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Why We Do What We Do The Way We Do What We Do: Church Membership and Church Discipline · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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Please take out your copy of God's Word and have it at the ready.
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Across the past five weeks, we preached topically through the five solas of the Reformation
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! and looked at their implication and application for the church today.
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We are very close to Advent season, and as we've done in the past, we're going to do again this year.
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We're going to preach through the five Advent candles, the topics, and consider Christ's coming
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and what that means for us. So we have a couple weeks in between.
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This past spring, we started a sermon series that we just said we were going to kind of sprinkle across time
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called Why We Do What We Do and Why We Do What We Do the Way We Do What We Do.
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Some of you may have been here and remembered that. The very first one that we did was
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about our musical worship, why we do music the way that we do music. And of course,
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I hope you know us well enough now to know that we root that explanation in the Scripture itself.
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So today, we're going to kind of pick back up on that and hopefully across time continue to do so
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and consider today church membership and church discipline.
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So why and how do we see people into the life of our church?
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Why and how do we correct people in the life of our church?
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And why and how do we see people out of the life of our church?
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This sermon is for those of you who are not members of a local church
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or are not in the process of becoming a member of a local church.
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Of course, I can always allow some exception for those who are looking for a fellowship,
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taking some time to see what's in an area as they're new to an area,
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or for those who are working through the steps of becoming a member of a local fellowship.
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Not only is this sermon for those who are not members of a local church,
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but it is also for those who are...
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We need to always give careful consideration to the degree of our commitment to our local fellowship.
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It is one thing to say that you are committed.
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It is another thing all together to be committed.
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Those of you who are members of our church also need to be able to make kind and compelling cases
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to your friends, roommates, classmates, co-workers, and family who profess to follow Jesus Christ,
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but are not members of a local fellowship.
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We need to be able to make that case.
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I need your help in making that case in our fellowship.
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So, this sermon is for everyone in the room, myself included.
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Before I can make a convincing case to you of your need of church membership and discipline,
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I think it's necessary to make a case to you what the church is.
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There's a lot of misunderstanding about that in our day.
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Far too many people for far too long have thought of the local church as nothing more than a club.
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Far too many people for far too long have thought that to be a member of a local church
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means that you show up at significant meetings,
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that you pay your dues,
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and that you believe in the cause of the organization.
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Far too many people for far too long have joined local churches
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because the church agreed with their political ideology
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or met some stylistic preference
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or offered them an affinity-based friend group
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or made them feel good about themselves.
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Beloved, the local church is not a club.
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It is not a fraternity or a sorority.
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It is not a campus organization.
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The church is not an organization that puts on events and supports causes
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and your participation is optional.
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The church is God's people
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called together by grace through faith around an event,
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a single event,
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the completed work of Jesus Christ.
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And because God's global church cannot meet under the same roof each and every week,
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we gather in local fellowships to worship God in word and deed.
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Jonathan Lehman, who I mentioned earlier in the introduction,
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is quoted saying,
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The local church is not a club.
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It's where we Christians, quote-unquote,
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go public to declare our highest allegiance.
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It's the outpost or embassy giving a public face to our future nation.
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Turn with me, please, to 1 Peter 2, verse 9.
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Get your fingers nimble.
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We're going to flip a lot together today as we consider this thematically.
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1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10.
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Peter writing here to churches as this letter was distributed around,
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but he's speaking to a church as he says,
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You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
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a people for his own possession,
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that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness
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into his marvelous light.
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Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
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Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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So, beloved, we are a people called together around this completed work of Jesus Christ,
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an event, right, in order that we might make that event known to everyone, everywhere.
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On your bulletin, the quotation today from Martin Lloyd-Jones,
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he said, we must cease to think of the church as a gathering of institutions and organizations,
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and we must get back to the notion that we are the people of God.
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A Christianity devoid of life in the local church is found nowhere in the Scripture.
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Even in those cases of frontier mission work,
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the missionaries are commissioned and prayed for by the church,
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the missionaries are starting churches,
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and the missionaries are received back to their sending church
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to hear the account of God's working.
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Mission, without the church, is missing the main ingredient.
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Christ died for the church,
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and it is his intention to make himself known through it and by it.
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God intends for the world to be able to look around and say of a people,
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church,
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and to say of another,
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not church,
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which frames our concern for church membership and church discipline.
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So let's begin by looking at church membership
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and ask a series of questions.
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First, what is church membership?
