And this morning we are excited. Pastor Jake, and I are excited
to begin a new series. Pastor J can and are actually
away this weekend for a marriage or cheat.
They, they they were able to get away for the weekend and so
we're glad that they were able to get away and have a weekend
of relaxation, but we were very excited to begin a new six-part
series on what it means to be a church member.
And so we are going to dive into what it truly means to be a part
of the body of Christ. And we will be following an
outline of a book written. In by Tom S Rainer called.
I am a church member discovering the attitude, that makes the
difference. And as we begin this morning and
we think about membership, I thought this week of my hometown
Sterling Alberta, this is where I grew up.
It was actually a village, a village of Stirling Alberta
there. Was so few people that it
actually was a village. It's actually the largest
population Village by population in the province of Alberta.
And this is a picture of the place.
I love to go. The most the, the community
pool. We did not have a lot in our
town, one convenience store, One Church, which was a Mormon
church and one school and one post office, if we didn't have a
lot, but we had a pool and it was only open for about two
months of the year, but we enjoyed that pool.
And for $1, you could get into this pool.
And that would give you access to everything that the pool had
to offer. You could go in there were
change rooms, there was a hot tub.
There was a pool that had a shallow end, it had a deep end,
you could enjoy the to the toys and and all the things that they
had the life jackets and the diving board.
And, and you could even take swimming lessons there, for an
extra cost. All for a dollar, you could get
in and it was close enough to our home that we could walk or
bike. And so we went there often in
the summer time and I enjoyed going there with my family, and
with my friends, And it was a highlight of my summer but all I
had to do was give the Looney and it gave me access to
everything the pool had to offer.
I didn't have to do anything else.
I didn't have to clean the floors, I didn't have to repaint
the walls. I didn't have to organize the
calendar of events. I didn't have to be a lifeguard.
I didn't have to clean up all the toys.
When I left, I didn't have to check the pH levels of the pool,
to make sure everything was safe.
I just give my dollar and I enjoy.
Sadly, this is how many people view membership in the church
today. You pay your dues and you get
the perks you get to decide. Hey, I don't like this is how I
want you to preach. This is the sort of music.
I want you to sing. These are the sorts of the
things. I want you to teach in the
classes. I want you to offer, we get to
decide what sorts of things the church does because I'm a paying
member. And this makes sense to us
because we do almost everything in life.
Like this, we pay membership fees and we pay membership dues
to different organizations. We pay subscription fees and we
give money in exchange for goods and services.
And if I don't get the quality of the product that I liked, and
I give it back or I get my money back.
And sadly this sort of mentality Finds Its way into the church.
And what we're actually going to see is that the church is quite
different from this. In his book, Tom Rainer, says,
for these sorts of people who think of church this way for
them, membership is about receiving instead of giving
being served instead of serving rights instead of
responsibilities and entitlements.
Instead of sacrifices as we are going to see over the course of
this six part Series, this is not biblical membership as God,
designed for the church. But before we dive in, we must
ask the question. What is church membership?
What does it mean to be a part of a church?
Jonathan Lehman Explains It. Well, church membership is a
formal relationship between a local church and a Christian
characterized by the church's affirmation and oversight of a
Christians discipleship and the Christian submission, to living
out his, or her discipleship, in the care of the church.
The church body. As to the individual, we
recognize your profession of Faith, baptism and discipleship
to Christ as valid. Therefore we publicly affirm and
acknowledge you before the nation's as belonging to Christ
and we extend the oversight of our fellowship.
Principally the individual says to the church body insofar as I
recognized you as Faith a faithful gospel.
Declaring church I submit my presence and my I will ship to
your love and oversight. What we see here is that church
membership is a mutual relationship between the church
and its members. Mm.
You a mutual relationship of surrender and submission.
This is not some sort of contract or obligation.
I was reading this week of of an article where someone was
talking about reasons, you shouldn't sign a church
covenant, you should never sign your your rights and your
responsibilities away. In this sense that the church is
now a dictate over. You in any authoritative sense,
when you give your membership to a church, you do so voluntarily
and then you have the right to remove your membership.
At any time. You choose likewise the church
accept you as a member but should you become unrepentant in
your sin at any point? The church then exercises the
right of discipline and has the right to revoke your membership
at some point if you are not adhering to their guidelines and
principles but it is a mutual relationship where two people.
People are agreeing together. The second question, we need to
ask ourselves that is what church membership is is church
membership biblical. Membership is never explicitly
commanded in scripture. So we're never told you must
become a member of a church and so we were right to question
whether this is a Biblical model.
And it is true. The Bible never never explicitly
commands it yet. As we look at the overarching
theme of the Bible, it is a Biblical concept.
