1686. The Matter of Membership

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. We're continuing a study series called Church Matters. These messages were preached at Bob Jones University to help students choose a church home while attending college. However, these biblical principles apply to everyone, helping us choose where to worship with the body of believers each week.

Today's sermon will be preached by Dr. Alan Benson. We use words in interesting ways, don't we? Think of the ways that we, almost in one conversation, would use the word love.

We might look at a candy bar and say, I love chocolate. Turn then, pet our dog and say, I love you. And then your wife walks and you say, hey babe, I love you. And she could stand there and think, now I just heard what you said.

So like, what do you mean by that? Do you love me like you love the dog? Do you love me like you love chocolate?

Or do you love me? We use that in an interesting way, don't we? Just the way we use the word love. But in a strongest sense, there are things that we love and we love differently. I would die for my wife, and though I love my dog, I wouldn't die for my dog.

So there's different strengths to the use of that word. But today, I want you to know, I love my Savior. I longed to know Him better.

As Paul said, that I may know Him. The power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, love Him in such a way that I'm being made conformable to His death. I love Him in such a way that I realize I want to change. I love my wife. I'm still learning to love my life.

One of the reasons that I am so admirable of her is the fact that after 26 years, she still somehow loves me. And love that is actually present in light of knowledge actually is real love. That being said, I want you to know that as I come back again today to church matters, I want you to know that I love church. And in this series, our burden as the school you've chosen to be at, at this formative time in your life, a time of owning decisions, a time of formulating convictions, is that we hope through studying the Word of God, you too will come to love the church. It'd be easy for you maybe to sit there and say, okay, of course I know you love church. You were a pastor for 25 years.

You were on the receiving end. And I do confess that as a pastor, I was on the receiving end. And yes, it made sense for me to get people involved in church and get people committed to church, but I'm no longer on the receiving end. Two times in my life, other than when I first got saved at 11 years old, I and seven of us in my family all got saved. We had to wait till the water thawed so we all could get baptized the same day.

And we did, mom, dad, five kids. And shortly thereafter, we became charter members of Antigonish Baptist Church in Nova Scotia, Canada. First church I ever joined.

And so I confess, I was about 12 years old. Didn't have a great understanding of church membership. But I did come quickly to understand what a community of faith really did mean in the life of a believer. Other than that, two times in my life, I've had to other than career choose church, and both of them were in Greenville, South Carolina.

My wife and I got married. This is where we were for about two years, and we had to choose a church. And when the Lord led us back here to Bob Jones University about a year and a half ago, I came back to Greenville, and I had to choose a church.

I won't point him out. I'm very honored this morning that as I stand here and preach, my pastor is here in the building. And coming back again to choose church, not being a pastor, you know what? Somewhat it felt like a fish out of water.

How do I do this? And what am I looking for in a church? And what's it supposed to be like? And where do I fit? And I talked to people all of my life about using your gifts in the church, and what does that now look like for me?

And you know what? I talked to people about church not being a spectator sport. That's not how God designed it, and yet there's something in me after 25 years of pastoring. You know what it wants to do? It wants to go to church and sit.

Just kind of be here a little bit. So I want you to know that I understand the gamut of emotions with regard to church. But can I tell you that now, Lord, putting me in this scenario, this may sound strange to you, but I love the church more as just a church member than I did as a pastor. I love the community of church.

I love seeing a body function. We just recently went through a scenario where a young mother, a wife, in our church passed away. And to watch a body love, hurt, minister, care, just because there are church members and member of a body and love each other as brothers and sisters, not an official program or a commitment, just because of community of faith, deepens my love for the church. So today I want to talk to you about the matter of membership. The matter of membership. How important is a real connection to a real expression of the body of Christ?

The matter of membership. Last time we were in this study together, we began by looking at Matthew 16 and Jesus' statement. He said to Peter, upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And we talked about the fact that that signified the authority of heaven, to reflect the authority of heaven. I want you to turn with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation 1 will go, in a sense, to the other end of the New Testament.

And as I read, I want you to hear similarity in language. Again, it's Jesus speaking. Revelation 1 and 9 says, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

He was there imprisoned on an island because of his love for Christ and the Word of God. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, unto Pergamos, unto Thyatira, unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto brass, as if they burned in a furnace. And his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars and of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword. And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not.

I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.

He's now resurrected. Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou solaced in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. He's now going to address the letters to those churches and everyone will be written to the angel of the seven churches that he names here.

And the seven candlesticks which thou solaced are the seven churches. The reason I read that after reading Matthew 16 is this. I want you to see that in the pronouncement of the Great Commission, the authority that he is giving to the church, that Jesus Christ did not just come to earth as the Messiah, the Son of God for this age just to save individual sinners. Jesus came to save them and to call out a people for his name. Jesus Christ in this age is on a church building mission. You say, boy, why do you say that with such force?

Because all too often we hear statements in this generation, not just you, unfortunately more people like me, old people. I love Jesus but I hate church. Do you know how I would respond today if you said to me, I love you but I hate your wife?

