Church membership is absolutely biblical

Why might people reject the idea?

Statistics show that 10,000,000 “members” of Southern Baptist churches do not show up on an average Sunday.  Well, I agree that is unbiblical!

Why Southern Baptists have emphasized “regenerate church membership”?

The most prominent view among Christians in the Middle Ages was that the church was made up of believers and their children, regenerate or not.  Many churches still confuse who the church is and who the church is not.  Whether letting a non-Christian be a greeter is sinful or not, who will people think– and who will the non-Christian greeter think– is the church if that becomes normal?

Church “membership” in the Bible

1. They kept records (Acts 2.41, 2 Cor 2.6, 1 Tim 5.9)- 3,000 new souls, a “majority” in Corinth, enrollment of widows; you cannot say this idea is foreign to the NT.
2. Church discipline (Matt 18.15-18, 1 Cor 5.1-5, 1 Tim 1.20) makes no sense without some sense of who is in and who is out.
3. Body/building/household metaphors (1 Cor 12.12-30, Eph 2.19-22) are where we get the very word “members” from; and it would have to be people who know each other well for the illustrations to hold weight
4. Pastor-sheep distinction (Acts 6.1-7, 1 Tim 3.1-13, Heb 13.17, 1 Peter 5.1-5) implies a defined group under recognized leadership.  I am not the pastor of someone who goes to that church, but only of someone who goes to this church!

Why formal church membership?

1. As a response to culture- we must respond to transience, church-hopping, unbiblical ways of dealing with conflicts (i.e. just leave the church); it should feel like cutting off a limb when people leave
2. Help draw lines for non-Christians- do not let them think they are members of the church if they are not followers of Christ!
3. Best way to care for sheep that I know- Gal 6.10 helps to prioritize time for pastors; helps to pray more efficiently; helps to have specific people in mind when preaching; helps guard the entrance for sheep only

Please do not object before thinking hard about this

Great Commission Repentance

3 ways we change the Great Commission, and in doing so, end up not fulfilling it:

1. We forget why we’re doing it- Matthew 28.19-20 is not the Great Commission; Matthew 28.18-20 is.  It does not say “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  It says, “Go THEREFORE and make disicples.”  And if you look at verse 18 you will know that the Great Commission is based on the Lordship of Christ.  Any other reason for doing it is secondary at best.
2. We go and help disciples- having a good discipleship program where you help Christians grow is good; but evangelism is the first step in disciple-making.  Evangelism is part and parcel of the command to go and make disciples.
3. We go and make converts- there is no such thing as getting people in to heaven by the skin of their teeth; either people are born again or they are not; either they follow Christ, or they do not.  We are not helping people to make decisions to follow Christ, we are helping people to follow Christ!

I say if you are guilty of any of these, make this your New Year’s repentance.

It’s Official!

I thank you for your prayers and support and constant encouragement in the Lord.  After preaching at Kailua Baptist Church starting on July 19, 2009, and after coming on board as part-time intern pastor starting September 1, 2009, Kailua Baptist Church voted on me for the permanent full time senior-pastor position.  And it was, by God’s grace, 100% affirmative.  Praise God for his grace towards me and the wonderful church family he has given me to serve with!  Nat and I look forward to whatever God has in store for us.

I am so thankful for all the great men and women God has used over the years to save me and help me grow in the faith.  Please pray for us as we look to minister to people in Kailua and hopefully all of Hawaii, and as I hope to be a humble under-shepherd over God’s precious flock.

John 1:14-18

3 results of the Incarnation, the Word becoming flesh:

1. We have seen God’s glory (14-15)- the glory in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection can only be described as the glory of the One and Only, sent from the Father.  Both John and the Baptist recognized this.
2. We have received grace upon grace (16-17)- the Law was grace, and the appearance of Jesus was grace on top of that; this verse loses its power if you think John is driving a wedge between Moses and Jesus.
3. We know exactly what God is like (18)- God was un-seeable; but Jesus represents Him perfectly.  If you know Jesus, you know the one true God.

The spiritual Word became a fleshly Word so that fleshly people could become spiritual people!  Merry Christmas.

John 1:6-13

Jesus is the radiant light of the entire world.  Three things to help us see this:

1. John the Baptist gave off light (6-8)- John only came to testify, and people thought he was the Light!  How much brighter is the Light!

2. The Light got brighter than it already was (9)- The light was in the world, but the Light was coming into the world in a new way, to be even brighter!

3. But the Light had been bright enough (10-13)- The Light was rejected as a whole, but was still bright enough to save some, whether it was Abraham or Rahab or Josiah.

But the beauty of verse 9 is that even though the Light was bright enough to save, the true light that gives light to every man still came into the world to be even brighter!

John 1:1-5

Why did John use “the Word”?

