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Sunday School

Elder Rule and Church Discipline, Questions

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Mark Twombly

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Summary

This lesson continues a two-part study on elder rule and church discipline, rooted in the image of Jesus as our Great Shepherd. We are reminded that God’s reproof is always connected to life and restoration, not punishment. The lesson walks through the biblical grounds for church discipline, the four steps outlined in Matthew 18, and the prerequisite of personal spiritual health before engaging in corporate discipline.

Key Lessons:

  1. God’s reproof and discipline are always connected to life—we should associate reproof with life just as we associate repentance with refreshing.
  2. Church discipline follows a clear four-step process (private confrontation, witnesses, telling the church, removal), and the goal at every step is restoration, not removal.
  3. Biblical eldership is not one option among many for church leadership—it is God’s design, rooted in shared authority and mutual accountability.
  4. Individual spiritual health and daily communion with God through His Word is the foundational prerequisite for healthy corporate discipline.

Application: We are called to cultivate teachable spirits that receive reproof as a gift rather than an insult. We should examine our own lives before God daily, maintain vital accountability relationships, and have the courage to lovingly confront brothers and sisters in sin according to the biblical pattern—not shrinking back from this responsibility out of fear or cultural pressure.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do you typically respond when someone corrects or reproves you—do you receive it as a gift or react defensively? What would it look like to cultivate a more teachable spirit?
  2. Have you ever been in a situation where you knew a brother or sister was in sin but hesitated to say anything? What held you back, and how does this lesson challenge that hesitation?
  3. How does the image of Jesus as the shepherd rescuing a sheep change the way you think about the process of church discipline?

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 6:23, 10:17, 15:31 (reproof and life); Matthew 18:15-22 (the four steps of discipline); 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (addressing sin in the body); 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (the Lord’s Supper and self-examination); Galatians 6:1 (restoring in gentleness); 1 John 5:2 (loving God’s children by keeping His commandments)

Outline

Introduction

Well, good morning and thank you from again for coming in from the cold. I think of what the scriptures talk about the the warmth and the light of God’s presence. So, we’re counting on that today literally and figuratively, are we not? Well, we continue. This is week two on elder rule and church discipline.

And I’m so thankful for Pastor Dave putting these two together. And I hope you can see the connection as we turn our attention to Jesus, our great shepherd. And that’s where that’s where it all deres from.

Reproof and the Path of Life

Couple verses from scripture to get us going. Just the whole idea of how God speaks into our lives, I think is foundational for what we’re going to talk about today. So we see this, the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life.

Like to maybe expand our view a little bit today on what God’s discipline looks like. This is a good thing that’s to be regularly experienced. And I think again that’s the foundation for what we talk about with church discipline.

He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who ignores reproof goes astray.

And then lastly from Proverbs, he who he whose ear listens to the lifegiving reproof will dwell among the wise. You notice the common element that I’ve highlighted there for us of reproof with life.

And I think in our human nature, we don’t often associate those things. But I think the Lord would have us associate that his reproof of us, his speaking into our lives in specific ways and the means that he’s given for us to both be given and to receive reproof is the path of life for us. So I always I I I think I’ve emphasized this before. In the same way that I’d like us to associate the word repentance with refreshing, let’s always associate the word reproof with life because God does.

“Let’s always associate the word reproof with life because God does.”

Church Discipline as a Gospel Issue

From James. My brothers, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

I want us also to see today that this is a gospel issue. This is a way that we live out the gospel.

“This is a gospel issue. This is a way that we live out the gospel.”

I’ll say more about this later, but some of my closest relationships are owing to faithful believers doing this.

There are there are relationships in my life that exist because of God’s faithfulness through his people and church discipline. And that’s a wonderful thing for me to reflect on.

All right.

The Shepherd’s Rescue Mission

Now, I’m not always big on paintings or pictures of Jesus, but I put this one here because I want it to be present in our minds as we think about church discipline. What is Jesus doing there?

At risk to himself, he’s rescuing a sheep who is about to be attacked. As you can see that bird in the background this this painting came to my remembrance. I I had to teach this topic to high school students at the church where Betty and I got married.

And teaching for me, some of you have gifts in this area. You can teach youth. I I I I find it tremendously difficult. And so teaching high school students about anything I found to be difficult teaching them on this topic. I really struggled to know, Lord, how am I going to bring this across? And I was as I was walking upstairs to give this lesson, I noticed this painting on the wall and I grabbed it and I used it. So the Lord in his shephering of me helped me to bring this across and hopefully it helps you today.

“At risk to himself, he’s rescuing a sheep who is about to be attacked.”

So with that, let me pray for us.

Father, would you impress upon our hearts the rescue mission that is the gospel?

As we have come to you in repentance and faith, may we live lives of joyous and sanctifying growth as your as your word teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains us in your ways.

Oh father, help us to be good stewards of your word. Direct our attention to your shephering of your people Israel, the great shepherd that you provide in Christ.

Father, we praise you as your word says that you discipline us for our good.

Why? So that we might share your holiness. What love, what generosity you have. Help us to receive that this way.

May we even this morning experience your perfect shephering as you shepherd us, as you shepherd me, as you speak to each of us personally and perfectly in our lesson today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

All right.

Q&A: How Are Elders Held Accountable?

