What is Church Membership - Selected Scriptures (Nov 6) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Amen.

Let's pray together, Church.

Father, thank you for that truth that we at times declare without even giving thought to its weight and magnitude, God, that we were slaves of sin.

And God, in our slavery bound to death.

But now, because of the real life moment, Lord, 2,000 years ago when you sent your son to die on this cross, on the cross for us, Lord, now we can proclaim these words that death was arrested.

And God, that we were made free.

And God, not free in a temporary sense, not free to just enjoy a day of pleasure, but God, free for eternity from sin.

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

We give you all the glory because God, this is a work that you have done.

God, we're just amazed.

We're amazed in light of our sinfulness.

We're amazed in light of our weakness.

In light of who we know ourselves to be, God, that you would love us with such a steadfast love that reaches to the heavens.

God, thank you for your love to us.

And Lord, we confess together, we know you're here, God.

We know you're here with us.

And Lord, you have not stopped pouring out your love on us.

God, you want to speak to us this morning.

And so would you find in this room hearts that are ready to receive all of the blessings that you want to pour out on us through your Holy Spirit through your Son.

So, God, we give you the praise.

God, work in us.

Continue the work in us this morning.

God, we lift this service to you because you are worthy of all exaltation and all praise.

God, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

So good to worship with you this morning.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can open them up to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

We're going to be bouncing around a little bit this morning.

And I'll ask you to turn a few places with me and I'll maybe read some other scriptures.

But it's a special morning in the life of our church this morning.

It's a member recognition Sunday, and we have a few members to welcome into the life of our church, the family of God that God has called together here at Redemption New Market, and in the membership of the body of believers that God is building up here at Redemption New Market.

And so the others thought that it might be a good time for us just to maybe put the brakes on, pause our Genesis series for a moment, and just think about church membership.

The reality is, as a pastor, there's nothing I love more than to hear of someone who's fired up to follow Jesus.

Don't we love that?

We love to hear when people are fired up to follow Jesus, they want to follow him, they want Jesus to be the Lord of their life, they want Jesus to be their king, to hear the mission that Christ sends each follower on, and they say, I want that to be me.

I want that to be my mission.

My fear, though, is that often we're able to separate what it means to follow Christ from the vehicle that God has called us to follow Christ in.

That is the local church.

My fear is that in wanting to follow Christ, we can misunderstand the actual context of following Christ that Christ Himself established and created.

That is the local church.

And so you have in our day and age a group of Christians who say they want to follow Jesus, who say they want to grow deep into their relationship with Jesus.

They want Jesus to be their king, they want Jesus to be their Lord, they want to be a follower of Christ that is on fire for Christ, and yet, whether it's because of a misunderstanding, whether it's a misvaluing, there's a neglect of the church.

I love what Tim Keller says.

He says, there's no way you'll be able to grow spiritually apart from a deep involvement in a community of other believers.

You can't live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.

Only if you are a part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know Him and grow into His likeness.

We need the church.

Every follower of Christ needs the local church.

And so the illustration that I want us maybe to think about as we think about church membership is really that illustration of a vehicle.

When Christ calls us to follow him, when Christ calls us to engage in his mission, what is it that he calls us to?

And I want to argue from scripture this morning is that the vehicle he calls us to is commitment in the local church.

Christ waves us down for salvation, and he says, get in the car.

And the car is the local church and membership in it.

This is the destination that the church is on, is the mission of Christ that he has established for the church.

Now, this is what we see all throughout the New Testament.

That there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't show their commitment to Christ through a commitment to the local church.

So I love what Mark Dever says.

He says it's impossible to answer the question, what is a Christian, without ending it up in a conversation about the church.

At least in the Bible it is.

Never does the New Testament conceive of the Christian existing on a prolonged basis outside of the fellowship of the church.

This is a reality of the New Testament.

In the New Testament, you find that Christians that aren't engaged in the life of a local church are aliens.

That's just not a thing, and we're going to see that as we walk through the pages of Scripture this morning.

All that to say, this is my one takeaway.

If you fall asleep after this point in the message, I want you to take this one thing home.

Christ's chosen vehicle to accomplish his mission is the local church and your commitment to it.

This is the car that Christ calls us to ride in as we commit to his mission.

Now, the reality is we as we push this illustration maybe even farther, is that there are a lot of reasons why, especially in our day and age, in our culture, many of us are afraid of that commitment to get into the vehicle.

When we talk about community, especially as we talk about community in the life of the church, there are many things in the cultural current that are against us.

And so I just want to, even before we kind of get into answering some questions about church membership, I just want to uh, maybe as a pastoral moment, just make you aware of some tendencies that are alive in our culture, in our society, that maybe make it hard for us to accept church membership and commitment and involvement in the community that is the local church.

And I just offer these at the beginning just to say, beware that these things aren't a reality in you.

In this moment, do some self-examination to ensure that you've actually been saved, that you've been called out of darkness into light.

That you don't walk like the world does, that you don't walk as Gentiles do, but that you walk as Christ does.

That you walk as a child of God.

It's the first thing I want you to be aware of is individualism.

