Assumption That All Were Church Members

Q: What does the Bible say about church membership?

The Bible emphasizes that all true believers should be members of local assemblies of God's people. The Apostle Peter, in his letter, assumes that all true Christians are unmistakably identified with local church assemblies. This is evident in 1 Peter 5:1-4 where he addresses the elders of the church, indicating that these leaders oversee specific flocks comprising committed believers. Peter’s teaching reflects the New Testament's consistent pattern whereby believers are added to local churches, reinforcing the significance of collective identity within the body of Christ, thus making church membership crucial for all Christians.

Q: How do we know that church membership is important?

Church membership is vital as it identifies believers with a specific community of faith and accountability. The importance of church membership is grounded in the New Testament's portrayal of the church as a community of believers where individuals are accountable to one another and under the shepherding of appointed elders. Peter’s exhortation to the elders to shepherd the flock signifies the role of the local church in the spiritual care and growth of its members. Furthermore, passages like Matthew 18 emphasize that the church has authority over its members, affirming the necessity for visible, local manifestations of faith as part of a believer's journey.

Q: Why is being part of a local church essential for Christians?

Being part of a local church is essential for unity, accountability, and growth in faith. The local church serves as a primary context for Christians to express their faith, engage in communal worship, and receive teaching and correction from their elders. In 1 Peter, the assumption is made that every believer is part of a specific assembly, ensuring they are not isolated from the community of faith. Not only does church membership provide a support network, but it also fulfills Christ’s command to make disciples by gathering baptized believers into one body, facilitating mutual encouragement, and spiritual growth.

