The Local Church

Well friends, uh good morning.

As Rick said, my name is Rob, and it is a joy to be with you guys.

Um full disclosure, my family and I were coming off of vacation, and we had a wonderful time.

It was really sweet, and we would really love to be at our church, but if there was a second, it would be you guys.

So thank you very much for having us.

Uh the the other day I was I was watching TV and a commercial came on, and it was uh uh some credit union.

It was talking about all the perks about what it looks like to be part of this credit union, and then at the end, the logo flashed on the screen, and then the subtitle said Unlock the Power of Membership.

I was driving down State Route 23 over in Lewis Center, and uh a shop or a little plaza caught my eye, and I looked over to the right, and it was this place called the Ohio Golf Lounge.

Now, I know that I'm dressed somewhat like a golfer, but I'm not a very good golfer, even though I like golf.

This place caught my eye, and then right under the name of the Ohio Golf Lounge, right under it, it said a member's place.

We oftentimes as a family like to go to Costco.

It's one of my kids' favorite extracurricular activities is to go to Costco and get those little extra bits and pieces of sample food that they offer.

And every time we enter in, I have to pull out my Costco card and show them that I'm a member at Costco.

Pull out another credit card and it'll say that I've been a member since 2021.

When we stay at hotels, oftentimes they'll say, Thank you, Mr.

Kane, for being a Marriott Bonvoy member.

We're members at the Columbus Zoo, and on that card to get in, the biggest words on there are not Columbus Zoo.

The biggest words on that card are member in all caps.

Friends, are as human beings made in the image of God, we like to have a clearly defined in and out.

And most of us are fine with that until it comes to the local church.

At that point, we, if we're honest, we oftentimes begin to feel squeamish.

Think, why are we trying to have an in and out?

Isn't the gospel more inclusive than that?

Aren't we taking our cues from the world by doing that?

Doesn't that feel exclusive?

It's offensive.

It pushes against our own individual autonomy that we here in the West have grown to love and to cherish.

And friends, as we work through the sermon this morning, the various texts we're going to be looking at, what I want you to understand in just one brief sentence is this that if you are united to Jesus, you are called to unite yourself to his body.

If you are united to Jesus, then you are called to unite yourself to his body, the church.

Now there are three general camps when you talk about the local church and you talk about membership within the local church, and those three camps are one, membership, Rob, just that's not in the Bible.

Look at the early church, you don't see them keeping a spreadsheet of whose members and who isn't, is more organic.

Rob, membership is not in the Bible.

The second camp is a camp that would say membership might be in the Bible, but it's not necessary for Christians.

You know, if it's helpful for your discipleship, if you enjoy what you receive at that local gathering, then feel free to attend.

But you know, membership, it's not necessary.

Maybe it's there, but it certainly isn't necessary.

And then there's the third camp that would say membership is in the Bible and is therefore necessary for Christians.

Now, the rest of the sermon is going to be me unpacking and trying to make an argument for that third camp.

That membership is in the Bible and is therefore necessary for Christians.

And why, why, why in the world is this guy coming in to our church and talking about church membership?

He's not even a member here.

We went through a similar sermon at our church, and it ended up being uh, by God's grace, very edifying for those.

We're very like-minded church, as Rick said.

We we have the same statement of faith, similar constitution.

We do things very similarly.

It's a joy, it's a cozy, warm blanket for me to come and worship with you here at Proclamation Church because you look and feel so similar to Citizens Church.

And you might find yourself here today, you might be in between churches.

You know, maybe you're new here, you're checking it out.

Please do not hear me, a visitor here, saying you need to make your decision today and become a membership here at Proclamation Church today.

Not what I'm saying.

However, what I am saying is that whether it be here or whether it be another gospel preaching church, you do need to unite yourself.

However, that church understands it, you need to unite yourself to that body, to the body of Christ made visible there.

And so, with that, I want to give you three points, and we're gonna work through these.

The first one is that the Bible teaches membership.

Point one, the Bible teaches membership.

Now, friends, just full disclosure, we're gonna spend most of our time in point one.