I'll have a few reasons that I want to just shed forth before
we really dive into this whole topic.
The first reason that that membership is biblical is if we
go back to the Old Testament, God sets forth, his rules for
his people. And when he instituted the
rules, for the Passover, for instance, and many other rules,
but in Exodus chapter 12, Of God, institute's the rules for
Passover and he says, no Foreigner shall eat of it.
He says, in chapter 12, verse 48, if a stranger shall sojourn
with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all
his mails be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep
it, he shall be as a native of the land, but no Arc
uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
There's a distinction between God's people in the world.
That makes sense in the context of some sort of membership.
There's something you have to do to become a committed member of
this community. So we see, we see that
membership is a practical example.
In that, instance, in the Old Testament, a second reason is in
Acts chapter 2, we find the Believers gathering together in
one place, and after the coming of the spirit and Peter's
sermon, we read in Acts 2:41. So those who received his word
were baptized, and there were added that day.
About three thousand souls and in verse 47 and the Lord added
to their number day by day. Those who were being saved.
What do we see here? We see a record being kept of
those who are baptized and those who are becoming members of the
church. We see the biblical foundation
in principle of membership. They would have needed to know,
what is your profession of Faith.
Your baptism. And then you are now received
into the, the member of the church.
They are keeping records of the people that are becoming members
A third reason, that we the bib membership is a Biblical concept
is in the book of 1st Corinthians, Paul writing to the
Corinthians as addressing sin in a young man or a man who's
sexually immoral. And in chapter 5 verse 20, Paul
says to them, let him, who has done this be removed from among
you, well, in order to remove him, he had to have been a part
of the community of Believers at some point.
And so this is laying the ground.
The foundation for us of biblical membership, he was a
Part of the community and he now was being pushed out.
A fourth reason that membership is a Biblical concept is when we
think of when we consider all the teaching of the New
Testament, it only makes sense in the context of a group of
people who are committed to one another, in a formal Union, when
Paul would go to these different cities, he would preach the
gospel. People would come to know Christ
and he would form a church in, in that church, he would set up
leaders and Leadership structures.
And then he would command the people love one.
Another. Another rebuke, one another be
patient with one another don't forsake gathering together.
All of these commands, only make sense in the context of a group
of people that are committed and covenanted together and those
leaders can only exercise oversight over the people that
they know these are people of my flock, these are the people of
my church and I need to exercise oversight over them.
So you needed to know. Well again, I was as we consider
these cities that Paul was I knew there was a lot of idolatry
and false worship, right? And so there needed to be a
distinction between, you are separating yourself from that
former life, and now you are adhering to our beliefs and our
being welcomed into this community.
So, while biblical meant bought while the Bible doesn't
explicitly, say You must become a member of a church, we see the
principal over and over and over again in all of scripture, that
membership is a Biblical concept.
And besides all that we think about, we think about the
historical church church membership has been practiced
practiced, all through the history of the church.
And so, for all these reasons, we can be sure that membership
is a Biblical concept. When we become members of a
church, we are committing to a body of Believers for our own
personal, spiritual growth for the personal, spiritual growth
of others to bring glory to God as we become equipped to go out
and share the Message of Salvation with the world.
So now that we've seen a basic definition of church membership
and we've seen that, it is a Biblical concept.
We are now going to learn and start to dive into what it means
to be a Biblical member. The first title of Tom Reiner's
book is called, I will be a functioning church member the
main focus of this chapter and this sermon is going to be that.
True biblical membership means we are actively involved in
order to see this, please turn with me in your Bibles to First
Corinthians chapter, 12, and will be reading from verse 12.
All the way through 31 First Corinthians chapter 12, Verses
12 through 31. 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 for the body.
Does not consist of one member, but of many, if the foot should
say because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body that
would not make it any less. A Of the body.
And if the ear should say because I am not an eye, I do
not belong to the body that would not make it any less a
part of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the sense of hearing?
If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of?
Where would be the sense of smell?
But as it is, God has arranged the members in the body.
Each one of them, is he chose if all were a single-member where
would the body be as it is? There are many parts yet one
body, The eye cannot say to the hand.
I have no need of you nor again the head to the feet.
I have no need of you. On the contrary the parts of the
body that seem to be weaker are indispensable in on those parts
of the body that we think less honorable we bespoke bestow the
greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated
with greater modesty. Which are more presentable
parts. Do not require.
But God is 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. Now you are the body of Christ
and individually members of it and God has appointed in the
church first apostles, second prophets third teachers, then
Miracles, then Gifts of healing helping.
