifications in our culture, of course. We can be sued for defamation of character if we do public rebuke.
But we covenant together because we go. Look, we’re under scripture first and foremost. And so we’re basically waiving our right there and saying, you may need to defame my character in order to follow God’s commands. And so membership is your way of saying, like, yes, please, if you don’t become a member, we don’t actually know if that’s what you want from us or not. And so that’s why it’s so important, why the Commitment and covenant are necessary.
It is a challenge today, though, in contrast to back then, because you can imagine this. This sort of thing happens today in a church in suburbs of 21st century America. What is that person going to do? Go to a different church? Church.
A bunch of things matter there. One of them is, you know, like, when people show up and going, well, I’m not at that church anymore. We go, why? That’s a really important question for us to ask, of course. But there’s the challenge there as well.
Like, that’s what happened. The story I started with in Colombia where we confronted this man and he bolted. We didn’t even get a chance to, like, do the parts. Part three really was like, at part two, he was gone. But think about what’s happening spiritually in that moment.
This would be like going to a doctor because you got some symptoms or whatever, and the doctor saying, like, yeah, you’ve got an infection that’s about to kill you. Like, we need to amputate today if you’re going to make it. And you saying, I’m going to find a different doctor. I mean, second opinion, sure. Like, that’s.
That’s a different story here. But you know what I’m saying, Like, just this denial of, like, no, like, we’re not gonna deal with that. Like, la, la, la. I can’t hear you. And that’s what’s happening spiritually in that moment.
So part of what we’re doing in membership and our commitment to the local church is committing to this sort of soul care so that we don’t perish eternally.
Notice, too, that every member participates in. It’s very subtle there in the English when it says, and if they still refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. That is a singular you. That is, those of you who know Spanish usted, not ustedes. Or if you’re from the south, that is y’, all.
Not all y’. All, okay?
So every single one of us is involved in this process. This excommunication can’t be this formal thing. It needs to be informal, personal and relational as well. Like, there is no table fellowship any longer. There’s not that friendship any longer.
Instead, there is a constant pleading. You run into them in the grocery store and you go, is your heart still hard or are you ready to repent? Brother, I am praying for you every day. And there’s that pressure still. It works, by the way, because I get to finish my Columbia story now.
The guy bolted. We Kept after him. We kept praying for him. And there came a point where he realized, what am I doing? Like, what am I doing with my sin?
But also, what am I doing with my family? Like, church family. And he came back and like, we dealt with the sin as it was meant to be dealt with at that time. Like, that’s God’s heart in church discipline.
This is not an easy subject. It’s not a fun one to talk about. Daniel’s like, God loves you all. And I’m like, okay, I get to talk about this one again after having told you all you need to cut your arms off. Now we get to talk church discipline and stuff.
It’s not an easy subject, but do you see that it is for our good?
And even as we talk about this hard subject, let’s not forget the gospel.
When I read this passage, I am not at all surprised that we need a process for church discipline. Why would we be surprised about that? Have you met any fellow sinners in the church? Like, of course we’re going to need. Need church discipline.
The shock isn’t that some need to be disciplined. The shock is that there is the possibility of being won over to Christ. Like, we still get the possibility of eternal life. Why? Only because Jesus was cut off from this fellowship.
It’s like they did church discipline to him. That’s what happens in the tribe, the covenant community, under the authority of the high priest. Caiaphas said, we don’t even think you’re a real Israelite. In fact, we think you’re a criminal. You deserve to die.
It’s like Jesus took on himself, took our place as that habitual, unrepentant sinner, and allowed himself to be cut off and cast out and crucified so that we could be one to him. That love is what motivates our obedience here. It’s what motivates us to pursue others lovingly. It’s also what motivates us to humbly receive discipline when it comes our way. Because again, we know who we are.
We’ve already been exposed by the cross. We’re such wretched sinners Jesus had to die for. Why would we be surprised that somebody needed to come and confront us?
