Correcting & Restoring One Another
One Another Community • Sermon • Submitted
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· 261 viewsWhat does it mean for the church to truly be a hospital for the broken? One verse in the book of Galatians offers a wealth of insight and instruction.
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We continue our One Another Community series today with a look at what it means to be a Correcting and Restoring Community.
And specifically, what does it mean to be a body of believers who take seriously their responsibility to correct and restore their fellow Christian who is stuck in sin?
We will probably best understand our big picture for today by thinking of the church as a hospital.
Many of us have heard the phrase, “the church is a hospital for the broken.”
Right?
In fact we come to a body of believers, usually, broken, and seeking healing and restoration.
And we have become quite accustomed to our sin brokenness.
But have we become too accustomed to our sin brokenness?
We sing all the time about our unfaithfulness contrasted with Jesus’ absolute faithfulness?
But when are we faithful?
We talk about the sin that plagues in our small groups and in our circles of friends, but when do we move beyond the sin the plagues us?
Whether its because we are embarrassed, or we want to avoid pain, or maybe we like our sin, it does seem that too many Christians go to their spiritual hospitals with no intention of ever being discharged.
Too many Christians refuse the treatment offered by other believers in Jesus’ Name, and, instead of getting well, they remain sick in their hospital beds.
They become accustomed to the hospital life.
And what’s not to like?
The hospital life gives you three meals a day, with snacks and drinks.
Your own private bathroom.
Your own remote control and television.
People coming in to check on you all the time.
Visitors bring you gifts and send lovely notes.
You get a mechanical bed that lifts you up and down.
But you know, that’s not the life we are meant to live.
We are not supposed to take up those spiritual hospital beds indefinitely.
Rather, we are supposed to become part of the hospital staff, sometimes even before we “feel” totally healed.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains:
“It is easy to talk about the fruit of the Spirit while doing very little about it. So Christians need to learn that it is in the concrete situations, rather than in emotional highs, that the reality of the Holy Spirit in their lives is demonstrated.”
And so we come to the book of Galatians today, where we are going to mine one single verse, and hopefully extract a barrel full of God’s wisdom this morning.
Let’s pray as we approach God’s Holy Word.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
As the apostle Paul closed chapter 5, he went contrasted the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. And now Paul illustrates what it looks like to live a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit. Perhaps surprisingly to some, Paul uses very practical and tangible illustrations of personal relationships, and personal money handling, to measure such spiritual maturity.
So Paul begins illustrating the reality of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers by putting forth a hypothetical situation wherein a believer has learned of the ongoing sin of another believer. And it is in this situation, maybe more than any other, that the maturity of a believer is revealed for what it truly is.
What should the first believer do?
Do they overlook the sin?
Try to minimize it?
Does loving the other believer mean that they hide from the facts that face them?
Do they expose the sin in front of everyone? (they might even be seen as superior in their holiness if they were to do so)
Of course, biblically, none of those responses are appropriate. Even though, those are often the responses of believers when faced with the sin of another.
Nevertheless, Paul presents the proper course of action in three steps in this first verse, and these steps are our biblical application for today.
To Correct/Restore One Another:
To Correct/Restore One Another:
We must seek the restoration of one another
We must seek the restoration of one another
This seems obvious, but so often, when it comes to sin, we tend to evaluate it based on how much that particular sin bothers us personally. And if we find the sin especially personally offensive, it is typically not the restoration of the believer we seek, but their public condemnation. As if the condemnation of another, affirms our own righteousness in some way.
And isn’t one of the reasons that we are afraid to admit to the presence of sin in our lives because we are worried about how others will respond to us?
Quickly, if that’s you today. Here is your biblical mandate and proof that the church is to seek your restoration, not your damnation. Now, of course, if you refuse correction and restoration, then the situation changes to church discipline, which is outlined in Matthew chapter 18. But suffice it to say, you don’t have to be afraid to admit to sin in your life, but you do have to be humble enough to accept correction in order to facilitate your restoration.
Now, the restoration that Paul is talking about is actually a medical term, according to the original Greek, and it means to reset a dislocated bone, or to set a fractured bone.
Spiritually speaking, whatever is wrong in the backslidden Christians’s life is to be set straight. Yet it is not to be neglected or exposed openly.
So think about when you go to the doctor, the doctor does not examine you in the waiting room in front of everyone. You go to an examination room.
Even when you have a significant procedure, the surgeon does not operate on you in the lobby, you go to an operating room.
There is the appropriate discretion employed, and the same is to be true when correcting and restoring one another.
When I spoke regarding sin at our Avon campus, I highlighted the fact that Jesus deals with sin in safety, but not in secret, and that is being pointed out here as well.
The Work of Restoring Must Be Done by Those Who Are Spiritual
The Work of Restoring Must Be Done by Those Who Are Spiritual
In a matter of just a few words, Paul is actually making two supplemental points in saying this.
