The Church | A Committed People - Selected Scriptures (Nov 12) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists.

Glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Father, it's my prayer that we are here because we believe those words that we just sang, Lord, that you are overall.

And that the greatest place of joy, the greatest place of satisfaction is to be found under your leadership, Lord, in submission to you as God.

And yet I'm so aware of my own heart's struggle right now, Lord, the constant human struggle we have to take you off the altar and put ourselves on the altar of praise and sovereignty.

And so, God, we bow before you in this moment to declare this, Lord, you are God.

We are your people.

And to ask you, Lord, to form us into the people that you want us to be.

God, do that work now.

By the power of your word and the presence of your Holy Spirit, Lord, do that work in us.

We pray.

Change us, God.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

So good to be together this morning.

If you have your Bible, I hope that you do.

You can open it up to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, the ushers are going to make their way to the front of the worship center and they're going to walk back, and you can just slip your hand in the air.

They'd love to get a copy into your hands.

If you don't own a copy of God's word, you can keep this.

This is our gift to you.

This morning we're entering into our last message in this series that we've been in for eight weeks now, called The Church.

And as we do that, I want to ask you a few questions.

I hope you don't feel too much like this is a quiz, you know, the culmination of all that we've been talking about.

In fact, I think if you haven't been with us over these last eight weeks, these are incredibly relevant questions for us.

Really what I'm asking here is do we view this church, do we view the local church the way that God views it?

Let me ask you these questions about the church and the place of the local church in the Christian life.

Is it possible for a Christian to fulfill God's will for them apart from involvement in the local church?

Talking biblically here, theologically.

Is it possible, how about to meaningly thrive apart from the community of the local church and being united in relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ?

Is it okay as you think about your understanding of God's word and all that he teaches us?

Is it okay to attend a church without actively participating in that church's mission and contributing to it?

Is it beneficial to your life to attend a church but not be committed and to attend whatever church benefits you the most at that given time?

Now my hope is that as we've spent eight weeks, you know, digging into God's word and asking this question, what did Jesus intend to build when he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell won't stop it?

My hope is that your understanding now is that biblically, theologically, the answer to these questions is no.

And yet, my kind of perpetual fear as a pastor is that you and I have kind of grown up in this church culture that has separated a personal decision for Christ from the community that that decision then brings you into.

And I think nowhere else in church history have we seen such a divide between personal faith and the corporate work that God is doing in his church.

So then, in many ways, you and I have kind of grown up in this culture of Christianity that says the church is it's nice, but it's not necessary.

It's good, but it's not crucial.

And so we spent these last eight weeks thinking about what kind of people God is creating us to be as a group of people called his church.

And all of this has really been leading to this moment that if we truly understand the church, if we truly understand the work that God is doing in our midst, kind of people that God is creating us to be, then there's only one response that is fitting from his people, and that is the response of commitment.

My hope is that, you know, as we've walked by this, really we get to this message where we talk about a committed people, commitment to Christ's local church, and your answer is kind of like, yeah, yeah, I'm already there.

I understand.

Like if the church is what we've been seeing it to be in Scripture, then of course I'm going to commit to it.

Of course, that's the application.

And so remember, many weeks ago it feels, with how fast time is going, and it almost being Christmas season, that when we launched our series in September, we started in Matthew 16, the very passage that we are coming back to again this morning, and we saw that God is calling us into his church.

We saw the very first confession that Peter made when he said to Jesus, in answer to the question, who do people say that I am?

He said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And then Jesus said to him, You are Peter, and on this rock, meaning this confession that Peter just made, that he was going to build his church.

That Jesus was looking to create a group of people called his church, the ecclesia.

He was looking to build a group of people on earth that would represent to earth the realities of heaven.

Then we saw the next week that this group of people that Christ had came to seek and to save were called to be a distinct people.

Their very identity was that they weren't like the world, that they are actually like Jesus Christ, that they are actually devoted to him in a holiness.

And the real power of the church comes in the church's holiness.

That was a really convicting message for many of us as we saw that God's desire to use us is to use us in our devotion to him, in our complete and utter holiness before him as a church.

And so we saw that God's creating us into a distinct people.

We saw then that he's creating us into a pure people.

So that the second time Jesus talks about the church in Matthew 18, he's talking about church purity and what is to happen when the church and its people don't live those distinct lives.

What happens when we live unholy lives and are unrepentant of that sin?

There's a whole process that Jesus institutes by his own command of church discipline to deal with us when we are in the process of falling away.

We went on from there to talk about how the church is to be a surrendered people, that each local assembly is to have a group of leaders called elders, men who lead the church, and as Christians, we are called to respect and submit to them, and those leaders are then called to give an account before God for how they've cared for the church.

And after that, we dived in deeper to see that the church that God is creating is a mobilized people, that it's a church with structure, that there are elders who serve by leading, and that there are deacons who are servants who are given to those elders who lead by serving.

And that under those deacons there are members, those who do the work of ministry, Paul says in Ephesians 4, who practice the one-another's of Scripture, who build up the body of Christ.

And we saw in 1 Corinthians 12 that we're called to be a contributing people, that if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you have been uniquely given a gift by him, a gift that is to be used in the context of the local church.

And lastly, last week we saw that we are called to be a generous people, to give our resources for the accomplishing of his mission.

Now, why this recap?

I don't know if this feels to you, you know, like when you'd watch the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and you get that recap episode where it's all like the old episodes.

