MEMBERSHIP (6 of 10 Non-Negotiable Elements of a Healthy Church)

The Biblical Basis for Church Membership

Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word, if you have one with you, to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We're going to be looking at verses 12 through 20 this morning. By the way, I bring these up every week.

These are resources to go along with the current sermon series that we're doing right now. Nine Marks Ministry puts these out. This is the church series. Build a Healthy Church. And this particular one, the blue one, Church Membership, is one that if you want to do some more research on the topic, you can.

And then we have the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. Let's read our passage this morning. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, starting in verse 12, the Apostle Paul says, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body. Each one of them he has as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. Today we get to the sixth of these ten non-negotiable elements of a healthy church in this series.

And today we're speaking of the topic of church membership.

Church membership.

A healthy church will have a high view and biblical standard of membership. Most churches have some form of membership, but why? And is that form that they have a biblical one? So before we dive into this topic, let's stop, let's pray once again.

Let's ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds to this particular truth in his word. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again and we ask that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to your truth.

We pray that even in our frailty, even in our inability to comprehend certain things at times, we know that your word is clear and it is true. So help us to understand it. God, guard me from speaking error.

Guard the ears of those that are here today or online. And if I speak an untruth from your word, that you would protect us from it. And I thank you, in Christ's name, amen. Well, this topic of church membership is a highly debated subject these days.

You know, a lot of churches, a lot of Christians, they're asking, is it necessary? Is this really necessary? And more importantly, they're asking, is it biblical? Is church membership in Scripture? And if so, why?

What's the purpose? And honestly, I think these questions are legitimate in many cases. I give them some legitimacy, not because Scripture isn't clear on the matter, but because of the church's ambiguity and sloppy practice of this extremely important element of the church over the past hundred years or so.

The way the church has treated this topic has led us to this. If you were to try and find the type of church membership that is practiced in most evangelical churches today, if you tried to find that within the New Testament, you'd probably be very hard-pressed to even find a semblance of a match.

I thought about it over the past couple weeks as I was preparing. I was like, are there any Scriptures maybe I could distort? Like, maybe I could even twist to fit the way most churches do membership these days?

I was hard-pressed. I couldn't find anything. Over the past century, church membership in the Western culture looks a little bit more like being a part of a baseball league. Bear with me here. Yeah, we all are in the same league together.

All Christians everywhere, we're all a part of the same baseball league. But, each team just happens to be in competition with each other. We have our neighbor across the street who goes to another church.

Yeah, we have fellowship with them. We're part of the same league. But, my church needs to win this week. We've got our starters. We've got the people that are the really gifted Christians. They're the ones that really put in the effort.

They're the ones that really spend time in the Bible, and they really spend time trying to prepare for Sundays. They essentially do everything in the church, don't they? They carry the church. They're the starters.

But, of course, on the other end, we have our bench warmers, don't we? We've got our bench warmers. Maybe they're not quite as gifted as the starters, or they just don't take it quite as seriously. But, they're present.

They dressed for the game. They're here. Great. We don't mind trading players if it benefits the team. And, we certainly don't mind being traded if it benefits us. It's like, hmm, I can go to the church down the road.

They have a better organization. They're more well put together. And, just like with any club or membership, each player has a private life and a professional life. They have their friends and family on one side, and they have their teammates on the other.

Now, sometimes those two overlap. And, that's a great thing. But, they still essentially maintain their own identity. I've got my family and my friends. These are the people I'm close to. And, those are my teammates.

Or, I've got my family and my friends. Those are the ones that are important in my life. And, I've got my church members. They come in close second. Would you say that this is an accurate assessment of the perspective of much of church membership today?

It's either a no or a yes.

Yeah, right?

I think so. So, you can see why people are so confused on the matter. They certainly don't see anything like that in the New Testament. You can't find it. But, the church, being so desperate for numbers as they often are, has relegated this high calling of membership to the local church.

And, when I say high calling, I believe it's the highest calling that we can have in this life. If God came to me and said, Hey, you can either be a member of the church or you can be king of America.