Now may I encourage you to turn
with me in your own Bibles to 1 Peter, the first letter of
the Apostle Peter, and follow as I read in your hearing verses
1 through 11. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1. The elders therefore among you
I exhort, who am a fellow-elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
tend or shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising
the oversight not of constraint, but willingly, according to the
will of God. nor yet for filthy lucre, for
base gain, or in more contemporary lingo, for being greedy for money,
not as one greedy for money, but of a ready mind, neither
as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves
examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
be manifested, you shall receive the crown of glory that fades
not away. Likewise, you younger, be subject
unto the elder. Yes, all of you gird yourselves
with humility to serve one another, for God resists the proud, but
gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. casting all your anxiety upon
him because he cares for you. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, as
a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom withstands
steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are
accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. and the
God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in
Christ, after that you have suffered a little while, shall himself
perfect, establish, strengthen you. To him be the dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Now let us again ask the
help of God as we take his word into our hands and set it before
our minds. Let us pray. Our Father, we again bow in your
presence. We again come asking help of
you, not as a ritual before the preaching of the Word, but as
the very real expression of our corporate sense of our utter
dependence upon you. We would now acknowledge that
without you, Lord Jesus, we can do nothing. The one who seeks
to speak your word can do no good. Those who seek to hear
and receive can receive no good. unless you, Lord Jesus, are present
ministering to both preacher and hearer alike and in the expectation
of faith and in the fresh confirmation that we do not trust in ourselves
but in you. Come, Lord Jesus, by your Spirit
and minister to us in light and in power. Amen. Now it was six Lord's Days ago,
just prior to my wife and I leaving for a two-week vacation out in
Michigan, that we completed our study in 1 Peter through to the
end of chapter 4. And in the course of the expositions
of the section bounded by chapter 3 and verse 13, and continuing
all through to the end of chapter 4 and verse 19, we had occasion
to highlight again and again that that section contains the
central pastoral burden of the Apostle Peter as he writes to
the people of God in the regions of Asia Minor, an area of the
world that we now identify as the country of Turkey. That pastoral
burden consists in the desire to enlighten, to instruct, and
to encourage the people of God concerning their present and
future sufferings for the sake of Christ. About two-thirds of
the way through that section, Peter makes it clear that he
fully expects that suffering for the sake of Christ will not
deter the people of God from their active involvement in the
life and ministry of the Church of Christ. And so we noted that
in chapter 4 verses 7 through 11, he addresses the people of
God in terms of their corporate identity and their corporate
life and interaction. He admonishes them to be fervent
in their love among themselves. that they are to use hospitality
one to another. They are to minister their gifts
with a deep concern that every divine endowment will find a
conduit of usefulness in the life and ministry of the church. Then he returns to his central
burden again in verse 12 all the way through verse 19 addressing
the subject of suffering in terms of the fiery trial or the burning
that is among them. Now it's clear from our initial
reading of the passage that has been read in your hearing, chapter
5 and verse 11, that Peter is once again directing the attention
of his readers to aspects of their life together. Suffering
is not totally out of his mind, for you will remember, I trust,
in reading this passage, he speaks of the fact that their sufferings
are sufferings shared by their brethren, and as he comes to
his concluding benediction in doxology, he does so in terms
of their suffering for a little while until they are utterly
and completely perfected. But here in this passage, verses
1 to 4, are a direct word to a segment of the church called
elders. Those who have been appointed
by God as the overseers of the people of God. And the people
of God are set forth here, not in their individual identity,
but in their corporate identity, with the terms flock of God,
God's heritage. Those are concepts that cannot
be driven to individualism. A flock is a gathering of sheep. God's inheritance or portion
is not to be thought of atomistically, but in terms of a corporate identity. And so as we come to this passage,
we see Peter the pastor again concerned that none of the people
of God ever think that any amount of suffering in any extent of
that suffering is an excuse or warrant to become less committed
to the life and ministry of the church. But as he approaches
this subject in chapter 5, it is clear that he does so with
an underlying assumption. And the bulk of our time this
morning is going to be taken up with simply identifying the
underlying assumption of this passage, and in a very real sense,
of the entire letter that Peter writes to these believers. Now,
it's important that I give a working definition of an assumption. An assumption is something taken
for granted, something we don't stop to articulate, much less
to prove. For example, when I stood up
this morning to lead the service, there was an underlying assumption. I did not identify it, much less
prove it. And that assumption was this.
that most if not all of you sitting here this morning have some degree
of proficiency in the English language. If I could speak French,
I would not have stood and begun to speak in French, or in Spanish,
or Italian, or Hindustani, or some other exotic language. I was assuming that the moment
I began to frame vocables in the English language that there
would be a registering in your brain of those vocables and I
would be engaged in meaningful communication. I am assuming
that there is a basic proficiency in the English language. Furthermore,
I am assuming that the whole complex of verbal communication
is firmly in place. Think how much I assumed. I assume
that my thoughts, clothed in my words, can so register on
my brain that impulses are sent to my larynx, to my lungs, to
my diaphragm, to my lips, and to my tongue that words will
be framed and they will come out to you in the form of unseen
vibrations. And when those vibrations are
picked up by your ears, they are transmitted through the ear
into the inner ear, and all of that complex mechanism, and signals
are sent by the auditory nerve to your brain, in which there
registers those vocables, and voila! My thoughts have entered
your head. Now all of that was assumed.
I didn't come here with charts and diagrams to prove the working
physiology of how sounds are formed and framed and transferred
and thoughts become transferred in the process. I was reminded
in a very vivid way of this wonderful phenomenon of verbal communication
The church has provided me, as most of you know, with a lovely
car, a 1998 Honda, the top-of-the-line Honda. And many of the little
gimmicks it has is it has a built-in brain into which I can store
the impulses of three different electronic devices. Well my wife
keeps her car in the garage and she has one of those remote garage
door openers and so when she is ready to go into the garage
she pushes it and the signal is sent into that mechanized
thing and up goes the garage door. Well I was reading through
the manual and it said I can inject the impulses from any
remote opener into the little brain in that car, and it amazed
me. It said, just hold the thing