You're like, is this lazy?

Does Miles just not want to preach a new sermon?

That's not it at all.

I do that because my hope is, as we kind of recap where we've been, my hope is that your kind of response here is like, yes, of course, then.

If God is doing all that work through the local church, then of course I want to be a part of it.

Commitment to the local church is a requirement if we truly understand what God is doing in the church that he is building.

And so my hope that our response here is, yes, of course, of course.

If I want God to accomplish his mission through me, I need the local church.

I have a habit I want to confess to you this morning.

I'm sure that some of you would be in the same boat with me.

Every time I leave the house, it's become habitual in my life for years now that I always forget my keys.

Anyone just, you know, in vulnerability, able to put your hands up and say you're with me on that?

Always forget your keys.

I do the walk of shame pretty much every time where I get to the car, I can't get in.

I gotta do the walk of shame.

My wife is always waiting at the front door, ready to rub it in.

But I realize in that moment that if I want to go anywhere, keys are absolutely necessary.

And this is the this is the work I want the Holy Spirit to do in us.

That He helps us to see here how membership, that is, commitment to a local church, is absolutely necessary if we are going to accomplish the work that He has called us to do.

Membership is the vehicle that we get into when Christ calls us to him.

And so many of you right now, you're singing here and you maybe you already are a member.

Or maybe you're like in the process of church membership.

So right now you're kind of listening in the sermon and you're like, yo, I listen, I got this all down, okay?

I'm a church member, or you know, I filled out the forums, I'm there.

This is kind of like the best sermon to listen to, isn't it?

The one that you've already figured out.

You can just kind of sit and be like, Yep, I got this one.

It's like a week off almost.

Don't you kind of love those sermons?

Well, my hope this morning is that that isn't the case for you.

See, I want to address this morning some of the concerns that people even in this church have brought up to the elders as we have gone over this through this process over the last year and a half of really trying to embrace what the Bible calls for us in commitment to the local church.

And there have been a number of conversations, and and it's my desire hopefully to bring clarity to a lot of questions in our church, in our context, that have surrounded church membership.

But secondly, I want I want you maybe to see how important this is in the life of our church going forward.

Not only that you are a church membership, but that one of the a church member, sorry, but that one of the ways that you can best serve other people, the lost people that you are preaching the gospel to, the new believers in our midst, the new people that are attending our church, one of the most helpful ways that you can serve them is in is in helping them in this process of becoming committed to the work that Christ is doing in this local church, and to do that through membership.

And so my hope this morning is that all of us, regardless of where we are, whether we're not a member and not convinced, whether we are on the process or whether we are, my hope here is that we see the wisdom and embrace really the centrality of membership and accomplishing the mission that Christ has given us.

And so I want to ask a few questions this morning.

And my first question is this that I want to ask: what is membership?

What is membership?

And the best way that I can kind of answer that is this it's the commitment to Jesus' mission.

Membership is the commitment to Jesus' mission.

Now I thought about, you know, bringing up all sorts of quotes, lengthy quotes about what church membership is, and you could say, oh, look, that guy's, you know, church historian or a huge pastor, and that's what he says about church membership.

And yet I can't just, I can't just can't get around.

At the end of the day, there's not a better way to define church membership than just the word commitment.

It is commitment to Jesus' local church.

A church member is someone who looks at a local gathering of believers and says of that local gathering, that's my family.

That's my church.

Those are my people.

Those elders are my elders, those shepherds are my shepherds, those brothers and sisters in Christ are those brothers and sisters in Christ that I am called to serve.

In other words, you look at the many one another commands of scripture and you say, This is the place where I'm gonna carry that out.

These are the people that I'm gonna love.

When the Bible calls me to love one another, these are the people that come to mind.

When the Bible says that the church is God's family, these are the people that are in my figurative spiritual wallet.

Now, I want you to understand then that commitment to God's people has always been God's redemptive design.

This has always been God's plan.

God's plan has always been to assemble a people for himself.

And so you remember if you were with us when we went through Genesis, this was like every week we were talking about this.

And you're like, Miles, just stop talking about it.

That God's plan was that his promise to Abraham, a promise of blessing, a promise of seed, a promise of multiplication.

It was a blessing that he intended for the whole world.

At that time, the gospel message was if you want to live a blessed life, get to Abraham.

Get to Israel, become a part of what Israel is doing.

Now, when Jesus came, what Jesus did was he opened up the way to true relationship with God.

Through his life and death, Jesus made a way for us to truly become one of God's people so that our sin could be completely forgiven, so that we truly could become a child of God.

See, we understand so well, I think, in our day and age, that God wants to save us, but I think what we truly lack here is a sense of that when he saves us, he's not just saving us personally.

This isn't just an individual work, he is saving us into his body.

Jesus' intention is to create a people for himself, to build a church that is his bride, to build a body of which he is the head.

That's why when we get into Matthew 16, you'll remember here as we look at the text together that Jesus is asking his closest followers, those who have known him best, who people say that he is.

And Peter, of all people, answers correctly in verse 16 of Matthew 16.

He says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Now notice here that when Jesus responds to him, there is some aspect where Jesus speaks to the personal decision that Peter has just made, the personal confession that Jesus has that Peter has just made.

So that Jesus says, Blessed are you.

Simon Barjona, that is Peter's name.

He says, For flesh and blood is not revealed to this, this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

See, there's this personal aspect of our salvation, but Jesus doesn't stop there because he declares that there is also a corporate aspect to it to this.

That Jesus has an intention to go through Peter, beyond Peter, to the world.

We know that this was part of Jesus' mission, don't we?

In Matthew chapter 10, verse 16, he says, I have others who are not of this fold.

Matthew 10:16

I must bring them in also.

Jesus' desire was not just to save Peter, Jesus' desire was to save a people who would then be mobilized for his work so that salvation would be preached to all the ends of the earth.

And so this is what Jesus says to Peter in verse 18.

You see that there, looking at the text with me, he says, I tell you, you are Peter.

And on this rock, that is Peter in the confession that he just made.

And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

See, the work that Jesus wants to do is a corporate work, and yet so often we miss this.

I think it's so important to recognize that you and I, I think, are at kind of like a serious historical disadvantage.

The reality is, if you've been a Christian for any number of years, you have kind of grown up in this sort of North American Christianity that emphasizes the personal decision over the corporate reality that Jesus is creating.

We kind of grew up in sort of like the altar call era of Christianity, didn't we?

Where the most important thing was that you make a personal decision for Jesus Christ.

You need to make, we would hear things like this, you need to make Jesus your personal Lord and Savior.

And that is all true, but when you emphasize that thing over the corporate work that Jesus is doing through his church, what happens is you you end up with this sort of easy believism that the only thing you need to do is make Jesus your own personal Lord and Savior.

And so long as you have walked down the aisle and you've confessed him as Lord and Savior, you're good.

Nothing else is expected of you.

All you need to do is believe, and you're good.

And yet, as important as personal belief is, as we look at the New Testament, what we've seen is that it just makes no sense of what we find in the New Testament.

So that you can't find one example of a Christian in the New Testament who is not connected to a local church.

You cannot find one example of one who has confessed Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, who is not then brought into the activity of a local church.

In the New Testament, these two things they can't be separated.

In fact, over 105 times the word for church ecclesia is used in the New Testament.

Approximately 70 of them are in reference to the local church.

So membership then, what membership is in the context of our church is a commitment to carry out our Christianity the way that Jesus intended it to be carried out in a group of believers that he promised he would build.

See, what I want you to see here is that there's nothing in membership that is not a commitment that Jesus has already called you to.

There's nothing that we're calling you to commit to in membership that is not a biblical requirement for you to commit to.

And I want you to see that very practically.

I want to look at our membership commitments, the commitments that those who go through the process of membership make in our church.

It's going to come up on the screen here.

There are eight of them.

First is this I have by faith become a follower of Jesus Christ, and I've been baptized as a visible way of demonstrating that commitment.

That's our first one, very biblical.

We can go to the next one.

We can wait while the next one comes up.

There we go.

I humbly affirm, believe, and support the teaching of this church and agree with Redemption Church's doctrinal statement.

We can keep going here.

I accept my responsibility for how things are done here and submit to the authority of the elders and leadership of the church.

Number four.

Number five.

I will, with God's help, seek to maintain my consistent disciplines of prayer, Bible study, and evangelism, and I will be an active and willing participant of a Redemption Church New Market small group.

We'll look at number six now.

We can just keep going here.

I will, with God's help, be actively and willingly serving Christ here at Redemption New Market.

I will faithfully and humbly give back to the Lord a biblical portion of my income by financially supporting the ministries of Redemption New Market and be a good steward of all resources God entrusts to me.

Finally, I will neither criticize nor listen to the criticism concerning any members of this body and will, when personally offended, speak directly and lovingly with those involved.

Now, these kind of formally make up the commitments that we ask members to make.

And I want you just to see here that none of those are commitments that if you're a Christian, you should be unwilling to make.

You should be willing to make all of those commitments.

It's not like in our membership process, we ask you to commit to anything that's not biblical.

Like we don't go in the process of church membership and say, well, you must be a fan of the maple leaves.

We should, that would be wisdom, but we don't.

We'll make it especially difficult for Habs fans to become members, but that's just kind of required.

That's the way you need to treat them.

Everything that we call a Christian to in membership is a biblical commitment.

There's nothing unnecessary.

And so then, part of membership then is that as elders and as a church, we understand that the best way that we can care for people is by pushing them to commit to what will actually help them live out their faith.

Best way that we can care for people is by pushing them to the things that will actually lead to their growth.

And so the membership process is a process of ensuring that everyone who calls this place their home, everyone who's coming here to say that I'm receiving regular care and the feeding of God's Word at Redemption Church Newmarket, we want to ensure that everyone is also connected to the things that will actually Grow them.

We understand this physically, don't we?

Like the spiritual equivalent here is really like what's what happens physically when you go to a gym trainer.

You go to that gym trainer, and what does he start asking about?

He starts asking you about other areas of your life, doesn't he?

If you want to get fit and healthy, he starts saying, well, well, how what are your sleep habits like?

Because you know, if you want to accomplish your goals in this gym, you you better be sleeping, right?

And what do you eat like?

Are you eating healthy?

Are you getting enough protein?

Are you getting enough carbs and fats?

And they're kind of interested in every area of life because if they're really going to care for you physically, they need to ensure that all these other areas are in tune.

So much so that you would be kind of like weirded out by the gym trainer who saw you and said, Hey, listen, the only important thing is that you get here for an hour every week, just one hour every week.

I don't care how you sleep.

You can go home, you can eat as much cake as you want to, I just don't care.

Now, some of you guys are like, actually, that's a great gym trainer.

I would love that kind of gym trainer.

If you know someone like that, give me their number.

I'd love to participate in something like that.

And we can joke about that, but the reality is that many are embracing a Christianity that is like that.

Many are embracing a Christianity that is kind of peddled by some churches, that there can be Christianity without a cost.

That you can follow Christ without embracing some level of suffering and some level of need for serving.

And if you truly understand what the Bible says about our growth, you understand that this is actually the least helpful thing you could do.

That really, if you care about people, you need to connect them to the very things that will lead to their growth.

They need to be committed to the things that will truly grow and mature them.

And so membership is a process that we undertake to say this, that we're committed to your growth, and we want you to commit to the things that will lead to your growth.

Now, the second thing we need to answer is this: where is membership in the Bible?

That's a really important question.

Where's membership in the Bible?

I want you to see that it's here.

When we look at the community of Jesus' making.

Now, this is incredibly important because I've preached on membership before, and I've had people come up to me and say, you know, you said membership's not in the Bible.

And I just want to be overwhelmingly clear, membership is biblical.

The call for every Christian, let me say it as firmly as this, okay, so there's no confusion here.

The call for every Christian is to commit to the local church.

However, that local church defines commitment, it is the call for every Christian to be committed to the local church through membership.

Now, one of the ways that we can most helpfully see that is by looking at the ways that membership is not in the Bible.

That's one of the ways that we can most helpfully see how membership is in the Bible.

So I want you to understand that nowhere in the Bible does the word use membership as we're using it here.

You won't look in Exodus and find a footnote for 11th, an 11th commandment that says, Thou shalt be a church member.

It's just not there.

And yet we also recognize that the Bible doesn't need to say something explicitly in order for it to be true.

And so you're not going to believe this.

In a few weeks, we're going to start celebrating Christmas.

In fact, some of you already have.

The Christmas tree is up, all the decorations are up, are ready to go.

And we're going to be celebrating as a church the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The fact that Jesus Christ came from heaven and became a baby.

And I want you to understand that word is not in Scripture, and yet we believe it to be true.

So also, this church believes in the Trinity, that God is three persons and one God, and yet the word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures.

Just because a word's not found in the Scriptures does not mean that it's not true.

I also want you to recognize that if you're thinking wrongly about membership, you also won't find membership in the Bible.

See, our problem is that in a consumeristic age, often when we hear membership, we think about it kind of in like in a consumeristic way.

We think about the kind of members that we are of society, and so many of you are Costco members.

You know, kind of give me like a fist pump, put your hand in the air, praise the Lord right now if you love Costco as much as I do.

Anyone love Costco in here?

Nice.

Yeah, we can get some woos when it comes to Costco.

We love Costco, don't we?

Costco is great.

If you become a member of Costco, there are many benefits offered to you.

Things that weren't available to you before you were a Costco member.

So if you want to pick up 48 muffins the size of your head, you can now do that at Costco.

If you want to get enough Greek yogurt to serve a small army, you can do that now.

This is a benefit that is provided for you by being a member at Costco.

Now, if this is the way that you think about membership, I want you to understand that you will not find membership like this in the Bible.

But you know what the problem is?

The problem is North American Christianity treats the church like this.

It treats the church like participation in the church is all about the benefit that it brings to me.

And so we walk in a church, many walk into a church, and their first question is this what's in it for me?

Does the worship, does it match my style?

What do the programs benefit for my kids and my youth?

Does a pastor preach about what I want him to preach about and avoid the topics I want him to avoid?

And many of you were here for the Genesis series, and you're like, there are probably some topics he should have avoided, but he went in right into it.

See, our our outlook often, naturally, in North American Christianity, it's purely consumeristic.

So that many churches actually cater to this.

And they kind of promote, they never say it, but they kind of promote this philosophy of church growth that all you need to do is plug into these no-cost programs.

You don't need to serve in them.

You can come whenever you want, you can stop whenever you want.

It's all about consumption.

Just consume, consume, consume, consume.

There's a program every night of the week for a different member of your family, and all you need to do is get to it.

They'll be run for you, and you it's kind of like plug and play.

It's turnkey Christianity.

Nothing will be required of you.

There's no need to serve, everything will be provided for you.

And I just want you to understand that that kind of Christianity is so foreign to the New Testament.

It's so foreign.

That's not how it works.

Now, when you think about commitment to a local church, when you understand membership like that, the way that we've defined it this morning, you actually begin to see membership everywhere in the scriptures.

So that the second time the church is talked about in the New Testament in Matthew 18, it refers to a local body of believers that Jesus is talking about, and these are the believers that you bring the final stage of church discipline to.

So that very practically, when you know, if I'm in sin and I'm unrepentant of that sin, well, in that process, the final stage of that process is that my sin is brought to the local church.

Now the question is, who are those people?

And the answer is it's it is those Christians who are calling this place their home.

We don't need to contact, you know, a few weeks ago we had uh all the um baby dedications.

And I love baby dedications because you get the sweetest, you know, the gr all the grandmas come out at such a sweet time.

And so we don't need to, you know, contact Grandma Betty about the sin that I'm going through that I'm unrepentant of.

She's not involved in that.

This is not her family.

There is a group of people who are calling this place their church who are committed to this group of people, which we do need to make aware of the matters that are going on.