All right, I’m going to do this next part really fast. 18 to 20. Truly, I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for will be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
All right. So church discipline happens a lot. It has happened here. And it’s not unusual, as I said, for that discipline to be rejected, for that person to walk out the door. And as they go to fire their parting shot, which is almost always some variation of this, you’re not God, so who are you to judge me?
And Jesus gives us the answer here, like, what gives you the right to judge me? God does. God has given us, the church, the right to judge one another. That’s what verse 18 says. If you’ve read all of Matthew, you know that this phrase is repeated almost verbatim from chapter 16.
That’s where Jesus says to the disciples, who do you say that I am? Peter says, you’re the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus goes, gold star, man. That’s awesome. Must have been the Spirit, because you weren’t figuring that out on yourself.
Peter proves that a moment later because he gets called Satan after sticking his foot in his mouth again, all that kind of stuff. But right after this, when Peter makes this declaration of who the Christ is, Jesus says, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. Church. The gates of hell won’t prevail against it. He gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind will be bound. Whatever you loose will be loosed. Earth and heaven. So what do we see here? Well, first we see that the keys to the kingdom of heaven were not given to Peter exclusively, but to the church, because he just handed the keys to a whole bunch of other people here in this passage.
He handed it to all of us. But it means we also understand very definitely what binding and loosing mean, which we might not have back in Matthew 16. It’s almost just a different way of saying what he states a little more Clearly. In John 20:23, when Jesus says, if you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.
The authority is given to the church, in other words, to proclaim the gospel of forgiveness, the possibility of forgiveness, forgiveness, but also to maintain the purity of the church, to affirm our citizenship in heaven through membership, and to revoke it through church discipline and excommunication. All of that means, and this context means that these verses are not an encouragement for you to come to the prayer meeting on September 20th. Now, I would love to encourage you to come to the prayer meeting on September 20th. Okay? It’d be a great thing.
Henrietta Mears Cheekily quipped, jesus made this promise to two or three because he knew that that’s about how many one can expect at a prayer meeting.
We could do better than that. Thankfully, we do do better than we usually have. 25 to 40 at our prayer meetings. I don’t know why we wouldn’t have 100. I’m just throwing that out there.
I figured about 400 adults, 300 at least, that come to this church somewhere somewhat regularly. 100 is just a third of us. Like, surely we could do that. Great. There’s your encouragement to come to the prayer meeting.
It’s not from this text specifically. Rather, the encouragement here is that what a church prayerfully and humbly decides in the context of church discipline will be done in heaven. Okay. Scripture is full of rich prayer promises. John 14:17 would be a great place to start.
This just isn’t one because it’s about church discipline. We know that. Look at verse 19. It begins with again or in the same way. That’s key, that transition, because it means Jesus is not giving us a new unrelated promise here.
He’s giving us a restatement of the promise there in verse 18. So if even two or three. Well, that’s interesting. That’s the same two or three witnesses that we got a moment ago. Three, even two or three agree, then heaven agrees, basically.
Now it says if they agree about anything they ask for, we could render that a little bit more brutally, literally, as concerning any matter about which they ask. Now, I say it like that because that word matter is important. It’s often used of, like a legal or judicial dispute. That’s how it’s used in First Corinthians 6, for example. So once again, we’re in a church discipline context.
If we agree about that church discipline matter, it will be done.
This is no less precious a promise than if we read it in terms of prayer. Church discipline is hard, and I mean that in both senses. It is painful and it’s difficult. It’s difficult to discern what’s going on. We need to know that Jesus is guiding the process.
And that’s the assurance that we’re given here, thank God.
Which means there is this constrained promise in it. I like how RT France puts it in his commentary on Matthew. He says, the fact that God has given his people the role of declaring his will on earth doesn’t mean he’s bound to add his divine sanction to anything they may think up. And so there is that constraint to the promise because we need it. Because I’m quite Confident we could get three people to agree on just about anything, especially in matters of church discipline.
Like, I know horror stories because I’m in pastoral ministry of senior pastors who’ve gotten fired because of a tiny faction in the church.
