What if someone told you that they thought they could be just as good a Christian without being a member of a local church? Ever heard that before? I've heard it. How would you respond to someone who said that to you? Or would you agree with them? Would you even feel the need to respond? You know, many Protestants say that justification by faith alone implies that formal membership in a local church is a minor issue at best and often becomes a distraction at worst. Some would say that because they have a kind of gag reflex to the maxim of the Roman Catholic Church, outside the church there is no salvation. And in one sense there's a very good reason for that gag reflex. What the Roman Catholic Church means by that victim is that by doling out baptism in the Lord's Supper, the church itself doles out salvation itself directly through baptism in the Lord's Supper. And that's bad teaching, Protestants think. But the most popular Protestant confession of faith, the Westminster Confession, also teaches that outside the visible church, quote, there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. So that grates on us a little. As historic Protestants, as non-Catholics, that a historic Protestant confession of faith would make such a big deal about the visible local church and membership in it. I mean, if the Reformation taught us anything, it taught us that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to God's glory alone, without any of my works. And yet Augustine said as early as the fourth century that he cannot have God for his father who does not have the church as his mother. It's a pretty strong statement. So if my faith is in Christ, then why do I need to identify myself with a particular local church? What's the big deal? We ask. Well, this idea of local church membership breaks on us for other reasons, too. particularly as Americans, it's become like fingernails on a chalkboard, even for many Christians. According to George Barna, and I quote here, while nearly half of the adult population attends religious services during a typical week in America, fewer than one out of every five adults believes that a congregational church is a critical element of their own spiritual growth. Only one out of every four adults who possess a biblical worldview agreed with the centrality of the local church in a person's spiritual growth, even when you have a biblical worldview, even when you believe in creation and in the miracles of Jesus and in his divinity and in his atoning death and physical resurrection, even when you believe in all of those things. Only 25 percent of us. Think that the local church is a big deal. And just as few adults, 18% firmly embrace the idea that spiritual maturity requires involvement in a community of faith. In his book, Exit Interviews, interviewing people who are leaving local churches, William Hendricks says that many of these Christians are, quote, taking spiritual sustenance wherever they can find it, from books, magazines, television and radio ministries, a sympathetic friend or two, perhaps the arts and music, maybe volunteer work. And over time, they've become quite resourceful in finding ways to meet God apart from the local church. And William Hendricks concludes that paragraph by saying, I don't blame you for walking out. So what do you think? Can you blame me? Now, again, church membership is not what most of the Christians would call a salvation issue. Like the atonement or the divinity of Jesus or his resurrection. But John Engle James said in 1839, quote, Although the hand be of less consequence to vitality than the head or the heart, is it of no value? Will anyone be reckless of his members because he can lose one of them and yet live? Ask Terry Zink, who just lost part of his finger. Did you want to lose part of your finger? Was that OK with you? Would it be OK if they didn't make any attempt to kind of sew it back on? It's just your pinky. So what is it about local church membership that grates on us so much? And is membership in the local church really as important as many Protestants have made it out to be in the past? Well, I'm going to make the case this morning, hopefully, that it is far more important than most Christians think, primarily because the local church is far more important to Jesus than most Christians think. So this morning we're going to look at the idea of meaningful membership in the local church. This is one of our core values as a church. We agreed to put these things in our Constitution. We're in a whole series right now of our core values and we've come to the meaningful membership in a local church. So this morning we're going to think together about a few aspects of local church membership. First we're going to start off with cultural objections to it. Then we're going to think about the biblical warrant for it and quite honestly that's going to take most of our time this morning is the biblical warrant for church membership. I wanted to get to a lot more things about church membership but we're going to spend most of our time on biblical warrant for it. We'll address briefly after that biblical qualifications for it the practical benefits of it the mature expression of it and the Christian priority of local church membership is where we'll conclude. And again, we'll invest most of our time together thinking about the biblical warrant for local church membership because we won't make membership meaningful unless we all believe first that it is biblical. So since many of you are already members of this particular local church, the temptation for you in this sermon will be to say, well, yeah, stick it to the non-members. Go get them, preacher. So if you're a member, I want you to listen to this sermon with the intent of recommitting yourself to carrying out the responsibilities and privileges of your membership with us. So keep asking yourself the question during the sermon, how can I make my own membership more meaningful? Could I make the local church a higher priority in my own life, in my own weekly schedule? Am I prioritizing my membership in the local church as it deserves to be prioritized biblically? And of course, if you're not a member of a local church, we want you to become one. So first, what are our objections to local church membership? So these are kind of the top, let's see, one, two, four cultural objections to local church membership in America. First is individualism. Individualism. You know, the animating principle of the American Revolution itself was that all men are created equal. Individualism. And this is what justified our revolt against the British crown. And what was good for the goose, it seemed, the new American republic also seemed good for the gander, the nascent American churches. And it was really the priesthood of all believers together reinterpreted in America as the priesthood of the individual believer all by himself. You see how those two things are different? The priesthood of all believers together versus the priesthood of the individual believer all by himself. with his Bible in his closet saying, I'm going to read my Bible by myself and whatever I come out thinking is what I'm going to believe, quite apart from the history of the Protestant