Now, in Acts 2, you don't need to turn here, but I want to summarize and maybe really quickly go through Acts to help you understand this.

In Acts 2, when the church is established, Peter he preaches the gospel, and we're told a number of people believe, they repent of their sins and they believe in Jesus Christ.

But it doesn't end there because in verse 41 of Acts chapter 2, it says, So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And so I have two questions about this verse.

One is this how did they know there was three thousand people?

Well, there must have been some sort of process that they don't tell us about, but there must have been some sort of process in which the uh apostles preached the gospel and then affirmed the faith of those people who had repented and then baptized them.

The next question is this what are they added to?

The verse says that there were 3,000 souls added that day.

And I think as we read through Acts, the answer really becomes clear.

They're added to the church.

So then in verses 42 to 46 of Acts chapter 2, we begin to see that this group of 3,000 people is breaking bread together.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They're breaking up into smaller groups and meeting together, and they're really doing what the church is called to do, they're fellowshipping.

Verse 47, we're told that more and more are being added to their number each day.

Now, by Acts 4.4, we're told that the number is up to 5,000.

And we need to ask ourselves, why is this group so obsessed with numbers?

Why are they constantly counting how many people are inside their group?

Are they just trying to pad the numbers?

Are they just kind of trying to like like a business that's trying to look bigger than they really are to their investors?

The answer is no.

We see that they're doing this because they care.

So that in Acts chapter 5, what we see is that when individuals in the church have significant moral lapses, the church calls itself together.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

They call themselves the church, they meet in Solomon's colonnade and they discuss the matters together.

This is a living organism.

This is a group, just like Jesus promised he was gonna make.

Now, as time goes on, this group we see in Acts, they're passionate for the gospel.

So they begin sending out preachers.

We hear of other disciples meeting, like in Acts chapter 11, where Paul and Barnabas, they spend an entire year with the church in Antioch.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And we see throughout the book of Acts that the gospel is advancing through the planting and establishing of local churches.

The missionary forest of the church just grows and grows.

So that on one journey that Paul takes, we're told that he plants churches in Cyprus and Asia Minor, in cities such as Derby and Lystra and Iconium and City and Antioch.

See, every time we see these churches in the rest of the New Testament, we get a sense that their membership is known.

So if you read the end, if you read like Romans 16, the church that Paul writes to the, the letter that Paul writes to the church of Rome, you know what you find in Romans 16?

All these personal names.

It's one of those ones where it comes up in Bible reading, you know, you're kind of like excited because you're like, well, I don't get anything here, so I'm just gonna read through all these names that I can't really pronounce, anyways.

Paul knows these people, he knows who's in the church, he knows who's outside of the church.

This is why in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul calls for a specific individual who is a visible member of that church community.

He calls for them to be cast out and to be treated as an outsider because that person is in sin.

Because Paul knows who's inside the church, and Paul knows who's outside the church, and Paul knows who, because of their sin, needs to be treated as an outsider.

In 1 Timothy chapter 5, verses 3 to 16, Paul gives criteria to who should qualify for the church's widow care program.

1 Timothy 5:3–16

And there's a real sense that the church is growing and it's organized and it's working out this plan.

See, commitment to the local church is the very heart of New Testament Christianity, so that you can't find one example of a Christian who is not committed like this to a local church.

So our question is then why?

Why did God intend it like this?

If membership is commitment, and membership as commitment is all throughout the New Testament, why did he do that?

The third thing I want you to see is this why is membership necessary?

It's for the care of Jesus' members.

Care for Jesus' members.

I want you to see that ultimately membership is the primary way that Jesus cares for his children.

It is by inviting you into the life of the living organism that is his church.

Here's the reality that each of us needs to humbly embrace.

None of us can live alone.

We love those stories in our culture, those I did it my way, I did it myself, I didn't need the help of anyone, I'm the self-made man.

We love those stories, but the reality is that we cannot find it in Scripture.

Jesus has created a community and he has commanded those in the community to care for one another.

59 different times.

A biblical command is given to Christ followers to practice the one another's.

59 different one-anothers.

What's the takeaway here?

The takeaway is that by creating the local church, God has created a place that when you plug into, you will both be cared for as the church practices the one-another's for you, and they're biblically commanded to do that.

You recognize that when you join a church, you're joining a group of brothers and sisters who are biblically commanded to carry your burdens.

Turn to your neighbor and say, Ha ha, gotcha.

You got to carry my burdens now.

It's a biblical command.

And yet, not only that, you also are brought into this place.

This is why this church gets so excited about membership, because you're brought into this place to also serve in our midst and to carry our burdens.

Some of the people who are about to become members in a few minutes are like, oh no, these are messed up people.

I can't carry their burdens.

And yet that's it.

That's what it's all about.

We practice the one-another's with each other.

You see, our takeaway here is that we can't do it alone.

And so we saw this in 1 Corinthians 12, didn't we?

That the body is created so that we're told there that the members may care for one another.

And so here's my question for you.

As a member of this church, if we aren't clear on membership, if we aren't clear on who is in and who is out, then who are you biblically commanded by 1 Corinthians chapter 12?

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Who are you biblically commanded to care for?

If we're not clear on who's in and who's out, you you don't know.

You don't know who you're biblically commanded to care for.

And I've heard some people say here, well, we should just care for everybody.

Like the call of a Christian should be, you should just care for everybody no matter what.

