Privileges of Church Membership

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Church Membership as a Biblical and Local Commitment

Good afternoon, brethren. It's good to see everyone. Thank you, Shane, for reading 1 Peter for us. Again, welcome to those who are visiting. It's good to see visitors, and we're blessed to have you join us in our midst today.

Again, like Shane said at the top of the service, if you've been here before, you've known that we've been going expositionally to 1 Corinthians, but over the course of October, we've been going to our series on church membership.

We've been looking at several topics. We've been looking at a couple of things in particular. We've tried to answer a couple of questions. The first one being, is church membership biblical? We've looked at that the last couple of weeks, and if you remember, we aim to answer one of these questions, is church membership biblical?

And if so, where is it? There's no verse in the Bible that says that church membership is required. Is there? So we explored that. We explored that message, and as we've come to understand, if you've been joining us or been able to follow us online, it actually, the topic and the commandment of church membership runs through the whole of Scripture, and in particular, it runs so closely ingrained in the New Testament that it cannot be divorced.

This idea that church membership is vital for our souls, or that anything taken in context in the New Testament would make no sense in this lone wolf Christianity or easy believism that allows for Christians to roam without a local church out in the wild, as it were.

As a member of the flock, we need to be ingrained in the local assembly, and we've looked at that, and I pray that as we read our Bibles, and as we study the Word at home and incorporately, that theme that runs through all of Scripture and in the New Testament of church biblical membership runs so deeply that it comes so clear you can see it everywhere.

And the second question that we've been looking at is this. What does it mean to be a church member? This is probably the one that's most poignant and one that we at Great Fellowship Sherpa is trying to communicate all the more is what does a church member look like?

When we examine the Scriptures and we say that I want to belong to a local church, what does a church member look like? What is a church member? How do they conduct themselves? What do they believe? What do they think?

And that is the question that today we're going to be looking at answering all the more. So before we dive any further into that question, so keep that running in your mind, I also need to bring up two important things that we need to also keep in mind as we dive into the Scriptures today.

So the first thing we need to acknowledge is this. As we speak about church membership, we need to acknowledge that true church membership applies solely to the Christian. So true church membership applies solely to the Christian.

Church membership isn't designed to create two classes of Christians. There is one Savior. And all saviors and all blood-bought believers who walk in through the same narrow gate and that gate is Jesus Christ.

So that is the first thing you need to keep in mind, is that in preaching and teaching and going through church membership and biblical church membership, there is no divide or class amongst Christians who are in a local church and not.

All go through the same narrow gate. However, this is our second point. And this is the one that I'm praying that we will come away with with greater convictions after today. And the point is this. The second one is, as we explore this topic a little bit more, if you're unsure about what holds you back from church membership, if there is doubt that lingers, if there is hesitation, without a clear conscience, without a conscience and a conviction that satisfies the Lord that is one that we can all together affirm, but if you have a hesitation, any doubts, and you call yourself a Christian, you purport to be a follower of Christ and yet deny the church your membership, keep in mind that in our time together, and I want us to understand that church membership is no way designed to keep anyone at bay or at arm's length, but rather it is one of God's primary means of receiving the blessings and the gifts that await for those who put their faith in Him.

So I'll say that one more time. If you have any doubts about church membership, church membership is not designed to keep those at bay. It is not designed to keep anyone at an arm's length or anyone that would hold, it is not meant to hold the door on anyone, but rather church membership is one of God's primary means of receiving the blessings and gifts that await any and all of those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's keep that in mind. So again, let that run through today's message, but before we do that, let's seek the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you. Lord, we bring nothing before you.

We bring nothing but our rags and our unrighteousness, Father, and in return, Father, you prepare a feast for us. A feast, Father, with blessings and gifts, Father, that we don't claim from any one of us, in particular, Lord, but only through our Lord Jesus Christ do we lay claim and hold to these things and hold fast to the promises made to us in your scriptures.

