Biblical Principles of Church (Part 2) - Pastor Steve Estes

Full Transcript:

When Jesus said, “I will build my church,” what all did he mean?

The New Testament uses the word “church” in two basic ways.

First, the New Testament uses the word “church” for all true Christians everywhere.  It is represented by the circle on this slide.  We read in Ephesians 5:25, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  Does it mean only Christ loves the people at Brick Lane and gave himself up for them?  

The New Testament uses the word "church" for all true Christians everywhere. It is represented by the circle on this slide.

Oh heavens no! It means that, but it means far more than that.  It means that Christ loved and gave himself up for Baptists and Independents and Episcopalians and Lutherans and Pentecostals and Presbyterians.

And therefore, Christians have come to call Christ’s church, as the Bible uses this term, his universal church.

The New Testament speaks about Christ’s church in this universal way.  Take Ephesians 5 verse 23 which says, “Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior.”  Well, he is the Savior of all of these people we have been talking about, so they collectively are the church.  He's not talking here about this Christian group, that Christian gathering.  He is not talking, when the New Testament uses the term this way. of any one particular congregation.  There are some commands that God gives us in the Bible that are impossible for us to obey, except as the universal church obeys them.  Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.”

You can't do that, even if you're a missionary.  Even if you've gone on every missions trip this church has ever had since it was founded in 1977, you can't go into all of the world.  But the collective universal church of Jesus Christ can.  Here's how he puts it in Ephesians 3 verse 6: “Through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs (H-E-I-R-S)… are heirs of salvation he’s talking about, through the gospel.  The Gentiles are heirs together with Israel.  The Jewish people who believe in one true God through Jesus Christ, they are members together of one body.  And they are sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ.  And as you look at the slide (in case you can’t see it well enough, let’s get a close-up.)  The close-up is that the Jesus in this slide is composed of people from all over the world: Christians.

Jesus in this slide is composed of people from all over the world: Christians.

Now technically this slide is not accurate because it shouldn't include the head because Jesus Christ himself is the head of the body, but you get the idea.  We are his hands, we are his feet, we are his body on Earth, and we go out and do bodily what he as the head tells us and sends us and empowers us to do.

The Bible calls the universal church “his temple.”  And it’s not just that we are individual temples, but together… Well here’s how Ephesians 2:21 puts it, speaking about the whole universal church, Paul says, “Together we rise to become a holy temple in the Lord.”  It means - well you know what a temple is.  A temple is a place where some deity comes and dwells and meets with people.  

So, God says that the Christian church universally became the place where God and people meet.  He dwells in the middle of us.  The Bible calls the universal church “a dwelling in which God lives.”  The Bible calls the universal Christian church “a spiritual house.”  In summary then, the Bible uses the word church to describe his universal church - all Christians everywhere.

When Jesus says in our text, “I will build my church,” he means: “I will build my worldwide gathering, my worldwide assembly.  And although they are never all together physically at the same time in the same place, they all gather around me in worship and in prayer all over the world, and I see them as in one gigantic worship service together through my eyes.” That’s what God says.

Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 1:1, “I’m writing to the church of God in Corinth.”  Or 1st Thessalonians 1, Paul is writing to “the church of the Thessalonians.”  Of all the times that the NT speaks of church, and that is to my count 79 times - the vast - and I underline the word vast - majority of those times, he is speaking about a local church, not the church universal.  

So we can also call this circle “the local church:  a group of Christians that meets regularly together under the same roof.” When Christ says, “I will build my church,” he means: “I will set up local churches all over the world.  I want them to be within reach of my people, that they can drive to or walk to or take a boat to, or take a camel to.  I want them so they can be able to gather regularly with other believers to worship me, to build up each other, and to reach their neighbors who don’t know me yet.” You get the idea then: the New Testament also uses the word “church” for a group of Christians who assemble together regularly.  