for 15 seconds and the light there, and when you're done,
push the button and the door will open. And that's what happened.
All I needed to do was take her remote, put it next to that little
place in the Honda, and wonder of wonders, whatever impulses
are sent out from that little remote control, without any words,
without any wires, were injected into the little electronic brain
in my Honda, so when I have occasion to use the garage myself, I push
my little button and up it goes. Now, wouldn't it be wonderful
if we could transfer thoughts that way? And I come down this
morning and say, the whole burden of my message is in my heart
and in my head. Yes, I have it on five pages
of notes. And then I just come to each one of you and I say,
all right, let's press foreheads. And then I think hard, and you
say, boo, I've got it. I've got the whole message. I
tell you, that'd be wonderful. God hasn't made us that way.
You see, I'm presuming, I am presuming that you have some
facility in the English language. I am also assuming that what
I am doing has significance. I'm not just making vibrations
in the air to tickle the air. I'm seeking to take my thoughts
that are clothed in my words and put them into your brain
so that there is a very real and meaningful communication
of thought. Now, why all of that? Well, simply
to underscore that when we talk about the assumptions of something,
that's what we're talking about, things we take for granted. We
don't stop to analyze or prove them. And in this passage, Peter
has an underlying assumption that is critical to our understanding
of this passage, and in a very real sense, of the entire letter. Now in the time allotted, these
will be my heads. I want to state that underlying
assumption and then seek to prove from the scripture that it was
indeed Peter's underlying assumption. So the underlying assumption
stated and proved. Secondly, we will examine why
it was that Peter could make this assumption. Was it a valid
assumption to make? Should he have paused to articulate
it, to prove it, to demonstrate it? I want to demonstrate why
it was that Peter could make this assumption, and then thirdly,
I want to give you the reasons why I'm taking the time to highlight
the assumption, show you the biblical proof of the assumption,
and why it was that Peter made the assumption. Alright? First
of all then, the underlying assumption stated and proved. What is the
underlying assumption of this passage? When Peter, sitting
perhaps somewhere in Rome, is penning this letter and he comes
to this section and writes, the elders therefore among you, I
exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the
oversight, as he launches into this direct exhortation to elders,
in a letter addressed to the people of God in general, what
is his underlying assumption? Well, let me give it to you in
the long version and then the short version, alright? Here's
the long, more accurate version of his assumption. Here it is.
That all true believers in Asia Minor, to whom this letter was
written, were unmistakably identified with specific local assemblies
of the people of God. When Peter writes his letter
and says, as he does in chapter 1 in verse 1, Peter an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion
in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he is assuming
that all true believers in Asia Minor, to whom this letter was
written, were unmistakably identified with specific local assemblies
of the people of God. Or the short version, Peter's
assuming that all true Christians in Asia Minor were church members. That's the short version. He's
assuming that all true Christians in Asia Minor were church members. Now note carefully, I have worded
the assumption this way. He's assuming all true Christians
were church members. Now don't reverse that and say,
oh well, does that mean then all church members in Asia Minor
were true Christians? No, it does not. And you students
learning a little bit about logic, that would be affirming the consequent.
That's fallacious reasoning. It is not true that all church
members are true Christians. Peter knew better than that.
Peter was the one who spoke to a character in Acts 8, who was
a professing Christian, baptized, and a church member in Samaria.
But he manifested that the root of the matter was not in him.
He was a hypocrite. The Word of God teaches that
there are temporary believers, those who receive the Word with
joy, believe for a while, and then fall away. Many of them,
in that period of believing for a while, make a credible profession,
are baptized, and come into the church. But they are not true
Christians. And then there are very clever
hypocrites who maintain their credible profession all the way
through life and only in the day of judgment will they be
exposed for who and what they are. Jesus refers to them in
Matthew 7, 21 and 22, 23. Not everyone who says unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not done
mighty works in your name? They rose up through the ranks
to places of prominence and leadership. And Jesus will say to them, depart
from me, I never knew you. Peter did not believe that all
church members were true Christians. He knew the truth of 1 John chapter
2. They went out from us that it
might be made manifest that they are not all of us. But Peter
is assuming that all the true Christians were church members.
You see, that's the affirmation. That's the assumption. The assumption
is that all of the true Christians in Asia Minor were found in specific
local assemblies of God's people so he can address that configuration
of churches in which there is a flock and God's heritage. And there are shepherds who are
in the midst of and over those flocks of God in their God-appointed
role and function. Now, how can I prove that from
the Scriptures? More specifically, how can I
prove that from this letter of 1 Peter? Well, I want you to
go back to chapter 1 and we're going to make a very quick flyover
of this rich and variegated description of the true people of God. If
you want to get your soul blessed as to what you are as a Christian,
you ought to just speed read every once in a while the first
two chapters of 1 Peter and note everything you are if you're
a true believer. Notice what he says in chapter
1 in verse 1. Those to whom He writes are elect
sojourners. They have no abiding place here,
but they are those marked out and chosen by God in His free,
sovereign love and mercy. They are described as being such,
verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. That is, His
predetermined purposes of love. They are set apart unto God by
the Spirit. They have come under the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. And they have freely responded
to this grace with a disposition to be the obedient subjects of
the Lord Jesus. That's the description of a Christian
in the opening greetings. Then in chapter 1, verse 3, they
are described as those who have been begotten again unto a living
hope. Verse 4, they have this possession
of an inheritance undefiled and that fades not away. Verse 9,
they are such as receive the end of their faith, even the
salvation of their souls. Verse 8, they are described as
those who believe in and have love for an unseen Christ. They are described in verse 18
of this chapter as those redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Verse 22, they are described
as those who have purified their souls in obedience to the truth,
Verse 23, those who have been begotten again, not of corruptible,
but of incorruptible seed, even the Word of God. Chapter 2 and
verse 3, they are such as have tasted that the Lord is gracious. They are such as, verse 5, have
become living stones placed in God's living temple. They have
become a spiritual priesthood. They are described in verse 9
as the elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Now why have I
taken the time to give that brief overview? If this is not a description
of true Christians, I don't know what is. Alright? He's describing
true Christians and all that they have and are in virtue of
