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Defending the Church's Holiness
55 Plays3 months ago
Series: Managing the Ministry of the Local Church
1 Tim. 5:17-25
Recommended
Transcript
Historical vs. Modern Church Discipline
00:00:00
Speaker
Long gone are the days of public shaming. You know, this was an integral part of the early church, if you can believe that. Now we live in a culture that if you merely say public shaming, there's a connotation that it's wrong or evil. And that the only way that we should really handle problems within the church is by positive reinforcement. and praise. It's the old adage of the carrot and the stick, those of you who are familiar with that. The carrot says that some people respond best to simply a reward, where the stick says some people respond to the discipline.
The Necessity of Church Discipline
00:00:50
Speaker
The problem is, friends, that we have now become a society of all carrots and no stick.
00:00:59
Speaker
which is fine and dandy for Little League, where everybody gets a trophy these days, but it's a real problem for the American church. That's a real problem when we have bad apples in leadership positions. Make no mistake, today's sermon is not an easy one to hear. It's not an easy one to give because these few bad apples tarnish the reputation harness the holiness of the church. And what we see quite often is one pastor or two pastors that show up on the screen of your television.
00:01:45
Speaker
And their failing, their moral failing, does more than just simply hurt themselves. It hurts their ministry. It hurts their family. It hurts their church. But more importantly, it hurts the corporate church, the church that you and I all represent.
00:02:06
Speaker
By the time this moral failing comes to light, friends, it's too late.
00:02:15
Speaker
I'm not saying that every single church discipline needs to be aired publicly, that's not what I'm saying. But I have to ask, where is the threat of public shaming? Where has church discipline gone?
00:02:32
Speaker
When I was a young kid, we'd go in the grocery store with my mother. And let me tell you, public shaming wasn't a thing back then. Because if you acted a fool, You got it in public and nobody cared. That was part of life back then. Something now has changed because now you'll never see any kid get disciplined in public ever, which is problematic for this generation, but it's more problematic for you and I here in the church.
00:03:10
Speaker
Church discipline is required. We're gonna see that today in the scripture. But the fact is, none of us like it. None of us like having to be on the receiving end of it. And none of us like to be those who administer church discipline. And I get it. Just like using the hymnals today, some of you are out there looking at me right now with a deer in the headlights look. What in the world is church discipline? That's what you're asking. Right? Because as a body of believers, we stand together under this umbrella of holiness which encompasses the church.
Process and Metaphors for Church Discipline
00:03:45
Speaker
And so when one of us sins, it affects the entire body. Amen? So what happens is in church discipline, friends, is it's our responsibility to go to somebody and to say to them first in private, my brother, my sister, I see this,
00:04:05
Speaker
apparent sin in your life. And friends, we have to be real careful with this. This takes much discernment. But if that sin goes on unrepentant, something has to happen. Some discipline has to happen in the church. It's crucial, it's necessary that we protect, I put this word today, the sanctity of the church, the holiness of the church, because a few people can just ruin it for everybody. As I was flipping through a book that I had taken on vacation with us,
00:04:42
Speaker
ah which I wish I would have wrote down this author's name. He was an ex-pastor, a former pastor, and he started writing books, and it's fantastic. But he used this illustration. He says, everybody wants a beautiful garden. Nobody wants to do the weeding. right This is kind of what we're gonna see today in the scriptures. We all want a holy church, but none of us want to do the weeding when these bad apples spring up. We're gonna look today
00:05:14
Speaker
two sets of people, basically.
Paul's Guidance on Church Leadership
00:05:17
Speaker
Paul's going to tell Timothy today, two sets of people. They are those leaders within the church who exhibit ungodliness. That's the first group we're going to look at. Then we're going to see, what about these leaders who are doing it right? These Christian leaders who are who are exhibiting godliness, what does that look like? And then third, what does that mean for UNI today? We're in chapter 5 still, if you would stand for the reading of the words of just a few verses today. Chapter 5, starting in verse 17, I'll be reading from the New Living Translation. He said, elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.
00:06:07
Speaker
and another place, those who work, deserve their pay. Do not listen to an accusation accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. Those whose sins should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. This will serve as a strong warning to others. I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone. Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Rather, keep yourself pure.
00:06:46
Speaker
don't drink only water." This is specifically to Timothy here, verse 23. He says, don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often. Remember, the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment, but there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious, and the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light. You may be seated
00:07:17
Speaker
Friends, the accusations against those in church leadership is nothing new. We see that Paul reminds his young protege Timothy here today that as he pastors this church in Ephesus, he is undoubtedly going to run into two types of leaders. One set of leaders who are doing it well, one set who are not doing it well. He starts here with ungodliness among leaders and God's people. And I'm just gonna tell you as you read these verses starting in 19 and following, it's a sad picture that Paul has to tell Timothy, there's gonna be bad leaders among you, watch out for them.
