Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the Church?

Why do we care about Membership?

Why should you join a church in any official way?

The subject before us today is a big one that could take a very long time to teach exhaustively, and yet today we can only get a small glimpse.

Because of that I want to start by saying that it would be easy to see this as an arrogant view that seems to make assertions that are not clear from scripture… Yet I would submit to you that for those who have had negative experiences with churches in the past and specifically membership in churches, that you would especially lean into what we will be seeing from the scriptures today.

Please know that it is not our intent to make statements that Scripture doesn’t say and we are not trying to force anyone into believing something they cannot clearly see.

We would assert to you that Membership in the church is biblical and necessary as well as a strong part of church history.

So, what is a church?

Well to be sure a church is not a building… Building house our gatherings but the building is not the church.

A church is a local congregation of people committed to Christ.

The church is a gathering of people who regularly assemble to hear the Word preached so that they can obey as they are taught, this includes baptism and celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

The church is the fathering of God’s people and all through scripture we see them referred to as different things.

In the book of Acts and Ephesians we see that the church is a collection of believers EXCLUSIVELY… They are addressed as the Elect or Chosen, and Saint meaning consecrated ones and also Brothers which points to pur adoptions into the family of God.

There seems to be a common theme among evangelical churches in America now a days that say come to church and find a place because you belong here… It is a belong before believe idea that is popular in our time.

And while we should be extremely welcoming and friendly of non-believers in our churches even inviting them to come and hear the Gospel in hopes that God would save them… we must not make the leap to tell people that they belong before they believe because it is not true.

How cruel would it be to give people a false sense of assurance that they are forgiven for their sin and will not be judged by God… But that is exactly what we do if we allow people to be part of the church that do not believe.

Because of this there are precaution we can take to ensure that our churches are not full of people who do not believe… We call this Membership.

And we get it from passages such as this one and others that we will look at.

But let’s start with this one...

matt16.

Jesus is asking 2 different things here… Who do those outside think I am and who do those inside think I am.

But if we look closer he is really asking for the difference between what constitutes a true confession and a true confessor.

Who do people say that I am… IS there a true confession of who Jesus is?

Who do you… The greek here is plural, like saying, “Who do Y’all” say that I am… But more specifically who do you guys who know me, say that I am… Are there true confessors who really know Jesus?

Look at what Peter says in speaking for the group...

matt16.

Jesus Affirms that this is the correct confession and that it is coming from true confessors.

But what is more powerful is that he is affirming that this is not something that people can stumble upon on their own, rather it has to be revealed… You cannot expect people who do not believe to have a true confession and there is no way that even if it was a true confession,(meaning it was right), that they are now true confessors… Because its not about words but Revelation...

When Jesus tells Peter that God the Father is the one whom revealed this, he is only saying what he has already said about himself, yet he is re-enforcing the idea that believing is a gift that God gives us Faith to believe...

Eph2.

So here we see that Jesus is telling them that only God the Father can give the Gift of Faith to Believe that Jesus Is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

SO this means that not anyone can just happen upon information about the Gospel and believe it and be saved, unless God has revealed it to them.

A True Confession must be made by a True Confessor...

And we see Jesus now proclaiming something wondrous about the true Confessor.

matt16.

Now this is where the language is even more important… Jesus Names and describes Peter… he says, “you are PETROS - peter translated from greek - and on this PETRA - greek translation of rock - I will build MY CHURCH”...

petros is a small collection of rocks and petra is a solid rock… here it seems as Jesus is saying that we can’t separate Peter from his confession… the reason is that this is a Greek translation from an arabic language in which there isn’t the distinction being made in other languages.

SO it is important to understand what the ROCK of the church is built on.. and this is where it got weird for Catholics… they take this to mean the Peter himself is the rock the church is built on and he was the first Pope.

Some believe that the Rock is the Confession of Peter… meaning the church is built on people who make true confessions, which is partially true but again, only a true Confessor can make a legitimate true confession.

I would point out that since Peter makes a right confession of Jesus and he is a true confessor, that Jesus proclaims this tot be the Rock on which the church will be built.

Jesus’ response to him is significant because Jesus means to build his church no on persons or on truths, but on persons confession the right truths… there is a Who and a What here… Who Peter… What Jesus is the Christ… a Person making a right confession.

The church is built on True confession made by True Confessors

So, what we see is that the Church is made of a body of people who profess and give evidence that they have been saved by God’s Grace alone, for his Glory alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone… and we find this in Scripture alone!

But in all this how does Jesus build his church?

Do people just get saved?

do they just get added?

Jesus actually tells them something that gives us a clue as how the church is going to be built...