God's saving work. Now when he comes to chapter
3, 4, and 5, He is not envisioning a different
class of people, nor is he marking off only some who are described
in these rich terms. He does not begin chapter 5 by
saying, the elders therefore among some of you who have gone
beyond being mere Christians and professing faith and have
become part of local churches. He makes no such two-tiered division. He's assuming that all who are
elect sojourners, all who have been begotten again to a living
hope, all who have the inheritance, all who love Christ, believe
in Christ, all who have been redeemed, He's assuming that
all of them, without exception, would receive this word, the
elders among you. And they'd be able to say, yes,
Peter, I know who my elders are. In coming into the membership
of the assembly, I saw in them the marks and characteristics
of true under-shepherds of the Lord Jesus. I know who they are. And when He says to the elders,
shepherd the flock which is among you, none of the shepherds said,
well, Peter, I'm not sure which ones is and which ones ain't
among us. They would know who were the ones among them. Peter is assuming that all of
the true people of God, all real Christians, were part of a visible
flock of God which can be shepherded by identifiable elders who have
an identifiable flock that they seek to tend in Christ's name. And coming now to chapter 5,
The key to an understanding of this is in a simple little prepositional
phrase that occurs twice in the first two verses. I'll read it
emphasizing that phrase. The elders therefore among you,
I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, who am a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,
shepherd the flock of God which is among you. Enhumim in the
Greek. It's the exact parallel. He says
to the elders that you are among them. The elders among you. Enhumim. And then he says shepherd
the flock which is Enhumim, among you. So what do we have? We have
elders who are among the you and who are the you. All the
people he's been describing in the previous chapters. All true
believers. All those who are elect sojourners,
who love Christ, who are redeemed, who are begotten again, who are
part of the living temple. And Peter says, I'm now going
to charge the elders. Where are they? Floating around
Asia Minor as a bunch of itinerant preachers? No! They are among
the flock of God. the elders who are among you
and this letter was to be read in the hearing of all the congregation
in all of the churches how many ever there were in that area
we know from the book of Acts that there were probably at least
10 churches in these areas whose origins are recorded in the book
of Acts Peter assumes that there would be an immediate recognition
of the meaning of the words, the elders therefore enhumi,
the elders among you, and that there was a you, a corporate,
identifiable group of God's people here. And there, and here, and
there, in those five Roman provinces, who would immediately recognize
that what Peter is doing, he is charging those elders that
are among us, that are the overseers of who and what we are, as a
specific, identifiable, concrete expression of the church of the
Lord Jesus. Now then, when he says in verse
2, Speaking to the elders, shepherd the flock of God which is enhumene,
which is among you. He's assuming that the elders
would know immediately. The flock of God among us as
elders are every one of those men and women who have voluntarily
unmistakably committed themselves to the membership of the given
assembly. Whatever the mechanism of that
commitment, whether it was written, whether it was memorized, is
irrelevant. What is relevant from the scripture
is that the enhumene phrase clearly boxes up this relationship. There is a mutuality of unmistakable
recognition. a mutuality of unmistakable recognition. The elders know the flock and
who mean among them, and the flock knows the elders and who
mean among them. There is no true Christian who
would have to say, what elders among us? And no elders who would
say, what flock? in whose midst I serve. So I say in summary, the underlying
assumption of this section and of the entire letter is that
all true Christians in Asia Minor were members of specific local
assemblies of the people of God. All true Christians were church
members. I lay before you what to me is
unassailable evidence that this is Peter's assumption. There's
no exhortation to Christians who truly believe and are weighing
whether or not they ought to be committed to local assemblies.
No such creature is even recognized in the New Testament. Now that's
strong language, but I'm prepared to stay. Ah, but what about the
thief on the cross? What about the thief on the cross? He's a wonderful testament to
the fact that believing on Christ in the last moments of one death
is all that is necessary to be prepared for heaven. His incident
proves nothing about church membership except that it's not necessary
for salvation. But you can bet your boots had
he lived, had the Lord taken him down from the cross, the
Lord would have directed him to be baptized and come into
the visible community of his visible expressions of his body
here on earth. Oh, but what about the Ethiopian
Union? He was baptized and no record. What about him? It just
shows again that a person may be baptized in confession of
Christ and we know nothing of the church which in principle
they are identifying with. God is simply silent. God's silences
in those instances don't prove much. In fact, they prove nothing
with respect to this issue. For we shall see, in just some
specimen passages, the consistent witness of the New Testament
is that when someone is united to Christ by faith, that person
is found united in a specific, concrete, identifiable way with
a local assembly of Christ people. Now then, we come secondly to
the origin of this assumption. Where in the world did Peter
get this notion that he doesn't pause to prove, to demonstrate,
to expand upon. He just assumes it. Was his assumption
a presumption? And while in some instances the
terms are used synonymously, and I rechecked all the different
meanings in the dictionary so I could say this with some degree
I trust of accuracy, sometimes assumption and presumption are
used as synonyms. But when they are used with their
proper distinction, An assumption is an unproven given. A presumption is taking something
for granted that you really don't have much basis to take for granted.
So in his assumption, was Peter guilty of presumption? No, he wasn't. And I want you
to track out with me two lines of thought. Now I know this is
different. I normally don't preach this way. We're parked in the
passage. But if nothing else, it shows you I'm not bound by
my own method. And what I do, I do for your edification. So
hang in there with me now, all right? Where did Peter get this
assumption? Well, let's remember two categories
of biblical witness. Peter was one of those who heard
the Lord Jesus speak the words, the only words recorded in the
Gospels, explicitly referring to the church. Peter was there
and heard them. We're going to look at them.
And when Peter, in his unique place among the apostles in the
founding of the church at Jerusalem, and in the opening of the door
of faith to the Gentiles, Acts 10, the household of Cornelius,
Peter knew what Christ, his boss, had directed him to do as an
apostle with respect to this whole matter of establishing
churches. So the origin of the underlying
assumption of Peter is what he knew of the words of Christ and
what he was involved in in the work of Christ. Alright? Two
simple headings. Alright? The word of Christ.
Turn please. to the Gospel of Matthew. First of all, in Matthew 28,
and the commission given explicitly and directly to the apostles,
some aspects of which now merge into the standing duty of the
church. Not all, but some. Peter identifies
himself in his letter as Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, what were apostles supposed
to do? Familiar words, Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came to them and
spoke to them saying, all authority in heaven and upon earth has