Reformation, quite apart from the history of Christian doctrine, or the practice of any local church that I'm going to. This is about me, we say. And so Philip Schaff and John Nevin, two prominent Christian church historians, have said of the early 1800s, when the Republic was taking shape, Quote, anyone who has or fancies that he has some inward experience and a ready tongue may persuade himself that he is called to be a reformer and so proceed at once in his spiritual vanity and pride to a revolutionary rupture with the historical life of the church, and here's the relevant point, to which he holds himself immeasurably superior. He ruptures with the historical life of the church to which he holds himself immeasurably superior. Do you hold yourself superior to the local church? Do you think your opinions are better and more valid than the opinions of the church? And of course, that spirit of individualism is still alive and kicking today, isn't it? It's still alive and kicking. So first, individualism. We're individuals. We don't really like membership. We like to have all the benefits of membership, but we don't want any of the commitments. We don't want to be tied down. Secondly, consumerism. We're consumers. We want, we evaluate, we shop, and then we buy. I mean, just look around. All you have to do is walk a few steps towards Randall Road, and you'll see what we're talking about. Consumerism. We shop, we buy, we evaluate, we do all this for clothes, TVs, microwaves, cars, houses, everything. But the problem, as Jonathan Lehman has said, is that we have come to rate churches like we rate grocery stores and shopping malls. We don't ask how the scripture and the teaching instructed or corrected or admonished us. Instead, we ask, is it convenient? Do they have a product line and a service package that suits my preferences and meets my needs? Instead of going away like a visitor in 1 Corinthians 14, 25, who said, I was convicted by all, called to account by all, and the secrets of my heart were disclosed, God is truly among them. First Corinthians 14 25 that's what Paul wants visitors to the Corinthian church going away saying But instead of that we go away saying Well, you know, I yeah, I guess I like the music except for that one song that was kind of slow boring Or we say now the preacher wasn't very funny Did you see any progress for teenagers didn't seem like they had a nice youth group for my kids So we shop for churches like we shop for insurance. We're looking for the best deal. We want to make a deal, right? We want to get the nicest product at the cheapest price. That's how we shop for churches, isn't it? We're too used to shopping at Goodwill. We love getting those name brands at such a cheap price. And that's how we end up shopping for churches. And it's made us afraid to commit, which leads us to our next cultural objection, commitment phobia. Commitment phobia. We love how the product looks in the showroom, but we fear buyer's remorse more than anything. We don't want to buy something and think, oh man, I bought the wrong thing. I don't need this. I need that. It looks so nice on the hanger. And then when I tried it on at home, it didn't look so good. We love connectedness. Connectedness is the selling point of almost every church today, isn't it? I want a place where I can connect. There's nothing wrong with that. We're social beings. That's why the local church exists. We want to connect with people. We love connectedness. Ah, but we hate commitment, don't we? Give me connectedness without commitment. That's why the average age of a male who's marrying is rising. They like connectedness, but they don't like commitment. We admire decisiveness in others, but we like keeping our own options open. Again, as Jonathan Lehman observes, that commitment phobia means avoiding contracts altogether while manipulating circumstances in order to yield all the benefits of a contract. See, that's our MO. If I can get all the benefits of a contract without signing my name, I'm golden. That's what I want. And the result is that our concept of love gets diluted. It becomes devoid of any concept of loyalty or fidelity, especially when that loyalty is to our own hurt. And that leads to our next cultural objection. We misunderstand love. We have a bad definition of love, naturally. Because our consumerism has made us reticent to commit, we've also been duped into thinking that love is more about others letting me be myself than it is about me showing loyalty and self-sacrifices to others in a committed relationship. Let me be me as I define me. Don't make me feel like God disapproves of me. If you're going to put obligations on me, if you're going to limit my freedom of self-expression and self-fulfillment and self-realization in any way, you must not love me for me, which means you must not love me at all. And so the best church for me becomes the church that will let me express myself however I want. And so we fill our churches with self-centered people by catering to all their preferences, and yet by affirming everything in them and demanding nothing of them, we only succeed in affirming their self-centeredness. And that doesn't help them become complete in Christ, which is the Apostle Paul's objective for them in Colossians 1. It actually makes it impossible for them to grow into spiritual maturity, which is always characterized by laying self aside to love God and to love neighbor. You see? John 15, 13, greater love has no man than this, that he what? That he lay down his life. for his friends. And John thinks that we as Christians are supposed to emulate and imitate Jesus' example of self-denying love. Other people should be able to recognize Jesus' self-sacrificial love in us. 1 John 3.16, By this we know love, that he, Jesus, laid down his life for us, the church, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Oh, my Christian friend, what are you saying? when you're not even willing to lay down your life enough to commit to a way of believing or living with a particular local church. The job of the local church is not to hand out discount memberships like Sam's and Costco. Is to correct the world's misunderstandings about true love by calling them back to the biblical definition. And when a local church does this, It seems unloving to the world. It feels unloving. But that's because the world is operating on a misguided definition of love and that makes membership in the local church offensive. That's why we take offense ultimately. Because local church membership doesn't jive with our common natural assumptions about what it means for other people to love us. and what it takes for us to love other people. It means that I can no longer expect to be loved without condition or without critique or without commitment. I mean if church membership means that I can't be unconditionally affirmed and accepted and celebrated and all of my self preoccupation then we say well just forget it. I'll go somewhere where they will affirm and accept and celebrate me without condition, without commitment, without critique. And without repentance from my sin, which so easily entangles me without me even knowing it. And the problem is that there are plenty of churches willing