Small Group Leaders Need to Repent

Matt Chandler's sermon from this past weekend was good. That boy can preach. I know it is a good sermon if I am making excuses for myself by the end of it. Here is a quote from the end of this sermon (probably not exact):

"You good husbands, you good fathers, you small group leading, church going, morally righteous men and women, you need to repent . . . . We say I am a better man than my father was, I am a good man to my wife and children, I am a good mother, I am a hard worker, I am involved at church, and Jesus says "REPENT!", that does not save you, that does not justify, and it is just as God mocking as anything out there."

His point is that religion doesn't save anybody, being a good person doesn't save, even obeying the Bible and loving others doesn't save. The work of Christ, his death and resurrection, saves all whom God chooses to regenerate. There is no other way, and no amount of human effort will help our situation (Rom 9:16). We are completely dependant upon God.

After all, the best we can offer God is filthy rags(Isa 64:6). So, if we continue to do good, or even if we do great things and help millions of people in the name of Christ, we are just making a mountain of dirty dish towels to lay before the feet of God. Also, we run the risk of being just like the group of good deed doers who are told that their deeds do not equal salvation (Matt 7:22-23).

If we want to make an effort, then we don't need to look to any rules or good deeds. Obedience and good deeds are only godly whenever the flow from the Spirit's work in our life as we reflect upon the cross of Christ. We have to continually look to the cross and the person of Jesus. He is our only hope.

As Calvin, in his Institutes and Romans Commentary, stated:

"Christ has been given to us for righteousness; whosoever obtrudes on God the righteousness of works, attempts to rob him of his office. And hence it appears that whenever men, under the empty pretence of being zealous for righteousness, put confidence in their works, they do in their famous madness carry on war with God himself."

"But if we are chosen in him, we shall find no assurance of our election in ourselves, nor even in God the Father, considered alone, abstractly from the Son. Christ, therefore, is the mirror in which we must contemplate our election."

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Why Not Church Discipline?

Church discipline is not a popular topic for most Christians. Why not? Do we really understand the purpose of church discipline? If we did, then we would thank God for this duty rather than cringing at its mention. I have come across several quotes that illustrate the importance and purpose of church discipline:

"As the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the church, so discipline forms the ligaments which connect the members together, and keep each in its
proper place. Whoever, therefore, desires either the abolition of all discipline, or obstruct its restoration, whether they act from design or inadvertency, they certainly promote the entire dissolution of the church." - Calvin

"Too often now when people join a church, they do so as consumers. If they like the product, they stay. If they do not, they leave. They can no more imagine a church disciplining them than they could a store that sells goods disciplining them. It is not the place of the seller to discipline the consumer. In our churches we have a consumer mentality." - Haddon Robinson

"Church discipline, even the final stage of excluding persistent sinners from church membership, is really just using our last resort in pleading with an erring brother or sister to forsake sin and return to the loving arms of the Lord who longs to forgive him or her." - Ronald Sider

The purpose of church discipline is to restore the wandering brother. We are all prone to wander, and the willingness of a fellow Christian or a church to make every effort to pull us back into the body of Christ is something to praised, not condemned or avoided. Discipline is an opportunity to show someone how much you love them. Just as a father is not properly loving his child when he refuses to discipline his child when the son or daughter disobeys, it is no different when a church refuses to discipline a wayward member. If I love my children, then I will discipline them when necessary. If a church loves its members, then it will discipline them when necessary.

Church discipline is a means of grace that the church should not dismiss simply because it is inconvenient or uncomfortable. Christ is our ultimate example of enduring the inconvenient and uncomfortable for the sake of those he loves; church discipline is one way to follow his example.

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