Word of Salvation – Vol. 51 No.31 – December 2006
Grassroots Discipline
A Sermon by Rev Allan Quak
on Matthew 18:15
Scripture Readings: 2 Samuel 12:1-10; Matthew 18:15-20
Suggested Hymns: BoW 217; 334; 434
Congregation in the Lord.
Let’s begin by playing a little game. If you’re a visitor you can play too, you just need to apply it to your own situation. I am going to say the beginning of a sentence and you need to finish it off in your mind.
There are people in this church who are gossips,
they are……….!
There are people in this church who do not honour their parents,
they are……….!
There are people in this church who don’t control their anger,
they are……….!
There are people in this church who are materialistic,
they are……….!
There are people in this church who struggle with the same sin again and again because they have never tried to overcome it,
they are……….!
Let’s stop the game there and make an evaluation. I wonder how many of us were able to finish every sentence with at least one name – perhaps more than one name. Another interesting question to ask is, “How many of us actually put our own names into the gap?”
The point of the exercise is this. Even if we could only finish one sentence with one name we have re-emphasised a disturbing truth. We confess to be a gathering of redeemed sinners. But we are also a fellowship of believers who go from week to week watching one another break God’s law in some way.
That is the fact. As we consider this fact let’s use Matthew 18:15, and some other Scriptures to help us answer the question: How does God want us to respond to the fact that we go from week to week watching one another break God’s law in some way?
How does God want us to respond? We start by recognising that all of us have a responsibility to act. All of us. Matthew 18:15: If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault. Notice what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “If your brother sins, just pretend nothing happened and avoid him”. It doesn’t say, “If your brother sins, go and tell everyone else so you can all talk about him behind his back”. It doesn’t say, “If your brother sins, try and cover it up so that other people don’t find out”.
Our text doesn’t say any of these things. Rather it says go and show. In the Greek both of these words are in the form of a command. Jesus says go! This is no time to procrastinate and think of a thousand reasons why it would be better to stay at home. You have a sacred obligation to fulfil now. Jesus says show! The original literally means, “to bring sin into the light and issue a call to repentance”. When we witness sin occurring in God’s family, we act by bringing the sinner to account.
To put it in simple terms, Jesus is saying: “Take a good look at those who are in spiritual fellowship with you. Are any denying the truth of God’s Word? Do some give the right answers, yet still live the wrong answers? Could there be some who are missing the mark yet who do not make a calculated effort to change? Is there anyone in your fellowship who is like that? Then you must go to them and confront them – you must discipline them”.
So often, when we think of discipline in the church, we think “that is the domain of the office bearers”. It’s not! The Scriptures don’t teach that only the office bearers can discipline. Our text is focussing on the need to approach one another as individuals. But look at the verses beyond our text. The next step involves taking two or three others along with you to help you sort out the issue. It isn’t until the third step that official representatives from the church get involved.
We can’t deny the teaching of Scripture. As we go from week to week, watching one another break God’s laws, we all have a responsibility to go and show. But … but … we don’t do it very often, do we? Think again about the names which came to your mind at the beginning of the sermon. Have you ever gone to any one of these people and said, “You are a gossip; You don’t honour your parents; You are materialistic; You can’t control your anger; You struggle with the same sin again and again”? We don’t readily deal with one another like this, do we? Why not? Often it is because we hide behind two common excuses.
The first reason we often don’t go and show is because we are acutely aware of a passage like Matthew 7:1-2: Do not judge or you too will be judged. And it is true, we shouldn’t judge. An accused goes to court to be judged. It is possible that the members of the jury who make the judgment are having affairs, or dodging tax, or are occasionally taking drugs. It could be that the judge has a part-time job as a male stripper. Yet the jury can still make a true judgment against the accused because they do not need to bring themselves into the picture.
When the Scripture says, Don’t judge!, it is this sort of supposedly-neutral judging that is in mind. It can happen in court, but it mustn’t happen in the church.
Never do we have the right to fault-find and condemn while at the same time being blind to our own failures. But that does not mean we can’t highlight sin. The context of Matthew 7:1 is the “Sermon on the Mount”. In this sermon Jesus draws out many moral distinctions which require a judgment.
Jesus Himself judges people by calling them “dogs” and “pigs” in Matthew 7:6. Jesus even gives a means of making a judgment when, in Matthew 7:16 He says, By their fruit you will recognise them. This means we cannot hide behind a phrase like, “Do not judge”, and make it stop us from going and showing. What it does mean is that going and showing becomes an occasion for self-discipline.