Our day is a day of individualism.

We don't want to watch a movie about an unnamed group of tactical police officers taking down an evil person.

We want to watch born identity.

We want to see Jason Bourne run into a room, shoot seven bullets, and take down ten people.

This is what we love as a society, don't we?

We love these heroes, we love individuals, we have this idea that this love for maybe Frank Sinatra's song sums it up so well.

I did it my way.

And so we can hear about our need for a community in the church and we think, well, that's weakness.

If we're strong, we can do this by ourselves.

I can take up Christ's call to make disciples, and I'll just do that myself in my own home without the help of the church.

Church, beware of individualism, but also beware of consumerism.

Consumerism is when we get into the car, when we get into Christ's church, and instead of asking the question, where are we going and how can I help, before we get in, we say, hey, wait, wait, wait, Jesus, are the seats leather?

Is the music gonna be good?

What what what's in this ride for me?

Now listen, if I could have, I think about this often, and probably the answer changes pretty often, probably depending on what I preach on that given week.

But if I could have a bomb, and this bomb could destroy one of everything in the world, whether it's like a physical thing or it's like a spiritual reality, well, it's a toss-up.

See, one of the things that I hate more than anything else in the world is weak uh hand air dryers.

Is anyone with me?

I might use the bomb to destroy those things.

Like when you got to stand there for a minute and a half in an awkward bathroom before your hands are actually dry, and really it's all of us take 10 seconds and wipe them on our pants.

Anyways, I digress.

What I'd actually use the bomb that God had given me that would destroy one thing of everything in the world is consumerism in the church.

I think consumerism in the church is deadly.

Consumerism in the church makes us treat the church more like a Costco than a church.

We walk in the doors and we say, What's in it for me?

What am I gonna get?

It makes us treat the church more like a movie theater.

On Sunday morning, am I gonna be entertained?

How's the music gonna be?

How many jokes is the senior pastor gonna tell?

How engaged am I and entertained am I going to be in this service?

And what consumerism does is it flips how we're supposed to engage in community, walking in to ask, how can I serve and be Christ's hands and be an instrument of God in this community?

It flips it on the head so that now we walk into community and we say, What's in it for me?

How are you guys gonna serve me?

Again, beware of individualism, beware of consumerism, but also beware of the fear of commitment.

Isn't it true in our culture we have a fear of commitment?

Now I'm especially speaking to my generation, to millennials right now.

The reality is that the millennials as a generation really fear commitment.

Let me show you how millennials often deal with commitment, okay?

This pulpit represents commitment.

This is how millennials will deal with commitment.

Are you ready?

Millennials hate commitment.

So when it comes to the church membership, when it comes to involvement in the church, then it's a message that doesn't preach well.

Millennials are unwilling to commit to anything.

Internet service, cell phone provider.

I read a stat that from the time of age between 25 and 37, often the millennial generation will switch jobs seven times.

Now, sometimes this is a good thing, but when it comes to commitment in the local church, our fear of commitment can actually be working against us, keeping us from a good thing that God intended to be for our value.

Last thing I want you to be aware of is skepticism.

As so many of us look at the church, so many of us think about getting in the vehicle that God has called us to in the local church.

We're skeptical because we've been hurt before.

Maybe we've been in other churches where we've been hurt by other people.

Maybe we have a mistrust of leadership and authority.

For whatever reason, we're just scared to get into the car.

And if we do get into the car, it's like it's like a parent would get in the car with their teenager who's just starting to learn how to drive.

Their hands are gripping the door handle and they're holding on for dear life, and they're hitting the passenger brake that doesn't exist but it's on the dashboard.

You know, that spouses know that one well, that you hit when you gotta stop the car, but you don't have any power to, so you're smashing that dashboard.

And that's how many of us commit to the church is with skepticism.

And while I'm aware that the church is an incredibly messy place, and I'm also aware that even in this church, there are enough sinners that it is very possible you'll get hurt.

I'm also aware that the church, despite its messiness, is God's chosen vehicle to accomplish his mission.

And so I want you to see commitment to Christ's mission and how that happens in the context of church membership.

And I want to do this by asking three questions about church membership.

First question I want to ask is what is church membership?

What is church membership?

Now, this is going to come up on the screen.

It's probably helpful for us to maybe have a definition of what we're even talking about as we talk about a church member.

A church member is someone who has formally committed themselves to a local church through the process that has been put in place by the leadership and is faithfully fulfilling and enjoying the responsibilities and privileges of membership.

Let me read that again because that's really important as we continue to go forward on the same page.

A church member is someone who has formally committed themselves to a local church through the process that has been put in place by the leadership and is faithfully fulfilling and enjoying the responsibilities and privileges of membership.

Now, really, what church membership centers around is commitment to the local church.

It centers around commitment to a body of believers that you meet with regularly and you do life with regularly.

To be a church member is to look at a local church, a local gathering, a local group of Christians, and to say, that is my church, that is my family, that is the church that I belong to, that is the church to which I am committed to.

Now it's helpful for us at this point to recognize that the New Testament really has two categories as it talks about the church.