So when we get most of the way through the sermon, and I say, okay, point two, don't freak out.

Most of our time is going to be in point one.

The second thing that I want us to see after the Bible teaches membership is that we I want us to see the responsibilities of membership.

The responsibilities of membership.

And then third, I want us to see the benefits of membership.

The benefits of membership.

Before talking about this with our church, uh a member at our church, a young PhD student at Ohio State, he came up to me and he said, he said, Rob, I'm so excited for us to talk about this.

Because it's kind of like the second Adam.

He's like, there's no verse that would say Jesus Christ is the second Adam.

He said, in your first reading through the Bible, you might not see that.

He said, but once you see it, you start to see it everywhere.

And it just makes sense.

He said, church membership's the same thing.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

And so, friends, I would encourage you this morning, keep your Bible open.

Our normal practice at our church is expositional preaching, which I know is the normal practice here at Proclamation as well.

We open up a passage of text and we systematically work through it, helping you see what the text says.

This morning, we're going to be jumping around to a lot of different texts, which is not my normal practice.

From my understanding, it's not yours either.

And if you want to do more study on this, I would encourage you, just read what Christians have confessed together for the last 2,000 years.

Look at some of their confessions of faith, whether that's the London Baptist Confession, or what the Presbyterians have put down in the Westminster, or what the Lutherans have said in the Augsburg Confession, or what the Anglicans have said in the 39 Articles, or the Congregationalists in the Savoy, or what the early church in that first and second century put together with the Didiche.

I would encourage you, just do your own research and look into those as well.

But for sake of time, we're going to stick with the scriptures this morning.

And so let me pray, and then we will jump into our sermon here.

Father, you are kind.

You are kind to redeem a people who frankly do not deserve redemption.

And God, we thank you.

We thank you that once we were not a people, but now we are a people.

Once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy.

Thank you for that great news.

Amen.

Okay, so first point, the Bible teaches membership.

Now, just to lay it out on the front end, we need to make sure that our definitions are we're all on the same page.

So the world defines membership as sort of a pay-to-play.

You know, I can't go to a gym unless I've paid for a membership, can't go into Costco unless we've paid for a membership, can't go to the zoo unless we've paid for that membership.

And I would just submit to you that the world's understanding of membership, and we look out and we see all the different examples, that's just a poor man's copy of the real thing.

The Bible defines membership as mutual devotion between an individual Christian and a visible church.

The individual Christian devotes himself or herself to a visible church, to a local assembly, to a fellowship.

And that's displayed by them submitting to the oversight that God has entrusted to that church, and engaging in the discipleship of the believers that are there.

So it's a submission to the oversight, submission to the elders and to the rest of the congregation, and it's a sub- and it's an engagement in the discipleship of the other believers that are at that church, being devoted to their discipleship.

And then just as the individual Christian devotes themselves to the visible church, the visible church then devotes themselves to that individual Christian.

They oversee that Christian's discipleship, which is exercised through care and protection.

Now, one commentator put it this way, he said that we recognize, this is what the church is doing.

He says, we recognize your profession of faith, your baptism, and discipleship to Christ as valid.

That's what the church is saying to the individual Christian.

When the church is devoting themselves to that individual Christian, the church is saying, we recognize your profession of faith, your baptism, and your discipleship to Christ as valid.

Therefore, we publicly affirm and acknowledge you before the nations as belonging to Christ, and we extend the oversight of our fellowship to you.

And in a similar way, the individual says to the church, Insofar as I recognize you as a faithful gospel-declaring church, I submit my presence and my discipleship to your love and oversight.

One pastor Michael Lawrence defined it this way.

So if you want a more robust definition of what devoting yourself to a local church is, what church membership is, I've tried to minimize it into two words, mutual devotion.

Michael Lawrence, here's a more robust definition.

He says that church membership is a covenantal, so there's a promise there, a covenantal relationship between baptized disciples of Jesus Christ in a particular location for the purpose of displaying the glory of God in the gospel.

I'll read that again.

A covenantal, church membership is a covenantal relationship between baptized disciples of Jesus Christ in a particular location for the purpose of displaying the glory of God in the gospel.