And various kinds of tongues are all Apostles, are all prophets
are all teachers. Do all work miracles.
Do all possess Gifts of healing. Do all speak with tongues do all
interpret. But earnestly desire, the higher
gifts. The first thing that we need to
understand about membership. Is that membership means we are
all necessary parts of the whole In this passage, Paul is
explaining how the church is like a body in verse 12 through
13. 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 are
free and all were made to drink of one.
Spirit the unity that we have in the spirit brings us together as
one body in the same way that each every one of you is
composed of One body, but many parts.
So as a church we are one body but many parts.
Speaking about this. Tom Rainer says, do you get the
difference members of a church comprise?
The whole and are essential parts of it.
The Apostle Paul would carry the body metaphor further and
explain that members are individual parts of the body.
Some, our eyes others are ears. Some our feet still others are
hands. That is why he concludes 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 great.
Christ. As a part of the body of Christ,
each one of you is necessary. And if you don't think you are,
Paul goes on to say in verses 15 and 16.
If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong
to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear should say because I am not an eye, I do
not belong to the body that would not make it any less, a
part of the body, if you are in Christ, what Paul is saying, is,
if you're in Christ, it doesn't matter.
Whether you think you're a part of the body or not, you are a
part of the body. And even if someone else doesn't
think you're a part of the body that doesn't make you any less
part of the body either. He says, in verse 21, the eye
cannot say to the hand. I have no need of you nor again,
the head to the feet. I have no need of you.
Our bodies cannot reject one another and say, I don't need
you and likewise. It is in the church.
We need each other and you don't get to say.
I don't have a need for you. I don't need anybody else in my
life. I can do this on my own.
No, you can. We need each other.
We are all necessary. If we have placed our faith in
Jesus Christ, we are one of his children.
We are one of his people. We are a part of the body of
Christ. We are members of his church and
as such each, each and everyone of us is a necessary part of the
whole The second thing that we need to understand about
membership, is that membership means we are different but we
still work together. When we think of a body, there
are many different parts but they all work together for the
good of the body and even the most insignificant tasks can
prove this. Let's just imagine that I'm
working on a hot day. I know some of you are laughing
as you. Like, you don't work.
You just sit in an office. One day, one day I used to work
and I used to be a roofer and it got real hot and what happens on
a hot day is that our bodies realize they need water.
We need water to survive, so think of what your body then
starts to do my brain. There's Alarm Bell in my brain
that says Joe, you need water and my brain begins to think,
where do I find water? Where do I get water?
And then it communicates to my muscles and my and my and my
legs, and my ligaments, and all of my body functions together
and says, oh, here's a bottle of water.
I will take a drink from this bottle of water and then all of
my body parts have to function together to twist the cap, to
open the lid, to put it to my mouth, to drink it.
And then, when it goes in my body, my body begins to use it.
Tributing the nerd, the nutrients and the oxygen to all
the different parts of my body. And it regulates my body
temperature. It lubricates my joints, and all
these things are just scratching the surface of how complicated
and intricate your body is with something as simple as taking a
drink of water. So it is with the church.
We are all specifically given functions and gifts, and talents
and abilities to use for the good of God's Church.
We work together to build one another up.
All of these parts in your body working together for the good of
your body. And we're all different for a
very specific reason, think of all the different parts of your
body. They all have a specific
function and so, it is with the body.
Paul says, if the whole body were an eye, where would be the
sense of hearing, if the whole body were an ear, where would be
the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the
members in the body, each one of them, as he chose, if all were a
single-member where would the body be?
And as it is, there are many parts.
Yet one body all the different parts of your body function
together for your good and in the church, each one of us has a
specific function and a specific role for the good, and the up
building and the building up of the church, the church as a
whole And we don't all have the same function, we have different
abilities. So what does this mean?
This means if you're not serving the church then the body is
suffering. As we think back to the
illustration of me, getting a drink of water, imagine that any
part of my body refuses to now, help me get a drink of water.
My arm says, no, I'm not, I'm not helping you, or maybe my leg
is broken or maybe my stomach can't keep liquids down, or
maybe my body doesn't take take that water and regulate my body
temperature of any part of my body.
Then says, I am not going to Look too good for together, for
the good of this body, then I'm in trouble.
And so it is in the church because you have, because you're
necessary because you're different, but you still need to
work together for the good of the whole.
If you're not functioning, the church is suffering, the church
is missing something that it needs.
Rainer says with a country club membership.
You pay others to do the work for you.
With church membership everyone has a role or function that is
why some are hands feet eyes or ears.
We are all different but we are necessary parts of the whole.