So, here’s our outline. Here’s what we covered last week. We talked about elder rule and how it is a a delegated rule, if you will. It’s an expression of God’s rule as the chief shepherd over the church which he has promised to build.

And this is a means by which he does that. And then today we’re going to I’m going to start with a little Q&A from last week. A couple of you came came to me after the lesson last week and gave me some great questions that I thought we would address.

Pastor Dave suggested a couple others that I thought would be really helpful to cover today. Next week we’re going to be doing kind of a formal Q&A with the elders. I’ll say more about that, but for today I wanted to to start by covering just a couple specific questions that I hope are helpful to you.

All right, so this is a great question because so the question is how is feedback given to elders and how are they held accountable? We just talked about those those opening verses about reproof and correction and as elders we need to be examples of that, right? Is it too much to say that if you’re not teachable, you won’t learn?

I mean, that seems really obvious, but I find this is in our our human condition is pride, isn’t it? Our human condition is when someone reproves us to def by default reject that. And as Christians, we ought not do that.

That we are we are we are limiting our growth severely when we do that. So, let me just say a few things here that’ll that’ll help. First and foremost, elders are accountable to God for both the souls of people, as it says in Hebrews 13:17, and for the content of their teaching.

I think it was Arthur last week who pointed out, and it kind of focused me like, yeah, being accountable for the souls of people is a sobering and serious thing.

You don’t enter into that casually. And in James, it says that those who teach are under stricter accountability, stricter judgment. So those things are real. So first and foremost that’s that’s our accountability is to God and we will have to give an account to him.

“Elders are accountable to God for both the souls of people and the content of their teaching.”

But secondly elders are accountable to one another in serving in a plurality with shared authority. I think we established that last week. There is no CEO per se of a church. That’s shared authority. I’m going to talk a little bit more about what that looks like in a minute. And so that comes with with wonderful accountability. I think we elders count on each other to have some hard conversations and point some things out and it’s very edifying and helpful to us. It’s hopefully very helpful to you as we sharpen one another. We have iron man which comes from the verse Proverbs 27:17.

Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens one another. So, we need to and we intentionally seek to do that as elders.

How Authority and Plurality Work

But lastly, and this is probably the answer that you’re looking for, is that elders are accountable to members of a local church as brothers in Christ. Elders are subject to and should be examples of church discipline. Right?

So, we are we along with you are brothers and sisters in Christ. And as such, what we’re about to talk to talk about in Matthew 18, that chronology of how that works applies to all of us, including us. Now I will say in 1 Timothy 5 it there’s a certain amount of care to that where it says do not bring an accusation against an elder without the testimony of two or three witnesses.

So there’s a there’s a particular level of care but that’s the same level of care that’s applied in church discipline to everyone. That two or three witnesses concept comes from the Old Testament and is important to apply to all. But that verse is there to apply that with particular care with with with regard to elders because of the the God-given position that that is.

Okay. How does authority and plurality work with biblical elders? And I think David, you had asked me some questions last week that were particularly helpful here. And so we’re going to unfold this a little bit. Elders are equal in authority but different in role and function.

I think in some ways that’s obvious. Pastor Dave and, even Pastor Bobby as he’s in in his ameritus status, they’re vocational elders, right? This is their their full-time gig. Well, with Pastor Bobby, kind of a part-time, but with you, full-time gig.

So, that’s obvious. We can’t function the same way simply as a function of time. And that that’s just a real thing, right? We see that there is no biblical distinction between the title pastor and elder.

And I think you’ll see more about how we seek to live that out as a church later this year. At our former church, I was known as Pastor Mark, which is a little bit of an odd adjustment for me. But I became convinced that it was biblical and people from that church still call me that and it’s very endearing and very loving.

But that’s that’s what the scriptures say. We there’s there’s not the kind of hierarchy and rank that we tend to import from the corporate world in the church. It’s just different. And I hope we’re we’ve seen in many ways leadership in the church is very different than leadership in the world.

Praise God for that. There are pastors, as I mentioned, Pastor Dave, worthy of double honor due to their particular labor in preaching and teaching, right? Paying pastors who do that is legitimate. It’s been there since the New Testament.

You had a conversation with a dear friend, they’re missionaries in Asia, dear friend that I graduated from college with. Oh, there’s no vocational pastors in the New Testament. Wow, really? And we kind of talked this through a little bit and they hadn’t really considered that.

“There’s not the kind of hierarchy and rank that we tend to import from the corporate world in the church.”

I think I think they were referring to some of the be the abuses that can come with that. And I know we’re all tempted to to look at because there’s a lot of negative examples of leadership in the world, aren’t there? Good leadership is is let’s just be honest, it’s rare. But we dare not import those negative examples and say, “Well, these things aren’t true.” Because God has given us an ideal to follow that we don’t all fulfill perfectly, but we’re we’re moving toward by God’s grace.

Why Not Female Pastors or Elders?

Shared leadership is an established biblical pattern. We see it starting with Moses and the elders of Israel. We see it with Jesus and the 12 disciples and the apostles and the elders and local churches.

It’s just a it’s just an undeniable pattern of shared leadership and it’s it’s just beautiful to see God’s design. Have you any of you heard the phrase the Moses model? Some churches follow the Moses model of leadership.

It’s basically where the pastor is the head guy and he can appoint and dismiss pas elders at will. Most Calvary chapels actually operate this way which I found interesting. Right. But the Moses model, it’s not a model.

And it is if if it is a model, it died with Moses. It is not something that we see in scriptures. So that’s really important to notice that pattern. And it’s and it’s a beautiful thing. There’s so much beauty and protection because it it has mutual accountability and it points to Jesus as the chief shepherd.

And we want to do that intentionally. None of us, as I said last week, is all that. Here’s one that I think is more controversial in other environments than maybe here. At our former church, we had a lot of young believers coming in. They this is this was a big question. Why don’t you have female pastors or elders?

So 1 Timothy 2:12, look look at at this with me because this is this is really important. This is an item that’s really, I think, under attack quite a bit in various churches even among some churches that are more aligned with us doctrally and and otherwise teach really well. Let me get there. 1 Timothy 2 verses 12- 14. Get there.

But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first formed, and then Eve, and it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into trespass. Now, we read that and in this culture and in this cultural moment, we feel the tension just reading that, don’t we?

Because the cultural air we breathe hates this. Okay. But and people will say, well, this was a it’s a culturally bound requirement. It goes back to the first century. And God, knowing that there would be that objection, says in his word that it relates to both the creation mandate and the fall. It goes back to the beginning. That’s the foundation. It’s not culturally bound at all. Now what we have to remember with this is that male male headship is limited to marriage and to church leadership. It doesn’t mean that every woman is to be submissive to every man.

“Male headship is limited to marriage and to church leadership. It doesn’t mean every woman is to be submissive to every man.”

Does not mean that. Some environments will teach that. Islam teaches that. No, that’s and and some some traditions teach that. That is not what this teaches.

It is reflective of both the trinitarian nature of God. We saw that last week.

And the gospel. So when it says in 1 Corinthians 11:3 that God is a the father is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman, is Jesus inferior to the father?

No. This is just the order and the design that God has given. And we probably should love it more than we do.

But it relates and then in in the gospel in in in Ephesians where it talks about marriage it goes through all those instructions about marriage and then it says what this mystery is great but I’m speaking with reference to what Christ in the church male headship in in the church and in the home relates to and is connected to the nature of God and the nature of the gospel. I don’t think we want to compromise on those things.

We don’t. And so it’s no small or secondary matter.

Biblical Leadership vs. Worldly Leadership

And then lastly, and I’ll I’ll empas emphasize this even more from last week, we always must remember that biblical leadership is entirely different from worldly leadership. In the world, leaders are superior to followers and followers are inferior to leaders. But as Jesus said, not so among you.

That is not how that works in my kingdom, our Lord says. So, it is sacrificial and servant leadership. And I think we always need to be coming back to this. I I was talking to someone the other day. I I remember two weddings here in the last couple years where as Pastor Bobby was preaching from Ephesians 5 about God’s design for marriage, there were verbal there were verbal objections from people in the audience about this.

Like one guy I had to say, would you please just It was amazing. So it’s clear, but the world hates this. May we as believers love this because we see God and his design in it. We need to keep coming back to this. Yeah. Okay.

“Biblical leadership is entirely different from worldly leadership. As Jesus said, not so among you.”

Presbyters Overseeing Multiple Churches

Where does the idea of a presbyter overseeing multiple churches come from?

And is this biblical or at least permitted in the Bible? And I think we’ll look at a pattern. I think one of the things we think about with with scripture is that there are things that are described which are not prescribed and this is kind of one of those things but it presents a pattern to us that’s that’s I think biblical.

So the role and authority that both the apostle Paul and the apostle John had over multiple churches that’s that’s a descriptive example for us. Now nobody is an apostle today. In some traditions you will have leaders that use the title apostle. I think that’s misleading and unbiblical.

But there is such a thing as people having authority over or at least some sort of guiding role over other churches. But I I think it’s not a formal authority. While this can provide some guidance and accountability to local churches, God’s design is the autonomy and the authority within the local church.

Some denominations don’t they don’t really even call themselves denominations anymore because there isn’t the formal hierarchy that there once was. However, there is some accountability in terms of assessing the readiness of pastors for ministry. I was in a church planning network where that was the case where their strength was, no longer is, but their strength was assessing and appointing people who are qual and training people who are qualified.

And so from that perspective, that type of leadership and example was really helpful. Even so, they were very careful to not disrupt the autonomy of each local church. Each local church, board of elders, group of elders is accountable to God and accountable in the ways that I just mentioned for their local church. That’s the that’s the biblical pattern. Okay.

“God’s design is the autonomy and the authority within the local church.”

All right.

Regarding Churches with Unbiblical Government

I think we have one more. How should we regard other churches with different and unbiblical church governments? This is an interesting one. A great question.

And these last two, I think, Pastor Dave, you you suggested, so, thank you for that. God has made his design for church simple. It’s really clear if if you unpack and just look at the Bible. If you have the ministry of the word, if you have biblical elders, biblical deacons, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, if you have those things, you have a local church. There’s a lot of different ways you can organize that. We call that church polity. You can you can organize that in different ways, but those are the fundamentals.

So, if those things make up a church, what if you don’t have those things?

Well, it doesn’t matter what if we say it’s a church or not. Does God say it’s a church? I would say no. Now, technically the word eklesia, which is where we get the word church means gathering. It’s a gathering of believers. But if we want to organize a church, as God has said, I think we could say, “Yeah, that’s a gathering of believers. Is it a faithful local church?” I think we’d say no. I think we’d say no. As we’ve had to look for another church and even as my kids as they’ve as they’ve gone away to college and tried to find faithful local churches, this is what they look for.