Lord, we thank you that we are able to come into your fold and that we are able to receive these things. And it is no small miracle, Father, and the entry fee that is paid is of the highest cost. Lord, we ask that you would continue to till the soil of our hearts, Lord, that we would accept these gifts with thanksgiving and humility, Lord, and that we would come to the table, Lord, with hearts of gladness, Father, and that we would praise the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the more for, Father, making the way for us to be able to enjoy these things, the privileges and the responsibilities of a church member, as a church member, Lord, to come into the fold as one of your flock.

So, Lord, we ask as we receive these again with thanksgiving, Lord, that we would come with humility and hearts of praise, Lord, that have been transformed and seek to study more of your word and to become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ, like the one who ransomed us.

So, Lord, we ask you that in his precious and mighty name, Lord, that you would make this so in our hearts. Again, Lord, we pray this in his name. Amen. Again, so thank you for all of you who were able to make it today.

So, if you guys are taking notes, my apologies that I wasn't able to get the notes out in time, so I'll just have to communicate them effectively to you guys. So, as Shane mentioned at the top, we're talking about the privileges, but I would also like to include some responsibility of being a church member.

What does that look like, right, to be a church member? And if you would like to title today's message, I would say, Biblical Members are Biblical Citizens. Biblical Citizens. And we'll talk more about what it means to be a citizen.

Again, like Shane said, we're going to be looking at a couple different topics and pieces of Scripture. I thank you in advance already for being able to keep up with me because we're going to try to stay grounded in as much as possible in one place, but again, because of the nature of today's study, we'll be looking at a couple different things.

So, we appreciate you being able to keep up. So, without further ado, we're going to be looking at 1 Peter, like Shane read at the beginning. So, again, we're looking right at the text, starting at verse 13.

The first thing that jumps out to us in this text is this. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So, from verse 13, we are immediately introduced to the notion that our faith is active and mindful. It is an active and mindful faith. Peter starts off emphatically saying, preparing your minds. There's an active part of the Christian faith that demands that we prepare our minds to be active, to be sober-minded.

This is a command right from the beginning of the text today. And it should be clear at any point, at least to those of us who are Christians and to those who aspire and watch the flock, that our faith, that the Christian faith, isn't one that can be lived out lying down, as it were.

It's not one that we join into and is lived out in its full and entirety by lying down and being passive. It is an active one.

It takes work.

Our minds are to be prepared daily, and our minds are to be ready, and ready for use every single day. In verse 23, when we think about why that might be the case, one question one might ask is, why is it that we are required to have an active mind, or mind ready for action?

In verse 23 of 1 Peter, it says this. 1 Peter 1, it says,. In other words, we have been purchased with a very high price. When the Lord ransoms us, He ransoms us from one state of death, of spiritual death, of spiritual judgment, to spiritual life and joy in Jesus Christ.

And this is not a price that is paid for even in the most precious of materials or a large sum of money. This isn't as though Jesus Christ purchased us with anything perishable in the world that we see today.

Even all the precious stones on earth could not pay for that. We have been paid for and bought with the precious blood of the Lamb, the imperishable. Therefore, our conduct needs to reflect the high price for which our souls are purchased.

Thinking about it practically, the higher the price, the more active, the more worthy our lives should be of the price or the sum that is paid for our lives. But remember, this leads us back to our question.

This leads us right back to our question of, if this is the case, if we have been purchased with a very high price, again, what does a church member look like or act like? Or in other words, how should we conduct ourselves?

And I want us to linger on that idea of conduct, of status in one sense, of being able to move from one degree of deadness to a degree of life, and how does that conduct look about us? To understand this, I want us to look at one quick illustration.

I want us to understand this illustration of conduct. And where we are going to find this is in verse 16 of our text, of 1 Peter 1, verse 16 and 17. And Peter says this,. So it's clear from this text that we could spend many a day talking about verse 16, about the holiness, about the commandment in the old law, you should be holy for I am holy.

