The Church: Her People

Exegetical Idea: Jesus builds his church by giving them the keys to the gates of Hell so they can bind and unloose what is bound and unloosed in heaven.

Theological Idea: Jesus builds his church by bringing it from heaven to earth.

Homiletical Idea: Jesus uses church membership to make the invisible visible.

Introduction

Alright, now, we have covered a lot of this Scripture already in our sermon last week. We said that when we ask who Jesus is, we need to realize that Jesus is Lord. And that has implications for us as individuals and that has implications for us as a church. For individuals, it means that we need to remember that we are saved by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone according to Scripture alone. It ought to make us humble. But we also said that if Jesus really is Lord and he really has saved us, then he gets to call the shots. And we ought to learn how to be obedient to him and listen to him. We also said that as a church if Jesus is Lord, then we really need to be a community of the forgiven. We need to be a community of grace and a community of reconciliation. We need to be quick to forgive one another, we need to be quick to seek God’s love. However, if Jesus is Lord, then that means that he gets to build his church his way. If Jesus really is Lord, he gets to build his church his way. And we left last week asking, “What is that way.”

Jesus builds his church

Well, our passage today tells us how Jesus does that. He does that by giving the church the keys to the kingdom of heaven and as whatever we unleash on earth will be unleashed on heaven and whatever we bind up on earth will be bound up in heaven. Well that’s clear isn’t it? What in the world does that mean? Well, the way the church has always answered that is that, technically, there are three ways that the church unlocks the gates of hell and unleashes here on earth what is unleashed in heaven and binds on earth what is bound in heaven. So technically there are 3 “keys”, but, as I will explain here in a moment, I think that there is one primary key that Jesus has in mind. Okay, so here are the three keys. The first one is “preaching of the Word of God.” We might also include, prayer with that, as will be evident in a moment. The second one is baptism and the Lord’s supper. The proper practice of the sacraments makes what is true in heaven true on earth. But finally, and this is what I believe Jesus primarily has in mind, the Church has historically said, “Church membership.” Church membership is how we unleash on earth what is unleashed in heaven and how we bind in church what is bound in heaven.

Now, originally, I was going to include this in last week’s sermon. But, there is a lot of misunderstanding around what church membership is. And because we live in Anderson, there are a lot of brothers and sisters who go to the Church of God who do not believe in local church membership. So, I thought it would be wise just to take a Sunday and talk about Church Membership and why we believe it is good and why we believe it is biblical. So here is what I want to do today. First, I want to answer why people might not believe in church membership. Second, I want to look at how this passage supports church membership. Third, I want to align this with some other passages in Scripture that imply church membership. And finally, I want to explain what that means for our church. So why some people might not believe in church membership, why we believe this passage supports membership, and third, what are some other passages that support membership, and finally, what that means for our church.

Why some people don’t believe in church membership

So why might some people not believe in church membership? Well, let me give you three reasons why some people might not believe in church membership.

Our culture is commitment averse: Part of the reason that there are many churches today that do not practice church membership is because our culture is very wary of committing to anything at all. Right, fewer people today stay married than used to in the past. Fewer people stay at their jobs over the range of a life time than used to. Fewer people live close to their family when they grow up. People today in general do not like to commit to anything at all, let alone become a church membership. We are wary of giving our loyalty to anybody at all.

While nearly half of the adult population attends religious services during a typical week, people’s conceptual bond to the local church remains tenuous. Fewer than one out of every five adults firmly believes that a congregational church is a critical element in their spiritual growth and just as few strongly contend that participation in some type of community of faith is required for them to achieve their full potential.

In 1999 George Barna said that, “While nearly half of the adult population attends religious services during a typical week, people’s conceptual bond to the local church remains tenuous. Fewer than one out of every five adults firmly believes that a congregational church is a critical element in their spiritual growth and just as few strongly contend that participation in some type of community of faith is required for them to achieve their full potential.” - George Barna

So, this is not a reason, by the way that church membership is correct. This is just a simple fact. Few people think that to be all that Jesus wants them to be they need to be committed to a church body. And maybe that’s you. And if it is you, I want you to just ask yourself this question, “Am I doing this because it is biblical, or am I doing this because it is comfortable. In other words, ask, is this right?

That being said, just because it is a commitment does not mean that it is bad. In fact, to commit to good things is a good deal.

