Church membership matters.
Church membership matters to God because the Church matters to God.
What is a “church”?
1. The
• All
2. The
• A church is the assembly of baptized believers who belong to Christ and to one another, and who exist for the proclamation of the gospel (preaching, singing, praying, the ordinances, discipleship, and evangelism) and to display God’s own holiness and love through a unified and diverse people in all the world.
Who can be a church member?
What is a biblical church?
A biblical church
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting preaching
13 Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching. —1 Timothy 4:13
4 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. —2 Timothy 4:1-2
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, —Ephesians 5:19-20
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting intercession
2 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
7 For this I was appointed a herald, an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
8 Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. —1 Timothy 2:1-8
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, —Matthew 28:19
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting discipleship
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. —Colossians 1:9-12
• Christ-centered and Christ-exalting evangelism
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” —2 Corinthians 5:16-20
Application
1. Am I a “member” of the Church?
2. Do I have a bible-centered view and expectations of the local church?
3. As a member of Taylor Road Baptist Church, am I committed to and participating in God’s purpose for His church?