If you're at home, you might want to grab a Bible so you can refer back to the scripture text this morning as you hear the sermon. The sermon this morning is entitled, Why Does Membership Matter? Why Does Membership Matter? And we're looking at Acts 2 and then also the Heidelberg Catechism about the church and more particularly today, we're looking at the idea of church membership. In Acts chapter 2, we have the Pentecost feast. It was an annual feast in Jerusalem. People would come from all over the world since the Jews were living in different places, not just in Jerusalem. And they would come for this feast, but this feast is unique because Christ, who died for sins and had risen from the dead, has ascended into heaven ten days earlier. And now he's going to pour out his spirit from heaven. So reading at Acts 2 verse 32, the spirit has been poured out and the believers began to speak in tongues, foreign languages, and the people gathered in Jerusalem wonder what's happening. And so Peter has stood up to preach and explain what's happening and also to accuse them of having murdered Jesus, the Christ. And so at Acts 2 verse 32, we hear the word of the Lord. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 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 promises to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And it's these verses 40 through 47 that I draw your special attention to. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be safe from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done for the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." God's Word. Let's turn to the Heidelberg Catechism. I have a copy at home. You can turn it, I'll read it. The Heidelberg Catechism, one of our three confessions that summarizes the Bible's teaching. This is divided up into Lord's Days, 52 of them, to cover the main truths of God's Word in the course of a year. And we're in Lord's Day 21. We've actually considered question answer 54 and then question answer 55 already, but we didn't give a whole lot of attention to an element that's part of both of them, and that's this idea of Church membership. And so I would like to read these two. Question 54 asks, What do you believe concerning the Holy Catholic or Universal Church? I believe that the Son of God, through His Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith And of this community, I am and always will be a living member. And then question 55, what do you understand by the communion of saints? First, that believers, one and all, as members of Christ the Lord, have communion with him and share in all his treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of other members. Let's ask for the Lord's blessing upon his word. Our Father in heaven, we bow before you to ask that you would make your word clear, that you would cause it to be preached truthfully, and that you would give us your Holy Spirit, who alone can illuminate our eyes and our hearts to see and understand your word, to believe and accept it. We pray God that we not be mere hearers of your word, but doers. May we not look at your word and then go away forgetting what we've seen, but we pray Lord that your word would arrest us, that it would master us, that it would guide us and that it would guard us in the days to come. Oh, Father, give us your help and let your name be extolled in the preaching of your word and the amen of our hearts. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, this past week I was emailing The lady who's done our taxes for many years and at the end of her reply to me she talked about the coronavirus and then she concluded by saying, I appreciate our church and congregation more than ever. She's a woman who. has come to see and appreciate more than ever the body of Christ, the church she belongs to. And that was just the last person I heard express that. I've heard from different ones of you the same sentiments. I've felt them myself that now, not being with each other, we miss each other all the more. We recognize what a blessing it is to be part of the body of Jesus Christ. In lonely days, we realize what a gift from heaven to have a family, the family of God. And in our weakness and uncertainties of the future, what a blessing to know that I'm counted among the fellowship of God's people, the church that he loves and cares for. The church has become more precious to us. What a loss it would be to not be a member of Christ's church. And yet, as I say all of that, We recognize this morning that the Church is oftentimes little esteemed in the world. In fact, we're in days of tremendous confusion. Perhaps more than ever before, people are confused about the importance of the Church of Jesus Christ. We do live in an unprecedented time when it comes to freedom and independence and resources that we have. We can travel by way of car and airplane. We have money to purchase things and we have seemingly unlimited religious resources. We can order on Amazon any book and there are just thousands that are cranked off every day. And we have access to all kinds of blogs and audio and video. And we can, as many are doing this morning, stream this worship service or countless others. We can listen to thousands, even millions of sermons online. And having all this freedom and all these resources, many people ask, well, what do I need the church for? What do I need the local congregation for when I have all of that? And so there are many people who don't make much of the local church. We meet people who think that membership doesn't matter as long as I have a personal relationship to Christ. What does it matter whether I