These are the two primary ways the Bible talks, and they’re the two primary things that Jesus was talking about when he promised to build his church.  Now, a principle that we gathered from this passage, but certainly from the collective New Testament as a whole is this: Christ intends his universal church to find expression in the local church.  Think about that.  You are a Christian, therefore you’re a member of the universal church.  And you might say that’s my identity, and that’s my only identity.  But it is impossible to obey many of the commands in the Bible just through the universal church.

* Interlude with Pastor Al Kimball.

Folks, did you catch that principle?  The invisible universal church finds it’s expression in the visible local church.  You cannot fulfill God’s call apart from the local church.  Now Pastor Steve moves on to the next principle.

The invisible, universal church finds its expression in the visible, local church.

* Back to the sermon with Pastor Steve Estes

We read in 1st Corinthians 12:18, God has arranged the parts in the body, talking about his church, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  He’s talking about abilities that he gives the people to contribute to their church.  People who were able to teach, people who can serve, people who can organize, people who can manage things, people who can take care of children, people who are good with helping the poor, this sort of thing.  

God has arranged the parts in the body - and he’s talking about a local body - just as he wanted to.  In other words, Christ’s body, here, and at High Point Baptist, and at a Lutheran church in Reading, and at an Episcopal church down the road (the Bible believing ones), Christ’s body in each of these churches is not missing an arm or a leg.  We don’t call it: “Well it’s part of Christ’s body, it’s half of Christ’s body, it’s 3/4 of Christ’s body.” No, God has given to his body, local churches, the parts that they need in order to function as a church, as a local church.

And I would say finally, from this doctrine, here’s what I think we must conclude:  Every person in a local church is commanded by Christ to entwine his life with that church.  Not just to attend, but to entwine our lives.  

Now there’s a number of ways we do that.  One, you think about (I’m sorry, let’s say there are a number of ways that we get that command.)  One is that the New Testament is full of what have been called (and many of you are familiar with it): the one another commands.  

Love one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, teach one another…that sort of thing.  

You cannot do that with people whom you hardly, if ever, see.  You can only do that as you rub shoulders with people, talk with people, chat with people, spend a few minutes with people, get to know people.  And as you do and hear about their lives, you will know whether they need to be forgiven, or to be encouraged, or to be taught, or to be brought a meal, or whatever it is that they need.  That’s how we know that we’re commanded to not just attend - but entwine our lives with other people in the church.

One way that we know as I’ve said, is because of the one another commands.  The other way is because of the teaching of the Bible very clearly about how often we attend church.  Here’s what it says in Hebrews 10 verse 25:  “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day (that is the end of times, the great day at the end of time) and all the more as you see the day approaching”.  Just think about that for a moment.

In other words, he doesn’t just ask us here to be in church - although that is a really good first step.  But he doesn’t just say if I’m sitting in the pew, I’ve got this verse covered.  What he says is, ”Let us not give up meeting together, but let us encourage one another.”  You know what that means?  It means something different for every person in this room.  For you, it means encouraging by being a good listener and asking a lot of questions.  For you, it means encouraging by seeing that somebody needs a pie or a meal baked and taken over to their house.  For you, it means visiting somebody in the hospital who is sick and laid up and hasn’t been able to get out to church.

He’s asking us to do it.  He asked me to do it.  He’s asking you to do it.  He’s asking you to write a letter to somebody who is rarely at church.  He’s asking you maybe to find out who is rarely at church and give them a call sometime and talk with them.  He’s asking you perhaps to go visit somebody.  He’s asking you, even if you don’t even know anybody, maybe to call the church office or the deacons and say, “Who is it that could really use a card or a visit? Give me some guidance.”  And we’d like to do something like this.  And he’s asking us to do it not just with our minds, but practically, tangibly, with our bodies.

He says, “Let us not give up meeting together (attending) but let us encourage one another.  That is entwine our lives with other people, outside of just this service.  And he says let us do this all the more as you see the day (that is capital D, the end of the world, judgment day), let us do this all the more as you see the day approaching.”

Let me paraphrase that last little phrase.  Let us do this all the more as you watch the news.  World getting worse?  You feel it getting worse?  You wonder sometimes how long planet Earth has?  He says that that ought to drive you and me to attend church more frequently, and to involve ourselves with the lives of other people.  I’ll put it this way.  To distance myself from church is to distance myself from Christ’s body.  And to distance myself from Christ’s body is to distance myself from Christ.  

