2. Men who Suffered for the Truth
John Wycliffe
Sunday Evening: 6 PM
Men who Suffered for the Truth

3. Challenging ‘Private Christianity’ Ephesians 2
Church Membership
Challenging ‘Private Christianity’
Ephesians 2

4. Sunday attendance: Members?
Who are the members?

5. Membership filled with unbelievers
Why people attend Sunday services
Tradition
Lack of Persecution
Seeker-sensitive philosophy
This is what we’ve always done

6. Sunday attendance: Members?
Why people attend Sunday services
Tradition
Lack of Persecution
Seeker-sensitive philosophy
This is convenient

7. Sunday attendance: Members?
This is entertaining!
Why people attend Sunday services
Tradition
Lack of Persecution
Seeker-sensitive philosophy

8. Sunday attendance: Members?
Why people attend Sunday services
Tradition
Lack of Persecution
Seeker-sensitive philosophy

9. Resistance to Membership
Individualism
Non-Conformity
Over emphasis on your Personal Relationship with God
Hurt from past members / local churches

10. Distorted Membership
Club-Mentality

11. The Ephesian Context
The believers at Ephesus, Jews and Greeks

12. The Ephesians The believers at Ephesus, Jews and Greeks
Separation, hostility, strangers
Philosophies
Cultures

13. The Ephesians The believers at Ephesus, Jews and Greeks
Separation, hostility, strangers
Philosophies
Cultures
Ephesians 4:1-3 “Make every effort to keep the unity”

14. God knows no such thing as ‘Private Christianity’
Ephesians 2
The Church: One United Body
God knows no such thing as ‘Private Christianity’

15. Ephesians 2 God knows no such thing as ‘Private Christianity’
The Church: One United Body
God knows no such thing as ‘Private Christianity’
Jesus is Our Life, Our Lord, Our Song

16. Ephesians 2:11-22

17. 1. ALL people have access.. were completely separated
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (12)

18. 1. ALL people have access.. were completely separated
now completely united
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Col 3:11)

19. 2. All people in Christ are ONE MAN…
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two (15)

20. 2. All people in Christ are ONE MAN…
Reconciliation with God is inseparable from reconciliation with all other reconciled people

21. 3. God’s Purpose for the ONE BODY
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, (19)

22. 3. God’s Purpose for the ONE BODY
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, (19)
1 Peter 2:5
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood

23. 3. God’s Purpose for the ONE BODY
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, (19)
Romans 11:17
you… have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root

24. Why Membership?
Spiritual Membership insists on Physical Membership

25. Why Membership? Spiritual Membership insists on Physical Membership
God knows no such thing as ‘Private Christianity’
a commitment to other believers
a commitment to all believers

26. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever