"Organized Religion" (Part 1)

Thank you for listening to this message from the Ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

This morning I'd like to speak to you on the subject of church membership. We are of course going to look at what the scripture says about it and we are going to hopefully give some answers and ask some of the basic questions.

Is church membership a biblical concept? If so, what is the purpose of church membership?

Is it a requirement? And what passages of the Bible speak to this topic? So with that said, let's open in our

Bibles to Acts chapter 2. And as you're turning to Acts chapter 2, let me just say a couple things because I know that there are probably some who have already made up their mind concerning this topic.

And it's not uncommon to hear someone say something to the effect that church membership is not even mentioned in the

Bible or there is no verse in the New Testament that specifically speaks about church membership or at least any type of official membership.

Well, whether that's true or not, I'll say this, at least, at the very least, some sort of church membership is implied.

Okay? It is implied. Let me show you why I say that. Acts chapter 2 starting in verse 38.

Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the

Lord our God will call. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3 ,000 souls were added to them.

Okay, so when I say that church membership is implied, this is what

I'm referring to. 3 ,000 were added to them.

Well, let's start and ask who's them? Well, the church members who are already known to Peter and the disciples.

The 120 that were in the upper room back in Acts chapter 1.

See, people knew who they were. It was understood these are the members of the church, the 120 that had gathered.

There may have been more. It was at least that 120 that had gathered and then 3 ,000 were added to them.

They were added. Added to what? See, this is implied. It's church membership that is implied.

They were keeping track of who was who. Now, let's go back to Acts chapter 1 for a moment.

Just flip the page. Acts chapter 1 verse 15. Acts chapter 1 verse 15 says, and in those days,

Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. What does it say? Altogether, the number of names was about 120.

Notice, the number of names. Let me repeat that.

The number of names. Call me crazy, but that sounds like they had something akin to a church membership list.

I don't think that's a stretch, is it? Now, was it a scroll with names written down?

Like today, we would have a piece of paper with names written down out in the file cabinet in the back or maybe a computer file with a list of names.

You know, that's not really the point. It's not so much the details. What's important is that they kept a record of who was in and they understood who wasn't.

And let me just say this. I think the most important thing, and we'll talk more about membership and the requirements of membership and everything else, but the most important thing, the thing

I am certain of, the most important thing for the life of a believer is that a believer be present and involved in the life of the local church.

Let me repeat that. The most important thing for believers is that they are present and they are involved in the life of the church.

For those who might question that and say, well, I don't need to do any sort of, you know this, that there's a lot of people who are against organized religion.

There's a lot of pastors that, I mean, they just trash religion. I mean, you would think religion is a dirty word to some people.

That's been a very common thing for the past generation with the seeker sensitive movement.

It becomes popular. Pastors think it's popular to trash religion. I never really understood that. Now, if you want to define it, false religion is bad.

I understand that. But what does the Bible say about religion? True religion before God and the

Father is this, to visit widows and orphans in their need and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

That's what we should do. So let me use this analogy. If somebody says, well, I don't need to be part of any organized religion, a church,

I don't need to be a church member, but I'm still part of the body of Christ. I mean, I'm still saved, but I don't need to be a member of a church.

Let me use this analogy. Let's say somebody says, you know, I am part of the

Yankee Candle Company. Oh, well, what building do you work at?

Well, I don't actually work at one of the buildings. Oh, so you work from home remotely.

Well, no. Okay, are you on the board of directors or something?

Like what's what's going on here? No. Well, in what way are you part of the company?

Well, I bought a candle. I went to the store and bought a candle a couple years ago. You're not really part of the company.

Sorry to break it to you. So all of that to say this. Church membership is biblical, all right?

Church membership is biblical. Now, I'll admit this much. I will admit this.

To some degree, how we define membership, that's kind of the sticking point.

But being a member of a congregation is absolutely biblical.

And what does church mean? The Greek word ecclesia, it means assembly.

It means congregation. You are part of the Lord's congregation. So this is essential for the life of a

Christian, whether it's a man, woman, or child. The New Testament knows nothing of a redeemed believer who doesn't have any use for the church of Jesus Christ.

One ancient theologian said this, he who does not have the church as his mother does not have

God as his father. He who does not have the church as his mother does not have

God as his father. You know, maybe that's not the perfect analogy, but the general sentiment

I believe is accurate. So in the book of Acts there were 120 in the upper room.

Then on the day of Pentecost this amazing event happened in the life of the church where Peter preached in the city and 3 ,000,

I mean think about that, 3 ,000 people were saved. They believed on the

Lord. Then what happened right after that? They believed and immediately, this way it looks, it all happened the same day it appears.

They believed and then what? You tell me. They were baptized. So once someone believed, immediately they're baptized.

Once that happened they were considered added to the disciples. They were added and now are part of the church.

Now I suppose it's true, things don't quite always go like that.

Things don't always happen that way. Churches today sometimes do things a little different.

And to be fair, new issues and challenges come up that make things difficult at times.

Depending on how a church is structured, membership in some churches, you know there's a legal element.

Because back in Acts chapter 2 the church, you know it wasn't even really organized at the time except that there were clear leaders with the

Apostles. But they didn't own any property. They didn't own buildings. Today churches own a building, right.

So there's some legal elements to it. So sometimes a church you ought to be 18 to have voting privileges.

So new things come up that they didn't really have to deal with there in the first century. And I don't want to get into all the weeds of the the issues here.

But number one, here's the ideal. Here's the ideal. Number one, a person must put their faith in Jesus Christ as their

Lord and Savior. Peter says repent. You repent and believe. That's number one. Number two, you get baptized.

Number three, you join a local church. So let me repeat that.

Number one, a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Number two, they're baptized.

Number three, they then become part of a church. I mean does anyone disagree with that?

If you raise your hand we're gonna have to have a talk afterwards. I don't think too many people would disagree with that.

So we're gonna come back to Acts chapter 2 in a moment. But this whole concept of church membership we believe it is biblical.

All right turn to Romans chapter 12. Of course for the scripture reading we read from 1st

Corinthians 12, 12 through 27. And we're gonna see something very similar here in Romans 12.

And I wanted to read these passages. And let me say this first. I used to visit a woman in the nursing home.

And she was a real character. You know I miss her. But you you really couldn't tell her anything about scripture or the

Christian faith unless you could point to the exact words in the Bible.

I mean if you tried to tell her about church membership, unless she saw the words quote church membership, she just wouldn't listen.

She had to see the exact phrase in in scripture.

That's not really the best way to approach things. Okay you know the word Trinity isn't in the

Bible. The word rapture isn't. We've heard all of that before. It's not so much the word or the specific words.

It's the concept there. I mean that's really what we look at. So it's not so much the specific words.

But if somebody needs to see the word member. So I need to see member.

All right well let's look at this. Romans 12 starting in verse 3. And remember who's Paul writing to?

The church right? He's writing to the church. He's talking about members.

Romans 12 verse 3. For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.

So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

So I think we understand the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ.

So this is the whole church is the body. And you as an individual are a member of the body which is the church.

Again I don't think this is a stretch. Somebody says well it's talking about members like body parts and it's talking about members in a different way.

But it's still a church, the body, and you're an individual member of the body.

So in Corinth the church members, the people that assembled they knew who was part of the church as opposed to random members of the city.

So it's clear whether it's in Jerusalem, in Corinth, or anywhere else there was a distinction made between random people just out there and people who are part of the church.