And yes, that is 100% true.

There should be a level of care that we offer to everybody.

And in the context of our church, that is true.

But you recognize that if we try to offer the highest level of care to every Christian, not only in this church, but in New Market and in the world, we what we'll do is actually end up caring for nobody.

There's a reason why your doctor doesn't go around door knocking, isn't there?

Because the best way that they can care for people is by feeling available for the people who have committed to their care.

And so we recognize as a church that we can't care for everyone.

And so the best way that we can care for people, in the deepest sense of that word, is by calling them into church membership.

Now, this is so important for us.

Because one of the accusations that we've heard against church membership, maybe it's not an accusation, maybe it's just a concern.

But one of the things that we've heard is that because we're emphasizing membership, we're not caring, we're saying we don't want to care for people who aren't members.

And in one respect, I want to say that's kind of true, in one respect.

In one respect, it's true that if if you are unwilling to commit to the things that are required for you to commit to in order to grow as a Christian, we take that very seriously, and it actually becomes incredibly difficult for us to truly care for you in the most significant way.

To go back to that gym trainer illustration, like if you want to get fit and you truly want to get fit, but you've committed to eating chocolate cake every day for every meal, you're gonna be happy, but you're not gonna finish your goals.

And so it is in the context of our church.

We want you to commit to the things that are required for you to commit to for to in order to be cared for.

We want you to commit to being a part of this community so that we can practice the one another's with you.

But on the other hand, I want you to see this that very practically, the best way that we can care for people is to bring them into membership.

The reason that our church and our elders are so adamant about membership, the reason why the first week that you're here, we try to tell you about step one, which is really step one in becoming a member of the church, is because we love you and we want to as quickly as possible connect you into the resources that God has into this church, into his family.

We want to invite you in so that we can then care for you and pour into you and grow you.

My hope is that you see this.

We're not trying to create like an exclusive group of people, we're trying to create a group of people that we can truly care for and shepherd and grow.

The elders want to know you.

The elders want to plug you to plug into a group.

We believe very practically the best way we can care for you is by bringing you into membership, and that to do anything less than that would be actually to not truly care for you.

You see, Christian, you are called to be cared for, and you are also called to care for Christ's bride.

Jesus takes that really seriously.

What does he call this group of people right now in this room?

He calls it his bride.

He calls it his bride.

So do you know biblically by Jesus, you are commanded to care for his bride.

That is so important.

And the reason why why you should really have this conviction that membership is so necessary is because you you want to take that seriously.

Jesus has called you to care for people in the church, and you want to take seriously.

I want to care for the people in the church, and so who is that?

See, membership's necessary because we need to know as members who we are biblically accountable to care for.

I want you also to see that members are necessary because it's required that the elders know who they will give an account for.

We saw this in Hebrews chapter 13, didn't we?

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

When the writer of Hebrews says, really commands the church, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Two applications from this text.

The first question for you is this Who are you submitting to?

You have a biblical command as a Christian, a biblical command that is sin to walk in disobedience to.

This isn't my word, this is very clearly the word of God.

It says, obey and submit to your leaders.

My question for you is who are you submitting to?

Can I really practically say something here?

Like I don't, this could be taken as kind of offensive.

But if if you are not a member of this church and you are not in process of membership, can I just say that it's not us you're submitting to?

Because as elders, our desire is to bring you into the church, into the family of God here.

And I believe I can truly say with integrity that we've reached out to every person that has been here in the last year and tried to engage in that process.

So very practically, you gotta think about this verse because either you're submitting to some other group of leaders, or you're not submitting to any leaders that God has placed over your life.

And you have this biblical command to submit to leadership, and yet you aren't submitting to the elders.

Isn't that practically true?

Like we can be blatantly honest that if the elders here are calling you into membership, into the family, and you are saying, No, I don't want a part of that, then you are not submitting, you're not placing yourself in a place of submission to the elders.

Now that's okay if what the elders are calling you to do, if you have this conviction that what we're calling you to do is sin, and you're saying God's word trumps the elders' word, of course that's okay.

And yet for many of us it's not there.

Functionally, practically, we have no elders, though we attend this church.

The second reason Hebrews 13, 17 requires membership is because the elders of this church, Dave Locke, Dave Grant, and myself, very practically, we will give an account for the way that we cared for God's sheep.

Again, this is God's word.

This is not my word.

This is a very serious thing.

The elders talk about it consistently, about how we want to do this job with such care and excellence, because there will be a day where we give an account for the people that Jesus loves most, his own children.

And the question will be, how did we care for them?

We take that very seriously.

And so I'm not overly interested in giving an account for people who will not submit to the care of the church.

And I am very interested for those people who say, I want to be a disciple of this church.

I am very interested that we pour all of our resources into them.

And that for the people who are coming in, we make it as easy as possible for them in the process to be cared for.

Lastly, I want you to see membership's necessary because of church discipline.

One of the saddest realities, I have seen people who are far greater men than I fall far from grace.

Isn't it true if we are humbly, uh if we have true perspective and humility, that each of us, each of us can fall.

Each of us can.

Each of us can sin, and I've even seen in my own life the beginning of sin's root dig deep into my heart that if those were allowed to continue, if they weren't uprooted, then they've destroyed other lives, and you see that in your life right now too.

Maybe it's anger, maybe it's anxiety.

These things have shipwrecked people's lives.

And they can shipwreck yours too.

