Let’s start this meeting with God by openly professing to one
another and to God:
Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Psalm of praise: 89:1, 3
Prayer
Psalm 2:5
Scripture
reading:
Romans 1:16, 17 and Matthew 16:13-23
Scripture
text:
Matthews 16:19; Catechism Lord’s Day 31
And I
will give you the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you
lock on earth will be locked in heaven, and whatever you open on earth
will be opened in heaven. (Matthews
16:19 NLT)
When people become angry and feel offended when they are admonished and
encouraged to join the congregation in worship is such a terribly sad
thing to happen. But even if it does happen we should keep on
admonishing, because nobody can expect to belong to a church if he does
not worship the Lord whole-heartedly, or if he wants to do it according
to his own rules.
In the church we should therefore distinguish between the following
people:
- Those who truly know and worship the Triune God – they must
be incorporated in the church.
- The iniquitous people – they should be admonished and their
spiritual needs should be administered to in order to bring them to
repentance.
- Those who refuse to repent – they should, for the sake of
the
holy God and his holy church be excluded from the church.
This is the meaning of the Lord’s words to his church when He
says that He gives them the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and that they
should lock and open on earth.
Let’s consider two facets of discipline:
1. Church discipline and preaching of
the holy gospel
2. Church discipline in practice
1. Church discipline and preaching of
the holy gospel
The Lord made the church responsible for preaching the gospel of the
Lord Jesus. This is not responsibility to judge!
- It’s firstly an act of love:
- God’s delights in the repentance of a sinner, and the
angels
in heaven rejoice when a sinner repents.
- Judgement
only comes up when discipline has to be applied because a person would
not accept kind admonishment and has to be banned from church.
- Also, it is not the members of the consistory who decide on this.
Jesus
Christ is King of the church – He decides on what and how
these things should be done in the church.
- The
elders act on his command, in other words whatever decision they take
should be according to what the Bible says about the specific matter.
- This is
why the Lord Jesus constantly teaches and admonishes us through the
preaching of his Word. He teaches us that He is infuriated when people
persist in
committing sin.
When these principles are taught in the church in a true and sincere
manner, the key authority is practised already. Think about it:
- Through constant preaching the kingdom of heaven is opened by
teaching
the people about salvation through the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit
brings those who listen to the preaching of God’s grace, to
repentance and then they believe.
- Closing through preaching of the gospel consists in teaching all
people
that they bear specific responsibility to the Lord.
- The Lord
instructs them to glorify Him through worship.
- They are
also instructed to abide by the order that the Lord instituted in the
church.
- And if
they refuse to abide by the worship and order taught by the Lord, they
should be excluded from the church.
The Lord excludes
from his kingdom all who rebel against Him. A perfect
example of this was when the devil was cast out of heaven.
The mercy of the Lord is not only preached in every sermon. It is also
done visually through the sacraments when we hear and see and also
taste of the Lord’s mercy to me.
- However, those who do not abide by the order of the church may
not
partake in these. He should experience the result of him rejecting the
Lord so that it could bring him to repentance.
- When a person physically experiences being treated as an
unrighteous
person, he would realise the value of God’s love for him.
To the Lord disciplinary action is a legal act
- He clearly shows that people who treat his love with contempt
cannot
enjoy the same privileges as those who truly love the Lord.
- He who hates the Lord cannot lay claim to his mercy.
This doesn’t mean that the Lord has no mercy.
- He has mercy: The righteous will have eternal life through faith.
- The opposite, of course, is also true: The unrighteous will
perish
because he does not believe.
The elders should see to it that the minister preaches all these,
because in the Christian congregation are righteous and unrighteous
people and they should all know about these things. Consider the words
of the Lord Jesus when He said to the people:
“For not all
who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, . . .”
(Romans 9:6 RSV)
2. Church discipline in practice
God wants his church to remain true. If all the brotherly admonitions
bear no fruit, the unrighteous will appear before God who will judge
them.
This disciplinary action is most evident around the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper. At times there are people in the church living
like the unfaithful.
- If they partake of the Lord’s Supper it would be
desecration
of the sanctity of the Lord and his sacrament.
- Their public sins often offend the other people.
The Lord demands that such people should be admonished in a brotherly
way to change their lives.
- If they refuse to listen and continue to tarnish the communion of
saints, the process starts to exclude them from the church, in other
words from the kingdom of heaven.
- This is a very serious matter because, based on the passage we
read,
when a person is legally excluded from the church on earth in the Name
of the Lord, he is also banished from heaven.
