Summary

I should probably acknowledge that the subject matter this morning, as you can see from the first verse, has some… adult themes. Now, I’m not going to be explicit--the adult nature of this will mostly be in the background, because the focus of this passage is not on what this guy is doing but how the church is responding to it. That kind of debauchery, Paul says, “is not even tolerated among the pagans.” You know it is bad when your pagan neighbors are going, “Nasty! Now that’s just wrong!”

Sermon Questions

1. In most churches, church discipline is rarely practiced. Why do you think that is true?
2. Look at the sin in Corinth-a man was sleeping with his father’s wife. Paul makes the point it is unloving not to confront this brother in his sin and remove the fellowship of the saints from this person’s life. In the modern church, are there times we need to remove the fellowship of the saints in order to spur a brother or sister into repentance? Explain your answer.
3. Why is church discipline important to the church?
4. Why is church discipline important to the outside world?
5. Sin is serious. Deadly serious. But Jesus saves. We want to do whatever it takes to make that message clear. How seriously do you take sin?