“It doesn’t matter what we say. Does God say it’s a church?”

They look at the leadership and the structure first to make sure that that is biblical.

I love this from the book biblical eldership by Alexander Stra. I have copies of the books I’ve recommended here. I know it seems daunting to have a I think this is like 300 pages. There’s a summarized 90page book that you can get on their website which I I really recommend. This was a surprise to me when I first read this. The New Testament offers more instruction regarding elders than other important church subjects such as the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Day, baptism, or spiritual gifts. And that is amazing.

That’s demonstrabably true. How clear God has made something that many people will say are not clear. Alexander Stra when he was in he’s from New Jersey by the way. He grew up in Woodbridge came to Christ in high school and had a chance to interact with him a little bit.

Just a he’s a shepherd. This is a he’s a great guy. I really appreciate his example. One of the things he said was that when he first entered seminary out in Colorado, he could see this clearly in scripture and his professors gave him push back on this. Oh no, you can do you can call them different things. You can do different things.

This is this is just one form of leadership. And as he looked at the scriptures, he said, I don’t think we have that flexibility. God has given us his design and we do well to follow it.

God’s Design for Discipline: Key Scriptures

So just want to be really clear about this that biblical eldership is not one of several faithful options of church leadership. It is God’s design and we can only grow with the growth that is from God if we follow his design. And so that leads us to the design of discipline.

And so once again, I I I’m going to the the direct quote from our statement of faith that I think is so helpful. I’m just going to read it and then go through some of these scriptures for us. We teach the importance of disciplehip worked out in the training of men for the work of ministry as well as through the mutual accountability of all believers to each other.

In this regard, we teach the need for discipline of sinning members of the congregation in accord with the standards of scripture.

“Biblical eldership is not one of several faithful options of church leadership. It is God’s design.”

And so, I’m just going to read those scriptures for us today, which I think are really helpful. We’ll be drawing from these throughout our our time together today. So, Matthew 18 15-22 says this, “Now, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell unto the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile and the tax collector. So there’s a lot to unpack there, which we will a little bit later. 1 Corinthians 5 1-13. And I’m going to read this. It’s a little little lengthy, but really helpful, I think.

I love when people say we should be we should go back to the early church. We should go back to how the early church was.

Let’s let’s understand what’s going on in this early church and see if you want to go back to that. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has his father’s wife. And you’ve become puffed up and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled and I and I with you with the power of our Lord Jesus delivered such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. I’m going to stop there right there.

Always keep in mind and we we’ll continue to unpack this. The goal of church discipline is not removal. That’s not a goal. The goal is restoration. And it’s wonderful when you see that. It may be rare, but it does happen. And I’ve seen it. So your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavenvens the whole lump? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb also was sacrificed.

Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven or with the wle leaven of malice and wickedness but with the un with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the greedy and swindlers or with idolattors.

For then you would have to go out of the world. But now I’m writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral if he is a sexually immoral person or greedy or an idoltor or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler. Not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God will judge. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. So that’s that’s strong language worthy worthy of us to consider.

And it’s interesting to me as I think about sometimes there are there are things we think about with regard to you want to be that we want this to be a safe environment and we know that we need to deal with certain people to leave and we think about that first of all with regard to children, right? If anyone’s going to pull off pull off any nonsense with children, that’s an obvious one to us. But other forms of im immorality might not be as as clear to us, but still require the same steps.

And I think this passage bears that out. 1 Timothy 1 19 and 20 where Paul says, “Keeping faith with a good conscience which some having rejected suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Himaeus and Alexander whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.

That’s strong, but it’s not final.

Wouldn’t I don’t know if if Himenius and Alexander were taught not to blasphe and and and were restored, but that was the goal. And I hope we we pick up on that.

And then finally, Titus 1 10-16. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced, because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Credence are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy glutton.

This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith.” Again, we’re looking for them to come back. We’re not looking to throw to the curb. Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their works they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for any good work. So, let’s just hear the whole council of God with regard to these things. There there’s there’s a there’s a wholesomeness to it.

There’s a there’s a a desire for protection of the body and restoring of those who would attack it. That’s the shepherd’s heart that we always want to keep in mind.

The Grounds of Discipline: Belief and Behavior

So I think I think what you saw there is there’s what are the grounds of discipline and there are areas of both belief and behavior that we address here. Okay.

Sinful or heretical belief. We just those those two passages that we just read, right? Talked about beliefs that are upsetting and disrupting and corrupting, right? We had a situation like this recently, right, where we told somebody to the church was in the which was in the wrong belief category, not necessarily the wrong behavior category, right?

So that’s that’s a legitimate that’s a legitimate thing. And then of course sinful behavior. We saw that in in f in 1 Corinthians 5. Egregious behavior, right? And and church discipline, godly discipline, is for both. And we’ll see that continue in our examples today.

“There are areas of both belief and behavior that are grounds for discipline.”

The Health of the Body

We read this earlier. Now, keep in mind that the purpose of discipline, we talked about restoring, but it’s it’s the health. It’s the health of the body, right? Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavenvens the whole lump?

