When the Community Must Act

Psalm 103:8-13 / Matthew 18:15-20

Series Big Idea:

When private appeals fail, Jesus entrusts the weighty responsibility of discipline to the gathered church, not as a punitive court, but as a rescuing family. By exercising the authority to bind and loose, the congregation sorrowfully acknowledges an offender's chosen exile while fervently praying for their return. In these difficult moments of communal accountability, we are assured of Christ's guiding presence among us.

Matthew 18:17-20

"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

1. The Corporate Appeal: When the Family Must Speak

The Mechanism of Grace:

Telling it to the church is not a hasty public announcement. It begins with the individual and witnesses discussing the matter with church elders to review the situation and formally ask for the broader family's help in bringing about reconciliation.

Pastoral Patience:

The church must never rush to a conclusion. The offending individual is given sufficient time to attend any formal discussions. Elders or other members may ask for another chance to reach out, and the church may even form a committee to clarify the situation.

Telling it to the church is not a hasty public announcement, but a formal ask for the broader family's [help] to bring about reconciliation.

The Deepest Concern:

This escalation is necessary because a lack of reconciliation is inconsistent with a profession of faith in Christ and a baptismal pledge to live with a clean conscience toward God. This inconsistency is our deepest concern.

The church's deepest concern in discipline is that unrepentant fracture is inconsistent with a profession of faith and a baptismal pledge to live with a [clean] conscience toward God.

The Unbeliever Application:

If the offending individual is not a professing believer, bringing the matter to the church is an appeal for prayer and counsel on how to rightly love them. This becomes a form of evangelism, making the desire for reconciliation and true fellowship clear through a loving approach.

2. The Missionary Pivot: Treating as a Gentile and Tax Collector

A Sorrowful Recognition:

When Jesus commands us to treat an unrepentant member as a Gentile and tax collector, He is speaking of their religious standing and participation [cite: 2]. This is not an act of vengeance, but the church's public recognition of a spiritual reality the offender has already chosen [cite: 2].

Ecclesiastical, Not Familial:

This separation is strictly ecclesiastical. It does not require familial disconnection. The bonds of a home, the sacred covenant between spouses, and the enduring love and responsibility for sons and daughters all remain beautifully intact. We do not sever household ties. We look instead to the Father's example: God did not abandon Israel or the Church when they wandered, but He actively sought them in their waywardness.

Exclusion from the fellowship is strictly an [ecclesiastical] boundary, never a demand for familial disconnection.

The Boundaries of Openness:

To "treat them as" a Gentile necessitates a continuing openness and active outreach [cite: 2]. While an excluded person is no longer welcome to partake of Holy Communion or vote in business meetings, we still welcome them to attend, learn, and worship with us as "outsiders." We trust God to apply necessary conviction by empowering the declared Word, congregational worship, and informal dialogue to ultimately bring about reconciliation.

Restoration, Not Punishment:

Because of the church and state conflation in European history, Western churches inherited a punitive view of discipline [cite: 2]. We must reclaim the truth that church discipline seeks to accomplish restoration and is never punitive [cite: 2].

While an excluded member loses the privileges of covenant membership, we still [welcome] them to gather with us, trusting [God] to use the declared Word and worship to bring about conviction and reconciliation.

3. The Weight of Authority: Binding, Loosing, and Christ’s Presence

Defining the Keys:

Binding and loosing refers to doctrine and action. It is the authority to declare what is righteous and fitting for a valid profession of faith, and what contradicts it.

Binding and loosing is the church’s authority to declare what actions and doctrines are [fitting] for a valid profession of faith.

In Sync with Heaven:

When the church binds or looses, we are acting as kingdom representatives. We are seeking to be perfectly in sync with God, declaring on earth what has already been established in heaven.

The Promise of Presence:

These moments of communal discipline are agonizing. Yet, Jesus promises that where two or three gather in His name to do this heavy work, He is present among them. We do not judge alone; the Shepherd is in the room.

In the heavy, agonizing moments of church discipline, we are comforted by the promise that the [Shepherd] is in the room with us.

Conclusion: The Bridge to the Table

Looking to Next Week: Every step of this painful, restorative process points us toward a single destination: the Lord's Table. As we prepare our hearts this week to observe Communion next Sunday, we must remember that the Table is the ultimate symbol of the reconciliation we are called to practice. We do not bind and loose to keep people away; we do it with loving hearts, praying the wayward will repent and return to feast with us, picturing the great feast God is preparing for all His People. The very grace we offer in discipline is the grace we ourselves receive when we partake of the one bread and the one cup. Unity in Christ. Fellowship with our eternal family.