The Pattern of Admission in Acts 2

Acts 2:37-47 Biblical View of Church Membership, A

Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Acts 2:37-47, focusing on the pattern of admission into the early church on the Day of Pentecost. He argues that church membership is of vital importance, regulated solely by Christ's authority, and approached with biblical realism. Martin details the message heard and received by the 3,000 converts—God's saving word in Christ, His indicting word concerning their sin, and His commanding word to repentance and separation—and how this was declared through believer's baptism. The sermon applies these principles to contemporary church membership, emphasizing the necessity of understanding the gospel, experiencing its power, and submitting to Christ's ordinances.

2 illustrations in this sermon

The Regulative Authority for Church Membership: Christ's Word Alone

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The Religious Club Mentality

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that the regulative authority for all matters of church membership must be the authoritative word of Christ and His apostles, not human sentiment or tradition. He…

Martin uses the analogy of children starting a club, making their own rules, and excluding outsiders to illustrate how many evangelical churches operate, setting standards based on human tradition rather than Christ's authority.

But when I as an apostle speak to you, in my capacity as an apostle, what I say bristles with and is fully identified with the plenary authority of Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Why do I emphasize that? For the simple reason that many of us have suffered at the hands of the pragmatism, human tradition, and common consensus which has regulated our past experiences with regard to church membership. In recent days as I have had to spend literally hours on my phone and at my dictating machine trying to help pastors who write and call from all over the country and sometimes literally from o...

17:29 - 18:54 Read in full sermon

Implications for Church Membership Today: Knowledge, Application, and Obedience

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Doors Out of Plumb

The point: Pray and labor to ensure that the door of this congregation remains continually plumbed by the word of God, and if it ever gets 'out of plumb,' work to restore it to truth.

He compares the doors of an old house getting 'out of plumb' over time to the tendency of a church's membership standards to drift from biblical truth, urging vigilance and prayer to keep them aligned with God's word.

of the world in the midst of the world in the midst of the world in the midst of the world in the midst of the world. I hope you've been convinced that as the people of the Holy Spirit have been convinced that the Holy Spirit is the only power stiffer than God has, may the door of this congregation of God's people be continually plumbed by the word of God. And with the passing of time, as the doors in old houses have a tendency to get out of plumb, we were reminded that recently some of us, I'm sure, in fixing up the old home in West Orange. Not a door in that place that hangs plumb. With the ...

63:41 - 65:01 Read in full sermon

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