We build one another up. We also support one another, we
share in life's experiences, disappointments, failures and
successes First Corinthians. 12 verse 26 says, if one member
suffers all suffer together, if one member is honored all
Rejoice together, as we think about our body, this makes
sense, right? If I hurt my arm, or if I get a
cut, or if I sprained my ankle, my whole body, then begins to
work together to remedy the situation.
But if I hurt my arm, my other arm comes over and holds it.
And I winced and I feel the pain in my body and then my brain
immediately goes, I need to find a Band-Aid.
I need to find someone to help me.
I need to drive to the Hospital. I need to find a way to fix
this. And then, even your internal
organs, your cells begin to work together and your cells clot the
clot, the blood. So that you don't bleed out in
all of the follow, all the parts of your body working together to
heal. This is how it needs to be in
the church. When one member suffers.
When one member is struggling, we all need to help them.
We all need to work together for their good.
Why? Because if they're not at their
best, then neither are we, if they're suffering, then they're
they're not able to give the body what it needs.
And so we need to tend to them so that they can help others.
We work together for the good of the whole body.
So far we've seen that membership means we are all
necessary parts of the whole. We are all different but we
still work together for the good of the whole body.
And next we see that membership means that everything we say and
do is based on a Biblical foundation for love the local
Foundation of love. Most of us will be familiar with
the love chapter. First, Corinthians 13.
And it's commonly used at Weddings, But as Rainer says,
while there's nothing wrong with using the love chapter.
In these contexts, its original meeting was to demonstrate how
church members relate to one another in First Corinthians
chapter 12. Paul says, here's what spiritual
gifts you guys have. You guys need to use them in
service to one another in the body of Christ.
And then he goes on to say, in Chapter 13, this This is the
motivation you ought to have the reason you do this is because of
love. The reason we exercise our gifts
is because of love. First Corinthians 13, verse 18
says, 8 through 10 says, love never ends.
As for prophecies. They will pass away.
As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge.
It will pass away for we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
What Paul is saying is here in this life here in this earth,
our spiritual gifts are necessary because we don't know
everything we need help, we need to encourage and strengthen one
another, but once we're in heaven, we're not going to need
that anymore because Going to know everything.
We're going to know everything that we need to know.
We're not going to have a reason to teach one another.
So what's left to do in heaven, love To love one another to love
Christ, to have relationship with one.
Another Love, Never Ends. Therefore our greatest
motivation in serving. One another should be loved.
In First Corinthians 14, Paul talks to the Corinthians, about
how they'd mess this up. They began focusing on the
gifts. They began elevating themselves,
and I'm using my gift to show you how great I am.
And they were, they were exulting certain people that had
certain gifts and they just totally mess this thing up.
And it became about the use of your gift and how good you were
at it. Instead of serving one another
for the good of others. Paul says that if we serve the
church with our gifts, but do it without love.
It's totally meaningless first, one through three, if I speak in
the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love.
I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal if I have prophetic
powers and understand all Mysteries and all knowledge.
And if I have all Faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and if
I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain
nothing. If we use our gifts without
love, they are meaningless. But when we do it out of love,
our desire is to see someone else grow.
This is an attitude of the heart, which often makes its way
out in our attitudes, in our emotions in our actions, Paul
talks about this attitude of heart.
What does it mean? What is love?
Love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own
way. It is not irritable or
resentful. It does not rejoice at
wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth, Love has this attitude
towards one another. Now more than likely, we're all
familiar with these verses but if we actually lived by these
verses it would be life-changing.
It would be transforming in our churches.
Raynor says church membership is founded on love.
Authentic biblical unconditional love.
When we truly love one another, we desire to use our gifts our
skills, our abilities, for the good of the body, as a whole, So
each member of the body is necessary, each member is
different and unique working together with the other members
for the good of the whole each member is to be motivated by
love. And lastly, we see that each
membership church membership is functioning membership.
If we want to remain a part of a country club or if we want to
continue getting the benefits of certain subscriptions and
programs and in my case of the the pool that I love going to in
my hometown. If I wanted to continue going to
the pool, I just had to keep giving that dollar every time I
showed up, right. But to remain a Biblical member
of a church. That's not the bottle.
It's not merely just giving money.
We must give and serve the key word being a Biblical.
If you want to be a Biblical member of a church, you cannot
just simply give of your money. Oh sure.
You can remain a member of a church without doing anything,
giving nothing and serving nowhere, but as rain or says,
But please understand that type of membership is not biblical
membership that approach to membership is man-made, man
centered and man maintained it is.
Contrary to what the Bible teaches.