to do just that, affirm and accept and celebrate sinners without demanding any commitment to growth and repentance from sin or forgetfulness of self or love for Christ and others. But if local church membership is so offensive, then why encourage it? What are we doing? Why are we even preaching the sermon if this thing is so offensive? Well, it's because there's biblical warrant for it, which leads us to our second and longest point. The Biblical Warrant for Local Church Membership. Biblical Warrant for Local Church Membership. I'll try to move quickly here, but these are, I think mine and the Bible's top ten reasons for pursuing local church membership. So what I want to show here is not that local church membership is easy to proof text. I don't want to try to over-argue it here. I want to show that local church membership is, though, a good and necessary inference from the biblical definition of a local church. what we see in the life of early local churches in Acts and in Paul's letters and that local church membership is actually very consistent with the broad themes of scripture and is even hinted at in passing statements about the church in the New Testament. So we're not going to see the command keep a list of members in every local church. Second misconceptions 1 4. We're not going to see that but The early churches were commanded to do things that could not be done without having some way or other of knowing who was in and who was out. So these are good and necessary inferences. It's not going to be sitting there to kind of cherry pick off the top of the surface of the text. But if you're thinking about what's going on in the context, in the historical context and in the textual context, You come out thinking, well, how would they have done that without local church membership or some kind of form of way of knowing who is in and who is out? So, first one. We've already hinted at this in the service. God wants and has always wanted a clear distinction between his people and the world. God has always wanted a clear distinction between his people and the world. Think about your knee-jerk reaction to the following statement. Okay? Knee-jerk reaction to the following statement. This is a quote. The boundary between those who belong to the church and those who do not should not be drawn too sharply. After all, the establishment of clear boundaries is usually an act of violence." What's your knee-jerk reaction to that statement? Well, the assumption of that statement is that love does not draw lines. Love allows for ambiguity. But that's actually contrary to scripture. If that were true there would never have been an exodus in exodus. There would never have been a Passover. There would never have been a distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians in the 10 plagues that happened. The Israelites would have been subjects of all 10 plagues just like the Egyptians. But we heard read in the service earlier that all those plagues happened. Exodus 11 7 that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. That was the reason he did the plagues. That you would know that God makes a distinction not the pastor not the church not the members not the world. God makes a distinction between his people and not his people. Now, if God makes that distinction, don't you want to be sure that you're on the right side of that distinction? And that everybody knows this is the side of the distinction I'm on. I want to be clearly part of Israel in the exodus. I don't want there to be any ambiguity whether I'm an Israelite or an Egyptian, because the stakes are way too high. I don't want to get caught in the Nile. And that idea of putting a division between the Israelites and the Egyptians is repeated. You can see it over and over again between Exodus 8 and Exodus 12. Go home and read that passage and see how many times you come up with distinction or division, at least implied. You see it again in 8.23, thus I will put a division between my people and your people. And you can see it in Exodus 9.4, Exodus 9.26, in Exodus 10.23, Exodus 11.7, and really the whole Passover. One big distinction making event if you have the blood over your doorposts then You're part of Israel and the firstborn in your household doesn't die Distinction important distinction life preserving distinction So first, God wants a clear distinction between his people and the world. Second reason, second biblical warrant for local church membership is simply the meaning of the Greek word for church in the New Testament, which is ekklesia. And the verbal form of ekklesia, that's a noun, church, the verbal form is ekkleo, to call out, to call out. So the very idea of being called out assumes a publicly recognized distinction. Called out from what? Called out into what? In Ecclesia, a church in New Testament times is always taken to be an assembly legally called together or summoned, an assembly of persons bound to act together as a body for some specified object. It was originally just a secular word. It did not originally refer to the Christian church. So you can see in Acts 19 when there's this great assembly in Ephesus to figure out what to do about Paul's preaching because it's affecting the local economy and the idolatry of Artemis. That's called a church. They called together a church three times ecclesia and assembly gathering congregation. That's where the church gets its name. It took over that originally secular word and they were all going to vote on what was going to happen. And this is clear from 1 Corinthians 11 18 when you come together as a church. He says, so coming together as a church is coming together as a convened assembly of known individuals who were expected to attend. It's becoming very fashionable today to talk about the universal church. For some reason, we think we look a lot smarter and a lot more biblically informed if we talk about the universal church in the abstract and in the ideal. But it's actually the opposite. Because if you look at the usage of the word Ekklesia in the New Testament, it occurs 114 times, and at least 90 of those times, and as many as 93 of those times, it's clearly referring to a local church, not the abstract, ideal, universal church. 