Why Church Membership? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3RAKqLWeow&ab_channel=ParamountChurch
People love the Gospel... but we do not love the administration of the Gospel. They are inseparable.
Symbolically: The promise to Noah was not inseparable from its administration: the arc.
Church membership: A people and a place. Invisible: Elect. Visible: Covenant Community purchased by the blood of His Son.
A Christian can not have God for his Father unless he has the church for his mother. ~Reformer
Deut 9: Gathered by His grace and delivered from slavery in Egypt.
The church is an organized disciplined assembly.
The church is composed of hypocrites. Yes.
What is church membership: Covenantal relationship. Marriage: a person joining a visible assembly.
You have been baptized into Christ's body, not into isolation.
Purpose: To remember the Gospel and Encourage one another, through Word and Sacrament.
Why is it necessary?
1. Submission to Christ as King. He is coming back to Rule a perfect Kingdom. We are His subjects. In the visible church, we are part of that kingdom now. Christ saves to rule and rules to save. In the church, there are appointed officers who rule the sheep. Sheep are prone to wander. But the King (Shepherd) provides shelter in his gathered assembly. Submission to His Lordship happens here.
2. We show our submission to His leadership here. He uses men as His delegates to rule and reign in the church. They are His ambassadors (vocational). Chief sinew through which the body is held together (Calvin). Heidelberg 104: 5th Commandment: Honor and love to those in authority. Bear patiently with their weaknesses since we are governed by their hand. Eph 4:7 Gifts poured out: Gifted ones for the growth of all believers in the church. Ordinary teachers 1. equip the saints, 2. work of the ministry (Word and Sacrament, and 3. edification of the saints. They keep watch over your souls. Let them do this with joy and not grief.
3. Serve one another. You are a body part. The local body is where you serve. No member regardless of their weakness is unnecessary. Horton: distinct roles: Those who depart are like a run-away foot. Luther: God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does. A churchless Christian is a self-contradiction. A member who separates from the body will suffer. Eyes cannot function when they are separated from the body.
Church membership is a privilege: the place of Christ's care and protection. John Jewel: Noah's arc. To forsake is like refusing Noah's arc. Attend diligently as we are able. It is for you. What is being done for and to you. You need it like you need o…
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Church membership: Spiritual nourishment and assurance. The church is where we receive rest, absolution, Word and sacrament. It is where heaven comes down to earth: a foretaste of that which is to come. Worship isn't a place we come to do something, but to have something done to you. In Word and Sacrament Jesus comes to us through the Spirit. He meets us here in grace and salvation.
More on this topic:
Read: https://gospelgalblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/church-homelessness.html
Read: https://gospelgalblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/church-homelessness.html
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