Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Deal With Sin? | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 17.1-4

Episode Date: May 25, 2020

Sin isn't just a personal problem. It impacts and involves other people too. Hear how Jesus says to handle sin in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+17.1-4&version=NIV (Luke 17.1-4) as https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Patrick) continues our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/how-to-follow-jesus/ (Learning to Follow Jesus). Interested in more content like this? Scroll down for related episodes and resources like Barbara Duguid's book http://www.barbaraduguid.com/extravagant-grace (Extravagant Grace) and Keith Simon's episode on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/the-power-to-forgive-redefining-love-1-cor-13/ (What Forgiveness Really Means) from our first series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/redefining-love/ (Redefining Love). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. Okay, here's a modern-day myth that I find increasingly irritating. What I do, and I think and I feel only affects me. I've heard people say that more times than I can count. Whatever I do, it really only affects me.

So I was super delighted to read about an interesting study, which actually measured the emotional welfare of people living in a small community. And here's what they discovered. They found out that our emotions are actually contagious. So if you're happy, the people who you're in contact with will be measurably happier. And here's the really cool part. It's not just them. The happiness you infected them with will measurably make the people who they come into contact with even happier. And it doesn't matter if you've talked to those other people or not. So here's the thing. If you're frustrated, people within three removes of you will be measurably more frustrated. And social scientists, they call this a social contagion. And whether or not

you buy into the studies, I can tell you that as a pastor, I've seen this anecdotally more times than I can even count. We have small groups where literally no one is anxious. And we have small groups where literally everyone is anxious. We have small groups where no one's struggling with sexual sin and small groups where everyone is. What we do think and feel immeasurably affects one another. And so no one gets a pass on their life. No one gets to say, well, what I do only affects me. No, everything you do is contagious to others. Now, given this, perhaps it's no surprise that I've had many Christians ask me over the years where they can connect with the serious Christians. And you kind of get the question, right?

They're saying, look, I don't want to be infected by the dirty, sinful people. Get me into the holy huddle where no one's going to make me do bad things, and I'm going to live a better life. I don't want to be around messy lies. I don't want to be people who study the Bible and go deep. Now, on level, I'm really sympathetic to that question and to that desire, because we should want to be more holy. But to be honest, I find it kind of strange and idealistic. Because at least everybody I've met sins, without exception. And that means that there's no such thing as a part of the church or a special community,

which is unaffected by sin. Even if some communities are more covert about their sin, it doesn't matter. There's sin in that community. I think Jesus agreed with me on both counts. First, he agreed that we should expect sin in kingdom communities. And we know this because he actually told us how to deal with sin in the community. There's no reason to tell us how to deal with sin in communities if there's no reason to tell us how to deal with sin in communities if there's not supposed to be any sin there. Second, he agreed with me that our sin affects other people.

We know this because he didn't merely say, hey, you individuals, you stop sinning, but he actually warned about how individuals influence one another. In fact, he warned about how an improper response to sin in the community could really make matters much worse. Luke 171, Jesus said to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble are bound to come. But, woe to anyone through whom they come, it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them. And if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, I repent, you must forgive them. So let's start here. Sin is a communal problem. It's not just an individual.

problem. We should expect sin in our communities. Again, I often have people ask me why our church has so many problems. And I always respond the exact same way. I say, I wish we were a church that didn't have racial divides, leadership problems, gossip, power struggles, divorce, adultery, deception, and greed. But you know the only bummer? If you read Paul, you'll realize that every church from the very beginning struggle with exactly these same things from the earliest days. There's no such thing as a pure church. The question isn't how can I go to a church without sinners who are going to hurt me. The question is always, how am I going to respond to the sin that's going to happen inside of the church community?

Jesus tells us one thing not to do and two things to do. What shouldn't you do? Well, he says, look, don't give sin a leg up. Jesus warns us that causing a fellow follower to stumble, it's not bad, it's deadly. He says that it would be better to tie a millstone around your neck and jump into the sea, then do that. And if you've never seen one, millstones are not small. They're enormous.