The first category that the New Testament has as it talks about the church is the category of the universal church.

When you are saved, this is what we were singing about this morning.

When you're saved, you are saved into the universal big C church.

It is a church that is worldwide.

This is a church whose membership is of all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

This is why we can fellowship with another brother or sister in another church in Newmarket and say, you are my brother or sister in Christ.

Even though we are part of a different local church, we recognize that this is a brother or sister in Christ who's saved by the gospel, transformed by the gospel, and one day we will worship beside in heaven when the church universal is all gathered together in one place.

Now it's interesting that most of the time the New Testament's talking about the church, it's actually talking about the local church.

And we're gonna talk a few times or point to a few areas in the New Testament where the Bible refers to the universal church this morning.

Mostly it's in Matthew 16 and a number of times in Ephesians, as Paul kind of draws out a theology of the church.

But other than that, as the New Testament talks about the church, it talks about the local church.

Just think about the New Testament for a second and you begin to realize that.

First, you have the Gospels, and as Jesus teaches, you notice that he doesn't really use the word church much at all.

In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, he only uses the word church twice, and we're going to go to those points this morning.

But other than that, Jesus came and preached a gospel of his kingdom.

And in fact, as we talk about church membership and talk about church commitment, isn't it interesting that as Jesus performed his miracles, as Jesus preached the good news, as people began to believe in him, what did Jesus say?

He didn't say, hey, you better commit to a local church.

Instead, Jesus said, Go and tell nobody.

Isn't that interesting?

They call it the messianic secret.

Go and tell nobody.

Well, why is that?

It's because the foundation of the church had not yet been established, the cross of Jesus Christ.

And because the foundation had not yet been established, the church had not yet been established.

But isn't it interesting?

As soon as Jesus dies and is resurrected and appears to the disciples, his message is no longer go and tell nobody.

Now his message is go and make disciples of all the nations, because now the church is established.

This is the Gospels.

But then the book of Acts takes up the establishment of the church.

Here's how the church was founded.

Here's how the New Testament church came to be.

And then you continue to go on through the Gospels and you read the epistles.

And what are the epistles?

They are Paul's letters to the local church.

Isn't it interesting in Rome, at the Romans at the very beginning, he says to the church of Rome.

And then at the end of Romans, in Romans 16, we read Romans 16 and we really begin to, you know, that's one of the parts of Scripture that we might maybe flip the page through because there are so many just personal names.

And what we come to understand is that Paul was personally aware of who was in the church and who was outside each of these churches.

He knew these local churches, he knew who its members were, he knew who was in and who was out.

And then Paul writes the pastoral epistles.

And who are the pastoral epistles written to by a number of writers?

Well, they're written to the leadership of churches.

Because there's this acknowledgement in the New Testament that church life is important.

So whether a letter is to a specific church or to its church leaders, we really don't have much outside of the New Testament that doesn't have to do with life in a local church.

And so the very way that the New Testament is established preaches the significance of commitment to a local church.

A church member has committed to a specific local church, to the process that's been put in place by the leadership and is faithfully and in and is faithfully fulfilling and enjoying the responsibilities and privileges of membership.

That's what a church member is.

Well, let's move to the second point here.

The second thing that I want you to see, and and uh I was hoping that these would come up in little bullets, but it all came up at once, so I have nothing suspenseful for you.

You have my whole sermon now, but we will get to each of those, and maybe I can give some explanation to it.

Well, the second thing we see is that church membership is biblical.

That's a really important verse, isn't it?

A really important point.

Like as a church and as a pastor, I don't want to preach anything to you that's not biblical.

You need to know that there is a die hard commitment.

We will die on this hill as the elders of this church.

We are a church that stands on the foundation of the Bible, and we desire to put nothing in front of you that is extra biblical, that is not already found in God's word.

And so the reason why you find a passion about church membership in the life of this church is because we believe that church membership is biblical.

Now, where do you find that?

Well, you won't find a verse in Scripture that says this is the eleventh commandment, thou shalt be a church member.

In fact, the word membership isn't even in the Bible.

But that reality doesn't negate its truthfulness.

In fact, there are many things that we believe as a church where the word isn't found in the Bible, the Trinity is one of them.

You won't find the Trinity anywhere in the Bible, and yet we believe that God is a triune God.

You also won't find the word incarnation.

And yet again, this is a doctrine that we hold as primary to life in the church.

But what we do find in the Bible is that the idea of church membership is assumed all throughout the New Testament.

This idea that the local church is made up of church members, of people who are committed to the local church and who have been put in place by the leadership, this idea is assumed all throughout the New Testament.

And so the first place I want you to see that it's assumed in the New Testament is in its foundation.

And so you guys have your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

I want to read from verse 13 to 20 with you.

This is such a unique place in the story of Jesus' life that each of the gospel writers really make this the center of their telling of the gospel story, this confession of Christ that Peter made.

It says in 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.

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

And 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.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

In these verses, Peter rightly confesses who Jesus is.

And Jesus had been walking with the disciples and teaching them, but the disciples were kind of marinating in this pharisaical culture that misunderstood Jesus.

