The Church

Father, we thank you for the ability to be able to worship together tonight. Thank you for the men and women you have used to secure that freedom for us. May we not take it for granted. Bless the efforts of those who cannot peacefully gather because of fear of persecution. Be with them as they seek to meet in Your name.

God, as I seek to preach your Word tonight, help me do so faithfully. If I say anything that is contrary to Your Word, erase it from the minds of all who hear it. But if I say anything that accord with your Word and glorifies your name, magnify it in the hearts and minds of all who hear this message.

We love you God. Thank you for showing your love for us in the death of Your Son Jesus. It’s in His name we pray by the power of the Spirit….Amen.

Group Question 1:

What’s the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen a guy do to get a girl? Was it some elaborate plan to ask her out? Was it enduring the friend zone? Or even something else?

Introduction

Throughout history, guys have done some incredible things get girls. One famous historical story is that of the King of Sparta. He fell in love with Helen of Troy and literally waged war on Troy so he could marry Helen.

But how about a modern example?

Arthur Brooks’ Love Story

One of the wildest stories I’ve ever heard of a guy pursuing a girl comes from Arthur Brooks. Brooks is a prominent author, professor at Harvard, and former president of the American Enterprise Institute. When he was 24 years old, Brooks met a girl in Spain while on a weeklong trip to Europe. He was wonderstruck by this girl, but there were two big problems: 1.) They didn’t live on the same continent and 2.) They didn’t speak the same language. Yet, Brooks was still wonderstruck. After meeting the girl, Brooks immediately phoned his dad and told his father that he thought he’d met his future wife. In his own retelling of the story in an article in The Atlantic, Brooks said,

“After a year punctuated by two frustratingly short visits, I quit my job in New York and moved to Barcelona with a plan to learn the language and a prayer that when she could actually understand me, she might love me.”

After numerous trips, learning a new language, lots of misunderstandings as he learned the language, and many emotional ups and downs, Arthur Brooks finally married the love of his life. They are still married to this day and are going on 30 years and counting together.

So Arthur Brooks quit his job, moved to another continent, and learned a new language to get a girl.

What are you doing, guys? (Ha!)

Jesus and the Church

But believe it or not, neither of those stories or any that you all shared compare to what is undoubtedly the most incredible lengths a guy has gone to get a girl. And this story isn’t an obscure myth of history, but rather a story you all are very family with. In fact, we sing about this love story all of the time. The guy’s name in Jesus, and he gave up his very own life and experienced the just wrath of God for sinners to get His girl, the Church.

The Apostle Paul pointed this very thing out Acts 20:28 when he spoke to the Ephesian elders when he said, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

Paul speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice for His Bride, the church, even more clearly in Ephesians 5 when he says:

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

The Church is the bride of Christ and Jesus loves her dearly; so much so that He gave His very own life for her.

This leads to an important implication: you cannot love Jesus and despise His Bride.

If you love Jesus and want to follow Him, you must be passionate about what He is passionate about. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is passionate about His bride and that He cares for her. Therefore, if we love Jesus and want to follow Him, we must care for His Bride, the Church.

In fact, Ephesians 5 tells this precisely when it says, “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

Jesus is joined to His church. So if we are to be followers of Christ, it means we are part of the church and therefore we should care about the church. If we neglect the church, we hurt ourselves and demean what Christ loves.

What Jesus Says in His Word about His Church Matters

We might say that you love the church, but do our actions display that? Do we follow what scripture says about the church? We might say that care about the church but that a focus on theology divides. We might say that we don’t need theology, we just need Jesus. But of course, that’s not the approach Jesus takes. Jesus has a theology of the church. If we truly want to follow Jesus and love what He loves, then we must follow what He says about His Church in His Word.

Our goal tonight in this next installment in our foundations series is to look at what Jesus says about the Church through His Word, and see how it all applies to us. We’ll start with a big picture overview of what the church is, then we’ll talk about the offices of the church: namely elders, deacons, and members. We’ll spend the most time on why membership matters and what it means to be a church member, in what I hope will be a really practical discussion.

What is the Church

With that intro, let’s dive in and begin by defining what the church actually is.

The church is not a building, but a body.

More precisely, the church is the assembly of believers who make up the body of Christ.

Within this definition, we see that the church has two specific forms and the bible uses the word “church” to refer to both of these different forms at different times.

