In Matthew 16:18-19 we heard Jesus affirm: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
In this declaration of the Lord Jesus we find the foundation for the Church. In other words, if we want to find a text that teaches people about church membership, discipline in the church, and the formation of an institution on earth, then this is one of those text.
This, however, is not the only text, there are many others we can quote here that will simply reinforce the idea. For our purposes right now, it is enough that we analyze what Jesus is saying.
The first thing that Jesus is saying is that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be built upon the foundation of Peter. Not in the sense of Peter as the first Pope as Rome maintains, but in the sense of Peter and the Apostles as being ordained servants of Christ who have been entrusted the Gospel proclamation.
To put it more directly: the Church of Christ is built upon the preaching of the Word that is carried out by called and ordained Ministers of the Word whose task is to preach Christ.
The second thing that we find in this text is the amazing idea of the indestructibility of the Church. This means that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will never disappear from the earth. No matter how many times the devil, sin and the world try to oppose her, the Church will continue existing until the end of the days.
This does not mean that the Church will always exist at all times and at all places, but that it will exist upon the face of the earth. It does not mean, either, that the Church will exists always in its visible form, that is recognizable as a gathering group in the public arena, because there are times in which the Church in certain locations has to exist underground as a hiding Church. Despite this, the Church is always present in this world.
The third thing we learn in this passage is that the ordained ministers of the Church have the powers of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This once more is an allusion to the proclamation of the Word. Without the preaching of the Word there is no ordinary way for us to find out how are we to be saved from our sins and the fangs of the devil. (Rom. 10:14ff).
This means that the growing of the Church is closely tied to the proclamation of the Word of God. The implication of this is that we believers need to look to nothing else for growing the Church than the official (coming from an ordained minister) preaching of the Word in order to grow in Christ and have others grow in Christ.
Another implication of this is that the best way we can do evangelism is to invite our friends to worship with us at church. And finally, another implication of this is that, outside of this institution called the Church, that contains the preaching of the Word, there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.
This is not to say that one will not find people who are saved outside of the Church in extraordinary circumstances, since experience testifies of the contrary. But it is to say that ordinarily, through the Church in its evangelical proclamation God brings salvation to people.
In fact, this is the fourth thing we learn from this text. The Lord Jesus Christ gave this power to an organized institution. And institution that, according to the principles found in the Word of God consists of gathered people in the name of Jesus, with officers (pastors, elders and deacons), and a common confession of faith that unites them under one faith, one baptism and one Lord (Eph. 4:5).
This, then, bring us to the fifth thing we learn form this text: discipline. According to the Lord Jesus Christ in this text, to be outside of this community is to be under discipline! Think for example in what the Apostle Paul says regarding discipline in 1 Cor. 5:4-5: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
The point being that handing someone to Satan means removing someone from the company of the Church. He will not be allowed to come in until he repents of his sins. But until then, he is no longer part of the Church.
This was also envisioned already by the directions of the Lord Jesus: “If he refuses to listen to them, 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.” (Matt. 18:17).
So the last step of discipline involved removing someone from the community of faith. This also was the way it worked in the OT Church. Someone who didn’t repent of his sins would be “cut off” from Israel, that is removed.
As you are able to see, the Church is the place where: we are saved, are nourished, cared for, disciplined and protected. Outside of this institution called Church we don’t find any of that ordinarily.
Having said this, I want to draw one more implication for you: Membership on a local church is very important. It means that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ precisely because we are accountable to that community and that organized institution has recognized us and proclaimed us as heirs of the Kingdom.
The opposite idea is also true, if we do not belong to a local church through membership, we have placed ourselves outside of this community, have declared that we are more than sufficient in ourselves, and we believe that we are wiser than God, while in reality we have proclaimed upon ourselves that we are under discipline, cut off from other members of Christ.
This is a very dreadful idea, isn’t it?… But is consonant with everything that Scriptures have to say. Israel in the OT was the only nation in which one could find the Gospel proclaimed. There was only few scattered instances in the OT in which one would find believers outside of Israel.
If we move to the NT we find the same idea. Paul writes to the churches in Rome, Philippi, Corinth, Thessalonica and so on. We don’t find in the NT the idea that these churches were disconnected from one another or that they were composed of only one person.
All of this to say: to belong to a local church through membership is indeed a biblical mandate, to neglect it has more to do with our rebellion and influences of American individualist culture more than Scriptures. To find oneself belonging to a Church is a great blessing, and the promise of Christ is joined to it, namely, that we will be edified in Him through this institution.
With much love,
Rev. Cristian Garcia,
Da Lucem, Domine!