And so time and time again, they misunderstood who Jesus was and the mission that Jesus Christ had come to.

And finally, in Matthew chapter 16, Peter gets it right.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

He says, You are the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the anointed king.

Peter looks, Jesus looks at Peter and tells him, You're right.

So this truth that you believe, this confession that you just made, is a confession that's revealed from heaven, from the Father Himself.

The God of truth has revealed this to you.

Church, there are no truer words that you can say than those words and that confession, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Christ.

That he is the Son of God.

This is the true confession.

But it's really interesting what comes of that.

Not only does Jesus look at Peter and say, Yes, you're right.

Truer words couldn't be uttered.

What he says in verse 18 is really significant.

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

Why is it that we believe in the church?

Why is it that this church believes so firmly that God's chosen institution for his mission to the world is the church?

It's because of this verse.

It's because Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

What Jesus says is that the church is the unstoppable force of his kingdom.

And so many of us want to point to other things to say maybe that's the thing that will grow Christ's church.

Maybe it's just better music.

Maybe it's more jokes in the sermon.

Maybe it's a better kids program.

Maybe it's more family ministries.

Maybe it's a service that's sensitive to seekers, and Christ says the thing that cannot be stopped is my church that I'm building.

Well, the question then, the question for us is this if the church is the unstoppable force that Jesus has given to us, what is the rock in verse 18 that Jesus says he'll build his church on?

And this is a question that has been debated through the history of the church.

And scholars have gone back and forth.

Is it Peter?

Is it the apostles?

Or is it the confession that Peter makes that's the rock?

Is it those who confess Christ that make this confession of belief in the gospel?

And the answer that I want to give to you is that it is both.

It is both the leadership of the church and the confession of those who confess that Christ that Jesus is the Christ on which Jesus is going to build his church.

What Jesus is saying is this it is the leaders of the church and those who confess Christ, its members, that Jesus is going to build his church on.

Now it's really interesting because in these verses, Jesus is talking about the universal church.

And he says, You are Peter, and on this rock I'll build my church.

But then in verse 19, he gives a really powerful authority to Peter.

Look at the authority in verse 19.

He says, I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

As we seek to understand what is happening in these verses, we need to ask this question: what do keys do?

What do keys of the kingdom of heaven do?

Well, we know what keys do.

They let you into places that no one without the key can go.

If you're locked out of your house, the problem is that you don't have the key.

This is really significant.

These aren't my words.

This is the authority that Jesus is giving to the church.

What Jesus says is that the church has this authority.

To the church is given the keys of the kingdom.

And when he says, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This binding and loosing was a common activity in the judicial system.

Rabbis were given the power to bind and loose God's law.

So that people would come to the rabbi with maybe a specific situation and explain their situation to the rabbi, and the rabbi would take God's law and interpret whether that law applies to their situation or not.

And what Jesus is telling Peter is to the church is given this authority and responsibility to tell who is in and who is out.

The church is given the keys of the kingdom to confirm and affirm those who are children of God.

And you say, well, Jesus is speaking about the universal church here.

But it's really interesting that the second time that Jesus uses the word church, he's given the power to the local church.

And so flip over a page and look at chapter 18 of Matthew.

This authority is given to the leadership of the church, and the church that is made up of confessors of Christ who have made this confession that Jesus is the Christ.

And then in chapter 18 of, and in verse 15, look at how Jesus applies it.

He says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you've gained your brother.

That's the first step of church discipline.

The second step is this 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.

That's the second step of church discipline.

But look at the third step.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

Now listen, this has got to be the local church.

It has to be.

There's no way that what Jesus is saying is if your brother sins against you and two or three people can't resolve it, go and tell every Christian in the whole entire world about that brother's sin.

This is about the local church.

What Jesus understands here is that a local church is gathered, and that because a sin has been committed against a brother or sister in that church, and that issue cannot be resolved between them personally, and it cannot be resolved in a small group of those people, then is to be brought into before the entire church.

And so verse 17 again says, 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.

What is that saying?

Well, essentially it's saying if if through this method of church discipline this person does not repent of an actual sin, well then what they've proven themselves to be is not a member of the universal church.

They're not a child of God, they're not a Christian.

Because they've proven that repentance has not taken a hold of their heart.

And again, it intensifies even more in the very next verse.

Look at what he says in verse 18.

We've read this before, haven't we?

Truly I say to you, whatever you speaking of a local church, bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

To the church is given this responsibility to know who is in and who is out.

And it's a responsibility that God has given to the leadership of the church to care for the church.

Church, do you know this?

Whenever we hear church discipline, we kind of like, don't we get kind of awkward and squirmy in our seats?

Ooh, church discipline, I don't want to deal with that.

I'm out of here if I deal with that.

Do you know that church discipline is given to you by the love and care of God?

Isn't that the argument that God makes to us as his children?

God disciplines us because he loves us.

Parents, you know this about your children, but you discipline them because you love them and you want them to live a good and right life.

And church discipline is a gift that Christ has given to the church for our good.

Church, you need to know how I value this as a pastor.

