The Accountability of the Local Church
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Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Accountability
1. The Accountability of Church Discipline
1. The Accountability of Church Discipline
-In the context, Jesus is teaching on the importance of not offending one of His children
-It would be better for someone to have a millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea than for someone to cause one of His dear children to stumble
-He loves His children so much, that He seeks those who stray from Him in sin or offense
-In this context, we find Jesus’ clear teaching on the subject of church discipline
Vs. 15
-if a brother sins against you
-Now, some manuscripts have “sin against you”, whereas others just have “if you brother sins”
-Either way you translate it is fine, because it’s clear from other Scriptures that we are to seek to restore a brother who falls into sin, whether or not it is against us (Galatians 6:1)
-So, if a brother sins, you go and confront him of his fault, just you and him
-Let’s say that I see Kevin out at Walmart, and I watch him steal a cell phone when no one is looking
-I’m going to go and confront him about his sin
-Notice, we don’t tell ANYONE else at this point
-You don’t even need to go to pastor about this yet
-We don’t post about it on facebook
-We don’t share it as a prayer request in Sunday School
-Now, what’s the purpose behind this confrontation??
-gaining your brother: restoration!
-Let’s say though, that Kevin says “nah man, forget you. Get outta my business.”
-Now, what’s the next step?
Vs. 16
-Now, we’ve got a bigger problem
-Now, I go get pastor and deacon or maybe 2
-Now we all go together to Kevin, and we talk to him about his sin
-Why?
-So that there can be a clear testimony of the confrontation in case he doesn’t want to repent
-And also, I believe in part to help him understand the seriousness of the situation
-So let’s say Kevin says “nah man, forget all you of you! Get outta my life.”
-What’s the next step?
Vs. 17
-We call a church business meeting and bring Kevin in front of the church
-We confront him in front of the whole church now, tell everyone his sin, and we all come together to urge him to repent
-Now if Kevin refuses to repent, what happens?
-We excommunicate him. We kick him out of our local body of believers
-Not in that we take a couple of the bigger men in church and physically throw him out on his ear!
-But as far as our church body goes, we treat him like an unsaved person
-He’s either unsaved, or he’s living in blatant rebellion
-We do not let him partake of the Lord’s supper with us!
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,
Our hope is that this brother will repent of his sin and make it right, or that he’ll get saved!
-This is not excluding him from Christianity forever, but just until he repents or gets saved!
-This is an incredibly dangerous place to be!
-how do you know??
of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
It is a very dangerous place to be, when you’ve been excommunicated from your local assembly!
-You are in a sense, outside of the protection of the Messianic community, the people of God, and are in a very very dangerous place to be
Robert Mounce says in his commentary on 1 Timothy 1:20
The appropriate remedial measure for those who live within believing fellowship but conduct themselves as outsiders is to return them to Satan’s realm. There Satan will deal with them as recaptured deserters, sinners experiencing the natural consequence of their sin. In Satan’s realm they will learn (in the full experiential sense of the word) not to speak evil of God by distorting his message for ulterior reasons and personal gain.
Vs. 18-20
-These verses make it clear that when church discipline is done the right way, it has the backing of Christ’s authority
-Vs. 18
-the sense here is not that the church tells heaven what to do, but that the church does the will of heaven when it disciplines in this way
-Anyone who is disciplined in this way, can be assured that it is not primarily the church passing this judgement on them, but Christ Himself
-He is there in that decision of excommunication
-Also too, this does not work for your “I’m going to do Jesus at starbucks with my friends” kind of thinking
-Jesus is clearly thinking here of an organized body of believers that meets regularly
-As a preacher I listened to once said, go ahead and try excommunicating someone from starbucks and see what happens
Now, here’s a really good question for you to think about:
-What are the steps to be taken to restore someone if they are a Christian but aren’t part of a local church?
-THERE ARE NONE
-For sure, you can go and confront that person, and you probably should!
-But after that, there’s not much more you can do
-Jesus here assumes that people who are truly born again are going to be a part of an organized local body of believers
-So if you’re not, there’s great danger
-I’ve gone and confronted a Christian over sin that wasn’t a part of a local body
-And after your confrontation, there’s really not much left to be done
-Brothers and sisters, you need to be an active member of a local church
-Often, not always, but often someone doesn’t want to become a member of a local church is because they don’t want that accountability
-but as Christians, we should embrace and welcome that!
-I don’t plan on living in open sin! Do you?
-And I certainly don’t want to! So there should be no hesitation about joining a church!