go to church or belong to a church? There are some people who do go to church. They go to lots of different churches and they never join any particular church. And there are people who think that that's just fine. There are people that belong to a church but then move away geographically and they never ask for the membership to be transferred to a different church where they now live. This is something that United Reformed Church elders all over North America struggle with. Members who move off and never transfer their membership as if it's no big deal. And then there are many who, under church discipline, simply resign their church memberships. The vast majority of people who come under church discipline for refusing to repent, if they are not led to repentance by the Spirit, in almost every case, they are not finally excommunicated, but they just quit, they just resign, they just give up their membership, as if it's not a big deal. We as God's people need to be very clear about the importance of church membership. Does membership matter? Does it really matter whether one is a member of the local church? Does it matter to Jesus Christ? And if so, does it matter to me? Well, I submit to you this morning that Christ cares very much about the local congregation and about our membership in it. And here in Acts chapter 2, the start of the New Testament church, not the start of the church that began in Genesis 3, but at the start of the New Testament church here, we see some things about the church of Christ and its infancy here that reveal how significant church membership is. And in fact, I think there's at least four realities in Acts 2 verses 40 through 47 that impress upon us the significance of church membership. And the first one is this, that the church Christ is building in Acts 2, still building today, is an identifiable people who can be named and counted. The church is an identifiable people who can be named and numbered. That's the first thing we see here. In Acts 2, this church that Christ from heaven now ascended above and sending down his spirit, the church that he's building upon the earth, consists of real people, particular people, with names and faces. The church is not some vague, indistinguishable group. It's not a fuzzy, formless, blurred body. It is a definite, defined, countable number of people. And we read of that, don't we? That about 3,000 souls were added to the number. And verse 47, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Now in Acts 1, Christ, as he prepared to ascend into heaven, he was commissioning his apostles that are going to go into all the world. They're going to be his witnesses. He promised that he would empower them with his spirit. And then at Pentecost here, he pours out his spirit, and the believers hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire on each of their heads, and they begin to speak in foreign languages. And all these people who are in Jerusalem for the Passover, excuse me, the Pentecost feast, And they wonder what's happening, and Peter begins to preach and tell them, these are the last days that Joel prophesied of. And you murdered Jesus, the Messiah. And they're cut to the heart. What should we do? And they're called to repent, to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. And then something glorious happens. This little body of disciples, 120 of them, turns into a group of 3,120 as the Lord in one day adds 3,000 members to the church. Can you imagine that? If our congregation grew by 3,000 souls in one day, but that's the miracle, the great working of the Holy Spirit. And what's happening there? Well, it's the very thing that Lord Stilwell of the Catechism speaks of, that Christ is gathering a church chosen to everlasting life. Jesus from heaven is gathering a church for himself. And you'll notice that Jesus' way of saving is not that he plucks one soul here to heaven, another soul here to heaven, as a bunch of isolated individuals, but the way Christ saves is by drawing people into his church, adding to the number of his church. Salvation is all about the church. Christ is gathering, building, defending, sanctifying a church. the temple of God, the household of faith, the body of Christ. Ephesians 2 speaks to the fact that by Christ's blood we're reconciled to God but also to each other. And he says in Ephesians 2, you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So Christ is the great temple builder and we, 1 Peter says, we are living stones and we're being assembled as so many stones or bricks to build this structure which is the house of God, the temple of God where he dwells. Now, maybe somebody says, well, can't I be a part of that universal church without being part of a local church? Can't I just be part of the invisible church? But as you read the Bible, it's clear that the church of Christ is not invisible. It has invisible qualities and aspects, but the church is quite visible. It's real people, assembled together under the word, with the sacraments, under the authority of an eldership. The work of Christ on earth is a visible work. It's not merely to be joined to an invisible church in an invisible way, but we see in Acts 2 that Christ joins them to a visible church in a visible way. They're baptized. They're numbered among Christ's people. And that's just the beginning here in Acts 2. It continues that way into the New Testament. As you read on, Churches are planted in all kinds of cities, right, as the Apostle Paul goes forward. And then letters are written to specific churches, the church in Corinth, the saints in Ephesus. And in Revelation 2 and 3, Christ stands among the