90 out of 114 local church. Look them up. There's biblical search software online. Logos, BibleWorks, whatever you want. 90 out of 114 times. Local church. So just based on the numbers alone, the New Testament strongly emphasizes the local church more than the universal church, and the local church as a group of particular people known to each other, regularly gathering for worship. So the next time someone says, look, what's it matter if I'm a part of the local church? I'm a part of a universal church. And they think they've got you. Ha ha! What can you say to that, my Christian friend? Well, you could say, well, it's interesting that you say that. Because 90 out of the 114 times that the New Testament uses the word church, it's local, not universal. Third reason, church discipline is impossible without membership. Jesus says in Matthew 18, 17, that if a sinning brother refuses to listen to you or a couple of you, then tell it to the church. Who does he mean there? Tell it to who? Tell it to the universal church? A letter that goes around to all Christians in the world? No, clearly he means the local church. Tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So Jesus assumes that the identity of the church is clear to everyone, and when he calls And when he tells them to treat this unrepentant person as a tax collector or a gentile, he's not saying keep that person out of the public services of the church. Otherwise, he'd be saying no tax collectors could be a part of our church gatherings. He's saying rather, look, that person should be no longer counted as one of you, as one who you expect to be here. You want them to be here because the church is the place they're going to hear the gospel most clearly and see it lived out in love. You don't want them to stop coming to church. You don't want a disciplined member to stop coming to church. You want them to keep coming to church so that you can keep exhorting them to repent of their sin that they have yet to repent of. And Paul makes the same distinction between insiders and outsiders in 1 Corinthians 5, 12-13. He says, after the brother who sins with his father's wife, he says, I've handed him over to Satan for a time. And then he says at the end of that chapter, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. Let me read that again. Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. Well, how do you know who's inside and outside of the Corinthian church? They have some way of knowing. Who's in, who's out? When there's a definite inside, a definite outside, you're either in or you're out. Paul expects every member of the Corinthian church to know who is who. And when he says, purge the evil person from among you, again, he doesn't mean exclude them from your public services, as some churches think and have practiced. He means don't count them as an insider to the church, count them as an outsider to the church, outside of the membership, even if they're inside the public meetings. so that you know that your job towards them is not necessarily edification, it's evangelism. Treat them as an unbeliever and calibrate your conversation with them accordingly. So the possibility of exclusion from the church implies that there is a way of being clearly included or counted as being in the church. You can't exclude someone from a delimited or undefined group. Somehow the local church in Corinth had a way of knowing who was in and who was out and Paul wanted the church to be publicly agreed on who was in and who was out at any given time. See the same thing in the same case probably the same discipline case in Paul's next letter to the Corinthians 2nd Corinthians 2 3. Presumably talking about the same sinning brother who has now repented who they've now restored and he's ready to be brought back into the church. Paul says in a very interesting little comment he says the punishment inflicted on him by the majority is enough. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority. Now, even in Greek, that's a mathematical term. And so the question is, the majority of what? The majority of what? The Greek word translated majority is pleionone, which is, again, a mathematical, quantitative word. To know that you have a majority, you have to know the full and exact number. You can't know whether or not you have an accurate majority if you don't have an accurate idea of the whole number. So somehow, again, the church in Corinth was keeping an accurate, ongoing record of the full number of the individuals that made up their local church. Fourth reason, fourth biblical warrant for local church membership, the church in Jerusalem distinguished between members and non-members, apparently. Again, it seems to be an implication, but it seems to be there. Acts 2.41, Acts 2.41, so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Added, another mathematical term, added to what? And again, those who received the word were not just baptized, they were also added to an already existing known number. Which is, again, apparently known among the early church. So if you were baptized, you were also added. There was no category for a baptized person who was not also added to the number of the first local church in Jerusalem. And we see the same kind of implication again later in Acts 4, verse 4. Acts 4, 4. After Peter's arrested for his second sermon, the text says the number of the men came to about 5,000. So the early church had some way of keeping track of their numbers and updating them. Fifth reason, Paul assumes that the Corinthians know when their whole church is present in 1 Corinthians 14, 23. Paul assumes that the Corinthians know when their whole church is present in 1 Corinthians 14, 23. If therefore the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, distinction between insiders and outsiders, will they not say that you are out of your minds? So again, Paul distinguishes between the whole church and part of the church, and he distinguishes between outsiders or unbelievers. So there's a way of knowing when the whole church is present because the word whole assumes a definite known number. And there's a way of distinguishing the whole church from outsiders or unbelievers. 1 Corinthians 14, 23. Sixth reason, the corporate metaphors for the church assume that the corporate whole is made up of known individuals. The corporate metaphors of the church all assume that the corporate whole is made up of known individuals. The church in the New Testament is known variously as a flock, or as a temple, or a vine, or a household. Now, sheep are supposed to be in a flock, right? You know, we just heard someone say, you know, there are, you know, all these Christians are finding ways to draw near to God apart from the local church They're getting their spiritual nourishment from you know sermons online or videos or a few couple friends or those kind of things But if but if word sheep if the Bible talks about us as sheep Is it good for a sheep to be alone looking for a grass anywhere? He can find it on any Green Hill That's safe for a sheep No shepherd thinks that that shape for a sheep It's dangerous for a lone sheep to be walking around trying to find a green patch wherever he might find himself. And it's irresponsible, actually, for a shepherd to not know which sheep belong under his care. If you talk to a first century shepherd and you looked out into the field and you said, which ones are your sheep? And he said, I think, let's see, I think that one and maybe that one, but I'm pretty sure that one's not. I think that's this other guy's sheep. But this one I think is mine. He wouldn't have his job very long. You knew which sheep you had as an ancient Near Eastern shepherd. You knew exactly which ones you had and were responsible for. Living stones, again, are made to join together into one temple in 1 Peter 2. Listen to Charles Spurgeon on this one. Charles Spurgeon, late 1800s, talking to people in London. He says, I know that there are some who say, well, I've given myself to the Lord, but I don't intend to give myself to any church. And I say, no, why not? And they answer, because I can be just as good a Christian without it. And I say, are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord's command as by being obedient? 