1 Corinthians 5:2,, 4-5, 6-7a,13
2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump,
13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5 is a passage that shows us church discipline at work. What caught my attention as I read the passage this morning was the two purposes for discipline which we see displayed in the various sections above. While some are eager to discipline and some are unwilling to obey this command, we need to see what God has called us to do and especially why God has called us to do so.
The first reason that you can see for church discipline of a wayward and sinful member is found in verses 4-5. Paul talks of handing the sinner over to the devil for the destruction of his flesh. Why? Paul talks of doing this for the ultimate salvation of the man’s soul. Paul is saying that the church needs to discipline the man, putting him out of the fellowship, in order that he might feel the consequences of his sin and repent.
The first reason for church discipline in this passage, then, is the purpose of repentance. A sinful person whose sin is ignored or tolerated with no rebuke whatsoever may indeed not feel the need to repent. While telling someone that they are no longer a part of the fellowship might be very hard to do and indeed quite hurtful to the one disciplined, the purpose is always to allow that person to feel emotional pain and to then see the horror of their sin. We never discipline simply to get rid of somebody we don’t like. We always discipline because we want to see a person turn from sin, feeling the godly sorrow that brings about repentance (cf. 2 Cor 7).
The second reason that this passage gives for church discipline is found in verses 6-7a and 13. Paul calls the church to remove the unrepentant sinner from the fellowship for the purpose of the spiritual health of the body. The sin of the sinner, if tolerated, carries the risk of corrupting and confusing believers. Paul says that they must remove the danger of the unrepentant sinner for the sake of not allowing him to leaven, not allowing him to infect, the rest of the body with his sinful practice.
Nobody should enjoy church discipline. While this process can be beautiful as it leads others to repentance, it is a hard thing to do. Church members should rightly pray, grieve, and weep over the unrepentant sin of brothers and sisters in Christ. We never consider this as if from a position of superiority. All of us have sin. All of us need to regularly repent. Thus, we should participate in church discipline with fear, trembling, sorrow, and humility. But, God has made it plain that church discipline, rightly handled, leads to the repentance of a sinner and to the purity of the local church. Thus, we also must not neglect discipline lest we do harm to the body of Christ.
A Spirit-Filled Witness (John 20:21-23)
John 20:21-23
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Here Jesus gives a form of the Great Commission to the disciples. Just as the Father sent Jesus out, with his authority to accomplish his mission, so Jesus is now sending out his disciples. They are sent under Jesus’ authority. They are sent to accomplish his mission.
Then Jesus blows out or exhales and tells the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. It will actually be around fifty days in the future when the Holy Spirit will truly come upon the disciples and empower them for the task that Jesus has just given them. But Jesus lets them know that, coming soon to their lives, they will experience the presence of God’s Spirit to help them to accomplish his plan.
Next Jesus says something that may be the most difficult phrase in John’s gospel to interpret. Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Scholars have debated for years about what these phrases mean. Is Jesus authorizing the disciples to grant people forgiveness or unforgiveness at their whim? Is Jesus granting a kind of power to the disciples as church leaders to offer or withhold forgiveness? Is something else in view?
If we take verse 23 all by itself, it is a very difficult passage to understand. That is why it is crucial to study the scripture in context, taking into account the verses around the passage in question. Once we understand what is going on, it will make far more sense how we are to understand the words that Jesus has used here.
Remember, Jesus has just done two things. He has commissioned the disciples to go out and accomplish his mission just as his Father sent him out to accomplish a mission. He also has told them to do this work in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. They will not be able to fulfill the Great Commission if they are not personally filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
In the light of the commission and the promise of the Spirit, it makes a little more sense as to what Jesus is saying. As the disciples go out and work to accomplish their mission in the authority of the Father and the Son and in the power of the Spirit, they are to proclaim the message of the Gospel, the good news. The disciples are to go out and tell people that they are sinners before a holy God. They are to tell people that they stand before God without God’s forgiveness unless something changes. They are to tell people that Jesus died to purchase the forgiveness of anyone who will repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. And so, it only makes sense that these men with God’s Spirit and God’s message would be able to declare with accuracy whether or not a person is forgiven.
Let’s make this as simple as we can. Suppose you are talking to a man named Bob. You, like the disciples, have the Spirit of God living within you and the commission of God to take the message of Jesus to everybody. So, you ask Bob if he has ever come to faith in Christ. Bob says, “No, I don’t believe in Jesus at all.” You can say, with absolute accuracy, “Bob, I want to warn you that you stand before God unforgiven. You are lost and in danger of suffering God’s wrath for your sin.” Now, let’s suppose that your words mixed with some study of the scripture shake Bob to his vary foundation. He weeps before you, believes in Jesus, and cries out to Jesus for mercy and forgiveness. You then can proclaim, with great accuracy, “Bob, you now stand forgiven before God because of your faith in Jesus Christ.”
