Simple Church: Back to Basics #3- "Does the Bible Teach Church Membership?" (Selected Scriptures)

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We are continuing on in the sermon series that we have been in for the last few weeks that we've entitled
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Simple Church Volume Two, Back to Basics, and you'll again recall that what
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I've said about this series is that my aim with this really is to remind us of some basic things when it comes to the church and it comes to your involvement, my involvement, our involvement in it.
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And this afternoon, we come to what might possibly be one of the most controversial questions in relation to what
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I believe is a biblical understanding of the church. We're going to tackle this afternoon the question, does the
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Bible teach church membership? Now, I am not oblivious to the fact that it sounds a little opportunistic for a pastor to preach about church membership.
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The irony of that is not lost on me. That being said,
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I think that this is an important message, especially in the part of the country in which we find ourselves where, as one pastor, and I'll read it right at the end of the sermon, as one pastor put it, it's a hard sell to preach about church membership in the
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Pacific Northwest. So I'm going to ask that as I seek to teach
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God's Word this afternoon and heads up, remember in week one, I said that some of these messages will be like sermons, some will be like lectures, and some will be something quite in the middle.
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Well, today's going to be kind of like a lecture. I apologize in advance. I will try and make it quick because we do have a potluck after the service.
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So I'll do my best. But I really think this subject is a critical one. So would you pray for me as I seek to teach
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God's Word and pray for yourselves as you hear it? As we think about this subject of whether the Bible teaches church membership.
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Well, to start our time this afternoon, can I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12?
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We'll start there. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 from verse 12 through to verse 26.
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1 Corinthians chapter 12, reading from verse 12 through to verse 26. If you grabbed one of the hardback
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Bibles on the welcome table, that's page 1019. 1
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Corinthians chapter 12, reading from verse 12. And we're going to read all the way to verse, actually
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I'm going to read from verse 27. We'll add an extra verse. So 1 Corinthians chapter 12 from verse 12 through to verse 27.
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If you're able to do so, would you stand with me out of reverence for God's Word? It's our custom here at Redeemer to do so when we read the scripture before we preach.
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So 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 12.
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Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. For just as the body is one and has many parts and all the parts of that body, though many are one body, so also is
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Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.
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And we were all given one spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part, but many.
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If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body.
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And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body.
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If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
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But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts of the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same parts, where would the body be?
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As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. Or again, the head can't say to the feet,
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I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable.
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And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor.
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And our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect which our respectable parts do not need.
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Indeed, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other.
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For if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
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Verse 27, now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God will abide forever. Join with me as I pray, ask for the Spirit's help, and we get to work in God's word.
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Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we would ask that as we take some time this afternoon to think about church membership and being committed participants in the body that you have created.
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I pray that you would help us, that we would be faithful to what your word has to say.
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That where your word maybe challenges some of the cultural understandings and cultural misapprehensions that we may bring to a subject like this, we pray that your word would indeed give understanding.
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Father, as we pray for our body, I pray for First Baptist Church of Phoenix. Thank you for Pastor Brett and the faithful work that he is doing there in Phoenix.
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Pray for his congregation and for all that's going on there that you would bless that work. Father, pour out your grace upon him and the other leaders who are there.
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Help them in bringing up other leaders who will help Brett to shoulder the burden of the work.
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Be with him and be with us now as we pray. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.
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Amen. Everything okay over there? Okay. Well, please be seated.
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And as we get started, I wanna read something to you.
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It's a lengthy quote, but my hope is it'll at least get you to think as I read it.
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Here's the quote. Church membership is not biblical.
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Nowhere does Jesus tell us to go out and find members, make members or sign up members. Increasing membership is simply not a biblical mandate.
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Jesus doesn't command this and biblical writers don't order it. Membership establishes two levels within Jesus' church.
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We must repent of making this distinction. Membership causes division among Jesus' followers, segregating attendees into two classes of people, the outsiders who are members from those who are on the periphery, the non -members.
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End quote. True or false? The same author in another article, this one author had like 12 articles on this subject.
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You can tell it's a source book for him. Another article, he says this. Church membership is not biblical.
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Sounds familiar, we just read that. We made it up. Having members separates church attendees between those on the inside and everyone else.
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It pushes away seekers. Membership splits the church of Jesus, separating people into two groups, offering privileges to one and instilling resentment in the other.
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It is a most modern concept, consumerism at its finest. To my shame,
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I have been a church member, never again. Although perhaps well -intended, membership divides the church that Jesus wanted to function as one.