Some people have been hurt in a previous experience: Now, another reason why some people might be anxious to join a church is that maybe they have done that in the past. Maybe they have reached out to try to join a church, and hte pastor let them down, or they were treated poorly. ANd let me be honest. I am a pastor of a church so I get it: sometimes the chruch can beat up its people and spit them out. And if that has happened to you, you need to hear a pastor say, “I am so sorry that you went through that.” Listen, there are few things that are more painful than seeing people you love and cherish and maybe even some leaders that you look up to, do something that is unspiritual and ungodly. It leaves a pain in your side which is hard to recover from. Listen, there are times when I have been so hurt by churches in the past, it is hard even to get up and keep going. And even you being here might be you taking a step of healing.

Take the time that you need: So if that is you today, you need to hear this before I say anything else. Take the time that you need to heal. You should not hear this sermon as Matt saying, “Just get over it.” No, that is a real pain and it takes time to heal and it takes time to recognize that. You take the time that you need to wrestle with that and bring it to the Lord with tears and crying. Take the time that you need to heal. We are not going to try to argue with you about how you need to do this. You need to take the time and heal and grow and recover. And all that I would encourage you to do is this, ask that God would prepare your heart for this step. This will be a big step for you, joining a church again. So all I want you to do is to ask that the Lord would help you recover and heal. And you need to know that you take as long as you need to heal for that, and we will be here with open arms whenever you get to that point.

Think about

Some people think that church membership is not biblical. Now, the last reason why some churches do not practice church membership is that they do not think that it is biblical. They don’t think that it’s Scripture, that local church membership is important. They think that local church membership is just not Scriptural. In their best forms they would say that we are all members of the church in heaven, and therefore we do not need to be members of local churches. And our dear brothers and sisters in the Church of God Anderson would say this.

So for example, Charles Brown, who was a professor at Anderson University here in town for many years and wrote a book on the theology in the Church of God, said this: “If the universal church is the eternal sea of the redeemed of all ages, then each true church of God is a gulf in that eternal sea. Now if you build a dam across the gulf so as to shut out the fish and the tides, then your gulf is no longer a part of the sea… It is the stern duty of every local congregation to keep itself open to every true Christian in the world… This means that the church, as the church, cannot be organized.” - Charles Brown

In other words, because we are all part of the universal sea, then each church is just a little coast or gulf in the large universal sea of the Church. So the question we have to ask is, “is he right?” Is Dr. Brown right. Is local church membership unbiblical? Or is it biblical? Well let me show you how I think the shape of this passage implies it, but also how I think that other Scriptures imply it.

Jesus Builds His Church

So first we have to say something. Whatever this passage is saying, we have to admit that Jesus is the one who builds his church. Which means two things. First, Jesus is the one building, and second, the church is Jesus Christ’s. So Jesus calls the shots. So we need to be faithful to what Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my church” Now remember, who is the rock? Is it Peter? No, it is Christ. This truth,t hat Jesus Christ is the Son of hte living God, the Christ, the Son of Man, truly God and truly man. That is the rock. And when we are faithful to that, Christ builds his church. WHen we are sure to confess it, when we make sure that we are faithful to it, he will build his church. Matt doesn’t build the chruch, teh leaders don’t built this church, our friendships our programs our evangelism doesn’t build the church, Christ builds the church. If Christ is not the one building this church, then it is not worht building. Listen, we as a church cannot be built on tradition, we cannot be built on ourselves, we cannot be built on a great preacher, on great worship, on small groups, on anythign but Jesus Christ. We need to build our church on Christ. THis is the relationship between Christ and teh chruch. In fact, we see this in a number of different ways throughout Scripture.

Is Peter the “rock”? So now the Roman Catholic Church would say that the apostle Peter is the rock that Jesus builds the church on. But the reality is that earlier, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pictures himself as the rock that we should build our lives on. And so I don’t think that is any different in this passage. Jesus alone is the rock, and Peter is instead named after that. Why? Because Jesus wants Peter to never forget who the true rock is and who he should spend his life testifying to.

gates of hell will not overcome it: And Jesus says that Hell will not be able to stop me building my church. What this literally says is that hte gates of Hades will not prevail or be stronger than it. What this is saying is that Hell will not be able to stop the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ over his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus Christ as King, Lord over all, cannot be stopped by the gates of Hell. We can be confident that as we proclaim Christ with everythign we have as a churhc, Hell cannot stop God overcoming it.

