Acts 1:1-15-Does Church Membership Matter?
Does-Church-Membership-Matter-Zemeski.docPosted by: bzemeski <bzemeski@...>
Does Church Membership Matter?
TEXT: Acts 1:1-15
INTRODUCTION:
A. In response to question about church membership a pastor wrote me saying—
“I have never preached on church membership. … At my church, I have people who have come and been a part of our church for 30 years without joining. They are members of our church. It has worked well for me for 30 years and our church is in complete unity of faith and purpose. … I just never found “joining the church” in the Bible. They just got saved and baptized then assembled. I have no problem with joining the church but also have no problem with people who come and stay for 30 years without joining.”
I really don’t understand that a person can become a member of anything and in not seen to join whatever they have become a member of. Does one just walk into a business organisation or company and expect to be a paid employee? Does one fail in to a rank of soldiers in the military and be accepted as a comrade in arms? People attend church all the time that are not members and there are some who attend quite regularly who should be members but have not made that identity commitment.
The church is a divine institution, and it is the centre of God’s work in the world today. The Bible clearly emphasizes that the church is God’s chosen means of accomplishing His purposes in this age. There are 115 Scripture references listing 118 times the Greek word ecclesia, which is translated “church, churches, or assembly” in the New Testament. Of those 118 words 114 are unquestionably referenced to the local assembly showing the emphasis that the Holy Spirit has put upon the church.
· Most of the New Testament was written directly to churches.
Even those portions not written directly to a church refer to the churches.
· The theme of Acts is the planting and multiplication of the first churches.
· The Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) was written to instruct church planters in their work.
· Even the general epistles, which are not written to particular churches, always have the churches in mind.
· Hebrews refers to the church in chapters 10 & 13.
· Hebrews 10:25 exhorts God’s people not to forsake the assembling of themselves together.
· Hebrews 13:7, 17 church members are exhorted to obey those who have ruler over them.
· The last chapter of James refers to the church. Those who are sick are to call for the “elders of the church.”
· The final chapter of 1 Peter also refers to the church, in exhorting elders in their duties.
· John refers to the church in his third epistle, when he mentions the proud Diotrephes.
· The book of Revelation, of course, is written to the seven churches of Asia.
A New Testament church is a body of baptized believers who are congregated together under the oversight of a qualified and ordained pastor and following the pattern of government and accomplishing the work described in the church epistles.
Although the words “church membership” does not appear in the Bible, is it impossible to fulfill the Scriptures without some form of a relationship with a group of other believers?
Ø I find that THERE IS NO biblical instruction about the discipline and watch care of Christians apart from those who are members of a church.
Ø I find THERE IS NO biblical instruction about leadership among Christians apart from the church. I just have not been able to figure out in Heb. 13 how do you “remember” or “obey” (vs. 7, 17) them who have “the rule over you” when you have not joined a particular assembly to submit to the ruler of which he is over?
Ø I find THERE IS NO biblical instruction about the work of Christians apart from the church.
I do find however, that the entire life and work of God’s people for this age appears in the context of the local assembly.
B. So, is membership in a local church Biblical?
Does the New Testament require, suggest, or even hint at local church membership?
Is it biblical to exhorted Christians to belong to a local church? Is it just the whim of the pastor to build his prestige with a tally of numbers? Is it just an option for the believer that really doesn’t matter?
If it is biblical, what does such belonging entail?
Let me firmly and kindly, at the outset, state that the New Testament knows nothing of a lost sinful individual, reborn as a new creature through faith in Christ, who is baptized in identification with Christ, who is communing with Christ at the Lord’s table, AND is not a member of a visible, local, identifiable congregation of other born-again baptized believers.
In the NT, a non-baptized believer is never contemplated. Likewise, a believer who is not a member of a local church is not contemplated, as well. NT Christians joined a local church being added to the number of the names on the roll.
With all my heart I want to be biblical and I want our church to be biblical.
Although there is no specific verse that says, “Thou shalt join a church,” there are many places that either require or teach by example that we should do so.
