Baptism, Community, Disciples

This morning, because of the occasion, we are just taking one week's detour from our series on fear and worry and talking today about baptism. I really think it's important for us to take time to think about this. and even though probably you've made her have heard these truths before it's always good to be reminded of them so that we understand we have a deep sense of what it means to be baptized in a member of Christ's church so that's what we'll be doing this morning and before we do that let's just bow and ask God to guide our thinking and to help us Lord of heaven and earth we thank you that Jesus is the Lord of the church. We thank you, Father, that in your word we find all that we need to explain to us and to help us understand what it means to be baptized and be part of a church.

And so now, Father, I pray that you would help us implant these truths, burn these truths into our hearts that we might understand the seriousness of what has happened today, the joy of what it is, and that we might be faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus in following what you've told us to think and to do. Now, Father, as we look into your word, help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

There is a pandemic overwhelming millions of people today, and it's not necessarily this pandemic called COVID-19. it's something that's been growing for a generation. It's what I call radical personal autonomy, radical personal freedom. It's radical in its nature. It centers on the individual, and it's all about the ultimate good of the individual. It's a philosophy of life.

It's a mindset that sets the agenda for most people today. It expresses itself in the way we look at life. A view that says nothing is more important than the individual Personal freedom personal freedom is the ultimate good My personal relationships are the most valuable. My values, my personal values are the most important. And they are the things that tell me how to live and you don't have any right to impose your values on me.

In fact, nothing greater than me has any right to impose values on me. What I determine is valuable and right is what I'm going to live by. The tragedy of this pandemic is that it's spread to the church. It's spread to the church. We're in danger of losing the biblical sense of commitment to the community of Christ. That is, we're losing the sense of committing yourself to a local church.

Radical personal autonomy in the church expresses itself in many ways. There's the filling station philosophy of church attendance, which says, just show up, get my tank filled, and go home. I'm ready for the week. Now, again, of course, that's all we have now is an hour in the week. but in the old days many people had that philosophy there's a consumer mentality that has overcome christians today a consumer mentality i'm going to compare churches right i'm going to say who has the best to offer whoever has the best package that's where i'll go right oh they have a youth group right they have a youth group that's where we need to go or well their music is great so we'll go here and then there's this idea of just comparing churches and getting the best for your best best for your money right the best bang for your buck problem is some people now you know what they're doing now they're going here for youth group and they're going here for something else and here for another thing so this consumer mentality has overtaken us we only people because of of this will only minister in church when it's convenient for them when it fits their schedule Then they'll minister.

There's never really joining a church, never actually joining a church, just attending for years, in fact. Just attending never making that formal step of joining a church It expressed in finding some sort of spiritual nourishment in other places than the local church Bible studies Bible conferences radio and television ministries all have become primary means of so spiritual growth. And then it's expressed in the attitude that says, well, we're all part of the universal church.

So wherever Christians meet, there's the church right i don't need to join a local church i'm part of the universal church well because of that emphasis on the individual we're in danger of losing the truth that jesus always intended believers to become part of a visible distinguishable organized community of disciples. Jesus always intended that. Jesus isn't after just picking out individuals, getting this person saved, and that person saved, and that person saved, and that person saved, and that's all there is to it.

It's more than that. His heart is disciples as part of a community of disciples. Now, we witness today the ordinance of baptism given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is something that speaks to us of community. It is this that ought to make us pause and to think about what is baptism and what does it mean to be part of a church. So take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28.

Now again, this isn't going to be a normal sermon in that we're just going to look at one passage and take it apart. We're going to be all over the New Testament today, but I want you to see the pattern that emerges from the Bible in regard to these important questions about baptism and church membership. Of course, we all know what Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says.

This is the great commission given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, the commission to go and make disciples. It says in verse 18, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now let's see how the Great Commission is intended to be fulfilled For it here that Jesus tells us his intention is for disciples to be made through all the ages Now Jesus gives a command here It to make disciples The original disciples followers students, are commanded to go out and make more followers and students of Jesus. And it's not just commanded to the original disciples, because at the very end he says, I'm with you to the end of the age.

I'm with you to help you with this to the end of the age. So Jesus obviously meant that for us as well, not just for those guys, but for all of us, that we all are to be in the business of making disciples. How is that command fulfilled? Verse 19, you make disciples by baptizing them in name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. A disciple is one who is baptized.