There are too many examples of senior pastors who are morally failing and disqualifying themselves of ministry, opportunity.

And I look at that and it and it honestly it really terrifies me.

I don't look at situations like that and say, oh, that'll never be me.

Because some of these men I've walked beside and I know them and I've looked up to them, and they're more righteous than I'm ever gonna be.

And yet what I recognize is that Satan is powerful and he loves to put a target on leaders' backs.

And I recognize that I'm sustained only by the grace of God.

Nothing separates my my sinfulness from these people who have been disqualified, their sinfulness.

You know what I rejoice in?

I rejoice that I am part of a church, I'm a member of this church, and regularly the elders of this church are prying into my life.

It's a prying I invite because I don't want the root of sin to take any hold in my heart.

And they're prying in my heart to care for me and to expose sin.

And when sin is exposed, they start the process of church membership.

And I praise God because I need this church discipline.

I'm terrified without it.

I'm terrified of the sin that I could commit.

I'm terrified of the depth of sin that I've seen good men fall into.

And I praise God that I'm in a church where men, specifically the elders, are looking after me and engaging in this process of church discipline.

Now I'll have to say nothing serious has happened.

Some of you guys are like, oh, what's the juicy detail?

Tell me.

But all that to say, just this church discipline happens regularly.

The first step of it of a brother coming to a brother and saying, Hey, I think you gotta be careful here.

I think this sin is starting to see uh I see this little sapling growing and the seed of sin in your heart, and you gotta tear that out.

And I praise God I listen to that.

I'm so thankful for church discipline.

To be a member is to engage in that care.

That's the foundation of the church that Christ gave to us.

But the second thing I want you to see in the New Testament is that church membership is assumed in the establishment of the church.

So I want you to flip here.

This is the last spot time I'm gonna ask you to flip, okay?

But this is really good for us to see in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Again, Acts is a book that documents historically the foundation of the church.

And look what happens in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is right after the Spirit has fallen in Pentecost.

This is the establishment, the first local church.

Peter has just preached a stellar sermon.

And in verse 40, we see with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourself from this crooked generation.

And look what the response is to Peter's sermon in verse 41.

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

What happens after Peter's sermon is the Spirit falls and convicts 3,000 people.

It is from this church that the nations will be reached.

This church will start sending missionaries and establishing other local churches.

But it all begins with this work of God where the Spirit fell after Pentecost.

And it says in verse 41 that those who received the word responded in baptism, in the waters of baptism, and were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Now the question we need to ask is added to what?

And the clear answer is the church.

Now I don't know what the process looked like for Peter and the apostles and the leadership of that church at that time.

I don't know if Peter had was like maybe not a super organized person and he had a whole bunch of different papers and a file folder, and he's trying to write everyone's name down.

Okay, you believed and were baptized.

Okay, Timothy, you were there, okay, uh, Paul, you were there, and he's he's just writing this list of names.

But what we do know is that a list of names was created and that the church was established so that they knew the amount of numbers of people that that day responded and joined the life that were added to the life of the church.

I want you to notice also that they were added in the waters of baptism.

There was a moment where they stood up and publicly professed, I want to be a part of the church.

See, in the New Testament, what we find is that church membership equates with baptism.

What we find in the New Testament is faith happens.

Baptism happens as a response of the inward reality of faith.

That's what baptism is.

Baptism is the outward symbol of an inward reality.

There's faith, and again, alien to the New Testament is people who have placed their faith in Jesus and not been baptized.

The idea is if you place your faith in Jesus, you are then baptized in the waters of baptism.

And the church that you are baptized in, then, what we see in Acts 2 and throughout the rest of the New Testament, then becomes the local church that you are committed to.

Baptism is the public declaration and the process of church membership.

The reality of the New Testament church is that you didn't have anyone at Pentecost checking out Peter's church from another church in the area.

There is no other church.

And as this church sent out missionaries to establish local churches, it's not like there was a number of churches to choose from in every city.

Instead, people were being saved, and those people who were being saved were entering into the waters of baptism, committing both their allegiance to Christ and to Christ's bride, the church, in a public way.

What the process of church membership does, specifically membership recognition, is make public that declaration that this is my church.

The process can look different.

It's not mandated in Scripture how we publicly profess our commitment to a church, but what we find in Acts 2 is that it is mandated that we do that.

And that can look a number of different ways.

And yet the principle is there, is that we are to be committed publicly to a church.

Well, then what happens?

What happens after these people are added and then baptized into the church?

Well, look at verse 42 with me.

Then they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers.

That's what is happening right now.

You know why we do this?

You know why we gather on a Sunday morning on the Lord's Day to worship God, to break the bread of communion, to sit under the word?

It's because at the establishment of the church, that's what they did.

Do you see that in verse 42?

They're gathering together into the temple, breaking bread, praying together, fellowshipping together, and listening and devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching.

And look what's happening as a result in verse 43.

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

The church is established, the church gathers, and now God is doing a mighty work in the hearts of those who are gathering in the church.

He's creating this fellowship, he's creating this unity in the life of the church.

And look at verse 45.

They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing to the proceeds to all as any had need.