I. Would you Believer THE FIRST CHURCH HAD A MEMBERSHIP?
A. The Jerusalem church had a list of about 120 names that made up its membership.
1. It was started by our Lord with 12 disciples who our Lord called a “little flock” in Lk. 12:32.
2. It grew to about 120 on the day of Pentecost, Acts 1:15 says, “And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)”
a. Even though the Bible says “about an hundred and twenty,” it does not mean that there was any uncertainty.
b. “About” is used commonly in Scripture to designate a number, in keeping with the usual practice of that day, when people were not trying to be as specific as we are in the 21st century.
1) For example, John 1:39 says, as Jesus walk with two disciple, “…It was about the tenth hour.” It was not important in those days to know whether it was 9:55 or 10:05, since they did not have watches, clocks, etc.
2) Likewise, John 6:19 the disciples, “…rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs” when they saw Jesus walking on the water.
3) Similarly, Acts 5:7 describes Sapphira coming to the church “about the space of three hours after.”
a) We must remember that the Holy Spirit inspired words that people would normally understand and speak, but this does not mean that He was uncertain!
b) The events of John 1:39 and Acts 5:7 did happen at a specific moment, although that moment is not recorded.
3. And the very mention of “the number of names” in Acts 1:15 shows that a congregation actually existed, even though we are not told the exact number.
4. The important thing to note is not that there were 119, 120, or 121, but that there actually was a “number of the names together.” In short, a membership of definite individuals made up that church.
II. Then There Were SPECIFIC PEOPLE WERE ADDED TO THe MEMBERSHIP of the church ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
A. On the Day of Pentecost 3,000 were added to the existing 120 – Acts 2:41
1. Again, the word “about” has the same significance. The important word is “added” showing that the number grew.
"Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
2. Whether they were written down on paper is not the issue; the fact is that certain specific number of people were saved, baptized, and added to certain specific number of people!
a. Note that since Christ started with a little flock there has been no other group of believers from then until Pentecost.
b. The church at Jerusalem was the only church in existence at that time in the whole world.
c. There was only one body of believers in Jerusalem from Mat. 16:18 - Acts 8:1
d. People were added to the original number of 12 –Acts 2:47; 5:14; 6:1, 7.
How were they added to the local body? Through baptism! Acts 2:38; 41
B. Some erroneously say this means they were added to the mystical, invisible, universal church or the mystical, invisible, universal body of Christ.
1. For sure every saved individual is “in Christ” but not everybody is a baptised member in a local body – an assembly of believers.
a. The only body of Christ, the ecclesia – mentioned in Scripture is a local church.
b. In Acts 20:17 Paul called the elders of the church at Ephesus and told these pastors that as the overseers of this church in Acts 20:28 they were to feed the church of God there, which he “purchased with His own blood.”
c. This is true of every church. Over and over Paul referred to the Corinthian church as “the body of Christ” (1Cor. 12:27) and that the Ephesus “body of Christ” was to be built up (Eph. 4:12) and that the head of the church body at Colossae in Col. 1:18 was Christ!
2. The context of Acts 2:41 has been speaking of that group of 120, ever since Acts 1:15, and continues to speak of that earthly group which met together in Jerusalem, through Acts 8:1
The first church had a membership and members were added to them daily as such as should be saved.
III. THERE WAS and is A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND OUTSIDERS.
A. Acts 5:11 contrasts the Jerusalem church with others who “heard these things.”
1. As a result of the discipline of Ananias and Sapphira, “all” the believers in the church and all the unbelievers “who heard these things” felt “great fear,” a consequence already stated in vs. 5 and repeated here for emphasis *cf. 19:17.
2. Therefore, it must have been common knowledge that some specific persons belonged to the church, while others did not.
3. We must remember that it is the Holy Spirit who inspired these words, so it was actually He that made this difference!
B. Some people did not dare to join the church
1. Immediately after the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira and subsequent miracles by the apostles, Acts 5:13 tells us that “of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them” i.e. held them in high regard, praising and making much of them.
2. The statement in vs. 13, “and of the rest durst no man join himself to them” literally means, “none of the rest” that is no deceiver, hypocrite, or unbeliever dared joined them. The surprising deaths of Ananias and Sapphira frightened them too much!