* Epilogue with Pastor Al Kimball.

Steve has just given us several examples of being fully engaged in the local church, pointing to the next principle, that church is a living organism, and those in it are intimately connected.  We’re there for one another, and as a living organism, we are using our gifts together in the local body.

The church is a living organism. Those in it are intimately connected.

So the two new principles introduced by Steve are:

The invisible universal church finds its expression in the visible local church.
(and)
The local church is a living organism. Those in it are intimately connected.

These sermon clips are taken from the sermon preached on October 3rd, 2021 titled “I Will Build My Church, Part B”.

If you missed sermons one and two, I again encourage you to make time to listen to them.  They can be found on the church website, our YouTube channel, and mobile app. .  These are foundational to upcoming sermons.

Biblical Principles of Church (Part 3) - Pastor Steve Estes

Full Transcript: (Note that the speaker references Matthew 18 in his opening remarks, but intended to say Matthew 16. This is corrected in the transcript.)

In the New Testament, the church is clearly seen in multiple places as an organization.  Think of it this way - we’re called Christ’s body.  A human body has flesh and muscles and sinews and organs.  This mirrors God’s church as an organism.  But a body also has a skeleton framework to support the flesh, the bones, in an orderly way.  The skeletons or bones mirror the church as an organization. This is the way it is with the body of Christ.  It’s an organism and an organization.  And our passage we’ve been reading in Matthew 16 gives us our first glimpse of this. 

The church is an organism. The church is also an organization.

You remember in verse 18 and 19, Jesus says “I will build my church,” and then he makes his first promise: “ …the gates of Hell won’t overcome it.”  And then the first thing he says in describing his church is - he gives to Peter in verse 19, the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  And he gives to Peter, as an apostle, the authorization in the church to bind certain things and loose certain things.

We’ll discuss the meaning of this the next time we’re together, but he does this - this clearly has some notion of authority.  Later in Matthew 18, Jesus gives this same authority to all the apostles. It was not just Peter as a first Pope or something.  And then later in the book of Acts, Jesus, through the apostle Paul and the elders, gives this authority to elders in every local church.

But its point is that Jesus started describing his church by starting with Peter, describing certain authority being given to leaders, authority that is matched in heaven: Whatever you bind and loose on earth will be bound and loosed in heaven.  Whatever that means - it means that the authority is very deep and very real and is dealing with spiritual realities - it’s not just some man-made construct.  

When he said that he gives to Peter the keys to the Kingdom - a person who has keys unlocks doors and locks them.  Thus the person with keys admits certain people and can close and lock the door and refuse admission to certain people.  This is a matter of authority.  It’s the first thing Jesus talked about when he described his church.  

When he talks about binding and loosing, he’s talking about - at least partly - allowing certain things to be and disallowing certain things to be.  There’s some authority exercised.  There’s some structure.  There’s some organization.

A number of points:

First, the New Testament church had officers.  And thus it had offices.  It started with the apostles, they were clearly the leaders.  Later, in Acts chapter 6, there arose a need for a second office in the church.  You may recall that in Jerusalem, there were adherents to the Jewish faith who were of the Jewish race.  There were adherents to the Jewish faith who were of other races, Greek: the Greek race, or perhaps they spoke Greek or they had Jewish culture and they dressed like Greeks and they ate like Greeks.  And they found that certain widows who were among the Greeks, they got overlooked in the daily distribution of food, whereas the Jewish widows got all the food that they needed.  

And so the apostles saw that there was a problem.  In Acts chapter 6 verse 3, they called together the congregation, and they said, “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, and we’ll turn this responsibility of feeding the poor over to them.”

These seven men became the first deacons.  And notice how they were - how they were chosen.  The congregation is called together for a meeting.  Certain qualification are given: what it would take to be a deacon.  You need to be full of wisdom, you need to be full of the Holy Spirit.  And so there’s a definite organization to it.  