The keys: Now, why can’t the gates of Hell overcome the Jesus’ Church? Because Jesus gives them the “keys to the kingdom of heaven.” So, the keys to the kingdom unlocks the gates. As we do that, we are taking people out of the Hades and bringing them into the kingdom of heaven. We are, as a church, tasked with this amazing mission of bringing people out of their Hell, out of sin, out of Satan’s clutches, and leading them, like Moses in teh wilderness, to the promise of rest, rest in Christ alone. The purpose of the keys are to help identify those who are no longer bound up by Hades, but bound up in heaven.

Bound and loosed here on earth: Now, by what I have said, you might think that I am saying, “being a member here is what saves us.” So, let me say that as emphatically as I possibly can, being a churhc member does not save you. Only faith in Christ will save you. It is only by his blood that our sins are washed away and by his life that we will have eternal life. There is no other name on heaven or earth by which man can be saved. So, the question is, so what does this phrase, “whatever you bind on heaven will be bound on earth, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed on heaven” mean? So, to understand this, we have to understand, what is Jesus saying with this phrase, and then what is the phrase referring to. So what does the figure of speech mean, and what does the figure of speech refer to.

What is already in heaven: So, there are two ways to take this phrase. THe first way to take it, which maybe seems more natural, is to say, Because you bind something here on earth, it will be bound in heaven” and “because you loose something here on earth, it will be loosed in heaven.” The second way to take it, which I think is more biblical, is to say, “Okay, there is a reality in heaven, and the church here, unleashes that reality on earth.” In other words, it is to say, “God already has a set plan in heaven, but the church has an ability to discover that will and to apply it here on earth.” Now, why do I say it is more biblical? Well, what does Jesus say in the Lord’s prayer, “Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth.... as it is in heaven.” What I believe Jesus is saying is that the church has the ability to be the answer to that prayer: to apply on earth what is in heaven. To make the invisible reality of eternity visible before our very eyes.

Church Membership: So, if the church has this ability to discover God’s heavenly order and to apply it on earth, what is that heavenly order? Well, I believe it is church membership. In church membership, we discover who is truly a Christian, and we display it. We take the invisible church, which is all believers from space and time, and we make it visible here. We take a snapshot of the universal church and say, “This is what hte universal church looks like here.” In other words, because there is this membership that we have in the kingdom of heaven, we want to take show who the members are here on earth. THink about it this way. In an army, every member of the army is a member of that army. But that army is still split into companies. Does that mean that if you are a member of a company that you are not a member of the army? No but because you are a member of the army, you are also a member of the company. Now, you will say, “Why do you say that?” Well, this phrase, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven, occurs in one other place in the Bible. ANd it occurs in a , which says....

Now, pray for me, I am going to preach a whole sermon on this passage in a few weeks, so I know there are probably a couple of questions about it. But for now, here is all that I will say, when a church removes someone from their number for unrepentant sinning they are discovering what appears to be true in heaven and applying it here on earth. Which is why Jesus says in vs, 20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “hey, you can trust that you as a church are really doing my will when you execute this comm and you are obedient.” They are saying, “We can no longer be sure that you are a Christian, so we are withdrawing your membership, we are “treating you as a tax collector and a sinner.” In other words, to be a member of a church is for that church to say, “Hey, we see your faith and we see its fruit, and we are saying before the whole world that we believe your faith is genuine.” SO when someone refuses to repent of their sins, then you withdraw that status of being a member because their profession of faith is no longer certain.

So in all this here is what we see, Jesus uses church membership to make the invisible, universal church visible and local. Jesus uses local church membership to make the invisible, universal church visible and lcoal. Jesus gives us a snapshot of what the invisibile church looks like by giving us a visible picture of it.

Other Scriptures

Now you say, “Well, I’m still not convinced,” Don’t you worry, there are a lot of other passages that do not make any other sense apart from some kind of sense of church membership. So let’s look at a few of them.

First, let’s look at . Now remember, Dr. Charles Brown said, that we do not need local chuch memvbership because we are all members of the unviersal church. True enough. But look at this passage. It says there is “one baptism” but we all have our individual baptism. And there is one hope that belongs to our call, to Christ, but we are all called in different ways. Now here is my point. Just because there is a universal church membership, does not mean that there does not need to also be a local church membership.