Do you think you and I would strike up a great friendship? Or maybe the all too common, I love God but I don't want anything to do with church. The church is filled with hypocrites. Do you realize that that is exactly the place that God intends for hypocrites to be? Because that's where they're supposed to go to get changed by his word. Do you honestly think that if that's what you're thinking, I'm not going to church it's filled with hypocrites, that you're going to live somewhere other than church and it's not filled with hypocrites? You see, those expressions make no sense because God loves the church. Jesus is about building his church, a people for his namesake. The mission of taking the gospel to the world is committed to the church. So I want us really just to walk through some questions with regard to membership.

Some of them will be exactly maybe with the questions you have and some of them won't be, but I want to move quickly because I want to get to the end and talk about some commitments. So why is membership in the local church necessary? Well if nothing else, if you just consider the expressions of how ministry is to be done, it is to be done in community. You know well, you've heard it before, all the one and others of the New Testament are truth in community. There's an environment in which ministry is carried out. The environment that God intends in an accountable relationship for that to be done is what he calls the church. I want to move on from that though quickly because it really is more captured in the idea of the second question, how do we know church membership was practiced? Think with me if you will for a minute.

Church membership in the New Testament is like blood in the body. Now what do you mean by that? Well when you look from the outside, you may not see it. But do any of you right now doubt what will happen shortly after you poke yourself with a pin? You stick it in there and pull it back out. What is going to happen pretty quickly? Somebody tell me, what's gonna happen? Blood's gonna come out, right?

It's there, it's in there and anywhere you prick it, that's what comes out. And there's a sense in which when we look at the New Testament, when you prick the New Testament, what comes out is church. When it comes to argumentation, I'm not a big fan of arguments from silence. However when the evidence is replete, then the argument from silence due to the nature of assumption is actually a truly powerful argument. What do I mean by that? Well if you come to my house and you watch the behavior of my children in my house and the way that I respond to their behaviors, you would quickly become convinced that they are my children without me ever saying, this is my daughter.

In fact, after a period of time, I did say that you'd probably feel somewhat awkwardly that I was just like stating the obvious. As you read the New Testament, the same holds true for church membership. We don't have a passage of Scripture that gives direct prescription to say, thou shalt join the church. But if you spend time observing the church in the New Testament, the truth of membership and belonging becomes obvious. But how do we see it?

Well some things that indicate that to us. One, the number of believers was known. Acts 2 41, so then those who had received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. How do we know? There were more than 3,000 there, we know that, but some were added and some weren't.

So how do we know who was added? Someone took count and there was some form of criterion as to those that were added. Acts 4 4, but many of those who had heard the message believed and the number of the men came to about 5,000. You will find enumeration like that throughout the growth of the church in the book of Acts. But then once that body was beginning to be formulated, we know that there were special roles that were kept. Acts 6 1, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected. First Timothy 5 9 says, let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man. We know that in the church there were times that numbers were counted and kept.

We know that the election of officers assumes a role. Acts 6 says, then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you. There's an identified group, seven men of honest report. Verse 5, and the saying please, the whole multitude and they chose. So there's a number that is assumed and among that number they had a process out of which they chose someone from among them.

There was some form of membership. Church discipline assumes a role. Matthew 18 17 says, tell it to the church. First Corinthians 5 and verse 4, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

First Corinthians 5 and 13 says this, but them that are without, God judges, therefore put away from among yourselves the wicked person. There are people that are in and there are people that are out and there's a God-ordained process in which that happens. And so, like I say, if you prick the New Testament, what comes out is church membership. And it is thereby assumption, a powerful argument, that there is a gathering, a community of people that are gathered for the faith. There's some that them would say, well I think that's just universal, we're all in church, rather than it being about local church. Today in this format we don't have time to go into all of that, but I challenge you to go look at things like church discipline and officers in the church and those sort of things, how the New Testament identifies the churches are to do that, and ask how does universal church ever do that? What are the qualifications then for church membership?

I want you to see three things really. One, the initiation. Acts 2 38, then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Verse 41 adds this, then they that gladly received his word, capturing the idea of their salvation, were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Acts 2 47, Acts 5 14, 1 Corinthians 1, Philippians 1 1, all of these indicate that regeneration is a necessary initiation before church membership. We believe in a regenerate church membership. You have to be saved in order to be a member of the body of Christ and therefore to be a member of a local expression of the body of Christ.

But then there's an identification. In many of those same passages, you have repent and be baptized, or those that believed were baptized and added to the church. And the idea of the baptism there is an identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, and that that identification is a public proclamation of my intention to have a life patterned after following Christ, and that identification is necessary for a community of faith to be identified together.

The third thing then is the indication of that faith, which is an orderly life, and it goes to the other end of the process. We mentioned church discipline, and church discipline is happening in the context under the authority of Jesus Christ. Matthew 18, with regard to the authority that he gave to his church, and you see it then throughout the letters that are written to churches about how they are to behave.

You see it in the churches at Thessaloniki, you see it in the church at Corinth. And Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 5, he writes an epistle not to accompany with fornicators, and he gives clarification, but now I have written unto you, verse 11, not to keep company of any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or others. Verse 12, for what I have I to do to judge them that are without, do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without God judges, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And you see this, that those who are going to purposefully walk in a disorderly manner in disobedience to the clear commands of the Scripture don't belong in the church.