He has to be baptized. That's how you identify the people of God. They have been through the waters of baptism. All right? That's how you know a disciple. That's putting the uniform on.

That's the distinguishing mark. That's how you know that you're a Christian. Listen, can I just say this real quickly? This is a footnote. This is free, okay? You get this one for free.

And that is that it's not your profession of faith that marks you out as a Christian. It's a profession that makes it known through baptism. That's the mark that sets you apart. Okay. To everyone else publicly, that's what says I'm a believer. Okay.

So disciples, who are they? They're baptized people who are what? Who are taught to obey all that Jesus has said, teaching them to observe, teaching them to obey. So you have to see today that in making disciples, in baptizing and teaching people, Jesus never intended for them just to be individuals who learn about Jesus, but rather they learn in communities of disciples called the church.

Now I've said a lot there, haven't I? It's up to me now to prove the point. All right. What is the pattern that emerges from the New Testament? Well, first of all, you need to understand the significance of baptism. Understand the significance of baptism.

First of all, from this text, it proclaims that you're related to Jesus as a disciple to his master. You're related to Jesus as a disciple. is to his master. Notice he says, go and make disciples of all nations. Make disciples. Make disciples of mine. They're disciples of me.

A disciple, when you're baptized, you're binding yourself to Jesus as one of his disciples, just like those original twelve. You now are binding yourself to Jesus as a disciple. A disciple is one who attached himself to a master to learn from and obey. So when you would see a rabbi walking around, by the way, Jesus did not, Jesus wasn't, everyone would say, oh, there's Jesus because he was walking around with 12 guys following him, right?

Oh, that must be Jesus. He's the guy who's got the 12 guys. There were rabbis all over the place doing that. He did not look any different than any other rabbi. Every rabbi had a group of disciples who bound themselves to that master to learn and to obey. That was the way it went.

So in baptism, you're attaching yourself to Jesus as your master. Okay? As one who is saying, Master, teach me. I am bound to you now. The focus of baptism is not the past. The focus of baptism is the present and the future.

You're not saying, I'm identifying myself with this person who died and was raised again. No. In essence, you're saying, I'm committing myself to the risen Jesus Christ as my master for the rest of my life. That's why baptism is such a significant thing. It's more than just giving a testimony. It's more than just getting up and saying, I'm a Christian, I believed in Jesus.

It's saying, Jesus is Lord, and I'm going to be faithful to His commands no matter what the cost. It may cost me everything, but this baptism says, I'm a follower of Jesus. He is my master. I'm going to obey him. No matter what the cost, that's what I'm going to do. That is what baptism says.

And so you lose your individuality, if you will. You lose not your individuality. Let's just say this. You lose your autonomy. You lose the freedom because you're no longer setting the agenda. Every part of your life now.

The agenda is set by Jesus. Okay? The agenda is set by Jesus. So, first of all baptism proclaims that you related to Jesus as a disciple to a master It signifies that you related to Jesus as a subject is to a Lord Look at Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 Peter great sermon at Pentecost the day of Pentecost, that first real gospel sermon after the resurrection of Jesus.

And in verse 38 in this sermon, he says, and Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. All right. Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of is a technical commercial term meaning to the account of someone.

It's put that to the account of someone. It signifies ownership. It signifies ownership in the name of signifies ownership. It indicates that you're entering the realm of Christ's rule and Christ's power. And so, as you're baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you're baptized. You are baptized into the name of the Triune God.

You are switching your allegiance. You are signifying ownership. You are no longer the master of your faith. In baptism, you are saying again again you are saying i've entrusted everything to my master the lord jesus he owns me that goes against the grain of this individualistic autonomy that we that we just are swimming in all the time it goes against that grain you see here's the third thing it signifies that you're initiated into christ's church it signifies that you're initiated into Christ's church.

Chapter 4, again, I'm sorry, chapter 2. I don't know where I got 4. Chapter 2 of Acts, verses 41 and 42. So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. At baptism, you proclaim that you forsake the world that rejects Messiah, and you join the community that proclaims him king.

As the people of that day watched the baptism in Jerusalem, they knew all the people around there who saw that whole thing going on they knew that those people were identifying themselves with those other people who belonged to Jesus There were 120 at the beginning of that day. There were 3,120 at the end of that day. Alright? But everyone knew that they were joining that group.

