Membership, Pt. 1

Introduction

We are continuing in our series looking at what makes a church healthy

· Expository Preaching

· Biblical Theology

· The Gospel

· Conversion

This morning we’re going to look at another mark of a healthy church

A healthy church is marked by the practice of church membership

· For some of you, that might come as a surprise…after all, membership seems like a small thing compared to something like the gospel

· For others, there might be questions of whether church membership is really a biblical concept at all

We want to address these questions, and we’re going to do that over the next two weeks.

This morning, it’s my goal to form a foundation of why church membership is important so that next week Pastor Steve Hatter can explain the practicalities of it.

But to start with, I want to sketch a profile of three different types Christians in our culture today:

· The Consumer Christian

o He shops for a church the way he shops for a car or a house

o He’s looking for a church that meets his needs—that has what he’s looking for

o He’s looking for a church based on what it has to offer him

o Maybe it’s a short sermon, or contemporary music, or a big children’s program

o Maybe it’s something else

o When he finds a church he likes, his commitment lasts only as long as his needs are met

o If the church stops meeting his needs, he’s more than willing to trade in this church for a different one

o Naturally, the church that can best market itself has the best chance of enticing him to buy into its services

o To him, membership seems a bit forward—after all, why should he join a church—isn’t the church there to serve him?

· The Distracted Christian

o She’s driven by a particular interest

o Maybe its Bible study, or feeding the poor, or evangelizing college students

o Maybe she can find those interests in a local church, but she doesn’t have to

o After all, as long as we’re ministering with Christian’s, we’re all the church, right?

o This type of Christian might easily end up devoting the majority of her time and ministerial energy to a parachurch ministry.

o Or she may be at a local church, but her only participation involves the particular area of ministry she’s interested in

o To her, membership seems unnecessary. After all, she may come here on Sunday, but really her heart is in the campus ministry downtown

· The Solitary Christian

o He doesn’t even go to church

o After all, the traditional church is stuffy, and the contemporary church is fake

o He’s seeking authentic Christianity

o Maybe he can get everything he needs through YouTube—after all, all the good preachers record their sermons anyway

o Maybe he doesn’t even do that—maybe he just hangs out with his home group and they talk real-life Christianity

o To him, membership seems somewhat laughable—it just represents everything he despises about the institutionalized church

Now, all these profiles reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of what the church is, what it’s responsibilities are, and how the Christian is to relate to it.

If we don’t understand what the church--and if we don’t understand how we are to relate to it as a Christian, church membership will not make sense to us.

Prop: So this morning I want to show you two fundamental truths about the church that help us understand the importance of church membership.

1. The Church is not a Voluntary Association

Most people in Western societies tend to group churches into one of two categories:

· Club: group of people who share a common interest

o Jesus

o Social justice (e.g., fighting poverty, etc.)

o Political activism

· Service provider: a business that seeks to meet the needs of consumers

“Membership” in both these views is completely optional

· You join a church just like you join a gym or a soccer club or a charity organization—membership is optional and completely up to you and your interests

· Or you join a church just like you join a Costco—does it meet your needs and have what you want

And at the center of these views of the church is the cultural principle of individualism mixed with consumerism.

· Individualism says, “I am my own authority.” I am the only one who has a say in what I do.

· Consumerism is a byproduct of individualism—“Since I am my own authority, then everything is ultimately there to serve me.”

But if you’re a Christian…

· The church is not a club where membership is optional

· The church is not a service provider—we are not customers

If you’re a Christian, you are already a member of the church

· Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t, because it’s clearly spelled out in the NT

· What happened when you became a Christian?

Last week, Pete Johnson preached on conversion

· Man by himself is dead in sin—spiritually unable to respond to God

· So God intervenes and awakens the sinner’s heart—regeneration

· He makes the sinner spiritually alive

· He gives them the gifts of faith and repentance—conversion

One of the most amazing things that happened to you when you became a Christian was that you were inseparably united to Jesus Christ

· Your life became his life and his life became your life

· There is an intimate union between you and Christ, so that Paul can say things like…

Colossians 3:4 When Christ awho is your1 life bappears, then you also will appear with him cin glory.

Galatians 2:20 I have been acrucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives bin me.

