First Baptist Church
August 16, 2026

      • John 3.9-11ESV

      • John 3.12-15ESV

  • The Wonderful Cross
  • Come Ye Sinners Poor And Needy
  • Christ The Sure And Steady Anchor

      • 1 Corinthians 12:12–14ESV

  • His Glory And My Good
  • This morning, we are continuing the teaching from scripture on church membership. Today is part two of an an important question, in fact thee question when it comes to discussing this matter.... Is It Even Biblical? Is church membership truly from the Word of God or is it a manmade product. That’s the big one. If we are to celebrate church membership, teach church membership, and even encourage church membership, then it should and must be from the Bible, otherwise it doesn’t deserve our time or our attention especially from the pulpit. My belief, however, is that this absolutely does deserve our utmost attention, appreciation, celebration, and the like because I believe we will find it is exceedingly difficult, in fact impossible to live out the truths of scripture unless we understand it in the context of membership. In other words, church membership is Biblical.
    Now It’s true you don’t need to join a church to be saved. Our membership in the universal church is a gift (Eph. 2:11–22), just as our righteousness in Christ is a gift and faith is a gift. Yet you do need to join a church to be obedient to Scripture. 
    It’s also true, that you won’t find the words local church membership anywhere, and yet scripture abounds with evidences and implications of church membership. Last week, we took at airol view on the topic… a fly over.… looking at the evidences.… in the nature of the church.

    I. Evidenced in the Nature of the Church

    A. What is the Church? (The Definition)

    B. Where is it Seen? (The Distinctions)

    C. How is it Talked About? (The Descriptions)

    These are helpful observations on what is even means to be part of the church that God is building. These big picture items of the church in general shape our understanding of what local church membership is. Understanding the definition of Ekklesia, being a called out people… separate from the world and aligning with a new set of people. Further, we see the distinctions in scripture of a universal body and a local body and how much priority the local body receives in the scripture or seeing how the Bible talks about the church… the church as a family, building, a flock, or especially a body… help shape our understanding that you were meant to be part of a group of people with names and faces of people you actually know and can actually serve. To be a member of the body means you know the body… you know the eye and the ear and the hand and the foot… and you are able to work together will them, side by side, to accomplish the work. Your not just part of a intangible, immaterial, nonphysical, just something out there.… group, but a physical group of people that you can physically see, and hear, and serve.
    Jonathan Leeman who wrote our little blue book on membership, in a different article puts it like this.
    Genuine membership in the universal church creates local church membership, which in turn demonstrates our universal membership.
    In other words, how do we prove we are part of the universal church… a regenerated, justified, born again believer… we do so by being obedient to the commands of one-anothering the people in our local churches.
    Yet, we may hear all this and think, I’m all for active participation in a local church, I see that it is absolutely Biblical. I just don’t see where I’m required to take a membership class, be given a membership packet, and put on a list of names on a computer. If that’s you today, this sermon is especially for you.
    There are lots of places, we could go. But today, we are gonna go to the big ones, seen thru mandates that God has for the church.
    By looking at these mandates, we will be confronted with the most definitive proofs of church membership in the Bible because these truths and responsibilities of the church would be either greatly minimized or have no real purpose if there was no such thing as a definable local church membership.
    So let’s look at local church membership thru the implication of the Mandates to the Church.