Okay.

Rob, you've said a lot there about church membership, local church membership, what it looks like to be an individual devoted to the church, and what the church looks like to devote themselves to the individual, but you haven't opened the Bible yet.

So let's do that.

Take your Bibles, if you would, and let's look at where we see this in the New Testament.

Let's first look at the foundation.

And so what I want you to do is turn to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And we're going to be looking at verses 13 through 20.

Now, this is a side note.

Jesus in the Gospels only uses the word church twice.

He only uses the word church twice.

And here in Matthew 16 is the first time that we see it.

So verse 13.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

And he said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Verse 19.

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

And so what we see right here in Matthew 16, the first time Jesus uses the word church, we see the church being formed or constituted.

Jesus is letting them know that there's going to be this organization called the church.

And it's going to be built on a right proclamation of who Christ is.

He asked, Who do people say that I am?

Simon responded, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus is the Messiah.

And that organization that Jesus said is going that he's going to build, the church, is going to be built on a right proclamation of who Jesus is.

Turn over a couple pages for me.

Matthew 18.

So in Matthew 16, we saw the church formed.

We saw the church constituted.

If you want three C's here, that's what I'm going to give you.

First, we're going to see the church constituted.

We see that with Matthew 16.

Now in Matthew 18, we see the church chartered or given authority.

Look with me in Matthew 18, starting in verse 15.

This is the church discipline passage.

And this is the second time that Jesus uses the word church.

Verse 15.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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.

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.

And so again, in this second passage where Jesus uses the word church, he uses another similar phrase.

If you're reading closely there, you probably caught it.

Bind and loose.

These are what theologians call the keys of the kingdom.

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 16.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom.

And these keys are the authority to bind and to loose.

We'll talk more about that later.

It's coming.

But I'm going to just put a pin on it right there.

But what he's saying is that you, this organization, the church, is going to act as an embassy of the kingdom of heaven.

Jonathan Lehman puts it this way.

He says, what is an embassy?

It's an institution that represents one nation inside another nation.

It declares its home nation's interest to the host nation, and it protects the citizens of the home nation living in the host nation.

Now, remember, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, you don't have to turn there, but Paul tells those in Corinth that you are ambassadors for Christ.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

An ambassador doesn't live in his home country, he's in a foreign country, representing his home country to that foreign country.

Friends, we are ambassadors for Christ.

We're citizens of the heavenly kingdom living in this kingdom, making known the king and rule, the ruler of all the earth, making known his interests to this kingdom.

We're representing the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of earth.

We are ambassadors for Christ, living in a foreign land.

However, that kingdom is made visible every week.

And the citizens of that kingdom gather to make the kingdom of heaven visible on earth.

As a Christian, when you show up here on a Sunday, what you're doing is you're making the kingdom of heaven visible.

When you move away, the first thing that you should do is show up to a local assembly, to a local embassy, and say, I am a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and I am showing up for duty.

I'm here reporting for duty.

I want to represent my king here.

That's whatever that looks like to unite to this embassy.

I want to do that.

I want to do it faithfully with one another.

Well, Rob, I am devoted to the kingdom of Christ, but I'm devoted to the universal church.

I don't think it's right to just devote yourself to one local assembly.

Well, friend, I would just submit to you that if you're unwilling to devote yourself to the Christians that God has placed around you in this season of your life, you're unwilling to devote yourself to them in the way that they understand what uniting to us looks like.

Each church that might look a little bit different, but if you're unwilling to devote yourself to the Christians that God has placed around you, then you should have very little confidence that you're going to be willing to devote yourself to Christians that are far from you.

God has placed Christians around you.

And He said, unite yourself to them.

Come together with them.

Represent me and my interest to the community around them.

Submit yourself to their leadership and let that church oversee your discipleship.

Engage in the discipleship with others who are there.

And so when Jesus charters the church in Matthew 18, he's Giving them authority.

He's giving them the keys of the kingdom, and he's saying, I'm giving you the authority to bind and to loose.

He said bind and loose in Matthew 16, and now he says it again in Matthew 18.

