To Be Or Not To Be

I ask you to please stand once more for the reading of God's word.

The Old Testament reading this morning is Psalm 133.

If you'd like to read along, that's page 519 in your pew Bibles.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down

on the collar of his rose.

It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

New Testament reading is Acts 4, 32 -37.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of

the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord

Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

There was not a needy person among them, nor was

for as many were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of

what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as

any had need.

Thus, Joseph, who was called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement,

a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and

laid it at the apostles' feet.

You may be seated.

You know, I never like to distract from the preaching of the word, but I think I've been negligent in one

thing, and so I'm going to say something.

I hope this doesn't distract you.

Most of you got an email last night about Sharon being in the hospital with high blood pressure and having a brain scan,

CAT scan.

She's doing fine.

So I just wanted to say that I should have said that earlier, but Sharon's doing fine.

They're camping this weekend and her blood pressure went high and really high,

really.

High.

And so she's doing fine now.

So I just wanted to let you know that.

Some of you are probably wondering that I got that email.

So all right, now let's put that out of our minds.

We want to look at the word of God today.

To be or not to be, let's pray.

God of heaven, we're thankful now that you have given us your word that

explains life to us, explains ourselves to us, explains the world,

explains you.

All those things we need for proper understanding of life, you've given us in your word.

And Lord, you've given us your word to help us when it comes to this whole idea, the whole issue of

being a church and being a member of a church.

And so we pray that you would bless this to the hearers as they

receive your word.

I pray, Father, that this would be clear to us.

Help us, we pray.

Not so that we know something rightly, but that, Father, not just that we see it rightly,

but that we live rightly in response to it.

So now we pray for your spirit to work in our hearts, in Jesus' name,

amen.

You know, there is an attitude that seems to be growing

within the Christian church worldwide.

And that is that, well, church membership is really not an obligation.

It's more of a preference.

Or even to the point of saying, well, yeah, we have church membership, but it's not really

a formal one.

And I want us to look at scripture today, especially on this day when we're welcoming in

some folks into our fellowship.

I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to explore the scriptures, to see what it says

about church membership.

And too many people think that our church membership is something that's just Western.

It's something that, well, you know, you know how we are as Westerners, we're organized and lists and everything

else, and that's where it comes from.

And I want to show you that, really, it comes from the scriptures, that

scriptures indicate these things to us.

In our day, there are just many professing Christians who believe that church membership is an option.

And if asked, they would say that it's not important, it's certainly not a requirement for believers to

identify with a local church in a formal, official way.

You know, to them, joining the church is kind of like, well, are you a vegan or do you eat meat,

right?

It's a preference, not an obligation.

It's not a matter of obedience, but a matter of preference.

To be or not to be a church member, that's what we want to talk about today.

What do you think the Bible teaches about this?

Well, we have to start, we have to start, because I think this is a key, in

Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 28.

You've heard it already this morning.

Matthew 28, beginning in verse 18.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.

You.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Now what does Jesus command us to do?

He commands us to baptize people who believe, and he commands us to teach them

to obey.

Now I want to show you that from the New Testament, we find that obedience

to this command can be found in local churches or congregations.

The fulfillment of this command is found in churches.

So the first thing we need to do is to understand that baptized believers become part of local churches.

Turn to Acts chapter 2.

Baptized believers become part of local churches.

In Acts chapter 2, we see the first sermon in

this new age, Peter's sermon at Pentecost and the response to that

sermon.

And then we find in verses, chapter 2,

verses 41 and 42.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about

3 ,000 souls, and they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and the fellowship

to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Now notice, by baptism, you proclaim you forsake the world that rejects Messiah

to join a community that calls him king.

The world rejects him as Messiah.

We call him king.

You become part of that community.

As the people of that day watched the baptism in Jerusalem, they knew that these converts were

identifying themselves with this one called Jesus who they claimed had been raised from the dead.

Peter had just said it.

They knew that they were identifying with this Jesus, and the observers of that day

also noted that the people who were baptized identified themselves with the followers of

Jesus as well.

To be baptized at that moment was to say, aha, you believe what that group is saying, and you've become a

part of them.

To be identified with Christ through baptism means identification with his people through that

same baptism.

So those who are baptized today and all those joining us today have identified themselves not only as

followers of Jesus, but identifying with the followers of Jesus, with this

community of disciples.