been given unto me. Going, therefore, make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them, that is,
baptized disciples, those who have professed their adherence
to Christ in faith and have acknowledged it in the initiatory ordinance
of baptism, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. Jesus in this passage says the
apostles were responsible in their evangelistic endeavors
to gather together the fruit of that evangelism into assemblies
of baptized disciples and then to give themselves to instructing
them in whatever Jesus had already taught them. Now according to
the upper room discourse, Jesus promised to those apostles that
much more would be revealed to them. And what was revealed to
them is what is embodied in our New Testament letters and epistles. But here in the commission, the
focus is upon that which Jesus had already commanded them. And what was one of the things
Jesus commanded them? Well, now turn with me to the
two church passages in the Gospels where the church is mentioned
explicitly. It's implicit in many, many passages,
but explicitly Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. Matthew 16. You remember the setting? Jesus
is drawing out the disciples with respect to the question,
who do men say that I am? Matthew 16, 13. And they said,
some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one
of the prophets. An interesting little aside,
no one said, we think you're a brilliant scribe raised up
in our generation. They identified him as a prophet. And what was the great function
of the prophet? Not only to foretell, but to
foretell the prophet was God's living irritant to the conscience
of an apostate nation. The prophet was God's living
sounding board of consolation to his distressed people. Jesus,
in the buzzwords around Palestine, is identified as one of the prophets. The note of penetrating authority
and biting into the conscience in conviction and consolation.
But he said unto them, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter. Simon Peter answered and said,
you are the Christ, the son of the living God. He identifies
Christ in his person, Son of God, in his office as Messiah. Jesus answered and said to him,
Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood is not
revealed unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also
say unto thee, second person singular, this is said to Peter,
to Peter specifically. I say unto thee, speaking to
Peter, you are Peter, And upon this rock, two different words
in the Greek, Petros and Petra, you are Peter and upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. I will give unto you That is,
speaking to Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever
you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever
you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What is
the basic instruction of this passage? And I don't want to
be simplistic, I know it has been a watershed of controversy,
particularly between Romanists and Evangelical Protestants for
centuries, but what is clear on the very surface is this.
As Son of God and Messiah, Jesus will build one thing, His church. You say I am son of God and Messiah. As son of God and Messiah, I'm
going to build something and what I build is my church. That's
clear. You don't need to know any Greek.
You don't need to know any Aramaic. You don't need to know anything
except the clear teaching of the passage in any good English
translation. You are Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church. Not upon you, but upon this rock.
The rock of what I am in my person and identity as Son of God and
Messiah, I will build my church. Second thing is clear, Peter
will have a strategic place in the building of that church which
has Christ as its foundation. Peter will have a strategic place
in that church of which Christ is the foundation. And that Peter
understood it this way, we learned when we studied 1 Peter 2, where
Peter himself points to Christ as that stone which God has made
the head of the corner. Not himself, according to the
blasphemous folly of Rome. Christ builds his church on that
foundation which alone can bear its weight and stand against
the powers of darkness, his own person as Son of God and his
identity as Messiah. Now, come to Matthew 18 and verse
15, our second church passage, and what do we learn? Matthew
18, 15. And if your brother sinned against
you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear
you, you've gained your brother. If he hear you not, take with
you one or two more, that at the mouth of two or more witnesses,
two or witnesses or three, every word may be established. If he
refused to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he refused
to hear the church also, let him be unto you as the Gentile
and the publican. Verily I say unto you, what things
soever you shall bind." No longer spoken to Peter, second person
singular. but second person plural, to
all of the people of God. Whatsoever you shall bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven. What things soever you shall
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you,
if two of you agree on earth as touching anything they shall
ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. What do we learn here? What did
Peter learn about the church? In the Matthew 16 passage he
learned that that church built upon the identity of Christ in
his person and office, Son of God, Messiah, Christ will build
and nothing shall prevail against it. Peter learns that he will
have a special function within that church. Now what does Peter
and do the other disciples learn? They learn this. that God's people
gathered in churches will still be sinful and not perfect. There
will be disruptions in their unity because of sin. And the Lord Jesus gives directions
as to how to deal with those imperfections that the unity
might be restored. You see the language? If your
brother sinned against you, Well, we all fail, so just talk to
a few other people about it and then forget it and hope it'll
go away. No, if your brother sinned against you. If it's a
significant sin that breaks fellowship, not the multitude of sins which
love covers. If we go around with magnifying
glasses, we'll be doing nothing but running to brothers and sisters
twenty times a day. It's a significant issue that
you can't throw the blanket of love over it. Show him his fault
between you and him alone. If he hears you, what have you
done? You've gained your brother. Real, concrete, specific fellowship
between real, concrete, specific saints is fractured and restored. You say, Pastor, you're beating
it thin, I see it. Well, you'll see why. Hang in there, alright?
If he does not hear you, take with you one or two more. One
or two more of what? Anybody that will receive your
email and fish it out of his inbox? God have mercy on us. One or two more what? Members
of the same assembly. Because look, look what the text
says. If he hear you not, take one or two more, that if the
mouth of two witnesses or three, every word may be established
before what court? Before whom? Keep reading. If
he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. Unto the church. Not some indefinite
church, universal, but the concrete expression of the church with
brothers and sisters who are prepared to bear testimony and
witness to these realities. And if he does not hear the church,
he says, let him be unto you as a Gentile and a publican.
The church has this built-in Christ-appointed authority to
cast out of its fellowship those who do not deal seriously with
their sin. You heard in the previous hour
that sanctification is not optional. Church discipline is the validation
of the biblical doctrine that sanctification is essential to
salvation. And when anyone who claims to
be in the way of salvation, in the fellowship of the church,
will not persevere in sanctification, and is admonished and called
to repentance and will not repent, he's put out of the church. Why?
He's a living contradiction. The church is the assembly of
those set apart unto God in Christ, pressing on in holiness and in