Universal Church

The first form is the universal church. The universal church is the assembly of all believers from every nation, tribe, and language throughout all time. It’s the spiritual gathering of all Christians who have ever lived and ever will live. This form of the church will only be fully and physically gathered together when Jesus ushers in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Revelation 7:9-10 gives us a picture of the incredible future physical gathering of the universal church when it says:

"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, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

All Christians who have ever lived are members of the universal Church. Paul affirms this in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 when he says:

“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. 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.”

Local Church

So if the universal church is the assembly of all believers from all time, the local church is one assembly of believers in one specific place at one specific time in history.

Put another way, the local church is the local and visible expression of the broader and currently invisible universal church.

Local church make up small portions of the larger, universal church.

Local churches are meant to be small pictures of the beauty of the universal church that has existed throughout the ages. Local churches are meant to be little pictures of the beauty of Jesus that has always existed.

We see many affirmations of the existence of local churches in the Bible.

For example, in the beginning chapters of Revelation, Jesus addresses the seven church of Asia individually. When he addresses these individual churches, he is addresses individual local churches from each of these places.

The Apostle Paul does the same thing in many of his letters. In many of these letters, he is addressing the specific problems and people at specific local churches. Of course those letters are also meant to build up the universal church, but they were originally intended for and written to individual local churches in Paul’s day. For example, 1st and 2nd Corinthians are not just meant for the universal church, but they were specifically to address the people at the church in Corinth.

Jesus Recognizes Both Universal and Local Churches

We even see Jesus recognize the existence of both the universal and local church by using the word church to refer to both in distinct scenarios.

In Matthew 16:18, when Jesus says, “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,” Jesus is referring the universal church.

And just 2 chapters later in Matthew 18, Jesus uses the term “church to refer to the local church. Listen to what 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 have gained your brother. 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. 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.”

The term “church” there is referring to a specific local church where individuals could actually speak and interact face-to-face.

Jesus does not just recognize the universal and local church, He is the head of them both. Colossians 1:18-20 affirms this when it says:

“[Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Jesus deeply loves both the universal and local church and we should too.

So, we’ve defined what the church is, and we’ve seen that the church has 2 primary expressions, namely the universal and local church. Now, I want us to get really practical and focus on our most direct and everyday experience of the church by focusing on the local church and what it means to be a member of the local church

Local Church Membership (What is it?)

In order to understand the local church and what the Bible says about our experience of the local church we must understand what local church membership is.

In our day, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, many churches are moving away from church membership. I think this is a grave mistake. So I want us to see the significance of local church membership which will help us better understand what the church is overall.

Local church members are what make up the local church. Sometimes we can mistakenly think that Pastors are the core figures in the church, but that’s not true. Pastors are members before they are Pastors.

Local church members are Christians who covenant together to care for one another, hold one another accountable, sit under the teaching of Scripture, and worship together as they proclaim the Gospel to the world.

No to be clear, the word “Church Membership” is not explicitly in the Bible, but, similar to the word Trinity, its truth is seen all over the Bible.

For example, we see a picture of church membership in the first local church, the church at Jerusalem in Acts 2 after Peter’s Pentecost sermon. Luke describes the scene for us like this:

“And they [the people of the church of Jerusalem] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the 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. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

So notice, people in the same area came together and devoted themselves to the preaching of the apostles and to fellowship with one another. They broke bread together, they cared for one another, they consistently gathered together to worship, and it was this coming together that drew others into the family of God. And what does verse 47 tell us was a foundational requirement for them to join the church? It was becoming a Christian.

But this isn’t the only instance in Scripture where we see local church membership displayed. We see it all over the place, especially in the illustrations of scripture.

For example, in 1 Peter 5:2-3, Peter tells the elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among [them].”

This picture of the local church as a flock of sheep is helpful. First off, a flock of sheep implies that there is a specific number of sheep who make up a flock in one place at one time. In other words, the sheep are members of a specific flock and specific sheep make up one specific flock. And the elders are the shepherds who must know what specific sheep are in their flock so they know which specific sheep to care for.

This is a beautiful picture of church membership: specific sheep who are members of a specific flock who are cared for by God-given shepherds.

Another beautiful illustration that points to church membership comes in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul uses the illustration of a body. He talks about how a body is made up of various parts such as eyes, hands, feet, and the head. Each of these parts need one another. The body could not function properly with just one part. These members make up one body. These members are specifically associated with one body and they are joined together in order to work and serve together.

