Like the doctrine of the Trinity, which the Bible doesn’t use but that describes what is clearly seen, covenant is everywhere in the Bible and yet there is no explicit verse that says, ‘thou shalt have a church covenant.’ (Much like we believe ‘no sex before marriage’ but there is no verse that uses those exact words, yet we know from a biblical ethic and helpful verses that is God’s plan). Nevertheless, we see covenant everywhere in the Bible, it is the spine or backbone that holds the Bible together—covenantalism. (See my blog here/printed in mailbox).

Covenant means agreement. It is a relational word. A covenant spells out the nature of two parties’ relationship. Covenants are either vertical or horizontal. Covenants have different orders. The highest covenant is between God and men. In the ancient world there were also sovereign-vassal covenants of varying degrees (King to a prince, a prince to a lord, a lord to an elder, etc). Even covenants could be amended or renewed and hence were not always permanent (this was the case with the Mosaic Covenant Ex 34:1-10, though God’s other covenants were binding, e.g. Noah). There were marriage covenants (Mal 2:14, binding) and also business covenants (Genesis 23; 1 Ki 5). There are different degrees or levels of the wider notion of covenant, which can be between God and man, people; some being binding and others not. (Check out the entry for ‘covenant’ in any Bible dictionary for more info).

As the New Covenant people of God, the covenant community is carried forward into the NT. We see its finger prints everywhere. Words and ideas such as Kingdom, unity, the assembly, the household, the fellowship, the body, etc. These are not merely organic as the Church is an institution (Eph 1:22–23) as much as it is an organism (i.e. skeleton and flesh). While the church is universal it is also local. Membership/covenant is the means to delineate who is part of a local church vs. that church or this church or no church. It has a practical as well as a biblical-theological basis. Different statements of faith will express this by describing the church as an entity of those ‘who covenant together’ or who ‘associate together.’  Not until this is done, formally or informally, can a local church be said to be constituted. What is the difference between 5 Christians gathering together and 15 who covenant together to form a church—commitment and form (officers, worship, preaching, ordinances, etc). For Baptists who stress a believer’s church, baptism and membership (rooted in a covenant) are the visible means by which we show who represents Jesus. As God covenants with us, we covenant in our relationships with others.
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Flowing from covenant in the Bible, a church covenant is a voluntary promissory statement between members that is a reminder of expectations and commitments that are reflective of God’s will for the church/believer.

Continuing in our series on our church covenant (find earlier blogs here and our actual covenant here), we press into 1. 3.7:

We also engage to maintain family and secret devotion; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances;

While using older language, this covenant clause emphasizes three commitments:

1. Personal Worship (This used to be called ‘family worship’): Whether we are single, married or a child in a family, we should all take time—ideally daily—to hear from and speak to God in praise and prayer and the reading of Scripture. We should cultivate this as a normative pattern in our lives. We should do it as a family if we are more than one and even if we are part of a family, we should also do it privately.
2. Discipleship of Children: If you have children, then there is a spiritual responsibility to disciple them (Dt 6); to intentionally do spiritual good to them. (Even if they are grown, we can still seek this). If you, or you and your spouse, don’t have children, we can always seek to do spiritual good toward children generally. If you have children, the point here is not to offload this responsibility to others (e.g. a Christian school, the church); however, involved the Christian community should be. The point is that parents have a responsibility to teach their children the faith by instruction and example.  

*As an example of points 1 & 2: every morning I lead my son in reading from a children’s Bible and, at the moment, a Christian biography; every evening after story time, we read a child friendly Christian book and then the Bible. We pray together (petitions) as a family using a ‘prayer jar’ that contains many prayer requests
      3. General Evangelization: Not only should we seek the salvation of our children (or other                   children), but we ought also to fulfil the Great Commission generally. Our entire relational                  network is our mission field. Growing and making disciples should be our bread and butter.
​*A simple example of this is to find small ways to drop biblical truths or speak of God as Gospel opportunities in day-to-day communication and examples. We can of course be more forthright too.

It is right and good to attend public worship and support the evangelistic and discipleship activities of your church. However, this clause encourages us to be consistent in our own lives. When we regularly worship, disciple and evangelize personally, our minds will be fixed on Christ, His will and Word, resulting in personal transformation, humility and readiness to serve Him. 