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened for Christ our Passover lamb was also sacrificed but those who are outside God will judge remove the wicked man from among yourselves I think we see there what what does it say a little levan leavenvens the whole lump a little sin can be very corrupting do we not see this in our own hearts and lives I think it was John Owen who said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Kind of a summary of the testimony of Romans 6. Yeah. Sin leads to death. It’s not to be toyed with. Need to be very very careful with it.

So little sin infects the whole congregation and will only grow if not addressed. Only grow if not addressed.

“A little sin can be very corrupting. It will only grow if not addressed.”

We want to we want to address it when it’s small. And I think as we go through the mechanics of this or the the order that God has given us, that’s what God’s word is designed.

Don’t wait until there’s a crisis. God gives us a beautiful design to avoid getting to that point if at all possible.

Okay. Again, spiritual health. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, going into detail about visions he has seen, being puffed up for nothing by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the bo the whole body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.

We want to grow with the growth that is from God. Mike, I was thinking about an experience you and I had in our small group where we had a couple guys kind of get into some weird weird speculation, conspiracy theory stuff that had nothing to do with the Bible. And it was it was gripping their attention, their minds in a way that scripture wasn’t.

It’s like, no, we’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. When we do that, we lose we lose our connection with the head, right? And we and it and him is our growth. So body parts that do not submit to the head that is Christ are a cancer to the whole body, right?

We want to be sure we are connected to and directing people to the head even Christ. And so that I think that’s just a wonderful thing to think about. We want to grow with the growth that is from God. And so we saw in that former that former passage in 1 Corinthians 5 that addressed sin of behavior. This clearly addresses sin of belief.

We’ll go further into this. Always think about this with regard to spiritual health. I mean, think about your own bodies and the disciplines that we have to go through just to remain healthy.

They’re not always fun, right? You have to deny certain things to pursue other things. Applies to us as individuals.

The Lord’s Supper and Self-Examination

Applies to the body of Christ. Now here I believe God has designed the Lord’s supper for this very purpose to really help us with this. I believe how we practice the Lord’s supper has a big impact on the health of the body.

And so we’ll read these later, but let me just emphasize a couple things from our instructions from 1 Corinthians 11 says, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must test himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about church discipline. So that we will not be condemned along with the world.

We really want to take seriously the examination that God calls us to in the Lord’s supper. Why? We want to confess and repent of those things for which Christ died and put him on the cross.

We want to live out our distinct nature as believers and confess the things that bring condemnation upon the world and will bring condemnation upon us if not for the saving work of Christ. And so as we in the Lord’s timing, we do have the Lord’s supper today. And so with that, this is a great thing to think about.

So in this sense right proper practice of the Lord’s supper begins with his individual discipline of us. So when we think about church discipline as it’s outlined for us in Matthew 18 this is the foundation right what is going on in our own individual lives provides the foundation for carrying that out.

“We want to confess and repent of those things for which Christ died and put him on the cross.”

The Pre-Step: Individual Communion with God

So I call this the pre-step. There’s four steps outlined pretty clearly in Matthew 18. And I’ve referred this as to the prerequisite of the pre-step, right?

What what’s going on with us individually with God? I think we mentioned this last week. What does God’s word do for us? All scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching. We see that for reprove, correction, training, and righteousness.

So that the men of God may may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. So, church discipline is and must be consistent with and in accordance with God’s word.

We don’t discipline people for things that are our preferences, but for what God has clearly said. That’s why the two or three witnesses, that examination, that process is meant to determine if that’s really true. And brothers and sisters, if we’re in the word every day, we should be being disciplined by the Lord every day because he loves us. I don’t know about you, but I have not run out of things to repent of yet.

And so for us to have this as a daily exercise, I would say this to the extent that which is that this is a regular practice in our own lives, then this whole process that we’re talking about will make sense because it’s God’s means to carry that out in an external way.

So I would say this prior to any church discipline, the scriptures assume that believers are in vital communion with God and hearing from him in his word.

“The scriptures assume that believers are in vital communion with God and hearing from him in his word.”

I love this. Blessed, yes. Blessed is the man whom you discipline, oh Yah, and whom you teach out of your law. Again, this is just part of the dynamic of our relationship with our loving heavenly father.

Psalm 94:12: “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, oh Yah, and whom you teach out of your law.”

Again, I’ve kept that picture there.

Always keep about that. Keep that shepherd image in mind. What does it say in Psalm 23? Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. It’s both your guidance and your reproof. If a sheep’s going to go off a cliff, he’s going to get whacked so that he stays on course. God has to do that with us sometimes. And he has to do that sometimes through through the means of other people. Praise God.

He loves us too much to not do that. So God’s daily teaching, right, and discipline of us is foundational to individual and corporate spiritual discipline and health.

And so really take that seriously. I don’t know how each of you are in your rhythm with the Lord, but it all starts here. We don’t want to miss out on the growth that comes from God individually and as a body.

Step One: Private Confrontation

So now let’s go through the formal steps. Right? So I I think there is the pre-step the things that we’re the prerequisite that we all need to be doing individually before God. Right?

But then we have this responsibility from Matthew 18:15. Yeah. Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault.

Between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. Let say a couple personal words about this. I I’ve been in several situations, two that I can think of in particular, where a brother or sister in Christ was in a very obvious sin that was known to the body around them.

And nobody was saying anything.