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Jesus accepted and loved everyone, not just those who followed him or offered money. Paul never gave instructions about church membership.
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Peter never commanded we join a church and John never held a membership class. I confess my sin, again, he calls this a sin.
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I confess my sin of being sucked into this unholy institutional practice of church membership, both at the local and denominational level.
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I stand in horror over my role in promoting division among the followers of Jesus.
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Father, forgive me. Though I will never again join a church as an official member,
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I am open to attend one, to immerse myself in community, to engage in corporate worship and to serve others.
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This is what church should be. This is what the early church did. This is what
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Jesus wanted when he prayed for unity. And this is what I will do, end quote.
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Well, is he right? Like I said, he's got 12 articles,
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I won't name the author, I don't need to go read it, but this particular author had 12 article after article, basically decrying the existence of any such thing as church membership.
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I mean, we can all agree as you read this, he's pretty passionate about this. This clearly bugs him. But is he right?
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As the question says above me, does the Bible teach church membership?
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I have had pastors, pastors who were my pastors, explicitly tell me that they didn't believe in church membership and that it would never happen in their churches.
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And I say pastors, plural. Again, I ask, were they right?
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Allow me to say something upfront that might be considered disrespectful, but please receive it in the spirit in which it's intended.
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I'm saying this from a heart that loves God and loves his people and wants the best for his people. The modern rejection of church membership as a practice and a belief of Bible -believing
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Christians has damaged the church irreparably. In a complete rejection of what
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Christendom has taught for 2000 years, this modern, and actually, we might talk about this,
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Eddie, heads up, when we do the cutting room floor this week. If you trace this back, really you don't start to see a rejection of church membership until the
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Brethren Movement in the 1800s. It kind of came back around in the 1960s and 70s with an author called
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Gene Edwards. Look it up. This modern push against church membership essentially says,
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I can have Jesus without having his church. I can have all the benefits of the body without any commitment to the body.
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And I'll be honest, quite frankly, as I look at the fruit of churches, both churches I have been a part of and churches
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I am aware of, that reject covenantal, committed church membership, the generally bad fruit should be proof enough that this idea that we can be part of the church without being members of a church just doesn't work.
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Kofi, that's a bit arrogant to say. Maybe it is. But again, the question is not, does
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Kofi believe the Bible to teach church membership? The question is, does this book that we all say is
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God's word, this book that we say is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, this book that we say we believe churches should be ordered by, does this book teach the concept, the practice, the discipline of church membership?
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But that's the question that we want to consider this afternoon. Now, let me be clear. You can be a
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Christian and be wrong on this subject. This is not a salvific issue.
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This is not the gospel. The gospel is the gospel, and we should keep the gospel the gospel. But we aren't really talking about the gospel necessarily when we talk about this issue.
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We are talking about a matter of obedience. And I can put it another way. This really is a discipleship question.
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Discipleship very simply is following Jesus in obedience to all that he has commanded us, both directly and through those he authorized to teach in his stead.
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That's what discipleship is. Then it becomes a question of discipleship. Does the Lord Jesus, does the
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Bible, which comes to us through those who are taught by him, does this book teach church membership?
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You probably might just guess that I believe it does. And so this afternoon for a few moments,
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I want to give you a biblical case for the practice of church membership and explain why we here at Redeemer consider it to be a pretty big deal.
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We don't force people into it. We'll talk about that towards the end. We don't hamstring anyone or basically pull your arms behind folks and say, you will become a member.
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We don't do that here. But we do ask, and we do believe on the basis of scripture, that the
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Bible calls believers to commit themselves to a local church and its ministry.
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In fact, here's my big idea for this sermon. If you don't remember anything else, remember this. Church membership is a direct response to the
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Bible's teaching on the relationship between the individual Christian and the church.
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Church membership is a direct response to the Bible's teaching on the relationship between the individual
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Christian and the church. And I might add a word in there, the local church.
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Let me say that one more time. Church membership is a direct response to the Bible's teaching on the relationship between the individual
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Christian and the local church. For the rest of our time this afternoon,
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I want to consider three levels of teaching on this subject of church membership. Like I said, I will do my best to be brief, but I want to consider three levels of teaching on this subject that I think will hopefully give us some clarity as to whether the
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Bible teaches church membership or not. Well, it might help if we're going to talk about church membership to define the term.