And what that means, that phrase bind and loose, it means that the final authority to unite someone to the visible body of Christ, the local church, or to loose someone from the visible body of Christ rests with that church, that visible body of Christ.

Now, Christ, we might get it wrong.

We might welcome someone into the church.

You might do that at proclamation, we might do that at citizens, other churches might do that, where we recognize, hey, you're, we think you're a Christian, so and you want to unite yourself to us, we're going to bring you in, and we might get that wrong.

Or in a negative sense, we might have to release somebody through church discipline, and we might get that wrong.

And so Christ can correct any wrong when he returns.

However, we are called in Matthew 7 to recognize other believers by their fruit.

And the way that we recognize them is by saying, yes, you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and we want to bring you in to our visible body, to the visible body of Christ.

And so in Matthew 16, we see the church constituted or formed.

In Matthew 18, Jesus gives the church the authority to remove somebody from their fellowship if their proclamation doesn't match their practice.

If they proclaim to be a Christian, but they are actually holding on to unrepentant sin.

Jesus gives them the authority in Matthew 18 to remove that person from the body.

But then in Matthew 28, if you would turn there, we're going to see that Jesus now commissions the church.

He gives that organization, the church, he gives them their marching orders.

Matthew 28, look at verse 16.

This is after Jesus' resurrection.

We read, now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

Verse 17.

And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

So Jesus says that you will glorify God by proclaiming the gospel and by making discipleship.

Disciples, excuse me.

Okay, Rob, we see that.

Matthew 16, Jesus forms this church.

He talks about the church.

Matthew 18, he gives them authority.

Matthew 28, he says, all authority ultimately is his.

And so he's giving them orders to go, make disciples, proclaim the gospel.

But where do we see this idea of membership?

Well, like a member at our church, Jack, who said that once you see it, it's really everywhere.

I would say that membership is all over the New Testament.

There's evidence of it all over the place.

If you were to come to our house, we have three kids.

If you were to come to our house, there might not be anybody at our house.

But there would be evidence of children.

You would notice that with the toys that are on the ground.

You would notice that with the way the rooms are decorated.

You would notice that with the food that's in our pantry.

Look, I love those little pouches that kids eat.

I enjoy those.

But we're not buying those if we don't have kids.

There's evidence of kids all over our house, even though you might not see them explicitly right there, similar to a tornado.

You hear about a town that is ravaged by a tornado, you could drive through that town and you might not see a tornado.

But there would be clear evidence that there was a tornado, similar to a fire.

There'd be evidence of a fire, even if you don't actually see the fire.

And so some of the evidence that we see in the New Testament that there is, in fact, this idea of church membership, the first and most obvious one is that there are 53 one-another commands in the New Testament, and it is just impossible to fulfill those one-another commands if we do not know who one another are.

Hebrews 13, 17 talks about submitting to the under-shepherds, to the pastors that God has placed over us.

It's impossible to do that outside of the context of a rightly ordered church.

There's not universal elders.

There's one universal elder, and that's Jesus Christ.

So when Hebrews 13 talks about submitting ourselves to the pastors that God has placed over us, we have to know who those pastors are.

Those pastors need to know who the congregation is.

But then also, so if we could look all over the New Testament, but I want us to hone in on Acts.

The book of Acts, where we see the early church.

So turn with me, if you would, to Acts.

Like I said, we're going to be flipping a lot.

So we're now in Acts, and I want to look at several passages there.

But something, as you're turning there, something to know about the book of Acts, and this is really important.

The book of Acts, you can almost divide it in two sections.

The first seven chapters, Acts 1 through 7, is, you could put that as the heading of local church context.

And then chapters 8 through 28 are more of a missions context.

After the church is persecuted and scattered, we now see the gospel going forward, churches being planted, people being baptized, brought into the church.

We see all of that taking place after Acts 8, verse 1.

Acts 8:1

So if you want to divide Acts in two sections, 1 through 7 is local church context, 8 through 28 is a missions context.

And what I want us to see as we look at this, and especially in these first seven verses, first seven chapters, is that the Jerusalem church kept a detailed record of who was in and who was out, of who their members were.