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I'm going to define it in this way.
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Church membership is a formal relationship
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between a local church and a Christian
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in which the church affirms the Christian's profession of faith
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and gives oversight of the living of that faith,
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or of their faith.
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It is through church membership
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that we do the one another's of Scripture, right?
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By people's estimation, 50 to 60 or so New Testament,
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one another's of Scripture.
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Let me give you a few examples of those.
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Mark 9, 50.
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Be at peace with each other.
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John 15, 12.
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Love one another.
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Romans 12, 10.
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Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
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Romans 12, 10.
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That's Romans 12 again.
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Honor one another above yourselves.
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That might be the wrong reference.
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Romans 12, 16.
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Live in harmony with one another.
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Romans 15, 7.
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Accept one another then just as Christ accepted you.
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Romans 15, 14.
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Instruct one another.
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1 Corinthians 12, 25.
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Have equal concern for each other.
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Galatians 5, 13.
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Serve one another in love.
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Ephesians 4, 2.
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Be patient, bearing with one another in love.
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Ephesians 4, 32.
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Be kind and compassionate to one another.
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Ephesians 5, 21.
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Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Colossians 3, 13.
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Forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another.
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1 Thessalonians 4, 18.
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Encourage each other.
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And these are just a sampling of all the many things that were meant to do with one another.
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If church membership is not membership in a club, then it must be meaningful membership.
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That is why we call our membership here at Christ Family Church covenant membership.
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We're trying to raise that idea above simple club membership.
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Simple sign a card, show up occasionally, pay your dues.
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Covenant membership, right?
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You make promises to us.
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And we make promises to you when you join our fellowship.
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So covenant membership, in summary, to make it meaningful, has four points to it.
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First, covenant membership is amongst the regenerate.
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Those who have, in fact, placed faith in Jesus Christ, as far as we can tell, have believed on Christ.
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We are saying to one another, church.
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You are part of this thing that Christ has created called church because Christ has worked renewal in your heart and in mine.
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Secondly, covenant members are regular attenders and partakers.
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Those who are in covenant relationship with one another want to be together.
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And we want to be together whenever we can be together.
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And so we make plans for that.
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We put it on the calendar.
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We note it down.
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We prioritize our lives so that we can come together.
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Because the things that God has given us to do in our gathering are weighty.
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And we should want to take them up.
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Their privileges and responsibilities.
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Not only are they regular attenders, but they are partakers together.
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We come together to practice ordinances, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
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Third, covenant members are regular contributors.
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Covenant members come and give to the church in various ways.
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First, and related to the second point, with their time.
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They give of themselves.
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They give of their talents, the ways that God has gifted them to give.
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You see so often particular prominent ways of service, preaching, music.
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But there is a multitude of ways to serve.
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As many as there are you in the room, there is some place in which you can offer your talents to the life of our fellowship.
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And also we give of our finances.
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We pull together resources so that we can take the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
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Covenant members are also responsible.
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Pick up the responsibilities of being members of a church.
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They participate in the process we call church discipline, which we'll talk about at length momentarily.
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They are carefully listening to what's being taught in the church and making sure that it is sound, that it is consistent with scriptural truth.
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So they are taking up the responsibility of contending for the faith once for all delivered.
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They are protecting the doctrine of the church.
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And they are also concerned about how those things, the things that we believe to be true, work out.
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Do we do what we say we believe?
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So the direction of our church, if you like to alliterate.
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The discipline, the doctrine, and the direction are responsibilities that covenant members pick up and exercise together.
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Now, I'm going to read our church covenant.
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I hope this will be of benefit to those who are already members who may have not looked at this document in some time.
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I want you to know that as I'm reading this, I'm not upset at any of you.
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I love you all very, very much.
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Right?
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So this isn't aimed at anybody in the room.
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But I just want you to stop and consider.
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Like, am I doing the things that I promised to do?
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And then if you're not a member of our church, I want you to consider, right, the full expression of Christian living that's found in a document like this.
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Now, this document's not in any way authoritative.
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But it's thematically pulled from the Scripture.
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What do we see God instructing us to do together in the Scripture?
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And so we've summed it up in this way.
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Having been led by the Spirit of God to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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And in profession of that faith, I most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with Christ Family Church.
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To make promises together.
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There's seven of them, right?
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To love the Lord God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and to treasure Him above all else.
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To love my family, the church, and the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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To promote the edification and sanctification of the church by sharing God's work in my life and praying for the church.