lampstands of his churches and he addresses the congregations by name. That's the way Christ works. Specific locations, specific congregations made up of specific people who are baptized in the name of Christ. You read on in Acts chapter 4 verse 4, many of those who heard the word believed and the number of men came to be about 5,000. So it's 120 in chapter 1, it's 3,000 in chapter 2, it's 5,000 in chapter 4. This is the way the Lord works. He's a God who cares about names and numbers. And that's consistent with the Old Testament, of course, right? How many lists of names and numbers don't we have in the Old Testament? Think of Nehemiah 7, for instance. Those who return from captivity. The number of the men of the people of Israel. They are the sons of Perosh, 2,172. The sons of Shephetiah, 372. The sons of Arah, 652. And on and on it goes. Those are the kinds of lists we're tempted to skip over because what do they mean? What does it matter? But do we ever pause to think about how much it means and how much it matters that God keeps careful track of his church and he knows the names and the numbers of all his people, the precise number? He's not a king who has some general idea of how big his kingdom is, but he hasn't actually met most of his citizens. Maybe you heard it's census time, right? We're supposed to fill out the census and give information to people who otherwise wouldn't know us. Well, our king doesn't send a census form so he can figure out who's in his kingdom. He's actually the one who sovereignly determined the number of citizens. Acts 13, verse 48, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Ephesians 1, he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world. Jesus says in John 6, all the Father gives me will come to me. Jesus says in John 10, and other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. You see, we have a God who's very specific. He knows exactly. He has chosen exactly who will be part of his church. And Christ knows not just the number, but the precise persons. Remember John 10, that he calls his own sheep by name. So in the Old Testament, God knew the names and the numbers. In the ministry of Christ, He knew those the Father had given Him. In the ministry of the Apostles in the New Testament, God is adding precise numbers to His church. But then you go to the end of time, the book of Revelation, and you read that there's this glorious city God's prepared for His people. And nothing will enter it that defiles, no corruptible people, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. There is a membership role in heaven, the Lamb's Book of Life. Now what a tremendous comfort all this is for the believer, that God knows the precise number of His elect and He knows them by name. It means when Jesus returns, not one of His sheep will be missing. When we come to that marriage supper of the Lamb and maybe you picture a banquet hall with a ginormous table and place cards all down that table, there won't be one seat that's left empty. Because all the elect will have been gathered, not one missing. Jesus says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. It's a comfort. It's a comfort for you, dear Christian, in this COVID-19 crisis that God knows your name. What a stabilizing thought that God does not deal with us according to impersonal statistics, He doesn't take a census form to figure out how many people ought to contract COVID-19, how many should die. He doesn't do that. Deals with us each as his own child, beloved children, deals with us personally. He's written our number of days in his book before one of them came to be. And it's in his church that he gives us a taste of his personal love for us. Because we as members of his church are known to each other. We're known by our elders. Our name is on the roll. We're recognized by the church, not simply as a neighbor or a friend or a visitor, but a member of the family. On the flip side of that, wouldn't it be a strange thing? to spend your life trying to know the comfort of having our name written in heaven, if we were unwilling to have our name written on earth, wouldn't it be an odd thing to go around saying, I'm a Christian, my name is written in heaven, but I'm not going to have it written in a local church. That'd be an oddity, wouldn't it? If we want the joy of knowing our name is written in heaven, wouldn't we want to know our name is written in a faithful congregation of Jesus? Not that earthly membership roles in heavenly are exactly identical. We know there can be hypocrites in the church on earth, but what an odd thing it would be to say, my joy is that God knows my name, but I don't actually want my name recorded anywhere among His people on earth. Christ cares about His local church. keeps track of her membership. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 5, the church is told to put somebody outside of membership, to turn them over to Satan. It means to discipline them or disfellowship them, excommunicate them. But how could you ever excommunicate someone if you never knew who the communicant membership was? And I have a dear loved one who, 25 years ago, she was attending a church and I spoke to her. I told her, you ought not just to attend church, but be a member of the church. So she went to the pastor of the church and said, how do you become a member? And he replied to her, if you're here, you're a member. If you're not here, you're not a member. Well, in that case, it's pretty hard to have a church that exercises church discipline. If there is no defined membership role, then there can be no one disfellowshipped from the membership. So what we see