They were joining that group. Listen, in the days of the New Testament, there was no such thing as an unbaptized, unchurched Christian. It was unheard of. When you became a Christian, you were baptized into the ownership of Jesus and into the local body of believers. To be identified with Christ through baptism means identification with his people. It means to identify with him.

So you can see then that to be a disciple of Christ means you're identified with a visible, distinguishable community of believers. Okay? That's how it starts. Micah has identified himself not only as a follower of Jesus, but he's identified himself as a part of this community of believers. All right? anybody who saw that today knows here or out there on youtube knows that mike has identified himself with this body of believers so that kind of identification through baptism brings up the whole issue of church membership what about church membership is it important well we need to understand that believers become part of local churches followers of jesus will become part of local churches now look don't misread me here i'm not saying if you haven't been baptized yet you're not a christian if you haven't joined the church yet you're not a christian what i'm saying is that's the pattern of the new testament and we need to line up with it i understand we've had We've got 2,000 years of misapplication, misunderstanding, not teaching these things.

So let's line up with it then, okay? Let's see what the Bible says. What are the evidences of formal church membership? I can remember some years ago a pastor from Indiana calling me and I forget how we first got connected but he wanted some advice and some things and he was telling me about this situation with this couple and I said well okay are they members of your church are they members of your church and he said well that interesting in our you know in our polity, if you attend for a while, we consider you a member.

Well, like, how long do they have to attend? Well, if they've been here long enough, we just consider them a member. So what do you think about that? Is that legitimate or not, right? I would suggest to you that the pattern that you see in the New Testament, there's a formal way of identifying somehow. It may not be exactly how we do it.

I'm sure it has to happen through baptism, as I understand the scriptures. But there's got to be something about this. Can you just attend a church and kind of be a member? Can you attend a church and maybe never join? What do we see? Well, let's look together, shall we?

The greatest evidence to see is how the apostles fulfilled the Lord's command in the Great Commission to make disciples. It's fascinating to me to see in Matthew, Jesus says, go out and make disciples, teaching them, baptizing them and teaching them to obey. And then to go to the book of Acts and see exactly how they fulfilled that command. Now watch what happens.

Acts chapter 2, verse 41, We just read it a few minutes ago. 3,000 were what? Added. 3,000 were added. That, to me, seems formal. Verse 47.

Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. There's an identifiable group there, adding to their number, this group. there was some way of knowing who belonged and who did not. Now, we don't know exactly. They had baptism and so forth. We understand that. But there was some way that they knew who was part of them and who was not.

They could determine that 3,000 were added or identified that are different than the other 3,000. observers that were just watching. There was a way. There obviously was some sort of formal recognition there. Look at Acts chapter 14. Now you heard that in scripture reading this morning. Acts chapter 14.

Now this is the narrative of Paul and Barnabas as they go through these cities. okay um so they've gone through these cities and now they're coming back through watch what happens when they had verse 21 when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to lystra and to iconium into antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must center of the kingdom of God. 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. Now verse 21, they're preaching the gospel.

They're making disciples. Verse 23, they continue to fulfill the commission that Jesus had given them by gathering a group into gathering those disciples into a group and setting over them formerly ordained leaders. Men set apart to lead those that they had gathered. Right? It's clear there. So there's this clear, here are disciples, what do we do with you?

We put you together. We put leaders over you in order to guide you and to feed you and nourish you. And they set them over for every church. There's a group there. Church, by the way, is the Greek word that just means assembly. It was originally used for political assemblies.

The Bible writers take it and they add another nuance to the meaning of disciples of Jesus. Gather. Acts chapter 20, verse 28. In Acts chapter 20, Paul is on his way to Rome at a stopping place. He calls for the pastors, the elders of the church in Ephesus. And what he's going to do is he's going to charge them.

Ephesus, he had spent about three and a half years in Ephesus. Ephesus was the place where the Apostle Paul stayed the longest in all his trips And so he calls the pastors from that church to meet with him and he charges them in verse 28, when he says, 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. All right?

To care for the church of God. there's an identifiable flock called the Church of God, which these pastors are responsible to oversee and to shepherd. He says, there's a group of people there that you're responsible for to oversee and to shepherd. You take care of that group of people, that flock. Okay? Look at Titus chapter 1. Remember what's happening in Titus. the Apostle Paul has left his representative Titus there.

