The Correction of God’s Children Part 2 | Matthew 18:15-20

Scripture

• Matthew 18:15–20

About this sermon

Introduction: How do we live for God’s glory, as God’s children, during our earthly sojourn? One thing that MUST characterize us is a willingness to walk in God’s plan for the correction of His children. We must be willing to receive correction, when needed. We must be willing to love our brothers and sisters enough that we would be an instrument of rescue, when needed. As it is in any healthy family, so it is in the family of God. We genuinely care about each other. We do not smother each other. We do not exasperate each other. But we DO LOVE EACH other, which means we ARE INVOLVED with each other. This is necessary for healthy church life. We are looking at a passage that teaches us about this. We are looking at NINE elements necessary for the correction of God’s children. Earlier we looked at FOUR. REVIEW: • THE CONTEXT FOR THE INSTRUCTION • THE ELEMENTS OF THE INSTRUCTION • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS A FAMILY MATTER • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS AN ORDERLY MATTER • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS A WISDOM MATTER • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS A REDEMPTIVE MATTER LESSON: Tonight we begin with a fifth element. • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS A NECESSARY MATTER It should be clear to us that what is described in our verses — the conditions that our Lord envisions — are conditions that CONSTANTLY OCCUR in the community of God’s children? The family of God on this side of glorification is not a sinless family. God’s people sin. God’s people sin against each other. God’s people sin in ways that represent a threat to their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of the entire family. God’s people NEED warning. God’s people NEED correction. God’s people NEED help. God’s people NEED forgiveness. God’s people NEED TO GRANT forgiveness. What our Lord addresses is not something that might never occur, nor is it something that RARELY occurs, this is something that REGULARLY occurs. Furthermore, it ought to be plain that what is envisioned here, because it involves circumstances that take place often throughout the Christian life, is not something to be thought of in an overly FORMAL way, but in a FAMILY way. The process is not MECHANICAL. This process is FAMILIAL. It is a family process. This does take on formality in the sense that we follow the steps, but it is not something approached in a way that INDIVIDUALS are treated IMPERSONALLY. This is love from shepherds to sheep. This is love from sheep toward fellow sheep. This is love between members of the same body, the same FAMILY. This is life in the family of God. YOU AND I CANNOT OPT OUT OF THIS RESPONSIBILITY AND REMAIN FAITHFUL TO GOD AND FAITHFUL TO THE FAMILY OF GOD. And sadly, this is precisely how many people want to think about the local church. They want to think about a kind of involvement that includes benefits but not responsibilities. It includes expectations of others but no accountability to others. THAT IS NOT WHAT SCRIPTURE TEACHES. Mutual correction in the family of God is not optional it is necessary. • THE DISCIPLINE OF SIN IS A PERSONAL MATTER (RELATIONAL) Why does it begin one on one? Because we are to know each other. We are to care about each other in a PERSONAL way. In the church we have sincere and eternally meaningful RELATIONSHIPS. Now, it should be obvious — even on the pages of the New Testament when the church explodes with people in the earliest days of its existence — that it will not be possible for each of us to know each member of the church in the same way. We will know some better than others. We will have relationships with some that we don’t have with every member of the church. BUT NO CHURCH MEMBER IS MEANT TO LIVE AN ISOLATED EXISTENCE. We can’t know everyone, but we must all know OTHERS, and be known by others. And if everyone takes this responsibility to heart, the church will love itself as it’s meant to. Ephesians 4:11–16 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We must strive to know others and to be known by others. IT IS UNWISE TO ISOLATE OURSELVES.

Topics

• Parenting