This is another beautiful picture of local church membership. God specifically provided the church with people of various gifts and skills in order to serve one another in the church. Paul goes on to talk about how this is true in local churches in 1 Corinthians 14.

Paul is passionate about local church membership and the importance for the various church members to join together in a local body for the good of the local church and the universal church.

Family: One final illustration from Scripture that points to the reality of church membership. In 1 Timothy 3 and 1 Peter 4, Timothy and Peter refer to the church as a household or family. What is a family made up of? Family members!

The local church is like a family who formally identifies with one another and loves and cares for one another.

Notice that just showing up to family gatherings does not make someone a member of the family. For example, when I invited friends to my house as a kid and they would eat dinner with my family and I, my family might treat my friends like family, but that that doesn’t make them actual members of my family. My parents care for my friends, but neither my parents nor my friends are legally bound to one another. If my friends fall and break their leg at school, my parents are not on the hook to pay for my friends medical bills or to take them to the doctor. But if my parents were to legally adopt my friends, then the picture would be very different because there would be a legal and formal commitment to graft my friends into my family. Then my parents would be charged with the care for their newly adopted child. Additionally, my friend, as a newly adopted member of my family would be called to care for the other members of my family as they cared for my friend.

The same is true in the local church. If you just attend church gatherings, that doesn’t make you a member of the church family. The church and its members may treat you like family, but you are not formally part of the church family. The pastors are not accountable to God to care for you like they are for people who are formal members of the church. Similarly, if you haven’t committed to formal church membership, you have not identified yourself as a member of the family and have not committed yourself to be cared for by the church and to care for the members of the church.

All of the time, I see people who attend church but never officially become members consider themselves members of the church. They expect the same level of care as members and expect their voice and vote to be considered just as much as formal members simply because they attend. But because they have not made a formal commitment to become a member of the church and to care for others and submit to care, this assumption on their part has no basis.

Think about it this way: my friends were always invited over for my family’s dinner. But their regular attendance at dinner did not mean that they should expect for my parents to buy them a plane ticket to our family vacation or that my friend should expect to be able to decide where my family went on vacation. You have to be an official member of the family to do that.

It’s the same with local church membership. It’s easy to hang around for just the benefits. It’s another thing to commit to care for and be cared for by a church family as a member.

But to be clear, the benefits of church membership far outweigh the costs. To know you have a local church family committed to care for you and encourage you is an incredible thing. And caring for others in our church family gives so much life and points us to the glory of Jesus.

Even Jesus Identified Himself with the Local Church, So Will You?

So we’ve seen the reality of local church membership in the Bible and we’ve seen its importance. So the next question we have to ask ourselves is whether or not we’re a member of a local church? If you’re not and you’re a Christian, ask yourself why? If you want to follow Jesus and his lifestyle, then you should become a member of a local church. In Acts 9, Paul is on his way to persecute the local church in Damascus. On his way there, Jesus confronts Paul and says, “Why are you persecuting me?”

In the words of Paul Alexander, “Jesus identifies himself so closely with the local church that he considers himself persecuted when the local church is persecuted.”

So if Jesus identifies himself with the local church, we should too.

And the way we formally identify ourselves with a local church is by becoming a member of that church

How Do You Become a Member of a Local Church?

So what does it take to become a member of a local church? It usually takes one of two things.

Baptism

One way to become a member of local church is to be baptized into membership into a local church.

Baptism is the public proclamation of believers that they confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Romans 6 and Colossians 2 are clear about this.

But baptism is not just a statement of the believer, but also the church baptizing the person.

When a church baptizes someone, they are saying that they affirm the person’s confession of faith and that they will care for and look out for the person for the sake of their soul and the name of Christ. The congregation is affirming that the individual is a Christian and is committing to help the individual persevere in their walk with Christ.

The baptism ceremony is similar to a wedding ceremony. At a traditional wedding ceremony, you’ll hear the line, “Should anyone present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.” The reason that line is uttered is because the congregation of family and friends who know and love the individuals who are publicly professing their love for one another in marriage have a good idea if the love the couple is professing is real, or if they are being unfaithful by cheating on one another. The specially gathered congregation, by their presence at the ceremony, is implicitly affirming the love of the couple and is committing to walking alongside the couple to help their marriage flourish.

