If Your Brother Sins Against You, Rebuke Him, But… (Luke 17:3 and Judges 20)

In Luke 17:3 Jesus said, “Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” Paul said something similar about focusing on ourselves in Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on ourselves, lest we be tempted.” In Judges 20 we see the lessons God wanted eleven tribes to learn when confronting Benjamin and it helps us see what we should focus on when rebuking others. Table of contentsFamily Worship GuideSermon NotesLesson One: God must use sinners to rebuke sinners.Lesson Two: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, but (Part One) be careful of pride.Lesson Two: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, but (Part Two) with brokenness over your sin.Lesson Two: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, but (Part Three) with gentleness. https://youtu.be/nYaQPX_GfNQ Jesus said, “Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him” (Luke 17:3). Judges 20 teaches us what to focus on. Family Worship Guide Directions: Read the following verses and then answer the questions: Day 1: 2 Chronicles 6:36, Proverbs 20:9, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8, Habakkuk 1:3-13, 2:16-17: Why does God use sinners to rebuke sinners? Can you think of biblical examples of people rebuking each other? Do you think they obeyed Luke 17:3 and Galatians 6:1? Why or why not? Day 2: Matthew 7:3-5, Luke 17:3, Galatians 6:1, Judges 20:12-28: What temptation do we face when God leads us to rebuke people? Why did the eleven tribes keep losing against the tribe of Benjamin? Describe the changes that took place with the eleven tribes over the course of their defeats. What evidences do you see of their brokenness before God finally gave them victory? Day 3: Judges 20:47-48, 21:2-3, James 1:20, Romans 2:4: What mistake did the eleven tribes make after God gave them victory over the tribe of Benjamin, and why do you think they made this mistake? What lesson can we learn from this regarding rebuking others? How does God lead us to repentance and what application does this have for us when we rebuke others? Sermon Notes The title of this morning’s sermon is, “If Your Brother Sins Against You, Rebuke Him, But…” On Sunday mornings we’re working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse, and we find ourselves at Luke 17:3, but you can stay in Judges 20 because it’s where we will be for most of the sermon. I have four questions for you. The first question is a simple one… Who is a sinner? Everyone! Listen to these verses: 2 Chronicles 6:36 There is no one who does not sin Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I am clean from my sin”? Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who…never sins. Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Now here’s the second question… If everyone is a sinner, who must God use to rebuke people in sin? Other sinners! And this brings us to lesson one… Lesson One: God must use sinners to rebuke sinners. Here’s the third question… If God uses sinners to rebuke sinners, what is the difference between the rebuker and the person being rebuked? Unrepentant sin. They are both sinners, but the person being rebuked is in unrepentant sin and God wants to see repentance. Think about the Old Testament when God used nations to rebuke other nations… There were no sinless nations, so He had to use sinful nations to punish other sinful nations. Then He had to punish the sinful nation that punished the other nation because of that nation’s sins. For example: God used Assyria to conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. Then God used Babylon to conquer Assyria and later Judah. Then God used the Medes and Persians to conquer Babylon. Then God used the Greek Empire to conquer the Medes and Persians, Then God used the Roman empire to conquer the Greek Empire. If you were with us on Wednesday nights when Jake was teaching through Habakkuk, you know Habakkuk was upset about the wickedness of his people, the Jews. He shares his complaint with God… Habakkuk 1:3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and WHY DO YOU IDLY LOOK AT WRONG? That’s strong language: Habakkuk said God sees sin but does nothing. Habakkuk 1:4a So THE LAW IS PARALYZED, God’s law does nothing. Habakkuk 1:4b and JUSTICE NEVER GOES FORTH. Sin is never punished. Habakkuk 1:4c The wicked surround the righteous; so JUSTICE GOES FORTH PERVERTED. There is so little justice, it’s perverted or twisted. God answers Habakkuk by telling him He is going to punish the Jews with the Babylonians. Listen to what Habakkuk says in response… Habakkuk 1:13 Why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when THE WICKED SWALLOWS UP THE MAN MORE RIGHTEOUS THAN HE? Did you catch that? Habakkuk knew the Jews were bad, but the Babylonians were worse. He doesn’t understand how could God use the Babylonians to punish the Jews, or as Habakkuk said, how could God have the wicked – referring to the Babylonians – swallow up the man – referring to the Jews – more righteous than them? But what is the alternative? What righteous nation could God use to punish the Jews? The Jews were supposed to be the righteous nation God used to punish sinful nations. If the nation that is supposed to be righteous is unrighteous there’s nobody left. He must use unrighteous nations to punish unrighteous nations, and some of the unrighteous nations will be even more unrighteous than the nation they punish. After Habakkuk’s complaint, God responds that He is going to punish the Babylonians. Here’s part of what He says, and it is as though He is speaking directly to the Babylonians… Habakkuk 2:16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory…The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you (this is the cup of God’s wrath), and utter shame will come upon your glory! 17 The violence…will overwhelm you. So, God used the Babylonians to punish the Jews, but then He punished the Babylonians for their sins. Here’s the fourth and final question… When God uses sinful people to rebuke other sinful people, what is the temptation the sinful people doing the rebuking face? Pride. And this brings us to lesson two… Lesson Two: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, but (Part One) be careful of pride. If God wants us to rebuke people in sin: We might look down on those people We might think we are better than them We might think they are sinners, but we are not We might be outraged over their sin without being outraged over our sin We might be so focused on their sin, we ignore our sin Jesus specifically warned against this in the sermon on the Mount… Matthew 7:3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Let me say it like this… When we are supposed to rebuke people, we might start to see a huge chasm between us and them…but God doesn’t see this chasm. So listen to what Jesus and Paul say to discourage us from seeing this chasm, and I asked the sound guys to put these verses up on the screen so you could see them next to each other… Luke 17:3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, Galatians 6:1 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. Luke 17:3 is the new verse we’ve reached in Luke’s gospel. The verse is about rebuking others, but it begins with the words pay attention to yourselves. The NKJV says take heed to yourselves The NIV says watch yourselves The NASB says be on your guard This sounds strange, doesn’t it? Someone sinned, so we would expect to be told to pay attention to them, but Jesus says to pay attention to ourselves. Paul says something similar… Galatians 6:1 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. Someone sinned, but Paul tells us to watch ourselves to avoid temptation. This is not referring to being tempted by the same sin the other person is committing. This is referring to pride. As I was thinking about this all week an Old Testament account came to mind. This is why we are in Judges 20. Let me give you the context because we are jumping right into the middle. Some men raped and murdered a woman. The sin was so terrible the whole nation learned about it. The men who committed the sin were to be executed, and they were from Gibeah, which was within the boundaries of the tribe of Benjamin. So, the other eleven tribes reached out to the tribe of Benjamin to get them to turn over the men. Look at verse 12… Judges 20:12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What evil is this that has taken place among you? 13 Now therefore give up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.” But THE BENJAMINITES WOULD NOT LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF THEIR BROTHERS, the people of Israel. Unbelievably, the tribe of Benjamin would not hand over the wicked men. How do we explain this? We are in Judges, and what is the theme verse for this book? Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Israel was one nation,