Membership Matters
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- www.truthforlife.org || By: Alistair Begg -What does the New Testament have to say about church membership? The metaphors that the Bible uses to describe the Church imply close relationships and structural order, and the Bible is clear that every believer should be committed to a local church. In this sermon Alistair Begg teaches us that our pattern of involvement in a local church should come directly from Scripture. To be meaningfully engaged in a church body requires each of us to be converted, baptized, added, and involved.
Great challenge to evangelize, do what the church is to be about.
It would be ideal if AB and all church leaders were to teach what covenant is, the idea of making a lasting agreement that can't be broken, it's a commitment to be dependable and to be dependent upon one another. One of my closest times with other people that i didn't know coming into the union was when i was in war, in a common covenant of life and death we were close, we could count on one another with our lives and others knew i would give my life for them. That kind of understanding of eternal life and death needs to be understood and lived in the church so that it is first and foremost fulfilling the Covenant that God has made for us in salvation, entrance into the church, will we covenant with Him and His family, ...or not?
Thank you Pastor Begg, a most encouraging and helpful message. May the Lord continue to bless your ministry.
My pastor just asked me about joining and becoming a member at the church 2wks ago. Was debating it but then here comes this sermon on my feed Coincidence or Jesus? I choose the ladder
You mean the latter. But you are also free to use a ladder and climb out of that silliness too.
Am blessed
This is so good! Thank you,thank you for sharing it! This is a brilliant sermon on The Church . "Membership Matters" and so very much more.
I'm currently debating this with my church leaders and I was given the link to watch this video in helping me understand the position from a biblical standing. However, i'm afraid that is not what I found...
He assumes all possible disagreements with membership as being one of the following:
1. Not truly in Christ or understanding what it means to be.
2. Drifters who are looking for a church which tickles their ears.
3. Deniers who would say that meeting together isn't even necessary.
"All of the New Testament pictures of the church presuppose an organic unity that is grounded in and founded in God's work in our lives. That's why neglecting the church of God matters. Neglecting God's people when they gather is like not caring for elements of your own body."
"Now these New Testament pictures not only imply close relationships, but they imply order and they imply structure."
"Living together is not married, and attending is not membership"
He appears to hold the opinion that without formal membership the whole structure of the church body simply falls apart and that Christian brothers and sisters will simply forsake and neglect each other without a formal membership.
"Now he's engaged, he's involved, he's simply formalising. He's going to express in a simple, tangible way his willingness to be personally committed to the fellowship here."
If this guy is engaged, involved and committed then why does the Church need any further process to accept him as part of their flock?
"You can't be in Christ without being in church"
True but you can be in Christ and in church, be committed and submitted and not be a member.
He asks "why not" go through a formal membership process and then assumes there is no good answer to his question. His argument is that the rest of the family need to know who is part of their family, but this is no justification for a formal membership process. And the answer to why not, is because membership as seen in the New Testament is not done via a membership process, there is nothing in the New testament that teaches this, you can be members of one body and of one church, you can be an interdependent loving family with leadership, order and structure without going through any further process than the saving grace and ongoing sanctification of Christ in our lives whilst living in unity with our Christian Brothers and Sisters and pursuing a relationship with our Lord & Saviour together... this is the picture that we see in the New Testament and no other.
What bible should non English speaking people use. when Jesus was on earth I'm pretty sure he didn't speak the kings English
john walter probably should look for one written in the language you speak. Most major languages are available.
I'm pretty sure in heaven Jesus speaks neither Hebrew, Greek, nor English. In Colossians 4:3-4 Paul makes it clear that it's the Christian's job to make the mystery of Christ clear. That means, among other things, speaking in the pain language that people can understand. That, by the way, is also what Jesus did by coming to the earth, becoming a man, and literally speaking languages that the people he was talking to could understand.
That would depend on the language.
Jesus spoke Aramaic
Begg is correct in saying that one individual does not make a family. How many trees make a forest? How many people make a family? But you see, we who are believers are entered into the Family of God. So we are never alone and never just one person. The irony here is that pastors actually are requiring contracts that people must sign IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE with the FAMILY they are ALREADY PART OF, having been knit together by the Spirit! So you pastors actually keep the people divided. Stop this. Repent.
Church membership is not biblical...Church membership is man made...God did not call you to be a member of a church organization...Members of the body of Christ can have fellowship with any member of the body of Christ...The apostles of Jesus were members of the body of Christ...The ministers are making members of the body of Christ...The apostles of Jesus did not make members of the body of Christ.
You should think about what it means to be a member of a local church. A member of a local church is someone who is committed to be in a fellowship with a specific group of Christians (redeemed people) in which we have pastors, deacon and flock (phil.1:1). For intance, when Paul was talking to the Corinthians, He was talking to members of the Corinthian church. Those members were real people. The epistles were addressed to the churches. Christ addressed to the 7 churches in Asia minor. They were real churches. Go read the bible carefully, you'll see that being member of the church is permeated through the Bible. And I would like you to explain to me when the author of the epistle of Hebrews wrote :
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Heb 10:24-25).
@@MauleyColas The _"Church"_ membership that pastor Begg is talking about is for a man-made corporation called _"church."_ There is nothing wrong with that. However, the saints in the pages of the New Testament became members one of another when they were baptized into the Ecclesia. That is not the same thing as signing or agreeing to an institutional church contract to pledge oneself to a corporation.
You all are confusing the gathering vs assembly. We are to be committed to the assembly through a local church. There is no other way of doing that. In NT times it was Corinth, Philippi, etc, etc. They needed to be committed to each other locally as well as to other Christians. But you cannot assemble with other Christians you can only do that locally.
Our culture has little understanding of the word and concept of covenant, this is what the early church did, they agreed, they made a dedication in Christ to commit to love, serve, teach, lead, feed, help, comfort, love, ...in all things. The closest thing that our culture comes up with is membership, in either case if it's not understood to agree to the truths of God, to love and serve one another in whatever you call it then no, you shouldn't join/covenant with them.
@@MauleyColasthe Corinthian church, eh? Which church in Corinth? Really which one? The first Baptist church in Corinth or the Church of the open Corinthian door? Corinthians by the River Church?
Begg is defeating his own argument and it’s hard to watch. He says Paul wrote to Corinth… which church in Corinth? Which specific “church”? Oh… the whole place. Ok. And then he says that what Paul wrote was specifically for them. Oh? So it doesn’t apply to me? But what is written to Parkside is only for Parkside and not for just any random guy who wanders in? Is that how the Spirit of God works? Yeah? This is a poor poor argument.