    II. Implied in the Mandates to the Church

    One of the newest trends in broader “evangelical” circles is the sudden surge and popularity of house churches. Now this can mean a lot of things to a lot of people because people practice and think of house churches in alot of different ways. Missionaries might have a “house church” simply because they have no other facility in which they can meet. They don’t have the funds nor the amount of people to really necessitate an actual designated “church” building. That’s a legitimate house “church”. But others see “house church” as simply calling your immediate family the church in which the father operates as the spiritual leader. Other’s outside the home aren’t part of it… just father, mother, and kids… maybe some aunts and uncles and cousins.
    Some wanna just call hanging out with others Christians as a church. Yes, there is a sense in which there is some truth to this. Christians gathered together do make up the universal church, but is that all God had in mind for churches, just getting together with other Christians.
    Are these even churches?
    When God instituted the church, He didn’t leave its structure, order, leadership, and responsibilities up in the air for us to decide. Yes, there is room for differences but there is also Biblically defined framework. A church in Mexico might look extremely different than what a church looks like here as far as when they meet, how they meet, how they dress, the order of their services, the length of their services, etc, etc, etc, etc.… but they still absolutely fall into the category of a Biblical church. Why, because as long as the meet the basic qualifications and requirements that God sets up… again the framework.… they are a church. What are those things, those absolutes that make a group a church? One such thing is Biblically qualified leadership. Look how much the Bible stresses this.
    Acts 14:23 ESV
    And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
    Titus 1:5 ESV
    This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—
    One thing that God requires for any group of believers to be called a church is properly appointed and qualified elders (meaning Pastors) and deacons. With that proper leadership in place… further mandates from God are required for the church and it’s leadership. We don’t have time to go thru all of the items that God requires for a group of believers to be called a church. But I do want to focus on a few essentials ones as they pertain to church membership. These mandates that we see give implications in support of individual and local church membership.

    A. Responsibility to and from Leadership

    Heb. 13:17, 1 Thess. 5:12-13, 1 Peter 5:1-5, Acts 20:28-30
    We’ve already mentioned that churches need leaders in order to be called a church, but also notice how people ought to respond to their leaders.… commanded by God.
    Hebrews 13:17 ESV
    Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
    1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 ESV
    We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
    From the divine inspiration and authority of God- all mighty, we are given this command to do 4 different things… the verbs of these verses.… obey, submit, respect, and esteem. These verses beg us to ask two basic questions though as it pertains to church membership.
    First, if there was no biblical requirement to belong a local church and be part of it’s individual membership, then which leaders should an individual Christian obey, submit to, respect, and esteem? Second, and more personally involving me, who will I as a pastor give an account for?

    -Church Responsible to what Leaders?

    Hebrews 13:17
    Tells the church of God… to obey and submit to what leaders..… “your leaders”… who are your leaders…
    Likewise, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 tells the christian brothers to respect and esteem those who labor where.… “among you”.…
    These are very much local oriented commands.
    Tell me… are you required to submit yourself to every single person that calls themself a pastor? Obviously, we would have little difficulty saying no to submitting ourselves to crazy and unbiblical people who call themselves pastors… like those we talked about at Bethel and other places that promote explicitly false teaching. But are you to submit to every sound doctrinal pastor.… that first begs us to ask what is your definition of what is sound? Is it only getting the gospel right? You know the methodist church up the road preaches the correct gospel, are you then required to submit yourself to the lead female pastor there? What about the pentecostal church or any number of the community churches in this area? Obviously they teach different doctrines than we believe, but they get the gospel right. Maybe we just need to submit ourselves to the ones that share the same denomination name as ours- little closer to our thinking. Are we then required to submit to the authority of the pastor of First Baptist Church in Morley who requires His people to only read the KJV version of the Bible alone and only wear formal dress attire to gatherings such as dresses and ties. Are you required to submit and obey them? They may be our brothers in Christ, but verses share with us is that our submission is to the shepherds that God has given to us as individual flocks or local flocks of God.
    If we only submit to the pastors we are in agreement with or only with the ones we like or only the ones this and that… then the word submit really loses its meaning and value… It subjective.… and the purpose of the flock would be very vague. It would be hard to have any structure if you weren’t required to submit yourself to one single pastor. Even the word submission loses it’s power. The purpose of shepherds is to guard, feed, care for, protect their flocks. But if the sheep determine they don’t really like this and that about their shepherds… and bounce around… who’s really submitting.… the sheep take a role not as sheep but as something else… something that doesn’t want to give up it’s authority. They think they are always right. And that’s what shepherds are required to guard against. Sheep that think they are fine without a shepherd. Like a kid that wants to run away from home thinking that they don’t need their parents. It’s foolishness to think this way because it’s the way God designed the church. This becomes even more clear as we look at this mandate from the shepherd’s side of things.

    -Leader’s Responsible to what People?

    Similar questions should be asked of the shepherd. Who are elders and pastors responsible for? How are they to know who their flock is? For whom will they and myself give an account to God for?
    Acts 20:28-29 gives some insight.
    Acts 20:28–29 ESV
    Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
    The way Peter speaks to the Elders in 1 Peter 5 is even clearer on this point:
    1 Peter 5:2–3 ESV
    shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
    “Those in your charge” (meaning your portion, your lot). This implies that the Elders knew those for whom they were responsible. This is just another way of talking about membership. If a person does not want to be held accountable by a group of Elders or be the special focus of the care of a group of Elders, they will resist the idea of membership. And they will resist God’s appointed way for them to live and be sustained in their faith.
    Will I as a pastor be held accountable for all the Christians and churches in western Michigan, or the county of Montcalm, or even just the Tri County area? There are many churches in these areas that I have strong theological and philosophical differences with. Will I give account for what they teach in their small group, how they spend their money, and what they do concerning international missions? NO.
    These verses don’t say that elders or pastors cannot visit or care for unbelievers or those who are not yet members or even members of another local church. But it does make clear that their first responsibility is to a particular flock.
    If membership doesn’t exist, then how do I know who I am to give an account for? Do I have the same obligations to the person who visits our church as to the person who has committed to our church as their church family. If so, how many visits does it require for me to be accountable to them. What if they jump around alot. Like one week here, one week there, am I to share responsibilities with another Pastor of another church. Am I to have responsibility one week, then another pastor have responsibility the next week and so forth. You can imagine the logistics of this being an absolute nightmare. Impossible to keep track of everyone, everywhere if that were true… especially if everyone in this church was doing that. If there wasn’t a commitment to one single local church.
    But we should also think thru accountability. Here the mandate of the church for accountability makes church membership the most obvious.

    B. Accountability of the Church

    1 Cor. 5:1-13, Matthew 18:15-20
    If we had only the length of an elevator ride with you to answer this question of church membership being biblical, I’d point you to these two passages in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, where Jesus and Paul talk about removing someone from the church’s membership, or what Paul says about being “inside” the church (1 Cor. 5:12).
    In Cor. 5- Paul is frustrated with the church because there is a man amongst them who has done a perversely evil deed and it is tarnishing the reputation and image of the Church… thereby tarnishing the image of God to the world thru them. Paul is frustrated, angry with this church because rather than doing something about it, the church just accepts this man, actually worse than that, seems proud of it.
    1 Corinthians 5:1–2 ESV
    It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
    This man is said to be “among you....” Is He merely someone who has been attending there or is there something else intended. To answer that, we need to understand what it means to exercise what we call church discipline.

    -What is the purpose for Church Discipline?

    Paul calls for this church to remove such a man from among them. What’s the purpose of church discipline. To merely purge out evil people from the church. Well, what evils merit that? Isn’t anything that could harm the testimony of the church and the image of God. Lying, gossiping, being a hypocrite… that includes saying I am a Christian but doing nothing that shows a change in your life, do these harm the testimony of the church and God?? absolutely… How bout not reading your Bible, not devoting yourself to pray, forsaking the assembly of yourselves together, do these… they certainly do … it tells the world that I don’t need the church, i don’t need the Bible, I don’t need prayer, when God says you do.… You live exactly like the world does, they don’t do these things… it tells them these things aren’t important… therefore you make God a liar by your own actions.
    So the purpose of discipline isn’t to just get rid of anyone who has ever sinned… we know that everyone single one of us is constantly battle with sin and the flesh.
    Therefore, the purpose of church discipline is to rebuke and reprove someone who is actively participating and living in unconfessed sin..... so that.... they might be restored in their fellowship to God and fellowship to others. That God’s image might be glorified and preserved thru their actions in holiness.
    That’s exactly what these verses tell us.
    1 Corinthians 5:3–5 ESV
    For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
    Similar Matthew 18:15 says
    Matthew 18:15 ESV
    “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
    But there are times when we exercise discipline by calling out their wrong deeds. And there are times when in their pride and stubbornness, they don’t listen to you. The bible says you go to the next step… bringing others in and eventually the whole church, but the purpose in these steps is the same as the first.… if he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
    But what if he doesn’t listen to any of those… the Bible says remove him.
    What does it mean to remove him… remove him from what?
    Remove him from being able to what.... to attend church like the Catholics.... who call it excommunication? Is that what we are to do? Should someone who is disciplined never be allowed back at church ever again. Well, that seems to defeat the purpose of discipline since disciplines aim is for restoration and forgiveness of sins. Where are they gonna hear that and be taught that and encouraged in that? Further, look with me at what Matthew 18 says, Jesus own teaching, on what it means to formally discipline someone.
    Matthew 18:17 ESV
    If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
    The word Gentile simply means pagan or for our sakes.… an unbeliever. We are to treat him as if he or she were an unbeliever. Do we allow unbelievers to attend our services. Should we. Absolutely. Do we have authority over them. Not at all.
    And this is what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13
    1 Corinthians 5:12–13 ESV
    For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