I have a pastor friend in Indiana who calls me periodically with some counseling questions, and at one point

he was asking me about this couple, about this one issue, and I said to him, so is this couple

a member of your church?

And he said, well, that's kind of interesting, because for us, if you attend a while, we

consider you a member.

Is that how we ought to view membership?

Is there something more involved with just attending for a while?

You know, the immediate questions that come into my mind are, for how long?

For how long do you have to attend to become a member, and how do you know they're committed to you?

Are they just visiting for a couple months?

Tell me how that works.

I don't know how that works.

And I'm asking, is that the way we ought to view membership?

The New Testament indicates a more formal idea.

I believe the New Testament clearly gives us a formal idea.

Acts chapter, well, first of all, look at how the apostles fulfilled Jesus' commands to make disciples.

This has been really interesting to me, is to see the Great Commission and then watch

how the disciples fulfilled that commission.

Here's the first one, Acts chapter 2, verse 41.

Did they baptize?

Yes.

And what happened?

3 ,000 were added to their number.

There was some way of knowing who belonged and who did not.

They could determine what 3 ,000 were added, were

identified as part of this group of disciples.

We were able to distinguish between them and who the observers were.

There was obviously some sort of formal recognition.

So here's the first thing.

What they did was, in fulfilling the Great Commission, Peter preached, people responded, they were baptized,

and they were added to this group.

They were added.

The baptism added them to that group.

Look at Acts chapter 14.

Acts chapter 14, verses 21

through 23.

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to

Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them

to continue in the faith, and saying that, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord

in whom they had believed.

Verse 21, here's an obvious fulfillment of the Great Commission.

They preached the gospel.

And in fulfilling that commission, the disciples were gathered into a group called the church,

a church with formally ordained leaders.

Now please note how the disciples fulfilled the Great Commission.

And you see this not just here.

Here's one example.

When they fulfilled the Great Commission, they didn't just go out, preach the gospel, and baptize someone who professed faith.

What happened then?

They organized them into a group, a recognizable group.

That's how they fulfilled the Great Commission, all right?

Look at Acts 20, verse 28.

Here's the Apostle Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders, the pastors of the church in

Ephesus.

It's his farewell to them.

And in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, he says, pay careful attention

to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you

overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own

blood.

There's an identifiable flock called the church of God, which these pastors

were responsible to shepherd, okay?

So in fulfilling the Great Commission, what did the Apostle Paul do?

He preached in Ephesus.

He formed a church there.

After three years, he left.

And now he's talking to the elders, the shepherds, the pastors of that

identifiable flock.

You, you take care of the flock.

Well, everybody who's ever been saved?

No.

The people that are in your congregation, you have to shepherd them.

Titus chapter 1, verse 5.

All right, in Titus 1, verse 5, the Apostle

Paul writes, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and

appoint elders in every town as I directed.

You.

The job of establishing churches was incomplete without spiritually qualified leaders.

Now, it's interesting to see then how the apostles fulfilled the Great Commission.

They didn't just go out, preach, people were saved, they baptized them and moved along.

In every situation, they organized them.

In fact, they thought it important that they have shepherds, qualified, spiritually, morally qualified men

to lead them.

So in fulfilling the Great Commission, the apostles formally organized disciples into

identifiable, well -ordered, well -managed communities called churches.

That's how they fulfilled the Great Commission.

That should tell us something, shouldn't it?

No such thing as these free -floating Christians.

We belong to a group.

Now, look at some of the organizational evidence for a formal church membership.

We see how the apostles fulfilled the Great Commission.

There's organizational evidence we find in the New Testament.

In Acts chapter 241, we read it, 3 ,000 were added.

They knew who was and who wasn't added.

They knew who was outside and who was inside.

Look at 1 Timothy chapter 5.

1 Timothy chapter 5, here the Apostle Paul in this epistle is talking about the nitty -gritty.

Of church life.

Who should lead?

What's their qualifications?

Who should not lead?

All these things.

In 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 9, he says, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less

than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband and having a reputation for good works.

If she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted,

and has devoted herself to every good work.

What's he saying?

There's widows in your group, and there's a list.

And if they meet certain criteria, they go on that list,

all right?

Verse 11, but refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from

Christ, they desire to marry.