Look with me in Acts 1.15.

Acts chapter 1, verse 15.

Acts 1:15

In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers.

The company of persons was in all about 120.

How did they know that there were 120 people there?

Because somebody looked around, saw, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 15, 15.

There's about 120 of us here.

And they noted that there are about 120 followers of Jesus who are proclaiming a right proclamation of who Jesus is, like we saw in Matthew 16.

There's a right proclamation of who he is.

Go over just two verses later.

Verse 17.

For he, they're talking about Judas, was numbered among us.

So there's a number.

Judas was part of that.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 2, verse 41.

Acts 2:41

So remember there are about 120 of them.

Someone counted, recognized, okay, there's about 120 people rightly proclaiming Christ here in Jerusalem.

And then Pentecost happens.

Peter proclaims the gospel.

Thousands receive it.

They're baptized.

And then we read in verse 41.

So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Added to what?

Added to the 120.

How did that happen?

Through baptism.

They recognized who they were.

They said, okay, you do seem to be making the right profession of who Christ is.

Now we want to visibly affirm you by baptizing you and bringing you into the fellowship here.

How did they know that there were about 3,000 who were added?

Again, it's because they counted.

They recognized who was there.

Turn, you don't have to turn, just the next verse there, verse 42.

And they devoted themselves, so those who were added to that number, so that number was 120.

Now it's like 3,120, give or take.

And what we read about those thousands of people, what did they do?

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

We see in verses 42 through 47 a snapshot, real quick, just a snapshot, of what life looked like in the early church.

They devoted themselves to the teaching.

Which is interesting because in Matthew 28, when Jesus commissions them, tells them to make disciples, he says, you're to baptize them, teaching them, teaching them all that I have commanded.

And so they devoted themselves in Acts 2 to the teaching.

They also devoted themselves to the fellowship.

This is why Hebrews 10 talks about not forsaking the assembly.

Don't stop fellowshipping.

Don't stop coming together on the first day of the week.

They devoted themselves to the fellowship.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And then in verse 47, we read that they were praising God and having favor with all people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.

Turn with me to Acts 4.

Flip over just a page there, Acts 4.

And look at verse 4.

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000.

So now there's over 5,000 people there, because they're just counting men in that verse 4.

Now there's over 5,000.

Look at verse 32 in chapter 4.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own.

But they had everything in common.

This is the full number, whereas the New American Standard puts it, this is the congregation, those who were congregating, those who were coming together.

Acts 5, verse 12.

Acts 5:12

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together.

They were all congregated, they were all assembled together in Solomon's portico.

There's a clear number.

Who's a part of that number?

Who keeps getting added to that number?

And then they keep coming together.

They were all together in one place.

And then Acts 6, look at Acts 6.

Starting in verse 1.

Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the hellness arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

So that number was multiplying greatly.

And what they realized is that we, as we're growing, we're having some growing pains.

And so some in our number are not being well taken care of, so we need to call the full number together to figure out how we can do this.

They called a members' meeting.

And in light of figuring out what was going on, after coming up with a solution, we see chapter 6, verse 7, that the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

Friends, in the early church, there was a very clear in and out.

There's a very clear numbering of who is among us, who's proclaiming Christ with us, who's devoted to this fellowship.

1 Corinthians, if you turn there, Paul is talking to this church in Corinth, and they're experiencing all kinds of issues.

But Paul, he's trying to encourage them, and what he tells them, what he reminds them of in his encouragement, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 27, he says, now you, you, church in Corinth, he's not talking to the universal church here.

1 Corinthians 12:27

Remember, he's writing to the Christians in Corinth.

He says, you, Christians who are assembling together in Corinth, you are the body of Christ.

And individually, members of it.

Friends, just went through that marathon of verses.

But it's to show you that church membership, the idea of mutually devoting each other to mutually being devoted to one another is not a new idea.

The church has not borrowed this from corporate America to fuel growth or something silly like that.

It's been the practice of the church since it was formed to recognize who is a part of it and who is not.

Phrase that we say at our church often is that clarity is kindness.