We could spend a multitude of time on this. I want us to focus more specifically on verse 17. And specifically on verse 17, the part that says, That term exile is one that, as biblically-minded Christians, we might understand, but it's not one that is popular in today's current day.

That's not a term we use very much, the term of exile. However, if you're looking at the letter of 1 Peter, you know that we see it right at the beginning. We see it at 1 Peter 1. This term exile, in other words, is known to these people.

It's known to the dispersion in Turkey. If you're looking at the word exile, what it means, in a very practical sense, is to be exiled or in exile, is to be put in another nation, or to reside in another's land or territory.

And when reading 1 Peter, we understand that Peter is writing to a dispersion, a group of people that have been exiled for their faith and their commitment and their love and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As a punishment and as a consequence of their faith, if they have been dispersed within what we now call today as modern Turkey. This dispersion, these churches that he's writing to in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

These are people under the suffering of persecution, under the suffering of the dispersion, of being essentially uprooted from their current lives into new areas in which they did not find themselves in, but as a consequence of their faith in Jesus.

So in other words, this word exile is a weighted and loaded term. It's very weighty. We have to understand that there's a lot here that Peter is talking about when he says, prepare your minds, or sorry, conduct yourselves with fear throughout your time of exile.

So in other words, these Christians were pretty familiar with feelings of despair, of doubt, of sorrow, no doubt, because again, imagine the difficulty of being uprooted. These are, again, Christians persecuted and suffering for their faith in the Lord Jesus.

They are uprooted, moved. And if we consider our own current situation, how much we value our current situations, our lives, and our homes, imagine being torn from you, all that security that you find in waking up in the same bed every single night.

So no doubt this is a very difficult situation for these Christian Jews. So think about that term exile and thinking about what it means in context. We have to understand that these Christians knew full well the suffering.

However, notice that Peter isn't talking about, the tone of 1 Peter isn't one of despair. It isn't one that Peter labors in where he despairs with the dispersion. Actually, it is a term of hope. As anyone would expect, this would be a tough situation for anyone to undergo.

But the term exile is actually a pointer to something a little bit more meaningful and much more profound than even we come to understand it even today. It's a very profound term. And the point is this, to be in exile is also a very hopeful thing since it reveals to us that our citizenship is not with any one nation but to God.

So I'll say that one more time, again, because this is pivotal. It reveals that the citizenship that we as Christians partake in is not of any one nation, but it is of the nation of the Lord. That is our primary citizenship.

And for those who might think, well, I don't know if that runs through the course of the Bible.

It does.

There's many places in the New Testament where you see this legal jargon, this political language being used to describe a people, to describe recipients of letters. And the other one that we're going to turn to right now is Philippians 3, verse 17.

If I can even suggest, try to keep a finger in Philippians. We're going to be here a lot. So we're going to be jumping around in other places, but we'll be jumping into Philippians quite a bit. And where we're looking at right now is Philippians 3, verse 17 -21.

It says this, Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is their shame, or glory and their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Notice the wording here in verse 20 says,. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself.

Again, as Christians, we have to understand that while we all have different levels of earthly provision and privilege, we are citizens of the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost. Nation comes second to us.

It doesn't matter where you live on earth. All the brethren on the globe are citizens to the nation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our primary citizenship. And we are citizens of our country second.

Now that doesn't mean that we are to rebel against this nation, but we have to put our importance where the Lord Jesus Christ demands that we put our importance. As a citizen of the Lord's nation, that carries weight, that carries consequences, it carries privileges but responsibilities as well.

Again, we see this thread in the New Testament. You see it in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19.

It says,.

Again, it's very similar language. We are citizens with the saints and members of God. To invoke the language of citizenry and to belong to a nation carried a really high sense of prestige. Again, remember the time of the writing of the New Testament, of the New Testament authors.

We have to remember what nations were in power back then and what was the political circumstances. Considering the power, the superpower of the day, the Roman Empire, this is the highest power in the land.