Even members of that person’s own family who knew the Lord weren’t saying anything in one particular case. And I thought, Lord, what do I do? What do I do? Do I do I truly love this person?

And if I do, I have to say something .

“Do I truly love this person? And if I do, I have to say something.”

And I can think of a couple, as I mentioned it earlier, I can think of a couple conversations where this process and having those conversations and with one in particular, it went further out to the church, but one it didn’t. Some of my very closest relationships are owing to faithfulness in this area.

Not necessarily just my faithfulness, but the faithfulness of of the body. And I’m just so thankful for that.

Some of my most precious precious relationships.

Restoring in a Spirit of Gentleness

Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted.

What does spiritual mean?

Do we wait till we’re perfect to do this and we’re never going to do it? I love what it says in 1 John 1:7. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

This is what we’re after. Making sure that we’re examining ourselves before God. We have a clear conscience with him with others. And if we’re in that state, God has called us to do this. But again, with a spirit of humility, this isn’t this isn’t a condescension. This isn’t a I’m I’m better than you. This is I love you and I want better for you.

1 John 1:7: “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.”

This. If you’re a believer in Christ, each of us has this responsibility.

Some of you have done this. Some of you have sherked this responsibility. For some of you, you may have situations right now where you say, “I need to do this.” And may the Lord guide us to do it with following the command that he has provided and the means and the way that he has provided for us in a spirit of gentleness and with introspection.

Yeah, it’s a spiritual battle. I found in having these hard conversations, all of a sudden the temptation level rises in your own life. This is the nature of the battle that God wants us to enter into. Okay, so that’s step one.

Step Two: With Witnesses

Step two is with others. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. And this follows the pattern established for us in the Old Testament.

And is designed to share the burden of biblical love. It’s a hard burden to point out a sin to someone and sometimes you just need help and bringing someone else who so this isn’t a matter of ganging up on someone or beating up someone. This is a keep in mind the shepherd rescuing the sheep.

This is a rescue mission, right?

I would say that from what I’ve seen over the years, not only are people restored to Christ, who already are believers, but some who were not believers, but didn’t realize I came to salvation through this process.

“Not only are people restored to Christ, but some who were not believers came to salvation through this process.”

Beautiful.

Beautiful. And we need to think of it from this perspective. And and often in in a case like this, I think it’s wise to bring an elder who knows this person.

Because as we go through the next steps and we think about telling it to the church and all and all that, that’s more of an elder responsibility. And so if you can, I think the one or two should involve an elder if you can.

That’s a that’s a helpful and a wise thing to do.

Step Three: Tell It to the Church

But then step three is sobering, right?

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

Good biblical shephering requires that the church be warned because of the spiritual health and strength that God calls us to. Right? Because God has appointed elders who are accountable to God for the souls of their people. It is advisable to have the elders inform the local congregation.

And we had a recent example of this as just a few weeks ago. And We didn’t rush to do that. We don’t want to rush to do that. This isn’t our heart to to go through all four steps, right?

It’s not a goal. Restoration is the goal. And you pray at each step that that would happen.

“We don’t want to rush. Restoration is the goal. You pray at each step that it would happen.”

And it can happen after the fourth step, which we’ll talk about right now.

Treating the Person as a Brother

If anyone does not obey our word, it says yeah, this is I’m not to the forep yet. This is more about telling it to the church. If anyone does not obey our word in this letter, take special note of that person to not associate with him so that he will be put to shame and yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. We’re still in the if this is a professing believer, you’re regarding this person as a brother or sister in Christ and you love them.

I have been a recipient of some really stinging and painful reu rebutes that I needed that I did not want at that time but have been vital to my growth and health in the Lord. I am so thankful for the courage of people who did that. So thankful they love they did it because they loved me, not because they didn’t love me.

“Do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

I remember one situation in particular in high school. I I thought I thought I was putting on a good show and I this issue in my life was hidden and I just got nailed. It’s as if like do you can you see through my heart? Well, God gives some people certain insight like that in Hebrews 4:13 talks about this. There’s nothing that’s hidden that won’t be brought to light eventually. And in Daniel 2:22, it says he knows God knows what dwells in darkness and light dwells with him. And he gives that discernment to certain people.

So when we do this, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 5.

I think this is really helpful. This it goes back to what we saw earlier.

We’re still in the in the in the mode here through the third step of regarding this person as a brother or sister in Christ.

So important that we because when you’re family, you treat family differently, don’t you? Particularly family in Christ.

I wrote in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or with the greedy and swindlers or with idolattors. For then you would have to go out of the world.

But now I’m writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral. If he is a sexually immoral person or greedy or an idoltor or a violer or a drunker or a swindler, not to even eat with such a one. So we make the we need to be careful in making these distinctions.

So the goal here is restoration. As the seriousness of this person’s sin is conveyed to their brothers and sisters in Christ, professing brothers and sisters in Christ, there should be a shame and an alienation to this that’s appropriate and just that is meant to be a means to restore.

I know that’s not popular in this culture, but it’s just so important and so so helpful.

The question is, do we trust God with the means that he has given to do this?

Some of you may have never seen this happen. I want to encourage you that I have seen it happen and I have seen people restored.

Step Four: Removal

Some of you have as well and it’s a beautiful thing. And then step four, removal. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the gentile and the tax collector.

Now, how do we treat unbelievers?