- It means that you cannot join another church when you are under
discipline (censure) or when you have already been excluded from the
church. The reason is that the Lord of the church disciplines you and
no other church can overrule the actions of the God of the church.
- When you’ve been banished from the church, you are also
banished from heaven.
Now what is it all about? It’s all about us
being members of
the church in order to worship the Lord and to glorify Him.
- The Lord has to be glorified. Whoever wants to be members of the
church
should participate in glorifying the Lord – according to his
instructions of course.
- When certain members do not want to do it, it’s clear that
they do not belong in the church and therefore they should either
repent or leave the church.
Church discipline is in the first place about the glory of God, and
then naturally also the glory of his church.
- A church is not
honourable when it accommodates people who rebel
against God!
- Such people are a
great annoyance to the Lord, because the glory of God
and the worship of the other members of the church suffer because of
their conduct.
- This annoyance and offence should be removed from the church of
God.
Now this certainly doesn’t mean that church discipline is an
instrument used by the consistory to get rid of people they
don’t like.
- This cannot happen, because the church does not belong to them.
- It is the church of God, and God’s people may be treated
only
according to God’s instructions.
Jesus Christ is the only Head of the
church, and all the people in the
church belong to Him: This is why He disciplines those who are
disobedient.
- The consistory is only but an instrument that carries out the
will of
the Lord.
- This is why in the case of the dismissal of an elder or deacon
the help
of two neighbouring congregations are requested;
- and in the case of the ban or excommunication of a member the
judgment
of the entire Classis,
- and in the case of the dismissal of a minister the help of the
entire
Particular Synod.
- This is to ensure that the will of the Lord is carried out in the
case
of this particular person.
Because God is a loving God, discipline is also based on love in the
first place.
- Discipline tries to bring a sinner to repentance.
- In
practice it means that members of the consistory first visit the member
and try to persuade him to turn away from that which does not promote
the holiness of God.
- The sinner maybe needs help to overcome his problem and he has
the
right to request their help. However,
it should lead to true repentance.
- The purpose of discipline is to embarrass the sinner in order for
him
to turn away from sin.
- Therefore he is also not allowed to partake of the Lord’s
Supper.
- He must
realise that God has laid down certain principles and that God
maintains discipline by sticking to these principles.
We find this principle in the Scriptures in, amongst others, John 3:18:
There
is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not
trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of
God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came
into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for
their actions were evil. (John 3:18, 19 NLT)
Jesus guarantees two things:
- The salvation of the righteous
- The expulsion of the unrighteous
The church preaches salvation and grace through the Lord Jesus Christ
to everybody. Those who do not accept it are obviously not people with
whom we want to associate. They should be banished from the church.
Let’s do some soul-searching and see whether we experience
the peace of eternal life, and have the will to worship the Lord
whole-heartedly. Then we feel at home in the congregation and in the
family of the Lord.
Let’s read together Catechism Lord’s Day 31.
83. Q. What are the keys of the
kingdom of heaven?
A. The preaching of the holy
gospel and church discipline. By these two
the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and closed to
unbelievers.[1]
[1] Matt. 16:19; John 20:21-23.
84. Q. How is the kingdom of heaven
opened and closed by the preaching
of the gospel?
A. According to the command of
Christ, the kingdom of heaven is opened
when it is proclaimed and publicly testified to each and every believer
that God has really forgiven all their sins for the sake of Christ's
merits, as often as they by true faith accept the promise of the
gospel. The kingdom of heaven is closed when it is proclaimed and
testified to all unbelievers and hypocrites that the wrath of God and
eternal condemnation rest on them as long as they do not repent.
According to this testimony of the gospel, God will judge both in this
life and in the life to come.[1]
[1] Matt. 16:19; John 3:31-36;
20:21-23.
85. Q. How is the kingdom of heaven
closed and opened by church
discipline?
A. According to the command of
Christ, people who call themselves
Christians but show themselves to be unchristian in doctrine or life
are first repeatedly admonished in a brotherly manner. If they do not
give up their errors or wickedness, they are reported to the church,
that is, to the elders. If they do not heed also their admonitions,
they are forbidden the use of the sacraments, and they are excluded by
the elders from the Christian congregation, and by God Himself from the
kingdom of Christ.[1] They are again received as members of Christ and
of the church when they promise and show real amendment.[2]
[1] Matt. 18:15-20; I Cor. 5:3-5;
11-13; II Thess. 3:14, 15. [2] Luke
15:20-24; II Cor. 2:6-11.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 118:9
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
Dr
MJ du Plessis
Reformed
Church Bellville
Date:
30 January 2005 (evening)