Why You Should Be a Member of the New Testament Church

Wendell Winkler

We are living in a day when we constantly hear, “The church is not essential,” or “Jesus, yes; the church, no,” or “Let’s have Christianity and not ‘churchanity,’” or “You can be saved out of the church,” or “Church membership is optional,” or “Just as long as you are a good moral person, that’s enough.” But what does the Bible say?

With the Lord’s church being a reality, and with membership therein being essential to salvation (Acts 2:47), our present study will seek to give added incentive and encouragement for one to become a member thereof. In so doing, we will make twelve observations.

1. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Have Been to Calvary

The church cost the blood of Christ. “Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Hence, the church is spoken of as “the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:14; see also 5:25).

A question to answer. If a man pays $500.00 for a suit, how is he going to reap the benefit of the $500.00? The answer: he must get into what it bought. In like manner, how does one reap the benefit of the blood of Christ? The answer: by getting into what it bought. And his blood bought the church.

2. You Will Want to Be a Member When You Consider What It Will Mean to Your Family

You will have the joys of a Christian home. You cannot have American life without America. Correspondingly, you cannot have a Christian home without Christianity. But being a Christian and having membership in the church are contemporary states (Acts 11:26; church, Christians and disciples refer to the same people). A family united in Christ, as was Philemon and his family (Phile. 1:2), is the most beautiful picture on earth.

In the church there are many blessings for you and your family.

Your emotional needs will be supplied as brothers and sisters in Christ weep and rejoice with you (Rom. 12:15).
Your social needs will be met as you enjoy constant fellowships and get-togethers, as you associate with the finest, purest and best people on earth (Acts 2:46-47).
Your spiritual needs will be provided as you receive edification, immunization, and information.
Your children will be associating with the purest and most spiritually minded young people anywhere; they will enjoy Bible bowls, Bible camps, retreats, youth meetings and such like as they are wholesomely influenced thereby.
Additionally, in the church you have someone watching for all of your souls (Heb. 13:17). And do we not all need all the help we can get in going to heaven?

3. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church as You Appreciate the Lord’s Mission in Coming to This Earth

Please observe the following:

Major premise: Christ came to the earth that men might have life (John 10:10), to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and to do the will of the Father (John 6:38).
Minor premise: Christ came to earth that the church might become a reality (he came to the earth to die, John 12:27, and dying to purchase the church, Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25).
Therefore, the church is essential to having life and being saved; and it is essential to the will of God (see Eph. 3:10-11).

4. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church as You Long to Have Jesus as Your Savior

Jesus is the savior of the body (Eph. 5:23); and the body is the church (Eph. 1:22-23). Hence, Jesus is the savior of the church.

An illustration to help. A fish cannot live out of the water; but that does not make the water the fish’s preserver. Nor can a bird live out of the atmosphere; but that does not make the atmosphere the bird’s preserver. Rather, God preserves the fish and the bird, but in a given sphere; for the fish it is the water and for the bird it is the atmosphere. In like manner, a man cannot be saved out of the church; but this does not make the church the man’s savior. Rather, Christ is his savior, but he saves in a given sphere; and that sphere is the church.

5. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Desire Membership and Association with the Saved of the Earth

Acts 2:47. According to this passage, “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Deduction. There is no such thing as a man being saved on Monday and joining the church on Tuesday or the following Sunday. If you are saved, you are a member of the church. If you are a member of the church, you have been saved. Too, according to this observation, whatever a man does to be saved is the same thing he does to become a member of the church. Now, read Mark 16:15-16 and Acts 2:38.

6. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Understand What Is to Be Enjoyed Therein

To be in Christ is to be in his body (Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 12:13). But his body is the church (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18, 24).

Now, let us observe the blessings to be found exclusively in Christ; thus, in his church. They are:

all spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:3;
redemption, Colossians 1:13-14; Ephesians 1:7;
forgiveness, Colossians 1:13-14; Ephesians 1:7;
salvation, 2 Timothy 2:10; Ephesians 5:23;
no condemnation, Romans 8:1, 4;
sanctification, 1 Corinthians 1:2;
all promises, 2 Corinthians 1:20;
reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:19; Ephesians 2:16;
being new creatures, 2 Corinthians 5:17;
treasures, Colossians 2:2-3;
life, 1 John 5:11-12;
completeness, Colossians 2:10.