00:08:06
Speaker
And I'm going to tell you this becomes relevant for Timothy in his ministry because Paul has experienced this very same thing. And I think it's not just a church issue. I think it's a corporate issue. I think it's a family issue sometimes that we can get one person who becomes a really bad leader.
Restorative Purpose of Discipline
00:08:29
Speaker
and And as I talked to somebody over the last couple of weeks, you know ah we talked about ah God the Father. And this person had a real struggle with accepting God the Father because they had a really bad earthly father. This person was a horrible leader in their family. He was abusive, he was a drunk, he was there sometimes, other times he wasn't there, and when he was there, it was like a tornado. And this guy said, I have a really hard time loving or thinking that there is a loving father. One bad apple can ruin it for the family. It can do the same thing in business, but friends here in the church, it can be rather destructive. And so Paul tells Timothy, watch out for a
00:09:18
Speaker
church leader who goes astray because when they go astray they lead everybody else astray.
00:09:28
Speaker
He says it's necessary to do church discipline. But he says that church discipline is to be one of restoration. And I think we have to realize that when when we talk about church discipline. The goal is not to seek revenge on somebody or kick them out of the community, it is to restore them. There was a very prominent Dallas pastor just a few weeks ago who who stood in front of the congregation and said I had a failing many, many years ago, but that failing has now disqualified me from the pulpit. So just like you in church discipline, I too as pastor must step back
00:10:13
Speaker
And I must have that discipline administered to me as well. It's necessary to be restored, not be driven away. Paul tells us here that it's this restoration, if you will, is like a it's like setting a bone. It's a broken bone. Your idea is to reset it and remend it so that it's better than it was before. He's saying the same thing is true when it comes to disciplining leaders in the church. He says here, verse 19, I like this, he says, don't listen to accusations against an elder unless it's confirmed by two or three witnesses. He's said he's saying, Timothy, make sure you know the facts.
00:10:59
Speaker
but How quick are we to hear a rumor or a baseless accusation about somebody in ministry, and I don't know if it's just human nature, I don't know if it's the fallenness of man, but boy don't we like gossip. Don't we like to hear something about somebody, especially somebody that's artificially elevated to a position up here in church leadership.
00:11:25
Speaker
Rumor and suspicion are not adequate grounds for discipline.
00:11:30
Speaker
He says, make sure you know the facts and make sure that you go about it the right way. Matter of fact, get a couple of witnesses. He's going back to the Old Testament here in Deuteronomy chapter 19 and he's also giving a New Testament reference in Matthew 18 and he says, make sure that you go get a couple of witness that witnesses that can verify this accusation. And Francis does two things. What it does is it doesn't disallow somebody to make a baseless accusation. So somebody comes to me and says, pastor, I heard this about brother so-and-so. Immediately my response to them is, well first that's sad to hear. I'm gonna need a couple of people to verify your story. And then you get those people and you verify the story. You do due diligence because a simple accusation against a church leader is damaging. And I don't need to tell you this because it's happened here.
00:12:33
Speaker
Rumors in suspicion are not adequate grounds for discipline. He says not only do you go get witnesses so that you can verify the story, it gives that person who's accused an opportunity to face their accuser. Hey, what do you have against me? Let me explain it. Maybe it's a misunderstanding. I think a lot can be fixed if we simply take the time privately to address these things first.
00:13:05
Speaker
Chuck Swindoll said it's a sad day in America when the church decides to ah disobey the word of God and listen to rumors, lies, and gossip. He said many a godly pastor has been defeated in his life and ministry in this way and some have even resigned from ministry altogether. Can you imagine just over an accusation?
Ensuring Fairness and Accountability
00:13:26
Speaker
Warren Wearsby, I like this, he takes a different angle. He says, where the old saying, where there's smoke, there's fire, is a great slogan for a volunteer fire department. But it has no business in the church. We must be super careful about accusations and how they're handled. He goes on and says, Timothy, make sure everything you do is above board. Make sure it's done in public.