And so a commitment to membership is a commitment to church discipline to say, I want these people to care for me if anything ever goes south.

Fourthly, I want you to see this.

Who's membership for?

Who's membership for?

Well, it's for the confessors of Jesus' Messiahship.

The question ultimately becomes this: who can become a member?

And ultimately the answer is this: Christians.

We see this in Matthew 16, don't we?

Jesus says to Peter, Who do you say that I am?

And Peter responds, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

This is the confession that the church is built upon.

Anyone who is willing to make that confession and show the evidence of that belief in their life is then open to church membership.

A church is made of those who are saved by Jesus' blood and then have become his children and therefore are a part of the universal church.

Now it's really helpful here for us to distinguish the universal church from the local church.

The universal church is that church that Jesus is building in heaven.

It is invisible currently, but one day when Jesus returns, it will be visible.

We're told that Jesus will separate believers from unbelievers.

He will make it so clear who is his own child, and there will be one church united by the blood of Jesus.

You know what's amazing?

You and I?

No doctrinal disagreements in that church.

Pure fellowship, unstained by sin.

You know what's a sad reality?

You know how this is true?

Right now, I'm I'm literally preaching myself out of a job in heaven.

There will be no local church pastors in heaven.

There's one church, and there's one pastor, Jesus Christ Himself, who is gonna be a much better pastor.

I'm not gonna be standing up asking Jesus to give me his job.

There will be one church, and yet in this time, Jesus has mandated it that there be a local church that really gives the stamp of confirmation of your faith.

You see this here in Matthew 16 when Jesus talks to Peter, he says, This, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

What do keys do?

Keys open and close a door, don't they?

And so part of what the local church is is your involvement to it, your commitment to it, is that that church confirming, and specifically the elders of that church, confirming that a genuine work of God has happened in your life.

And they're, so to say, stamping on your life that your status in heaven is a child of God.

This is the work of the local church.

This is why Jesus has given us the local church.

Jesus cares, He cares for us, He wants to know that we are in a place of being His child.

Do you know how often?

Like I've seen this happen so often in the church.

I've seen it happen in our church where I sit down for a member interview with someone, and I realize that that person who is claiming to be a Christian actually doesn't know the gospel.

And as I ask them to explain the gospel, they they kind of build this gospel that's not the gospel at all.

It's all about works, it's all about religion.

And I have the opportunity to sit down with them and say, you've actually misunderstood.

This is the gospel, this is what it means to be a Christian.

And I've seen people saved through that process.

So listen, what would be the most unloving thing for us to do?

The most unloving thing for us to do would be for the elders to just assume that everyone who walks in our doors understands what the gospel really is.

To assume that everyone who walks through our doors isn't caught up by the self-righteousness, isn't coming to church to kind of prove that their love for God.

The best thing we could do is have a process where we can care for each person individually and ensure that their status on earth is the same as their status in heaven, that they truly are children of God.

Well, this leads to our last and final question.

If we're gonna be serious about building the church Jesus intended, we need to be serious about membership.

That means there needs to be a formal process for church membership.

And so the last question is this: how is membership to be done?

How is membership to be done?

I want you to see it's the confirmation of Jesus' mandate.

See, Jesus has called us to build a church of visible Christ confessors.

But the question is this: how do we know who's in and who's out?

And the answer is this there's gotta be some sort of process.

Now, the Bible in this area doesn't command any specifics.

The Bible doesn't give us like a biblical process for bringing members out.

The really interesting thing is that the Bible gives us a biblical process for casting members out.

It's very clear on church discipline.

1 Corinthians 5 is very clear about what you are to do about a member who is no longer living under the authority of the church, but it does not give us a process for bringing members in.

And I think the reason for that is for in many, in many ways, it is up to the discretion of the elders.

Now, I'm gonna be just brutally honest with you.

As a church, this church I'm talking about, this local church, the elders have had many conversations with people where we've gotten flack for having a process.

I'm not pointing at anyone in particular, this has not been one person, this has just been kind of like a general uh thought that we've heard.

This kind of thought of like, why should I have to sign on a dotted line?

Why should I have to commit to church membership?

Why should I have to go through any sort of formal process?

My response to this is to ask this question.

Legitimately, if this is your thought, if this is what you're wrestling, legitimately, I'd love to talk to you about this.

What is a better process for us to follow?

What would be a better process for us?

Like the the elders have a calling by God to confirm that the people in this church are truly Christians and to protect the church.

And so, what's a better process for us?

What could we do to better ensure that everyone who is a part of this church truly is a child of God?

Reality is, I have not heard a response to this.

And my question is, why is it bad to have a really clear process to ensure that everyone in our church is saved and on the same page about what discipleship is and what growth looks like?

The elders they have this responsibility to ensure this.

And so the process that we have come up with, it's we understand it's not biblical, but what we do understand is that it's incredibly helpful.

And I can also give a word to you know, the comment, like, why do I have to sign on the dotted line?

We actually, I don't think, have made many people actually sign a document.

We have gone through that document with many people and talked about membership commitment, but we're more than happy for you to say, yeah, I'm in, I'm all in.

And we haven't asked anyone to sign an ink for the most part.

And so the reality is we need to wrestle with this question: what is the proper process?

Well, this is our process.

We try to make it as easy as possible.

The first step is that you need to be a believer who's been baptized since believing.