in Acts 2 is that the church is an identifiable people who can be named and counted, and that's important. But there's a second thing we see here. We see that the church, in Acts 2, is a submissive flock under the care of Christ-appointed leaders. The church is a submissive flock under the care of Christ-appointed leaders. We read in Acts 2 verse 42, after these 3,000 are added to the church, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. They recognized the apostles as Christ's appointed teachers and leaders. Now if you read on in the book of Acts, of course you discover that There is one more apostle appointed, Saul, but after that there's no more apostles appointed, and as they die, that's the end of the apostles. But there are other offices that are appointed. Acts 6, we see the deacon office being established, and then later we read of elders. And in fact, in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas revisit the churches they've established, and we read in Acts 14, verse 23, so they appointed elders in every church. Not each congregation has an apostle, but each congregation is to have an eldership. And Paul in Acts 20 tells the Ephesian eldership what they are to do. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. So the elders have a way to responsibility, to shepherd the blood-bought church, to take heed to all of the flock. And so that means that there is a flock for which they're responsible. Jesus knows his sheep by name and he knows all of his sheep. If even one is missing, he pursues it. Now when Christ appoints under shepherds by his spirit, he expects the under shepherds to behave in a similar way, to know the names of their sheep and to seek any who wander from the way. But clearly he doesn't expect any earthly elder to know every member of his church and to take charge of every believer on the planet. But he does expect them to know who are entrusted to them. Hebrews 13 verse 17 says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Well, if the elders must give account for souls, then there must be a clearly defined group for which they are accountable. There must be an identifiable group, a membership. And that implies something for every believer. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would not be profitable for you. Well, that implies that there must be an eldership to which I am accountable. This, by the way, if you're ever talking to somebody who thinks church membership is inconsequential, this is perhaps the most direct way to show them in the Bible you have to be a member of Christ's church to be obedient to him. Because you could ask somebody who says local membership doesn't matter, you could ask them, well then how do you fulfill Hebrews 13, 17? How do you be submissive to elders who must give an account for you if you don't have any elders to whom you are accountable? But who wouldn't want that? What a privilege to have the shepherding care of Christ so near to us by God-appointed men. The Lord gives preachers and teachers to teach and instruct His people. He gives elders to oversee and shepherd them. He gives deacons to care for our physical needs. Who wouldn't want that? What a blessing, even in these days when we don't get to see each other, to know that there's a body of men that are accountable for our lives. If we belong only to the church of the TV or the church of the Internet, who comes looking for us when we decide we don't want to obey the word that's been preached by way of the Internet? Who comes caring for us when we're out of money and we can't meet our needs at home? Who prays for us? Wayne Mack in his book, To Be or Not to Be a Member, that is the question. Good little pamphlet on church membership. He writes on this Hebrews 13 verse 17 saying, these verses are meaningless unless there's some kind of formal commitment and identification between the leaders and the people. Importantly, these verses call on people to obey and submit to your leaders and not just any and every Christian leader. This certainly implies a definite and clarified relationship with a certain church and leaders thereof. It's very easy to prove, right? You can't obey that scripture passage unless you're a member of Christ's church. But you know, I've noticed something over the years that it seems like maybe the problem is not that some people can't see in the Bible the need to be a member of a local church, it's that they don't want to be a member. The church of the Internet is fun to belong to because guess what? When I do what I want to do, nobody holds me accountable. The church of the TV is fun to belong to. The megachurch is fun to belong to. The church that has no membership roles is fun to belong to because now I can do what I want and no one calls me to account. I don't show up for a month and guess what? Nobody's asking me where I've been. That's actually a sad way and a dangerous way to live, isn't it? The Lord Jesus who loves us has so loved us that he gave us his church. We confess in the Belgian Confession, Article 28, these strong and maybe shocking words. We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and outside of it there is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or condition he may be ought to withdraw from it, content to be by himself. but that all men are in duty, bound to join and unite themselves with it, wheresoever God has established it." Saying, you want salvation? Then you want the church. Christ gathers, defends, and preserves for himself a church, but part of the way that he gathers, defends, and preserves us is by the church body. by the preaching and the sacraments, by the elders who oversee us, by the deacons who care for us. Augustine said in the 4th century that no one can have God as his father who will not have the church as his mother. John Calvin in the 16th century wrote, it's now our intention to discuss the visible church. Let us learn even from the title mother There is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, talking about the church, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until the time when we put off mortal flesh and become like the angels. Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from the school of the church until we've been pupils all our lives. Furthermore, away from her bosom, one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation. God's fatherly care and the especial witness of spiritual life are limited to His flock. Do any of those of the Confession or Calvin or Augustine sound like strong words? Well, then read Ephesians 5, that Christ loved his church, his bride, and he gave his life for her. Look at Acts 2, the spirit's given to the church. Look at the deposit of the word, it's given to the church. Look at the ministry of the word, it's given to the church. Look at salvation, where it's found, it's given to the church. Anyone who says, I want to be saved, but doesn't want to be part of his church. has missed, terribly missed, how Christ saves. Putting our name on a church membership roll by itself doesn't save us, no. But Christ saves us by giving us a salvation proclaimed by his church. And as he saves us, he unites us to his church. Well, in Acts 2 we see then that the church is an identifiable people who can be named and counted. The church is secondly a submissive flock living under the care of Christ-appointed leaders. Thirdly, we see that the church is a committed body where saints take responsibility for each other. The church is a committed body where saints take responsibility for each other. It's a beautiful picture that we have in Acts 2 there, that these new believers continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. Verse 45, they sell their possessions and goods and they divide them among all as anyone has need. The Bible does not command a community of goods that we have to dispense with private property, but it does demand that we love one another. We saw that recently in 1 Corinthians 12, that beautiful description of the church as a body, and Paul uses that picture of the human body with all of its parts so carefully arranged by God to form the whole. He says, but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. So he's making the point that God did not give a believer the option, do you want to be part of the body or not part of the body? Do you want to be a hand on the body or do you just want to be a hand who hangs out by itself over there? He didn't give us that option. One of us is an eye, another a hand, another a foot. And he says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. But anyone who wants to be a Christian with their personal relationship with Jesus, apart from the church, is saying that very thing. I don't need the rest of you. When Christ has said clearly in his word, you do. You do need the body. So we're called to be united and we're called to care for each other. If any, 1 Corinthians says in chapter 12, verse 26, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Wayne Mack in that book about membership says that he counted up the one another commands in the New Testament. He counts it at 58, 58 one another commands or what somebody else calls the not alone commands. Texts like Romans 12, devoted to one another in brotherly love. Or Galatians 6, bear one another's burdens. Hebrews 3, encourage one another. Hebrews 10, meet with one another. 1 Thessalonians 4, comfort one another. Romans 16, greet one another. Ephesians 4, forgive one another. So he asks, how can you fulfill the one another commands if you're all alone? How can you fulfill those commands of the New Testament if there's not a body to which you are committed, a people that you spend time with, a congregation that you're a part of? And even for everyone listening this morning, who is a member of Christ's local church, we could ask, do we take our membership seriously as we ought? Or do we just, even when we actually worship on site, do we just come, worship, and leave without any responsibility for the fellow members, without any service, without any time getting to know them, to know how to pray for them or encourage them? Are we fulfilling the one another commands? Do I take my own church membership seriously enough? That's always a good question. Do I serve others? The Catechism says in that second question answer we read, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members. We saw that last time at Christ. Gifts each one of us with his spiritual gifts so that we can serve not ourselves but others. And do you know what? On Judgment Day we're going to be judged according to how and whether we served others. I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. When, Lord, did we do that? When did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you thirsty and give you drink? And I, the king, will say to you assuredly, whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did unto me. If we live all alone we will be speechless and shamed on the day of judgment. Finally, the church is the distinct witness of recognizable disciples of Jesus. We see next to the church is, first of all, an identifiable people who can be named and numbered. It's secondly a submissive flock living under the care of Christ-appointed leaders. It's thirdly a committed