· Our union with Christ is one of the most important parts of our salvation

Romans 6:3 Do you not know that all of us awho have been baptized binto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were aburied therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as bChrist was raised from the dead by cthe glory of the Father, we too might walk in dnewness of life. 5 For aif we have been united with him in ba death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrectionlike his. 6 We know that aour old self1 bwas crucified with him in order that cthe body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

· Because we’re united with Christ…

o When he was crucified, we were crucified with him

o When he died, we died with him

o When he was buried, we were buried with him

o When he was raised, we were raised with him

o When he was enthroned, we were enthroned with him

· This is the basis for our justification

· This is the basis for our sanctification

· This is the basis for our glorification

But there’s something else you need to understand—your union with Christ was a two-for-one deal

KEY: When you were saved, not only were you united with Christ, but you were also united with everyone else who is a Christian

1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as athe body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, bso it is with Christ. 13 For ain one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- bJews or Greeks, slaves1 or free-- and call were made to drink of one Spirit.

Romans 12:5 so we, athough many, bare one body in Christ, and individually cmembers one of another.

Ephesians 4:4 There is aone body and bone Spirit-- just as you were called to the one chope that belongs to your call-- 5 aone Lord, bone faith, cone baptism, 6 aone God and Father of all, bwho is over all and through all and in all.

KEY: This “one body” is the church

This union is beautifully captured in the words of the hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation”:

Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth Her charter of salvation: One Lord, one faith, one birth (v2)

Yet she on earth hath union with God, the Three in One And mystic, sweet communionwith those whose rest is won (v4)

· In Christ, every Christian is inextricably united together into one body, regardless of gender, age, race, social or cultural status, or geography

· You didn’t join this group voluntarily

· You were placed in this group through the sovereign act of God, who…

o awakened your heart and gave you spiritual life through regeneration,

o transformed your affections toward God from hatred to love

o and enabled you to repent from your sins and place your trust for salvation in Christ’s death on the cross

KEY: The church is not a voluntary association. It’s a group of people who have been saved by the gospel, united with Christ, and united together into one body.

***So if you are a Christian, you ARE a member of the church***

Transition: Now, if we’re already members of the church, then why do we even need to talk about membership now?

· I’m glad you asked!

· That brings us to our second point!

2. The Church is the Highest Kingdom Authority on Earth

Our lives are consistently lived out in certain spheres of authority

Consider the life of a typical individual—what authorities govern his or her daily life?

· Parents

· Employers

· Government

For the average person, the highest authority that governs our lives is the state. It is the authority to which all other authorities must answer

· Families answer to the state

· Businesses and schools exist only by permission of the state

· For the average person, the state is the highest authority

But Christians recognize a higher authority than the state

· We recognize the state exists because God allows them to

· We recognize the state is a “servant” of God (Rom 13)

We recognize that Christ has ultimate authority

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, a"All authority bin heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

But what we don’t always recognize is that when Jesus instituted the church, he instituted it with authority as well…

Matthew 16:13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 And they said, "Some say aJohn the Baptist, others say bElijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter replied, a"You are bthe Christ, cthe Son of dthe living God." 17And Jesus answered him, a"Blessed are you, bSimon Bar-Jonah! For cflesh and blood has not revealed this to you, dbut my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, ayou are Peter, and bon this rock1 I will build my church, and cthe gates of dhell2 shall not prevail against it.

· First mention of the church in Scripture

· Peter’s statement becomes the foundational truth upon which the church is built

Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and bwhatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed1 in heaven."

· This is a monumental statement about the authority and responsibility Christ gave to the church

· Christ gave the church the enforcement mechanism for deciding, among other things, who is publically recognized as a citizen of the kingdom.

· The church doesn’t makesomeone saved…but it has the authority and responsibility to recognize and affirm who is saved based on how they answer the question, “Who do you say that Jesus is?”

Now, here’s the catch—there is no “universal church headquarters”

KEY: When we’re talking about the church, we’re not talking about the universal church comprised of all believers everywhere. We’re talking about the LOCAL CHURCH.

The local church is the church manifested in a particular location

· Local churches are not “parts” of the church—they don’t just add up to comprise the universal church

· The local church isthe church—the body of Christ—expressed in a particular location

And it is the local church that “is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to officially affirm and give shape to my Christian life and your Christian life” (p. 24).

With that, I want to introduce a paradigm for thinking about the local church—one that was first offered by Jonathan Leeman in his book, “Church Membership: That paradigm is the church as an EMBASSY.