Before we go to another and deal with the sin of the other person against us, we must ask ourselves, “Do I also need to repent in this area?” Once we have repented we have every right to go to another, show them their sin, and ask them to repent as well. When we go and show without giving any thought for our own standing – we judge and have stepped outside the boundaries of Scripture. When we make going and showing an occasion to come in repentance – we discipline and fulfil this command of Jesus.
The second reason we often don’t go and show flows out of the first. We have fallen victims to a very common perception. Don’t we have to get our own house in order before we can comment on someone else? We are very conscious of our own sinfulness and we are afraid to step in because we don’t think we are qualified to “to bring sin into the light and issue a call to repentance”. It may be a common perception, but it doesn’t stand on a very good foundation. Would Jesus command us to go and show without also equipping us to do the task? Of course not! And the equipment we need is found in Galatians 6:1-2. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
Who is to restore the one caught in sin? You who are spiritual. Well who are the spiritual in this church? Romans 8:1-2 gives the answer. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
The spiritual are those who know their sins are covered by the sacrifice of Christ. The spiritual are those who have experienced the joy of grace. You don’t need an extra post-conversion experience to be “spiritual” – every believer is spiritual because they have the Spirit of God.
This means we cannot hide behind a phrase like, “I have to get my own house in order before I can go and show“. If you are a believer, you are spiritual. If you are a believer, you already have your house in order – we have all we need to carry one another’s burdens. Then why don’t we do it? It is not for lack of equipment that we don’t go and show. I suspect it is because we don’t want to be vulnerable. When we say, “my house is not in order, so I can’t tell you what to do” – when we say that, aren’t we also often implying, “your house is not in order, so don’t you tell me what to do”? Jesus calls us to go and show. If this command is to become a reality, we also need to be willing to be approached and to be shown – to put down our defences and stop trying to get through life on our own.
Let’s go back to the original question: How does God want us to respond to the fact that we go from week to week watching one another break God’s law in some way? We start by recognising that all of us have a responsibility to go and show. We build on that start by not allowing our excuses to hinder us from fulfilling this command from Jesus.
I’m sure we realise that taking this command seriously is going to require a lot of work. At times it is going to be difficult work. Who finds it easy to go to another and say, “I’ve seen your dirty washing hanging on the line and I’m here to tell you how to clean it”? At times it is going to be dangerous work; people won’t always respond kindly, friendships could be at risk. At times it will be demanding work; it will cost time, it may cost money, it may mean having a broken schedule or missing out on something that would be much more fun. Even though the command is before us, we could easily go from here saying, “I’m not going to change, why would I want to do this?”
Why would we want to be serious about putting the command to go and show in place? Because we are church people – people who confess to live the gospel. In the church, if one member suffers, we all suffer. If one member rebels, we should all feel it. When we see fellow believers putting their faith in jeopardy, we won’t be like the priest and the Levite who walked past the beaten man on the other side of the road. We will be like the Samaritan who took responsibility even though he wasn’t responsible. We are church people who take the gospel seriously and who do not allow each other to live and die quietly in sin.
That’s what Jesus is talking about when He says at the end of verse 15, If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. When Jesus says, you have won him over, Jesus is not saying that going and showing is some sort of competition. The original Greek word behind “winning people over” is a missionary term – we have the goal of putting the gospel in place. Going and showing is not a competition; it is an act of love. An act which should always be a priority. James 5:19-20 shows us why this is the case: My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save him from death, says James. James is clear and concise; hell is a reality. It is a place of torment where an eternal fire rages. Those who end up there are blocked out from the favour of God, they are totally dominated by sin, and have pangs of conscience, anguish and despair. Who of us would want to see any member of our covenantal community take this road? Who of us would prefer to be silent and avoid confrontation rather then speak up and discourage a fellow community member from taking the path which could lead to destruction?
We are church. We have been put together by Jesus. Put together by a Lord who owed us nothing except for eternal separation from Him … yet who gives free grace. We are together because Jesus wants us to be together. And because we are together we all have a responsibility to be a biblical community. A community where we can challenge one another in loving concern. A community which cares when they see a brother or sister in Christ habitually deviating from the Lord in some way. A community that will go and show. A community that doesn’t care what it takes to warn each other against the fires off hell and, if it were possible, drag each other into the kingdom.
How does God want us to respond to the fact that we go from week to week watching one another break God’s law in some way?
We have two choices. We can nod our heads and agree with everything I have said – then go from here and not let it change us. Or we can confess the fact that we have not always put this command in place – then leave willing to take on the responsibility to go and show. One choice makes us a people who couldn’t care less about one another’s spiritual life and does nothing about the fact that we go from week to week watching one another break God’s law. The other choice makes us a biblical community that is willing to discipline and be disciplined; to take the command of Jesus to heart.
For the love of one another, which flows out of our love for Jesus and His ways, may we be willing to go and show.
Amen.