Christians, we have the same responsibility that the disciples had 2,000 years ago. Christ is sending us out on a mission. We are to take God’s word and God’s Holy Spirit with us, and we are to share the good news of Jesus with a lost world. If they will not trust in Christ, we must declare them unforgiven. If they will turn from their sins and trust in Jesus, we must declare them forgiven. It’s that simple. This is not just the job of pastors and revival speakers; this is your job. Become a spirit-filled witness for Jesus Christ.
Boldness from Christ’s Sacrifice (John 19:38-39)
John 19:38-39
38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus have several things in common. According to the other gospels, both are part of the Jewish counsel, likely the Sanhedrin. Both were following Jesus secretly, afraid that the Jews might harm them somehow if they found out about their devotion to Jesus. And, both of these men were so changed by Jesus’ death that they boldly chose to take responsibility for burying Jesus.
We saw Nicodemus earlier in this book. In chapter 3, he came to Jesus by night to ask him some questions about his identity. In 7:50, Nicodemus spoke up in the counsel demanding that the Jews give Jesus a fair trial before condemning him. Now, we see Nicodemus bringing a large amount of valuable spices to be used in the wrapping of Jesus’ body for burial.
Joseph of arimathea is someone we see in all four gospels, but we know very little about him. He was from a town about twenty miles or so away from Jerusalem. He was wealthy. And he was actually the owner of the tomb in which Jesus was placed. Joseph actually had the courage to stand before Pilate and ask him for the right to bury Jesus’ body instead of having Jesus thrown in the common grave of the criminals.
Both Joseph and Nicodemus were clearly changed by what they saw in Jesus’ suffering and death. Before Jesus’ death, these two men were afraid to allow anyone to know that they were following Jesus. Now they step out of the shadows and declare their loyalty. Even though Jesus is dead. Even though it looks like the Jews have won, Joseph and Nicodemus stand up and are counted as followers of the man who so recently died on the cross.
We want to learn from the example of these two. No longer is it acceptable to follow Jesus from the shadows. Those who truly know Jesus are willing to stand up and be counted. If you are a believer, no one should have to wonder where your loyalties lie. Allow the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to make you more bold to follow him and to obey his commands in front of a hostile world.
Avoid Religious Hypocrisy (John 19:31)
John 19:31
Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
The weekend of Jesus’ death is the weekend that follows the Passover. Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening. It is now Friday afternoon, and the crowds that celebrated the Passover are still in Jerusalem. The celebration continues and the coming Saturday, the Sabbath, will be considered to be a very special Sabbath day.
Back onto the scene stride the Jewish religious leaders. Remember these guys? These are the same men who in chapter 18 were willing to lie, bribe, cheat, and manipulate in order to have Jesus unjustly put to death while they themselves were unwilling to enter the building where a gentile was staying. They were willing to break God’s law and murder an innocent man, but they did not want to be made ceremonially unclean so as to have to wait a month to eat the Passover.
We do not want to be like the religious leaders we see here. Instead of claiming to love God on the one hand while sinning against God on the other, we want to be people who love God with all our lives. We want to be consistent as we follow our Lord.
Why am I so hard on the religious leaders? The religious leaders go to Pilate and ask him to have the men killed quickly and taken down from the crosses. Why? They are following the command of Deuteronomy 21:23 which says that men who are hanged on trees must not remain over night so as not to defile the land.
Again, catch the irony. The men who just had the Messiah, the Son of God, put to death through political pressure and conniving, are now telling the governor that the men ought not hang on the trees over night, because that would be a dishonor to God in the land. They are hypocrites.
I urge you to examine your life. What kinds of evil do you too easily tolerate? What kinds of evil do you do while keeping your religious duties in check in other places? Don’t be like the Jewish leaders. Love God in every area of life. If you are a follower of God, he has the right to rule you in every area, not just the religious area of Sunday morning. Love God, and avoid religious hypocrisy.
Answering the Question of God’s Fairness (Job 37:14-24)
Job 37:14-24
14 “Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know how God lays his command upon them
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
16 Do you know the balancings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
17 you whose garments are hot
when the earth is still because of the south wind?
18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies,
hard as a cast metal mirror?
19 Teach us what we shall say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
20 Shall it be told him that I would speak?
Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?
21 “And now no one looks on the light
when it is bright in the skies,
when the wind has passed and cleared them.