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So let's start there. First of all, let's start by just defining church membership generally. What do we mean when we talk about church membership?
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Well, thankfully, I don't need to reinvent the wheel if we're going to define this term. Let's start with, well, what church membership is.
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Well, church membership is, and I'm going to borrow a definition here that I think is a helpful one. It's by Pastor Jonathan Lehman, who pastors
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Cleverley Baptist Church, or is a pastor at Cleverley Baptist Church in the DC area. He defines church membership like this.
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He says, church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a
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Christian, characterized by the church's affirmation and oversight of a
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Christian's discipleship and the Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.
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Let me read that again. Church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a
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Christian, characterized by the church's affirmation and oversight of a Christian's discipleship and the
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Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.
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Let's break that down a little bit, see if we can make this easier. First of all, it's a formal relationship. This is not just a casual, hey,
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I turn up and I'm here and I might not be here, but, you know, this is my church,
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I guess, kind of, sort of. No, this is actually one of the most difficult parts of church membership, that church membership has some formality to it, that we're actually committing to something.
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I think it's a reality that we all are kind of just aware of, that we live in an age where low commitment is perfectly fine.
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It is perfectly fine for you to determine your own level of commitment to things, and in fact, to actually function on a basis of low commitment with things.
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We, and I say we because there are some areas where I think like this, we don't like something, we drop it and we move on.
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So gone are the days, for example, of wireless contracts that you couldn't get out of, or cable contracts that you needed a legal degree to end, or gym memberships that require so much work to cut off.
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No, no, no, if I don't like something this day and age, I just cut. I just leave. But when we read the
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Bible, the New Testament seems to assume that the individual
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Christian lives his or her discipleship out in the context of a formal committed relationship.
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If you don't like the word formal, stop it for the word committed. A committed relationship to a local body.
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That's why at Redeemer we use the language of covenant membership. Well, let's talk about what a covenant is real quickly.
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When you read the Bible, a covenant simply means a binding agreement made between two parties. When we say a covenant, we're simply saying that you, the individual
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Christian, says to the church, I am committing to discipleship in the context of this church, and the church says we are committing to you, to help you, and to come alongside you in every way we can to aid you in your discipleship.
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But let's not sound like one of those phone contracts or gym contracts or cable contracts you can't get out of and we're all terrified of.
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There's more to church membership than just a cold commitment. Yes, it's a formal relationship, but secondly, it's a mutual relationship.
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So again, here's that definition I gave you. Church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a
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Christian, characterized by the church's affirmation and oversight of a
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Christian's discipleship, and the Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.
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And then understanding of covenantal church membership, the church is basically saying to the individual
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Christian that the church recognizes your profession of faith. I wish I had time to get into the whole theology of the keys of the kingdom and what that means.
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I don't have that time. Suffice it to say, the New Testament seems to understand that local churches have the ability together to affirm the discipleship of another
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Christian and say, fine, we acknowledge your discipleship. Brother or sister, come join with us.
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That's why, if you decide to pursue membership here at Redeemer, we generally like to have a very informal meeting with you where we want to hear your testimony.
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We want to know that you're a believer, and we ask if you've been baptized. But like I said, this is a mutual relationship.
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So yes, the church makes some commitments, and the believer makes some commitments. The believer says that I want to follow
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Jesus together with the people and the leadership of this church, and that I'm making some commitments.
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Just as the church is making commitments to me, I am making commitments to this body.
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That's why we have a membership covenant. It is not a
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I ain't got agreement. We recognize that this is a voluntary arrangement.
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You make that decision to come into membership. But if you make the decision to come into membership, you are agreeing to very particular things.
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It's our custom here at Redeemer that when people come into membership, we read it out loud. That's not by accident.
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We're making it obvious that this is what you are signing up to, and you can't say, well,
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I didn't know that. Well, we told you. One more thing before we move on to what church membership isn't.
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Remember last week I talked about some one -anothers? Gave everybody a little sheet with a bunch of one -anothers?
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In church membership, you are making a binding commitment to live out those one -anothers. You're saying
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I am making a formal relational agreement that I am going to, with my brothers and sisters, walk together in these one -anothers.
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Well, that sounds like a lot. I understand it can sound intimidating. So for a moment, let's talk about what church membership isn't.
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Let's talk about what church membership isn't. Well, of course, it goes without saying that this sounds like a little more than just attending a church.
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And again, here's why I would disagree with the statement that I read at the beginning. I am yet to know any church that practices membership, and I've been in a good few of them.