conformity to Christ. And when anyone ceases to be
that, he doesn't belong there. You see that? Do you see it? Yes or no folks? It's critical
that we grasp this. Now, as he goes on to speak of
the church, verse 18, one of the magisterial sayings of Jesus,
whenever he says verily, it's Jesus taking his own red pen,
underlining his own words. Or for you computer buffs, it's
Jesus pushing the right keys to get a nice double bold italicized
attention getter in the text. All right? So whichever you like.
Red pencil, that's me. Computer buffs, that's you. All
right? Verily I say to you, look, what things soever you shall
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What things soever
you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Whatever
that means, and I'm not going to go into the possible significance
of it, one thing is clear. It is a concrete, specific aggregate
of God's people who are doing things on earth. It's not some
invisible nebulous church universal. The invisible church. This is
a very visible entity. What they're doing occurs on
earth and is validated in heaven. Verse 19, again I say to you,
if two of you shall agree, you see what the Lord says, on earth.
You didn't know why he put those words there. He put them there,
on earth. I'm talking about the church
on earth in its concrete expressions of real brothers and sisters
with real breaches in fellowship because of real sin and a real
effort to bring the sinning brother or sister to repentance with
real witnesses, with the real activity of the church. It's
the church agreeing on earth as touching what they ask. Verse
20, where two or three are gathered together. That's bodies. That's
not the spirits of just men made perfect who are in the presence
of Christ. It's something that occurs here
on earth. Now you say, Pastor, what in
the world does that have to do with 1 Peter 5? Well, I haven't
lost my mind, and I haven't lost my track, if you're still with
me. What are we trying to show? We're trying to show that when
Peter writes to these Christians in Asia Minor, he is assuming
that all true Christians are church members of the various
churches. I've sought to demonstrate from
the text that that is his assumption. Now we're wrestling with the
question, where did he get that assumption? Did he properly acquire
it? And my answer is, it began when
he took seriously the teaching of his Lord recorded in the Gospels
concerning that which Christ would build, that in which Peter
would have a distinct and in some ways a unique place while
a living apostle. That which, according to this
passage, has real people imperfect to sin, that has a real process
of addressing the sin, that has real people gathering on earth,
agreeing on earth, and who claim the living presence of Christ
in their midst. In other words, whatever Jesus
was teaching about the church, He's not speaking of some mystical
nebulous entity out there to which everyone who believes becomes
a part and therefore it makes no difference whether they are
a part of a visible, local, concrete expression of his church. Jesus
never gave any such teaching. Peter never got such teaching
from his Lord. Now we come to what Peter did
as an apostle and we'll see him carrying out these perspectives
in his own ministry. Here we turn to the book of Acts.
We've seen what Peter learned from his Lord. Now we're going
to see what he did in his service for the Lord. Acts chapter 1.
The Lord Jesus, according to the last chapter of Luke, ascends
up into heaven in the presence of the twelve, of perhaps even
five hundred, we're not exactly certain, but of the eleven. And
we have a parallel account here in Acts chapter 1, beginning
in verse 10, while they were looking steadfastly into heaven,
two men spoke to them saying, you men of Galilee, why do you
look bug-eyed up into heaven? This Jesus will come again. Verse
12, Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,
which is near to Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they
were come in, they went up into the upper chamber where they
were abiding. And then he lists the eleven
apostles, verse 14. These all, with one accord, continued
steadfastly in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of
Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days, Peter stood
up in the midst of the brethren and said, and there was a multitude
of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty. You
see, the seed church of Jerusalem was a specific entity of men
and women, including the 11 apostles and the mother of our Lord, and
they could be looked at and numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
about 120. May have been 118, 122, this was a round figure. Now this is critical. Why did
the Holy Ghost tell us 120? Why do we get the sense that
when Luke is giving the record, he's not giving the record of
some nebulous thing called the church that floats around somehow
connected with people that say they trust Jesus and love Jesus.
He's certainly not in the numbers game. There was no denominational
headquarters that wanted his numbers so that he could get
some brownie points and get a bigger church. It's critical. The Spirit of God has underscored
the numbers. Now come to chapter 2, verse 1. And when the day
of Pentecost was now come, they were all together, the hundred
and twenty, in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven
a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, filled all the
house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
tongues parting asunder like as of fire, and sat upon each
one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
all one hundred and twenty. and began to speak with other
tongues or languages as the Spirit gave the mutterance. Now get
the picture. The Lord Jesus has ascended. This group spends much
of its time, according to Luke, praising God in the temple, and
then retreating to this place described in chapter 1, this
upper chamber where they were abiding. We are told that there
was approximately 120, there were 120 in that group. When
the day of Pentecost comes, they are all together. And in that
setting the Spirit of God comes and visibly and audibly presents
Himself in their midst. They are all filled with the
Spirit. They begin to speak in other languages the mighty works
of God which became a powerful attention getter to all of the
people that were there in Jerusalem at the feast time. Then you know
the rest of the story. Once the attention is secured
and some say, hey, these folks are out bending their elbow early
in the morning, they're drunk, they're filled with new wine.
And Peter stands up and says, no, here's the true explanation.
Verse 14 of chapter 2, Peter stands up, lifts up his voice,
explains what has happened. And then we read in verse 37,
when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall
we do? Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of
your sins. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for
the promise for to you is the promise and to your children
and we don't find dot dot dot end of quote. I am weary of the
pedobaptist use of this text. Why do we sprinkle our children?
The promise is to you and your children, dot, dot, dot. My friends,
there is no dot, dot, dot. The promise, Peter said, to people
steeped in a covenantal concept of family unity concepts. He says, the promise is to you
and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. What is the promise
that is to those who are distressed in heart and cry out, what shall
we do? What is the promise to their
children? What is the promise to all that
are far off? The promise is repent, and in
believing, turning to God in Christ, identify yourself with
Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit is the promise. And it
is given on the same conditions to our children and all who are
far off. It's wearisome to see that twisting
of the Word of God. It's plain that a child can see
it. Peter says, you who are distressed,
repenting and believing, and openly confessing Christ, the
pardon of all your sins, you who have murdered the Son of
