Message Outline:

The Purpose of Community Discipline

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

(Part A)

The Practice of Church Discipline

I. The Problem (18:15a)

II. The Process (18:15b-17)

A. Private Rebuke (18:15b-d)

B. Witnessed Rebuke (18:16)

C. Public Rebuke (18:17a-b)

D. Excommunication (18:17c-d)

III. The Promises (18:18-20)

A. God’s Sovereign Power (18:18)

B. God’s Sovereign Answer (18:19)

C. God’s Sovereign Presence (18:20)

The Importance of Jesus’ Commands

The Practice of Church Discipline

The Purpose of Church Discipline

● The Background of 1 Corinthians

● The Context of 1 Corinthians 5

I. The Case for Discipline (5:1-5)

A. The Sin (5:1)

1. The Sin’s General Description

● immorality any unlawful sexual interaction/relationship

2. The Sin’s Extreme Nature

3. The Sin’s Specific Designation

B. The Church’s Response (5:2)

1. What It Was (5:2a)

● arrogant blowing or puffing something up

a. The Corinthians’ Problem with Pride

b. The Corinthians’ Prideful Rejection of Spiritual Authority

c. Implication

2. What It Should Have Been (5:2b)

a. They Should have Spiritually Grieved

b. They Should have Practiced Church Discipline

● removed to lift up or take up in order to carry away

c. Implication

C. The Apostle’s Response (5:3)

1. Paul’s Decision: Guilty

● judged the process of judging or the outcome of that process

● The Nature of Christian Judgement: Discernment

2. Paul’s Authority