22 Out of the north comes golden splendor;
God is clothed with awesome majesty.
23 The Almighty—we cannot find him;
he is great in power;
justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
24 Therefore men fear him;
he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”
For most of the book that bears his name, Job has been complaining that God has not treated him fairly. Job has suffered, but he has not been living in rebellion against God. While I’m sure that Job knew he was not absolutely perfect, sinless in the depth of his heart, Job did know that he was always quick to repent, to offer sacrifice for his sins, and to obey God. Job had treated others rightly and been generous toward the needy. Why, then, was Job suffering? It was not fair.
Here at the end of the speech of Elihu, we see a completely different way of viewing the question. It is as if Job asked, “What color is the sky,” and Elihu answered, “Seven.” Elihu took the question of God’s fairness to Job in a completely different direction, and Elihu was right.
Elihu begins and ends his argument with one simple assumption: God is perfect. All that God does is right. It is God’s nature and character to be right. Were God to do what is wrong, God would not be God. But if God has done something, it by bent of fact, is right—completely and absolutely right.
If all that God does is right, what happens when we feel like what God has done is wrong? The answer that Elihu is trying to get Job to see is that our feelings, not God’s rightness, is what must be questioned. We do not know as much as God. We cannot do the things that God does. We did not create the heavens. We do not command the rain and snow. We cannot even find God if we search for Him. God is perfect. We are tiny, next to nothing, in comparison.
As the scene draws to a close, Job and Elihu look. A storm is approaching—the source for many of Elihu’s metaphors. Yet, there is something unique. In this storm, the presence of God is manifest. God is about to come and speak with Job. God is about to answer Job’s queries. How will Job answer? He will answer with the line of reasoning that Elihu has already taken. God will show Job that God is perfect and Job, little, tiny, puny Job, cannot possibly understand the deep workings and ways of the one and only true and holy God.
What about you and me? Is God unfair to us? Have we been treated unfairly by God. Do we try to make God prove that his ways are right? Do we try to examine God’s commands for the reasoning behind them? Do we try to subject God to our approval as if we have the right to sit in judgment over God’s decisions? Be careful. Be very careful. God is holy. We are not. God is omniscient. We are not. All that God does is right. We only do right when God helps us. Let us remember the holiness of our God and tremble at his awesome majesty. Let us bow before him and acknowledge that, regardless of what we can understand, his ways are perfect.
Purpose in Glory (John 17:24)
John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
In this last request in Jesus’ great prayer, he prays something that is an echo of what he prayed earlier.
John 17:1-5
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Jesus’ mission is about the glory of God. Heaven is about the glory of God. Everything God does is about the glory of God. The single most important thing in all of eternity is the glory of God. The only way that we will ever really be happy is when we experience the glory of God. And so Jesus prays that we be with him and experience his glory, glory that he has had with the Father from before time began.
You exist, created by God, in order to give God glory. Your life will be full when everything you do and everything you think is focused on God’s glory. Whenever you are less focused on God’s glory, your soul will be less satisfied. Whenever you are more focused on god’s glory, your soul will feel more complete. So, center your life on the glory of God, and you will find happiness. Find the purpose of your life in the glory of Christ.
Share the Gospel with the Word (John 17:20)
John 17:20
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
After 19 verses of praying, Jesus makes a wonderful statement that should grip each of us who knows him. He is not praying simply for the eleven disciples who are standing with him in the Jerusalem night; he is praying for others. Specifically, he is praying for those who will come to faith in Jesus through the words of the eleven disciples. This is how we know that Jesus was praying for you and me.
When Jesus makes reference to the words of the disciples through which others will come to faith, there is no doubt that he is meaning the future testimony that these men will give. IN just a few short weeks, Peter will boldly stand in Jerusalem and testify to the resurrected Lord Jesus and will see thousands come to faith. But after Peter’s time, thousands upon thousands will come to believe in the Lord Jesus because of something even more significant than the speech of Peter or any of the other disciples. The words of the disciples that bring faith are kept for us, preserved in the word of God.
This is a very important truth for Christians to grasp. We all want people to come to know the Lord Jesus. We all want people to be saved. The way that happens, the way that people come to faith in Jesus, is through the word of God. People are saved when someone presents to them the truth about Jesus as it is revealed in the holy Scripture, God opens their hearts, and they believe. People do not come to faith because you are such a good person or because they see you do something right. People are saved when they are convinced by God of the truth of his word.