And you see that, church?

You see that?

Just to pause again, you see that?

It's commitment to the mission of Christ.

These people are sold out through their commitment to the church, they're sold out to Christ and his mission.

They're saying, I'll give anything.

I'm selling all my possessions so that Christ's name can be known.

And then verse 46.

And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.

They're meeting as a large group, they were breaking bread in smaller groups, meeting in their homes.

They received food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And then look what God did through the church.

It was always God's intention through the church.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Why did God do that?

Because the church is his chosen institution.

The church life is to be the loudest proclamation of the gospel.

Church, what we have here should be very unique to the world.

Someone who's never been to church should walk into this room and say this, this is really weird.

Why are all these people together in the same room?

Church, think about it.

Look to the people on your left.

Look to the people on your right.

Where else in life do you find yourself in a group of people like this?

It's only in the church.

Where else in the world do you find forgiveness ruling the day?

People forgiving other people of their sins for absolutely no reason.

Where else in the world do you find people serving other people just so they can serve, with nothing expected in return?

Where else in the world do you find people committing their time, their treasures, and their talents to a group of people with no expectation of return just because they love that people?

There's nowhere else in the world.

Except the Church of Jesus Christ.

I want you to also see that it's biblical and that it's assumed in its government.

As the churches are established throughout the New Testament, we see that they're given a structure.

There's a government set in place.

The New Testament is clear that the church is made up of elders and deacons and members.

And church, as a pastoral warning, one of the things that I need to warn you of is that there are many churches today, and I can boldly put quotes around them, who are not churches according to the definition of the New Testament, because there is no leadership.

I was having this conversation just the other day of a person who was attending a house church, and I said, Oh, that's great.

Well, who are the leaders?

This is a person that's very close to me that I love dearly, and I and I strongly believe that there's some false teaching happening in this church.

And I say, I want to talk to the leaders.

Well, there is no leadership.

Well, then it's not a church.

If there are no elders, if it doesn't look like the structure Jesus has given to a church, if it doesn't smell like a church, it's not a church.

Jesus gives to its church leadership.

Elders are called to lead the local church.

But not only that, there's an expectation for you when it comes to the leadership of the local church.

Look at Hebrews 13, verse 17.

Hebrews 13:17

And this is on the screen for you.

It says, obey your leaders and submit to them.

Obey your leaders and submit to them.

Let me ask you this question.

If you're not a member of a local church, how are you able to obey this command in Scripture?

Who are your leaders?

This is the reality.

If we have not committed ourselves to the care and the community of the local church, we don't have any leaders.

And I've seen this firsthand.

I watched a family walk in sin.

Clear, blatant sin.

And the church engage in the process of church membership.

And then get to a point where they sit down with the elders and they point to the elders and say, Well, it doesn't matter what you say because I'm not a member here.

And they were fine to obey the church leadership so long as the leaders said what they liked.

But when it came to the leaders pressing into their life and trying to convict them of sin and point out what was clear sin in scripture, they said, I'm not a member here.

They couldn't obey this command because they hadn't committed to the local church.

And you know what the reality is?

Those people were right.

When they said, I'm not a member, they were totally right.

They hadn't committed themselves to the care of the local church.

And so there was really nothing that the elders could do because this people from the very beginning never wanted to be cared for in the first place.

Scripture calls us to obey our leaders and submit to them.

It doesn't stop here though.

Okay, if you're uncomfortable with this verse right now, I want you to know that the uncomfort is 100 times magnified when it comes to the elders of the church.

Do you want to know why Dave Grant sat so close to the exit door?

It's because of the verse I'm about to read right now.

This is terrifying.

Look at what it says in Hebrews 13, verse 17.

Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Church, do you know that one day I will stand before the Lord?

One day Dave Grant will stand before the Lord.

One day, Dave Locke will stand before the Lord, and the Lord will look at us.

And I don't know if there's gonna be a picture of all his children up there, of all the sheep that were a part of this church, but it's all these people that God loves so deeply that his steadfast love is so rich for.

And he's gonna say to us, the leadership of this local church, How did you care for my sheep?

That day terrifies me.

I want to be one who on that day hears, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

I want to be one who's cared for the church well, who's provided tender, compassionate care and love to the body of believers that's gathered together at Redemption Church?

But this is my question.

Who then is the church?

Who's the church that I'm gonna give an account for on one day?

Of how well I've cared for them.

Is the church maybe someone who's attended once?

Is that the person I'm to give an account for?

Is the church a person who maybe attends but doesn't hasn't really committed to the life of the church and so has provided the leadership of the church really no opportunity to care for them?

This is an argument for membership in the church.

That the church is the local body of believers that is gathered together and committed by membership to the church.

It's those who have submitted, have chosen to obey this verse, who clearly know who their leaders are.

Last thing I want you to see, and we'll do the we'll see this very quickly, is that church membership is assumed in the picture that the New Testament gives us of the church.

The New Testament, you could spend a whole sermon on just this point.

The New Testament gives us so many illustrations of the church, and each one of them point us to the reality that the church is comprised, the local church is comprised of a body of believers in which you know who is in and who is out.