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 the house. Actually, it's a good-for-nothing brick, Spurgeon says. And then he says, so you rolling stone Christians, I don't believe that you're answering the purpose for which God has saved you. You're living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live. And you are much to blame for the injury that you do. So Spurgeon thought, well, if you're a Christian, you better be a member of a local church because you're a living stone and you're doing no good floating around on a construction site somewhere all by yourself. You belong in a wall, friend. You are supposed to be part of a load-bearing wall. Get into one. Because if you don't, you're an extra brick on a construction site, laying around, doing nothing. That's not the purpose for which Christ called you to Him. He's building a temple for Himself to dwell in. Don't you want to be part of that? Again, multiple body parts make up a corporate body in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Multiple family members make up a single household in Ephesians 2 and 1 Timothy 3.15. Eric Lane, I don't know why this book fell out of print. Eric Lane, in his old little book, Members of One Another, I think it was put out in the 60s, says, quote, A family which sat down to its meal table or locked its doors at night, not knowing who was supposed to be there and who not, would be an extremely strange phenomenon. If the church is to be a true family, it needs to know who exactly belongs to it. Christian man? Father? What kind of dad would you be if you didn't know who belonged in your house or at your table? Next, the covenantal nature of Jesus' love for the church is answered in the covenantal love of the local church membership. Covenantal nature of Jesus' love for the local church is answered in the covenant of local church membership. Ephesians 5, 25 and following. Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Upshot Jesus marries the church. He is committed to her. Jesus is a monogamist. So husband, remember when you proposed to your wife? You remember that day? The sweet day, wasn't it? You remember. What made it sweet? It's sweet because she said yes. But what if you asked your wife over and over again for 25 and 35 and 45 years, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife? And what if she said for 15 and 25 and 35 and 45 years, oh honey, why do we have to formalize it? We love each other. Let's just move in together and be common law. How would that make you feel? What would that make you ask? Back of your mind, you'd be asking before 15 years, why is she holding out on me? She's not reciprocating my commitment. She's not reciprocating my love. Why is she keeping her options open? What is she afraid of? Why won't she commit to me? Jesus is a husband. And he has committed to the church. And will you not commit to him? Or will you let your commitment to him be minimal? He died for you, Christian. He died for the church. And will you allow your commitment to the local church to be, ah, however little I can get away with attending, however little I can get away with serving, However little I can get away with giving of myself to these other members here in these other chairs That will be what I will be content with Oh Christian Jesus shed his very blood for these people Will you hold yourself aloof from them Will you distance yourself from them The Risen Christ said to Paul in Acts 9 for Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He identifies that closely with the church. And Christian man, let's go back to our little example. What if you didn't just ask over and over and over, but what if you had shed your blood? What if you had taken a bullet for the woman who sits next to you and still she wouldn't marry you? What if you had shed your blood? How would you take her refusal then? How would you take her noncommittal then? Luke 22 20. This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus cut a marriage covenant with the church in his own blood and baptism and local church membership is how you say yes to Jesus. It's how you publicly commit to Jesus and visibly identify yourself as part of his corporate bride. Baptism and local church membership says to the world and to Jesus, I am off the market. No one else can marry me now. I'm committed to Jesus and his people. I'm part of his bride. I'm part of his church. I don't want to keep my options open. There is no other husband for me. I've lost count because I foolishly lettered these warrants rather than numbered them in my own notes. So I'm on H now, whatever number H is. I'm a poor mathematician. The one and others of the Christian life imply visible church membership. The one and others of the Christian life imply visible church membership. The identifying law of Christ's kingdom is love to one another. Remember when Jesus said, John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment, I give you to love one another. And he says the world by this, the world will know that you are my disciples, by the way that you love one another. By the way that you love one another. And we've already seen that the way Jesus loves us is a committed love and a self-sacrificing love. Not a keep my my options open kind of love. And in order that this love may be more perfect in its exercise, John Angle James says, we are united in visible communion. When therefore we join a Christian church, we enter a society of believers for the purpose of giving and receiving every suitable expression of mutual love. See, that's what makes the local church the sweetest place on earth. It's a place of mutually committed love. But again that back to this one another idea the local church and local church membership helps you to know who are my closest one another's who are my one another's. And how will you decide if you don't join the membership of a local church. I mean are you someone else's one another. How will they know if you don't join. And notice that every single Christian, every church member, is supposed to be doing this one-anothering. I mean, look at the end of almost all of Paul's epistles. They're full of this one-anothering stuff, and they're not just to the pastor or to the elders of the church. They're to the whole church. Love one another. Bear one another's burdens. You know, the 80-20 rule, everybody knows the 80-20 rule. That rule should never apply in a local church. Never. It's never OK for 20% of the people to do 80% of the work. That is never acceptable. And it should not be acceptable to any member of any local church. You should never be content with that. If you see 20% of the people doing 80% of the work in a local church, you shouldn't just say, oh, well, you know, that's a good 80-20 rule. I don't ever want to see any of us doing that. I want to see us saying, hey, this person isn't serving. This person doesn't seem to have anything to do. This person doesn't seem to have any meaningful relationships. Let's enfold them. Let's give them something to do. Let's disciple them. Let's help them grow in Christian faithfulness and their love for this particular local church. But let's not be, well, there you go, 80-20. No, that's not the local church. The