The Organisation of the Church
Introduction: When do we call a group of Christians a church? What distinctive marks does it have to have to qualify as a church? At what point would you call a church apostate and say they were once a church but they are a church no longer? What is the bare minimum for having a church? Isn’t a church when 2 or 3 are gathered? Is it a church when: A few friends meet at a coffee shop to discuss the spiritual message in a film like the Matrix? When a family is having its daily devotions? When the...
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Baptism and Membership
Introduction: This is our second sermon in our membership refresher series. We have dealt with the issue of why every believer ought to be a member in a local church. We attempted to show by 7 arguments that the modern notion of membership is very different to our modern opt in understanding of membership. The Bible paints a picture of de facto membership, in other words, it would be odd for us to talk about our membership in the country of New Zealand. If you are born here you are a ‘member’ of the nation. When you are born...
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Partaking in an Unworthy Manner: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Introduction: Paragraph 8 of the Lord’s Supper in the 1689 Baptist confession of faith reads’ “All ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Christ, so are they unworthy of the Lord’s Table and cannot, without great sin against him, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto; yea, whosoever shall receive unworthily, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, eating and drinking judgment to themselves.” It can be dangerous to be in Church sometimes! Not because a rock fall can come down and wipe out the Church...
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1 Corinthians 10:14-22: Communing with Christ
Outline Not a sin offering Not a physical eating Not a mere remembering Introduction People have died for the issue of how Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper. And this is a good thing. It is not good because people are dying but because people are willing to die to uphold biblical truth. Christ commanded His church to remember His death by means of the Lord’s Supper, this is a non-negotiable for His Church. I love to remind us that people died for these truths because we are so lackadaisical. In our politically correct climate we are scared...
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