I'm going to pick a member of a church every day of the week because that's a significantly higher calling than the king of some country. This is significant. This is how Scripture is taught. But, the church has relegated that membership to the local church to the practical status of a sports club, a baseball league, a racquetball league, a country club, something that I can just pay my dues and come be a part of, a gym membership, something that I can voluntarily opt in or opt out of depending on my circumstances or perceived benefit to me.

That's today's church membership. And, this practice has unfortunately led to deadly consequences within the church. As a matter of fact, I got this list from this book on church membership and I wanted to share it with you.

I encourage you to go check out that book and look at it. But, this list really struck home with me as I was thinking about it. Listen to each one of these points. This is what the Western culture has turned church membership into.

Christians can think it's fine to attend a church indefinitely without joining. Just attend a church. I can attend. He's not saying Christians who come in are trying a church and trying to make sure this is the right place for their family.

No, it's just indefinitely. Next one is Christians think of getting baptized apart from joining. Christians take the Lord's Supper without joining a church. And, the reason they do that is because Christians view the Lord's Supper as their own private mystical experience for Christians and not an activity for church members who are incorporated into body life together.

We've completely misunderstood the ordinances in light of losing membership. Christians don't integrate their Monday to Saturday lives with the lives of other saints. You know, it's easy to come Sunday morning, check the box, go about my life.

Remember, I'm in a baseball league. I've got my co-workers. I see them on Sunday. I see them on Wednesday. But, I've got my family and friends over here. A Christian's resources and time are selfishly guarded and not extravagantly shared.

Christians assume they can make a perpetual habit of being absent from the church's gathering. Christians make major life decisions, moving, accepting a promotion, choosing a spouse, etc. without considering the effects of those decisions on the family of relationships in the church or without consulting the wisdom of the church's pastors and or other members.

That's a big one, right? Well, that's my private life. I can choose what job I take. I don't need the input of my church. Christians buy homes and rent apartments with scant regard for how factors such as distance and cost will affect their ability to serve their church.

Christians don't realize that they are partially responsible or partly responsible for both the spiritual welfare and the physical livelihood of the other members of their church. Even members they have not met.

When one mourns, one mourns by himself. When one rejoices, one rejoices by herself. Every single thing on that list is the antithesis of the New Testament church. The Christian life is not, and I love what you said this morning.

It fit perfectly. I was like, I'm preparing to preach on that. The Holy Spirit knows what He's doing, right? The Christian life is not an individualistic experience. Hear me out. Yes, you have an individual relationship with Christ.

If you do not have a relationship with Christ, an individual one, then you're not at the starting point, right? But the Christian life is not an individual experience. Christ has brought you into a union.

He's brought you into a body, one in which He is the head, as Paul tells us in Colossians 1 .18. And He, speaking of Christ, is the head of the body. And what's the body? The church. Look at our passage here in 1 Corinthians 12.

Look at verse 12. For just as the body is one. Paul's already confirmed that in his letter in Colossians. I just read, the body, the church. He's speaking of the church. And the church is one. And has many members.

Who's that? That's you and I, right?

Believers.

And all the members of the body, though many, are one body. So it is with Christ. This verse should sound familiar. It's just like Romans 12 .5 where Paul writes, for our namesake, you've got a shirt on.

You've got a shirt on. There it is. Romans 12 .5. That's where we get the name. So we, though many, are one body. Individually members, one of another. It's the same thing Paul's affirming here in his letter to the church at Corinth.

Look at verse 13. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into, there it is again, one body. And then he says, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. I find this interesting. It's unlike baseball players who have everything in common.

If I join a baseball league, I'm joining a bunch of baseball players, right? Very like-minded. Same kind of lifestyle. Same background for the most part. If I join a country club, guess what? I'm joining like-minded people that come from the same background.

If I join a gym, I'm joining something where you have similar people. But we, brought into a body, come from all types of backgrounds. Jews, Greeks, slaves, free, poor, rich, black, white, whatever. We're all brought into the same body.

And he says, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. Notice that Spirit is capitalized. Why is that? It's the Holy Spirit, right? Brought into one Spirit. We're brought into union with the triune God.

