Word of Salvation – March 2019
B.C.32 – Order And Discipline In The Church
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Scripture Readings: Acts 15:1-21 and 1Corinthians 5:1-8
Introd: I find that a series of sermon on the catechism or the Belgic Confession meets with mixed reactions.
OTOH – some people appreciated us dealing with these more weightier matters.
They welcome an overview of the standards that underlie our Reformed Churches.
OTOH – others disagree and reluctantly put up with them.
They wonder how relevant it is today to go through this stuff that is 450 years old.
Let me remind you of two things to put that into perspective:
First: using Catechisms and Creeds in preaching originated in Reformed churches as a safety device.
We preachers always have our hobbyhorses. One preacher spent 20 years in Job.
And with the best of intentions it is possible in preaching
to ignore certain aspects of the Christian faith and of the life of the church.
So by using the Creeds and Confessions we are forced to teach the whole counsel of God.
By going thru the B.C. we teach topics we would not otherwise deal with.
So you have some protection against our hobbyhorses… and one-sidedness in the pulpit.
Second: let’s remember that Creeds and Confessions are simply summaries of Biblical teaching.
They are a statement of what we believe Scripture to be saying.
Often we meet people who have the same Bible but who come to radically different conclusions.
How do we deal with that?
In our confessions we have a statement
of what the churches of the Reformation believed the Word of God to be saying.
These documents may certainly not be given the same authority as Scripture.
Yet as human documents… they sum up important Biblical teachings…
they have stood the test of time as valuable summaries of Christian faith and practice.
This present article from the B.C. deals with order and discipline in the church.
You may prefer to hear a sermon on any one of a dozen other topics.
Yet it’s important for us to also consider this subject.
Not only because this article is simply drawing together some Biblical themes.
But also because here are two closely related subjects
that are part and parcel of the life of the people of God.
This subject is not an optional extra – the hobby of some specialists in the church.
No! This is a vital aspect of life within the Body of Christ… and we ignore it at our peril.
A] ORDER IN THE CHURCH.
- Let me demonstrate that… by first of all considering ORDER in the church.
By ‘order in the church’ we mean two things:
First, we mean the authority structures that keep order in the church;
And second, the way those authority structures actually operate.
Last time we considered those whom the Lord Jesus Christ appoints as office bearers in the church.
We said that all believers have gifts to contribute to the welfare of the Body of Christ;
But that the Lord Jesus Christ has appointed some to very special roles.
That’s why we spent some time dealing with ministers, elders and deacons.
So when we speak of order in the church we mean first – this God-appointed authority structure:
Those in leadership thru whom the Lord Jesus Christ rules His church.
But ‘order in the church’ also means, secondly – the way in which those leaders do things.
Those in leadership are to act and deal with issues in a certain orderly way.
Over the years I have often heard criticisms of our church structures.
Things such as Classis… and Synod… are dismissed as man-made institutions.
And even the ‘Session’ – the church council – is seen by some as irrelevant.
Some people want to do away with any structures at all in the church.
Of course it is true that when all goes well…
when there are no problems… and when there is harmony and unity…
then the church of Jesus doesn’t need much in the way of structures.
But it’s quite a different matter when it comes to solving major church problems.
Or when important decisions have to be made.
- Let’s have a look at a good example of ORDER in the church… in Acts 15.
Here the Christian church was faced with its first major issue that had to be sorted out.
It was a problem that had the potential to split the church right down the middle.
In the first verse of Chapter 15 the problem is spelled out clearly.
It was a difference of opinion over how to apply the Law of Moses.
Some Jewish Christians came down from Judea to Antioch
and they were teaching the Gentile (the non-Jewish) church at Antioch
“Unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Today that issue is no longer a problem for us.
But it was a vital issue in those days.
The problem was that large numbers of Gentiles (non-Jews) were coming into the Christian Church.
So many in fact that people feared that the church would lose its identity.