Let’s look at … Now look at this. Peter says the the elders, “shepherd the flock of God that is among you.” now what that means is that there is a large flock of God, but the elders of a church are only responsible for a certain flock. Matt and Larry are not respnosible for the dear saints at Tri-County. We love them, we want them to flourish, we want them to seek teh Lord. But I will not answer to God because of them. But you know, when I stand before God, if you are a member here, I will be held to account for the things I have said to you, and for the ways that I have shepherded you, and for theways I have pointed you towards Christ. God will hold me to account for the ways I have preached SCripture to you and helped you. ANd he will identify and lay out the ways that I have not been perfect. But, he will not say to me, “Matt, why didn’t you preach a better sermon to Tri-County, or to Calvary Baptist, or to Madison Park.” He will say, “Matt, hav eyou been faithful to Southern Hieghts.” Now here is the question, how do you know which sheep are in your charge and which ones are not? Call it what you will, but the best explanation is something like church “membership.”

Let’s look at … What does Paul say there. He makes a distinction. He says, “love those outside the church.” He actually says, “I don’t mean that you should not associate with those who are sinning at all.” He says, “Don’t associate with those who are sinning who call themselves Christian.” He actually says, take the person among you who calls themself a believer and place them “outside of you.” SO does this mean that only Christians should come to churhc? Well, no. Because later, in , Paul says that outsiders will come in among you. Well, the only way that you can have someone who is considered an “outsider” who comes among insiders during worship time is if you have a group of insiders. Call that what you want, but that is what we mean by membership.

Let’s look at . Jesus says, “By this the world will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Now, bear with me here. One of the things about our church is that we have young and old, we have people from different walks of life, people with different education, people with different ethnic backgrounds, from different parts of the country, from different political viewpoints, and we all worship together as one body. Man, where else in the world do you have that kind of joyful unity? Well, the whole world knows that we have thsi love for one another if we are willing to commit to each other. If young and old say to each other, ‘you are people’, if right and left say to one another, ‘mine,”. We are all part of the same crew, this is our people.

Finally, says… I think some people assume church membership is ungodly because church membership is just “organized.” It seems dry and dusty, it seems like it’s too administrative. But here is the reality: God is not chaotic, he is orderly. Listen, God gives us permission and instruction as a church to organize ourselves so that we can vest worship him. Church memberhsip is just helpful. It helps us stya informed. It helps us vote on a budget. It helps us put leaders into place. It helps us grow as a church. It helps us know hwo is in and out. It helps us organize. And that is a good thing because God is organized.

Jesus uses church membership to make visible what is true invisibly.

Church Membership

So what does that look like? Why is that important for us as a church?

Humility: First, we need to be humble about this. Because the only reason that we are members of Christ’s church is grace. We didn’t die on the cross. Jesus did. We didn’t rise from the grave, Jesus did. We need to remember that the church is built on Christ, not on us. The church is not built on us or anything we have done. We are all part of what God is doing through the gospel. Church membershp is all about Jesus, and it is not about us.

An area of growth: So, one reason that is important is that this is an area where our chruch needs to be more biblical. Um, we currently have about 450 people on our church membership rolls. Which means that we are not accurately displaying the kingdom of God among us. So this is a time where we as a church jsut need to adjust. We need to make our church memberhsip rolls more accurate. We need to just make it a little bit clear. When a church does not have church memberhsip rolls, it is like a very fuzzy picture of something, it gives you a very vague idea about Christ but not clarity. Well, right now we are only giving the world a very vague idea bout Christ.

Understanding: Secondly, we need to grow in our understanding about church membership. We tend to htink about church membership like a rewards card at a store. But church membership is realy about joining a church family .It’s really about signing up for God’s army here, as we try to storm teh gates of hell. It’s a commitmtent, nad we want it to be.

Process: we need this to inform our process for taking in membership. We want people who join our church to know, “hey you’re signing up to be part of a family here. Here’s what that looks like. Here are all the ways that we will love you. And here are all thew ays that God wants to use you in our church. Is that okay? Are you ready for that responsibility?

How do you view your membership? SO maybe you’re a member here at SOuthern Heights already. Let me ask you this, how does this change how you view membership. Maybe you’ve become a member and if you’re honest, you’ve kind of let your membership become something less than a priority. And maybe God is waking you up and saying, “Hey, remember this is your family. You committed to these people and they committed to you. Remember that. Don’t give up on them. Don’t forget about them.”

Becoming a member: But maybe you’re here and you’re like, “Okay, I think I’m convinced. I”m ready to become a member. I’m ready to take this step.” The elders woud love to meet with you to sit down and talk about that. We would love to talk with you about what membership is and how you can join. Let’s pray.