I Believe in Membership
Notes
Transcript
Handout
INTRO
I have a SAMS club membership… how is that different from church membership?
I have a Audible Subscription… is church membership like a christian subscription?
The church is not a CLUB or a spiritual SERVICE provider !!
Committing to One Another: Church Membership Biblical Membership Means Commitment
Being a Christian means being joined to a church.
PRAYER
A - God our father in heaven we gather today to hear your word and to bring you praise. You are the alpha and omega, by you all things came to be and by you all things are sustained. We praise you because you are worthy of praise. We long that you might receive glory through our lives.
C - Father as we explore church membership today we confess that many churches and pastors have miss-used and abused this role. We confess that we in our sinful nature have our own struggles with membership in a local church. Father we confess that we stumble and struggle to view and practice this gift in ways that glorifies your name.
T - LORD Jesus help us to reshape and renew our view of church membership. Help us to value it and protect it. Help us to long for it as well as use it to your glory.
S - Father God grow your church, not by mere numbers on a membership role but by zealous sons and daughters. Help us to fulfill our roles and responsibilities as members one to another.
MESSAGE
Is Church Membership Biblical?
Is Church Membership Biblical?
If a Christian is not an active member of a local body of believers they are in real spiritual danger.
You may be asking, “is church membership even biblical?”… ABSOLUTELY!!
While the term Membership may not be in scripture the illustration is…
Adopted into the family.
Galatians 4:4–6 “4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””
Bought as a possession.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
A branch on the vine.
John 15:4–6 “4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
A part of the body.
1 Corinthians 12:12–14 “12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
A sheep in the flock.
John 10:14–15 “14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
A bride to the groom.
you cannot except me but not my bride, we will have no fellowship together…
If you are not a member of a local body of believers why not?
Committing to One Another: Church Membership Biblical Membership Means Commitment
A temple has bricks. A flock has sheep. A vine has branches. And a body has members.
Churches have an inside and an outside, we are expected to know who does and does not belong!!
How We Become Members of the Church
How We Become Members of the Church
Salvation
Church membership a privilege bought for us with the blood of Christ.
You cannot be a part of the body without belonging to it… branch… bride…etc.
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
made members of the universal church of Christ by this exchange
condition not altered by name on a local church role
Baptism
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
first act of obedience
public proclamation / ordinance of initiation
Confirmation
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
public commitment to the community of Christ
Transplant drugs so the body does not reject
What is the Purpose of Church Membership?
What is the Purpose of Church Membership?
Christians need to be members of a local church so that, through a church’s accountability and exhortation, we are protected from sin’s deceiving, hardening effects.
The goal of church membership is that every single church member would help the whole church grow to maturity in Christ to the glory of God.
Discipleship
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Eph 4.11-16 “11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
building up one another
Submission to leadership
Shepherding the flock
guarding one another
teaching / training … context of the church!!
Learn from both positive and negative examples in scripture… Cain / Joseph
Unity & Love
Cultural Identity
I follow...
I belong to...
I identify as…
Personal Autonomy
Every member of the church is called to seek to overcome divisions and pursue unity in the church in order to reflect the church’s union with Christ.
James 4:1–3 = quarrels and fights… selfishness, discontent, envy
John 13:34–35 = A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Sin Nature
Discipline
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Excommunication exists !! = keys of the kingdom
Through willful sinning.
Hebrews 10:26 “26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”
Sin willfully continued in. (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)
Faithlessness—indifference.
Revelation 3:16 “16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Neglect.
Hebrews 2:3 “3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,”
Heb 10.25 “25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Drifting.
Glory
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Church membership—and the activity of regularly assembling with the church which it entails— offers a foretaste of the glory of heaven!
This is who you are and this is what you are made for!!
Practice like you play!
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
CLOSE
It is not good for man to be alone! you are meant for fellowship, relationship, companionship. You are meant to be a part of a whole, a member of a body, a branch on a vine, a living stone in a temple, a people of Gods possession and a sheep in His flock...
If a Christian is not an active member of a local body of believers they are in real spiritual danger and the body of believers is being neglected.
Group Questions
Group Questions
How do/would you define church membership?
Do you think your description would make it appealing to others? Why or why not?
Before this message, did you think it was important for Christians to be members of local churches? Why or why not?
If your opinion changed, why?
Give some practical, everyday examples of how you exhort your fellow church members on a regular basis. If you can’t think of any, what’s one practical way you can begin to help others grow in godliness and not be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness?
How is someone who is not a member of a church especially susceptible to being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness?
Based on this definition of church membership, what power does a church have? That is, what “teeth” does it have for ensuring that members submit to the church? What consequences can it impose?
Notice that Paul gives very different instructions about how the Corinthians are to treat those who are inside the church and those who are outside (vv. 9–13). If the Corinthian church didn’t practice membership, how could they have known who was “inside” and who was “outside” the church?
Imagine a situation in which an elder of a local church is faithfully preaching God’s Word, and he confronts a sin in your life that you just don’t want to address. How is this situation different for you if you’re a member of the church versus a nonmember?
How would you summarize the relationship between membership and submission to the church’s leaders? Can you truly submit to a church’s leaders without joining the church?
Let’s look at the question from another angle: Who are church leaders to give an account for? How are church leaders supposed to know who they are to give an account for?
According to Eph 4.11-16, who is it who does the work of ministry? How is this different from the way we often think about “ministry” in the church?
If maturity means that we are all unified in the truth and are able to successfully resist false teaching, what are some practical ways you can help others grow toward that goal?
What percentage of the body needs to contribute in order for it to grow properly (v. 16)?