And he leaves Titus these instructions. Verse 5, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you may put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. What's he telling him to do? The job of establishing churches was incomplete without spiritually qualified leaders. There have to be a particular group of leaders over these churches, these assemblies.

So what I want you to see here is that when the disciples went out to fulfill the Great Commission, they formally organized disciples into well-ordered, well-managed communities called churches. They didn't just go out, make disciples, and say, follow Jesus. What did they do? They took those disciples, they put them in a church, they put them together, they gave them leaders, that were supposed to guide them.

Okay? So, it's evident that there's a church membership that happens as you look at the way the disciples fulfill the Great Commission. Now, let's look at some other things. There's Christ commands for church discipline is an evidence for a formal membership. Why do I think there's a formal membership where there's not just this, well, I think they're part of us, but because of the commands for church discipline.

Matthew 18. Matthew 18. In Matthew 18 Jesus gives us the means by which we go after lost sheep people who are straying people who have sinned against one another and in matthew 18 verse 17 he says this if the person remains stubborn if he refuses to listen to them to the witnesses 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 all right if he refuses to listen to them the witnesses tell it to the church a precise identifiable group and there must be some way of marking out someone and saying treat him differently from the other members of this group that one you've got to treat differently you treat him as an outsider right you treat him and by the way he's saying treat him as you would a sinner and a tax collector a traitor essentially okay he's departed he's he's and so he's got to be marked okay as someone who's not part of this group anymore first corinthians chapter five this is the passage again in terms of church discipline this is about a man who is involved in a sexual relationship with his if you will his stepmother and Paul is saying to them what is wrong with you he may come off a little bit gentler than that not much though he's saying you you glory in the fact that you haven't done anything about this I think the issue was well we're a loving forgiving group and well we're not going to say anything and his whole point was you cannot do that you cannot let sexual immorality go on if those people claim to be part of the church and so you come to the end of chapter 5 the last two verses verses 12 and 13 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. Now, do you see what he's saying there? There's a rhetorical question in verse 12, and he talks about those outside and those inside You see that And then he says purge or expel this person There some formal organizations of disciples from which you are purged from which this person is expelled There has to be some sort of clearly identifiable group here.

And there has to be a process by which someone is put out who becomes an outsider, if you will. so the evidence shows that believers have always been parts of the communities of Christ's disciples called churches they are listen there are no lone ranger Christians Jesus never intended this kind of individualistic Christianity that we have today by the way everybody talks about community now don't you that's a buzzword oh we all have to be in community that's right but especially for God's people, right? The evidence indicates that there was a formal recognition. You didn't just merely attend.

There was some way of saying, you're a member. You're part of this group. So your identity as a disciple of Jesus is tied up with your identity as part of a community of his disciples. So you have this identity that says, I belong to Jesus, which means I belong to this group. I belong to these people who follow Jesus all right now the last thing I want to point out is that we need to understand that teaching to obey of the great commission right baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you this teaching to obey is most effective in a community of believers called the local church.

It's most effective in that community. Least effective outside of it. Now, when you look at the Great Commission, Jesus' intention was not to have a bunch of eggheads who could rattle off all his commands. Right? It wasn't so that someone could say, Matthew 5, 43-48, what does it say? What's the command there?

Love your enemies like God loves his enemies. Good. Matthew 6. Where is the Lord's Prayer found? That's not what He intended. He intended not that you know where that command is to love your enemies, but that what?

You would actually love your enemies. You teach people how to love their enemies. That's what it's about. A disciple is one who is taught to obey. Here's what one of my mentors, Pastor Goode, said it. Here's what a disciple is.

A disciple is somebody who translates truth into life. You've heard me say it a hundred times. That's no surprise to you. But I love that. A disciple is not someone who knows truth. A disciple is someone who translates truth into life.

That's a disciple. And that's what we're all about, which means Jesus' intention is that disciples are identified not just by their baptism, but what? By a changed life. That they're going to be identified as people who not only, through baptism, declare I'm a follower of Jesus, but live like it. Right? So the Great Commission is identify yourself as a follower of Jesus and learn how to live like it. and so all our teaching is oriented toward change it's all about change by the way can I tell you something when I'm out ministering in different places and I'm teaching some things I say this to people so I'm going to tell you right now all of you you here and all you out there if this ever happens to you this is what you say I say to folks I would hope that if you came to the Rue Baptist Church and you grab someone by the lapels and you would say to them, what does God expect of you?