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I'm yet to know any church that practices biblical church membership that says we can only serve you if you're a member.
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Haven't seen it happen. Are they out there? Probably. I mean, everything exists out there if you try hard enough looking for it.
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But in general, that's not what we are saying. That's what most churches, if not, I would argue, the vast majority of churches are saying.
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But lest there be some confusion, let me just upfront state clearly what church membership is not about.
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First of all, church membership is not giving up your personal independence in non -spiritual matters.
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Let's start there. We're not saying if you become a member of this church, you will now run every decision by the leadership of this church.
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There are some churches, I will admit, that will seek to dictate what jobs you can take, where you can live, what recreation within reason you can partake of, and a thousand other things that, quite frankly, they feel the need to stick their nose in.
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Let me begin by saying that that is not remotely spiritually healthy. For one thing, if I can just speak plainly as a pastor, pastoral ministry is stressful enough without trying to take on the individual lives of every single person.
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Let me just be honest. Moment of transparency. I have no interest in telling you what job to take.
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Not my place. I have no interest in telling you who you should marry other than marry a believer.
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I have no interest in telling you where you should live, what to do with your money within reason.
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Unless scripture tells me to say something about that, I'm probably not going to. It is not my job to basically dictate your life for you.
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Can I add that the Bible says I'm not supposed to do that? So remember back in 1 Peter 5, where we read it, that, you know, you're not to lord it over the flock?
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Well, that was Peter. Here's what Paul says, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 23 and 24. I call on God as a witness on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth.
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I do not mean that we lord it over your faith. If you're the underlining type, please underline that phrase there.
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I do not mean that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy because you stand firm in your faith.
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My role as a leader and the role of any future leaders the Lord will raise up to serve this body, our role is not to lord it over your faith, to domineer over your faith, but we simply come alongside and say we want to help you in your faith for your joy in Jesus.
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So I might strongly urge and recommend that folks attend the meetings of the church, but I can't come and kick your door down each week if I don't see you.
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You might get a text if you're absent repeatedly because that's what being a good under shepherd serving at the call of the chief shepherd looks like, but I can't come and physically like get you in a half nelson and basically twist your arm into coming.
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I may have wrestled once or twice in my life, so I can say, hey we offer this thing called
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Redeemer You on Sunday mornings, but I can't turn up at your house and say, didn't see you this week, where were you?
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I need a phone. No, it's not my job. Again, I refer you back to that message from First Peter where we talked about the fact it was called grounding in God's authority, where I talked about the fact that we're not called to domineer over people.
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Domination is not what spiritual leadership does, and any church membership that leads to that level of control and domination is not in keeping with the spirit of the
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New Testament. So related to that is the reality that, like I said, this is not an ironclad agreement.
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What I mean simply, you can leave at any time. I would argue that there are some biblical parameters for leaving a church.
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Well, if you want to know more about that, we'll talk about that in our cutting room floor episode this week. But for now, simply put, we are not holding anybody hostage.
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In fact, it's written in some of the documents you receive when you become a member, explaining how you can leave, because again, we're not trying to shackle people to the church.
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It's not because we want more bodies in the seats, and so once you're in, we basically, like, you're signed up for life.
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There's no hope of any reprieve. No, there may be any number of reasons why you need to leave, and if they're biblical, we honor those.
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So church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and an individual
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Christian, characterized by the church's affirmation and oversight of a Christian's discipleship and the
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Christian's submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church. It's not about giving up your independence in non -spiritual matters.
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It's not about being locked in for life into a relationship that you can never leave, and it's not about leaders telling you what you can and can't do outside of what scripture says.
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Okay, that's great, but everything I just said is completely irrelevant. It's completely irrelevant if I can't prove it to you from scripture.
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So we've sought to define church membership generally. Let's now demonstrate it biblically.
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Let's demonstrate it biblically. Now, allow me for a moment to address the elephant in the room.
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Just this week, as I was preparing this message, I read article after article after article. My brain suffered reading the worst logic
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I've ever read in some cases, and one thing that came up time and time and time again was this sentiment.
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I'm going to express it like someone was talking to me. Kofi, there is no chapter and verse in the Bible that says
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I should become a church membership. If you can't show me black on white explicitly where it says it, I don't believe it.
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Now, I commend the desire to be biblical. I really do, but can
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I point out that maybe that's a simplistic way of looking at this. This is not a Bible study methods class, so I'm not going to get into the difference between being biblical and slightly biblicist.