body where saints take responsibility for each other. It's finally a distinct witness of recognizable disciples of Jesus. We read in verse 47, that this body of believers was praising God and having favor with all the people. William Hendrickson in his commentary writes, these Christians live a life of praise to God and as a result they are praised by the people. They demonstrate the power of the gospel and the presence of the Spirit. Thus they are living witnesses for Christ. Here the missionary church is at work for the people noticing the Christian conduct of the converts speak in favor of the church and are drawn to Christ. So you begin to see in Acts as God and Christ assembles His church that the church becomes a recognizable witness in the world. And then you have something similar in Acts chapter 5 Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly." Acts 5, 12, and 13. The church is gathered at Solomon's porch at the temple, and the people recognize the Christians there, but there's also a certain fear and a certain esteem they have for them. So, those who belong to the church are identifiable. The body of Christ was not a vague, blurry, unrecognizable group, but the Christian witness was vibrant, it was real, you could see it. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Jesus doesn't save Christians so they can be secret Christians. The church, the word church, ecclesia, means the called out ones. We're called out of the world to be set apart to God, to be recognized. by the world as Christ's people. Sometimes we wear the gear to display our allegiance to our favorite sports team. We've got the ball cap or the sweatshirt or jersey. Or we have our cap that advertises our favorite product, our favorite fishing gear, hunting rifle, whatever. We show our allegiance. It would be a strange thing to be a Christian and not want to testify to the reality that I belong to Christ and to His people. Our commitment to Christ should be a public affair. Christians in Muslim lands know full well when they get baptized, they might be excommunicated from their family. Many young people have been beaten by their fathers, some of them killed in Muslim lands, for identifying in baptism with the Christian church. The world has a right to expect that Christians can be identified. I found this quote in my files this week. I sadly didn't write down or lost who wrote it, but listen to these words. What does it mean if a man tells you he's a doctor or lawyer? You want to know that he's board certified, that he's the real deal, that he's been to school, that he serves in submission to a board that will yank his credentials if he engages in malpractice. In the same way, if anyone is going to tell the world they are a Christian, The world has a right to know that they are church certified Christians. Christians whose testimony has been heard and observed by a body whose life and doctrine is subject to the discipline of elders. That's convicting, isn't it? We have no right to say I'm a Christian if I'm not a part of Christ's church. We have no right to go around saying to the world, I'm a believer, you should be one too. If we're under no authority, no one vouches that our doctrine is truly Christian doctrine, then we should keep our mouth shut. We have not yet identified with Jesus if we have not yet identified with his church. The calling is to be identified with Christ by being identified in baptism with Christ and with his people. And the world has a right to know who the people of Christ are. It's right for us to have a local church, to identify ourselves, to say we are the people who belong to the Lord, who live in submission to his word. And to be clear about that. Calling of the scriptures is to take Christ's local church very seriously, for Christ does. Read Revelation 1-3 and see how the Ascended Lord loves, cares for, commends and rebukes his local congregation. And I think you won't be able to say that the church is unimportant to Jesus. May God give us all hearts to recognize how blessed we are to be part of his church. May he give us hearts to be able to instruct others in these things who, maybe by way of ignorance, have no idea how important the church is. May the Lord give us grace as parents and grandparents to train up our children and young people that if the Lord calls them to move geographically, they realize how significant church membership is. And may the Lord help all of us to show how grateful we are to Christ by being glad to identify with and to serve his beloved people. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its clarity. And we thank you, Lord, for the place you've given us in your family. God, we do not deserve it. We acknowledge it. We have often failed each other. We've sinned against our brothers and sisters. We've belittled our privilege. But we thank you that your word calls us back. We thank you that by the blood of the Lord Jesus, we have been assembled as a people to know our Savior, but also to know and love each other. We pray, Lord, today for churches and for those who are confused about church membership. We pray for congregations that their leaders have not recognized the importance of membership. We pray that you would help them in this. We pray, Lord, for believers who have not been taught well by your word, who do not realize how important it is to join your church. We pray, Father, that you would give to them eyes to see in your word. We pray you'd give to us a humble heart to love, to instruct, to believe, and to live out these things. And may Christ be praised in his church. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.