A Scandalous People

Big Idea

Tension: How does the Church’s life match up with the redemption she has through Christ?

Resolution: Through the faithful practice of Church Membership and Discipline.

Exegetical Idea: The Church’s corporate life matches up with the redemption she has through Christ through teh faithful practice of Church Membership and Discipline.

Theological Idea: The Church grows into her redemption through church membership and discipline.

Exegetical Idea: We can only grow into our salvation through church membership and discipline.

Outline

Introduction: Church Memberhsip and Discipline. Not normal today. Many of us are confused. There is some question with some people about whether or not it is biblical. Some denominations think it is outright sinful. My goal is to convince you about the importance of Church Membership and Discipline for every believer.

Read the Passage

“Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.” 7b - This all starts with the gospel. Remember the story of hte Passover,that God was going to send his punishing angel upon Egypt for not allowing Israel to be released. So God instructed every Israelite to take a lamb and to slaughter it and put the blood on the doorpast. So that way when the angel passed overhead, then he would look and see the blood on teh doorposts, and “Pass over” the houses of Israel. The blood of the Israelites was their substitute, their sacrifice for their sins. And what Paul says is that just as that lamb allowed Israel to be spared from GOd’s wrath, so Jesus Christ has allowed CHristians to be spared from God’s wrath. He is our Passover Lamb. His blood has been put ont eh wood above our heads. It is his death which has made us right with God, and his life which has given us life.

“Let us therefore celebrate the festival” (8a) Now, just like after the Passover, the Israelites would eat a Passover meal of unleavened bread, so Paul tells us that we too should eat a Passover meal. And here, I believe that he is talking about the Lord’s Supper. If Christ really has been sacrificed for us as the Passover Lamb, then we celebrate the Passover meal when we gather together and take the Lord’s Supper.

“, not with teh old leaven, teh leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” But, hte leaven that should be kept from teh Passover meal is not so much yeast. This leaven is referring to sin. So the Church should seek to purify itself when taking the Lord’s table of sin. Because Christ has saved us as the Passover Lamb, we should seek to celebrate the Passover Meal, but with cleanness and sincerity.

“Cleanse out the Old Leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.” (8a) Paul says, when we do this, we are becomign what we already are. Just like a kid who gets a coat that is too big for him for Christmas will grow into it, when we purify ourselves from our sin, we are growing into our salvation. We are becoming what we already are.

“Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (6b)? Now, Paul says, the reason that you need to cleanse out the sin in your midst, is that if you don’t the sin, will grow. In other words, be killing sin or it will be killing you. IF we allow sin in our midst, it will keep us from becoming what we already are, and therefore, it will keep us from celebrating the Lord’s Table, and it will unlatch us, unhook us, unanchor us from our salvation in Christ.

“Your boasting is not good” (6a) But now, if we look back to the beginning of vs. 6, we see the reason that Paul is telling them this. It is that they are being arrogant in some way. Now, this arrogance was keeping them from cleansing themselves of sin. And what is interesting is that this word for boasting is the same word Paul uses in chapter one to talk about glorying in the cross. So here he is saying your “glory”, your “boast”, your significance and worht is not good. They were cutting themselves off from glorying in the cross. How?

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant!” (1-2a) So apparently what has happened is that there was a person in the church, perhaps even a leader in teh church, who was having a long running affair with his stepmother. And this person has apparently been talked to about it, and he refuses to stop. It is a long running, habitual, continuous affair. And how the Corinthians had reconciled themselves to this reality was by saying, “Well, we believe in grace, so we can boast that grace even covers this sin.” And Paul’s response is to say, that is boasting, impetuous, arrogant, blasphemous, proud, defiant. Why? Because in this, they denied God’s grace. Howso? Because while saying, “Grace forgives,” they forgot to say, “Grace produces fruit.” “Grace pardons,” they said, but they never said, “Grace purifies.” In other words, teh same Christ that justifies you, is the Christ that sanctifies you. God’s grace not only covers our sin, but it also changes us. And the Corinthians were arrogant by not recognizing it.

“Ought you not rather to mourn?" (2b) Paul says that hte proper response is not arrogance, it’s not defiance, it’s not blasphemy, it’s not pride or impetuousness, it’s lamentation. It is weeping. It’s sorrow. Why? Because of what you have to do.

“Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (2c) Therefore, this person who is causing you so much sin and keeping you from celebrating the Lord’s table in sincerity in truth, who is keeping you from becoming what you already are, this person who is unhinging you from the gospel, must be removed from among you. You have to cleanse out the old leaven. How?