We’re excited to welcome a woman into membership this coming Lord’s Day. As always, these are opportunities grant us the opportunity to reaffirm our church covenant with each other. This article is also timely as this Lord’s Day morning we’ll handle the subject of tithing from Malachi.

​Continuing in our series on our church covenant (find earlier blogs here and our actual covenant here), we press into 1. 3.6:

To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry as the Lord directs and personal circumstances permit, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations;
 
To be sure, the Lord calls us, His redeemed, in gratitude, to worship and serve Him in our time, treasure and talents. We may not all have as much time, treasure or talents, however, as Christians we all commit to serving Him as personal circumstances permit. There are certain baselines (like the tithe for treasure, Mal 3:10) and sometimes the Lord directs us in more time (full-time ministry, e.g. 1 Ti 5:17) or different giftings (1 Cor 12:11). We may all give of our time, treasure and time in differing proportions, but all give we must. Plenty and want, sickness and heath, may all be limiting factors, however, like the widow who gave all we had (Mk 12:41), we are called to serve the Lord in our time, treasure and talents, aspiring ever more from the basics to serve Him as we can knowing there may be genuine limiting factors.

Why do we do this? For the Lord of course. The Lord calls us to love Him by loving His Church, supporting His people and sustaining her worship, and loving others by loving the lost and loving the poor.[1] We rob God when we are not generous with our time, treasure and talents. We also rob others if we don’t by placing undue weight upon the few. And we mustn’t forget we are more blessed if we give than if we receive (Acts 20:35), for giving is to be like God, and if He is our Father, we shall be like Him (1 Jn 3:9–10).

How are you using your time and treasure and talents here at MBC?


[1] Primarily, I believe that such service should be conducted through local churches, however, it may be done privately as well. 

How wonderful it was last Lord’s Day to welcome a new family into the church through the right hand of fellowship and, likewise, a young lady into the fellowship through baptism. It is a good time to pick back up on our blogs on our church covenant.
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Read pt. I here, pt. II here, and pt. III here. 

​Life can be full (sometimes too full and we need to reevaluate our priorities and use of time). However, it should never be too full for the Lord. One way we express our love for Him is by being lovingly committed to our local church.
 
Now, even in a small church it is difficult, and unnecessary, to attend everything. However, as a church grows this becomes impossible. So how does one express their commitment through membership and in time to the local church? Let’s walk backwards.
 
The cornerstone of the Christian week and life is the Lord’s Day, which we believe is ‘in a unique sense, the appointed day of worship.’ It isn’t that we don’t or can’t worship God the other six days, but this is the day that is His and He has commanded, and indeed is worthy of, our public and corporate worship. It is the day when the whole church gathers. As members we put God first and connect with each other when we gather for our two main weekly gatherings, the morning and evening worship gatherings each Lord’s Day. This, I tell all people, is the starting point. Now sometimes you may have to work early on Monday and can’t come to the evening service, or perhaps you are sick, or away on vacation and so can’t come to the morning service or either, however, the normal expectation is that we’ll be there (and take advantage of online options when we can’t, or visit another church when we’re away). While not commanded by God, our quarterly members’ meetings are similar for it is when the church gathers to discuss important matters for her life and ministry. We should seek to book these in our calendars and plan to attend.
 
Once we’ve put the Lord first in these basics we can engage, ‘as the Lord directs and personal circumstances permit,” in other activities and ministries of the church. We should all have at least one area where we serve as we are able. If there are extra events we should attend and support them as interested (i.e. not everyone loves the science of CMI or getting up early for a men’s breakfast; some ministries are also for specific groups within the church: children, women, seniors, etc), or are able (i.e. some events might conflict with work trips, or a family vacation or another event in our life like a hobby).
 
The premise of this article in our covenant is that we commit to putting the Lord’s Day first and then building outward from there. 

Read pt. I here and pt. II here.

Read Church Covenant here. 

