This morning we are going to continue in our series about the church.  My hope is that by the end of the series you will look at the church differently than perhaps you have ever done before.

Last week, it was my intention to draw you away from the building, which is what most people consider a church, and instead teach you what a church actually is.  If you remember we said the word church comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which means assembly.

Therefore we concluded that we, the people, the local assembly of believers gathered here in this place is the local church.  

We also discussed how the church is built.  We believe that the church has a foundation, a cornerstone, who is Jesus Christ.  This cornerstone provides for our salvation, and it is the point by which we base everything else in our lives off of.  

Last week, we were also reminded that we cannot lay a different cornerstone and inherit eternal life as is the teachings of another church.  A church that believes that salvation can be had by means of membership into the local church through the door of baptism.  That is a catholic teaching, but it is not our teaching, nor is it biblically accurate.

If you missed any part of that sermon last week, as a reminder I would invite you to go onto the church's website and there you will fine last week's message and notes in their entirety.

This morning, we are going to continue in our series by talking about membership.  As I was pondering this sermon all week, it occurred to me that we have had a lot of wedding Anniversaries recently.

So let me begin by asking, which couples celebrated an anniversary in May, June or July?  Can I see your hands?  How many years have you been married?

Was that so long ago that you do not remember your wedding day?  

Do you remember being at the front of the church, with every eye looking at you... as the Preacher asked you a question... like:

"_______, wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband to live together after God's ordinance in the Holy Estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love him? Comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others keep thee only unto him as long as you both shall live?"

Did you then give him a sign of your pledge to him, like with a ring?

Tell me honestly, I won’t tell anyone else, was there ever a day, even just one day, where you thought… this day might be our last day together?  Have you had any day where you doubted the longevity of your marriage?

Why did you stick it out?  

Was it the promise that you made before God, and all those witnesses?

I have only been married for 13 years, and I have had a day like that… A day where I thought, this marriage is not going to make it.

In some ways, we can treat marriage like a contract.  If you do your part, I will do my part, and as long as we both are doing it, than we are in agreement and can move forward.  

Funny thing about a contract though… if one fails to do their part, like if I fail to pay my car loan, the bank says, “This relationship is over, we are taking the car back!”

Quite recently I was coaching a married couple, and the wife says, “If he does not get a job, it’s over!”

But a Godly marriage is not like a contract, it is a covenant.  It is a promise to the other person that I will be there for you in your health and in your sickness.  I will not leave you.  A covenant is made for the other person’s benefit, not your benefit.

Let me provide you with an example, if I said a Bible word, like, “rainbow,” what do you think of?  

How about the covenant God made with Noah that he will never again destroy the earth.  Now why did God PROMISE that?  He could have just not said anything…

Yet he did, and  it was for Noah’s benefit, to give him peace, was it not?  The rainbow was a sign of the covenant made by God to Noah and all humanity.

Here’s another example, the Lord’s supper.  Christ said of the cup, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

Through Christ’s blood we receive pardon and righteousness, peace and reconciliation, and entrance into heaven.  The covenant was given for us.  We are the benefactors of the covenant he made to us.  

We did not earn it, we did not deserve it, he just gave it, because he loved us.

Why do I bring all this up?

Church, in the time we have left I am going to talk to you about the Biblical basis for one of our core beliefs as Baptists, that of membership.  But it occurred to me... that it is foolish and unwise to talk about membership without first acknowledging our covenant relationship to each other.

You see, if we are not committed to each other, like Christ is to us, than church membership is, really worthless.  It may as well be considered a contract that can be terminated as soon as we don’t get what we were hoping for.  

To this point, I came across a Doonesbury comic strip that might illustrate this better... one would think a comic strip would be funny, but he uses the strip as a portrayal of today's church.

In the comic strip there is: The parish rector of the Little Church of Walden, and he is discussing the focus of his church with a prospective couple.

The Pastor asks, "So what would you like to know about Little Church of Walden, folks? Don't hold back--I know how difficult it can be to choose a church."

The interested husband responds, "well, what's your basic approach here, Reverend? Is it traditional gospel?"