3. In spite of the reluctance of the unsaved to join the group of believers, vs. 14 tells us that more and more folks were being added to the Lord and those who believed were added to their number.
4. It was common knowledge who belonged to this new assembly of called out ones, and after such a harsh judgment on two of it members who did not conform, some people did not dare to join them!
a. Some belonged; others dared not join, for one reason or another.
b. BUT for sure when one joins, there is a membership!
IV. SPECIFIC MEMBERS Were ELECTED OFFICERS to Administer the affairs of the church
A. Peter’s quotation in Acts 1:16, 20 from Psalms 69:25 and 109:8 was in reference to Judas.
1. The apostles decided that Judas’ “bishoprick” that is his office as an apostle and overseer of the Jerusalem church was to be filled by another. Acts 2:17 notes Judas was of the number of the 12 apostles – they new their number.
2. In Acts 6:3 the apostles commanded the congregation to, “look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
3. These men were speaking to a specific group whom they knew as “brethren.” They said that these men were to be chosen from “among you” obviously designating a specific group of people.
4. Any way we look at this, there must have been a membership. Elders or Pastors or Overseerers were responsible for the spiritual welfare of a certain group of people—the members making up that group.
B. In Acts 20:28 the Ephesian elders were told to feed the church of God, the flock, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers.
1. Obviously, the church, the flock, was a specific group of people.
a. How else could these elders carry out their responsibilities?
b. It had to be clearly known who made up the church, the flock.
Such would be a membership.
2. How does the relationship of the pastor and submitted person exist without membership?
a. How do we know who we are to submit to, and how does the leader know who he is responsible for except there be a membership.
b. Heb. 13:17 – “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”
c. The command to obey your leaders requires local church membership.
1) We who have been saved for a length of time have heard, seen, or experienced abuses of pastoral authority.
2) Exposure to such occurrences would cause one to react in the opposite direction and have a hard time with church membership.
3) However, this reaction against abuse does not void what the Bible states in the clear instruction of Hebrews 13:17.
3. How does a pastor know who the Holy Spirit has made him the overseer?
a. Who is he responsible to care for? Surely he will not be answerable for every person who is saved that comes his way whether he met him or her once in a coffee shop or twice on a Sunday morning.
b. He is the pastor of a visible assembly that is regenerated, immersed, as members of a local body of Christ—NOT some mystical, invisible, universally body that is un-definable.
c. How does he know who is who or what is what without a membership? Pastoral ministry requires local church membership.
C. The membership of the autonomous churches of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch voted for their Pastors – Acts 14:21, 23
1. The verb for "ordained" is the active participle coming from cheirotoneo meaning to "stretch out hand" or "raise hand."
a. The Greek literally reads "having appointed to them by raised-hand-vote elders in every assembly."
1) In other words, who raised their hands if it weren’t the membership?
2) Who was going to submit to those who they just had voted to rule over them?
b. The congregation voted by raised hands who of the qualified men in the assembly was to be the pastor, which vote the apostles recognized and accepted as they did with the deacons in Acts 6:3-6.
c. The same verb occurs in 2 Cor. 8:19 indicating that those traveling with the monetary gift to the famine stricken saints in Jerusalem were “chosen” by the raised hands of the church members.
2. It is church members who vote on who should be their pastor.
a. Outsiders, even the apostles, did not arbitrarily choose the church elders.
b. The same applies for today. No mission board director or pastoral counsel made up of outsiders should ordain qualified men for a church.
This privilege belongs to the congregation.
V. THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH WAS COMMANDED TO EXCLUDE SOME BRETHREN
– 1 Corinthians 5:11
A. Paul exhorted that we were not “keep company” with fornicators.
1. This was not referring to the secular unsaved people of the world but with those who called themselves “brothers” – 1 Cor. 5:9, 11.
2. Obviously this distancing and disassociation did not refer to ordinary social events with unbelievers for at least two reasons:
a. ONE, we would have leave this world to not have unbelievers in our presence
1) If it were possible to escape contact with unbelievers we would not be able carry out Christ’s command to tell them about salvation (Matthew 28:18-20).