“When you are assembled in teh name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present,” (4a) Now, one note on this translation. This is a perfectly fine translation with one errror I want to correct. That word “spirit” should be “Spirit” with a capital “S”. In other words, “You have the same Holy Spirit that I do. You don’t need me for htis, you need him.” This is why he says in vs. 3 “For though I am absent in body, I am present in Spirit and as if present, I have already pronounced hjudgment on the one who did such a thing.” Paul says, My Spirit is right there. ANd you should follow his leadership to do what needs to be done. But notice that this starts with the gatehering of the saints. Paul says, “when you get together, when you gather, when you come together.” So the leaders of teh Church are not doing this on their own, the membership is not doing this on their own, but the Church is gathering together to take decisive action. THey are doing this in the name of Jesus Christ, with his authority, with his power, with his presence, and with the Holy Spirit guiding them.

“with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (4b-5a) Now, there are three important things in this to undestand what ius meant by “deliver”.

First off, we are “delivering with the power of the Lord Jesus.” When the Church takes decisive action to “remove someone from their midst” they are doing it with Christ’s power. People who condemn church discipline, hwo complain about it, who hate it, hate the power of Jesus Christ. Because Christ has given disciplien to his church to protect it so that it would be all that he has called it to be.

Secondly, they deliver him to Satan (1 Tim 1:18-20). Now what does it mean to deliver someone to Satan. Well, Christ is the Lord of the Church. That the Church is the Kingdom of Christ. It is how God brings his kingdom and will down from heaven to earth. But the world is Satan’s dominion. He is called the Prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) So when he says to remove someone from their midst, they are being removed from the Church, and being turned out into the world. To be out of fellowship of the Churhc is to be under the dominion of Satan.

“For the destruction of the flesh so that he may be saved on teh day of the Lord” - Now, when it says “flesh” here, it is talking about their sin nature. So the hope behind church discipline is that their sin nature, their sinfulness, their wickedness will be destroyed, and by, contrast, that their spirit can be saved. Do you understand this, that Church Discipline is given to save people. Why? Because it is removing sinners from teh church.

Now, underneath all of this is the presupposition, that God uses Church Discipline to either save or preserve his children, while at the same time weeding out false believers from his church.

So, now, does this mean that we should just kick out sinners in all realms of the Church? That whoever is going to church and living like a sinner?

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” (1 Cor 5:9-10) So now Paul says, no no. If someone is in the world, that is, an unbeliever, is welcome to come and worship. We’re not talking about expelling every sinner from the Church.

“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler-not even to eat with such a one.” (11) Okay so here is how he explains it. He says “anyone who bears the name of brother” if he is engaged in sin, then he should be expelled. So what we see here is that the average worship service consists of two groups. You have the big gathering, which is everybody, both believers and unbelievers. But then inside of that, you have a smaller gathering which is only people who are members whose lifestyle looks like they are believers. ANd when someone who claims to be a Christian, who engages in habitual, long term sin, refuses to repent, they are removed from teh inner circle, which is membership, but they are still welcome to stay in teh outer circle, which is attending the church. WHy? Because as far as the church is concerned, they are living like unbelievers and therefore they should not be considered believers by the church.

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” (12-13) Now, here Paul reiterates all this. And he says, the relationship of church members to the outside is to be welcoming, it is to be loving, it is to be evangelizing. God does the judging there. But towards those inside, the church is to keep them pure. WHy? Because so that their soul may be saved.

Church Membership and Discipline is necessary for our vision as a church

We started off this series on teh Scandalous Church by saying that there are some things that seem strange to the world, but that the church must never do without. It is fair to say that this seems strange to the world, but without it, the church will not be what God wants it to be.

We follow Christ

We help others follow Christ

To bring God glory

Conclusion: 2 Corinthians

Here is why merely attending a church is not enough

Paul says that the church is to grow into her salvation. But he does not make a distinction between the individual believer and the church body. Rather, if you are a Christian, your Christian growth depends on you being part, a member, of a body of believers. By the same token, other people are missing out on growth if you are attending and not a member. In other words, it is nearly impossible to follow Christ together, if we are not members of a church.

Church discipline is the power of God to save people. But Church discipline only matters if you have a meaningful membership. If you do not have any kind of inner group, then removing someone from the inner group does not mean anythign.

One of the most damnable heresies of the American Church that we need to repent of, is the celebrity pastorism. We thinkt hat because someone looks cool and trendy, that they are therefore successful. We don’t care about their lifestyle, we don’t care about their faithfulness, we don’t care about their theology. God help us. We have an epidemic of disqualified pastors who preach heresy week after week in churches across America. But here’s the problem. It is the church’s job to hold pastors accountable. And the way that God gives to hold pastors who fall into sin, who fall into heresy, accountable is through church discipline. But if you are not a member of the church, then you have no potential to do that.

Paul just said that to be outside the church, is to be handed over to Satan. If you are not a member of a church, you are in some sense in the realm of Satan. It is the church that is the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Come inside from the cold, come inside from the darkness, come into the warmth of the people of God.