    -What does it mean to be inside and outside of the Church?

    Throughout the Bible, God always draws a bright line around his people. The garden of Eden had an inside and an outside. The ark had an inside and outside. The people of Israel in Egypt, quarantined off in Goshen, had an inside and outside.
    It is clear from Paul’s language that there is an “in the church” group and an “outside the church” group. Being in the church is definable. There are recognizable boundaries that make drawing this distinction possible. Paul is not saying that this man who is “inside the church” should be removed from the universal church. The church has no power to take away one’s salvation. He means that he should be removed from the local church. Such a formal removal then would not be possible if there were no such thing as a clear membership. In other words, Paul’s exhortation would be impossible to obey unless there were a way of determining who is an accountable part of a local body and who is not.
     “You can't fire someone who doesn't work for you. You can't vote in your country to remove a government official elected by another country. You can't appeal to a court to discipline someone who isn't within its jurisdiction. In the same way, you can't formally discipline someone who is in an informal relationship with you; you have no authority to do so. These people in Corinth had voluntarily committed themselves to a formal relationship and they knew who were official members of the church and who were ‘outside’.”
    Stress this again, the church cannot discipline someone who is merely a frequent visitor. The church binds on earth what has been bound in heaven. We don’t give salvation but we affirm salvation. When someone is baptised or joins in membership, we as the church are responsible for checking their ID’s and confirming that they are indeed a citizen of heaven. We do this to protect the kingdom of God. But we have no authority over any person whom we do not officially know is a child of God much less in right standing with Him.
    Furthermore, notice again who has the authority to make such an action.… in Matthew 18… final authority rested on the church… in 1 Corinth 5… it rested on the assembled church...
    1 Corinthians 5:4 ESV
    When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
    The assembled body had the authority to make such a decision on the disciplined person.
    It’s hard to believe that just anyone who showed up claiming to be a Christian could be a part of that gathering. Surely, “the church” must be a definable group to handle such a weighty matter. You know who you mean when you “take it to the church.” - Piper
    Apart from some expression of formal membership, how would it be determined who has the right to speak and to vote in the passing of judgment on the offending party? Surely this right would not extend to just anyone. Otherwise the person being disciplined could bring in extended family members and friends or coworkers or even people off the street who said they believed in Jesus. What about the person who has attended services only at Christmas or Easter, or perhaps someone who hasn’t been present for several years but occasionally sends in a support check? The right to engage in the disciplinary process must be limited to a specific group, one that is limited by the criteria that constitute membership in the body.
    In 2 Corinthians 2:6, Paul refers to the discipline the church inflicted on an individual as the “punishment by the majority.” The existence of a “majority” only makes sense if there was a defined set of people from which the majority is constituted. There cannot be a majority of an unspecified group; it must be a majority of something. This brings us back to the point made earlier in conjunction with the disciplinary process in 1 Corinthians 5. Was it the majority of people who happened to be present the day the vote was cast? Could non-Christians then vote? Could any Christians who happened to be visiting from another city who didn’t know the situation vote? The most natural assumption to make is that Paul meant the majority of an acknowledged membership of the church.
    It has been my sad experience that very few churches still practice church discipline. If you came from a church that didn’t expect church membership, I wonder if you’ve ever really witnessed a Biblical church discipline process. People hate the idea of church disciple, and squirm when they think about it… but Biblically speaking.… It’s actually one of the many benefits and blessings of the church and of membership. Discipline may not be much fun and is often unpleasant, but what it accomplishes far outweighs the unpleasantness. It’s very similiar to observing children who had parents who properly disciplined them to children who had parents who did not. Who turns out better? So discipline is a good thing that we shouldn’t push against.