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That's a conversation for another time, but for a moment, think with me.
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If you want to take that logic, how far do you want to go with it? If you say that we can only believe things that we have a clear chapter and verse for, then you have to get rid of the trinity, because after all, the word trinity doesn't appear in the
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Bible. I'd invite you to pull out your Bible software if you have it on your phone or your Bible app and search the word trinity.
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You will search in vain. It's not there. The teaching is there, but the word isn't.
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Anyone in the room like Christmas? Well, technically speaking, we're nowhere told to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
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Again, look it up in the Bible. It's not there. Doesn't make it wrong, necessarily.
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That's a whole other conversation for another time. Let me not put my foot in that one, but suffice it to say, technically speaking, it's not in the
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Bible. You all like Easter, right? Think about this.
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We're never actually commanded to celebrate the resurrection. If you read the
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Bible, we're commanded to remember the Lord's death, and the Bible tells us how we do that. We do that through that stuff right there.
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It's through the Lord's table that we remember the Lord's death, if you read the Bible, technically speaking. If you want to get technical, we could argue we celebrate the resurrection every
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Sunday we gather. Again, I'm not saying it's wrong.
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I like Christmas, and I like Easter, so I'm not saying throw them out. But if you're going to use the logic of the Bible, nowhere explicitly says it.
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The Bible never explicitly says to do those things, and we all like those, don't we? Oh, by the way, get rid of the word
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Bible, because the Bible never calls itself the Bible either. It calls itself the
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Scriptures, it calls itself the Word of God, but it never calls itself B -I -B -L -E.
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Now, I am being a little bit cheeky. I recognize that, but you get my point. For something to be biblical does not necessarily mean there is a single, iron -clad, silver bullet verse that you go to.
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What it means is that it arises from the teaching of Scripture, that we gather the totality of what
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God's Word has to say, and we come to some conclusions based on what God's Word says.
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And actually, I will turn the question back to the person who says, well, you need to show me where the
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Bible teaches church membership, and I will turn around and say, show me where it doesn't. Because as one author puts it,
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Dr. John Hammett, a man whose writings at a very low point in my own life reignited my love for the church, he put it like this, quote, the case for church membership is nowhere argued in the
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New Testament, but everywhere assumed. The case for church membership is nowhere argued in the
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New Testament, but it is everywhere assumed. If it's assumed, well, okay, where is it assumed?
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Well, allow me to present my case. First of all, look at the example of the early church. We'll start there.
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The example of the early church. You've got a Bible in front of you, tell with me to Acts chapter two. Let me show you something there.
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Acts chapter two, to give you some context,
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Peter has preached what is called the Pentecostal sermon, the sermon on the day of Pentecost. It's the first sermon of the
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New Testament church. Folks are converted. Can I draw your attention to verse 41?
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Acts chapter two in verse 41. Peter has preached, people have gotten saved, and look at verse 41.
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The scripture says, so those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day, you want to underline this section, and that day, about 3 ,000 people were added to them.
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Just a few observations from that one clause. First of all, it says that 3 ,000 people were added to the company of the disciples.
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We know from Acts chapter one, verse 15, that in the upper room that we often talk about, in the upper room, there were 120 people there already.
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Acts 115, you can look up for yourself. So you've already got 120 people, and now to that number, we now have 3 ,000.
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Okay, Kofi, what's the big deal with that? Well, those 3 ,000 people could be accounted for. It wasn't just, okay, people got saved, you know, like we talked about in week one, you're part of the universal church, be on your merry way.
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No, the apostles knew who the 3 ,000 were and could account for them. Luke knew that there was a number called 3 ,000 and could write that number as he researched for this book we call the book of Acts.
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Also, look at the conduct of these people after they're added to the church. So verse 42, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
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Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.
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They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need.
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Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple. So again, you've got 3 ,000 people, and they're gathering daily to meet in the temple.
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And broke bread from house to house, they ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
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Every day the Lord added to their number, again added to their number, those who were being saved.
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As the gospel is being proclaimed, people get saved, and they are added to the number of this infant church in Jerusalem.
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And again, do you catch the language of commitment there in verses 42 to 47? The 3 ,000 plus those who came after them invested themselves in biblical church life.
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They made a commitment to the church, and the church was equally as committed to them. Okay Kofi, that's one text.
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That's one text. All right, we're in chapter 2. Flip over a couple of pages to chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 and verse 4.
