LUKE 17:1-4

Luke 17:1-4

Let’s face it, conflict, especially sin-caused conflict, is not fun. Most of us don’t like it. Yes, there are spiritual Gestapo in every church who like to uncover and confront everyone else’s struggles and sins. But most of us aren’t like that – we don’t like conflict – the truth is, we’re prone to avoid it.

And I’m talking specifically about conflict which comes when somebody does something wrong – someone’s in sin. We don’t like to deal with it – it’s messy, it’s painful; we don’t know what to do – and even worse, when we’ve tried to deal with sin in the past, we’ve been bruised and bloodied, attacked, shoot the messenger; we swore we’d never do that again – just let God deal with them. We’d rather ignore sin rather than wade into the messy arena of conflict resolution – of confronting sin, and bringing truth, righteousness, and peace.

Further, many have misunderstood Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 to say, blessed are the peacekeepers – you know, blessed are those who keep the peace at any cost. Blessed are those who smooth everything over, who make sure everyone’s happy, paste on the plastic smile, enforce a no-talk rule. The marriage may be a wreck, the kids may be a disaster, but we don’t talk about it – it just makes everyone upset – so keep it hidden. That may be peacekeeping, but it’s not peacemaking – Jesus actually said, blessed are the peacemakers – those who are willing to fight for peace at any cost. Knowing real peace is the fruit of righteousness, real peacemakers are willing to wade into conflict to see the image of Christ imprinted on those around them.

But how do we do it? How do we become peacemakers? How do we enter conflict without feeling like we need to wear body armor? How do we lovingly, righteously, not indignantly, not pridefully – how do we rightly deal with sin in those around us? Oh, and how do we respond when lovingly confronted – when we’re on the receiving end?

We arrive at Luke 17 this morning. We’re still on this six-month journey from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem. Jesus knows what awaits Him, so He’s preparing His disciples for His soon crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension – His inevitable departure. The challenge with the religious Pharisees is increasing. Jesus doesn’t ignore it – He wades in. Oh, not for argument’s sake, but for the sake of truth and righteousness – for them and for others. We’ve just finished chapters 15 and 16 where Jesus seems to take the Pharisees and their false system of self-righteousness to task. He’s not done with them – but at this point, He turns His attention back to His disciples. Let’s read the text – Luke 17:1-4.

You should know verses 1-10 are seemingly random, disconnected truths. They are found in Matthew and Mark, during this same time period, but not all grouped together like this. In fact, attempts have been made to create a flow of thought – either in the mind of Jesus or Luke, but they’re not very convincing. Most agree what we have here is Jesus teaching, again in the same time period, but probably not altogether. So, we should see these as proverb-type teaching – He said them, they carry incredible truth, but they don’t necessarily flow together. That said, we’ll cover verses 1-4 this morning with the following outline:

I. Be on Guard Against False Teaching (1-3a) [which causes others to stumble]
II. Be on Guard Against Sin in the Camp (3b-4) [which would also cause others to stumble]

I would suggest there is a sense in which Jesus is still dealing with Pharisees and their false teaching, because it causes people to stumble. Anytime you encourage people to justify themselves through legalistic practices, you’re veering from the gospel. Understand, false teaching which leads others astray has always been a problem in the church (Acts 15). We are supposed be aware of that, be on the lookout for it, and refute it. Jesus had some strong things to say. Now, as I suggested, these truths can be found in Matthew and Mark as well:

In Matthew 18:6, in the presence of literal children, Jesus said, “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Mark 9:42, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”

So obviously, this is an important teaching. But follow, in Matthew, the disciples were arguing about which one of them was greatest, so Jesus set a child in front of them and issued this warning. In Mark and Luke, the reference is simply little ones. Most therefore agree Jesus is talking about believers in general, but with a special focus to new believers – young or even older, who are new to the faith and therefore more vulnerable to false teaching.

Jesus says in verse 1, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come.” It’s stronger in the Greek: it is impossible that stumbling blocks do not come. We need only look at church history, to the present day, to see false teaching has been a problem in the church since the beginning. And those teachings form stumbling blocks. The word is skandalon, from which we get our word scandal – over which people stumble. And frankly it is a scandal to the name and church of Jesus Christ. And it’s a serious stumbling. This isn’t just a disagreement over how often we do communion or whether we have drums on the platform. No, these are false teachings over which people stumble regarding gospel truth and the orthodox teachings of the Christian faith.