The original Jerusalem church had agreed to admit these Gentiles….
but only if they followed the Law of Moses and submitted to circumcision.
That brought about a sharp controversy in the church.
People started taking sides.
Verse 2 speaks of a sharp dispute and debate.
Paul and Barnabas took a strong stand against the Jewish Christians from Judea.
But now notice how they handled the problem.
They didn’t just leave it up to each local congregation to do their own thing.
That would most definitely have divided the church.
Nor did they allow one man… or one church… to decide for everyone else.
They didn’t even ask some special person who supposedly had a prophetic gift to give a ruling.
Some direct revelation from God in this matter.
Instead, what they did was to call a meeting of the wider church community.
Delegates were sent from Antioch to meet with the leaders in Jerusalem.
In fact, verse 22 implies that the whole church was represented.
It seems that most churches had sent delegates.
The rest of this chapter goes on to show how the church debated the issue.
And it was only out of that debate that there arose a decision.
A decision about which they dared to say in vs.28:
“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
In Church History that has always been known as the first Council of the Church.
The first Synod of the Christian Church.
And it has been recorded for us as an example of orderly problem solving in the church.
- Acts 15 is instructive in two other ways.
It shows us how the church dealt with this problem in an orderly way.
But… there was both a negative side to that… as well as a positive side.
Notice first the NEGATIVE side of this process.
The debate in this first Council, or Synod, progresses.
And we see a determination by the leaders not to burden the consciences of God’s people.
At least – not with things that are non-essential.
It would have been easy to make a ruling for everyone to be circumcised.
Why not? Let the Gentiles submit to it.
At least it would keep the Jewish Christians happy.
And if there was any doubt at all about whether the law of Moses still applied
then why not play it safe and do it anyway?
But no! There was a deeper issue at stake. And that was the gospel.
How are we saved? Is it by faith in Christ? Or is it by the works of the law?
The answer became very clear to this early church council.
Even Peter with his tendency to be a strict Jewish law-keeper said it.
He had seen it in the home of the Roman centurion, Cornelius.
That God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile – both are saved by faith.
So there was a negative side to this Synod of Jerusalem.
They rejected what was not in agreement with the essence of the gospel.
Salvation is through faith in Christ alone.
And so they did away with that which unnecessarily burdens and binds the conscience.
The point is that circumcision belonged to the OT age.
It was fulfilled in Christ.
To now reintroduce it would be nothing more than imposing man made rules and regulations.
Of course there is nothing wrong with human rules and regulations.
We have rules for many things. For example: for the voting of office-bearers.
Rules are good and necessary for order in the church.
But when our rules are in danger of obscuring the gospel of Christ…
or when they burden the conscience of believers… then they are to be rejected.
That is one reason why we must have order in the church.
And why we must do things in an orderly way
so that the gospel of free and full salvation is not obscured in any way.
If ever our procedures and laws in any way threaten the grace of God
then we had better call another Synod and do away with those rules.
- However there is also a positive reason for order in the church.
And we certainly see that unfolding here in Acts 15 as well.
Of course one problem is that Acts 15 simply sums up a long process in just a few verses.
This meeting was vitally important and it may well have gone for quite some time – days even.
Reading between the lines it seems other matters were debated too.
So on the negative side they decided not to impose the ceremonial Law of Moses.
But on the positive side they did affirm certain important moral issues.
In the letter that they finally sent to all the churches
they addressed matters that were important in those days and in that society.
It speaks about eating food that had been offered to idols.
There was the matter of eating blood.
And of course the problem of sexual immorality in their permissive society.
So the church decided that it would not burden the conscience
it would not bind people with that which had been fulfilled in the OT age.
But the church also called its members to the obedience of God
in some important areas that were a problem in their society.
So by means of these decisions of the church… the unity of the church was promoted.
So we can conclude from Acts 15 that ORDER is vital for the Christian church.
And we ought not despise authority structures in the church.
