Some Aspects Of The Church From Its Beginning – What Is Membership Of The Church? - Part 4 Series

SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH FROM ITS BEGINNING – WHAT IS MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH? - PART 4

MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH

The membership of the universal Church is through salvation and baptism, but which baptism? This is not baptismal regeneration; just that baptism followed salvation as water baptism, but it is the baptism of the Spirit that places one in the Church. There are two baptisms in the New Testament churches and they ought to apply today. We will look at both.

[A]. BAPTISM BY IMMERSION AFTER RECEIVING JESUS AS PERSONAL SAVIOUR.

There is not one case of an unbaptised believer in the Acts and a careful reading will see every one of these believers baptised in water after being saved. From all the examples I will select this one case – {{Acts 16:29-34 He called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household,” and they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. He took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, AND IMMEDIATELY HE WAS BAPTISED, he and all his household, and he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.}}

Paul and Silas, beaten and humiliated and thrown in prison, were part of a miracle that broke their chains, and the jailer was deeply overcome. He fell before Paul asking how to be saved. I think that night he was listening to the singing that contained the gospel. The gospel was then shared with the whole household by Paul, and all these pagans were converted.

Now of great interest is to see what followed on then. Firstly, the jailer washed the wounds from all the lashes the men had received from the demonic agitators. THEN, immediately, the jailor’s household was all baptised in water. Next, food was brought to Paul and Silas; everyone rejoiced, and God placed His mark on Philippi.

Baptism (immersion) is of great importance for believers being saved, and it amazes me why the churches today disregard it. Sprinkling babies is NOT biblical baptism. Sprinkling or christening was practised by the Roman Catholic church so they would have the hold over the person all its life. It was sad that this practice was transferred from the Roman church to children in Reformation days, but in the Reformation, the churches did not get back to the practice and truth of believers’ baptism.

I need to add a caveat here. An unbaptised believer is still saved and part of the universal Church, the Body of Christ. I will also say that an unbaptised believer is missing out on the joy and strength that baptism by immersion provides. The fault does not lie with the individual but with the church denomination and the leadership. If every single believer in the New Testament churches was baptised, why is this being rejected by churches for the past few centuries?

THE TIMING OF BAPTISM WAS MOST IMPORTANT AS IT ALWAYS FOLLOWED SALVATION (as part of it, but not the saving part). There was no delay in being baptised, no “baptismal classes” as some Baptist churches like to have; no “probation” time like some Baptist and Brethren like to have to see if the person continues in the faith. That is so wrong. The public declaration of faith in baptism AT THE TIME OF CONVERSION, is the greatest strengthening a newly converted Christian can have.

NOW, WHAT IS THE TEACHING OF BAPTISM AND ITS RELEVANCE TO CHURCH MEMBERSHIP?

Let us look at one important teaching. {{Romans 6:1-7 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it, or do you not know that ALL OF US WHO HAVE BEEN BAPTISED INTO CHRIST JESUS HAVE BEEN BAPTISED INTO HIS DEATH? Therefore we have been BURIED WITH HIM THROUGH BAPTISM INTO DEATH, IN ORDER THAT AS CHRIST WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD THROUGH THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, SO WE TOO MIGHT WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE, for if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin.”}}

There is an important teaching here about baptism. Believers’ baptism shows in a practical way the change brought about by conversion. Baptism is a picture of death, being baptised into Christ's death. Verse 6 throws much more understanding on all this. When a person is baptised he goes under the water matching being buried. The old life in the flesh, that sinful flesh is dead. Then the person is raised up from the water as the picture of resurrection in a newness of life with the Christ nature.