I mean, they require the full physical exertion of an animal or a human to even barely move them. So you put one of those things around your neck and go for a swim. You're not going to live. Sometimes encouraging others to sin can seem super harmless in the moment. You know, we think, hey, it's just a little white lie. or, you know, it's just a little gossip, it's not a big deal, or it's just a little bit of fun. But Jesus says that when you do that, you don't just hurt yourself.

You hurt the other person. You don't just hurt yourself. You tie a millstone around your neck. You kill yourself. Why is that the case? Well, just ask Tracy Foley. She was a Canadian citizen who was happily married with kids. There was only one problem with Tracy Foley.

Tracy Foley was a made-up identity. Her real name was Elena Vavilova, and no one, not even her husband or kids, knew that she was a Russian spy. She was stealing state secrets for a foreign government. She looked like she was on Team Canada her whole life. She was just Tracy Foley. But the reality was quite different. Why shouldn't we tempt other people to sin, even if it seems really harmless? Because when we do that, we are functioning as spies for the devil inside of Jesus' community.

We're functioning like foreign agents who are working for the destroyer of all human flourishing in life. We might think, hey, I'm on team Jesus, but our actions show that the reality is quite different. Okay, so that's what we shouldn't do. If we want to deal with sin in the community, the first thing we shouldn't do is give sin a leg up. But what should we do? Jesus tells us two things we should do. Confront sin and repent. Okay, so first confrontation.

Jesus says in verse three, if your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them. Now I realize today we live in a live and let live culture. You do you and I'll do me. We think this kind of attitude is loving and generous, but the reality is it's not. Jesus understands that sin is deadly because sin makes you stupid and sin sets you in opposition to God. And so rebuking someone in sin is like reaching out to a drowning person. And even if they're gargling out, I got this, I got this, I don't want your help. We have to try.

We have to help. Now, words like rebuking can sound incredibly harsh. But thankfully, the Bible in other places makes it clear that a good rebuke is actually gentle. Galatians 6-1 says this, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently. Okay, so what's a gentle rebuke look like? Personally, I think it looks like asking a lot of questions.

We say, hey, I noticed this thing in your life. What's leading you to do that? How are you thinking about making choices in your life? Do you want those choices to be made by you, or do you want to trust God and let him make the choices? What's your motivation right now? What are you afraid of losing? The first response to sin in the community needs to be confrontation. It needs to be these kinds of questioning, gentle rebukes.

The second response is repentance and forgiveness. Okay, so repentance. And if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, I repent, you must forgive them. Jesus' call to those offended by the sinner is forgiveness. Not just once, but again and again and again. And I think the reason why is because in the trenches of real life,

sinful habits are actually incredibly slow to change. We might have to forgive someone more times than we would ever like before their heart and behavior really begins to transform. We've actually got a great episode out there on forgiveness, and we'll link to it in our show notes if you want to think more about this topic. Here's the big picture. There's no way to confront to deal with sin inside of our community. There's no way to deal with it apart from confrontation, repentance, and forgiveness.

Those things, even though they're hard, even though they're difficult, they're kind of like the chemo that the Holy Spirit is a point. to the cancer of sin in our community. So here's my challenge. First, don't be surprised by sin in our community or even in your life. The less surprised you are, the easier it's going to be to confront those sins graciously and to repent humbly and forgive easily. We should expect it. But that doesn't mean that we should just give into it or spur it on, because sin really is deadly. And unless we apply the medicine that Jesus has given us to address it, it's going to wreak havoc in our lives and in our communities.

So ask God today for the grace to repent and forgive daily because I promise you are sinning daily and you've probably got something to ask for forgiveness daily and you've probably got someone to forgive daily. And when the time comes, when you see someone in sin, give a gentle rebuke. Be ready to expect it. Be ready to accept it.

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