Nor should we belittle the structures the church has for promoting order.
They are there especially to safeguard to gospel of Jesus Christ.
And one of the greatest tragedies of the Christian church
is when those same structures have themselves undermined the gospel.
The Sessions and Classis and Synod of the church deserve our prayerful support.
Because thru these the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Master of the church
maintains His Body, the church.
B] DISCIPLINE IN THE CHURCH.
- The Belgic Confession also raises briefly the matter of discipline in the church.
And in many ways discipline and order are closely related.
Discipline is simply another way in which the church maintains order.
But then especially in the practical way of dealing with individual people.
I don’t want to spend much time with discipline.
We already looked at it briefly in article 29.
There we saw that Christian discipline is one of the marks of the true church.
And we saw that Christian discipline is certainly a Biblical matter.
Today I want to just touch on an extreme example of Christian discipline – in 1Cor.5.
The reason for it is a serious sin that had become a public scandal in the church.
In Corinth a man is living with his father’s wife.
And the church – instead of dealing with it is boasting about being so progressive.
Notice that in verse 5 Paul actually calls for that man to be handed over to Satan.
Against the OT background that is the radical language of excommunication.
Let me give you three reasons why that extreme of Christian discipline is sometimes needed.
In the first place Christian discipline is for the honour of God’s holy name.
God’s honour is not well served when the church allows blatant and unrepentant sin in its midst.
In this chapter the motive of God’s honour is not spelled out specifically.
Yet it is there in an implied way… and it is certainly spelled out elsewhere in Scripture.
In verse 7 Paul speaks about Jesus our Passover Lamb having been slain.
Well – if God was willing to bring such a great sacrifice for the sins of His people
then surely it dishonours Him when sin is allowed to remain unchecked.
God provided an offering for sin in the death of His Son.
And if we in the church say: “Don’t worry about it!
After all we should be progressive… and keep up with the rest of society.”
Then that offering for sin is despised and God is dishonoured.
- Secondly: This kind of discipline is for the wellbeing of the church.
When there is no discipline in the church then the church suffers.
Just like a family in which there is no discipline also suffers… relationships crumble.
Paul speaks here about the Jewish Passover.
And at the Passover they ate bread without yeast… yeast was a symbol for sin.
So bread without yeast is therefore a picture of the community
in which sin has been taken away by the sacrifice of Christ.
Now just as yeast spreads thru a piece of dough so sin spreads thru a community.
So for the sake of the community those in authority in the church must deal with wilful sin.
The purity of the church must be promoted.
The spread of sin has to be prevented.
That doesn’t mean that elders have to become private detectives.
They don’t have to spy into people’s private lives… in fact they may not do that.
But it does mean that known sin has to be confronted and dealt with.
And where there is no attitude of repentance…. as is the case with this man…
then they must proceed to separate such people from the Christian community.
- Finally Christian discipline – and even excommunication – is to benefit the sinner.
It isn’t just to get rid of a difficult person…. but it seeks that person’s restoration.
Paul does indeed speak of handing this man over to Satan.
But he also adds that the purpose of this is that his soul may be saved on the day of the Lord.
In fact in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians we read of the restoration of this man.
And it is beautiful when Christian discipline leads to repentance and readmission.
Sometimes it takes shock treatment to make people aware of the seriousness of their situation.
It’s sad that Christian discipline has sometimes been misused… and people wrongly excommunicated.
Unfortunately today we tend to go the other way.
Our policy is to mind our own business… to live and let live.
And so today church discipline has fallen into disuse.
It is true of course this extreme of discipline is a hard thing… no one denies that.
And yet – just as in a family situation there sometimes has to be tough love
so too in the Christian church we must also be willing
to exercise the keys of the Kingdom that Jesus has entrusted to the church.
In a world in which we will be always involved in a battle against sin we need order and discipline.
So that also thru this our community will grow more and more into the likeness of Christ our Saviour.
Amen.
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.