Then these seven are elected by a congregation, presumably at a congregational meeting since they couldn’t vote by email.  Later then - so now you have apostles, you have deacons, and later you have the office of elder.  That’s all the way through the New Testament.  You may recall in Acts chapter 20, verse 17, Paul is traveling and he travels near the city of Ephesus where he had spent so much time, but he couldn’t quite go there.  He needed to get on a boat and go away, so he sent word and it says that he sent for the elders of the church.  

Or in Acts chapter 14 verse 23, we read that Paul and his companion Barnabas appointed elders in each church.  Sometimes in the New Testament these elders are called overseers, they’re - those words are interchangeable, they’re one in the same things.  Sometimes they are called shepherds, and in our English words, the English word for shepherds is pastors.  Pastors, shepherds, elders, overseers, they’re all the same person in the same office and they were established in the New Testament.  

And like with deacons, the Bible talks about certain qualifications that you need to become an elder.  It was an organized process.  In 1st Timothy 3 there’s a long list of qualifications.  An elder candidate must be above reproach, above criticism from the outside, he must have a good reputation with others.  Able to teach and manage his family well, and so forth.  

In 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 17, we read that elders were divided up in their responsibilities into two.  Certain elders were to major upon teaching, they had become in our parlance today, pastors.  Other elders were to major on ruling.  And what that means is the oversight of the congregation, both through personal relationships and through making policy decisions and so forth.  

And then in 1st Timothy 4:14, you have another example of organization when it comes to elders.  You have the account of an ordination service for a pastor.  A service is called together, a pastor is examined, the elders come and lay hands on him, then he becomes an elder.  It’s an orderly process.  

The same thing you find in 1st Timothy 3.  In most of the chapter for 1st Timothy 3, Paul discusses first the role of qualification of elders, and then he discusses the same about deacons.  Officers imply a certain amount of organization.  The officer had to clearly be part of a church in order to be elected to the position. The examiners who examined them clearly had to be a part of the church in order to be trusted people to get these letters and the elders in the door and keep out those who shouldn’t be there.  There had to be some clear understanding of who was part of the church and who was not part of the church.  Now there are other examples of ordination.

The second way we know the church had organization in the New Testament is the New Testament church had congregational meetings. [drops head on the pulpit…] But it did.  It truly did.  For instance, we just read about in Acts chapter 6, when certain widows were being neglected, they called a congregational meeting, and the church chose certain men to be deacons.  In 1st Corinthians 5, we have a long account — pretty much the whole chapter is about a congregational meeting where certain judicial decisions needed to be made about a difficult issue that had come up in the church.

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 6, Paul just briefly speaks about a decision that was made by [quote] “the majority of the congregation”.  Here, they obviously knew who was in the congregation and who a majority was.  That’s the second reason: the church had congregational meetings.  

Was the church an organism and an organization both?  Yeah.  

Because thirdly, the New Testament church did not shy away from (and here you might even want to swallow hard, but it’s a clear teaching in the Bible) — the New Testament church did not shy away from counting numbers of people.

But in the New Testament we read in the first Christian sermon after Jesus rose from the dead and went back to heaven, we read that in Acts 2:41, that after Peter’s sermon about 3,000 were added to their number that day.  And then just a little while later in Acts chapter 4 verse 4. we read at that time the number of men grew to about 5,000.  This is organization.  

Number 4:  The New Testament had lists of people in its ministries.  We get that, for instance, from 1st Timothy chapter 5.  In 1st Timothy chapter 5, we read about a list of widows.  Now it’s unclear whether this means a list of widows in the church who received financial help from the church.  Or did it mean a list of official women in the church who were widows who acted, as it were, as staff in the church, who helped women in the ritual of baptism or ministered to other people in some way.  I don’t know whether it was widows receiving help or widows giving help, but in any case, it says in 1st Timothy 5:9: “No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is 1.) over 60, and 2.) faithful to her husband.”  That’s an organization.  

Number 5:  When somebody, some Christian moved or traveled, the New Testament was known to send letters of recommendation from one church to another.  You see this in multiple places in the letters of Paul when somebody has gone to a number - some other place.  