This is the strongest nation that has existed. We were having a conversation with our brothers on Thursday during our Statement of Faith teachings. And I couldn't help but smile inwardly because as we were talking, we were talking about the exile.

We were talking about the Roman Empire. And in my mind, knowing that the Lord was preparing this message in my mind to speak, we are talking about the very thing that I'm preaching here today, that we are citizens of the Lord first, but we see the consequences of superpowers and political nations and we instinctively understand that citizenry matters.

What we do as citizens, it matters. It has consequences. Before we get to some practical stuff, I want to go with an illustration here. Maybe I lost the kids, so maybe we'll have... I don't want to put any of the parents on the hot seat here, but there's a couple of things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, in the last month in particular, that is indicative of good citizenship, something that we as a free people of this country get to do.

Do you guys know what that is? Do you guys have any idea of what... It took place on Monday, if you remember. Yeah, I heard it. Elections. Yes, elections. It's voting. We get the opportunity to vote. And again, I'm not going to put any parents on the hot seat if they didn't go and vote.

Like I said, that's between you and the Lord. But the idea again is that as citizens, we have this... There's a responsibility as someone who is a citizen of this nation, of this community, and so forth.

We have responsibilities. Another thing that good citizens do... What are good things that you should be doing as citizens? I don't know if you guys have studied this in school. Do you guys have any other ideas about what you might be able to...

So there's voting, but there's also something that... Oh, we haven't put in the adults.

Pay taxes.

That's right. Yeah, we pay taxes. And that's not a nice one. I mean, none of us love taxes, but it's important. Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, right?

There are things that are...

Government is a gift from the Lord, and we understand as well as mindful and active thinking Christians that citizens have responsibilities to their nation. They must do things. And actually, historically, prosperous nations throughout world history have often prided themselves with not just the strength of nations, but the strength of their citizenry, of the people within their countries.

So in other words, strong nations are made up of responsible citizens, ones that pay taxes, vote, that are active members in their community,.

Good neighbors.

We've externalized that to just being good neighbors to one another, but that Christian principle lies in this principle of the Bible, of citizenry, of citizenship. Conversely, or in the other direction, if you look at nations that don't have those things, don't have strong citizenry, ones that care to follow the law, care to pay taxes, and is, in other words, chaos or chaotic, you see those nations plunged into despair and to dismay.

You see a lot of suffering. There's disorder. There's none of that, none of the good graces of clean roads or lighting networks or water that comes in through the pipes. None of that even exists. It's not even a thought in their mind.

It is chaotic because no one cares to care for their neighbor as long as they are able to get their own. That is the sinful human that comes forth living in his flesh and not understanding that good principles of being a sound biblical citizen requires good stewardship of the privileges that are bestowed upon us.

So in other words, we vote, we pay taxes, we do other things as well as good citizens, but the reality is, what this means is that we have responsibility. There's a responsibility that is given to us and allows us to be enacted for the glory of the Lord.

So that should be the mind of the Christian. The idea again is that if we esteem our earthly responsibilities and our nationally duties of voting and paying taxes and all those things, and we esteem them rightly, they're important and they have a lot of weight to them.

The world sees them as very important issues. However, those are secondary to our principal citizenry in the Lord. Being of His nation first and foremost, His is a higher calling. His is one of eternal consequence that if we don't pay attention, if we don't esteem it rightly, we're going to miss the blessings that come with being a privileged citizen of the Lord Jesus Christ, of His nation, a nation of saints and priests like Peter says.

And we have to understand that that's important. So again, in an effort to save time and to leave here today with a really digestible message, so now that we've laid the foundation of what it looks like to be a church member, you might say, okay, well, I'd like to know specifically what that means.

Let's go through some practical application and following kind of in Shane's footsteps. I didn't chalk it up to nine marks, because he had nine marks of something last week, of a healthy church member.