I would go so far as to say these are attempts – knowingly or not – to get believers, especially new believers off track, to stumble. To believe something woefully heretical, or even to abandon the faith. Think about that with me for a moment. It has become quite popular in our day for former professing believers who have a big stage, to deconstruct – to abandon the faith. Think Joshua Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame. I say professing believers because if they abandon the faith, they were not truly believers. Because those who know Jesus will follow Him faithfully. Perfectly? No, we’ll see that in our next point. But they will not abandon the Lord and His gospel.

But here’s the problem – especially with the onset of the internet and social media platforms. It’s very sad to hear of someone deconstructing – leaving the Christian faith. But, they don’t want to do it alone. They want to take as many with them as they can. And so, they share their testimony of deconversion and why – giving all the reasons they left the faith, why they no longer believe. Here’s my question – why? Why do that? It seems to me, again, that they are looking for those with the same struggles, lack of faith, to give permission to walk away from Jesus. And this is a very dangerous thing to do. Why?

First, Jesus says woe to him through whom these stumbling blocks come. Woe, which is a strong expression of coming judgment and pity. Woe to those through whom stumbling comes. Listen, it makes Jesus upset. It would be better, before the evil which causes My little ones to stumble, it would be better for him to die a horrible and sure death in advance. Better to tie a heavy millstone around his neck and throw him into the sea. Whoa, that’s a bit strong. Yes, it is.

Heavy millstone is not the little millstone women used in the home – it was the great big millstones turned by animals/donkeys that could weigh up to a couple tons. Into the sea, Matthew says into the depths of the sea which means way out there where it’s really deep. You think Jesus is serious? You bet He is – He loves His followers, His disciples, and He says, whoever, and that includes you, disciples, whoever causes them to stumble is going to deal with Me – if not in this life, in the life to come. Again, He’s not talking about arguing over petty things; He’s talking about soul-destroying heresy and faith-departing destruction.

Now again, Jesus said, stumbling is going to come – it’s impossible that it not come. And My little ones are occasionally going to stumble – that’s not the point – stumbling comes with living in a fallen world, and a not yet perfect church. But, woe to them through whom it comes. To be sure, He’ll come after us when we stumble – Hebrews 12, He’ll even discipline us. But woe to those through whom the stumbling comes. You are in big trouble if you are the source of causing little ones to stumble. So, Jesus goes on, first part of verse 3, be on your guard. Don’t be the cause of one of followers stumbling – especially new believers.

And sometimes that stumbling comes in the way of sin, which brings us to our second point – Be on Guard Against Sin in the Camp – because, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This is also found in Matthew 18 and in I Corinthians 5 and Galatians 1 as well. In fact, it’s a bit more detailed in the passage we call the Church Discipline passage in Matthew. Look at it:

15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

The church discipline passage – how to kick ‘em out of the church, right? No, it’s how to go after a brother or sister who has stumbled. Now notice, Jesus says in both texts, “if your brother sins.” The person to be approached is a brother or sister, a follower of Jesus Christ. They are in the covenant community – the church, part of the family – if you see your brother sin – no qualification is given – doesn’t matter if he’s an elder, a pastor, a rich person, an influential person – young, old, educated, uneducated, leader, follower – if he sins, there is a responsibility to go and show him his fault Matthew says. Luke says, rebuke him. And it’s a strong word of correction.

By the way, the Reformers were fond of saying a true church consists of a body of believers where the Word of God is faithfully taught, the ordinances are faithfully observed, and where church discipline is faithfully exercised. Not a steeple, not potlucks, not an organ or a piano – the Bible taught, ordinances observed, mutual accountability exercised. And don’t miss the intent of accountability: we do it for the good of the church and the good of the believer who has been caught in the web of sin.

Now, who goes to the sinful brother? Why, of course, the elders, the leaders, the ones without sin, right? The words are general. Jesus simply says, if your brother sins, you go get him – you, the one with knowledge of the sin, whether committed against you or not – you go to rebuke and restore the sinning brother or sister.

Notice also, we confront and rebuke when they sin, when they miss the mark, when they miss the clearly revealed standard of God’s Word. That doesn’t mean we confront when they do something differently than we would. Paul tells us to put up with, to bear with one another’s differences. In other words, don’t embark on a reform program to make sure everyone thinks and acts just like you do. We’re not talking about confronting them because they irritate us, their personalities rub us the wrong way, or they engage in a personal freedom we don’t have.