Let me give you an example, Romans chapter 16, verse 1.  Paul is writing from the city of Corinth.  He’s writing across the sea to the city of Rome and he says, “I commend to you our sister, Phoebe.”  She’s clearly part of the Corinthian church, but now she’s going to Rome.  “I commend to you our sister, Phoebe, a servant of the church here, who now is coming to you.” 

So, no wonder the apostle Paul wrote this little phrase in Colossians chapter 2 verse 5 - it is easy to gloss over and miss.  Paul wrote to the Colossians and said, [quote] “I delight to see your orderliness”.  Your orderliness.  That word, translate orderliness - means “an arranging of things,” or “an orderly manner.”  Paul says, “I delight in seeing this in your church.”

* Interlude with Pastor Al Kimball.

And so we see the Biblical support for principle 8, the church is also an organization.  Christ himself appointed structure, offices and ordinances for it.  For the next principle, Steve references Acts chapter 2.

Principle 8 - The church is also an organization - Christ himself appointed structure, offices, and ordinances for it.

* Back to Pastor Steve Estes.  

Now 3,000 were added that day.  Well the rest of the paragraph in Acts 2 describes what “they’re being added” to that local church, to the only local church in the world looked like, by describing what these people did once they were converted.  

Verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.  They were quite busy with their church.  Verse 44 says all the believers were together.  Verse 45, the second half of the verse, they gave to anyone as he had need - they took offerings.  Verse 46, every day they continued to meet together, they broke bread in their homes, they ate together with glad and sincere hearts.  

In other words, these people who became believers and were baptized did not become free floating Christians.  They participated in the church in the most intimate way possible.  They devoted themselves to the church life.  They did so under the leadership of the apostles.  That’s what membership is all about.  The point is, the way that the book of Acts describes the result of people being saved is that people get baptized and then they get added - not just at Christ’s universal church - but to the visible church in their area, to a local people of God.

People get baptized and then they get added to the visible church in their area, to a local people of God.

Now this being added to the local church as I say, was an act that was inseparable from their conversion and their baptism.  Baptism was the ritual of entrance into Christ’s visible church.  We might say, “into a local church” and thus becoming a church member, becoming identified with a particular church was not a sign of Christian maturity that you waited a number of years until you felt ready to commit - but it was a sign of being a Christian in the first place in the book of Acts.  It was a first and basic step, converts openly identified with the visible local church - that is, they became members.  

To use Paul’s language from Galatians 3: “All of them were baptized into Christ.”  But also, to use Paul’s language in 1st Corinthians 12: “All of them were baptized into one body.”

* Epilogue with Pastor Al Kimball.

In review, the church is also an organization.  Christ himself appointed structure, offices and ordinances for it.  In the New Testament, reception into the local church occurred at baptism.  It was the first step of the Christian life, not a sign of spiritual maturity.

In the New Testament, reception into the local church occurred at baptism.  It was the first step of the Christian life, not a sign of spiritual maturity.

These sermon clips are taken from sermons preached on October 31, 2021 and November 7, 2021 titled “I Will Build My Church” (Parts D & E).

Biblical Principles of Church (Part 4) - Pastor Steve Estes

Full Transcript:

So now we come to some passages that will deal with the next several great principles.  And the next major principle from the New Testament about church is this:  In the New Testament, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were closely tied to membership in the local church.

Let’s consider those one by one, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  So we’ll take as our next principle to break it down, in the New Testament, baptism was closely tied to church membership.

In the New Testament, the Lord's Supper was closely tied to church membership.

One of the many places we find this in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, the first Christian sermon. Jesus had gone back to heaven, the disciples had waited, the Holy Spirit came that day.  And so in verse 1 to 36 of Acts 2, Peter preaches the gospel.  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.”

And now jumping down to Acts 2:41: “So those who received his word were baptized.”  Here we have the very beginning of the Christian church, the same kind of thing that we had in the ministry of John the Baptist in the four gospels.  That is, no-one in the New Testament ever baptizes himself.  