"In a way, I like to describe it as a 12-step Christianity. . . . Basically, I believe that we're all recovering sinners. My ministry is about overcoming denial, it's about re-commitment, about redemption…. It's all in the brochure there."

The pastor's response stimulates the wife's interest, and she queries, "Wait a minute --sinners? Redemption? Doesn't all that imply . . . Guilt?"

To which the pastor responds, "Well, yes, I do rely on the occasional dis-incentives to keep the flock from going astray. Guilt's part of that!"

The husband responds, "I dunno. there's so much negativity in the world as it is." And his wife chimes in, "That's right. We're looking for a church that's supportive, a place where we can feel good about ourselves. I'm not sure this guilt thing works for us."

The husband then observes the pamphlet in his hand, "On the other hand, you do offer racquetball . . ."

To which his wife responds, "So did the Unitarians, honey. Let's Shop around some more."
[Gary B Trudeau, Doonsbury. Universal Press Syndicated, 1993]

There are many points we could discuss off of that comic but to stay on point, what is the couple looking for in a church?  

Are they focused on learning the truths of God’s word and how they can impact the world around them, what can I do?  Or are they focused on themselves... and what they gain from their membership? That is the main difference.  

You see, Christ made a covenant to you and to me, not a contact, and we receive all the blessings of that promised relationship.

In the same respect, we enter into a covenant together, and... there are mutual blessings for sure... but we need to be a committed people, first to God, and then to the other person, what can I do for you?

That is why as a Baptist church, we believe in a Saved, Baptized Church Membership - in other words, the local church membership is restricted to individuals who give a believable testimony of personal faith in Christ and have publicly identified themselves with Him in believer's baptism.

For when the members of a local church are believers, a oneness in Christ exists, and the members can endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Acts 2:41-47; 1 Corinthians 12:12; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 4:3.

You see a church must rely on the supernatural, the working of the Holy Spirit, to have peace and unity.  It cannot be done without him.  

Galatians 5:22-23 says:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Do any these things come naturally to an unsaved person?  No way.  

These things, like joy, patience, self-control come from the spirit.  Therefore we want to be joined with fellow Christ followers who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who have publicly declared their death to themselves by believers baptism.  It is the only way it will work.

Death to self, and alive unto Christ.

So, now that I have said all that, if you are a member of this church, let me read to you the church’s covenant, and you tell me what the focus is, you… or others.  This is what it says:

“Having received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and having been baptized on the basis of my profession of faith in Christ, and being in agreement with the Declaration of Faith and with the purpose and lifestyle statements of the First Baptist Church of Interlaken, NY, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with this church family.  In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members to do the following:

I will protect the unity of my church, by acting in love towards other members, by refusing to gossip, and by following the leaders.

I will share the responsibility of my church, by praying for its growth, by inviting the unchurched to attend, and by warmly welcoming those who visit.

I will serve the ministry of my church, by discovering my gifts and talents, by being equipped to serve BY my pastor, and by developing a servant’s heart.

I will support the testimony of my church, by attending faithfully, by living a godly life, and by giving regularly.”

That is our covenant… how much of it was focused on what you get out of it?

You see our promise is to each other.  A covenant based on our steadfast love for God and to our fellow believers.

Now… the question comes… Is membership in a local church biblical?  Can I not be saved, be baptized and not become a member of a local assembly?  Could I not do that?  Sure, you could.  

But, I don’t believe you will be living in obedience to the entire word of God.  You would have to omit a large portion of scripture because it would not apply to that kind of isolated christianity.

But, even as I say that, I do believe that there are times in our lives when membership is a matter of conscience.  There have been times in my life where I seriously had to pray about whether or not I should continue to be a member of my church.  It was not based on sin, but whether or not I was serving where I should be.

Choosing membership should be bathed in prayer, and until God gives you the peace that this is where he would have you, I would not become a member.  Sometimes becoming a member is just a matter of time.    

For example, I’ll give you a very generic example:  

If you were to move, you really need to visit other churches and pray... in order to find what church and what people God has called you to be with.  