And so that’s not it. Just like, well, hey, as long as two or three agree, then it must be no. It’s rather, when we gather in his name, there’s the constraint in his name submitting to his will. In other words, that’s what in his name means. He is with us.
Did you catch that? Also, where two or three gather in My name, there am I with them, not there will I be with them. He’s already. There’s a present promise, not a future promise. It’s almost like Jesus is there at the ready, waiting for us to come to Him.
Which is exactly how it goes. In fact, that’s the whole reason this promise can be made. Because Jesus is present to guide us. He does not leave us on our own. Even when he ascends into heaven.
He sends His Spirit who groans within us and corrects our prayers. Thank God.
But why two or three and not just one? If Jesus is with us and he sent his spirit to guide us, can we agree that there is safety in numbers in prayer so that we don’t ask for dumb, selfish, vindictive things? Can I ask you this? Do you pray differently when you’re around other people? And I’m not talking here about the fact that you try to be way more formal, which we all do to show show off.
Okay, that’s, that’s bad, we shouldn’t do that. But I’m talking about the content of our prayers. Like, I know I am much less self centered and much more kingdom minded when I pray with a group. Like when we gather for our monthly prayer meetings. So already that changes it.
Plus different people, meaning people with different gifts and different personalities, different experiences, background, all of that mean. I mean, they bring different perspectives, which we probably need in prayer if we’re gonna get the full picture. I remember living this during the summer of 2020 when we all already hated each other. And then we had the murder of George Floyd and the racial unrest that followed that we gathered for prayer out front because we had to be outside, of course, at that point, Covid, all that. And we were praying and it was so interesting listening to this group pray about the racial unrest after the murder of George Floyd, because you could almost hear like, oh, so you voted Republican, you voted Democrat.
And I don’t mean that pejoratively here either. It was just interesting to see people praying. Like, look, we should probably care about the rule of law, submission to authority. These are good things, scripturally speaking. There was a shopkeeper who was killed in the riots.
Like, that’s another life taken unjustly. We should be upset about that. We can pray about that also. We should care about the abuse of authority and the murder of an innocent civilian. We should care about systemic racism, things like that.
And so it was great to nuance the corporate prayer. By the end of it, I was like, okay, I think we prayed for it all. And even then, I bet we didn’t. If we’d gone to, I don’t know, south side of Chicago and prayed with them for a little bit, we might have gone, okay, there was some different nuance. If we’d gone up to Minneapolis, we probably would have gotten some more nuance.
So there’s safety in numbers there. But how much more so? Because that’s just prayer in general. How much more so do we need that nuance when it comes to discipline? Like when we need people bringing the sense of God’s holiness and patience and wisdom, love, grace, discipline.
Like we need all of that? That together, and more. So by all means, pray in groups, knowing that Jesus is in your midst, even if the group is small. Power in prayer comes from submission to God’s will, not size. By all means, come to more of our prayer gatherings.
Jesus is most assuredly in our midst then. But the promise here is this. Even after Jesus ascends into heaven and releases us as his church, he is still with us when we carry out his command. Because your Father in heaven isn’t willing that any little one should perish. And Jesus must be about His Father’s business, so he’s making sure that doesn’t happen.
God loves his little ones, which is why God calls us his church, to love those little ones enough to confront sin. We discipline one another because we’re a church of little ones, prone to wander. If we don’t pursue one another, we will be lost. So we, borrowing the words of Jude, save others by snatching them from the fire. We discipline because we love each other enough to enter the mountain, risk rejection in order to kill sin.
But also we discipline because we love God, the God who wins us for Himself, enough to hold his honor high in the eyes of all. We won’t let our lax view of sin besmirch his name or solely his reputation. How could we so defame our Savior church? Let us love God’s Little ones, our brothers and sisters in this very room. Enough to confront sin graciously.
Will you pray with me, Father? It is good to be able to approach you even now, knowing that we are not on our own. You have not left us to ourselves, but your spirit is here indwelling us. The very spirit of Christ who promised not to leave us alone. You are guiding us, Lord, in all things, but especially in this area.