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To devote myself and my family to the only standard of truth, God's holy Scripture.
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And to adhere to the statement of faith of Christ Family Church only as it accords with Scripture.
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To hold myself and the brethren to the standard of Scripture.
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Submitting myself freely to the discipline of the church for my restoration and spiritual gain.
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To contribute to the work of the church with my talents, time, and finances.
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To live to the glory of God, upright and blameless.
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In the example that Christ has set for us through His sinless life.
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I enter into this covenant together with Christ Family Church.
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Under the common goal of obedience to, glorification of, and joyful satisfaction in Jesus Christ.
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Because I believe and assert with the rest of the body that we need one another's help to do so.
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As believers and disciples of Jesus, we have entered into a covenant relationship with God.
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Who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.
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The blessings and promises of this covenant have been freely extended and given to us.
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Therefore, out of wonder, love, thanksgiving, and reverence.
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We hereby accept and take up these covenant responsibilities.
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Which accompany said privileges together as a covenant family.
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Sentence diagram, that one.
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This is our reasonable service and we should do nothing less.
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God help us all.
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We rely on His grace alone and hold fast to His promise that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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May His grace provide for all that He commands.
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So high commitments, right, that we are intended to make together.
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Jesus Christ died for the church.
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There is no such thing as an individualistic Christianity.
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This whole notion of personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
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While I have a relationship with Jesus, like Augustine.
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Jesus is now my friend.
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But Jesus came to save a people for His possession.
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Right?
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He saved us, beloved.
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And He draws us into commitment with one another to live the Christian life together.
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So that's what membership is.
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The second question I want to answer is,
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where is church membership found in the Bible?
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Right?
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See, those of you who are wondering and waiting for it.
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The Bible speaks of us being members of one another in Ephesians 4.25, Romans 12.5, and 1 Corinthians 12.25.
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Although each of these texts speak to our unity as a local fellowship and not necessarily formal relationship called membership.
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Right?
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So I'm telling you where we see the word member in the New Testament.
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But it's talking about the way we're united in Christ and could have application both for local and universal fellowships.
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In order to note the formal relationship of membership in the church,
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we must draw conclusions from other places.
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Right?
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And I hope that the following five will be satisfactory for you.
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So, first, turn to Matthew chapter 18, verse 15.
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Matthew 18, 15.
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I'm going to read through 17, but I'm going to kind of read this abridged,
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because we're going to look at this text in a little more detail in just a little bit.
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So I'm going to kind of skip over some things.
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If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.
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If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
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And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
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That is to say, don't consider him any longer part of your fellowship.
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Jesus says in Matthew 18,
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if a brother is unwilling to repent of sin, then no longer consider him a brother.
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Christians take sin seriously.
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Christians experience the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings by the Word of God.
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Under its authority, works in our hearts the conviction of sin.
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So if someone is unwilling to repent of obvious, egregious sin,
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then we should no longer consider him a brother.
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This is what Jesus is teaching here.
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So, the ability to exclude someone from the church presupposes that it's known who belongs to the church as a member in the first place.
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How do we know?
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We have counted you amongst us in order for us to no longer count you amongst us.
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We once had a confidence, but we say in church discipline, we no longer have a confidence anymore.
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So we can read in this that membership happens.
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Some formalization of the commitment that we have to one another.
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Secondly, turn to Acts chapter 5.
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Here in Acts 5, the heat has been turned up on the church, right?
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Persecution has begun happening in the church.
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This is not quite the rosy days of just following Pentecost now.
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Beginning in verse 12, Acts 5.
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Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles,
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and they were all together in Solomon's portico.
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None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
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So, people faced the decision of whether or not they would join the church in Jerusalem, right?
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They're still gathering together in Solomon's portico,
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and people had to decide whether or not they were going to be counted amongst them.
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This joining is more public and definite than an informal association, right?
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They were called church as they were gathered together to worship Jesus Christ.
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Okay, third, 1 Timothy chapter 5.
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Go there with me, please.
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In 1 Timothy 5, verses 9 through 12, Paul gives Timothy instructions
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for enrolling widows on the list of those receiving support from the church.
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And he says,
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Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age,
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having been the wife of one husband,
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and having a reputation for good works.
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And he goes on a bit more.
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And so, while this isn't conclusive evidence for formal church membership,
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to be absolutely clear,
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it's very tough to imagine that the church in Ephesus
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would have kept a list of widows,
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but not have any formal means of identifying everyone who belonged to the church, right?
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To compare the list of widows to the list of church members
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to be sure that the widow in question was actually a member of the fellowship
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and therefore receiving benefits from the church.
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Number four.
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1 Corinthians chapter 5.
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You can do it.
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The pages are getting quieter.
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Go, go.
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1 Corinthians 5, verses 12 and 13.
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This is following a pretty severe rebuke
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for not disciplining a brother in the church,
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someone who claimed to be a Christian,
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who was sleeping with his mother-in-law.
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You want to read all of chapter 5.
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So that's what's going on here.
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Paul says,
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For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
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Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
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God judges those outside.
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Paul called upon the Corinthian church
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to judge those who were inside the church,
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not those who were outside.
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Now, can we clearly, right?
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We're not talking about being judgmental, right?
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We're talking about holding someone's life up to the standard of Scripture.
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The authority that God has given to us to say,
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this is what the Christian life looks like, right?
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And as we see people in egregious sin,
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like in a lustful relationship,
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cheating with their mother-in-law,
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we go, whoa, man, that's not okay.
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That's what we're talking about here, right?
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Having removed the plank from our own eye,
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we see clearly to remove the speck from our brothers.
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This seems like a pretty big speck to me,
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but this is what he's talking about here.
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We are responsible to one another inside the church, right?
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Do not misunderstand Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, right?
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Do not let it be twisting you up the way so many have, right?
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We're meant to do this, right?
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The church of Corinth were responsible for the testimony of those who belonged to the church.
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They were not responsible for the testimony of those who didn't, right?
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What have I to do with judging outsiders?
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Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
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This passage makes no sense if the Corinthian church didn't have some public formal means
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by which people identified themselves with the church,
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professed to be followers of Jesus Christ.
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Okay, fifth and last, 2 Corinthians chapter 2.
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And verse 6.
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Paul is writing concerning a man the Corinthian church had excommunicated.
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And he says in verse 6,
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For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.
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So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him,
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or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
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Paul is saying the man that's been put outside the church
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continue to be loving toward him, right?
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It's the proper thing to do.
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But the thing I want to point out is that this man's exclusion from the church
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was a punishment by who?
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The majority.
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The majority.
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You can't have a majority unless you have a definite set of people
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from which a majority can be determined.
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You with me?
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Like, how do we know that the majority put this man out of the church
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unless we know it was in fact a majority?
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So we read out of the activity of the early church, right?
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The implication that there's some formal process
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by which people became members of a local fellowship.
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So my third question, I think.
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Yep, third question.
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Who should join a local church?
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And it has a simple answer and then a defense.
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Anyone who is a disciple of Jesus Christ.
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So if you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ,
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you should be a member of a local church.
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Let me make this case to you from a couple of places.
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First, John chapter 17.
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Yes, please turn there with me.
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I want you guys to see all of these texts
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because half of you in this room are not members of a local fellowship.
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And the other half of you need to help those.
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John 17, beginning in verse 20 and following.
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He's been praying for the apostles and he says,
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I do not ask for these only.
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John 17, verse 20 is where I'm starting.
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If you're not there yet.
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I do not ask for these only,
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but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
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That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me.
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And I in you.
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That they also may be in us,
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so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
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The glory that you have given me, I have given to them,
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that they may be one, even as we are one.
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I in them and you in me.
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That they may become perfectly one,
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so that the world may know that you sent me
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and loved them even as you loved me.
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You see all that language,
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that we would be together,
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that we would be united.
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Why?
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Right?
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Because we're meant to display the triune nature of God
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in the way that we're together.
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Jesus established the church to publicly declare
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those who belong to him
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in order to give the world a display
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of the good news about himself.
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Now, practically at this point,
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you could say,
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isn't he talking about the entire church,
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that what we call the church universal?
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And I would say,
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yes, he absolutely is.
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But how does that church gather
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practically as one
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in a local fellowship?
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Right?
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Are we united with all of our brothers and sisters
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across the world this morning?
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Yes.
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Undoubtedly, yes.
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Those who have placed believing professions of faith
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in Jesus Christ?
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Absolutely, yes.
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But how are we physically,
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actually,
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practically,
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ecclesia,
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church,
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gathered together,
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right?
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We're here this morning,
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gathered as one.
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How is the world to know
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who belongs to Christ
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and who doesn't?
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We're here this morning,