local church is full of a bunch of one another's doing a whole bunch of one anothering and loving it. And even when they're not loving it, they're faithful in doing it because they know this is Jesus' bride. And I am part of her. And I love Jesus. And Jesus is committed to the church. And so I'm going to be committed to the church, too, even though it costs me my life. Because it costs Jesus his life. I brought this little book up with me. I don't usually do this, but this is Wayne Mack's little book, To Be or Not to Be a Church Member. That is the question. Great little title. I did not know about this book. This was printed out in 2004. I didn't know about it until a couple weeks ago, and I immediately bought it when I saw it on Amazon. You can get it on Amazon.com for like, I don't know, ten bucks or something. It's well worth it, and he has a little section. He's a pastor of a local church, and he has a section in here called, Do You Want a Ministry? And it's a little handout in his own church. So I'm going to go through a couple things of one-anothering. This is how he encourages people in his church to do one-anothering. I wanted this to be a handout, but we just didn't get around to it. What are three physical needs that I can meet in this church? What are four spiritual needs that I can meet in this church? Who can I pray for? What spiritual need can I pray for them about? What needs are there in the church that I can pray for? What can I do to help my children or other children understand the gospel? What do my children need to learn about God, and how could I teach them? With whom could I share the gospel this week? What person in my church can I call and encourage this week? Great question. Who can I invite over for dinner, for a meal, for fellowship and spiritual enrichment? Another wonderful question. Are there new visitors coming to my church to whom I can reach out and make them feel welcome? Another great question. Who can I write a note or letter for spiritual encouragement to this week? What missionary that my church supports should I pray for and perhaps send a letter to or gift to this week? What special ministry need is there in the church that I can fulfill? What training for ministry opportunities is going on in my church of which I could take advantage? Who could I serve by giving a Christian book, booklet, or tape of my pastor's sermons? Who could I invite out to the services of the church? What needs are there among the people in my neighborhood or at my place of employment that I could meet as a representative of my church? And he has three or four more. Great, great questions to ask yourself. And notice, none of those things needs to be formalized in the church. You don't need a program to ask or answer any of those questions. Just do it. Ask yourself the question. Ask the Lord, who can I serve? Who can I encourage? Who can I pray for? How can I learn? How can I grow in my own ministry competence? How can I be trained? Who can I ask to train me? And then go ask. Go do. Go write. Go pray. Go relate. Do it. Don't wait for a program. Next reason, next biblical warrant for local church membership, the accountability of the elders for the sheep assumes that the elders know which Christians God expects them to oversee in Hebrews 13, 17. So this is Hebrews 13, 17. I'll say it again. The accountability of the elders to God for the sheep assumes that the elders know which Christians God expects them to oversee in Hebrews 13, 17. So here's Hebrews 13 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. Now listen to how the author of Hebrews puts that obey whose leaders your leaders not someone else's leaders. Not all the Christian leaders that you know in other churches you obey your leaders you're not called to obey the leaders of the church down the street. You're called to obey the leaders of your church which assumes that everybody knows which church you're a part of and who the leaders of that church are right. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. Not the souls of the church down the street. They're keeping watch over your souls because you, Christian, have volunteered yourself for membership in this local church. You have come as a sheep to the shepherds of this local congregation and said, shepherds, would you oversee my soul? Because I need help. I know I'm a sheep. And I need to be in a flock. And this seems like a good one. So will you oversee my soul? And the shepherds of that local church said, yes, we'll be glad to oversee your soul. Welcome to the flock. Come on in. We're going to care for you. And Peter, now again, that Hebrew text says, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Give an account to who? To God, Christian. To God. on Judgment Day. On Judgment Day, I am preparing to give an answer for how I shepherded your souls in God's Word. That's no light thing. It's a weighty responsibility. And Christians ought to respect that responsibility of any pastor whose church they attend and to make it clear elders, shepherds, pastor. I want to be one of the sheep that you will be somehow held accountable for, even though we will all stand alone on the Day of Judgment. In one sense, God is going to ask me, how did you do with the sheep that I gave you as an under shepherd? And I will have to give an account for that. And I'm assuming I will account for specific souls, not just a general gaggle. of undefined sheep. So please respect that. In any church that you attend, make sure that they know whether or not you are a member, because it matters, according to Hebrews 13, 17, from the leader's perspective. Peter himself also assumes that the elders know which sheep are under their care in 1 Peter 5, 2-3. 1 Peter 5, 2-3, Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. So again, we're shepherds not over the whole flock and the whole world, but over the specific flock that is among you personally. And the phrase, those in your charge, is literally the allotments of the inheritances in Greek. And so these are specific sheep that have been expressly allotted to you by the great shepherd himself. We could also look at First Thessalonians 5 verses 12 and 13. First Thessalonians 5 12 and 13. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and who admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. So again there's a recognition Respect those who labor among you. Among you. And are over you in the Lord. There's a specific authority used for your good in love. Over you in the Lord. That assumes the clarity of the relationship between the elders and the congregation. Last biblical warrant for local church membership is the nature of the universal church actually requires local church membership. The nature of the universal church actually requires local church membership. It is the duty of Christians. Eric Lane says, to attempt to make the boundaries of the invisible church coincide as far as possible with the boundaries of the visible church, meaning that none who is unregenerate, unsaved, should be admitted to membership in the visible church, and all who are regenerate should be enrolled as members of the visible church. In other words, look, if you're a Christian, you should care that non-Christians have some inkling of who's in the invisible church and who's not. How are they going to know that if you don't join one, a local church? Your local church membership is the visible expression of your invisible membership in the invisible church, which begs the question, why would you want to let your membership in the invisible church remain invisible? What are you hiding? Again, Eric Lane says, to remain outside the visible church implies that one wishes to be regarded outside the church and even outside Christ. A person who seeks church membership is declaring himself to be a Christian. One who withholds is virtually denying that he is a Christian. You see, there's an inseparable relationship between the visible church and the invisible church, the universal and the local. If you're a part of the universal church, you ought to be part of the local church or else your universal church membership Apparently means nothing to you or it's at least not meaningful enough to make visible. John Engle James agrees fellowship or membership is the instituted way of making a public profession of faith and hope in the gospel after baptism. Until a man has connected himself with the Christian Church, he is not considered either by its members or the public as one of their number and has not professed himself to be a Christian. It is by that act that he declares to the world his faith and hope as a believer in Christ. Think about it this way. Your co-workers, your friends at school, your neighbors, all the unbelievers in your life should somehow understand that guy is not of the world. He's not like me. He is of the kingdom of God. Now they're not going to be able to articulate it that way obviously but there's the kingdom of Satan and there's the kingdom of God. Invisible church membership shows people which kingdom you're in because without it nobody knows. You could just be a good moral pagan for all they know or a good moral religious person. You may not be a Christian. So these are then the biblical reasons that Hezekiah Harvey wrote in 1879 that every believer in Christ is under obligation if providence permits to unite with the local church since it is an institution ordained by him and neglect of it is dishonor put on him. You see how he's reasoning look if Jesus is building his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. What does it say when you refuse to join a local church. It says, I don't really care that Jesus is building his church or that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. As each church has ordinarily its own special field or geographic kind of reach, it is entitled to the, strong word, it is entitled to the membership of all believers who live within its natural boundaries unless either providential disability prevents a public profession or special reasons exist for membership elsewhere. A church may not enforce this right by discipline or penalties, in other words, A church can't go out and put somebody in prison for that or put them under church discipline. But it is evidently an obligation which the believer is under obligation to respect. It's a good way to put it. Now, in the very little time that we have left, I want to just very, very quickly apply what we've just been studying. How does meaningful local church membership work itself out? So this is the fourth point of my outline. the biblical qualifications for local church membership. Biblical qualifications for local church membership. I think it's the fourth. Maybe I remembered them wrong. I did. It's the third. Sorry. Third. Biblical qualifications. Just very quickly. I'm just going to list these. A credible confession of faith. Credible confession of faith. It's not really enough for you to say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian. Take my word for it. That was enough in Acts. You'll hear a lot of people object to the requirement of a credible confession of faith because they'll say, well, they didn't do that in Acts. They just said, well, three thousand were added that very day. They didn't take their testimony. They didn't wait for fruit of repentance or faith in Christ. They just said, boom, you're in. Well, it's different today, isn't it? You know, it's different because there's lots of Christians claiming to be Christians today that aren't really Christians. They don't show any fruit and the culture has changed. I mean, back then, If you claim to be a Christian you're basically saying I don't think Judaism is enough in a Jewish culture. Bad news. You were asking for persecution and you were going against the cult of the emperor. You weren't going to worship the Roman emperor like everybody thought he should be worshiped. So just to say you were a Christian was actually to endanger your own life. That's not true today. The gospel has been watered down. What it means to be a Christian has become very confused over the past 2000 years and so it is now right and wise and good for us as a church to require people to give us not just a confession of faith but a credible confession to ask gently but firmly look at any fruits in your life that we can see that make us think that you are really what you say you are that you're not deceiving yourself because we want to love you enough so that you don't remain deceived if in fact you might be deceived. So credible confession of faith, baptism as a believer, first requirement of discipleship to Jesus is part of making disciples and so it's part of becoming a disciple in Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the Great Commission. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you. So if it's part of becoming If it's part of making disciples, it's part of becoming a disciple itself. And then a covenant commitment to the church's doctrine and practice. That's why we have a statement of faith in a church covenant. A statement of faith tells us how we've committed to believe in doctrine. A church covenant tells us how we're committing to live. So those are the biblical qualifications for local church membership. Next for the practical benefits of local church membership insurance of salvation. I've heard one pastor say that local church membership is like an assurance of salvation cooperative. It's a good way to put it. We're all coming together paying attention to each other's lives and making sure that none of us are deceived spiritually into thinking that we're something that we're not spiritually. Now that can sound intimidating because it does mean that you have to let people into your life. You have to confess your sins to each other. That's one of the one another's confess your sins one to another. That can sound really intimidating. We're not saying that you have to get up and do that in front of everybody but there should be at least one person in the congregation that you're confessing your sins to consistently. So assurance of salvation. Proverbs 18 1 whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment. Membership says we're offering ourselves to the elders and to the congregation to hold us accountable for the commitments We've made in doctrine and in practice friends We know our own weakness you ought to know by now your own weakness as a Christian You are