That same kind of thing is happening in a local church when someone is baptized.

Covenant

Following baptism, the next and final step to becoming a member of a church is to sign the church covenant. By signing the church covenant, you are affirming that you agree with the local church theologically in the key issues, and that you are submitting to the care of the church and to care for the other members in the midst of the church.

(If you’ve already been baptized) If you’ve already been baptized as a believer, then instead of being baptized again, you will sit down with a pastor or elder and take part in a membership interview. This allows the church to affirm, to the best of their ability, that you are actually a Christian. You can’t become a member of a local church body if you’re not part of the universal body of Christ. Once affirms to the best of their ability that you are a Christian, you can sign the church covenant.

Notice that churches have you sign a covenant and not a contract to become a member. That’s intentional.

Contracts are intentionally written to highlight how they may be broken. They are meant to mitigate sacrifice and commitment.

Covenants, on the other hand, are meant to emphasize trust and love. A covenant does not highlight how to break the agreement, but how that each party is committing to hold to their commitment even when the other party fails to hold of their end of the deal. We see examples of this all over the Bible between God and his people. But we also get a picture of this in Acts 2.

Let’s read it again:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the 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. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Notice that the specific language is that the members of the local church of Jerusalem devoted themselves to fellowship with one another. And the passage goes on to say that even when some church members were poor and could bring nothing of material benefit for richer church members, the richer members shared their lives and belongings with one another so that no one had any need.

That’s not contract language. That’s covenant language.

Becoming a member of a local church is a biblical and glorious thing. Being a member of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Being a part of this church family and being cared for by them as well as caring for many members myself has been an honor. My life and walk with Christ are so much better because of it.

If you’re not a member of a local church, I’d encourage you to talk to your pastor and ask him what the process of becoming a member at your church looks like. You won’t regret it!

Duties of Church Members

So, once you’re a member of church, what are your responsibilities and privileges as a member of that local church?

For the majority of the remainder of our time, this is what I want us to focus on.

Let me mention several of the key responsibilities of a local church member and touch briefly on them each.

Make Disciples and Baptize

One of the primary duties of a local church member is also a primary duty and privilege of all Christians: it’s to make disciples and teach them to follow Jesus.

Jesus explicitly tells us this in Matthew 28:18-20 when He says:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice that Jesus didn’t just tell pastors to make disciples. This Great Commission is for all believers. All of us are called to share the Gospel. The first time your believing friend hears the Gospel should not be when they hear Pastor Merle or Pastor Tim Fritson preach. Your unbelieving friend should hear the Gospel from you way before they ever step foot in your church. But being part of a local church is a great way to continue to be taught and encouraged to follow and obey Jesus.

Bear With One Another in Love

Our next responsibility as local church members is to bear with one another in love.

Colossians 3:12-14 says:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Paul put this another way in 1 Corinthians 12:24-26 when he’s writing to the local church at Corinth:

“But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

We are called to love the members of our church family and care for them. This is the beauty and strength of the local church: that her members love one another and care for one another with and through the hope of the Gospel.

Live Generously

Another responsibility and privilege of being a local church member is that we are called to live generously. To be clear, this doesn’t just mean to tithe although that’s an implication of this. The deeper point is that we are called to live generously with all of our lives; not just our finances, but with our time, talents, and energy.

Acts 2 gives us a beautiful picture of this. The whole church was generous with their finances, gifts, and talents and served one another.

For many of us here, the way we might need to live more generously might be with our time and talents. If you are not serving in your community or local church in some way that builds others up, you should ask yourself why? What would it look like to live more generously with your time and talents. You have no idea how you might bless many through your service. If you come home and play video games every day and yet never serve, that’s not living generously. Ask God to show you where you could serve in your local church. You won’t be sorry!

Worship and Gather Together

Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.

Colossians 3:15-17: And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Use Your Gifts and Talents

Build Up the Church

Sundays are for believers

Elect and Ordain Elders and Deacons

Church Discipline

Proclaim the Gospel Together

(Sub-point)Members Elect Pastors and Deacons

Elders and Deacons (members are the people the church, and especially the elders, report to God to that they are taking care of).

Pray for your Pastors (Benjamin Keach Quote)

Nothing Can Defeat the Church

Pray

Related Media

Related Sermons