God, that grace is not exhausted in you. It will extend to all
of your children who repent and are prepared to be identified
with Christ. They shall be forgiven. They
shall receive the gift of the Spirit. And it's even viable
for Gentile dogs to the ends of the earth, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call unto Him. Now, what's that have to
do with 1 Peter chapter 5? Is it faster? No, we're still
on track. Look at the next verses. and
I hope it will all begin to come together. And with many other
words he testified and exhorted them saying, save yourselves
from this crooked generation. Now how in the world are you
going to do that? Is he going to get them all together, put
them in a 747 and go to some uninhabited island out in the
South Pacific and set up a Christian community? How do you save yourself
from this crooked, this scolios, this twisted generation? by repudiating
your identity with it in Adam and in its Christ-rejecting spirit
and becoming identified with those of us who see in Jesus,
Son of God and Messiah. Is that what he meant? You bet
your boots it's what he meant because look what they did. Next
verse. Then they that received his word That is both extensive
and inclusive, but it is radically exclusive. No one who did not
receive the Word was baptized. They who received His Word were
baptized. Infants don't receive the Word,
they ought not to be baptized. I've kept my sword sheathed too
long because of some of my dear pedo-baptist friends, but this
is the flock among which God has placed me. And I don't want
any of you vulnerable to the sophistry built on passages such
as Acts chapter 2. They that received his word were
baptized, and they all went on their way rejoicing. Uh-uh, don't
stop. Now you'll see where we've come
from 1 Peter 5 to here. They that received his word were
baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about three
thousand souls. Where'd they go? From conviction? to the promise of forgiveness
and the gift of the Spirit, to a call to a radical cleavage
with the Christ-denying, Christ-murdering crowd, a call to be identified
with Christ and His people, and by baptism they did not go forth
rejoicing, freelance, lone ranger Christians, they were now added
to the 120 The scripture says there were
added unto them in that day about three thousand souls, and they,
who's the they? The 3,120, that greatly expanded
church continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and
fellowship in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear
came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through
the apostles. Now notice, and all that believed
were together. Doesn't say it. Some that believe
said, well, church membership's important, I think I'll opt for
that. But some say, well, I've got the Holy Ghost and got forgiveness,
and I've got brothers and sisters, church is second. No indication. The text says, They continued
steadfastly, all that believed had all things common. Now look at the summary statement
in verse 47. Praising God and having favor
with all the people, and the Lord added to them, day by day,
those that were being saved. All that were being saved in
Jerusalem were becoming church members. You see it? You see it? Not some. The Lord was adding to them those
that were being saved. They did not take into their
number those who do not have a credible profession. They did
not open the doors of the church to any tondick and harry that
said, I've nodded my head to Jesus, walked an aisle, raised
a hand and prayed a prayer. But those who gave evidence that
they had repented, were ready to have a radical cleavage with
that Christ-denying, Christ-killing generation, those who were being
saved, saved by the grace of God, through repentance and faith,
through the transformation of their rebellion in Adam by the
mighty work of God, the evidence of their being saved was they
showed up in church, as church members. Now it doesn't say,
and those who were added to them were being saved, as though their
being added had anything to do with their salvation. No, their
salvation was all of God and all of grace. But when they received
a salvation all of God and all of grace, They were added to
them. And the Greek word Prostithemi
is a key word in this, as you trace it out through the book
of Acts. Well then let's look at one other key passage in chapter
5. I hope this has whet your appetite
to go through the book of Acts and see how consistent this pattern
is. God has judged those two hypocrites,
Ananias and Sapphira. Think they're just dealing with
human leaders. They can kid their human leaders,
and God exposes them. Peter says, you're lying to the
Holy Ghost. God's church is a holy temple.
He dwells in it. You're defiling it. God judges
them. And the result of it, verse 12,
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought
among the people. And they were all with one accord
in Solomon's portico. But of the rest dared no man
join himself to them. Isn't it interesting? It describes
their present tentative attitude to the gospel in terms of they
were scared to death to become church members. He said, I'm
not going to become a member in that church. If you're a hypocrite,
God kills you. Word got out. Two hypocrites
were killed by God within the space of three hours. People
said, I'm not going to mess around with that guy. Unless I know
that I'm one with them and I have a favorable relationship to their
God, I don't want to come into their midst. No man dared join
himself to them. But now look at the contrast.
Of the rest, no man dared join himself to them, how be it, the
people magnified them. There was a sort of love-hate-fear-drawing
relationship. And believers were the more added
to the Lord. Multitudes, both of men and women. Do you see what the parallel
is? Joining them and added to the Lord. And Luke moves very
easily from one to the other. He describes those who are being
saved and converted as being joined to the Lord. Well, being
joined to the Lord is an invisible experience of the heart. Being joined to the Lord in His
visible earthly, tangible expression of his presence in his church
is something observable, and Luke is using the term interchangeably. You see, that's why when Peter
sits down to write his letter, and he comes to that part where
he's going to give specific admonition to elders, and he says, the elders
enhumene, the elders among you, and shepherd the flock of God
which is enhumene, among you, He is able to assume that all
true believers in Asia Minor were members of specific local
churches because he operated in his ministry according to
the teaching of his Lord and the patterns established in his
own life and ministry as an apostle in that foundation church of
the New Covenant in Jerusalem and that was the pattern that
proliferated throughout the Roman Empire under the ministry of
the Apostle. Now in conclusion, my question,
why have you taken the time to lead us through what at times
has been a bit of a complex argument? I've labored to make it as simple
as I know how, dear people. I can't do your thinking for
you. Why have I taken the time to do this? Well, let me tell
you negatively. I've not done this to undermine
the holy, gratuitous nature of God's saving work in Christ.
I have no desire to place the slightest qualification upon
such statements as Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works that no man should boast. I have
no desire to cast the slightest inkling of a shadow over the
simple answer the apostle and his companion give to a trembling
jailer. Act 1631 serves what must I do
to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved and your house. And the context shows
that is your house. Hearing the word that I will
preach to them and believing that word, the grace that is
offered to you, Mr. Jailer Man, is not exhausted
by you. It's available to your house
on the same terms. Not a separate set of terms. Believe and you shall be saved. Your household believing shall
be saved. And the text shows that in the
middle of the night Paul preached to the jailer and to his household. And he and his household are
