We cannot join the church of Christ
1) Notice just one word from the verse just read (Acts 9:26): “join.”
2) Paul wanted to “join” the disciples (the church).
3) Today there are a lot of people who talk about “joining the church.”
a) Part of this idea may be based on our culture.
b) It is an engrained part of American life to join things.
c) In the work place, workers may join a union.
d) We know who people who join a gym, the spa, the PTA, and various clubs.
4) In the midst of joining all types of things, some think the church is also joined.
5) There is not a single time in the Bible when we read about someone “joining the church.”
a) In Acts 9:26 we do not find Paul joining the church.
b) Paul wanted to “join the disciples.”
c) When Paul became a Christian, he was joined to (became a member of) the church.
d) After arriving in Jerusalem he wanted to be part of a local group of Christians.
e) He was seeking to identify with a local body of saints, not “join the church” as people think today.
f) The word rendered “join” in verse 26 has been defined as “seeking intimate contact.”
g) This definition is right. Paul was already part of the church as God defines it.
h) He wanted close contact with Christians in Jerusalem.
6) Someone might say, “It still sounds to me like Paul was trying to do what people do today.”
7) “A believer comes to a local church group and says he or she wants to join that assembly.”
8) This idea can be judged by an earlier statement in Acts.
9) In Acts 2:47 (KJV) the Bible says Jesus adds people to the church.
a) This statement is either true or it is not true.
b) If it is true, the one who puts people into the church is Christ.
c) A preacher cannot do it. An elder or an entire group of elders cannot add someone to the church.
d) A local congregation does not have the power to add someone to the church.
e) There is no district, regional, national or even world-wide board that can do it.
f) If a person is in the church, it is because Jesus Christ personally added them.
10) Our world sometimes talks about making something by hand.
a) Something may be hand stitched or something like bricks might be “laid by hand.”
b) Jesus has been personally involved with every person who has come into His spiritual family.
c) He and no other has personally added every saved person to the church.
11) This is an impressive thought and certainly worthy of great reflection.
12) Tonight we want to focus on other matters.
a) Luke provides us with another detail concerning Paul’s joining the disciples.
b) In describing Paul’s search for intimate contact Luke used an imperfect tense verb.
c) This tense expresses continued (repeated action).
d) Paul was not immediately welcomed by this group of Christians.
e) He was a member of the church, but in this local setting Christians did not want to be with him.
f) The imperfect tense further shows that Paul did not “join the church” as people today so describe.
g) Rather, he spent some time and energy trying to get these people to associate with him.
13) Acts 9:26 shows us that the popular concept of joining a church is wrong.
14) What is so prevalent in our world is completely foreign to the Scriptures.
15) We should be glad that this is the case.
a) This past week I did some looking on the Internet regarding church joining.
b) I found an interview that pretty much typified all the things I saw and read.
16) The person who authored the article I am describing signed her name as Carol.
17) Carol said she sought to join a typical religious and she related her experience.
a) Fist, she was asked to complete some church education classes.
b) Then she had to met with some church leaders.
c) She had to come before the preacher, four “ruling elders,” and before these men “profess her faith.”
d) These five men would, and these are her words, “judge her credibility as a Christian.”
e) Carol said she was given three days notice to think about the process.
f) The process of joining the church was so upsetting to her she “talked with several people about it.”
g) In the article I read she spoke about “fighting her fears.” Finally the third day came.
h) She went to the church building and apparently no one met her; they were in a closed-door meeting.
i) She knocked, went into the meeting, and knew only one of the men who was present (the preacher).
j) She did not know 80% of the people who were present, but these men were to judge her “credibility.”
k) This is a reasonably typical experience that people go through to “join a church.”
18) We may not have ever had this experience, but plenty of others have.
a) People sweat bullets when it comes to “joining a church.”
b) All these things are not what we find in the Word of God. Jesus adds people to His church.
c) Who does He add? The Bible tells us—those who obey.
d) Heb. 5:8-9 says Christ is the “author of all those who obey Him.”
e) Back in Acts 2 Peter told many Jews to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.
f) People were baptized and this action is linked with being added to Christ’s spiritual body.
g) Acts 2:41 says people were both “baptized” and then they were “added.”
h) The baptism was for forgiveness of sins, and the adding was to the church (the body of Christians).
i) Modern church joining is not a New Testament practice, but it is a strongly protected belief.
19) Many religious groups get really feisty on the subject of joining a church.
a) There are those who say people can only join their church if they are voted into it.
b) If a person does not get enough votes, or gets a single negative vote, they cannot be a member.
c) While at Hummer I had a man tell me he was voted against several times before he got in.
d) Other religious groups pay a lot of attention to denominational church joining.