No. We are talking about a clear violation of the moral law of God – moral issues, not matters of indifference or weakness. Moral issues of right and wrong. We are to confront sin. You say, well, which ones? Why of course, the big ones – sexual immorality, adultery, stealing, drunkenness – murder – yeah, that’s a big one – we should visit them in prison and tell them to repent. How about lying, cheating, gossip, slander, doctrinal error, pride, profanity, abuse, a lack of gentleness – the sins we all too often put up with, overlook, even participate in.

If your brother sins, we go to him. And it should be done right away. You see, the longer we wait, the more time is given to become settled in sinful ways, hardened by sin, and the more difficult it becomes. And why go? What’s the purpose? It says right there in verse 3, so that he repents. Turns from his sin. Matthew says to win our brother, to restore him.

I want to say this clearly – the purpose of every form of church discipline, no matter what step in the process, is for the good of the other person. There may be other purposes included, for example, the purity of the church, but the good of the brother should be the primary end of every corrective measure. The purpose is always more to restore the offender than to ease the pain of the offended. Jesus wants the son, the daughter, the friend, the fellow student, the brother, the sister who has fallen into sin, perhaps walked away – He wants them back – and He wants us to go get them. That’s the point of this and Matthew’s parallel passage. This isn’t the church discipline passage – this is the church restoration passage. We call it the church discipline passage – no, that’s the process – what’s the purpose? Restoration. Recovery. Rescue.

Would this change the way you respond to discipline? Most of the time, it feels like this: someone comes with a condescending attitude saying, “you know, I noticed you’ve been wandering, and I want to let you know, of course in Christian love, you’re an idiot.” But what if someone came to you and said, you know Scott, I love you – but you’re wandering. You’ve done something wrong, and I want to win you back. Doesn’t have quite the feel of “church discipline” anymore, does it? We might just be a little more open to correction if it came like that.

So, how do we do it? There is a process of church discipline. In Matthew, Jesus expresses four-steps – not three, but four, that’s important. Step one is this: if your brother sins, go to him and rebuke him, show him his fault in private. To show him his fault means to reprove – to convince him of his wrong and call him to repent. You don’t go to shame, embarrass, or punish him. The idea is to shine the light on sin so he can see it for what it is and turn from it. Which true, requires a biblical judgment on your part, but you’re not condemning him – you don’t have that right – you’re simply correcting. People might say, you’re judging me – yes, by the Word of God. What about do not judge? You judge rightly. You make sure to take the log out of your own eye to see clearly to take speck out of your brother’s eye.

And notice, we go to him, not everyone else, him first, in private, alone. You’ll see throughout this process Jesus says, keep the circle as tight as possible – there’s no reason to broadcast sin – there’s a kind of “need to know basis.” If he sins, you confront him, you rebuke him, and if he repents, if he turns, you’re done – no one else need know.

Not only do we go to him alone, we go to him gently. We see that in Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” We don’t go in with guns blazing, shooting everything that moves. We restore gently, humbly, so as not to damage. Remember, the desire is not just to expose, but to restore. And of course, we look to ourselves in the process.

It fits a hospital motif, if you think about it. The child falls, skins his knee, or even worse, breaks his leg. He’s laying there wounded, broken. What does mom do? She gently, very carefully cleans out and binds the wound – the doctor carefully sets the leg and puts it in a cast to see it heal properly. Mom and doctor, at least, the good mom and good doctor who wants to stay in practice, doesn’t say, “Well, you little jerk, how’d you fall? Here, let me take some rubbing alcohol to that wound. Sit down while I snap this thing back into place.” Have you ever been confronted and it felt like rubbing alcohol? When there is a spiritual wound – we gently comfort the fallen, wash out the wound, bind it, set it straight. All too often, people are confronted with no gentleness, no grace – sit down and be quiet, let me tell you what you’re doing wrong. A person who confronts that way needs to be confronted. We are to approach the fallen, skinned up brother with gentleness.

Now, can I suggest we do step one all the time – at least we should. You’re in a conversation with brother, with a sister, he or she says something sinful, they start to gossip. And you say, hey, let’s not go there, let’s watch what we’re talking about – that’s a nudge – just the two of you. Let’s leave this party, things are getting a little out of hand. Let’s turn off this show – it’s not a good for us. We do the nudging all the time – we lock our arms together and say – this is the way, let’s walk in it. It may be a little more than that. They may have done something a little more serious, you know about it, so you make an appointment, you might even make a phone call, write a note – you point out the fault, you call for repentance, the offending brother repents and returns, and you’ve won him back. Step one, it’s all it took.