It has no place in our churches. We've already read how Paul
instructed, the Corinthians about the various parts of the
body. Each of these parts is supposed
to function when they do, they bring benefit to the body and
when they don't the body suffers as a result, One of the ongoing
questions Rainer, says, you should ask yourself and God In
Prayer. Is how can I best serve my
church? You should never ask yourself if
you should be serving your church.
Again, as we think about our physical bodies, we understand
this. We don't wake up in the morning.
No, part of our body gets to say, you know what, I'm taking
the day off. Or I don't think I need to serve
or I don't think I'm any benefits of the body.
I don't need to do anything today.
Our body parts don't do that. Sometimes they do actually don't
they sometimes certain parts of our body do refuse to work but
that just further illustrates the point because as soon as one
part of our body says starts to break down and starts to not
work, then the whole body immediately recognizes it
doesn't it? And now my foot hurts and all of
a sudden, I don't think I can go to work today.
Now, this affects everything that I do, write my entire focus
is now fixing that foot so that I can continue to continue to do
the things in my life that I need to do.
And so it is with the church. You cannot wake up one day and
say I don't have to do anything here.
Biblical membership means serving the body.
If you are a part of the body for you not to serve as the the
church the body to suffer. We need one another.
It is common for churches to keep a role of their members.
A role is a running list of people that that the church
believes calls this church home and maybe have formally received
membership and Tom Rainer. In this book estimates that
church roles are overinflated by three times.
He says, what that means is if your church has 300 members on
its rolls, it probably only has 100 real Biblical members.
Only one-third are functioning members.
Only one out of three gives abundantly and serves without
hesitation. Our Hope in this sermon series
is that you would understand the benefit that you receive out of
being connected to the body of Christ.
Our Hope is also that you would see the benefit that you bring
to the body of Christ in serving it.
If you are a member of Lem see, than we hope that you have felt
that benefit of being connected to this church body.
We also want you to know that if you are not functioning in this
body, then you are missing out on something that you need.
Our desire as Leaders is for this body to flourish.
And so we want to encourage you to prayerfully consider how it
is that God wants you to serve this body, your body.
If you are not a member of Lem, see, we understand that there
are many different reasons. That may be holding someone back
from membership. And those may be very good
reasons. And so we just, we just want to
prompt you. We just want you to know the
benefit of being connected. We want to challenge you to
understand that if you are not connected to a body, then you
are lacking something that you need and the church is lacking
something that you can give. Will you pledge to be a Biblical
member the way God designed it? You all have a paper on honor
around you somewhere and we wanted to through the throat.
This series, we wanted you to take something home with you.
Something that you could have that you could read over and on
the back page there's a pledge there that's at the End of This
Book and this is not something. We're asking you to sign and
bring back. This is for you.
This is for you to go over there some discussion questions that
you can go over at home and try to remember the truth that
you've learned. This morning, we wanted you guys
to go home with something but I do want to read that pledge at
the back. It says I am a church member
each week that we're going to go through has one of these
pledges. I like the metaphor of
membership, it's not membership, is in a Civic organization or a
country club. It's the kind of membership
given to us in 1st Corinthians 12.
Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it
because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a
functioning member whether I am an eye in ear or a hand as a
functioning member, I will give I will serve.
I will Minister, I will Angel eyes, I will study.
I will seek to be a blessing to others.
I will remember that if one member suffers all the members
suffer with it, if one member is honored all the members Rejoice
with it, and when we are willing to do this, the church as the
body benefits. And the reason we are willing to
do this is because we look to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We've sung about it this morning.
We've read about it this morning, that Jesus Christ is
our example. We give back to his body, the
church and we serve his kingdom because of all that.
He's done for us. In His Amazing Grace Jesus
Christ took our place on the cross.
And so we give ourselves for him and his church.
Let's pray. Father we thank you that Jesus
Christ died in our place. It says it's a it's in his name
that we come before you. We were able to stand before you
because of his perfect righteousness, his spotlessness,
his Holiness and we Rejoice together in all that he has done
for us and in your infinite, wisdom you established the
church to be the method through which you would bring your glory
to this earth. Lauren each and every one of us
who has placed our faith in Jesus Christ are individually
members of this body. E, we make up the body of
Christ. Where would you stir our hearts?
That we would willingly give ourselves to the strengthening
of your body. That you may be glorified that
we may be benefited That Others May benefit be benefited that
the body of Christ grows and strengthens and is built up into
the full measure of godliness. We thank you in Jesus name and
we asked for the power of your Holy Spirit to do that, which
sometimes we really struggle to desire to do.
Or would you give us boldness and confidence as we love and
serve and minister at one another so that our lives and
our testimony? As a church is an example to
this world. We ask all this in Jesus name,
amen.