This isn't just union together. There's a reason for our together union. There's a reason we're a body because we're brought into union with God Himself, the Creator of everything from eternity past. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And this body is the Church. It's referred to in Scripture as the Ekklesia. This is the Greek word for called out assembly or congregation. Whenever you see the word Church in your New Testament as you're reading, this is what it's translated from, the Ekklesia.

And this is important for us to note because it helps us understand the distinction between what we refer to as the Universal Church and the Local Church. Which some of you, if you're astute to where we're going, you're going to be like, okay, let's make that distinction.

And we're going to, and that's going to help us put a pin in that. What do I mean by the Universal Church? Let's explain that first. What is the Universal Church? The Universal Church is comprised of all saints from all time.

Now, sometimes we lose sight. We think, well, all saints. The church across the street, or part of their Universal Church. The church in Afghanistan right now, they're a part of the church. And yes, that's true, but that's only a limited perspective of the Universal Church.

The Universal Church is a body as a whole. You and I are part of the same body that Abraham is.

Isaac.

Peter. Paul, who's writing this letter. We're part of that same body. It's the exact same thing, the Universal Church. We are part of the same body that some saint a thousand years from now that is brought into the body is.

We, of all saints, of all times, are part of the Universal Body. That's why God has gifted the church with teachers, right? That's why we can read some of these old books up here from saints that lived maybe hundreds or thousands of years before us and we can benefit from their input into the Word of God because of their giftedness that God has given the church.

So we have the Universal Church that we are a part of this body. And what brings you into this body? What brings a person into membership of the Universal Church? It's being a citizen of the Kingdom, right?

We just got done with the Sermon on the Mount and that's been Jesus' whole thing. For they will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. They will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven over and over again. The Kingdom of Heaven is this.

The Kingdom of Heaven is that. This is the purpose.

The body.

The Universal Church. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. And what gives us citizenship into that Kingdom? Think about what Paul says. You can jot this passage down or turn to it quickly but in Colossians chapter 1 again.

But in verses 13 and 14, Paul says, He, who, God, has delivered us. Who's He speaking to here? Christians, part of the Universal Church. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. The Kingdom of this world, right?

That's what we were. We were slaves to this world. We were a part of this world. We were in the Kingdom of darkness. And, he says, transferred us. There's something that has happened now that we've been taken from one thing and now put into another.

And he says he has transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.

What Kingdom?

The Kingdom of Heaven. Where He rules. And He has transferred us into this. So now, anyone that has been brought in. Think about what he says next here. How he does it. Paul says, In whom? In whom? Who's he talking about?

In Jesus, right? In Christ. We have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. Every person who has faith in Christ is automatically transferred into the Kingdom. Into the body. Automatically, you are there.

Faith and repentance. In Christ and Christ alone.

Right?

This gives you citizenship. There's no work involved. There's no water baptism involved in this act. It's simply faith and repentance in Jesus Christ and Christ alone. You are automatically, irreversibly, irrevocably forever and always a citizen of that Kingdom.

It can't be taken from you. So, okay, is that membership? Is that the extent of church membership? Well, yes, into the Universal Ecclesia. The Universal Church.

Right?

But that's only part of what's prescribed in the New Testament for membership. So what happens next? We're brought in to the Universal Church. We are members of the body. We are brought into this body.

What happens at this point? Well, think about what Jesus, one of the last things Jesus told us. We bring this up quite often in the Great Commission. Jesus tells us to go and make disciples, doesn't he?

He says, go make disciples. He's saying find others and bring them to the Kingdom. We play a part, right? Just as we preached on last week, evangelism. God does the saving. God's the one that transfers them into the Kingdom by the blood of His Son.

But He's given us a role to go and find them. So we go, we share the Gospel, and He tells us to go and do that. And do what with these new citizens? Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Those people, when He says, make disciples of all nations, that's a declarative statement that Jesus is saying, make disciples. And when you make disciples, they're disciples. They're actually followers of Me.

The baptism part comes next.