And I can think of more examples, but none that we have time to teach to this morning.  

But I do believe that there are… hopefully… short periods of time, preferably months rather than years, where you have withdrawn your membership from a church in order to be where you know… in your heart… God has called you to be.

And some of these times it is just a matter of the heart.  If my parents took up their membership up here, it would be because they believe what we believe, but also because they want to be near their son, and give him encouragement.

But what I want to teach to this morning, is the sections of scripture that show where membership is implied in scripture.  I want you to be able to understand and have confidence in the fact that scripture teaches to… and desires you to be... a member of a body of believers.

At the same time, I wanted to reassure anyone here this morning that if membership has lost its appeal to you, you are not alone.  There are others who have battled with this question about membership as well.  

For that Reason, I wanted to give you an actual testimony of a man who battled through this process, and came to a resolution based on scripture.  

So this is Matt Chandler’s testimony, who was a pastor while dealing with his own doubts about it.

He writes: “I was 28 when I became the pastor of Highland Village First Baptist Church (now known as The Village Church, a big church). I had had a rough go early on in my church experience, and at that time, I was not fully out of my “disenchanted with the local church” phase.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure at the time that church membership was biblical. Despite that, the Spirit had made it all too clear that I was going to be pastoring this small church in the suburbs of Dallas.

That was one of the many ironies of my life in those days.  Highland Village First Baptist Church was a “seeker-sensitive” church in the Willow Creek mold (that is a huge mega church in Chicago) and had no formal membership process, although they were actively working on one and wanted the new pastor’s input.

I had a strong understanding of the church universal but wasn’t well versed—and as I said, I was somewhat skeptical—about the church local. We started growing quickly with young and oftentimes disenchanted 20-somethings who usually had no church background or bad church backgrounds.

They liked The Village because we were “different.” This always struck me as strange because we weren’t doing anything but preaching and singing.

In conversations with these men and women, I began to hear things like, “The church is corrupt; it’s just about money and a pastor’s ego,” or “I love Jesus; it’s the church I have a problem with.”

My favorite one was, “When you organize the church, it loses its power.” Although something occasionally resonated in me with these comments (I, along with most of my generation, have authority and commitment issues), I found them confusing since they were being made to me by people who were attending the church where I was the pastor.” -end quote.

If you would like to see the whole testimony, you can get my message notes on the internet.  Just google First Baptist Church of Interlaken, and open the message for today's sermon and the notes will be there tomorrow.  There you will find the link:

http://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/151320-is-church-membership-biblical.html 

But Matt goes on to say that he found a biblical answer for membership. “What’s the bottom line?” he says, “Local church membership is a question of biblical obedience, not personal preference.”  In other words, it is necessary.  

These past few weeks I have been pouring over my books and I have also listened to many pastor’s preach about this topic as well, and what I found, is that the best way to explain this topic is just to slowly and methodically go over some scripture where membership is implied.

So all to say, the rest of my outline for today is much like Pastor Matt Chandler’s, much like Pastor David Platt’s, much like Pastor John Piper’s, and even Pastor Alister Beigg’s outlines.  So let me give them some credit for helping our study today as we begin today looking at membership in the Bible.

So… membership, is it biblical, and where is it implied in scripture?

Number one:  Church membership is implied by the local Ekklesia, the local assemblies, listed in the New Testament.

Think with me for a minute about how the New Testament is put together.  Many books in the NT are actually letters... and who are they written to?  To the local assemblies which were what we would consider or call local churches.

When Paul wrote the letters, he did not write to all people everywhere, or the universal church, but he wrote specifically to the church in Corinth, or in Thessalonica to deal with their specific issues inside their church.  



Number two:  Church membership is implied by the metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 beginning in verse 12 - which reads:

12 “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.

16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?”

IMPORTANT 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

The picture Paul is creating here for the church in Corinth, is that of a human body.  He is speaking about how we as believers have been joined together in a special connectedness… to operate and function like the human body would but for spiritual purposes.

He’s just using the simple illustration that if we were all feet, we would not be a healthy, organic, body of believers.  We’d be tripping all over ourselves… going in 10 different directions at the same time.