What is an embassy? It is “an institution that represents one nation inside another nation. It declares its home nation’s interests to the host nation, and it protects the citizens of the home nation living in the host nation.”

That paradigm offers a corrective for how we view the church and our membership in it.

Leeman writes,

“When people ask, ‘Where is membership in the Bible?’ the problem is they’re looking for something like a club to join, because the word membership is a club word. Clubs and political parties and labor unions have memberships. But you don’t often use the word membership in relation to governments and the citizens of nations. You don’t say, ‘So, how’s the membership of the British nation doing? Aren’t you guys running, like, sixty million members these days?’” (p. 26).

He continues,

“Clubs begin with a point of common interest. Service providers begin with a common need or desire. Churches have all this, but they have something more: a king who requires obedience from his people. The church begins with this fact: Jesus is Savior and Lord. He has died on the cross for the sins of everyone who would believe and follow him” (p. 26).

He goes on,

“This means the Bible doesn’t talk about church membership quite as you might want it to. It talks instead about how God’s people gather together under his supreme rule. It’s interested in the citizens of a kingdom, not club members” (p. 26).

We are citizens of our nation

· Most of us are citizens of the United States of America

· Some of you may citizens of other nations and just visiting here

We all have a national identity

· We have a state authority that is over us

· It regulates our lives as citizens

· And it also officially and publically recognizes its citizens

· And if you have a passport, you have an official document produced by your government that certifiesthat you are indeed a citizen.

Now, when you first got your passport, you weren’t becoming a citizen. Rather, the state was officially affirming your citizenship.

· That’s not something you have the authority to do

· You can’t officially declare your citizenship to other nations

· Only the state can do that—they affirm your citizenship, making it possible for you to travel in another country while being protected by all the rights and benefits of your citizenship

Now think about this: If you’re a Christian, then you’re also a citizen of a different nation

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:13 He ahas delivered us from bthe domain of darkness and transferred us to cthe kingdom of dhis beloved Son

So we are citizens of the kingdom of Christ

And when we were saved, we joined the citizenship of all the sants who have believed down through the ages—everyone who is a citizen of heaven

Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer astrangers and aliens,1 but you are bfellow citizens with the saints and cmembers of the household of God

And the kingdom we belong to is a future kingdom—it is one that is yet to come.

So, as citizens, we wait…

· We wait for a savior, the lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20)

· We wait for when “the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and when he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15)

· We wait for when “every knee bows, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and when every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil 2:10-11)

In the meantime…

· we embrace the fact that we are sojourners and exiles” on this earth (1 Pet 2:11)

· we join the many saints who have come before us, who according to Hebrews 11:13, “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth”

· we, along with them, “are seeking a homeland” (11:14)

· We recognize that the land in which we live now—the nation of our earthly citizenship—isn’t our true homeland

· We desire, with them, “a better country—a heavenly one” (11:16)

So here we live—in the present, yet citizens of a kingdom that is future

We’re foreigners in this world—a world that is hostile to us and to what our kingdom represents.

· Where do we do to find asylum from hostility?

· Where do we go to be with fellowship citizens of the kingdom?

· Where do we go to find recognition of our heavenly citizenship?

KEY: WE GO TO THE KINGDOM’S EMBASSY—we go to the local church!

Leeman writes,

The local church “represents Christ’s rule now. It affirms and protects his citizens now. It proclaims his laws now. It bows before him as King now and calls all peoples to do the same…. A local church is a real-life embassy, set in the present, that represents Christ’s future kingdom and his coming universal church” (p. 28).

Now, understand, the local church is NOT the kingdom. Rather, it is an embassy of the kingdom—they sit in the world and represent the kingdom of God to all the nations.

So when you, as a Christian, darken the doors of Anchorage Grace Church, it’s like you’re walking through the doors of an embassy of Christ’s kingdomclaiming citizenship in the kingdom of Christ.

Christ has given the local church the authority and the responsibility of identifying and affirming who belongs to the kingdom and who doesn’t.

How does a church do that?

Matthew 16:15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter replied, a"You are bthe Christ, cthe Son of dthe living God." 17 And Jesus answered him, a"Blessed are you, bSimon Bar-Jonah! For cflesh and blood has not revealed this to you, dbut my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, ayou are Peter, and bon this rock1 I will build my church, and cthe gates of dhell2 shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you athe keys of the kingdom of heaven, and bwhatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed1 in heaven."