Okay?

But the baptism part is important. You see, baptism isn't what brings you into the body. It isn't what brings you into the Kingdom of Heaven. Like I said a moment ago, faith in Christ does that. So what is baptism?

Baptism is what a heavenly citizen does as an outward sign of their citizenship. Baptism is what a heavenly citizen, a part of the body does as an outward expression of their citizenship. I like to think of it as my heavenly passport.

Because think about it. We're brought into the Kingdom, but we're still somehow here amongst the Kingdom of Darkness that already and not yet that we talk about all the time. Yes, we've been transferred into the Kingdom of Light.

And God has left us here. God leaves us here on this earth as sojourners, as foreigners in a foreign land here on mission. And what's that mission? To find other citizens in that foreign land. And as a foreigner, we need identification, something that proves, something that points to our rightful citizenship.

An outward sign of that citizenship. In Acts 2 .41, we have an account of Peter preaching. And at the end of his sermon,.

It says,.

So those who received his word, what happened to them? Those who received his word, what happened to them? Saved.

Right?

When they received the word, what happened to them? They were transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light.

Right?

They heard the word. They accepted the word. Because when the Bible talks about hearing the word, it's not just physically hearing the word. Because a lot of people.

Hear the word,.

But only those who the Holy Spirit works in.

Hear the word.

And so they hear the word. They're transferred into this universal body. They've been made citizens.

Of heaven.

And he says, So those who received his word were baptized.

And.

There were added that day about 3 ,000 souls. Added to what? What's he talking about here? Added those that received his word, added to the Kingdom of Heaven. And those who were baptized added to the congregation there in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem had a church. That was the church. And they're added to that church.

So,.

Let's recap here. If faith makes you a citizen,.

Okay,.

And baptism announces your citizenship, your heavenly passport,.

He's saying,.

Where does the local church.

Fit into this?

What is the local church? In order to understand this, let's stick with the analogy of citizenship.

Remember,.

We are foreigners in a foreign land. So we think of the local church as I mentioned during the song service as an embassy. I've spoke about that often here, that analogy. We think of the local church as an embassy.

You know, you and I.

Are living here in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We're nearly in the dead center of the United States of America. Probably one of the greatest earthly countries that the world's ever known,.

Right?

If not the greatest. But this isn't our citizenship. We're foreigners here. We're foreigners in a foreign land. Yes, we're subject to their laws.

Yes,.

We render to Caesar what is Caesar's but we are different than the rest of the locals. We're outsiders. Oh, but guess where your citizenship.

Is recognized?

Within your embassy.

You show up.

At its gates, beaten and weary from travel. You announce your citizenship, your loyalty to the king. You pull out your passport and that embassy will accept you with open arms. That embassy will help you and care for you.

Any way they can.

And here's the thing, one of the ways they care for us is by giving us tangible and practical ways to participate in kingdom work.

Right?

We're out there alone. We're not participating in the body.

We're not a part of anything. We may do.

Some good things but we're alone. That embassy equips us with the education and tools necessary.

Remember,.

Equip the saints for the good work? They shelter us from the arrows of the enemy. There's safety in the embassy, right?

Yes,.

The universal church.

Has elements of these things. When you run into another citizen out on foreign soil, you have fellowship,.

Don't you?

You ever had lunch with another brother.

Or sister.

From a different.

Congregation?

It's a joyous time.

I love it.

I do it often. It's a great time. There's fellowship.

There.

But here's the thing, we were meant for community. We were meant to live life together. This is why God has prescribed.

The local church. The local church is a practical.

And necessary representation of that universal church.

This is why.

We must be brought into the local.

Ecclesia.

We see that represented.

All throughout.

The New Testament. We see this ecclesia referred to in the plural in multiple.

Cases.

Bear with me here. We think of.

Ecclesia.

As the body,.

Right?

This is the church. Universal. The one church. All time. Forevermore. This is the one body. How do you refer to that one body.

In the plural?

Because Scripture has prescribed representations.

Of that body.

Romans 16, 16. You can jot these down and look at them.