Now that doesn't mean that we're sinless, but it does mean that the progressive sanctification in the life of a New Testament believer is that he is in the progress of becoming like Christ with a desire to sin less. And so the church is an accountable community to encourage us in that. So what does the practice of church membership look like?

And this is really where I want to capture our attention. I would love to meet with you and talk about, really, is church membership in the New Testament? There are many of us that would do that. I would love to sit and walk this journey with you if that really is your question. But I'm not sure I'm talking to an audience that's sitting here questioning whether or not I should be a church member, but I want to challenge you in your thinking.

What does it mean to be one? Young people, God never intended for church to be a spectator sport. Church is not one of those things that I have the spiritual checklist and the duty is that now I believe I have to go to church and what is making God happy is the fact that I show up and I check the box that I went to church. In fact, you will find in the New Testament that showing up at an address at a set time, we meet with a group of people to go through some perfunctory activities, actually isn't what God describes as being a church member.

It really is body life. It's about you as a gifted individual for the purpose of using that giftedness to further the mission of Jesus Christ in displaying His glory to the world by ministering in the context of a gathered people of faith that interact as members of a body, each having their own role, each being uniquely called by God to enable that body to do what God intends for it to do. You have a place to serve Christ in the church.

That is His plan for you. Consider the analogies of the church throughout the New Testament. It is a family. It is a temple. It is a body.

It is a household. Think of what it means to be in any one of those things and you don't find spectators. God didn't call you to sit in the church. God called you not to go to church. God has called us to be the church.

So two things I want you to consider. One, the personal necessity. What does practice of church membership look like? It's there because of the personal necessity, the need for accountability. When you look at the New Testament, nobody is going to thrive the way God intends in their personal walk with God in isolation. God intends for our faith to be lived out and to be built up in the context of a community of faith where there is chosen accountability. And it's accountability for everybody that is there. You will find clearly in Paul's instructions to Timothy that there is accountability within the body for those that teach the body. The pastors, the elders have accountability to the body. You will find that the body general has accountability to those called to lead and to teach it. You will find that we are accountable to one another.

It is a community that is marked by corporate accountability. Why? Because we need that to grow. It's a help to us. So consider Hebrews 10, if you will. A passage we know well because it's often been used to say this is why you go every time the doors are open.

But it says so much more. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. A challenge for us like Galatians challenges us to, like the president has been challenging us to in Hebrews 12, to persevere in our faith. To add a persistence, an enduring quality, a stick-to-itiveness to our faith. And let us consider one another.

The word there is to evaluate. It is to know each other well enough that as we come into community, we're able to look at one another with an evaluation that helps us to understand how we are doing. And I, through interaction, come to understand. Are you doing well?

Are you not? There's an evaluation to consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works. The idea there is to stimulate. That in this interaction, as we come together and know each other, that the relationship is such that it stimulates us unto love and to good works, simply unto right thinking and right doing. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. When I look at this passage of Scripture, I take away from it that if someone simply walks to an address at a set time, sits with a group of people, goes through the motions and leaves, they still may have actually forsaken what the Bible considers assembling.

It wasn't showing up. It's actually being in a body that engages with one another in such a way that through the accountability and the encouragement, I am growing in my faith. Young people, I am challenging you today to get on mission about the church because it is the mission of Christ for your personal growth.

But then secondly, I want you to see as I close the practical nature, the nature of gift-based ministry. I won't take the time to read it, but I want you to turn there and read all of Romans chapter 12. We know the opening verses so well. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We know this so well. What the rest of the passage says, to every man that is among you. Verse four, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office. And he goes on to talk about the body and the individual giftedness that we have. Friends, I want you to see that God hasn't called you just with your gifts as an individual to do something for him to change the world.

He has called you to engage in his church that in community together you have synergy that through the church he will change the world. I believe in this generation. I believe in you. I am stirred every day by your passion to make a difference.

I watch you at times in lethargy and sometimes in apathy because you don't have something to believe in. But when you believe in something, there's not a generation that I see engaging with more passion. What I want you to see today in regard to church membership is this, that it is the plan of Jesus Christ that you believe in the church and you engage in her with everything that you have and God will give you purpose in life and he'll allow you to see the church change the world for his glory. Why church membership? I believe because the New Testament commands it.

I believe because Jesus Christ planned it. But I believe like nothing else in all the world it is where you will find purpose in life. It won't be in your career. It shouldn't be. It won't be in your hobby. It won't be in lowering your handicap or increasing your free-throw percentage. Because I'm telling you after 50 the check engine light comes on.

Do you know what friends? It will be in the church. It is the place that the God who designed you, designed you to live for him for his glory. Don't attend church. Choose church for God's glory.

Let's pray. Father thank you for your mission, for your work. God I thank you for the church that we have a community to belong to that helps us. That you have gifted us that through that community we can have purpose and make a difference for you. Lord I pray that you'd stir the hearts of these young people with a passion for your glory that looks like service through your church. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by Alan Benson from the series called Church Matters. Join us again tomorrow as we continue this series on church membership here on The Daily Platform.