{"id":3002,"date":"2013-07-29T07:21:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T12:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2013-07-29T11:38:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T16:38:40","slug":"secret-password-please-nt-church-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/?p=3002","title":{"rendered":"“Secret Password, Please.” NT Church.4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Series Intro:\u00a0What is a New Testament church?\u00a0<\/em>It is not a building. It is not a social club. It is not something you “do.”\u00a0\"NT<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Overview<\/a>;\u00a0Part2<\/a>; Part3;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I would suggest that there are certain components which must be part of any assembly which would call itself a biblical \u201cchurch.\u201d\u00a0Without these you cannot have a church:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gospel believing individuals<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Baptized in demonstration of their conversion<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Recognizably covenanting together<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Regularly meeting around God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Under legitimate leadership<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Administering Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Table<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    —————————————————<\/p>\n

    Let’s take a look at the third essential component of a NT local church:\u00a0Recognizably covenanting together<\/span><\/p>\n

    A covenant is an agreement. In this case, it is an agreement between believers in Jesus Christ to fulfill the Lord’s commands and the one another passages of the NT. When I covenant with you and others to be part of a NT church, I am stating that I will love you, protect you, admonish you, pray for you, minister to you, confront you, etc. I am also asking the others to do so for me.<\/p>\n

    Why would we say that there needs to be a recognizable covenant between these baptized believers?<\/em><\/p>\n

    First, because the NT shows this was the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A. In the NT, \u201dDisciples\u201d and \u201cChurch\u201d were interchangeable (1 Cor 1:2,10; 1 Thess 1:1,4; 2 Thess 1:1,3; Phil 1:1; 4:15 Col 4:15,16).\u00a0When Paul addressed a church he was addressing individual believers. When he was addressing believers, he was assuming they were in the church.<\/p>\n

    B. In the NT, The Disciples were part of specific churches (Acts 13:1; 3 John 10; Rev 1:4,11; 2:10,23; etc.).<\/p>\n

    C. In the NT, The elders were responsible for specific churches (Acts 13:1; 14:23; 20:17; 16:4; Jas 5:14; 1 Pet 5:1-3; Phil 1:1 cf. 3:17; 4:9). This demonstrates that the elders had certain individuals over which they had to exercise care. They would have to give an account (Heb 13).<\/p>\n

    D. In the NT, Churches accepted members from other churches (Paul – Acts 9:17-29; 11:25,26; 13:1-3; Barnabas – Acts 4:32, 34-37; 9:27; 11:22-26; 13:1-3; Apollos- Acts 18:27,28; General- 2 Cor 3:1; Rom 16:1,2)<\/p>\n

    Second, without a recognizable line, one cannot restrict access or expel those who Christ has restricted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A. Logically: A boundary clarifies those who are in, and clarifies those who are out. Try kicking someone out of a group that doesn’t exist.You have to have a group to kick them out of it.<\/p>\n

    B. Biblically: The NT demonstrates the existence of a boundary marker Acts 2:44-45; 2:41, 47; 4:4 (Acts 5:1-11); 6:1-2; 11:22, 26; 12:5; 13:1; 14:27; 15:3, 4; Heb 13:17; 1 Cor 5:13<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The church is the Body of Christ made up of those individuals who have been redeemed, baptized, and are now covenanting together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    What other evidences of this would you add?<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Helpful resources:<\/p>\n

    \n
    Anyabwile, Thabiti M. What Is a Healthy Church Member?<\/i> Wheaton: Crossway, 2008.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Leeman, Jonathan. Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus<\/i>. 1st ed. Crossway, 2012.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Harris, Joshua. Why Church Matters: Discovering Your Place in the Family of God<\/i>. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Multnomah Books, 2011.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Series Intro:\u00a0What is a New Testament church?\u00a0It is not a building. It is not a social club. It is not something you “do.”\u00a0 Overview;\u00a0Part2; Part3; I would suggest that there are certain components which must be part of any assembly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-ministry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34kFn-Mq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3034,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}