Question. Can a person be saved without these blessings? If not, then, he must get into where they are. But they are in Christ, his body, his church.

7. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Grasp Its Relationship to God’s Eternal Scheme of Redemption

Ephesians 3:10-11. When this text is studied minutely, we will see that God (a) made known (b) his many-splendored wisdom (c) to the angelic creation (d) by, through, and in the establishment of his church, and (e) this was according to his eternal purpose. What a thought!

A reflection on God. Now, to affirm that the church is a non-essential institution and that salvation can be enjoyed out of it as well as in it—and, yet, for such an institution God would give his only Son—is to impugn and reflect upon God’s wisdom and omniscience.

8. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Take to Heart What the Church Is

If a person can be saved out of the church, he can be saved out of what the church is; and without the benefits of the blessings therein. But what is the church?

The church is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18, 24). In the body we enjoy (a) connection with the head, Ephesians 1:22-23, (b) reconciliation, Ephesians 2:16, and (c) being called, Colossians 3:16.
The church is the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:18-19; Luke 22:18; 1 Cor. 11:20ff; 1:2; Heb. 12:22-23, 28). If one can be saved outside the kingdom, he can be saved (a) without the new birth, John 3:3-5, (b) without salvation, Matthew 19:23-25, (c) without conversion, Matthew 18:1-4, and (d) while in darkness, Colossians 1:13-14.
The church is the family (house) of God (1 Tim. 3:15; Acts 10:1-6; Eph. 2:19; 3:15). Does God have children outside his family? Such a thought is repugnant to his holy nature. Is it necessary to be a child of God? Well, there is only one other father and family (John 8:44).
The church is the bride of Christ (Rom. 7:1-4; 2 Cor. 11:2-3; Rev. 21:9). Can one be saved without being married to Christ? (a) How can spiritual fruit be borne? (b) How can one be so presumptuous as to wear his name? (only the bride of a man has this right).
The church is the fold (Acts 20:28; John 10:1-16). But it is only his sheep who will be placed on the Lord’s right hand in the judgment (Matt. 25:31-34).

9. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You See Your Need for the Priesthood of Christ

Christ is high priest over the house of God. “And having a high priest over the house of God” (Heb. 10:21). But the church is the house of God. Such is taught in First Timothy 3:15.

Now let us study the significance of this beautiful point. For a person to be saved, he has to have the high priest offer for his sins the blood of the covenant under which he lives. The fathers did this in the Patriarchal Age. The priests under the law of Moses performed this function. Now, Christ does such. But, since he is priest over the house of God, all those outside the house (church) remain outside the blessings of the offerings of the high priest.

10. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Believe Obeying the Gospel Is a Matter of Life and Death

1 Peter 4:17 plus 1 Timothy 3:15. Those who obey not the gospel of Christ are placed oppositional to those who are in the house of God in 1 Peter 4:17. Then, 1 Timothy 3:15 identifies the house of God as the church. Hence, those who obey not the gospel are those who are not members of the Lord’s church.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. In this passage Paul teaches us that those who obey not the gospel—accordingly, as just proven, those who are not members of the church—will be victims of the Lord’s vengeance.

11. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Envision God Writing Your Name in the Lamb’s Book of Life

Members of the church have their names written in heaven. “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,” is the reading of Hebrews 12:23. It is of unquestioned importance to have our names written there.

We will be delivered if our names are there, Daniel 12:1-3.
Hell is the destiny for all those whose names are not written there, Revelation 20:12-15.
Heaven is the destiny for all those whose names are written there, Revelation 21:27.

12. You Will Want to Be a Member of the Church When You Contemplate the Eternal Destiny of the Church

On the final day, the kingdom will be “delivered up” to God (1 Cor. 15:24). And remember, the kingdom is the church (Matt. 16:18-19; Heb. 12:22-23, 28).
Others will be “delivered to” hell. Matthew 25:41 reads, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”
A soul-searching question to ponder. Do I desire to be among the “delivered up” or “delivered to”?

Conclusion

Has the truth (it makes you free, John 8:32) been taught in this lesson? If so, we ask,
Are you a member of the Lord’s church? If not, we ask,
Will you not become a member NOW? (Study Acts 2:36-47; 8:26-40).