not sufficient in and of yourself to live the Christian life or to understand what's going on in yourself emotionally spiritually Your heart wants to deceive you and it's good at it We know how easily our hearts can deceive us, so we need the eyes of the whole congregation and the elders to watch over us and tell us if we begin to drift from the truth. Other benefits of local church membership help in bearing our burdens and sorrows. Equipment for ministry in Ephesians 4, concrete others to one another with, and of course the display of God's glory in Ephesians 3.10. Jesus, believe it or not, God is displaying his glory in local churches all over the world by the love, the committed love, that we show for one another. And we want to be a part of that, and that's a benefit. Fifth, the practical responsibilities of local church membership. I'm going to give you a book that describes these things by Thabiti Anibwele called What is a Healthy Church Member? Some of you may have it, some of you may not. If you don't have one, I want you to have one, and I want you to read it this week or next week. It's a very helpful book that tells us what it looks like to be a mature expression of a local church member. So practical responsibilities. Attend. We should be all attending. Eric Lane suggests, among other questions that a prospective new member ought to be asked even publicly, is this. Do you promise to make the meetings of the church a priority, especially the Lord's Supper, the services for public worship and preaching, the meetings for prayer, and the business meetings? Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances, but the worship and prayer meetings of a local church ought to be a priority for every member of every local church. It ought to be a priority. So attend, pray, pray for the corporate holiness and spiritual growth of the church, pray for the other members by name. We should all be praying for each other. Pursue relationships. Look for people to encourage. Work at knowing others and being known by them. Don't be content to just show up and leave, show up and leave, show up and leave, week after week after week after week. Don't do that. Relate. Pursue. And many of you are doing an excellent job of that. I would commend many of you. You have exercised hospitality. You've been in each other's homes. You know each other's needs. I would commend you for that. And then provide. You should serve and give. Come to church, not just as a consumer, but as a provider. Look for needs and meet them. Make a line item in your family budget to contribute to the ministry and support and ordinances of the church. And give off the top of your income, not off of what's left over. Because Jesus deserves that. Okay, time to conclude. And we conclude with the Christian priority of local church membership. You know, we could all believe all these things. We could all kind of give mental assent to them and say, yes, yes, that's what it means to be a part of a local church. That's what I believe. And yet membership in Grace Covenant Church could still be meaningless because what makes membership meaningful is when the members prioritize it. I could preach on membership again for the next four Sundays. I've probably got enough material to do it. But it wouldn't matter if you don't prioritize local church membership and its requirements and responsibilities and privileges in your own life. That's what makes it meaningful. And it should be a priority that organizes your other priorities. So when the church holds a service, you attend. You support the initiatives of the church. You display a willingness to sacrifice other good priorities in order to participate in what God is doing as he's building this particular local church, even when it's not convenient. That's not to say that you don't have other good things to do outside the local church. Of course you do. But the way you prioritize those things, the church ought to be at the top of the list. If church membership is really going to mean anything. See, membership is not meaningful if Every other priority in your life trumps the local church, right? Or when you try to give membership as low a priority as the other members of the church will allow you to give it, that's not meaningful membership. What makes membership meaningful is the willingness of all the members to voluntarily sacrifice their own time and energy and resources in order to attend and participate and pray and give for the corporate good and growth of their own local church. See, the local church is supposed to be more than a preaching point, more than two hours when we hear the same sermon and sing the same songs every week. John Angle James said, we are not only to worship with them in the same place, not only to sit with them at the Lord's Supper, but we are to consider ourselves as one of their fellowship, to identify our best feelings with theirs, and in all things to consider ourselves members one of another. So I would encourage you, build your weekly life around a local church and not vice versa. View yourself as a living stone in the temple, a sheep in the flock, a part of the body, a member of the household, a household that doesn't want to get along without you. We don't want to have family devotions when you're not here. We don't want to pray when you're not here. We don't want to preach when you're not here. We want you in the house. Don't be a rolling stone Christian and don't let membership at Grace Covenant Church Become meaningless. Make your membership meaningful. Prioritize it. Prioritize it. Let's pray together. Oh Father, we are so proud. Every one of us is proud. because every one of us grates against this idea of accountability and membership in something bigger than ourselves. It sounds so good to be part of something bigger than ourselves until we really are part of something bigger than ourselves, and then we complain about how small it makes us feel, and how inconvenient it is, and how it messes up other parts of our lives. Well, we've all done this. We've all thought this way. We've all privately complained. We've all been Israelites, wishing we were back in Egypt with the freedom to do what we want, at least to eat what we want. To be like the Egyptians still seems attractive to us. Oh Lord, forgive us. We know the weakness of our own hearts. We know that we cannot live the Christian life alone. And so we pray, oh Lord, soften each of our hearts to the sweetness and accountability and fellowship of the local church. Help us to love it as you love it. Help us to give ourselves to it as you have. Help us to respond to the committed love of Jesus Christ by committing ourselves to a local church and to the life of the local church. We pray that as we do, you would open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessing on us as we have never known, and that we would enjoy the mystery of life in Christ and fellowship in the local church. Do this for our joy in you, we pray, and your glory among us as your love Your committed, self-sacrificing love is displayed and reflected and emulated and imitated over and over again a thousand times, a thousand times in our church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.