The first illustration that comes to mind is the illustration that the church is the family of God.

At Thanksgiving dinner, at family dinner, you know exactly who's supposed to be there and who's not supposed to be there.

In fact, last week I made a really, it was not a funny joke at all.

It was it was not like an unfunny, distasteful joke, but it was just a joke where nobody laughed.

But a person said he was going to his house to have family dinner, they're gonna have some roast beef, and I said, Oh, can I come?

And he was just like, No, no, you can't.

And it was right for him to say that.

I'm not in his family.

And it was just a silly little joke, but it maybe established a truth that we're getting at here is when the church is called a family of God, we know who the family is.

Church is also called God's building in 1 Corinthians 3.

And as you think about your house, and you think about the structure of your house, you look at each wall and you say, I am so thankful that this wall was here.

I'm so thankful that this wall is here.

It provides structure and support to the house.

In the same way, as God thinks about this building that He is establishing and building, its members are the structure of the church.

Its members are the church.

And the reality of us committing to the church is that until we do that, we are not really engaged in the life of the church.

We're sitting in the lumber pile outside of the house, waiting to be tacked on to God's building.

Another illustration that's often used for the church is the body.

Just as a joke, this morning, as I was putting my daughter's coat on, I put one arm in.

I said, arm, you put the arm in, right?

This is how it's gotta work.

Arm, put the arm in.

You gotta focus them on the thing they gotta do.

And then after she had two arms in, I said, arm, and she looked at me, and she's like, I have no other arms to give.

I only got two arms.

And from a very young age, she knows which limbs are hers.

And in the same way, the church is called the body of Christ because it's made up of the members of the body that are functioning together as the church.

This is assumed in its picture.

Church membership is biblical.

Well, lastly, I want you to see this.

What does it mean to be a church member?

What does it mean to be a church member?

Well, the first thing it means is that I embrace the commitment.

I embrace the commitment.

First step of church membership is that you recognize the commitment that Christ has made to you.

You know what another illustration of church membership is?

It's of marriage.

And what Jesus says is that he is the groom and church, who is his bride?

It's the church.

His bride is the church, his bride is those people who have confessed along with Peter, have recognized how deep Jesus' love for them is, that Jesus would come from heaven to earth to dwell as a baby, grow as a boy, walk perfectly as a man, and then die on a cross so that they can have life.

This is the church.

The church is made up of those who believe by faith that Jesus was so committed to them that he would stop at no length to save them.

And in response to that commitment that Jesus has made for us on the cross, we as the bride of the Christ, notice the bride being the church, not just you, you along with the church, respond in commitment to Christ that is fleshed out in the life and love of the local church.

What does it take to be a church member?

Well, it takes that you are a Christian.

This is why part of the process in church membership in our church is an elder interview, and we say that word just to terrify you because interviews are meant to be terrifying, but it's not a terrifying thing.

All we want to hear is your gospel, your understanding of the gospel, and come to an understanding that you are a Christian.

And that's what it takes to be a member.

But you need to know that the sweetness of church fellowship really awaits your commitment.

It awaits you saying, publicly declaring, I want this church to be my church.

You know, I think I'm so convinced that there are so many people who want the blessings of the church without commitment to the church.

And I just need you to know that the sweetness of fellowship in the life of the church is reserved for those who have called this church their family.

Listen, I experienced this so personally in my own life in just the last few months.

I came to this church from another church that I called my church family, and I couldn't fathom.

After being with that church for eight years, God had grown a love so deep for the people there.

I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without these people regularly speaking truth and love into my life and changing me.

I got looked around at these people that I'm leaving and I'm slowly going away from, and I'm thinking, I don't know how I'm gonna make it without these people.

And yet God brought us here.

And on the very first day we were installed.

I was installed as the lead pastor of this church, my wife as a member, and you need to know that so quickly God knit our hearts together with the people at this church, so that I look around this room and I see brothers and sisters in Christ, and I feel that same affection that I felt for that church that I was a part of for eight years, because this is what God does in your life when you commit to a church.

This is the family of God, and it functions as the family of God, and you experience it as the family of God because it was meant to be the family of God.

And so embrace the commitment.

The next thing you do is you execute the responsibility.

Again, we could spend a whole message here, and I want you to know that in the new year, next September, we're gonna be doing a whole series on the church where we dig deeper into some of these verses and begin to understand what God wants us to understand about the church.

And so hopefully, just this just maybe itches our desire for more.

But as a church member, we have responsibility.

We have responsibility publicly to stand and declare that this is my church, to participate in baptism if we haven't been baptized, and to participate in the baptism of others who are making a public profession of faith.

To take the Lord's Supper.

All these things are visible, public signs that this is my church.

Isn't that what the Lord's Supper was always intended to be?

A fellowship with Jesus and his disciples, a sweet intimacy sharing a meal together where Jesus said, This is my flesh and this is my blood.

And we celebrate that together as a family.

It's a responsibility we execute publicly, it's a responsibility we execute physically.

The church, by its very definition, requires that we are committed to the physical gathering of the church.