We love them, don’t we? We want them to be saved, but we don’t regard them as believers. There’s a distinction, right?

We love unbelievers and desire their salvation even while not treating them as part of God’s family of believers. In a sense, if we if we read that 1 Corinthians 5 passage correctly, it’s more appropriate to not associate with a professing believer who’s in sin than with the than with an unbeliever who is. Isn’t that interesting?

“We love them, but we don’t regard them as believers. There’s a distinction.”

We expect unbelievers to sin to be we all sin. I don’t I don’t mean to indicate that we don’t, but to for that to be their lifestyle, what characterizes their lives. I think early on in my in my Christian life, I had a lot of frustration because I expected unbelievers to act like believers. That’s a recipe for frustration. So, we wanna we want to make these proper biblical distinctions.

And so, yeah. So, you can go through this process and have someone removed. They can still attend. Sure.

But you treat them as an unbeliever. Do unbelievers come here? Yeah. We bring we bring them the gospel. So, there’s a lot to sort through here with discernment, but I think this is a helpful u biblical distinction.

Okay?

The Shepherd’s Heart in Discipline

And we think about the shepherd’s heart, always going back to the shepherd’s heart. Do I have God’s heart for this person? Do I have God’s perspective on this person? Oh, I love what it says in Psalm 33 that as God looks out on all people, he says he he knows the hearts of them all. He understands all their works.

So, we want to be tied into him. I love this from 1 John 5:2. I’ve probably mentioned this several times in this setting. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments.

In no other area, well, I think in this area, this is especially important because the steps that God calls us to are not steps that people generally want, but they are steps that God wants.

Let’s apply this. How do I how do I love them? If I love God and keep his commandments, he’s commanded this. And if I do that, I just need to be assured whether whether they like it or not. It’s it’s an it’s a expression of God’s love to them and my love through him to them.

1 John 5:2: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments.”

Remember the Lord disciplines those he loves.

And if we love those who are his, we carry out his discipline, his way to those we love in him.

This is challenging.

I want us to really think about this. We see those passages in Proverbs that he who withholds discipline hates his son. We understand this. Well, let’s apply this to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

If we withhold this, do we really? If we withhold this from one another, do we love one another? No. No, we don’t. I think it’s really worth thinking through and thinking through the implications before they are challenged.

Work through your convictions on this before they are challenged because if you haven’t and it it just pops up, it’s going to be really hard to deal with. But if we’re in this rhythm of this individual discipline where we’re in the word and God is disciplining us day by day, if we have vital sharpening relationships where others are reproving us with his word, let me just say it this way. If we’re a healthy church, church discipline is happening all the time with individuals at at the very least. I count on that.

My small group, some of you men I’m on a really short leash, if I can put it that way. And that’s a really good thing. We you guys holding me accountable, having harder conversations, confronting me, us doing that with one another, that’s that’s step one of first discipline that’s invisible to the rest of the church, right? But I’ll say it boldly. If we’re a healthy church, church discipline is happening regularly.

Does that make sense? For our good because not because God doesn’t love us but because he does. And so for us, I think we don’t think about this merely as checking the right boxes, but having the right relationships with him and one another. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Again, I want I want us to see and to love and appreciate our shepherd’s heart in all of this. That’s what it is. It’s his shephering of us by the means that he has given.

All right, going to do a little bit of Q&A. I’ve got just a couple things here to suggest.

Cultivating a Teachable Spirit

This is a huge topic and I I I encourage you to look at these verses at home and think about it. But how are you cultivating a teachable spirit in your own life?

I’ve told the kids many times growing up that for most people they would rather die than admit they were wrong about anything.

I think that’s most I think that’s most people.

Look with me at Proverbs 9:es 7-9.

He who reproves He who disciplines a scoffer receives disgrace for himself. And he who reproves a wicked man receives injury for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer or he will he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you.

Give knowledge to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Make a righteous man know it and he will increase his learning.

How we receive correction is the litmus test of wisdom in our lives.

“How we receive correction is the litmus test of wisdom in our lives.”

If you want to know if someone’s wise, reprove them. I’m not saying just go around doing this. But that is a litmus test. If someone reproves me and and honestly this is this is a tough one.

We need to cultivate this in our lives.

Receiving Reproof as a Gift

What about when you’re reproved by someone who is a total hypocrite in the thing that he’s reproving you in and it’s kind of a clown? What do you do with that?

I should love that person.

Wow. One of the hardest things to do.

Those other verses talk about that. He he who hates reproof is stupid. It says in Proverbs 12:1, reproofs or discipline are the way of life. Think think of those things that we talked about. Psalm 141:5 is is is high voltage. Let the righteous smite me in kindness. Let not my head let me not refuse it. It’s a gift.

Psalm 141:5: “Let the righteous smite me in kindness. Let me not refuse it. It’s a gift.”

And so I would just challenge us to really think about this both in terms of how we give and how we receive reproof.

I would even go far as to say this. You may not all agree with me, but if I read the book of Proverbs correctly, I am not only wise to receive reproof when it is given. But because it is so valuable, I do well to ask for it.

Now, I know there are two people in my life that are examples of this to me.

One is my father. Praise God because most dads are not like that. And one is Mike Ricardi, our friend, right? And and I I’ve just seen this as a pattern in their lives where they this has been something that they’ve sought and and it’s accelerated their growth and I want to be like them in that respect and so I just recommend that to you to be cultivating that always in your life not just with God that should be every day but how we are with one another. Okay.