And so, Lord, we ask always for your guidance that we would do what you have called us to do with humility and love and zeal. Because we want to be conformed to the image of your son. We want to be made more like Jesus every day. And we know that we need each other for that to happen. Instruments of your redemptive purposes in your hands, God, make us more like you.
Help us to do that for one another. And as that happens, Lord, may you be greatly glorified by the change that you are working in us, by the purity of your people. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen. Let’s take a moment in the quiet of your heart to confess our sins in light of what we just heard.
Have you been judgmental or hypocritical? Have you been proud? Have you gossiped about someone’s sin? Have you loved your brother or sister in Christ so little that you were unwilling to confront their sin? Let’s take a moment.
When we confess our sins. Even if we confess our sins after someone confronts us, God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins. More than that, he purifies us from our unrighteousness, making us more like Jesus. That’s what God is doing with us. That’s what we should be helping each other do.
Becoming more like Jesus. Let’s stand and praise God and let’s ask God to change us like only he can.
King to the world you created Trading your crown for a crop you willingly die. Your innocent life pays a cost.
Counting your status as nothing King the hall king came through Washing my feet, covering me.
If more of you please let me take every yes of you is unleave. Take everything.
You are my life and my treasure One that I can’t live without.
Here at your feet my desires and dreams I. Oh, here at your feet my desires and dreams I lay down if more of you is less of me Take everything yes of you if I give, take everything is more of you Please let us be everything yes, all of you is all I need. Take everything.
Lord, change me like only you can. Here with my heart at your head Father, I pray. Thank you. For like Jesus, this world.
Showed us the way to your heart. Father, I pray. Make me more like Jesus. Oh, Lord, change me. I only you hand here in my heart.
In your hand. Father, I pray. Pray. Make me more like Jesus.
Design to know who you are. Show us the way. Your heart, Father, I pray. Make me more like Jesus. More like Jesus.
I pray more than Jesus. Lord, it’s more of you. He blesses me.
You. It’s all I need. Say everything.
Yes. All of you.
Sam.
When my hope and strength is gone, you’re the one who calls me on. You are the light. You are the fire that’s in my soul. Oh, your resurrection power burns like fire in my heart. When water’s bright, I lift my eyes to your throne.
We are more than conqueror. Through Christ you have overcome this world, this light. We will no love in order shame. We are defiant in your name. You are the fire that channels each.
You are the power in our midst. Our Lord, our God, our conqueror.
I will sing into the night.
Greater indeed living indeed than in the world. No, Rem.
We are free and we’re redeemed. We will declare over just there. You are the.
Conqueror. True Christ, you have over this world. In life we will not stand or to shame. We are defying in your name. You are the fire that cannot be tame.
You are the power in our our God, our conqueror.
Nothing is impossible. Every chain is breakable. With you we are Victoria.
You are stronger than light. You are greater than the dark. With you we are victorious. Let’s sing again. Nothing is impossible.
Every chain is full within.
More than conqueror.
You have overcome the.
Power in order shame. We are defying in your name. You are the fire that cannot be name. You are the power.
Sam.
All right, a few reminders for you if you’re in need of prayer. Our prayer team will be up front. Briefly, for reasons that I’ll state in a moment, to pray with and for you. If you’re a guest, come say hi immediately to me. I’ll be out in the lobby and would love to meet you face to face.
And then we have our church plant update meeting happening at 12:05 precisely. You need to get about your business quickly. If you have children in the nursery, go get them. That’s 0 to 1. Yes.
And if you have kids in second or third grade, go and get them immediately from that classroom. All the rest of the kids, you can leave. Wherever they are, that’s fine. Okay. And then we’ll be back here.
I will have you out of here by 12:30. He falsely promised, and you can rebuke me for it later. Okay, okay. But yeah. So as you go briefly and then come right back in here at 12:05 to him is able to keep you from stumbling to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory, Majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages now and forevermore.Amen.