Baptisms in the Bible are done by a church representative.  And if you trace this through the book of Acts by apostles and by Phillip the deacon, and possibly in Corinthians by other people beyond the apostles and the deacons, the reason was, that baptism was the church saying to a person who is professing faith in Christ, not, “We know that you are a Christian and therefore we will baptize you.” 

But rather, baptism was the church saying to a person, “As best we can tell from the things you’ve told us, your profession in Christ is believable, it’s credible.  We think you understand the gospel and your life seems to say that you are preparing to walk in his way, and so we accept you as a fellow Christian.  And thus, we baptize you.”

Now a second point under the idea that baptism was closely tied to membership is that Acts chapter 2 illustrates the relationship between baptism and acceptance into the visible church.  That is, acceptance into membership.  

If we go back to Acts chapter 2 verse 41 we read, that “those who received Peter’s words were baptized.”  That is, they believed, and were baptized, and now to our point in Acts 2:41, the second part of the verse we read, “Those who received his words were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Now that’s an interesting little part of a sentence, that people who were converted were added. They were added to what?  They were added to salvation?  They were added to the universal church? That is, all God’s people around the world?  They were added to the local church? What were they added to?  

The answer comes in verse 47, the second half of the verse.  It says, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  In other words, if you take it literally, the Lord added together those who were being saved.  

In verse 41, we just read that new converts were added but verse 47 clarifies by explaining it: they were added to the number of believers.  We know that he’s talking about the number of believers because of what the previous chapter, Acts chapter 1 described.  Pretty much that whole chapter is a description of the Christian church before the day of Pentecost.  

Acts 1 says who was there. Acts 1 gives the number of people who were there.  Acts 1 tells where they met.  It lists the names of many of the people. It makes clear who the leaders are.  It describes a congregational meeting to choose the replacement for Judas, the apostle who hanged himself.

In other words we see in Acts chapter 1 the earliest Christian church both as an organism and as an organization.  The point is that in Acts 1 as they waited in an upper room for the Holy Sprit to come, patiently, this was the visible church in an upper room in Jerusalem.  It was a local church. It was at the time, the only local church on the planet.

Now Acts 2 goes on to show how baptized converts were added to the visible, I should say to this visible local organized church.  Remember that the people in Acts 2:41 believed Peter’s message.  That is, they accepted his message, they were baptized, and about 3,000 were added that day.  Well the rest of the paragraph and the next two describes what they’re being added, to that local church, to the only local church in the world, looked like, by describing what these people did once they were converted.

Verse 42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”  They were quite busy with their church.  

Verse 44 says, “All the believers were together.”  

Verse 45, the second half of the verse: “They gave to anyone as he had need.” They took offerings.

Verse 46: “Every day they continued to meet together… They broke bread in their homes…they ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”

In other words, these people who became believers and were baptized did not become free floating Christians.  They participated in the church in the most intimate way possible.  They devoted themselves to the church life.  They did so under the leadership of the apostles.  That’s what membership is all about.  The point is, the way that the book of Acts describes the result of people being saved is that people get baptized, and then they get added, not just to Christ’s universal church, but to the visible church in their area, to a local people of God.  

Now this being added to the local church, as I say, was an act that was inseparable from their conversion and their baptism.  Baptism was the ritual of entrance into Christ’s visible church.  We might say into a local church. 

the way that the book of Acts describes the result of people being saved is the people get baptized, and then they get added - not just at Christ universal church - but to the visible church in their area to a local people of God.  

Also in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper was closely tied to church membership.  If baptism is the ritual of entrance into a church, the Lord’s Supper is the ritual of continuance in the church.  

Now in the New Testament, the way we know that it was tied closely to church membership - one of the ways we know, is that in the New Testament, just like with baptism, no one gave himself the Lord’s Supper.  No one went to the store and says, “I’m going to buy some wine. I’m going to buy some bread. I’m going to break it. I’m going to drink it, remember Christ’s death.”  You never see that in the Bible.  Nor do you see families celebrating the Lord’s Supper as a family.  Or friends getting together and doing it in a small group or something.  The Lord’s Supper was taken within the local church.