· The clarity of the gospel is the reason the church can have the keys to the kingdom

· Through the clarity of the gospel and the authority of the Word of God, the church can affirm a person’s citizenship based on how they answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Likewise, when a person professes Christ—claims citizenship in the kingdom—but doesn’t live out that profession—the church has the authority and responsibility of rescinding that affirmation.

Matthew 18:15 a"If your brother sins against you, bgo and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have cgained your brother. 16But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established aby the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, atell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, blet him be to you as ca Gentile and ca tax collector. 18Truly, I say to you, awhatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed1 in heaven. 19Again I say to you, if two of you aagree on earth about anything they ask, bit will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

Church discipline happens when the church can no longer vouch for a person’s citizenship.

· They say they are a citizen

· But they refuse to respond to Christ’s authority as a citizen

· It doesn’t mean a person has lost their salvation

· But it does mean that a church no longer has confidence in their salvation

Now, this is a big responsibility, and churches don’t always get it right. But it’s their responsibility to try as best as they can.

That’s why part of membership at Anchorage Grace involves talking with a pastor.

· We want to know your testimony

· We want to ask you about your faith

· It’s not because we don’t think you’re a Christian

· It’s because we just want to get it right

· We want to say, “Yes, we’ve heard this person’s testimony and profession of faith, and we affirmthem as citizens of Christ’s kingdom”

Sometimes we might have to take some more time—to flesh out your profession because it’s a little unclear and we want to be careful.

And sometimes we have to say, “You know, I really don’t think you’re really a believer. I’m just not sure you really understand the gospel.”

That’s a good thing!

· If we affirm someone as a Christian and they aren’t really a Christian—that’s not good for them! That gives them false affirmation.

· At the same time, it also puts the testimony of Christ’s church at risk—if they aren’t a believer, they’re not going to live like one, and that will create confusion for the world.

So the embassy paradigm really reorients our understanding of church membership

· Being a member doesn’t mean you’re signing up for an interest group

· It doesn’t mean you’re patronizing a church like a customer would a business

Leeman puts it this way:

“A church member is someone who walks through the embassy doors claiming to belong to the kingdom of Christ. ‘Hello, my name is Christian.’ The embassy official taps a few keys on his computer and then says, ‘Yep, I see your records here. Here’s your passport.’ The individual can now enjoy many of the rights, benefits, and obligations of citizenship even though living in a foreign land. But not only that—and here’s the crazy part—the individual becomes part of the embassy itself—one of the officials who affirms and oversees others. To be a church member is to be the church, at least a part of it” (p. 29).

To put it succinctly:

“A church member is a person who has been officially and publicly recognized as a Christian before the nations, as well as someone who shares in the same authority of officially affirming and overseeing other Christians in his or her church” (p. 29).

Now, membership is more than just that—that’s where all the various biblical metaphors for the church come in.

The church is a…

· Family

· Body

· Flock

· Temple

And Pastor Steve Hatter is going to flesh out the practical concepts of being a church member next week.

But viewing the church through the embassy paradigm really is the first step in reforming our often culturally-warped views about membership.

Leeman: “The embassy-like authority of the local church gives individuals who mouth the words, ‘I’m with Jesus!’ the opportunity to demonstrate that those words mean something. The local church guards the reputation of Christ by sorting out true professors from the false. The local church enables the world to look upon the canvas of God’s people and see an authentic painting of Christ’s love and not a forgery. And the local church lays down a pathway with guardrails and resting stations for the long journey of the Christian life” (p. 30).

Leeman: “The kings and governors of the nation are not careless about whom they recognize as their citizens. Would the King of the universe care less?” (p. 30).

Conclusion

When I’m in a foreign country, it’s a tremendous comfort to know that if something goes wrong, I know there’s a place I can go and say, “I am a United States citizen,” and they will say, “Yes you are, and we will protect you as a citizen.”

Likewise, as a Christian—as a citizen of heaven—as a sojourner and exile living in a hostile, foreign land—it comforts me to know that there is a place where I can go and say, “I am a Christian,” and they will say, “Yes you are, and we will protect you and strengthen you and stand with you, because you’re a citizen of the kingdom.”

That place is the church—the local church.

Charles Spurgeon said, and I close with this,

“Give yourself to the Church. You that are members of the Church have not found it perfect and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a Church till I had found one that was perfect, I would never have joined one at all! And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect Church after I had become of member of it. Still imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us…”