1. He noticed that God’s Word in the OT was like a divine person (1-3)- the Word of God created things, accomplished things, and came to people; the Word of God was good, wise and all-powerful; the Word of God must have been God!
2. God’s Word in the OT gave life (3-4)- the Word of God gave everything existence; the Word of God went out and gave sinners like Noah and Abraham and David the ability to obey
3. God’s Word in the OT gave light (4-5)- the Word of God made light shine in Gen 1; the Word of God gave revelation to all about who God was

So the Word in the OT was a divine Person who gave life and light.  Jesus of Nazareth seemed to be a divine Person who gave life and light.  No wonder John had the audacity to say “the Word became flesh” (John 1.14)!

If it ain’t broke, fix it!

Two conversations I have had over the last three days made me realize how much I love being a pastor.  For those who are unclear, I am still technically “part-time intern pastor” at Kailua Baptist Church.  But I really do function as the senior pastor for all intents and purposes.  Here are the two things that stick out from those two conversations:

1. Many people have heard about the many difficulties that my church has gone through over the last several years, mostly secondhand information.  The sentiment I get from many pastors is something to the effect of: “Boy, you got your work cut out for you.”  Friends, if you do not have your work cut out for you at your church, you better start preaching the Bible!  Getting Christians to think more biblically is always hard work.  Loving pastorally means you will risk friendships to make people more like Christ.
2. When asked how I like pastoring I said “any stresses that come with the job are more than worth it.”  I enjoy preaching, teaching, counseling and loving sheep so much.  Even if they do not listen, I am satisfied knowing that I am pleasing God in it, and giving them the only chance they have for lasting change by giving them Bible.

If you do not face some friction by your preaching, you are doing something wrong.  If your church does not appear dysfunctional in some way, dig deeper in the Scriptures.  If it doesn’t seem broke, fix what you’re doing!

Only two types of wills

Let’s be very clear about this:  the Bible only describes God’s will in two ways. 

1) God’s unchangeable will (I call it his redemptive plan) is that Jesus Christ be glorified in all the earth.  This will happen no matter what.  And since Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God, the glory of Jesus equals the glory of God. 

2) God’s revealed will (I call it his revealed desire) is that all people be holy.  I call it revealed desire because a lot of times Christians believe God’s will to be mysterious.  They are paralyzed as far as what to do and when to do it because they are afraid to “miss” God’s will for their lives.  But God has revealed all he ever needs to reveal for us to know how to please Him.  I repeat:  God has revealed all he ever needs to reveal for us to know how to please Him.

Here are some places I see these two wills happening:

Redemptive plan- Ephesians 1.4-11, Acts 2.22-23, 4.24-28, James 4.15, 1 Peter 3.17, 1 John 5.14-15

Revealed desire- 1 Peter 1.15-16, Matthew 6.10, Romans 12.2, Ephesians 5.17, 1 Thessalonians 4.3, 5.18

Christians must not live and slave and wrestle with any other category of “will of God” or they are simply living unbiblically, at best majoring on the minors.

God’s will from 1 Peter 1.13-16

The word “will” does not appear in this passage, but because of the frequency of commands like this: “be holy, because I am holy,” we can say confidently that this is what God desires from his people more than anything else.  So if you want to please God, God’s will is that you work toward your holiness.  Here are four motivations:

1. The return of the Son of God (13)- believers should be more motivated to be holy by setting their hope fully on the day Christ returns to judge the earth because that day means final, full redemption for believers.
2. Your relationship with God (14)- Peter says, “as obedient children” stay away from evil and be holy.  Like a loving child would obey his/her loving Father, be holy.
3. The holiness of God (15-16)- of all the reasons God gives he says, “Be holy, because I am holy.”  And this is basically the overacrching command of the Scriptures.  Unbelievers, look to Christ, because he is holy.  Believers, be holy, because God is holy.
4. The Word of God (15-16)- Peter could have stopped at verse 15, but he continued “for it is written,” and then he quoted Leviticus.  The Word should motivate any true believer indwelt by His Spirit.

I would call this God’s revealed will, or God’s revealed desire.  If you want to please God, be holy.  God loves to see holy people because holy people look like His Son and His Son is His perfect image and God loves for His image to be spread out all over the earth, as the waters cover the seas.

God’s will from Ephesians 1:4-11

A better preaching block is verses 3-14, but I am just trying to pick out what Paul is saying about God’s will; and what I hear him saying is that God’s will is for Jesus Christ to be glorified in all the earth:

1. The point of creation is redemption in Jesus- God chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world (4) and predestined them for adoption in Christ according to the purpose of his will (5) so that they now have redemption through the blood of Christ (7).  The thing God had in mind at  the moment of creation was redemption.
2. The point of redemption is to unite all things in Jesus- God’s will is no longer a mystery (9) and his will is and always has been to unite all things in the universe in Jesus (10); taken with Eph 1.20-23, this seems to point to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.
3. God works all things according to that plan- “his will” in verse 11 is the same “his will” as verses 5 and 9; and “all things” in verse 11 is the same “all things” as verse 10.  So God’s will has always been to glorify Christ, and he works everything in the universe to fit and support that will.

I would argue this is the main way the Bible talks about God’s will.  It is what I would call God’s redemptive will, or his redemptive plan.  It is unchangeable; you cannot stop it from happening.  I pray this is the will you are seeking whenever you are making decisions, or seeking direction, or searching for “God’s will” for your life.