But what happens if he doesn’t listen? Step two, according to Matthew, if he doesn’t listen, you don’t give up. This time, you take one or two witnesses with you. Now, I always thought you took witnesses to bolster your case. You find someone who agrees with you so you could go gang up on the guy. You think he’s a jerk? Come on, let’s go. Why do we take witnesses? A couple of reasons:

First, this is almost a direct quote of Deuteronomy 19:15 – we do it so the facts may be confirmed in the presence of two or three witness. You take one or two with you, which totals two or three. The witnesses are not necessarily those who observed the sin – these are people who can witness the confrontation, listen to the facts, listen to the response, and determine if there is true repentance. You see, the truth is, sometimes the person doing the confronting has the facts messed up. Sometimes, he’s wrong, and he needs to be corrected – the witnesses are to handle that. Have you ever been wrongly accused? You bet. If followed correctly, the witnesses should be able to set things right.

Of course, a second reason we take witnesses is for the good of the other person – it might be easy to ignore one person who confronts you, but when he comes back with one or two more people who listen, then agree with him, you might be more apt to repent.

But suppose he doesn’t repent, then what? Step three. Tell it to the church – why? So the whole church can ignore him, have nothing to do with him, treat him as you would a Gentile and tax collector. No, that’s sort of step four. Step three is this – tell it to the church – so the church can go to the sinning brother and say, come back. You’re going the wrong way – this is the way – we love you, you’re headed in the wrong direction – let’s help you figure this out and return.

Can you imagine the positive pressure that could be brought to bear if we truly loved one another like this? Let me suggest something else – it doesn’t have to be the whole church? Couldn’t this be done in the context of a life group? A caring group of believers who has one of their own stray? And so we do it, lovingly, to bring them back. But what if he doesn’t come back? Step four – let him be. You let him be to you as a Gentile and tax collector – you treat him as one outside the covenant community – because that’s the way he’s acting. Which means all our associations with him become redemptive. There are times we let them go – they’ve made the choice – we turn them out. You can look at I Corinthians 5 for a description of what that looks like – we don’t have the time today. The point is, we recognize that sin, if left unchecked, if not dealt with seriously, can have a leavening effect – it can be a cancer, spreading through the whole body. God is serious about holiness and purity in His church. And so, we let them go. But even that is redemptive. While they’re straying, we pray God will bring the prodigal back.

Let me point out a couple other things before we close. Notice, Jesus says, if he repents, you forgive him. That’s interesting. That suggests there is a responsibility for the offended, and a responsibility for the offender. The offended person is to confront/rebuke and to extend forgiveness. It is never right to harbor the wrong, to withhold forgiveness, to allow it to become bitterness for you. We are always ready to forgive, in fact, to even extend it. By the way, Jesus even says seven times in the same day. We are always ready to forgive and release from consequences of sin. But the responsibility of the offender is to repent. To be contrite when rightly accused, to be humble, to seek pardon for the offence, and to turn from it. So the offended confronts, rebukes, and forgives. The offender repents – and receives the forgiveness, and changes.

Now, that doesn’t mean when this repentance is given and forgiveness is extended – the transaction, if you will, is complete, that there are not consequences. The relationship between offended and offender may be restored, but not always to where it was before. Especially if it happens seven times in one day. But, we forgive, and forgive, and forgive. But, we appropriately set up boundaries.

We’re out of time, but let me ask you as we close this morning. Can you think of someone who has sinned or strayed? It may be someone here this morning, and they need a little nudge, but you’ve ignored it, because you don’t like conflict. It may be your husband, your wife, one of your kids – it may be your mom or your dad. The point is, it’s our job to call people back.

And it may be more serious. Can you think of someone who used to be part of us – a sheep who used to run with the flock – but now, has strayed? Our job, our responsibility, is to go get them. In a spirit of grace and love and gentleness, go get them.

Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve strayed. You’ve wandered off – and no one has noticed, or, no one has cared. And this, today, has been for you – you need to hear that no one cares more about your restoration than Jesus Christ. He wants His prodigals to come home – to be restored. And we want to help you do that. I’m calling us, Jesus is calling us, as a church, to care for one another. So, let’s do it. Who’s straying? Who’s in sin? Go get them.