What on earth does this mean???

First I would submit to you that the idea that Jesus is giving the apostles the Keys of the kingdom, indicates that he is delegating authority to them to allow or deny admission into the kingdom of heaven.

Next I would point out that the expression of “binding” and “loosing” were common legal terms of that day.

They meant that something was declared as either forbidden or allowed.

This is not a corporate prayer or spiritual warfare prayer verse… We do not bind certain spirits and loose certain blessings.

that isn’t what they were told here.

The best way to explain this is to see this as Jesus giving the Apostles a right to declare the WHO and WHAT of the Gospel...

They are being given a charge to determine What is a legitimate confession of Faith and determine WHO is actually living out that confession.

So to Bind or Loose is to render a verdict or judgement in heavens name.

This authority does not empower those who hold the Keys to actually make someone a citizen of Heaven, since salvation is by grace through faith alone… not by the approval of men...

Rather, what this is saying is that whoever is in possesion of the keys of the kingdom, they can do what Jesus did to peter…Jesus Listened to Peter’s Gospel Profession and publicly affirmed his as One Professing from our “Father who is in Heaven”.

This builds the Church as people make True Professions...

The keys of the kingdom are in essence the authority to organize a local church.

So we have the church being established and Jesus setting the tone for its establishment by building it on true believers making true confessions… They can build gatherings that are legit!

This is huge, but will pose some problems

Why???

Because Jesus has told them in other parables that in the kingdom of Heaven, before it is fully realized and God calls an account of all things in the end, that there will be some among us who will not be true believers.

And while there isn’t much we can do about that, it doesn’t mean that we should be ignorant to this and allow people who are not true believers to be empowered in the church.

see this...

Jesus actually calls us to not allow sinfulness to be present in the church he is building, even though we know it will be impossible to always know truly where everyones hearts are truly at… he did give us some great practical instruction for the church...

Matt.18

Again, please notice there is an established church spoken of, yet the idea of church discipline we get from this passage is started off by believers actually treating each other as true believers should.

I would be quick to point out that Church discipline seen here is not for punishment but rather restoration and and repentance… that is why the context of this instruction comes right after Jesus telling them about the lost sheep that the Father has concern for.

And while we can get caught up in all sorts of subtle nuances here, What I want us to see is that there is an obvious escalation in seriousness.

What starts between brothers, goes on to more witnesses, and ultimately an appeal to the church.

Now some will argue the point for a congregational model of church government, we are an elder led model and we do not have time in this sermon to get into all that now, but suffice it to say, that we believe that telling it to the church is not some effort to circulate letters to people in your local congregation, but it means to appeal to the leaders of the church.

We Get that because of that funny statement again about the Binding and loosing, which was a right given to the Apostles or the leaders of the church at that time… and through out the rest of the NT they set up a God ordained system of Deacons and Elders to govern the churches.

But please notice the authority to bind and loose is aimed towards the individual in the church who will or will not repent.

The church is given authority to recognize someone who claims to believe as someone who clearly does not believe, thats what is meant by letting them be as a tax collector… meaning an outsider to the faith.

The big question I have is how is this going be something that people will be committed to being a part of?

What stops them from saying, You do not have a right to tell me, I just believe differently?

The answer is what the church has practised for throughout its history… MEMBERSHIP

Simply put Church Membership is a commitment every believer should make to attend, Love, serve and submit to a local church.

Why is is so serious?

Because there are those in the church that are leaders who become responsible for teaching the flock...

So there is a serious weight given to those who teach… But who are we responsible to teach?

anyone and everyone who walks through the doors of a church on any given day?

If the leaders who teach have identified themselves… How do we know who they are responsible for teaching and shepherding???

how about this verse...

How do the leaders of the church that the Bible clearly tells you here to submit to going to know that you are submitting to them and they are going to give an account for you?

This verse cannot work if leaders are not responsible for a specific group and that group is not connected to them in a meaningful way!

Again Membership is how the church has through the ages dealt with this, and even more so now in our day when people can stay at home and livestream a church service without ever going to that place and being connected.

Infact I would submit to you that one of the things that will make the church more Disctinct in the days to come will be how we stay connected in meaningful ways.

Because we are commanded to

Our commtiment to each other in deep meanigful ways show us to be true believers and the church has a charge from Christ to bind and loose the WHo and WHat of the Gospel in His church

Butr Membership is about so much more than that… How can you do anything you are commanded to do inrelation to other believers without real meaningful membership?

john13:

Love on another?

not if we are not connected

john15.

We are commanded seek peace and unity in our congregations...

Rom12.

Listen: Love is expressed and unity is cultivated when church members actively pursue one another.