2) We are to distance ourselves from the person who claims to be a Christian, yet indulges in sins explicitly forbidden in Scripture by rationalizing his or her actions.
3) By rationalizing sin, a person harms others for whom Christ died and dims the image of God in himself or herself.
4) A church that includes such a person is hardly fit to be the light of the world. To do so would distort the picture of Christ it presents to the world.
5) Church leaders must be ready to correct, in love, for the sake of spiritual unity.
b. And TWO, since the Lord Jesus ate with publicans and sinners he was by example not referring to them (Matthew 9:10).
B. In the least it must refer to eating at the Lord’s Table –
1. Such a person should be under church discipline – 1 Cor. 5:11, 13 cp. 1-2, 5
2. This could not mean to stop associating with, or speaking to, such a person, because a parallel passage in 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15
3. The aim of putting one under the discipline of the church is for the reformation and restoration of the offender.
a. It would be impossible to admonish him if the brethren never associated with or spoke to him.
b. To “have no company” (2 Thess. 3:14) must mean church company or fellowship, preventing him from the privileges of membership (holding office, voting, etc.)
c. The offender was to be identified as such by the members of the church and placed in a distinct category as disobedient. This seems to be what each faithful brother should do individually and church collectively.
How is exclusion to be accomplished if there is never any inclusion?
VI. THERE IS NO WAY TO EXERCISE CHURCH dISCIPLINE UNLESS THERE IS A MEMBERSHIP – Matthew 18:15-17
A. How would you hold someone accountable if there were no mandate for physical membership?
1. If a body of believers is the final appeal in a case of unrepentant sin, how would that body of believers call someone to repentance if there were no actual membership to that body that is trying to call one to repentance?
2. Mathew 18:17 instructs the church to consider an unrepentant brother as a “heathen man and a publican.”
B. How would this be done?
1. Certainly not by denying him access to the meetings! We would most assuredly want heathen people to attend our services and hear the preaching of God’s Word.
2. Neither could it mean to stop speaking to the person. Christians should definitely speak to heathen people; how else could we win them to Christ?
3. But, a church could not permit a heathen to be elected as one of its officers, or preach, or teach, or vote on church matters. Therefore, to say that only certain people are eligible to hold office, etc., is to designate a membership.
C. 1 Cor. 6:1-11 DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN “THE UNJUST . . . THE SAINTS.”
1. Paul spoke of “a wise man among you… (who) shall be able to judge between his brethren” (5).
2. He rebuked them for going to law before the “unbelievers” (6).
3. These brethren were called a church in 1 Corinthians 1:2.
Some people were known to belong to the church—some were not.
D. 1 Peter 4:17 Distinguishes between “the house of god” and “them that obey not the gospel.”
1. When we remember that the “house of God” is the local church – 1 Tim. 3:15 – it becomes obvious that those who had obeyed the gospel were in a church.
2. Whether or not their names were written on some list is unknown and unimportant; what is obvious is that they knew who was in the church.
3. The simple truth is that we have no instance of New Testament believers who did not belong to a local church.
a. Joining the church was the normal thing to do, after conversion.
b. The person who has settled the matter of salvation as the Bible shows us should then be baptized, following Christ’s example and command, and join a Bible-believing and Bible practicing church.
4. It is clear from Scripture that it is God’s will that every believer be a faithful and fruitful member of a sound New Testament church.
CONCLUSION:
Ø EVERY BELIEVER ought to be a church member for IDENTIFICATION of their DOCTRINE
Ø EVERY BELIEVER ought to be a church member for INSTRUCTION of their DIET
Ø EVERY BELIEVER ought to be a church member for INVOLVEMENT of their DUTY
1. Biblical membership entails a believer to be in an…ASSEMBLY In A Specific Place
2. Biblical membership entails a believer to have…ACCOUNTABILITY To A Specific People (membership)
3. Biblical membership involves and requires some…ACCOUNTABILITY To A Specific Pastor
4. Biblical membership entails a believer to acquire…ACCEPTANCE Of A Specific Partnership
Partnership is with those in the church to accomplish the work of God together in carrying out His Great Commission!
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Bob Zemeski
Leixlip, Co. Kildare W23 C8K1
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