That person would be able to respond right away. He expects me to grow and change. Okay, so now you know what I expect from you if someone ever does that to you. All right. But I hope that's what you would say because that's what it's all about here. We're all about making disciples.

We're all about bringing people in line with Jesus and following him and actually doing what he says that's what we're about as a church that's our purpose okay it's all about change now teaching like jesus commands that is teaching to obey is most effective in a church body because of all the resources that we have because of all that's in the church like what okay here's one fellowship fellowship the word has the idea of close mutual relationship participation in partnership that all involved in that word we are we don practice we are a fellowship Okay And that what a church is all about It about fellowship That is the intersection of our lives. That is intimate knowledge of one another. And when that's happening, when we have true fellowship, when we're involved in one another's lives, we're better equipped to help one another.

We're better equipped to teach one another how to obey Jesus. We're better equipped to teach to obey if we're really involved in fellowship. That's so important. That is so important. That can't happen at any level of depth in an independent Bible study or a Bible conference. Okay, turn over to Ephesians 5 for a moment.

Ephesians 5. verse 22 wives submit to your own husbands as to the lord okay there's a command verse 25 husbands love your wives as christ loved the church and gave himself up for her there's a command wives submit husbands love now look those two commands can be taught and they ought to be taught But in a fellowship of believers, singles and young married people and others, children growing up in a church where there's fellowship, they ought to be able to see that modeled. By the way, they see that modeled not just at church, but when they're at your house, right? So someone's over at the pastor's house for dinner. and Calvin hauls off and cleaned Levi's clock.

And if you knew our family, Levi would not be willing to take that. And he would respond in what he thought was appropriate ways. All right? Now, what's going on? You've got people there for dinner. You've got the pastor's boys duking it out.

Now, they ought to. They ought to be able to see how a mature Christian mom and dad handle that. You see, they ought to be able to see that. That's what the church has that nobody else has. We have the ability because we have fellowship we can model and observe So we don just teach we model and observe You see no one else has that Nothing else has that.

You see? Alright? So it takes place in a fellowship. Right? This teaching to obey takes place in a fellowship of believers. teaching takes place in the church primarily through shepherds who know the flock look over at hebrews chapter 13 hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 it remember your leaders those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

All right. So the leaders that are in the church, the elders who are set over you to shepherd you, they ought to be such that and you know them so that you ought to be able to imitate their faith. Verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. You know one thing that can keep me awake at night?

It's the fact that someday me and Greg and Dan, three of us, are going to have to give an account of how we looked after you. I think there's an extra judgment on judgment day, or at least for some, it's part of that great judgment. And that is did you take care of my sheep? They have to give account for your souls. Now what I want you to see here is you need to notice that the teaching of the word is connected to those who watch over your souls.

That is, teaching then in the church, and that either means here, publicly or privately, that teaching has to be aimed at where the flock is. Do you know why? do you know why I decided to do a series on fear and worry? Very little to do with the pandemic and all the fear and worry that's going around. But as I moved around this congregation, I found tons of people struggling with fear and worry Do you know that I said yeah I remember you talked to me Yeah As the elders moved around this congregation we found that there a lot of people in this group who are struggling in this area.

That's why we're spending about six or seven weeks on that topic. Because you need to learn. You need to grow. And the teaching is connected to those who watch over your souls. And please notice, verse 7, These leaders are held up as models to be imitated in their lives. This morning, I asked Becca, Becca, how many people have lived with us?

How many people have lived with us? We've had a number of people live with us for short or long periods of time. And I think we came up with eight. There may be more. That's not remembering everybody. But there's been people.

And you know what? we just wonder sometimes, do they walk away thinking marriage was a good thing? I'm telling you, when someone lives with the pastor, you can't keep the front up all the time. Right? Of course, it's not my fault that there would be any problems. Someone in this room, I think, is going to disagree with that. But you know what? that's the sort of thing that happens, right?

That's the sort of thing that happens. People are going to watch you. And there's something that you should be able to imitate. There's something else. You see someone who doesn't tell you what Jesus, just tell you what Jesus says, he lives it, and you can see, aha, that's how. That's how you live out that command.