00:13:54
Speaker
No under-the-counter politics. No shaky business schemes. Everything must be transparent. Everything must be on the up and up. And it says if a pastor or an elder or a teacher, because this is the same word here for church leadership, he's saying if you go to that person and you confront them and they have witnesses and it is indeed a sin and they don't repent, We see verse 20, it says, take them in front of the whole church and rebuke them. And everybody's like, yikes, right? But I thought about that this week. I thought this idea of public shaming is really twofold here. How quick would you be
00:14:49
Speaker
To accuse somebody, even if it's a false accusation, if it's untrue, they forced you to get up in front of the church. Hey, so-and-so accused you of something. That's completely false, and it's happened in the church. What do we do to that accuser? Nothing. And Paul is saying, bring those people in front of the church. Likewise, he's saying, if that person who's accused is indeed guilty, bring them in front of the church. Hey, so-and-so who's a church leader is continuing to sin in this way, and he's unrepentant. We've gone to him in public, and he refuses to change. Can you imagine doing that in front of the entire church? I wonder how many read repeat offenders we'd have if that was the case.
00:15:47
Speaker
Just put as a side note here, I think we're really quick to judge. And we may not know the full context of what's going on in somebody's life. So I want to pepper this sermon today with a lot of grace and a lot of mercy. Because while we are quick to jump and judge somebody, especially those who are in the position of leadership, we might be well served if we had a discerning heart and we showed a lot of grace and a lot of mercy to these people. However, if they are indeed a bad apple, hear me, we should call them on it. Instead, friends, what we end up doing is no discipline whatsoever, or we take that person, we move them a different position in ministry, or we just simply say, you've got to go to another church. And that person goes to another church.
00:16:46
Speaker
I could just simply say two words, and and in the context of 21st century America, you would know exactly what I'm saying. If I say Catholic priest today, it has a whole different connotation, doesn't it? Because you know what's happened in the past, in the recent past, and how these guys just got pushed around from church to church, and they just kept sinning the same way over and over and over. And in that way, I say, who's guilty of that? We are as the church because we didn't hold them accountable. And so I'm saying that up here from the pulpit, hoping you too will keep me accountable, that you will hold me accountable. And we'll see some ways here in just a few moments. He says, not only is it a sad day, Timothy, that we even have to address this. He's saying, but but there will become a time when
00:17:42
Speaker
You have to go in front of somebody and discipline them. He says, show no favoritism. Do it out in the open. And if you do this, you can maintain maintain the holiness of the church. Because friends, that's what we all want. We all want a really pretty garden. But that means taking out some of the weeds sometimes. And it's unpleasant.
00:18:09
Speaker
But he says, if we don't do that, what happens is it's a dangerous precedent, and these church leaders not only ruin themselves, but they ruin you guys.
00:18:21
Speaker
and i And I thought to myself this this past week as we were on vacation, I was looking over this again, and I thought, man, this is a really tough word to hear. And I thought because of these couple of pastors in the in our recent past that have come to light, I think to myself, how painful it must be for them, how embarrassing it must be for them to get to this stage where you're a pastor of a mega church and now this stuff is coming out. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it have been better had they been, for a lack of a better term, publicly shaped in their own congregation and that have been remedied and restored before it ever came out to the news.
00:19:06
Speaker
Because then it's just really hurting the local church. It's not hurting the global church. Because, friends, that's all unbelievers are waiting for, is for somebody in a church position to slip up. And then they go, oopsie, that's why I don't go there. They're all hypocrites. And we rightly give them ammunition sometimes if we don't weed these bad guys out.
00:19:34
Speaker
He says, don't rush to judgment, don't rush to put these leaders in positions, but if they do and they're unrepentant, we must call them on it.
Support for Faithful Church Leaders
00:19:43
Speaker
So then he goes on now to the to the guys that are doing it well. and i and i And I want to focus the majority of our time here because there is two sides of this coin. Just like there is a carrot and a stick, there are there are guys that are not doing it well, but there are a whole lot of church leaders who are doing it really well. And it says here in verse 17, these guys are due double honor, basically, your translation may say, twice the honor.
00:20:11
Speaker
If you'll remember, just a couple of weeks ago we talked about the widows, right? We said those who were truly deserving, these are widows who had no way to to pay for themselves, the church's responsibility was to honor them. It's the same word here. it's It's to honor them financially. And I'll just tell you, friends, right off the bat, this is the go-to passage for every pastor who wants to raise in the church. He goes to this pastor, he goes to this passage and he says, I think I i deserve double pay. Friends, relax. What this passage really means is double honor, meaning there's a certain level of respect that's given to these teachers who are doing it well, these pastors who are doing it well, these pastors who are sticking to scripture. He's saying, you should not only honor them, but you also should pay them well.