baptized and he and his household rejoice in God. Not a shred of
any justification of household salvation based on the faith
of the parents. It simply has to be put there
to be found there. So I have no desire to undermine
the holy gratuitous nature of God's saving work in Christ.
Paul did not when he wrote Romans 8, Romans 10, 8 and 9, 9 and
10. He says, if you shall believe
in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, with the heart
man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto what? unto salvation. Is Paul teaching
that our confession adds something to the work of Christ? No. But
he's saying the confession born of real faith will be a confessing
faith. The calling that is a true calling
will be a confessional calling. Paul has established salvation
by grace in the opening chapters of Romans, but he does not scruple
to say in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it's with the heart man believes
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and you
have the exact construction in the Greek. It is ice unto or
into righteousness and into or unto salvation. and without in
any way casting a shadow over the truth that salvation is all
of grace. I've preached what I've preached
this morning. My motive is not to increase the numbers in the
membership role of Trinity Baptist Church as a carnal symbol of
success. Someone has said too many churches
live in the book of numbers and not in the book of acts. There
are some circumstances when numerical increase is a badge of the blessing
of God. There are some situations where
numerical decrease is a badge of the blessing of God. From
that time on, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him
no more. It was a badge of His fidelity
to His Father. He had spoken things that were
hard to be understood and they wanted him to draw back and Jesus
went on and took the same theme of eating his flesh and drinking
his blood and he amplified and deepened the offense until he
turns to the twelve and says, will you also go away? Paul could
say, all that are in Asia have forsaken me. I have no man like
mine. John says, they went out from
us. that it might be made manifest
that they were not all of us. There are times when numerical
decrease is a badge of the favor of God. In Revelation 3, 4, Jesus
commends the church at Sardis. He says, you have a few names
that did not defile their garments. So I have no desire to beat the
woods for numerical increase as some kind of a carnal badge
of success. You've heard me say it in this
place, and I mean it. The day comes when you don't want the
Bible, simple, plain Bible, preached and obeyed and lived out. And
we'll go back to meeting in a school with a handful of people who
do. You don't own me by your favor, your presence. a symbol
of success and please believe me if you sit here this morning
and you are a Christian I want to tell you I have not spoken
these things to demean or embarrass true Christians who may not be
members of specific local assemblies of God. I've not spoken this
to embarrass you. Love Paul says does not behave
itself unseemly it's not rude And I've spoken with conviction
and I've spoken with passion because I believe this is what
the Bible teaches. But I would be grieved if any
of you think I've spoken to embarrass you. I've not spoken to embarrass
you. Well, why then have you spoken
these things, Pastor, very simply? First and foremost, in order
to be honest with my exposition of 1 Peter 5, I want to expound
it understanding that you are convinced that Peter's assumption
was well-grounded and that my assumption in expounding it is
well-grounded and I want to inform your mind and persuade your judgment
that I might responsibly expound the passage. That's reason number
one. Reason number two, I want to raise a voice to counter the
influence of the Lone Ranger Christianity mentality that obtains
in our day. A few weeks ago, someone met
me at the door a visitor, very irate. I could feel the steam
coming out his ears. Now he wasn't it wasn't unkind
to me excessively but he said I was very offended by the announcement
one of the elders made. He said I came tonight expecting
to sit down at the Lord's table in communion and then he stood
up there and said that if you're not a member of a church or if
you are and you're under its discipline we encourage you to
stay but not to partake. He said I love the Lord, why
can't I come to the table? God help me to speak meekly and
say, my friend, we believe the scripture teaches that the table
of remembrance is an ordinance for the visible community of
God's people. And that conviction is based
on our present understanding of a number of passages of the
word of God. Well, I could tell he wasn't teachable. So all I
said to him, I said, sir, I want you to take your Bible and go
home and carefully read through the book of Acts and the epistles
and when you have found any such creature as a Christian who's
not a member of a church, you come and show me the evidence.
He hasn't come back yet. I'm waiting for the evidence.
No, I've said these things, dear people, because there is abroad
in our day this crass American individualism, what one of my
friends calls the zeitgeist of this generation. The spirit,
the climate, the ethos. I'm my own man. If God knows
I'm right with him, that's all that matters. No, it isn't all
that matters. What matters is that you, in your submission
to Christ, respect what he has committed himself to build and
the institution he has established to get you safely to heaven.
The church is not a luxury. in getting to heaven safely.
It's God appointed earthly chariot to carry you there by the means
established in it. I've said these things in order
to further establish you, the people of God. You're to be well
furnished to give a reason of the hope that is in you. I hope
this rather cursory but broad overview has given you the stuff
to be able to sit down with your children and sit down with those
who challenge your thinking. And then my last motive has been
to lay a gracious, solid, biblical foundation to appeal to some
of you to get into a biblical church.
If not this one, some other one. Don't be that anomaly that is
not recognized in the New Testament. But pray over the things you've
heard, and for the good of your souls, the good of the souls
to whom you can do more good by being a part of the flock
among the God-given shepherds. And those who know who your God-given
shepherds are, may God grant that as we've considered this
introductory message on the underlying assumption, Peter's directives,
the Lord will seal it to our hearts. I apologize for not having
a handle on the time. I've never preached this before.
I didn't know how to chop it up. I appreciate your patience
in following as I've sought to teach you from the Word of God.
Let's pray. Our Father, we're so thankful
that we have the Scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light
to our pathway. And we pray that what we've studied
this morning would be the very things that we search out like
the Bereans. And we embrace as our judgments
are persuaded and our conscience influenced by the light of Scripture.
We ask you, Father, by your Holy Spirit, stem the tide of crass
individualism that marks our national life. We pray, our Father,
that we will cherish the church for which Christ shed his blood. Seal then your word to our hearts,
to the praise of your

Assumption That All Were Church Members

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about church membership?

How do we know that church membership is important?

Why is being part of a local church essential for Christians?

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About Albert N. Martin

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Assumption That All Were Church Members

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about church membership?

How do we know that church membership is important?

Why is being part of a local church essential for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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