For example, what would happen if we were all teachers and yet there was no one who wanted to be taught?  Are we really teaching? No.

That is why Paul continues: 28 “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers,” and so on...

Likewise, you could flip the point over on it’s head and say, that if God wanted you to live independently from all other believers, would he not have given you all of the gifts?  Our limits show our need for joining ourselves into a body of believers who are different from us so that we can grow and serve effectively.



Third: Church membership is implied by the scriptures in regards to Elders and Leaders who will have to give an account.  Turn with me to Hebrews 13:17

17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

The obvious question needs to be asked, especially by the Elders and Pastors is, who is this specifically talking about?  Will I have to give an account for all the souls of the whole universal church?

Will I have to give an account for the souls in my community?  Like, will I have to give an account for the souls in the Interlaken Reformed church?  Do I have to be over there making sure they are growing in faith and being taken care of?

What about the visitors who come to worship but who are not members?  Am I responsible for them?  Who am I responsible for?  Am I accountable to pastor all churches everywhere, or just one?

1 Peter 5 “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”

When verse 2 reads, “shepherd the flock of God among you” that word flock is the Greek word - Poimnion (poym-nee-on) which means “little flock.”   The little flock that is in your care.  Your portion, your lot, your church, take care of those people who have been entrusted to you.  

Think of the symbolism in that culture.  They are very familiar with shepherding, and depending on how many sheep you have, should determine how many shepherds you need.  One man would not be able to manage or take care of thousands of sheep.  Therefore, 1 Peter uses the words little flock, for he knows that each man is responsible for what little flock he is able to manage.  



Fourth: membership is implied in our submission to leadership.  We read that in Hebrews 13:17 which said, “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.”

Think about that... as your pastor... I will have to give an account to the King for how I acted as your “under-shepherd.”  You are commanded to obey the leaders but the leadership will have to answer to the king...

Another verse would be 1 Thessalonians 5:12 “But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.”

So membership is implied by the need for us to submit to authority appropriately.  The very fact that scripture tells us to submit to our leaders means there must be a membership by which they are elected or called to oversee a local church.

Number five: church membership is implied by the fact that there is discipline mentioned in scripture.

Matthew 18:15

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, 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.”

If there is no local church membership, who do I tell it to?  Do I grab a couple guys off the street?  No, of course not.  

Scripture says if he refuses to listen to even the local church, let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector.  So there must be a line drawn somewhere between the lost and the membership of a local church.  

This is not to say we don’t love this brother, but if he is living in sin, than we are to not welcome his sin inside the church membership.

Finally number six, membership in a local church is implied because excommunication exists.  

1 Corinthians 5  

“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

Imagine a visitor walking in for the first time in our church, and the Elders walk up to him and say, we voted you out, you need to leave.  What would the visitor say?  Voted me out of what?  I just got here!  I am not even a member!

No, this is speaking to a member who is clearly living in opposition to the will of God… Paul says remove him from your midst!  

What is implied, is that as a church membership, as a body, according to verse 12...we judge the actions of those inside the church who call themselves members… and let God judge those who are outside the membership.

I personally think all of those six points clearly demonstrate that God intended us to live inside a membership, in the local church.  

And as we close, I just want to say again, from a humble heart, from me to you, that if you have been coming to the church for a while and you are not a member… that’s OK.  This message is about being reminded of our Baptist roots and is not intended to hound you about membership in any way.  

This church is looking to move forward into a future where members are committed to each other in love.

Church membership is a big deal.  It is a big commitment, but I also think it honors God when we choose to go all in, and join in a covenant relationship with a body of Christ followers.  I truly believe He will bless our lives as we live in that kind of obedience.

I think John 13:35 says it best...

35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

For those of you that are members of this church, who I will be held accountable for, I do want to remind you, that we need to be active, involved, and participating in our love to each other and in our love for the lost in our town.

If you have not, at the very least, been active in prayer, praying everyday for the souls in this building and in our community, it is time….begin today.

Let’s pray