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Acts chapter 4, Peter and John once again are being sanctified rebel rousers. And once again, they're up to all kinds of good.
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And in chapter 3, you see the story of the man who was lame, who is lame in the sense he could walk.
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The man who is lame, who is healed by the ministry of Peter and John. This causes some commotion because people knew who this man was.
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They proclaim the gospel. Chapter 4 verse 4. After they've been told by the high priest, stop preaching in the name of Jesus.
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Verse 4. But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of men came to about 5 ,000.
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Again, there's a clear number. In this particular instance, the number is counted according to the custom of the day where you counted the men.
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So there's 5 ,000 men, which you can presume is probably a lot more if you count women and children. But there's a clear number from those who believed the message.
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The early church wasn't just this amorphous spiritual entity. No, it was concrete.
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You could determine who was in and who wasn't. So we have the example of the early church.
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But secondly, there are the biblical pictures of the church. The biblical pictures of the church. So remember back in week one,
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I gave you three pictures of what the church is. We said the church is an assembly, the church is a body, and the church is a fellowship.
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I would argue that all three of those pictures strengthen the case for covenantal church membership.
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If the church is an assembly of God's people, it's the gathering of God's people.
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And if that gathering exists, like we said in week one, in visible local churches, then believers are biblically responsible, are they not, to join themselves to those local churches, to those gatherings of God's people.
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Well, we read it in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, didn't we? If the church is a body, that body is composed of, this is what we get the language church membership from, right from this text.
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It's composed of individual members. So that's why you can say, verse 27, now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.
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Someone said, well, can't I choose the relationship I want with the church? Well, you can, but let's ask the question, is your choice of a relationship with the body conditioned on your choice or on understanding what
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God has already done in adding you to the church with a big C? Well, think about this.
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Paul uses the language of members or parts of your body. No part of your body has a casual relationship with you, does it?
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You don't wake up in the morning and your eyes kind of walk back to you and like, yeah, I went for a stroll. I'm back now though.
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None of you, I hope not anyway, wake up with your legs going walkabout for long periods of time and then just turning up and saying, yeah,
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I was out and about. It is what it is. No, we recognize in the human body, the human body does not have any casualty to it.
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It is what it is. You lose a part of the body and your body suffers as a result.
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And it's not by accident that we use this language of church membership. Membership is ultimately about finding your place in a body and fulfilling the role in the body that God would have you to participate in.
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Well, if the church is a fellowship, as we said last time in week one, a mutual participation in shared spiritual reality, if that is true, then that language of fellowship by itself implies something more than just a casual level of interaction.
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One commentator looking at Acts chapter 2 verse 42 says this. He says, quote, yet this sharing, the fellowship that he talks about, was clearly a practical expression of the new relationship experienced together through a common faith in Christ.
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That relationship brought a certain sense of responsibility to one another.
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Can I add one more picture though? We talked about the church as a gathering or an assembly, church as a body, church as a fellowship.
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Doesn't the Bible refer to the church as a family? So we have
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God for our father. Hebrews chapter 2 tells us we have Jesus as our elder brother. And we are all brothers and sisters of one another.
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So Paul can say in Galatians chapter 6 verse 10, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.
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Ephesians 2 19 says that we are members of God's household. We saw that language in 1
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Peter, 1 Peter 4 17. The time has come for judgment to begin with God's household. Everybody likes to say they're a child of God.
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Don't we know people love saying I'm a child of God. But again, I quoted
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Dr. John Hammett. Listen to what he says. He says, quote, some may recognize the intrinsic connection between being a child of God the
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Father and belonging to the church's family, but try to restrict their involvement to membership in the universal church.
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But to do so is ignore the overwhelming emphasis of the New Testament, which is on local churches and the nature of that church, which demands visible manifestation.
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So again, you can't say, well, I'm a child of God. I'm part of God's family, but I won't commit to a local body of believers.
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And again, please hear me, please hear me. There's a difference between I'm still thinking and assessing and asking questions.
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I'm not, again, I've made it very clear, we do not force anybody to become a member of a church, either this church or any church for that matter.
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But I'm not talking about I'm prayerfully considering and watching and seeing if this is a body that I can commit to.
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That's very different to I just refuse to be part of a local church.
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So you've seen the example of the local church. You've seen the biblical pictures of the church. I promise these next two move a lot quicker. Thirdly, there's the reality of church discipline.