Yes, in the Lord’s Supper, sure, a Christian individually is saying to God, to Christ in particular, “Christ, I’m still with you, I still believe in you, I’m still a follower.” But also in the Lord’s Supper, the church, by giving the elements of the Lord’s Supper to a believer are saying, “We still recognize you as a Christian.  We still accept you as a Christian.  We are glad to give you the elements. We don’t withhold them from you.”  This is possible only with Christians who have been examined by their local church to see if their faith is credible.  That is, it is only possible with what we today call, “church membership.”

The sacraments (baptism and communion) are integrally tied to local church membership.

The next principle is this.  The New Testament teaching about excommunication is meaningless without membership.  Excommunication is when a person is no longer welcome to be part of the church, they are outside the fellowship of the church.  We read about this in a case of church discipline, excommunication, from 1st Corinthians 5.  

The New Testament teaching about the authority of Christ gave the church is meaningless without membership.

There, there was a problem within the church. There was a man within the church who was sleeping with his stepmother.  Paul makes that clear, the man was inside the church, he wasn’t just a professing Christian in the neighborhood.  He was part of their church because he says, Paul says, “There is sexual immorality among you,” …within your group.  Paul said, You folks should be grieved by this,” but instead they were proud that they were so liberated.  And so further, Paul said in verse 2 of 1st Corinthians 5, “You should have put out of your fellowship the man who did this.”  Literally, “You should have removed him from your midst.”

In verse 7, he says, “Get rid of the yeast, the old yeast.”  He means that the man is like yeast in a dough of bread and his sins are going to spread to the whole congregation if it’s not checked.  In verse 13 he says expel the wicked man from among you.

Furthermore, the church was to do this formally.  That is, as a formal judicial act, and they were to do it at a congregational meeting because it says in the passage, “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus,” do this.  That is, it’s an official decision.  They, verse 10, must not associate with the man anymore.  They, verse 10, must not even eat with the man anymore.  This of course is for his good so that he will feel ashamed, be lonely, and come back to Christ and his soul will be saved.

Baptism > Lord's Supper > Excommunication

This process of removing someone from the church is called excommunication.  Paul said don’t put pagan people who live sinfully out of the church.  If you try to do that, you would have to leave this world because you brush shoulders with pagan people who are living like that all the time.  

Rather, he says in verse 11, if “anyone calls himself a brother,” put him out of the church if he lives like that.  That is a person who has come to the church and professed faith in Christ and has been received into the church now, he is the one that you put outside.

He uses the language of insiders to the church and outsiders to the church.  Now this is language that we would be terribly uncomfortable with using if we didn’t see it in the Bible.  Usually if you talk about considering other people as outsiders, it means you’re being exclusive or your prejudiced or something like that.  But here that’s the language Paul uses.  Verse 12, he says, “I’m not here to cast judgment on anybody who is a pagan, who is outside the church.”

He says, verse 12, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside?”- the outside persons.  Verse 13, “God will judge those outside” on the day of judgment in his own time.  But in verse 12, the second half of it, Paul says, “But you are to judge those inside.”

In other words, congregations knew who was part of their body, and congregations knew who were on the outside.  And as Mark Dever said, You cannot formally exclude someone if he is not been formally included in the first place.”  And so Paul’s insider and outsider language is describing what today we call, church membership.

Just a few months later, Paul wrote the letter of 2nd Corinthians to the same people.  And there, in chapter 2, we learn that the man who had been excommunicated had repented, had come back, asked forgiveness, and Paul is urging them to receive him back into the church.

2nd Corinthians 2 verse 6: “The punishment inflicted on this man by the majority is sufficient for him.  Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him so he won’t be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow.”  The phrase that’s interesting to us in here is the phrase “the punishment inflicted on him by the majority.” In other words, it seems like they actually counted how people voted, how people thought.

And in summary then, New Testament congregations knew who belonged to them, and who didn’t. In today’s language, they had a clearly defined membership.  Excommunication, as is clearly taught in the Bible by both Jesus and the epistles, is a meaningless idea without church membership.  The New Testament church had church membership.