All right, again, here's what do we see?

They're organized enough to have a list of who is in our group, who is in our congregation that need

our help.

Do they meet this criteria?

If they do, put them on the list, and we need to be busy about helping them.

There's very strong organizational evidence there, isn't there?

And then Galatians chapter 6, verse 10,

Galatians 6, verse 10,

so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are

of the household of faith.

All right, who's of the household of faith and who's not?

Who gets priority here, right?

Those who are members of the household of faith.

Listen, we have to have the ability to know who's outside and who's inside, so we can make

that distinction.

Who has priority over the money that we use to help others?

You know, our deacons do incredible work.

They're the servants that you don't see operating.

And they have helped literally hundreds of people.

They have.

Over and over again, they have helped people.

And part of that is those folks come in and they talk to them, right?

They want to know something about them.

They want to know their spiritual standing with Christ.

And so if they say, so, yeah, you're our, I'm a Christian, okay, good, good.

You're coming to us, so you're coming from another church, no.

Well, how do we know?

You know, one of the ways we can know whether they're really a Christian is whether they've been part of a church.

And we can talk to somebody in that church, right?

By the way, that doesn't mean that they don't get help.

It just means that it helps sort things out, right?

It helps them sort all these things out.

If you're from another church, we can ask, how is this person?

How can we help them?

You know, why are you here and not there?

All those are important.

That's how you determine who's in the household of faith and who is not.

So we see that we can see a formal idea of membership in the way the apostles fulfilled the Great

Commission in the evidence for organization of the early church.

And finally, Christ commands for church discipline evidence of formal membership.

You know, Jesus commands that we discipline those who are among us.

Matthew 18, 17.

Matthew 18, 17.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the

church.

A precise, identifiable group.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan

or a tax collector.

There must be some way of marking someone and saying treat him differently than these folks,

right?

He's part of an identifiable group.

Tell it to the church.

And if he doesn't listen to the church, treat him differently.

1 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 12 and 13.

The apostle Paul, after talking about a man who is in terrible sexual immorality in the

church, tells them to put that man out, all right?

And then at the end of the chapter, he says this.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

Are you not to judge those inside?

God will judge those outside.

Expel the wicked man from among you.

Now, he asks us a rhetorical question.

What do we have to do with judging people on the outside?

The answer is no, nothing.

What do we have to do with judging the people inside?

We have a lot of responsibility.

The point is, there's an outside and there's an inside.

How do you know who's outside and who's inside?

How do you know that, all right?

And then he says, expel them.

Well, this is some formal organization of disciples from which you are expelled.

There is a group, an identifiable group.

Those folks, they're on the outside.

This guy is on the inside, in this group.

So the evidence shows that believers formally join communities of Christ's disciples.

Now, I'm gonna say something radical here, but I think the Bible bears me out.

The Bible knows nothing of unbaptized, free -floating, unchurched Christians.

If you would have come to Peter on the day of Pentecost and said, Peter, yeah,

I believe in Jesus, but I wanna be baptized, he'd say, what?

All right, the Bible knows nothing of free -floating, unbaptized,

unchurched Christians.

Now, I'm not saying you're not a Christian, if that's true of you.

I'm not saying that, I'm not saying that at all.

I think you can be a Christian without ever joining a church.

I think that's possible, all right?

And I think it's true of a lot of people.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I am saying it's not the way Scripture describes a disciple.

To be a disciple of Christ means to formally identify with a visible, distinguishable

community of believers.

That's what a disciple is.

Well, now someone objects and says to me, I'm not saved by church membership, I'm saved by the grace

of God in faith.

When I get to heaven, I'm not gonna be there because I joined a church, but because I repented

of my sins and believed in the Lord Jesus.

Well, well said, you're right, that's true.

But what do you say about good works?

Are you saved by your good works?

Response, no, everybody knows that.

However, they're thus unimportant, right?

Again, no, they are not unimportant.

Good deeds are the consequence of salvation.

Good deeds are the fruit that gives evidence of the real deal.

If you're saved, you've been changed.

Good works should follow.

It's the consequence of your salvation.

One writer, referring to Acts 2 .47,

which says, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

That's Acts 2 .47, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

One writer by the name of Kuyper wrote, not only does the Lord require those who are saved that

they unite with the church, he himself joins them to the church, and the reference is

unmistakably to the visible church.