Now, if it is true that Jesus prays for those who will come to faith because of the word of the disciples, and if it is true that we now carry that word in the Holy Bible, and if it is true that we want people to be saved, it should be obvious what we ought to do. As believers in Jesus, we should be sure to help others to come to know Jesus by presenting them with the truth of God’s word. We should share Jesus, not with gimmicks and clever tricks, but we should share Jesus by sharing the truth found in the Scriptures.
It is through God’s word that people come to faith as God sovereignly moves. Why would we not want to keep sharing the Scriptures with others so that they too will come to faith. Yes, this means you need to learn to share your faith from the Bible; but so what? We can do that. It’s not hard. And the glorious reward is certainly worth the trouble. Christians, let’s help others to believe by sharing God’s word.
Lump of Clay (Job 33:6)
Behold, I am toward God as you are;
I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.
As Elihu began his speech challenging Job’s complaints, he speaks the line we see in 33:6 above. The point that Elihu was making was a simple one. He wanted Job to understand that he did not consider himself worth more or less than Job. He too was of the same stuff, the same substance as Job.
Elihu’s terminology, however, is fascinating. He says that he was pinched off from a piece of clay. Remembering that God created man from the dust of the earth, Elihu sees that both he and Job are made of the same common material.
If we grasped that we all are of the same stuff, pinched from the same clay if you will, perhaps we would be better at being loving and kind to one another. Perhaps we would realize that, whether we have accomplished much or little in life, we all come from the same place. We all have the same background. All of us, whether greatest or least, are dust that God has breathed life into.
Being a pinched off piece of clay should both humble you and give you great hope. It humbles us, as we realize that we bring nothing special into the world that is from ourselves. It also should give us great hope, as we realize that the only way we live is by the breath of God; however, we live because the breath and Spirit of God has enlivened us.
A Famine of the Word (Amos 8:11)
Amos 8:11
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
God predicted, in Amos 8, a terrible time of famine. As God tells us, he was not predicting a shortage of food. No, God was predicting something far worse, he was predicting an absence of the people hearing his word.
That sad silent time came upon the people of Israel. For 400 years after the time of the prophet Malachi, God sent no prophet to Israel. Until the rise of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, nobody in Israel heard any clear word from God. God’s silence would have been heart-wrenching to a true follower of his.
Funny, isn’t it, that we do not consider silence from God as a tragedy? Oh, I know, we would all say that we would hate the silence that God promised in this passage. But, really, do we? God has spoken to us. God has given us his very word, his very words. Every time we open our Bible, we hear is voice. Every time a preacher reads from the holy Scriptures, God’s word washes over us.
So, here’s the question. If the word of God is a treasure, if silence from God is a horror, and if we have the ability to hear God’s word in the Scripture and from the pulpit, how do we neglect it? The goal here is not to guilt anybody into anything. The point is to ask a pointed question. If we love hearing the voice of God, we must not neglect his word. Read it. Hear it preached. Memorize it. Obey it. Do not subject yourself to a famine by not hearing the word of God.
Get This Over With (Amos 8:4-7)
Amos 8:4-7
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Much of the book of Amos is God’s promise of judgment for the northern kingdom of Israel. The people of the north were, on the whole, not seeking after God’s heart. They were willing to abuse and hurt others for their own selfish gain. God was rightly and justly furious with them for their neglect of his laws and his commands to love him and to love others.
In the middle of a section in which God is pronouncing judgments against the people for their actions, I notice something interesting. God points out that some of the people had a habit of waiting for the Sabbath day to be over so that they could get back to sinning. It is as if the people knew that they had to do the outward religious ritual, but they were not willing to let that have anything to do with how they lived their lives for the rest of the week.
In our culture, we do not tend to focus on Sabbath regulations. Christians observe the Lord’s Day on Sundays, but are not nearly so restricted as was the Hebrew community. Yet, if we are not careful, we will see similarities.
Often those connected to the Christian community will think that church attendance, being present for Sunday morning worship, is what makes a Christian OK with God. This is a false assumption. As God did not find it impressive when the people of Israel wanted the Sabbath to get out of the way so they could go on sinning, God is also not impressed with empty worship attendance that does not also lead to a changed life during the week.
Do you go to worship only to get it out of the way? Do you live one way for an hour-and-a-half on Sunday morning, but totally differently for the rest of the week? Do you think that your church attendance impresses God? Think again. God is not and has never been fooled by empty devotion. God wants our hearts to be his. God wants our lives to show love for him through sincere obedience.
Worship attendance is good. Sabbath keeping for the Israelite was good. But if there is no heart behind that action, the action is empty and meaningless. The solution is not to avoid worship. No, on the contrary, the solution is to repent. Ask God to change your heart. Ask God to help you to worship rightly. Then go out, live for Jesus, and obey from Day-to-day.
