Monthly Archives: December 2015

Corrective Church Discipline

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tom-ascolCorrective Church Discipline article by Tom Ascol (original source here)

One of the most important and difficult tasks a pastor must undertake is leading his congregation to understand and obey what the Bible says about church discipline. The widespread neglect of the practice can cause even faithful Christians to be fearful of the idea. When biblical texts that give instruction on the subject are introduced it is not uncommon to hear responses that border on panic. “This will split the church.” “So then only perfect people can be members?” “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” “I’ve been a Christian for ___ (20, 30, 40, etc.) years and have never heard of this, so why are you bringing it up now?”

Such fears can only be overcome by leading people to trust the Lord and His Word. The authority and sufficiency of Scripture are foundational not only to restoring the practice of church discipline but to every matter of faith and work in the Christian life. On that foundation the specific texts on the nature of the church and the steps of discipline must be simply and plainly taught.

To introduce church discipline I would begin with the classic passage on the subject found in Matthew 18:15-20. Any church that obeys Jesus’ words will find that most sin in the church will be effectively dealt with in private as brothers and sisters give and receive correction as they help each other follow Christ together. Repentance and forgiveness will characterize relationships—which is exactly the way life together in the body of Christ is supposed to work.

When such private efforts fail and the offender continues in sin without repentance, the matter must be told to the church. Only if he refuses to heed the admonitions of the church is he to be removed from membership, not as an act of punishment but as an expression of love for his soul and with the hope and prayer that he will come to his senses and be restored through repentance. Continue reading →

Don’t Miss Church

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church08Why Church Isn’t Optional for Christians – Adapted from True Worshipers, by Bob Kauflin – original source here.

I recently heard a pastor of a large American church say matter-of-factly that the average person in his church attended one out of three Sundays. Sadly, he wasn’t saying it was a problem. He was simply making an observation.

It’s an observation that stands in stark contrast to the admonition in Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

If going to church is an item we check off our list every week, if we regularly look for excuses to skip out, if the Sunday gathering is more of an obligation than a joy, then perhaps we’ve forgotten why God thinks it’s so important.

As a reminder, let me suggest eight reasons gathering with God’s people each week is meant to be the high point of our week.

1. Jesus came to save a people, not random individuals.

From the days of Adam and Eve, God wanted a people who would declare the greatness of his name through the words and witness of their life together. God never intended our worship to be just “me and God.” That’s because our worship is the outflow of the relationships the Father, Son, and Spirit have always enjoyed.

Throughout the Old Testament God calls his people together to celebrate his goodness and renew his covenant with them (Exodus 19:6; Exodus 23:14-17). In the New Testament, Paul declares that the church is “the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). Elsewhere he refers to us as “God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Bottom line: God doesn’t give us a choice about whether we want to be in the church. If we’re Christians, we’re already part of the family. The question now is where and how we work out the details of family life.

2. We need to rehearse and be reminded of the gospel.

Robert Robinson confessed in his hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” that he was “prone to wander.” There’s nothing we’re more prone to wander from than our reliance on the gospel — the amazing news that Jesus has come to bear our sins, endure the punishment we deserved, and reconcile us to God.

This is of “first importance” and is meant to dwell in us richly as we meet (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Colossians 3:16). But we tend to wander from that news when we neglect to meet with the church. We meet together as redeemed saints to remind each other whose we are, how we got here, and why it matters.

3. God’s Word builds us together.

When the church gathers expectantly in one place at one time to hear God’s Word proclaimed, it’s a unique event. God himself addresses us as his people. The Spirit works in our hearts at once to convict, comfort, illumine, and exhort (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, 2:13).

Not only are we being strengthened individually; we’re being strengthened as a body. We can thank God for opportunities to listen to downloaded messages on our own. We can thank him even more that we get to hear them with the church.

4. We were made to serve and care for one another.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we gather “to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). I’m stirred up as I benefit from the different strengths, gifts, and abilities God has given to other members of my church. I need to be stirred up regularly. So do you.

In addition, each of us has been gifted in some way to serve our local church (1 Corinthians 12:4-7; 1 Peter 4:10). Of course that serving can and should take place outside Sunday mornings. But when we don’t meet together, we limit the opportunities we have to serve each other.

5. We become more aware of God’s presence.

We don’t have to scour the Internet to locate the latest outpouring of the Spirit. We don’t have to chase experiences and manifestations of the Holy Spirit “out there” — because he’s already promised to be “right here” as we meet with our local church.

As the new temple in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:19-22), the church is where God’s presence is now typically encountered. Why would we want to miss out on it?

6. We demonstrate our unity in the gospel.

The scattered church throughout the week is still the church. But gathering together is a physical demonstration and reminder of our distinctness from the world and our unity in the gospel. We show that we’ve been drawn apart from the world and drawn together to God.

Most of us instinctively (sinfully?) like to be with people who are a lot like us — people who like the same music, eat at the same restaurants, and shop at the same stores. But God is glorified when people who have no visible connection or similarity joyfully meet together week after week. They do it not because they’re all the same, but because the gospel has brought them together (Romans 15:5-7).

7. We can share in the sacraments.

Another way the unifying power of the gospel is made visible when we gather is through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. When people are baptized, they’re publicly identifying with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). But expressing their union with Christ is paramount to expressing their union with the church. No one is baptized into Christ who isn’t also baptized into his body.

In a similar way, sharing the Lord’s Supper not only signifies our communion with Christ, but with each other (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). That’s why it doesn’t make sense to take communion on our own. The very word communion informs what’s taking place. We’re remembering that we’ve been reconciled not only to God but also to those around us.