Now, many of us here love the ministries of such men as John MacArthur and Paul Tripp and Jay Adams. But you don't have the opportunity to see their lives in action. you don't have the opportunity of being with them you don't see how they live out what they say and they're not watching out for your souls and they're not tailoring their teaching to you and to what you need because they don't know you okay so teaching takes place in the church primarily through shepherds who know the flock That's another reason why it's best to you can learn to obey Jesus in that kind of situation. Here's another one.

Disciples learn to obey in the church that practices church discipline. Have you ever been in a classroom? You've heard me say this. You've been in a classroom where there's no discipline. How much learning takes place? Discipline is education with teeth.

Discipline sees that the lesson is learned. So suppose two of our young people, they come through the youth group, they're out of the youth group, and they decide to move in together. And so Mary moves in with Tom. Right? And what happened if here in our church we did what most churches do, which is what? Just ignore it.

Let's not say anything about it. Let's just ignore that. what's going to happen when the pastor gets up and preaches about the immorality of sexual relations before marriage you think anybody's going to hear the you think anybody's going to listen i think they're going to say i think you're going to believe that we're serious about that no i mean if if it's not followed with discipline no one's going to learn the lesson when you don't discipline what are you communicating it's not that important that's not that's not just set in the area of sex, it's in the area of all kinds of things. Someone gets drunk, it's in the paper, what are we going to do about it?

What are we going to do about that? If we don't do anything, we're communicating something. So discipline is education with teeth. It sees that the lesson is learned. And listen, no Bible conference and no Bible study can ever practice discipline. And so you see, the kind of teaching that Jesus requires is most effectively done in a community of believers.

It's the most effective in that community. Now some of you may be saying Pastor Tim what about the universal church Is there any part in our thinking about the Universal Church Is there any part for that for us And the answer is yes but let me point out to you and this is what we do When we read church in the Bible, we tend to think Universal Church. Ninety percent of the references to church are to local church, not to worldwide church. an unbelievable amount of reference to church is the local church the exception being the book of Ephesians and even places like Hebrews and first Peter are written to congregations that may be scattered but they're written to congregations so there's a lot of talk about the universal church And that's fine, because the Bible does refer to the whole church, but it does so.

The doctrine of the universal church intends to teach people that Jesus has redeemed people from every tribe and tongue and nation. That there is no bounds to the gospel or to the people of God. But you also have to remember that the universal church can never discipline. If you don't belong to a church, you say, I belong to the universal church. Well, who's holding you accountable?

Right? The universal church can't discipline. It can't have what's called fellowship in any significant way. And it can never shepherd you so that you are guided in paths of righteousness. None of that happens with the universal church. Alright Well someone says but what about the national and international ministries of men like John and Jay and Paul Aren those ministries of the church at large And I say yes and I thankful for them I'm extraordinarily thankful for them.

God's used men like that to call people back to the scriptures. But they will never be as effective as those in a local church. I know for a fact that all the guys I mentioned are part of a local church somewhere who are holding them accountable. and they have a great ministry to to all of us but it's not as effective as that which is in the local church in fact those ministries have proved most effective as they've called congregations back to the truths that we're talking about and so it is that i say the whole pattern of the new testament is baptism leading to membership membership is something that's very important for Christians.

Membership is just the normal way of approaching the Christian life. It's the way the Great Commission was fulfilled. I want you to imagine that you're sitting in front of a fireplace feeling warm and comfortable and you're just staring absent-mindedly into the fire and you see this little ember that kind of rolls off the top log and rolls out to the edge of the fireplace, right?

It glows and it sputters, but only for a little while. What happens to it? The fire goes out and it goes cold. You see, it's not attached anymore This social disease of radical personal autonomy will do that to you as a Christian You have to understand that Jesus intends for you to be part of a vital assembly a vital part of this assembly And you have to understand that because every aspect of your Christian life is related to his church.

Jesus' commission is for his disciples to live and to learn in a community of disciples. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We pray, Father, that you would help us not just to know it, but to live it. Father, we are... We want to be faithful to the Lord Jesus.

And so, Lord, as we look at this, at the scriptures and see what the Great Commission says and how that plays out in the rest of the New Testament, we're thankful that you've given us those truths. Father, help us to be faithful as a church to those who are part of it. Help those who are part of this church to be loyal and serving and loving to that church.

God, help us, we pray. to be faithful followers of Jesus by being faithful, loyal members of the community of disciples called the church. Thank you for your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.