And I won't be able to do that. I have six. So for those taking notes, I have six points of good, digestible application that as soon as, Lord willing, we leave this building or I conclude, these are things that we can immediately start doing with one another.

That we can start to apply and we can start to meditate upon the very goodness that the Lord has enacted and bestows upon us these privileges, these things that we can do right off the bat. I also want to make the note as well, that given each its proper time, every point on this list could be a sermon or an issue of discussion.

These are great weighty topics that if given the time, we would love to go through more and more in depth. But again, I want us to really leave here with a sense of digestible content that we can, as Christians, say, okay, I can be doing more of this and less of this.

So again, without further ado, we're going to get right into it. So the first one is, number one, receiving pastoral care. So again, receiving pastoral care. One good example of receiving pastoral care is found, again, we're drawing from large portions of Scripture here, but you see it all over the New Testament in relation to Paul's relationship with Timothy and Titus in the New Testament.

You see this relationship that is played out from the beginning of the books of Acts all the way to the end of Paul's life in his last letter in 2 Timothy. You see this idea of receiving pastoral care, of being cared for as a member of the flock as Paul engages in missionary journeys to different parts of Asia.

You see him live out this principle of discipleship. But specifically, one might say, well, this isn't pastoral care, he's not an elder. But Paul wrote the rule book for pastoral care. God inspired Paul to write the rules for which eldership is to be conducted.

And you see that pastoral care lived out in Timothy and Titus. Looking at 1 Timothy, we get to see, oh sorry, Philippians 2 .20. Hopefully you have your finger in Philippians. Again, just for context, we'll read a little bit here, but you get to see this idea, this lived out faith and love that Paul pours into his disciples.

So probably starting from 19 to 24 it says, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by good news of you. For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

For they all seek their own interests, but not those of Jesus Christ. But you know, Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served me in the gospel, or with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me.

And I trust in the Lord that surely I myself will come also. That's pretty heavy praise if we really understand what Paul is saying here in verse 22. He refers to Timothy as a son, how as a son with a father he has served me in the gospel.

Paul cares for Timothy and in looking at Titus, for example, in the book of Titus chapter 1 verse 4, he says this of Titus, my true child in the faith, my true child. Paul loved his disciples. Paul loved people under whom he was discipling in his pastoral care.

He loved these people. Referring to them as even his own children. So we can understand that there is love that is being poured out from the pastoral care and the leaders of the church. So one privilege and one responsibility that I would render onto you guys as we look at this first point is receive pastoral care.

Allow yourselves to be cared for pastorally. Allow the elders and leaders to invest into the lives of the flock and that we might build each other up in love. Allow that. It's a point of pride for us to say, well, I might not need that.

I might not want that in my life. That might be too much investment in my life. But I have to disagree with you that as a familial body in the Lord Jesus, that care and devotion should not just come from the pastoral care.

It should come from every single one of us. You're going to have a hard time trying to avoid people if you aspire to come to a church and not expect people to invest in you. So leaving that aside, we'll get to that one.

Again, the first point is this. Receive pastoral care. Receive it. Be open to it. So point two. Allow the prayers of others. Again, keeping our fingers again in Philippians chapter four, verses four to seven this time.

It says this. Just as I find myself here. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Allow the people of the Lord to pray for your needs. Allow that. Allow that to take place.

Again, humility is important here because sharing our lives with one another is a responsibility. We are commanded to pray for one another and is vital for our spiritual growth and our spiritual well-being.

Shane mentioned at the beginning of the talk that he said we believe that God hears our prayers, that God desires for us to pray to Him, to seek Him in prayer, and He rejoices in us sharing those prayers with Him.

The Lord knows what we need, but He rejoices knowing that we seek Him first in supplication and in faith. We believe that He answers all these prayers as well. Sharing our prayers allows people and allowing people to pray for us demonstrates not just to us or to others, sorry, but to ourselves that we believe in the sufficiency and the power of our Lord.