The scriptural rule is that while membership in the church is not a prerequisite of salvation,

it is a necessary consequence of salvation.

It's what will naturally flow out of that.

Well, ask yourself the question, what is the purpose of your salvation?

Now, for most people, it is get to heaven.

Well, that is true.

But you know the New Testament puts a whole lot more emphasis on other things, like a changed

person, like someone who's reconciled now to God, like someone

who becomes a building block.

For example, the Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5.

Here's what Peter says.

As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him, you also,

like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to

be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus

Christ.

You've been saved for the purpose of being a building block in the church,

all right?

Being a building block in the church.

He also says to be part of a holy priesthood.

You're saved to be part of a holy priesthood, right?

So you've been saved for the purpose of being a stone in the building of the local church.

Now Spurgeon, who's a very great preacher, you read his sermons, they're amazing, and he gets

to the point.

Here's what he says.

I know there are some who say, well, I've given myself to the Lord, but I don't intend to give myself to any church.

Now, Spurgeon preached at the end of the 1800s,

so this is not something new.

Well, I've given myself to the Lord, but I don't intend to give myself to any church.

I say, now why not?

And they answer, because I can be just as good as a Christian without it.

I say, are you quite clear about that?

You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord's commands as by being obedient?

He gets right to the point, doesn't he?

Then he says, there's a brick.

What is a brick made for?

It's made to build a house.

It's of no use for the brick to tell you that it's just as good a brick while it's kicking about on the ground by

itself as it would be as part of a house.

Actually, it's a good for nothing brick.

So you, get this, so you, rolling stone Christian,

I don't believe that you're answering the purpose for which Christ saved you.

You're living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live.

What good is a brick getting kicked around?

It's good as it's part of the building.

And Peter has said, you are saved, God has made you right with him so that you can be that brick

in that priesthood.

So then as you watch the New Testament unfold the Great Commission, you see that over and over there is some kind of

formal identification with the local church accomplished through baptism.

You see that all the way through the New Testament.

Now, the Great Commission doesn't just say baptize and that baptism brings you into formal membership.

But it also says teach them to obey all that Christ commanded.

Teach them to obey.

Understand that teaching to obey is most effective in the community

of believers called the local church.

It's most effectively done there.

The Great Commission is most effectively accomplished within the local church.

Jesus' intention was not to build a bunch of eggheads who know all his commands.

You know, oftentimes I ask the question, what does the Great Commission say here?

It says to teach what?

And I would say probably 60 of the time people say, teach them all of

Jesus' commands.

And I say, no, look again, that's not what it says.

It says, teaching them what?

To obey.

The emphasis is on, you got it, obviously, you have to teach the commandments.

But the emphasis is on teaching them to obey.

Teaching them to obey.

Now look, I just got back from the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors Annual Conference, which is to me

like the highlight of the year.

And I'll tell you more about it next week at dinner time, okay?

But it's like a huge family reunion.

It is a great, great time of learning together and seeing people you know and everything.

But I will say this, ACBC exists to fulfill

the Great Commission.

That is to teach people to obey.

Counseling is nothing more and nothing less than teaching someone to obey Jesus in a crisis in

their life, that's all it is, all right?

Now, Jesus isn't interested in building a bunch of eggheads.

Jesus is not interested in producing a Christian scholastic challenge team.

Now, you all know Levi.

Levi is the coach of the wrestling team.

But before he was the coach of the wrestling team, he was the coach of Elgin's Scholastic Challenge Team.

They would go different places and they would, they have these quizzes, right?

And it's like, for 20 points, who commanded the Union forces at Shiloh?

Ulysses S Grant, correct, right?

Go to these different schools and do that.

Well, you know what, Jesus does not play that game.

Jesus does not say, finish this sentence.

If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your, right?

Tune it, right.

Answer this question, Jesus fed the 4 ,000 before or after he fed the 5 ,000.

Bonus, which gospel are both recorded in, right?

Is that what Jesus is about?

No, no, it's about learning to obey him.

That is a disciple is one who's taught to obey.

And you old timers here, we have lots of new timers here now.

So you old timers, just relax.

I'm gonna say it again.

What is a disciple?

A disciple is someone who's translating truth into life.

