Disciplining and Restoring Fallen Leaders (1 Corinthians 5)

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Interacting with the Sermon

Synopsis of the Sermon

      Rich Nathan preached this weekend on the importance of church discipline and how to properly restore a fallen brother or sister, particularly, a fallen leader.  In the verses from 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts the church of existing sexual sin amongst the believers and charges them with not taking sin seriously.  In 5:1, Paul writes, “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife;” furthermore, Paul instructs the believers in what they should have done by stating, “Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?”  Paul knows that sinful behavior is infectious to the whole body like yeast in a loaf of bread.  He also knows that by tolerating sin, the witness of Jesus Christ to unbelievers is destroyed and the church becomes no longer attractive to unbelievers.  Rich emphasized that by exercising church discipline, the reputation of the church, the faith of the offender, and the purity of the church all have the possibility of being restored.   In fact, the ultimate hope of church discipline is the restoration of the believer to God and to the community of believers.

           

In 5 minutes or less, briefly give a synopsis of this week’s sermon.  What insight, principle, or observation from this weekend’s message did you find to be most helpful, eye-opening, or troubling?  Explain.

Getting the Conversation Started

These questions can be used as ice-breakers in the beginning OR interwoven between the questions below to draw the group into the discussion.

·        What are one or two things from this weekend’s sermon that really stood out to you?

·        Share a time when you couldn’t find something that was important to you.  How did the loss make you feel?  

·        Describe how you responded (or would have responded) if/when you found the lost item? 

Scripture Study

Study Goal: The purpose of this study is to remember what instruction is given to the church body in response to those who have sinned and have fallen out of community and discipleship with Jesus.  By the end of this study, your small group will have discussed what it means to act like Jesus when restoring a fellow believer back to relationship with Christian community.

Context:  Jesus often spoke in stories, or parables, to convey important messages.  The famous parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is the third parable in a series of three by Jesus.  Jesus told this parable in response to opposition by teachers of the law who were complaining that Jesus was welcoming and eating with tax collectors and sinners.  The central truth of this parable is that of the yearning to find that which was originally His and to welcome back that which was lost and has returned.  God’s desire is to restore lost relationships to Himself and to His community. 

Read Luke 15: 11-32 (TNIV)

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” 

•  Who are the three main characters in this study?

•  Who did Jesus mean for these characters to represent?

•    The Father: Jesus

•    The younger son: The person who has sinned against God and community

•    The older son: The person who remains in community and places judgment on the sinner.

•      Recall on Sunday, Rich said that part of church discipline is to “hand the person over to Satan for the destruction of the sinful nature” and that by doing this act, they are “removed from the warmth, affection, and love of the local church and turned back over to the world....To live in the flesh is to live apart from Christ, to just do your own thing, to follow your own wisdom, to refuse to trust in the Lord with all your heart.”  It is this exact removal from community and separation from Christ that exposes the lies of the fallen believer.  How does the destruction of the son’s sinful nature unfold in v. 17?

•      The son was living a lie.  What realization does the younger son have in vv. 18-19.

•      Like the son, what motivates us to come back to God after we have sinned?

•      Often, the return back to God can look like baby steps.  One foot in front of the other.  At times, we even return to him with divided hearts.  But God does not parse out our motivations for coming back to him.  He simply welcomes us back with open arms.  How is the extravagant love of Jesus exemplified through the Father in vv. 20-24?

•      Given the historical context, how does the way the Father acts radically differ from the way most people would have acted?

•      How does the older brother’s response contrast the response of the father?

                          Buddhist Tradition has a very similar story...(see documents)

•      How is father in the Buddhist story different from the father in Luke 15? (Answer: Grace is missing.  The Father in the Buddhist story says, “you've proven that you deserve”) 

•      Recall Rich said that we have a radical misunderstanding of the word grace.  Rich used Dietrich Bonheoffer’s term “cheap grace” and Rich quoted him by stating, “That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.  Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.  Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.”

•      How do we as a community of believers change hearts that have turned away from God while avoiding cheap grace?

•      What could the older son have done for his younger brother that Jesus does for sinners?  (Answer: Jesus goes looking for the lost.  Jesus would have gone looking for the younger brother and asked him to return home.  The older brother claims to have done everything right (v. 29), but he did NOT do this!)

•      How can we as a community be different from the brother and be more like Jesus in the way we respond to people that are not living as disciples of Jesus?  (Answers: exercise forgiveness, go seeking the lost brothers, serve the poor, show true grace with corrective discipline and extravagant love.

•      How are we as a community called to restore believers that have fallen away from God? 

•      How do we restore them to community?

•      How do we help restore them to our heavenly Father?

Ministry Application

Below you’ll see some options for ministry time with your group. We always encourage you to reserve time in your group to pray for one another and wait on the Holy Spirit.

•    We talked about the importance of church discipline.  Where do you fall on the spectrum of church discipline and how is God tugging on your heart to grow in this area?

•    We talked about seeking out the lost.  How is calling you to go after, like Jesus does, those who need restored to the Father?  What are ways that He wants you to do this?

•    We talked about how often the return to God is muddled by our motivations and divided hearts.  We know that God offers his grace without parsing out our hearts.  Is there an area of your life that you feel God tugging on your heart saying, “Return to me” but you feel ashamed by your sin?  Please get prayer for this.  God wants to show you the extravagant grace He has for you.

•    We talked about “cheap grace” versus “true grace.”  Where do you find it difficult to exercise true grace and how does the Lord want to change your definition of grace for you?

•    Rich talked about how a supportive community is the context for which we are healed.  When we isolate, we are sick.  How is the Lord calling you to step deeper into Christian community for the sake of healing?