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The reality of church discipline, as my pastor in London used to call it, he used to call this the reality of being in and being able to be out.
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Oh, I wish I had more time. But if you're telling me the first Corinthians chapter five, first Corinthians in chapter number five, allow me to just summarize and we'll get to the verses that are actually salient for our discussion.
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First Corinthians chapter five, you have this torrid story of a man who's sleeping with his stepmother. Paul says it's beyond foul.
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And he says that, in fact, you guys, in fact, you can just get the confusion in Paul.
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He's like, I don't understand this. Even the Gentiles know this is wild. And you're celebrating it.
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And he's like, okay, stop celebrating it. You need to put that guy out of the congregation. But I want to draw your attention to verse 12, right at the end.
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First Corinthians chapter five and verse 12. Look what Paul says.
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For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside?
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God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.
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Paul makes a sharp distinction between those who are in and those who are out.
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And he says, this person says he is in, but by his behavior and by his actions, he's demonstrating at the very least that he is in unrepentant sin.
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If that is the case, you need to take this person who is not living in line with what
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God's word says, and remove him from among you. Clearly, there was a group of people that were in, and you could be out of that group of people.
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And Paul's explicit. He says it's not the body's role to judge those who are outside of the body, but those who are in it. Now, some will say, hold on.
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We don't have to have a membership to be able to do that. In theory, that is indeed true.
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But I will simply ask this. What gives that act of removing a person any sort of authority?
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If you don't have a membership, you're not removing them from anything. If they're not losing anything, you simply just said, you can't come here.
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What's to stop them saying, you know, I'll just go to church down the road. I would argue that what gives this act authority is their being part of the body.
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John McCarthy's commentary on first Corinthians says this, quote, Satan is the ruler of this world and turning a believer over to Satan, therefore thrusts the believer back into the world on his own.
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Apart from the care and support of Christian fellowship, that person has forfeited his rights to participation in the church of Jesus Christ, which he intends, which he,
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Jesus Christ, intends to keep pure at all costs. The very fact that we practice this thing called church discipline, and I know
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I'm taking for granted that some churches even bother, but for churches that say they practice it and yet don't have a membership,
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I simply ask, what are you removing them from? One last line of argumentation, which is the call to biblical submission.
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The call to biblical submission. One of the ways God has designed the church to be protected by God is through the ministry of godly servant leaders.
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We'll talk more about that next week when we talk about how the church is led. The New Testament pattern seems to me to be that local churches have local leaders, and those leaders have specific people they are called to serve.
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So Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, Paul says, be on your, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the
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Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers. He says, there's a flock that you are commanded to be overseers over, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
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We read it in 1st Peter chapter 5, that we are to shepherd God's flock among us, those of us who are leaders.
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1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 12 and 13, this is Paul now writing to the church of the Thessalonians and saying, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the
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Lord and admonish you, and regard them highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
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What to me I think are some of the most ironclad verses in all the New Testament. Hebrews 13 7, remember your leaders, as opposed, think about this, it's your leaders, so they're specific leaders that you have that not every church has.
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Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you, as you carefully observe, observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
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Hebrews 13 17, obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.
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So they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
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I really could summarize this in one line, you are not called to submit to all elders any more than you are called to be a member at every church.
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So I have the privilege of being able to preach at multiple churches. I go to these churches,
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I am not their pastor, I can't go in and say, well I'm your pastor for the day, so include instruction here.
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No, they have pastors, there are men that God has appointed to serve that body.
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So the question is, if there are certain men who are tasked with overseeing certain local churches, the question becomes, who is overseeing you?
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Who is leading? If you're not a member of a church, technically speaking, you don't have leadership. These commands, all of them we just read,
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Acts 20, 1 Peter 5, 1 Thessalonians 5, Hebrews 13, you can't really do this if you're not actually part of a local body, and you're submitted to the leadership of that local body.
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And so you pull all of these lines together, and I would argue that you have a solid New Testament argument for a covenantal, committed church membership.
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Now that might not satisfy some of the objections that people will have, so real quickly as we conclude, let's deal with those.
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We've defined church membership generally, we've demonstrated it biblically, I think anyway. Thirdly, let's defend this thing pointedly, let's just clearly deal with this.
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Now some would just say flat out, it's not biblical. I hope that we've just taken some time and I've been able to show you biblically, you might want to temper that, slow that roll a little bit.
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I think you can actually make a case for it. Others will say that this is an attack on Christian freedom.