00:21:03
Speaker
And he goes on to say those who are supported in this manner, both financially and honored this way, he said not only are they a blessing, to you as the congregation, you are blessing them. It goes both ways. If the pastor is faithful and feeding and leading, the church should be faithful and paying and supporting.
00:21:29
Speaker
But the other side of this coin is this doesn't give pastors the free reign to church hop. Hey I'm looking for a pay raise so I'm going to go jump to a different church. That's not what's going on here either. He's saying these guys who put in the time and let me just tell you if you've never taught the Bible, if you've never been a Bible teacher, you'll never fully understand the amount of time that the teacher dedicates to the lesson. And so I put this in perspective this past week, I thought to myself as I was floating out on the lake and drinking a Mai Tai, no I wasn't drinking Mai Tai, I thought to myself, these guys right now are preparing for Sunday's lesson.
00:22:10
Speaker
hours upon hours upon hours, and I thought, for those of you who don't teach, you guys are doing all sorts of other fun stuff while these guys are preparing. We need to remember that, I think. We need to keep that in the back of our minds that these guys spend a ton of time preparing to feed you on Sunday, and if that's the case, we should we should honor them. and And part of that, I'm not saying is all financial, I'm just saying, there should be some way of helping these people who teach you on a regular basis for the effort that they put in.
00:22:49
Speaker
And I just put a side note to me, I thought, for all the guys that are doing it well, the only guys that get the media attention are the ones that do it badly. Do you realize that? I thought, how great would it be to turn on Fox News at night and see a so and so pastor. He's been faithful to his congregation for 30 years. He's been faithful to his wife for 34. Instead, we get, hey, this pastor stepped out on his wife and cheated.
00:23:21
Speaker
or they stole money or you know do you see where I'm getting at? How great would it be if the news came on and it was something positive? Because most of these guys are really doing it well and they ought to be supported and reinforced and loved and praised. So what do you and I do with this passage today? If we have the obligation on one hand to discipline the bad ones, Equally, on the other hand, we have the responsibility to celebrate the good ones. So how do we celebrate the godly leaders in our church here? Three quick ways here. First is to support them. We can honor our church leaders by supporting them. Now, what do I mean by supporting them? It's not just proper kind of compensation. it It really has nothing to do with money. I want you to hear me right now.
00:24:16
Speaker
Proper support for your church leaders means that you get behind them and you support them. You support their direction, you support their vision, because after all, God has placed them in these positions to lead. and so As somebody who is in a leadership position, nothing is more um frustrating than feeling like God has placed you in that position and commanded you to lead and you have a bunch of dissenters that don't want to go that direction which God has called you for. That's not you guys. That's not what I've experienced. Relax.
00:24:59
Speaker
but I have a joke with Kim, I said, we don't give each other credit sometimes for doing the right thing in the marriage. You know, oftentimes if you're married, we're quick to point out the things that aren't going well. But we're not super quick to go, you know, I really appreciate you for this or this great thing. And I and i think sometimes support for our our church leadership comes in simply these ways.
00:25:26
Speaker
hey, i'm not I may not 100% agree with where we're going, but i I agree that God has put you there, and so I'm gonna get behind the effort. Sometimes it's just simple things like that. Sometimes it really is, hey, I'm really glad we we changed out the carpets. Man, the carpets look great. thanks yeah Thanks for, yeah, we've been meaning to do that. Man, these churches need a paint job for a long time. Thanks for that. You know, sometimes it's just little support things like that. Encouragement along the way. Hey, thanks for spending 10 hours last week preparing this Bible study lesson. really appreciate you for that.
00:26:01
Speaker
I put, just as a personal note, I still remember very vividly the very first time I was called to teach a Bible study class. I was petrified. I mean, I stood up there later, somebody told me, it sounded like you were terrified. Your voice sounded terrified. And i I was, because I was didn't want to get it wrong. But at the very end, this guy who was sitting in the front, he came up to me. I thought, oh, no. Here it goes. I said something wrong. That might be anything. Oh, I said something wrong. And he said this, and it stuck with me. And I wrote it down. He said, I'm so grateful that God has called you to this and that you answered it. And he said, that I'm even more grateful that it's not me.