To be clear about where an individual stands is you being kind to them.

And the early church clearly defined who was devoted to their fellowship.

And those who devoted to, those who were devoted to that fellowship, they were given responsibility.

Which leads us to our second point, the responsibility of membership.

Now remember, majority of our time in point one, these next two points will be quicker.

So what are the responsibilities of church membership?

Okay, Rob, you've gone through this.

We see it, there's a clear in and out, got it, you beaten that horse to death.

So what are we supposed to do now?

What are members of a church supposed to do?

First, they're to exercise the authority that was given to them by Jesus.

Now, these keys, they weren't given to individual Christians.

They're given to the church.

So when those individual Christians come together.

Similar to a courtroom, if you think of jurors, the jury, they get to make a proclamation about whether someone's guilty or innocent.

Those individual jurors have no authority on their own.

It's when they come together and make a decision together.

But Matthew 16 and 18 is talking about the binding and loosing.

Heaven's authority is being delegated to the apostles and the church to pronounce who the citizens of heaven are.

And the way they do that, here's what they're looking for.

And this is how we do it at our church.

I know this is how you guys do it at your church.

You sit down with the pastor, and what they're trying to look for are two things.

One, does this person rightly profess who Jesus is?

Do they understand the gospel?

They're looking for a right profession, just like Jesus was in Matthew 16.

And does their life reflect someone who is following Jesus?

Just like we saw in Matthew 18.

Where the profession should match their practice.

Now, we see an example of this take place in the New Testament, where, again, when Paul's writing to the church in Corinth, and if you read 1 Corinthians, you're just going to recognize there were all kinds of issues going on in Corinth.

One of them was that one of the members there was sleeping with his stepmom.

And Paul said, hey, this is not, his proclamation that he knows who Jesus is and that he's a follower of Jesus is not matching his practice.

Those two things are incongruent right now.

And so he tells the church that when they are assembled in Jesus' name, that they are to deliver this man to Satan.

Okay, so what does that mean?

Well, as you read scripture, you're going to find that there are often two kingdoms talked about, the kingdom of darkness, Satan's realm, and the kingdom of the sun, the kingdom of light.

For Paul, there is a clear boundary between those inside and those outside the church.

If you look in 1 Corinthians 5, you'll see that Paul tells them to remove the man.

He says in verse 12, for what have I to do with judging outsiders?

Is it not those inside the church who you are to judge?

God judges those outside, purge the evil person from among you.

So Paul is doing, he's saying, Look, you church, when you gather, make a right profession about who this individual is.

If his profession doesn't match his practice, then you need to, in love, no longer affirm him as a follower of Jesus.

So he has a clear understanding of where he stands.

Remember, clarity is kindness.

And then the good news about this is that we read later when in 2 Corinthians, Paul writes back to them, and it appears that this idea of church discipline, that it worked.

The man has repented.

And Paul said, You who let me just read it.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 6.

2 Corinthians 5:6

So he's talking about this man who they removed from the church.

He says, For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.

Verse 7.

So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.

Guys, you came together and you spoke accurately.

That his proclamation and his practice are incongruent, so you can no longer affirm him.

He has since repented, which is a sign of a believer.

And so Paul says, you who by the majority, and by the way, how how would they have known that there was a majority?

Because there was a clear number, and when they came together, I recognized that more than 50% agreed that we need to do this.

And he says, for you who by the majority removed him, now I beg you to bring him back in.

He's repented.

Reaffirm your love for him.

So friends, one of the things that you are to do as a member of the church is to rightly exercise the authority that Christ has given to you as a church.

That's why it's important to show up to members' meetings, to make decisions together.

Because this is what we see taking place in the New Testament.

The second thing that you're called to do, so the first is to exercise the keys rightly, to exercise the authority Christ has given you rightly.

The second thing is you're called to build up the body.

You're called to build up one another, to help each other follow Jesus, help each other to heaven.

We need one another.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about this.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

In verse 21, Paul is talking about members of the body, which is precisely why churches oftentimes use the word church membership, because Paul is using this illustration of being members of the body of Christ.

He says in verse 21, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again to the feet, I have no need of you.