Paul says,.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the ecclesia of Christ.

Greets you.

And it's in the plural there.

It says,.

All the churches of Christ.

Greet you.

He's saying,.

Hey,.

These other churches,.

These other.

Representations of the ecclesia, they greet you. They want to send their regards. He says it in 1 Corinthians 7, 17. This is my rule in all the churches. Multiple.

Plural.

He says it later in 1 Corinthians 11, 16. If anyone is inclined to be contentious,.

We have.

No such practice nor do the churches of God. In the plural. Galatians 1, 2. And all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia. Now, this one's interesting because this one shows us that it's not just one ecclesia in Galatia.

Now, we can.

Understand,.

Well,.

I'm in Galatia. Well, the church in Corinth, they're greeting me. Okay, so that's the church over there.

That's what he's.

Talking about.

But Paul gives us.

The plural when he's speaking to the churches. He has multiple different churches in one city. Multiple ecclesia. The same idea. We also see him identifying specific churches. 1 Corinthians 1, 2 when he begins.

To the church of God that is in Corinth. He also says to the church of the Thessalonians. We see it all the time in all of Paul's greetings, right?

He greets.

The people, the saints in that city that he's writing to. So God has most certainly prescribed the local church. The question is did those local churches have membership?

Because that's.

What we're getting at today, right? Did they have membership or is it just a part of the universal church? And I would argue.

Yes.

Because of what these local churches are tasked.

To do.

Think about this practically, right? What are the local churches called.

To do?

What is 12 .5 church tasked.

To do?

Well, we see that in scripture, right?

I'm going to.

Rapid fire some passages so you can jot these down and look at these later. But Hebrews 13 .17.

Says.

Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. Leaders? There's some sort of structure going on,.

Right?

There has to be some level of organization. We have to know who the leaders are and those leaders we see all throughout the pastoral epistles. Those leaders are men that are called out from amongst.

A people,.

A specific people. What is their purpose? 1 Peter 5 .2 Peter says shepherd the flock of God. He's speaking to the overseers, right? That is among.

You.

He's not.

Telling them.

Hey, you.

Now that you're an elder you're an elder of all the saints.

Of all the.

Universal church.

I have no oversight over a member of central. But guess what? I'm a part of the universal body with them.

But I have no.

Oversight because the church isn't.

Structured like that.

But I do have oversight over members of this particular church. And he says exercise oversight not under compulsion but willingly as God would have.

You.

There's leadership involved. Paul says to Titus in Titus 1 .5.

When he's getting ready to lay out.

The qualifications for elders.

He says this is.

Why. I left you in Crete, Titus. I left you there on purpose.

So that you.

Might put what.

Remained.

Into order. There's order.

There's structure.

And appoint.

Elders in every town as I.

Directed you.

So the.

Local church.

Has a very.

Specific structure.

Of leadership. Leadership for what? Those particular saints. The local church is tasked with the ordinance of baptism. It's what we oversaw this.

Morning.

Baptizing your buddy in his swimming pool in the backyard isn't legitimate.

Okay?

This is an ordinance that was given to the.

Church.

The local ecclesia. That's the way it works.

Now somebody.

Can be baptized in a swimming pool in the backyard.

With the oversight.

Of a church,.

Right?

Don't think that a pool and we're using a horse trough.

So I think it's okay.

The local church.

Is tasked with.

The ordinance of the Lord's Supper which we will partake.

As we do.

Every single.

Week.

This is not something to be taken at home with your family. I know that's a common practice today because we've lost the concept of membership. We've lost the concept of the.

Church.

Whenever you see the Lord's Supper being overseen in the church, it's the gathered ecclesia.

It's the.

Gathered church. That's the Lord's Supper. It's one of the ordinances. One of its purposes is ongoing affirmation of those who are living like a.

Citizen.

Oversight. The elders, me and Pastor Jeremiah, have a.

Responsibility.

To guard this table.

If you are an.

Open,.

Unrepentant sin that everyone knows about, you're not welcome to this table at the.

Moment.

There must be some barrier and guard for unity within.