And we really believe passionately that the scriptures are clear about baptism, that it is for believers who have experienced that spiritual baptism that then step into the waters of baptism as a symbol of that reality that has already been accomplished.

We believe that's really important.

Now, if you are making an argument for infant baptism, that is totally fine.

We have good brothers and sisters in Christ in Newmarket who believe in infant baptism.

We are not pointing our finger and saying they're not Christians and they're not welcome in our church.

In fact, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newmarket has visited us.

I meet with him regularly.

Our heart is united in mission, but very practically, we can't really do life together.

In fact, I would just I would just ask you if you really believe in infant baptism, you actually need to be in a place where you can get your kids baptized.

That's kind of like core to infant baptism, is that you would go to a place where you can have that reality played out for you.

And so we first ask that you are a believer who has been baptized.

The next thing is that you've done step one and step two.

And again, we're not commanded by scripture to do this, but we think it's incredibly helpful for you in step one to get on the same page about who we are as a church and our mission.

And we think in step two, it's incredibly helpful for you to learn what discipleship will look like in the context of our church and what we're asking of you.

Step three then is membership.

To fill out an application, to be interviewed by the elders.

You meet with an elder so they can hear your testimony and get a sense that you are understand the gospel and have been baptized to confirm that you understand what membership means, and that's it.

It's easy.

There's really no fluff.

Like we're not we're not adding anything to the process.

You don't have to jump through any hoops, you don't have to do a dance.

So here's the question Christ has called you not only to personal salvation, he's called you to his church.

And there is a day where you will be united to his universal church, but for now, that citizenship is played out in the local church.

And so my question is for you is this are you in?

Are you in?

Are you committed to Jesus' local church?

Listen, we love, I love this church.

I hope you know that, I hope you sense that.

I personally think this is the best church in the whole entire universe, but that doesn't mean that this is necessarily the best church for you.

And if at the end of the day you cannot become a member here, I would love if it were for something as silly as like the curtains we have.

You think, you know, you got ugly black curtains and I hate them, so I'm not ever gonna be a member at your church.

But I will go to this other church because they have really nice curtains.

It would probably actually be the window, wouldn't it?

The stained glass.

You're like, I'm sick of being blinded, I'm going to the other church, I'm standing on my convictions.

Well, I would love if you did that, even for a reason as silly as that, but you actually got plugged into a place you're cared for.

That would make my heart rejoice.

Because I don't really care about the kingdom of Redemption Newmarket at the expense of the kingdom of Christ.

What I do care about is your growth.

What the elders of this church care about and the members of this church care about is you.

And I just want you to grow.

And that's not gonna happen if you're sitting on the sidelines of any church.

So let me ask you, are you in?

There are a number of individuals this morning who want to answer yes to that question.

And I want to invite them up this morning.

Uh, I'll invite up Aaron Kligerman, Nick, and Lauren, uh, Helen, and uh Dan Biding.

If you guys can come up here, you can stand right here.

Joel gave me a specific instruction to not stand beside his piano.

But if one of you guys wants to play a song, you can do that too, and that'll be really cool.

You can come up and join us.

We're so thankful for you guys and the way that we see God working in your life and your commitment to our church.

And we're celebrating our commitment to you.

Membership, we just talked about it.

It's a it's a commitment to live out your discipleship and devotion to Christ under the love and care of the elders of this church, but in the ministry of the members of this church.

And so I want to ask you guys some questions as you make this commitment to church membership, and this is nothing new.

I warned you guys there would be nothing new here, and that it would be incredibly awkward if you answered in the negative to any of these questions.

So here goes.

Here's the first question.

Will you omit, will you commit to abiding in Christ through a life of faithful worship, living in obedience to his word, pursuing him through personal spiritual disciplines, striving toward holiness in all areas of your life?

If you will, you can answer, we will.

Will you commit to connecting in the church by prioritizing our times of fellowship together, engaging in discipleship with others, faithfully serving your church family and maintaining unity within the body of Christ?

Will you commit to reaching the community with the good news of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the life-giving message of forgiveness for sins and longing to see others become followers of Jesus as well?

All right, now it's our turn.

They've done our part, and as a church, we're gonna come around them.

So I'd ask you all to stand.

And I want to ask you this question, and you can respond in the affirmative we will.

Church, will you strive to help them by praying for them, encouraging them in these commitments, building them up as disciples of Christ, as we continue to grow in love and unity together?

And we can answer, we will.

We will.

Let's pray together.

Father, God, we thank you so much for your church.

God, you care for us.

And so you have brought us to this place this morning, each of us personally, Lord, in this place for a specific reason.

God, because you care.

It's not by accident.

You are extending your hands out to us this morning.

You're calling us into a living organism that is your church.

It is the body, your body, that grows us, that builds itself up together in love until we all attain the maturity of Christ-likeness.

And so, God, we thank you for this church.

You are doing a magnificent work in our midst that none of us have the human power to do.

It's all you, God.

And Lord, we thank you for these members who have stood before your church today, this local assembly of believers that you have gathered, that you have been building, and have declared, Lord, I want in.

This is my family.

These are my people, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is why I want to be shepherded.

This is where I want to serve, this is where I want to be influenced, this is where I want to influence other believers.

And so, God, I thank you for them.

And I pray that their lives would be a living testimony to you, Lord, the beauty of following Jesus Christ and Him alone.

And so, God, we give you all the praise and we thank you.

And we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Can we give a hand?

Amen.