In other words, to deny your brother or sister the opportunity to pray for you is quite in fact sinful because it denies the Lord His power, His divine grace and His mercy and His love. He does not want to hear you.

We walk in sin. But also we deny our brothers and sisters. We harm them by not allowing them to express that gift of prayer, allowing them the opportunity to come to the Lord with your needs, beseeching Him.

In other words, again, we are doing wrong to not just the Lord but to our brothers and sisters if we seek to hide things and seek not to bear with one another all the things that we need prayer for. I've been a recipient of such many blessings.

Being a part of this church and as the one that sent us and many others. But the reality is part of the blessing is that they care for your needs spiritually and physically and emotionally. And they are allowed to pray for me.

That's a real blessing. And again, if we're going to look at this second point, again, it's this. Allow the prayers of others. So again, if you're having issues with letting people in, you're going to have a harder time still because we're going to get through more things that demand more of us to be able to be open again and faithful to one another.

And the third one, again, probably even more difficult is this. Be accountable to one another. So number three is be accountable to one another. This is a difficult one to speak on because accountability is not something that we inherently search out.

It's not something as sinful people, as people of flesh, that we seek to be corrected. There's a popular saying that says, I'm always willing to learn but not always willing to be taught. We love knowledge.

We aspire to knowledge. We have halls of academia. We have these big buildings that hold countless hours of information. But not all of us are willing to accept loving correction at any given time of the day.

That's difficult. Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 to 5. Again, thank you for being able to keep up with just all these references. But Galatians chapter 6 verses 1 to 5 says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But that each one test his own work.

And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Looking at the first two verses of that, it says, If anyone is caught in transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Being a responsible and a loving church member of the local assembly of the Lord's people requires that we be accountable to one another. It means letting in those outside that we may not be at once comfortable but allowing those people to speak life into us.

Proverbs says, Profuse are the enemies of a kisses. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. We must be friends to one another. Not only because it is good for us, but we are commanded to. This is the accountability that we're talking about.

That is, the privilege of being a citizen also requires that we be accountable to one another in a way that holds our brothers and sisters to a higher standard, the Lord's standard, and that we build up each other in love.

As a result of accountability, it is actually one of the most loving acts that we can as an assembly come together and do. Thinking about just the difficulty of church discipline or loving accounting for each other's souls, that is something that if I, and I won't ask you to, but if you were to raise your hands at some point and say, if I've ever witnessed this or if I've ever been the recipient of this, I would dare say not a single hand would go up.

Even to have witnessed faithful, loving church discipline or accountability from one brother to another, we are hard-pressed to even have witnessed such a thing. However, it is one of the most loving things we can do.

It is one of the highest privileges that we can enact between one another as we let each other into our lives and we seek each other's spiritual good in a spirit of restoration and of gentleness. It is one of the most loving things we can do.

It is difficult. It's hard. It's not as though, again, we seek this out instinctively. It's not something that is put within us. I see all the children running around. I've seen what good parenting does, but never once do I see a child looking to be corrected, at least not at first.

They don't come to you first seeking, you know, I've done something wrong and I need consequence for this. They don't say that at first. That's something that's brought into them. But again, it is one of the most loving things that we can do.

It's not because, again, because we're commanded to do this, but it's also because it's difficult and we have to understand as recipients of accountability that someone coming to us in loving rebuke, in a spirit of gentleness, of restoration, does so not because it is easy.

It is very difficult to do. So, without laboring that one any further. So number three is, again, be accountable to one another. Accountability, love one another that way. In a similar vein, we're going to go with number four.

It says this, serve one another.

So, serving.

The Greek word for servant is doulos. Serve one another, be a servant to one another. Let's look at Philippians chapter four again, verse 14 to 18. And I'm hoping you guys have kept a finger there because we've gone back and forth here.

So, like I said, I try to keep it grounded as much as possible in one text as I could. But looking at verses 14 to 18, it says this,. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me, giving and receiving except you only.