-And furthermore, if I fall into that, I would certainly want that accountability and confrontation to help bring me out of that
-When you are not a member of a good local church, you are in a dangerous place
2. The Accountability of Pastors
2. The Accountability of Pastors
Let’s start in Ephesians 4:11
-Now, in the context, Paul is talking about the church, God’s people (vs. 4-6)
-Paul is talking about Christ giving gifts (vs. 8)
-What gifts does Christ give His church?
Vs. 11
-Apostles and prophets were the foundation gifts (2:20)
-Evangelists seem to be men who were especially gifted and burdened to preach the gospel to the lost
-Then we have pastors and teachers
-These 2 terms can probably be viewed together, since according to 1 Timothy 3, which we looked at last week, pastors are required to be able to teach
-Why does God give these offices, and specifically, the office of pastor/teacher?
Vs. 12
-So that the saints can be equipped for ministry!
-also, so that the body of Christ will be built up!
-to what purpose?
Vs. 13
-that we as a local body would come to unity and faith in the Son of God
-so that we as a local body would be a mature and perfect man and measure up to Christlikeness!
Vs. 14
-that we shouldn’t be carried about by every wind of doctrine!
-there’s so much deceit and false doctrine out there
-God has gifted pastors and teachers to protect God’s people, to teach them so they aren’t deceived and so they are built up in unity and maturity
Vs. 15-16
-So that the local body as a whole may grow up into Christ
-He is the One who nourishes His body and causes growth
So, we see that pastor/teachers are a gift from God to His church to equip them, to help them mature, and to protect them from false teaching
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
-Who are those who rule over you?
Look at the context:
Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
-These are pastor/teachers, shepherds of God’s people
What is the command to believers?
-Obey them and be submissive to them?
-WHY?
-Because they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account!
-Give account to who?
-to God
Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
-It’s his flock!
-Brothers and sisters, this is another reason church membership is so important!
-How are your pastors supposed to know who they are responsible to give account to God for if there’s no church membership
Mark Dever, on talking about this concept, said it’s not like pastors are just sargeants in the Lord’s army that walk around ordering Christians around
-They are to shepherd a local congregation of people who have submitted themselves to their care
-It ought to be a joy for your pastors to shepherd you, and a joy for them to be able to give account of you one day!
-If it’s grievous for them to do these things, that would not be good for you!
Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
You see then, it is God’s will for every Christian to come under the shepherding and watchfulness of a pastor of a local church!
-This is the way that God has ordained for you to be protected and built up in Christ
-And if you are not under the care and watch of a good pastor, you are outside of God’s will for you, and outside of the protection and nurturing that He desires for you!
-Don’t you see why the local church is so important?
3. The Accountability of Meeting Together
3. The Accountability of Meeting Together
-Turn lastly to Hebrews 10:23-25
The writer of Hebrews has been encouraging his listeners not to turn back from faith in Christ
-He shows them how Christ is so much better than the Old Covenant, and Sacrificial System, and the old priesthood and sacrifices
-Vs. 23
-Hold fast to the confession of our hope!
-why?
-God is faithful! He never changes and always keeps His promises
-Look at what he says next:
Vs.24-25
-We are to stir up, to provoke
-The word has a strong emotional connotation, and is often used in the negative sense
-But here, we are to stir up one another to love and good works
Vs. 25
-not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
-When your church meets, don’t miss out!
-Stop ditching the meetings of your local body
-This is the manner, or habit of some already
-People aren’t out of the habit of coming to church, they’re in the habit of NOT coming faithfully
-Stop forsaking these meetings, but exhort one another!
-Encourage each other!
-Build each other up!
-All the more so as the end approaches
Why do I need the accountability of the local church?
-Because we have a tendency towards falling away
-We have a tendency towards discouragement
-We have a tendency to stop being faithful to God like we ought to be
Application
Application
-Brothers and sisters, it is God’s will for you, His purpose for you, His command to you, to be an active and faithful member of a local church
-If you are not an active and faithful member of a local church, or seeking to become one, you are not living in obedience to God’s purpose for you
-We must commit ourselves to our local bodies
-We must teach our families why it is so vitally important to be part of a good local church
-So many kids and teens grow up in homes where they may go to church, but it’s never really explained to them what the local church is and why it’s important
-We must disciple those under our influence about how vital and important the local church is
-This is not an option. Church is not just for elite Christians
-It’s not extra credit in God’s eyes that you can do if you want to be a special Christian, but you don’t really HAVE to go if you don’t want
-We must be faithful to be members of a church that rightly performs church discipline
-We must submit ourselves to the shepherding and teaching of good pastors
-We must be faithful to meet together to exhort and encourage one another