That's what the church means.

It's the gathering of God's people.

And I recognize there's time to time where we just need to do that online, whether sickness drives us away or just this period of life keeps us away from gathering with the church, but the goal should always be to get back to this, to the physical gathering of God's people.

It's a responsibility we execute socially.

Not all church is about the social life of the church, but church is not less than its social life.

And it's required that you are building deep relationships in the church, that you are creating the bonds of friendship in the church.

It's a responsibility we execute affectionately.

And so Scripture is filled with one another, is calling us to grieve with one another, to mourn with one another, to rejoice with one another.

It's a responsibility we feel financially.

So this is what we've seen in Acts 2.

Product of God moving is that people wanted to use their resources, both resources of money, but also resources of time and talent.

They wanted to use all those things for the progress of Christ's mission through the church.

To be part of a church means I'm executing my responsibility ethically.

I'm committed to the way that the church is leading me.

You know what I find so often?

One of the greatest dangers in our life is that we'll make a major life decision without seeking the counsel of those God has placed in our life to help guide us, that know us and love us.

I've seen so many people move away from a city with a church that they were a vibrant part of to a place with no church.

And if they had just stopped for one moment and said, hey, is this a good move?

Numbers of people would have said no and would have kept them from making such a disastrous move to a place with no church to support them and walk alongside them.

It's a responsibility we execute ethically, it's a responsibility we execute spiritually.

Listen, the church needs your gifts.

If you hear or if you are a Christian, you are given spiritual gifts.

And some of you are sitting on the sidelines, and you need to hear this message that the church needs you.

We can't function the way that we're supposed to without your help.

Without your time, without your talents, without your treasures.

It's like the body of Christ is limping.

It's like we're missing an arm.

And because you're not engaged in the life of the church, because you're not committed to the church, we're missing your involvement and we're the worse for it.

And so we take this time just hopefully as a message from God through me to you to say the church needs you, that there is great opportunity in the life of this church to serve for the kingdom of Christ, for the proclamation of his name.

This is the responsibility that we need to execute as church members.

And the last thing that we do as church members, the last thing it means to be a church member is we enjoy the benefit.

We enjoy the benefit.

What's the benefit of church membership?

All those things that I just listed as a responsibility, a responsibility that's public, a responsibility that's physical, responsibility that's social, responsibility that's financial, responsibility that's ethical, and responsibility that is spiritual, all those responsibilities are the benefit.

When you engage in the life of the church, you experience those things for yourself.

The church gathers around you and you experience what it means to be the family of God.

You get to enjoy all these things.

And so, church, listen.

This church needs you.

There is ministry at this church, there is mission at this church that is waiting to be fulfilled because you have not yet committed.

God has placed you here and he calls you to his mission through the local church.

Listen, it doesn't need to be Redemption New Market.

I love this church, and I believe firmly in the good that this church is doing, but I also understand that this isn't the only church.

And I'm not about the kingdom of Redemption New Market, and neither are the elders.

I am about the kingdom of Christ.

And if that means you need to be involved in another local church, then I happily say, go and be blessed doing that.

But all that to say that the local church needs your commitment, it awaits your commitment.

There is ministry that is not being fulfilled if you are sitting on the sidelines.

This is why Paul at the end of his life is really able to look at his ministry and say these words.

They're fascinating words.

He says by the power in Romans 15, 19, it says, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Elycrium, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

How can Paul do that?

How can Paul look at his ministry and say I fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Well, it's because God has used him for the purpose that he had set out for Paul, so that Paul can look at the end of his life and say, I've been used by God for the ministry that he had set out for me.

And church, let me ask you this question: Is the same going to be said of you?

There is ministry to be fulfilled in this church.

Will you be able to stand at the end of your life and look back and say, I faithfully served the church and fulfilled my ministry to the bride of Christ?

Let's pray.

Father, God, thank you.

Lord, thank you for the church.

God, I'm so aware that because the church is made up of sinners, because it's leadership, even the leadership of this church is sinful.

God, it's it's often so messy.

And it's often filled with hurt and pain.

And yet, Lord, let not the minor incidents, the rare incidents, blind us to the great wealth of things that you have done through the history of this world through your church.

God, I pray that we wouldn't be blinded to the reality of the gospel ministry that is awaiting Newmarket, that's awaiting York Region, that is awaiting our nation, that is awaiting our world, for the ministry of believers that you have gathered here at the church.

God, you have a plan for us and we believe that.

Lord, you want to use us mightily.

You've promised, Lord, you told us to go and make disciples.

And the things that you've called us for, you'll equip us for.

And so, God, I pray that even right now, God, in our hearts, would you find faith, Lord, that you want to use us.

And that the vehicle you have chosen and created for us to be used is life in the church.

God, show us the sweet blessings of fellowship and family that is in the church, that awaits us in the church.

And God, whether we're members, whether we're awaiting membership, whether we're attending for the first time, God, whether we don't even believe in you, Lord, I pray that you would have such a sweet picture for us of what is available to us if we press into the life of the church because God, you love the church.

So help us by your spirit.

God, we pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.