20) In my years of church work I have seen some interesting correspondence.
a) One of the things that has crossed my desk from time to time is a “change of church letter.”
b) Not all religious groups use these, but many do.
c)
When a
person goes to a new religious group the new church may ask where the
person previously attended.
d) The new group may do this so they can send out a letter.
e)
The letter, of course, goes to the
person’s old church.
f) The gist of the letter is, “These people have joined our church; remove them from you’re your church.”
g) Not long ago we received one of these letters; we were apparently mistaken for another group.
h) The letter was very direct; it came right out and said, “This person is now ours.”
i) “They no longer belong to you.”
21) Jesus once spoke about the “doctrines and commandments of men.”
a) The idea of joining a church is a doctrine and commandment of men.
b) In the churches built by men, one may join this one, that one, and a hundred others.
c) No one joins the church built by Jesus Christ.
d) Jesus adds people to this spiritual body.
e) Once Christ adds us we cannot join anything else unless we leave His spiritual body.
f) If we are a Christian, we have been automatically joined to Christ’s church.
g) God has nothing left for us to join.
h) We may, however, seek out intimate fellowship with a local body of Christians as Paul did.
i) This seeking is done for several reasons.
i) It is one way of showing we are not ashamed of our faith.
ii) By being a member—an active member of a local congregation—we show whose side we are on.
iii) Jesus spoke about “confessing or denying Him” (Mt. 10:32-33).
iv) By seeking out a group of Christians, we have some accountability to others.
v) In a local setting there multiple means of accountability.
vi) A local congregation gives us a place of support and strength.
vii) The abilities we have can often be magnified when we are involved with a local congregation.
viii) We exhort fellow Christians to “love and good works” (Heb. 10:24-25).
WHEN WE RECEIVE INFORMATION IN LIFE, WE CAN OFTEN DRAW CONCLUSIONS.
a) Such is also the case with the Scriptures; we can draw many conclusions from God’s word.
b) In the case of “church joining,” our study of this subject leads us to some additional conclusions.
c) For instance, the New Testament church kept some type of church membership list.
d) This is implied in Acts 9:26.
e) If Paul wanted “intimate contact with the disciples,” there must have been an established group of disciples.
2) Most churches now use “church directories.”
a) Things were not quite that fancy in the first century, but we have hints of lists existing.
b) Consider with me these pieces of evidence.
c) In 1 Tim. 5 we have information about widows; younger widows and older widows.
d) Special instructions were given to each group.
e) Then in 1 Tim. 5:9 the Bible says “let none be enrolled.”
f) There were widows who were “enrolled.”
g) Tonight is not the time to discuss what this enrollment was.
h) We simply want to observe that some widows were specifically recognized.
i) They were identified as being part of a certain group.
j) There was some type of list; it may have been written or maybe it was just in the heads of people.
3) In Mt. 18:15-17 we have information about resolving problems with a Christian.
4) If the problem cannot be resolved, “take it to the church” (a definite group of people).
5) A definite group can be listed; it is the basis for what we now call a church directory.
6) A similar situation is found in 1 Cor. 5:11-13.
7) Jesus and Paul spoke about matters where a person’s membership status would be affected.
8) This also implies there was an established or recognizable list of church members.
9) The 12th verse in this chapter is especially significant.
10) There spoke about those who were “inside” the Corinthian congregation and those who were “outside.”
11) In the sense of the entire church (all the saved), we would agree there is a “list.”
12) Such also needs to be true in a local setting; we need to know who is who.
a) Earlier in this chapter (1 Cor. 5:4), Paul spoke about people being “gathered together.”
b) Who would be in this gathering? A definable list of church members.
c) In Acts 5:13 we again find the word “join.”
d) This is the same term used in Acts 9:26 only here it has a slightly different twist.
e) After two Christians died, unsaved people would not “join” themselves to Christians.
f) Among the unsaved there was great hesitancy in getting close to the people of God.
g) The fact that unsaved people would not “join” themselves to a group of people tells us something.
h) God’s people were a definite group; the membership was recognizable.
i) Not only was it something that could be seen, unbelievers knew who the Christians were.
j) Another demonstration of this is 1 Cor. 14:23; Paul spoke of the “whole church.”
k) Did the Corinthians know who the “whole church was?
l) If they did, and it sure seems Paul thought they did, there was a definable list.
13) At Acts 20:28 (KJV) elders are described as “overseers.”
14) An overseer oversees something just as a watchman watches something.
15) How can a watchman watch if he does not know what to watch?
16) How can overseers oversee if they do not know how is in the flock?
17) In Acts 20:28 Paul spoke about “all the flock” (a definite group of people).
18) We do not join the church in the way the world describes.
19) It should be evident to all that Christ has added us to His spiritual body.
20) Our lives should show that we are part of the church He built. Is this true in our life?