00:26:41
Speaker
Right? Sometimes it's just, hey,
00:26:47
Speaker
Thanks for being in the position you're in. Thanks for leading. Sometimes it's just little things like that, so we can support them. Second is that we're called to love them. ah Paul, and and that's why we had Brother Pease read out of chapter five here this morning. Paul tells that church, that Thessalonian church, he says, now we ask you brothers and sisters to give recognition to those who labor among you and who lead you in the Lord and admonish you in your to regard them. I love my translation, it says very highly in love. ah You're to really love these guys who are in a position of leadership within the church. We're we're called to love these guys patiently,
00:27:33
Speaker
you know the You know the list here in 1 Corinthians, right? Love is patience, kind, doesn't envy, doesn't boast, it's not proud, doesn't dishonor, it's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Can I just pause on that one real quick?
00:27:52
Speaker
I think the most difficult thing in ministry sometimes is an accusation can get laid against somebody and it can be completely false.
00:28:02
Speaker
But it's almost like it's never forgotten, right? It's always in the back of somebody's mind, you know? Oh, that was the guy that, whatever, fill in the blank. I think if we're called to love, that means we're we're called to... lose track or lose record of that wrongdoing in the past. That person wasn't guilty. let You gotta to let that go. You gotta to move on. If you were hurt in a previous church by some church leader, let me just apologize for that church leader right off the bat, but let me let me encourage you. ah You're no longer in that church.
00:28:34
Speaker
You're in a new church
Praying for Leaders and Upholding Holiness
00:28:35
Speaker
here. You're among a new set of believers who love you and who truly want to ah grow with you in Christ. And so oftentimes I think we need to put that old hurt away. He not only says that we are to keep no wrongdoings, he says we're we're called to protect them and trust them. And I just put as a note here, it's super easy for a church leader to be a target. The best way you can love us or love your Bible study teacher is if somebody says something about them, defend them. If you know it's incorrect, defend that person. You know, if I hear, hey, you look, ah Pastor Patrick, boy, that guy really irritates me. How dare he wear jeans and boots up to the pulpit, right? I i can honestly take that. I have pretty thick skin. It really doesn't bother me. However, if you say something like,
00:29:33
Speaker
Our pastor doesn't really preach biblically. He kind of goes off in a tangent. It's a lot of his own opinions. Boy, that really hurts me because I really try to stay as close to the scripture as possible. You can love me by defending me. You can love your Bible study teachers by defending them. And third, I just put this, we need to pray for those in leadership.
00:29:58
Speaker
and and i And I put not just church leadership, but ah you know as as our country is going through whatever it's going through right now, and it is crazy, I'm just gonna tell you. I don't know if it's me not watching the news very often, but then turning it back on and you're like, eek. We were at our friends in Tennessee and there's this whole shooting thing going on. And and I don't really, I'm never gonna tell you who to vote for. I'm just gonna tell you that right now. Nor will I ever tip my hat on who I vote for. It's not my place at the pulpit to do that. However, when you see somebody on the news and and I don't care your politics, I don't care who you like or don't like, it's the beauty of this country. We have the freedom to do that. But if that person says, hey, I was saved by God, I'm just gonna tell you as your pastor, I kind of cringed when I heard that on TV. Because I thought, what about all those people who
00:30:52
Speaker
got shot and didn't make it. Were they not protected by God? I think we got to be real careful. We got to be real careful. We got to pray for our leaders. We got to pray for these church leaders. We got to pray for those who are getting ready to be put into power over this wonderful country of ours. Here's how we pray for for our leaders specifically, just a couple. We pray that their first love will be Jesus. Kim and I heard somebody on the news just last night. they were They were talking about, oh, I love God, and I love the Holy Spirit. And after they discontinued on their sentence, and Kim and I have both liked each other, she's like, well, what about Jesus? I go, yeah, Jesus ought to be really the first, our first love here. Pray for our purity so that we may not fall into temptation. Pray that we seek God's direction for the church.
00:31:43
Speaker
Pray that we're able to speak boldly the truth of the gospel and that we speak it with both grace and humility. Pray that we teach sound doctrine. Friends, we live in a country where you can pretty much preach whatever you want to from the pulpit and people love it. I'm telling you what we preach here is biblical doctrine so that you can take what I teach and you can go right back to the Bible at home by yourself and test it. That's what I want for you. Pray that I stick to that teaching. Pray that God will protect me and the Bible study teachers and those in leadership from any type of negative criticism, false expectation, or gossip.
00:32:29
Speaker
The death of a ministry is gossip. I'll just tell you that right now. I'll end on this. We have a mandate. A mandate is a divine order, a charge, if you will. We've been given to keep the church holy.
00:32:45
Speaker
May God give us the courage to hold our church leadership accountable because friends we're not doing frankly a great job at it and we need to do a lot better job at that. But at the same time may we have the fortitude to support them and love them and pray for them. Amen.