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You're basically trying to govern my conscience. To which I respond, no I am not. As our fathers in the faith said,
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God alone is Lord of the conscience, and he has left it free of the doctrines and commandments of men, or anything that is not contained in his word.
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In fact, to obey any such thing goes against conscience and all reason. So no, actually,
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I'm not trying to intrude your God -given freedom as a believer, but can
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I ask for a moment that maybe you might need to check what you think Christian freedom is. I feel like my own generation of guys around my age, and maybe a little younger and a little older, especially those of us who came from very legalistic backgrounds, sometimes we can bring the baggage of our background to the subject of Christian freedom, such as we believe that Christian freedom is basically,
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I can do what I want whenever I want, and I frankly don't have to answer to anyone.
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That's not biblical. Actually, at the very least, the Bible says in Ephesians 5 21, we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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No, beloved, Christian freedom is freedom to serve the Lord as he commands in his word, free from the dictates of men, and can
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I put it to you that maybe one of those dictates of men is a sinful desire to be independent? The objection will then arise, like we read to begin with, this is exclusive.
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You're saying that there are benefits that some people have that some don't. Well, again, as I said, actually, we seek to serve everybody who comes through our doors.
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Remember, we read, did I quote it? I think I did. Galatians 6 10. If I didn't,
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Galatians 6 10. As we have opportunity, do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith.
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We serve everybody who comes through our doors, but we also recognize that we have a special responsibility to those who call this church their home.
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There are brothers and sisters who've joined this particular expression of the family of God, and so we have a special obligation to them.
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Some will say, well, I'm happy to be a member of a universal church. I don't need to be tied down to one church. Well, again, that's what
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I just asked a minute ago. Who are you accountable to? Who's accountable for you? Who are the brothers and sisters that you are serving?
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Now, you can turn around and say, well, I help everybody. Okay, but who are you practicing on a consistent basis, the one another's with?
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I'm pretty much done. Beloved, I know that, and I've heard this from multiple pastors in our region.
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I know our Northwest culture makes us incredibly suspicious of just about everything I just described.
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Don't believe me, there's an article. I encourage you to read it. It's on the Nine Miles website. It's called Church Membership in the Northwest by Pastor Karl Schwan.
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He pastors Indian Trail Church in Spokane. He's a native of Spokane, local boy.
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This is what he said, quote, our pioneering spirit, talking about the Northwest, our pioneering spirit can become suspicion of authority.
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Our passion for personal expression can morph into a commitment to personal preference. Our willingness to break tradition sometimes turns into an unwillingness to recognize or affiliate with any tradition or expression.
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Like I said, I have been told by pastors, don't believe in church membership.
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It's never going to happen. Okay, that's fine. I'm not going to argue with somebody if that's where their conscience leads them, but I will ask you this.
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I'll ask you this as we come to the table of the Lord this afternoon. Which is more spiritually valuable, holding onto your perceived independence or submitting to God's gracious design of joining to a
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New Testament body of believers in a committed pursuit of Christ together? Which one is more important?
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Like I said, I can't force anybody to make that decision. That's a decision you need to pray through and think through for yourself, but might
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I suggest that the assumption of the New Testament is that God's people join themselves to local bodies for the purpose of growth and discipleship and relationship and service, and that we are missing something if we say,
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I don't need to do that. We're missing something. Father, I ask that as we've taken some time this afternoon to talk about a subject that isn't necessarily the most popular, that isn't necessarily the most warm and cuddly.
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It cuts, it convicts, we may not like what we hear.
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Father, I ask that your Spirit would be at work challenging our assumptions that we bring to your
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Word, challenging our assumptions that we bring to church life, challenging the assumptions that maybe we have gotten because of the bad treatment of other bodies.
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I pray for anybody who's experienced heavy -handed leadership, who's experienced heavy -handed membership, that makes them cautious and afraid to partake in this blessed reality that we call covenantal church membership.
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Father, first and foremost, I pray for healing. It's a sad thing when the church acts in such a way as it creates suspicion of obedience to your commands.
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And Father, I pray not only for healing, but I pray for conviction. I pray for challenge, that you would press home your
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Word and the reality of what the church is into the lives of those who hear. And Father, I pray for those who are members of this body, that we would not just be participants in the life of this body, but we would be highly committed participants, that we would serve one another, that we would give of our time and our talents and our treasure and anything that you ask of us to see believers built up in their faith.