Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Isn’t it funny how when we are driving in traffic and we cut someone off and they honk at us, our first thought is, “Well I had to do it.

I had to get over to that lane to make that exit.

They just didn’t understand what circumstances I was in.

They should be a little more kind.

It’s just part of driving.”

But when someone cuts us off and we have to slam our brakes we immediately think how big of an idiot that person has to be.

I mean they shouldn’t have a license.

In fact, they shouldn’t even be able to have friends or a family or any joy in this life at all because of how stupid they are!

Why is it that when we are the ones in the wrong we want others to understand and show us kindness, but when other people wrong us we want them to pay?

The answer is because it is not natural for us to give grace.

It is not natural for us to forgive others.

We all want to be given grace when someone else has to make that sacrifice, but we don’t like it when we are the ones who have to do the forgiving.

Knowing this, Jesus told us a very important parable in to show us that we has Christians must be the first to forgive others because we ourselves were forgiven of so much first.

Jesus’ story teaches us that forgiven people forgive.

Context

Before we dive into this parable, we need to get a little bit of context for why Jesus told it to his disciples in the first place.

In , Jesus tells another parable to teach his disciples about the Father’s heart towards sinners.

He said, What do you think?

If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

In this short story, Jesus tells us a truth about God that is the very foundation of our faith.

He is a God of grace.

When we go astray, God doesn’t sit there tapping his foot thinking to himself how you should have done better, but God comes after you.

He pursues you because it is not his will that one of his sheep should perish because of sin.

And then, Jesus moves from this story to lay out what is commonly understood to be the process of church discipline.

Now we are a church that strives to practice biblical church discipline.

And people get a little antsy when they hear church discipline because they immediately think of excommunication or removing a member from the church.

They think that it shows no grace.

That it is harsh and legalistic, and who are we to judge anyway because we are all sinners.

And while that is true, we must see two very important aspects about church discipline.

Church discipline is a process.

It is a long road of unrepentant willful sin that leads to someone’s removal from the church.

It is not an instantaneous decision.

Church discipline is rooted in God’s heart to restore people to the church.

This is why Jesus introduced this teaching with the parable of the lost sheep.

He was trying to show us that the goal of church discipline is not punitive in nature, but is given for the purpose of redeeming the sinner.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

17 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.

18 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.

19 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.

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

17 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.

18 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.

19 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.

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

So this is how Jesus has told us to deal with unrepentant sin.

First, if a brother or sister sins against us, we must go to them one on one and seek to reconcile the relationship.

If they repent, we are to forgive and show grace like the Father shows grace and we gain our brother or sister back.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But if they refuse to repent, we take one or two others with us that have witnessed the sin or have heard what happened and said, “You know what.

That is sin.

We must go tell them.”

If they repent, then we are to forgive and show grace like the Father and we gain our brother or sister back.

But if they still do not repent of their sin and turn from their sin, then the matter is taken before the whole church who pleads with them to repent and follow Christ.

And if they repent, we are to forgive and show grace like the Father and if they do not they are to be to us a Gentile and tax collector.

This is excommunication.

They are to be treated as an unbeliever.

And this Paul tell’s us in is done in hope.

That we remove them from the church to hand them over to Satan in hope that they will see their sin for what it is and repent and return to the church where we are called to forgive and show grace like the Father.

Remember that Jesus started this teaching by showing us that the Father’s heart is to pursue the sheep that goes astray so that they would be brought back into the fold instead of perishing in their sin.

Church Discipline was given to the church as a safeguard for maintaining a holy witness.

According the the Bible, the local church is meant to be a reflection of the universal church.

That means, in as much as possible, the members of local congregations should be comprised of only regenerate Christians.

Those that have been saved.

If Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the fence around the sheep, then Church Discipline is the gate that allows us to remove goats (that is false Christians) and wolves (false teachers) from the flock so that we might maintain our holy witness before the world that Jesus saves.

And Jesus knows this is a difficult process, one that by God’s grace we won’t have to work through together as a congregation, because he says in verse 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

This is commonly used to affirm that Christ is present with us in our worship gatherings but Jesus gave this promise to encourage the church to work towards holiness together.

It is so much easier to just let sin go unchecked in someone’s life allowing them to make a total wreck of their faith.

But Jesus encourages us to do the hard work of pursuing our brothers and sisters like God pursues the lost sheep so that they will not perish because of their sin.

And this is where we begin our passage because hearing this, Peter comes up to Jesus and asks him the same question that you and I are to ashamed to admit.

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?

As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Hearing Jesus say that the goal for church discipline is always forgiveness and grace because that is the very heart of the Father, Peter asks Jesus, “Ok.

That sounds good Jesus, but how many times do we actually have to forgive a brother or sister who sins against us?

The plan you laid out is good and all, but don’t people use up all their tickets at a certain point?

How many times do we have to forgive them before we can just be done with them?”

And Peter even puts a number on it.

He says “As many as seven times?”

Now Peter used this number intentionally.

Rabbis in Jesus’ day often said that you only had to forgive someone for something three times.

After that you could write them off.

Peter more than doubles that number so he is actually trying to learn from Jesus and be more generous than the religious hypocrites of the day.

Now you might think Peter’s question is foolish or harsh, but consider your own life.

Have you ever given up on someone because they were just too frustrating?

Where you let a relationship sour because they didn’t deserve your forgiveness after everything they’ve done?

We all have this bent.

To throw people out as soon as they start becoming inconvenient.

We think to ourselves, Well who needed them anyway and we cut them out of our life and move on.

But according to Jesus, that is not the right answer.