And so if he's saying, if you individuals who are members of the body, you cannot say, I don't need other members of the body.

He's saying, therefore, you do need one another.

There is no category in the New Testament for a Christian who is isolated from other Christians.

We need one another to help each other get to heaven.

So the responsibilities of membership are to exercise the authority God's given you and do it rightly.

And two, to invest in one another, to build up the body.

Third, so first we saw the that the Bible teaches membership, and then we saw the responsibilities of membership, and now the third point, the benefits of membership.

So I want to offer three benefits very quickly.

First is discipleship.

When you devote yourself to a fellowship, what did they devote themselves to?

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

They devoted themselves to the scriptures, to what God has said through the apostles, which we have contained in God's Word.

And so when we come to church, what you should hear, which I've heard very much so this morning, and I've been encouraged by, is you should hear God's word.

You should be taught God's word.

And so when you become a member of a church, one of the benefits is that you are instructed in God's word.

The congregation has a responsibility now to instruct you and to help you walk with Jesus.

The pastors that God has given you have a responsibility because they're want to give an account for how they shepherded you and how they instructed you in the word.

Second benefit, so the first is discipleship and instruction.

The second benefit is assurance.

Friends, join a church.

That church needs to affirm you as a believer.

Again, remember they're looking for those two things.

Matthew 16, a right profession.

Matthew 18, that your life reflects that right profession.

And when there's an entire body of believers saying, we see your life.

We know you.

No, you're not doing it perfectly, but we see evidence of regeneration, that you're trying to follow Jesus.

And when you do fall flat on your face, you're repenting.

And when all those people continue to say, yes, you're one of us, that should give you great assurance.

One of the benefits of uniting yourself to a body.

There's discipleship, there's assurance.

And the third thing is that there's oversight.

There's protection and care.

They're overseeing your well-being.

Luke 15, we read about the the shepherd who had a hundred sheep and one of them went away.

He cared for that sheep.

He went after that sheep.

He protected that sheep from being on its own and brought it back.

Now it would be a sad story if we read Luke 15 about that sheep that went astray and if the shepherd rather than recognizing I have 100 sheep now I only count 99, the one must be off I need to go get it, if the shepherd just said, you know, maybe I only ever had 99.

End of story.

It'd be a sad story if that was the case, but he knows who is a part of the flock and so therefore when one is missing he knows to go after and to exercise oversight, protection and care and bring that one back.

Friends, if you are united to Jesus, you are called to unite yourself to his body the church.

Unite yourself to a local church.

Fulfill your responsibilities.

Devote yourself to the fellowship of the church and reflect Christ to the nations just like an embassy reflects their home nation to the host nation, you are called to reflect Christ to the community that God has placed you in.

You're called to reflect the love of God who even though you were dead in your sins and trespasses sent his son so that you may be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

You're called to reflect the mercy of God who even though we deserved punishment he was merciful to withhold that and you're called to reflect the grace of God who has given us not just forgiveness but he's given us a perfect righteousness that we could never have accomplished on our own.

God not only wiped our clean but he sent his son not only to pay the price for our sin but to live that perfectly holy holy life that we were called to live and he transfers our sin with his righteousness so that we can enjoy union with God forever and ever.

Call to reflect the care that God shows for his people the sacrifice.

We're called to reflect all of these things to the world so Christian fulfill your responsibility devote yourself to a fellowship to the church.

And if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian this whole sermon might have been a little jarring.

What in the world do these guys believe but I would encourage you consider becoming a citizen of heaven the offer is extended to you that you can be transferred from that kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and you can enjoy the king forever.

That you can enjoy the eternal riches that Christ has purchased forever.

Not because you've worked so hard to do it not because you've cleaned up your life and you've suddenly become acceptable to God but because God sent Jesus to live in your place that he has perfectly fulfilled everything that we've been called to fulfill and if you place your faith in him then you will be unified to him forever and ever and that unity that is a reality in the kingdom of heaven as soon as you become a Christian you're registered as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven but that unity invisibly that unity shows up when you unite yourself to the body of Christ visibly.