New Testament congregations knew who belonged to them, and who did not. Without clearly defined membership, the Bible's teaching regarding excommunication is meaningless.

Now the next major principle is this:  The New Testament teaching about the authority that Christ gave the church is meaningless without membership.

You recall in Matthew 16, verse 19, that Jesus spoke of church authority when he spoke of giving the keys of the kingdom to Peter and later in other passages to the other apostles and later to elders, they have the same kind of authority.

What does that mean?  Well, a person with keys locks and unlocks doors.  A person with keys determines who is admitted into the building, and who is not admitted into the building.  And so Paul, for instance, used the keys to shut the door by excommunicating the man in 1st Corinthians chapter 5, but then he used the keys to unlock and open the door and welcome the man back in again when he was restored in second Corinthians chapter 2. Jesus spoke of church authority when giving keys of the kingdom to Peter and the others.

Jesus also spoke about a church’s authority when speaking about binding and loosing.  Do you remember?  Peter, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  It’s roughly the same idea as the keys.  He’s using language there that was common among the Jewish leaders of Jesus’s day, both of the temple and of the synagogues.  In Jesus’s day, the religious leaders had the authority to bind certain things and loose certain things.  That is the authority to forbid certain thing (to bind), and to allow certain things (to loose).  

Now, we’re saying that Jesus gave authority of the church through keys and through binding and loosing.  But there’s another passage that tells how to use that authority.  And this other passage which is in 1st Peter 5 says that the New Testament limits this kind of church authority to the oversight of members.  Not to just every Christian indiscriminately.  The keys (the binding and loosing) was to be used to admit people into church life, and was to be used to guide them and oversee their church life where that guidance was necessary, and if necessary, to discipline them.  That’s the idea.

1st Peter 5, verse 1: “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder.” Verse 2: “Be shepherds of God’s flock.”  Oh, that’s a daunting verse if you’re an elder or pastor.  I mean, God has a mighty big flock.  In Elverson, in Morgantown, in Chester County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States, in the whole world.  How much of God’s flock am I supposed to shepherd?  How much should elders be responsible for?  But no, Peter qualifies it.  

He says in verse 2, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care.”  So okay, he limits their responsibility to something more reasonable, and he describes that limiting more carefully in verse 3.  He says, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” Now one of his points of course is to be an example, don’t lord it over people, show gentleness, show servanthood, don’t wave your authority like a banner.

But for the point of our sermon, we’re interested in the phrase, when he says not lording it over “those entrusted to you.”  “Those entrusted to you” is a word that means “not lording it over your allotment.”  Not lording it over your portion.  Not lording it over your share.  Peter is saying that elders have authority and are responsible for people, but they’re only responsible for some people.  It’s an identifiable group.  

Otherwise, it’s — it’s just an overwhelming task.  And so the verse, “to shepherd those, not lording out over those who are entrusted to you, not lording it over your lot, your portion, your share” - implies a limited number.  We believe that that limited number is members, that is people who have asked to be shepherded and made a commitment to the church.  As Paul said, “Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” 

Pastors and elders are responsible for only so many.  And people in the pews are only responsible to so many.  

* Epilogue by Pastor Al Kimball:

So the new principles introduced by Steve are:

The sacraments, baptism and communion, are integrally tied to local church membership.  

The New Testament congregations knew who belonged to them and who did not.  Without clearly defined membership, the Bible’s teaching regarding excommunication is meaningless.  

And the New Testament teaching about the authority Christ gave the church is meaningless without membership.

The New Testament teaching about the authority of Christ gave the church is meaningless without membership.

And the last principle derived from previous principles is this:  

Church membership is not a mere private decision.  For the good of all, God requires elders to make an informed judgement regarding a person’s profession.

Church membership is not a mere private decision. For the good of all, God requires elders to make an informed judgment regarding a person's profession.

These sermon clips are taken from a sermon preached on November 7th, 2021 titled “I Will Build My Church, Part E”.