First he is challenging those who call themselves spiritual to put their actions where their lip service is. In effect, Paul is saying, “if you are a professing Christian, then prove it by helping someone in sin to experience restoration in and through Christ.”
And second, Paul is letting all who read his letter know in no uncertain terms that only those who are genuinely led of the Spirit have the maturity to deal with sin in others. And certainly, every Christian should desire to be mature enough for such work.
The Christian who games the system and stays in his/her hospital bed, is not mature. No matter how long they’ve been a Christian, no matter how they’ve served in church before or since, etc. A Christian who is taking up a hospital bed because they are refusing or otherwise avoiding treatment cannot at the same time offer one to another believer who needs it.
And this is also a warning to those Christians who are trying to hide in plain sight.
You know, when we are afraid to go to the doctor, we’ll try just about anything to cure what ails us. Anything, except actually go to the doctor.
Well, here Paul is saying that, for those Christians who are trying all kinds of stuff except the Lord to defeat sin in their lives, that only someone who is spiritually mature in Christ will actually be able to help you achieve restoration.
You might be able to will your behavior in check, but that doesn’t do anything to address your spiritual condition, and that’s the condition that matters because that is where sin is overcome.
Restoration Should Be Done Gently and With Personal Caution
Restoration Should Be Done Gently and With Personal Caution
The philosopher Aristotle, says this about the gentleness that Paul speaks of:
“Gentleness describes the person who is so much in control of himself that he is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.” The gentleness that Paul talks about is the same spirit in which to learn, and wherein correction and restoration are to be applied. Furthermore, this is the same spirit that is the virtue required for meeting with opposition and for witnessing and evangelism.
Isn’t is curious that gentleness is an expression of courageous boldness?
It isn’t a lullaby whisper. You don’t meet your opposition with a whisper.
You don’t witness for Christ through a whisper.
That doesn’t mean that you’re a jerk about things, but it does mean that you are bold in the Lord.
And isn’t it such boldness that is needed when confronting one another’s sin?
Now, regarding the personal caution that Paul mentions.
No one, no matter how spiritually mature they are, is immune to falling into sin. Yes, sometimes, when dealing with another person’s sin, the Christian fall into that sin themselves. We must exercise great care when we care for others.
Just like in a medical hospital. Yes, doctors and nurses tend to have stronger immune systems (i.e. more mature), but that does not mean that they never get sick, or that they are immune from catching whatever illness a patient may bring in.
You know, if we think back to our hospital illustration and our sin brokenness.
It is good to recognize our sin brokenness.
It is good to go to the hospital, i.e., become a part of a church body.
But if you are looking for a church, or hanging out with a church, trying to find people who will cater to you from now until Jesus comes, you’ve got the wrong idea of what the church is supposed to be.
Treating a church like that is like treating a hospital as your own personal butlers and waitstaff.
A hospital staff is not there to meet your every need/want.
And your church leaders, biblically, are not here to meet your every need/want.
The hospital staff is there to help you heal, not to keep you in the hospital bed, but to get you out of it, and to get you back into contributing to your world.
I don’t want you to hide behind your sin brokenness.
I want you to be restored so that the brokenness you most identify with might be being broken by Jesus instead of your sin.
If you’re hurting, of course I want to help you heal.
But I am not going to cater to you if you refuse treatment and take a up a bed that could be used for someone who does want to be restored.
The church is not this non-descript building or other institution that exists to give people who come and look at it warm and fuzzies.
We are the church.
If you’ve got a complaint about church, look in the mirror.
And if you want to get well, look to the Lord and He will lead you to mature believers who will correct you and help you experience restoration.
You know, we don’t need more people to work on church staffs, we don’t need more “professional” pastors, we need more Christians following Jesus in their neighborhoods and workplaces and schools.
I want to help you all become as much of a minister as I am.
Why? So that you can help others see the restoration of Christ in their lives, as you do so as well.
Why? So that I can better model to you what I am teaching.
The late pastor and author John Stott notes:
And I’ve had opportunity to do that in the past,
“If we walked by the Spirit we would love one another more, and if we loved one another more we would bear one another’s burdens, and if we bore one another’s burdens we would not shrink from seeking to restore a brother or sister who has fallen into sin. Further, if we obeyed this apostolic instruction as we should, much unkind gossip would be avoided, more serious backsliding prevented, the good of the Church advanced, and the name of Christ glorified.”
Pause for recording stop
I want to show you a video of Valley’s own Celebrate Recovery ministry.
Right now, all our Celebrate Recovery efforts happen at our Avon campus, and I am sure that when God chooses to bless us with a location, we will extend that ministry to Bristol as well.
Nonetheless, here are people who were caught in various kinds of sin, who sought correction, and who are experiencing God’s restoration.
Its important that we see this in the flesh, and its especially beautiful because this isn’t some random Youtube clip, or pre packaged Christian video, this is us. This is Valley Community Baptist Church helping people who want to get well.
We will watch this video, and then we will close with a time of worship in response to God’s Word this morning.
Let’s take a look at the video.