8. We magnify God’s glory.

God’s inherent glory never increases or diminishes. But that glory is more visible when we meet together to worship him. It’s through the church that the manifold wisdom of God is put on display (Ephesians 3:10). God is glorified through his people, not simply individuals.

Even as David communed with God alone while guarding his flocks, he was inspired to write, “I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you. (Psalm 35:18) He didn’t want to keep God’s glory to himself in the middle of a field. He wanted to share it with others.

* * *

Every Sunday morning there are dozens of voices trying to convince us there’s something better to give our time to than meeting with God’s people. Sleeping in. Cramming for an exam. Playing golf. Catching up on housework. Enjoying a late breakfast.

Don’t believe them. There are no normal Sundays. Just fresh opportunities to behold the glory of the Lord as we’re “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Together.

Adoption

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“The divine judge not only acquits, but invites the sinner home — and not just for an evening. He adopts us as his own forever and makes us heirs to all he has”

Donald Macleod – Adoption: A New Father and a New Heart (original source here)

Martin Luther, whose tormented conscience and anguished thinking launched the Protestant Reformation, once remarked, “If the doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost.” It is hardly surprising, then, that there is voluminous Protestant literature on justification.

The doctrine of adoption, by contrast, has been largely neglected. Yet the two are inseparably linked.

Grace Beyond and Above

Which is not to say that they are identical. Adoption is a grace beyond and above justification. In justification, God acquits sinners of all the charges against them. Indeed, he goes further still and declares that in Christ their righteousness meets the highest possible standards. They are as righteous as Christ himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). There is not a stain on their characters.

At this point, in normal human systems of justice, the accused is then simply free to go, and both he and the judge hope they will never see each other again. But the divine judge not only acquits. He invites the sinner home — and not just for an evening. He adopts us as his own forever, tells us we are to call him “Father,” and pronounces us lawful heirs to all he is and to all that he has.

Paul is the only New Testament writer who uses the term adoption, but he is not the only one who speaks of believers being God’s children. John also highlights it, particularly in 1 John 3:1. “See,” he exclaims, “what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Yet while they speak of the same subject, the two apostles use different language, and to get anything like the full doctrine we need to look carefully at each.

Change in Status

The word adoption, like the word justification, refers not to a change in our disposition and character, but to a change on our status. It speaks of a revolution in our relationship with God. As unbelieving sinners, we were utterly alienated from him: total outsiders, as far as his family was concerned. Now we belong, and by using the term adoption, Paul is using formal legal language to remind us that our membership of our new family is absolutely secure. It can never be undone.

There is a parallel to all this in the story of Moses. The abandoned Hebrew baby, born as a slave under sentence of death, is taken into the palace by a royal princess, and formally adopted as her son. It is just so with believers in relation to God. He is committed to us. He has given us his name. He has made us his heirs, and solemnly pledged that as our heavenly Father, he will provide for us with the lavishness that befits his means as possessor of all the riches of glory (Philippians 4:19).

He has said, in effect, “From now on, you have nothing to worry about (Matthew 6:26). I will care for you (1 Peter 5:7), and if you do ever find yourself overtaken by anxiety, come and talk about it to me at once (Philippians 4:6–7). Always remember that I am your home, and that I will never disown you; and should you ever go astray, I will always take you back (Luke 15:20). My love will never let you go.”

Transformation in Heart

But adoption as a human transaction leaves the heart unchanged, and this is why the language of John is such an important complement to the language of Paul. Where Paul speaks of “adoption,” John speaks of being “born again”; and where Paul emphasises our being God’s “heirs,” John speaks of our being his “children.”

Adoption, whether in the ancient world or the modern, gave rights, but it did not transform; but when we are “born of God,” his “seed” (sperma) is in us (1 John 3:9). This is why Peter can even go so far as to say that we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), while Paul declares that at the heart of God’s purpose for the universe lies his determination that one day every one of his adopted sons and daughters will be as glorious as his only begotten Son (Romans 8:28–29).

For the time being, sadly, this is not how we appear: To deny that we are sinners is to deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8). But by the time Christ returns, our likeness to our Father will be unmistakeable (1 John 3:2), and he will have no hesitation about making us stand in the full light of his glory (Jude 24). We will be his pride and joy.

A New People

Divine adoption, then, secures what no human adoption can secure. It is always accompanied by a radical and total transformation at the very core of our being. Not only have we a new status. We are new people (Ephesians 4:24).

Should we, then, just sit back passively and let grace do its work? Not for a moment! Indeed, the seed that God has implanted in us won’t let us sit back, nor will the hope that God has given us. The assurance that our destiny is to be “like him” impels us to set about purifying ourselves, and to do so with the utmost rigour, satisfied with nothing less than to be as pure as God himself (1 John 3:3).

As John sees it, the Christian believer should react to the discovery of any personal impurity with the same shock-horror as God would react to the discovery of a blemish in himself.

The Melody of Joy and Salvation

Adoption was widely practiced in the ancient world, but there was one crucial difference between secular practice and what we see in the New Testament.

In the secular world, adoption was usually for the benefit of the adoptive parents, not for the benefit of the child. For example, a farmer might want help with tilling his land, or a childless couple might want someone to look after them in old age, or an aristocrat might want someone to perpetuate the family name. In the New Testament the benefits are all the other way.

While we may be sure that adoption gives God immense satisfaction, he never adopts in order to meet some need of his own. He adopts us because he loves us, not because he needs us.

And far from exploiting us and subjecting us to a life of drudgery, he showers upon us every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) and fills our lives with the melody of joy and salvation (Psalm 118:15).

Donald Macleod was professor of systematic theology at the Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh for more than 30 years. He is author of The Person of Christ and most recently Christ Crucified.