That's a disciple.

A baptized person who is translating truth into life.

That's what a disciple is.

Jesus' intention is that his disciples can be identified by a different kind of life.

We exist to fulfill the great commission to teach, to obey all that

Jesus commanded.

That's why we exist as a church.

Everything in this church revolves around that.

Everything we do must be done to fulfill the great commission.

And that's all about change then.

I'm growing and becoming more of a disciple.

I'm translating more of his commands into life.

It's more and more and more that I've told people.

Okay, I'm gonna prep you right now, okay?

When I'm at different places speaking, and I'm speaking on a subject like this, I say you ought to be able to walk into LaRue Baptist

Church, grab any member by the lapels, and say, what does God expect you to do?

And they should say to you, God expects me to grow and change.

Okay, so now you know the right answer if someone does that to you.

But I hope you'd be able to say that because that is the ministry here.

It's making disciples, teaching people to obey all that Jesus commands.

Now, what you're going to find is that

teaching the way Jesus commands is most effective, is most effective in the

church because of all that occurs within the body.

Teaching to obey is most effective within a local church.

Now look, I'm not against the Navigators or Campus Crusade or any

of those organizations.

They go on to college campuses and do what the church should have been doing, all right, but they cannot make

disciples effective.

They can't do it because they don't have the resources that the church does.

For example, teaching to obey takes place in the context of fellowship.

What is fellowship?

The word for fellowship in the New Testament means close mutual relationship, participation

in, partnership.

It has within it the idea that we know one another, that we know one another's hurts, that we

know one another's weaknesses, that we know one another's trials.

We know that, we're participating with one another.

We're sharing burdens and joys.

We're seeking help from one another.

We're loving one another.

We're protecting one another.

We're rebuking one another.

We're doing all the one another's.

And when that's happening, we are better equipped to help one another to learn to obey

Jesus as our lives mesh together, we know how to do it.

For example, Jesus said that the greatest must be the servant of all.

The greatest has to be the servant of all.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, let's say you're with your friend Joe, when he gets a phone call.

Sam just found out he's lost his job, and he's frantic about it.

Joe says, look, I'll meet you, says to Sam, I'll meet you in 15 minutes at my place, we can talk about it.

So Joe and Sam get together, and you notice that for the next four weeks, they're together a lot.

What are you seeing?

You're seeing Joe being a slave to Sam.

You're seeing that Joe is taking seriously what Jesus said.

You're seeing and able to identify that.

So that's what Jesus was talking about.

The Apostle Paul, speaking the words of Jesus says, husbands love your wives like

Christ loved the church.

Some of you single guys should be able to look at the men in this congregation and see that's how it's done.

You're able to see the commands of Jesus in living color.

We have fellowship.

We know the weaknesses of one another.

We know that my brother is weak in this area, and I'm gonna come alongside him and help him with his weakness.

All those things are happening.

We're learning to obey the commands of Christ as we fellowship, that helps it.

Teaching takes place in a church primarily through shepherds who know the flock.

Right, teaching to obey happens in the church primarily through shepherds who

shepherd the flock.

Look at Hebrews for a moment, Hebrews chapter 13, which by the way, I don't know if you've

noticed that's the last chapter of the book of Hebrews we have to cover, it's gonna happen here,

all right?

Hebrews 13 verse 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of

God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

And then verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to

them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Notice that the teaching of the word is connected to those who also watch over your souls, that

is to say that these leaders, first of all, they're held up as models, they're held up

as models to imitate.

Second, they are teaching you as men who must give an account.

Listen, let me just say this, there are four guys in this congregation, Tim,

Andrew, Dan, and Greg, who someday are gonna stand before Jesus and give an account for how we

watched over you.

You ever thought, it's almost a frightening thought.

Did we do the job well of looking after our flocks,

all right?

So they're imitating and they teach those who have watch over your souls, okay?

Now look, many of you love the ministries of such men as John MacArthur, Alistair Begg,

Tim Keller, but you don't have any opportunity to see their lives in action, do you?

Do you know what John MacArthur does when he stubs his toe?

Do you know what Alistair Begg does when he wakes up after only having three,

well, waking up, maybe you won't be around at my house either, although half of you have been around my house to see that.

But when you see someone get in Alistair Begg's face, if you can imagine that,

do you see how he responds?