    If there is no local commitment to a covenant community of faith, then how do you remove someone from that community of faith? Church discipline won’t work if local church membership doesn’t exist.
    This church has no authority over you if you are not a committed member of it. You as a non-member don’t have accountability to anybody and are just like the child with parents who don’t discipline… so there is strong evidence here to support the truth of local church membership from the mandate of church discipline.
    Conclusion:
    There are alot more places we could that have good arguments for church membership such as Acts 2 and the list of names being recorded as part of the church, or the responsible to care for others, especially those of the household of faith. But today we have examined the most clear evidences and implications of church membership.
    A church must be clear about who belongs to it and who doesn’t precisely for the sake of the church’s witness. He wants us to stand out and be distinct so that we can offer an attractive and compelling witness to the world.
    Furthermore, when you become a church member, you’re not just submitting to the leaders or the “institution” in some vague bureaucratic sense. You’re submitting to a family and all its members. It’s your way of saying, “This is the particular group of Christians I’m inviting into my life and asking to keep me accountable for following Jesus. I’m asking them to take responsibility for my Christian walk. If I’m discouraged, it’s now their responsibility to encourage me. If I stray from the narrow path, it’s their responsibility to correct me. If I’m in dire financial straits, it’s their responsibility to look after me.”
    Yet this commitment goes both ways. In asking the other members of the church to look out for you, you also are promising to look out for them. You are now a part of the “church,” which is affirming and overseeing others.
    If you view church as some sort of ecclesiological buffet, then you severely limit the likelihood of your growing into maturity. Growth into godliness can hurt. For instance, as I interact with others in my own local body, my own slothfulness in zeal is exposed, as is my lack of patience, my prayerlessness, and my hesitancy to associate with the lowly (Rom. 12:11–16). Yet this interaction also gives me the opportunity to be lovingly confronted by brothers and sisters who are in the trenches with me, as well as a safe place to confess and repent. But when church is just a place you attend without ever joining, like an ecclesiological buffet, you just might consider whether you’re always leaving whenever your heart begins to be exposed by the Spirit, and the real work is beginning to happen.
    Local church membership is a question of biblical obedience, not personal preference.
    Application Questions:
    -If you haven’t joined a church yet, why? Are you willing to be obedient to scriptures to submit yourself to a local body who can then affirm your salvation, hold you accountable to your faith in God, care for your physical and spiritual needs, and serve you while you serve it’s members?
    -Have you failed in your responsibility as a church member to uphold another in love? Have you been slothful in encouraging the saints, have you been too selfish to consider the needs of others, have you been too cowardly and uncaring to call out sin in others in love? Let today be the day that we return to the loving our King (caring about His image) by loving and caring for His people.
    -Who do you need to hold accountable and care for today?

        • Acts 14:23ESV

        • Titus 1:5ESV

        • Hebrews 13:17ESV

        • 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13ESV

        • Acts 20:28–29ESV

        • 1 Peter 5:2–3ESV

        • 1 Corinthians 5:1–2ESV

        • 1 Corinthians 5:3–5ESV

        • Matthew 18:15ESV

        • Matthew 18:17ESV

        • 1 Corinthians 5:12–13ESV

        • 1 Corinthians 5:4ESV

        • Wonderful Words Of Life (Words Of Life Wonderful Words)
        First Baptist Church
        howardcitybaptist@gmail.com
        2319374809
        https://fbcohc-howard-city.faithlifesites.com
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