Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 2:41-44

Why Would You Not Join the Church?

Those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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.[1]

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elieve it or not, there are professing Christians who reject membership in a church.

I suppose that these saints could give a variety of reasons for not joining a local congregation, though I cannot imagine a single excuse for their refusal to unite with a local congregation.

Perhaps one of the most common excuses given for refusal to openly unite with a New Testament Church is that one does not believe that the early church kept membership rolls.

Such statements are foolish, to say the least.

I contend that membership is both expected and demanded by the New Testament.

In order to explore this topic more fully, focus with me on the text selected for this day.

Those Baptised were Added … to What?  Let your mind drift back to the events marking the origin of the first church.

The Master, Christ the Lord, had ascended into the Glory.

Angels had appeared to the disciples, challenging them to do what they had been commanded to do.

Together, those who dared identify as followers of The Way gathered in an upper room where they were staying.

There, they devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers [*Acts 1:14*].

Preparing themselves for blessing and growth, the band of disciples continued in prayer for ten days, praying until Pentecost came.

Pentecost!

What a glorious day that proved to be for those first disciples.

It was not that they did not know that the Lord Christ was powerful—they had witnessed His power demonstrated repeatedly through the miracles and ultimately through His conquest of death.

However, they had not personally experienced the power of the Risen Son of God.

With the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, power was demonstrated in them individually and through them corporately, just as power waits to be demonstrated in us and among us to this day.

Filled with the Spirit, they began to communicate the glory of the Risen Lord to all those in Jerusalem.

Peter became spokesman for the nascent church and provided an exposition of Joel’s prophecy.

The result of this united revelation of God’s grace and glory among His holy people was that those hearing this message were cut to the heart [*Acts 2:37*].

It wasn’t simply that those hearing the message were wounded, but they were compelled to ask how their culpability could be assuaged.

Peter’s response is classic, it is the only answer that will lead to life to this day.

Repent and be baptised every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself [*Acts 2:38, 39*].

Our text begins with the receipt of this Pentecostal message.

Those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls [*Acts 2:41*].

Throughout the New Testament, those who came to faith were immediately baptised.

There was no requirement for a “baptismal class,” no extended period of waiting, no delay until matters could be arranged to make it easy.

Those saved were baptised.

There is no suggestion anywhere in the New Testament that anyone but baptised believers were admitted into the fellowship of the church.

No one was regarded as being saved until faith was professed through baptism.

This is evident through the following observations.

It was taken for granted in the New Testament church that all believers would be baptised.

Consider *Acts 8:12*.

When they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women.

Furthermore, carefully consider the response of all those who believed as presented in *Acts 8:35-38*; *Acts 10:42-48*; *Acts 16:29-33*; and *Acts 19:4, 5*.

The writers of the New Testament letters (Paul, James, Peter, Jude and John) take it for granted that their readers had been baptised.

They write of baptism as the time when their readers first experienced the blessings of salvation [e.g.

*Romans 6:1-10*; *Galatians 3:26, 27*].

It is taken for granted in the New Testament that only believers should be baptised.

There is no command anywhere in the New Testament to baptise anyone other than a repentant believer.

According to *Matthew 28:19, 20* those who are to be baptised are already disciples.

Having been baptised, they are expected to live in Christian obedience.

The examples of those baptised in the New Testament consist entirely of believers.

Carefully note that the teaching of the passages dealing with baptism in the New Testament exclude the possibility of any other than believers being baptised.

Consider, for example the instruction provided by the Apostle in *Romans 6:3-11*.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The churches of the New Testament were composed of baptised believers and only they enjoyed the privileges of church membership.

In our text, only those baptised were admitted to the fellowship.

All the privileges of church membership, and especially the breaking of bread, were reserved for those who had come to faith as witnessed through baptism.

Paul, in *1 Corinthians 10:16, 17*, argues that those who eat together of the one loaf at the Lord’s Table do so because they are already one body, united in Christ.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Clearly, Paul did not expect that one who had never been added to the church would be eating at the Lord’s Table.

The Lord’s Table is for believers, and no one was regarded as a believer who had not been baptised into Christ.

This raises the issue of what is meant by the phrase there were added.

Perhaps some would wish to argue that this refers to being added to a mystic union of all the saints.

If that is argued, then it must be concluded that baptism is required for such addition, and we know that salvation is by faith alone.

Underscore in your mind that this entire portion of the Word [*Acts 2:41-47*] emphasises the visible relationship of the believers.

Hence there were added [προσετέθησαν] should be understood of their addition to the group of Christians, not of their mystical addition “to the Lord.”[2]

To the one hundred twenty Christians who had gathered in the upper room, there was added an additional three thousand individuals who believed and were baptised.

Now, the church in Jerusalem consisted of three thousand one hundred twenty baptised believers.

Membership Rolls were Kept — Turning once more to the text before us today, we read that the three thousand individuals who were baptised were added… to what?  Obviously, the three thousand individuals who were baptised were added to the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem.

There was obviously a known membership of those who had believed and been baptised.

As MacArthur notes, “the fact that a precise number is recorded suggests that they kept track of those who were saved and baptised.”[3]

Later, in *Acts 2:47*, we read that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

People were being saved and openly confessing their faith, and thus they were identified with those who had already openly joined the church.

Clearly, there was a means of identifying those who were part of their number.

Later, when we read that more than ever believers were added in *Acts 5:14*, it must be evident that there was a base to which these new believers were being added.

What should be obvious is that the first church knew who the members were—they maintained a definable membership.

On this basis alone, we should require church membership and maintain a church membership roll.

Following Pentecost, the Apostles established churches in different towns and cities, and each of these churches were guided by elders from those same towns and cities [cf.

*Acts 14:21-23*; *Titus 1:5*; *Ephesians 4:11, 12*; *1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13*; *1 Timothy 5:17-20*].

It was deliberate that these churches had an independent leadership responsible to God [*Hebrews 13:17*].

The leaders had an identifiable flock for whom they were responsible and for whom they were accountable [*1 Peter 5:1-4*; *Acts 20:28-31*].

It should be abundantly evident to any reasonable person that the early Christians eagerly and willingly identified themselves with a local congregation [see *Acts 11:22-26*; *Acts 14:21-28*; *Acts 15:40, 41*; *Acts 16:4, 5*; *Romans 16:1-5*; *1 Corinthians 1:2*; *Philippians 1:1*; *Colossians 4:15*; *1 Thessalonians 1:1*; *Philemon 1, 2*].

To argue otherwise is to disparage their courage in the face of organised and persistent opposition to their Christian Faith, first from religious leaders among the Jews and later from the Romans.

All that would have been necessary for the first believers to avoid persecution would have been to refuse baptism and to refuse membership in a church.

Those who made no commitment were not considered to be Christians and thus were not targeted.

However, those first believers were of hardy stock that valued identification with the Lord and with His holy people in the church more than personal comfort.

Personal and formal identification must be assumed, which is one great reason we place a high value on formal church membership.

When Paul wrote to the various churches, he addressed his letters to the saints in such and such a church.

Clearly, those saints were identifiable and known to one another.

Why else would the Apostle instruct Titus and Timothy how to organise and how to care for a congregation if membership was unimportant?