Right, you don't see the lives of those men, and neither are they watching over your souls.

They can't tailor their teaching to the needs that they see, as men who watch

over your souls, right?

In a church where there are shepherds, you have men who you ought to be able to imitate and who are looking over your souls and

able to guide you as they see where you need to be and where you need to go.

Disciples learn to obey in a church that practices discipline.

You ever been in a classroom where there's very little discipline?

How much learning takes place?

How much learning takes place?

Not much, there's not much learning in chaos.

You've all taught your children not to steal, right?

What happened the first time they snatched some penny candy from lynches.

Down here?

What happened when they did that?

Did you say, you shouldn't do that, let them eat it or throw it away?

Or did you take them down to lynches and look

Sharon Sparks in the face?

And say, Sharon, I stole this candy, and I'm sorry,

right?

Please forgive me, here it is.

Who's gonna learn the lesson, the one where discipline takes place?

Discipline is education with teeth, it sees that the lesson is

learned.

I know a church, I actually talked to the pastor, one of the pastors of that church, a couple had divorced.

They had been part of our church, but they had left.

They had left after one was disciplined for pursuing a divorce, and they both went to another church.

And I went to the pastor and said, hey, what are you gonna do about this?

They're sad about it, but the most that happened was they're both in different Sunday school classes.

You know what?

A pastor can get up and preach all he wants about how God requires marital fidelity, and

that divorce is wrong, he can say all he wants.

But in that kind of an atmosphere, the lesson's not gonna be learned.

In fact, the opposite lesson will be learned.

You see, you learn to obey where

there's discipline, in the church disciplines.

Listen, no Bible conference, no Bible study could ever practice discipline.

So you see, the kind of teaching that Jesus requires, teaching to obey, is most effectively

done in a community of believers.

Well, some of you may be saying, Pastor Tim, what about the universal church?

Is there a place for that in our thinking?

Well, sure there is, it's taught in the Bible.

But you have to remember that the doctrine of the universal church intends to teach us that Jesus has redeemed a

people from every tribe and language and nation.

There are no bounds to the gospel or to the people of God.

It's to teach you that a disciple is connected to the head, is

united with Jesus, that is all true.

But consider the fact that there are 109 references to the church in the New Testament,

and only 12 refer to the universal church.

And of those 12, nine of them are in the book of Ephesians.

And six of the nine are in the one chapter about husbands loving your wives.

What's the emphasis of the New Testament?

It's on the local church.

Most people, when they read church, think universal church, not so.

Now, that is a biblical concept, that's true, all right?

We need to remember that.

But be careful that you don't get the two mixed up.

The New Testament is primarily addressed to local churches.

And you have to remember this about the universal church.

Let me ask you this.

You have fellowship in the universal church?

Can you have fellowship in the universal church?

Where my brothers in Romania, your brothers in Romania know you intimately and can help you?

No.

In the universal church, you can't shepherd, right?

I can't shepherd a brother in Japan.

Right?

Universal church doesn't have shepherds that shepherd you.

And certainly, there's no discipline in the universal church.

It's not what God intends to convey about what happens in a local

assembly.

And so I would say to you that fulfilling the Great Commission, teaching to

obey all that Jesus commanded, is fulfilled in the local church.

And God expected it, Jesus expected it that way.

Listen, it is impossible, I would suggest to you, it is impossible to teach

for the purpose of obedience the way Jesus wants obedience without membership in a

local assembly of believers to which you have committed yourself.

And so today, the Coghlans, the

Eisenbergers, and Samantha, along with her family,

all of them are becoming part of this church.

They're becoming part of this church where they will learn to obey, where there

will be people who love them, shepherds who shepherd them.

Where there will be all kinds of things going on to help them obey what Jesus has

commanded, this is what Jesus always intended.

And we ought to rejoice in that and thank him for the fact that he gave us one another,

organized into a group, formally identifying with one another, so that we can

truly be what Jesus wants us to be.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your goodness to us.

Thank you, Father, for bringing us together into this

local body of believers.

We are thankful for it.

We are thankful, Father, for your plan and your purpose.

We pray that we would be faithful to that.

Help us to that end, we pray.

We want to be what you've called us to be.

And so by your spirit, do that in our midst, in Jesus' name, amen.