So I’m looking forward to the criticism that you’ll give me today about this lesson. I’m sure I’m sure it’s coming.

Testimonies of Church Discipline

How have you seen church discipline exercised and what has been the fruit of it?

Anybody seen it and and and have an example they’d like to like to express at times when like either my mom or my aunt corrects me at first I’m like because of my pride.

Yeah.

I like deny it. Well, I try to argue at first.

Yeah.

But like at times since I’ve been like praying about it and asking God, I will like be silent and hear like not talk over them and try to and listen try to listen to them and then I’ll go back on my own to let go what they’re saying is right. Yeah.

So yeah.

Yeah. I’ve been seeing it a little bit in my life.

I think we’ve all seen that. I mean, I I just it’s our natural reaction to reject it as an insult rather than receiving it as a gift. And I’ll put it this way.

Even if it’s meant as an insult, God has meant it as a gift for you.

There’s a there’s a a sequence with with David as king during his battle with Abselum. And this clown named Shem was following him, throwing rocks and just insult, hurling insults at him. His general wanted to take off his head.

This is this is high voltage. This is heavy. This is this is heavy duty. What what did what did David say to his commander? He said, “No, for the Lord has sent him.” What? The Lord has sent this clown.

Yeah. Yeah. If we believe in the sovereignty of God, that we believe that any input that comes at us should be considered humbling. The pastor who married us, Jim Miller, was a great example of this to me. Remember he said to me, he said, ‘ Mark, when someone corrects you, your first response should always be, “Thank you. I will prayerfully consider that.” And that is not our first natural reaction.

That’s got to be a spirit-led reaction.

Maybe a couple other comments or questions. Mike So I received received some church discipline from a brother about say 12 years ago 13 11 12 years ago I can’t remember the exact time but it was a great lesson because it was at that time that I knew that this brother loved Christ and that he loved me.

The quick story is that Leela and I had started forming a worship team, a little worship band. And at the church we were at on Thanksgiving Eve, we had something called the people service where the pastor would usually teach on Wednesday nights, but he took a break.

And it was Thanksgiving eve and we kind of did what I considered just a a gathering. I didn’t really know the term fellowship at that time. I was relatively new in my faith. But we invited my daughter Mel and my stepson Daniel to perform a song with us up on the the platform during this people service.

And and then the brother called me u shortly thereafter and he said, “Why do you think it’s right that your unsaved children should serve in in ministry?” And I said, ” Jim, I didn’t really think about it that way. I I didn’t number one, I didn’t think that was an actual church service, but I’m I’m glad you called me because I I didn’t think about it that way.”

And it was at that time when I I realized that this brother loved me enough to to confront me on that. And and we had a a good conversation. I didn’t argue with him. I I had no basis to argue because I really didn’t know.

Yeah. But I did research it and I realized that I no, I was not serving my daughter well and I was not serving serving my stepson well by letting them play church with us.

So that that that friendship is the greatest Christian friendship I have to this day. And I love that brother for it and for him confronting me on that. He gained a brother that day.

“I was not serving my daughter well by letting them play church with us. That friendship is the greatest Christian friendship I have.”

Yeah. When when he came alongside me and confronted me. So yeah. And he he he did it because he loved you. Who’s concerned about the salvation of your children. Mike, I don’t know anyone who’s more consumed with the or or has such a heart for the salvation of his children than you.

Next Steps and Closing

And so, thank you for that, brother. So, next week is going to be a Q&A with the elders. Let me just give a little guidance on that. Which will be yeah so it’ll be kind of an we’re going to have some we’re going to compile the questions and be ready to answer them for you and you can look at the slides these will be on the website this week but these are the topics we’ve covered so far from which we want to entertain some questions right hermeneutics and expository preaching the nature of the Bible the trinity sovereign election I expect more than one question on that the gospel of repentance and faith believers Baptism by immersion, elder rule, and church discipline.

We’ve covered some of those today, but so you could speak with me after service today if you have any specific ones you’d like us to answer or email Pastor Dave during the week. We want to really prepare well for you for that and take that time seriously. So please, please send us your questions. We really look forward to that that time together.

And then of course, Greg Thank you. This is where I need these guys. We said we want them by Thursday.

I didn’t put that in the slides. If you could send them to us by Thursday.

Thanks, Greg. That would be great. And those books that I’ve recommended, I have copies of them here. You’re free to to look at them. I don’t know if I want you to borrow them because they’re treasures to me. But, really recommend these and and and again, I hope in this series you’ve seen more than anything our great shepherd and his heart for you and I. And may we grow with a growth that’s from him. Let me close us out in prayer.

“I hope in this series you’ve seen more than anything our great shepherd and his heart for you and I.”

Father, what a joy it is to see something that in our flesh we would hate that our hearts would be transformed to love. May that be true for us this morning as we’ve covered what can be a difficult topic.

We know that whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And if we’re not disciplined by you, we’re illegitimate sons, il illegitimate children.

So, Father, may you open our eyes to see the depths and the perfection of your love for us and your means of carrying those out.

May we be faithful receivers of your discipline, faithful dispensers of it humbly as your sheep. And Father, may you grow this church in depth and breadth and height in all the ways that you want. May we submit fully to your headship, your shephering in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.

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