This article is especially difficult for our anti-institutional age where nothing can be trusted, nothing is true and there is no higher authority than self.
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However, Christ is the Head of the Church and has vested Her, and by extension Her leaders, with authority (c.f. Great Commission). However, it is not a self-serving top-down authority but an inverted pyramid. Whereas the Church is not to be an institution that is to be served but to serve (Mk 10:45), so too its leaders aren’t to be served but to serve. Authority is the right to do something. Christ exercises authority on earth through His local bodies or congregations. We represent His holiness, proclaim Him and do all He has called us to do in mission, etc. To help enable this, Christ, through His local body in prayer, appoints men who fulfil biblical qualifications to teach, lead, administer the ordinances, discipline, etc. We are called to respect the Church, as Christ’s representative body on earth, and also Her officers, as representatives of the local body. Insofar as they and the Church follow Scripture, we are to follow their/Her lead, respect what they say, help them, seek their counsel, etc. The Church is God’s gift to mankind and so too are leaders a gift to the Church. Neither are unaccountable either. Churches are accountable to Christ and His Word and other local bodies. Leaders too are accountable to their congregations, even as we follow their biblical example. (This balance is called Elders’ Led Congregationalism, Handbook 13.1[1]). In the Bible respect and submission, rightly understood, are good virtues. To show disregard for Christ’s Church and Her Officers is to disregard Christ Himself, preferring pride to humility.

We also humble ourselves to all that God has said in His Word, not just leadership, but other matters of governance. Our Handbook is meant to be an accessible document that reflects the precepts and principles of Scripture we believe are in Scripture and which binds our community life together (both when we agree with a decision and when we don’t). Just as a skeleton without flesh is lifeless, so too a flesh without bones is useless. The body of Christ has bones (structure) and flesh (Spirit). When we follow God’s way, things go better for us. It is also in those difficult moments, where something is tested, when there is pushback, when there is legal challenge, that we become very grateful for agreed upon processes in our Handbook under which we all agree to love and serve the Lord.


[1] Congregationalism, in its extreme, means the whole congregation must decide on every little detail. This is paralyzing. Presbyterianism (Elders’ led), in its extreme, along with other forms of singular hierarchies, can lead to abuses in leadership (not to mention the body not being involved, only the head). An Elders’ led Congregationalism is a better reflection of what we see in Scripture. Here, Christ is the Head of the body who appoints leaders who lead it, as they engage with the members of the body, and yet which retains responsibility for significant matters.

Read our church covenant here. (Click here to read, Are Church Covenants Biblical?)

What is a church covenant?

A covenant is an agreement that forms the basis of a relationship.

Throughout the Bible covenants are the spine that hold the Scriptures together. Covenant is how God relates to us by His grace.

As believer’s have been brought into a New Covenant (relationship) with God through belief and baptism in Jesus Christ (vertical covenant), so too believers covenant together to form a local church (horizontal covenant). We are the New Covenant community pictured in Acts. A church covenant is a voluntary promissory commitment by which believers unite together in membership to live together, by God’s grace, to fulfill God’s calling upon the local church and our Christian walk.

It is a basic thing, committing to walk in the elementary things of Christ.
It is solemn because to be part of Christ’s church is an awesome thing.
It is joyful because to serve Christ and one another is a wonderful thing.
It differentiates one local church from another local church.
It is counter-cultural as we value community and commitment in an individualist and non-committal world.
It is the structure that creates a place of belonging.

We read our covenant every time a new member(s) joins and also regularly in between such times to remind ourselves of what we commit to in Christ as Christians walking together.

All of this is why our covenant is headed with these words:

"Seeing as God deals with mankind through the New Covenant, we as members of this local church, having professed Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and been baptized by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into His body, solemnly and joyfully covenant together before God, angels and one another as one local body in Christ, with the following promises consistent with the Biblical teaching of a New Testament Gospel church."
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This blog series will explain the different elements of our church covenant block by block. 

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Ex 33:14)
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“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Ps 16:11)
 
It is a wonder we were created to relate to our Creator. We were designed for His presence in our life. His presence means life and light and peace. It is therefore the longing of every human soul that we find rest in the presence of Him who made us. God’s presence, unsurprisingly, is a great theme of the Bible.

Presence in the Garden
The LORD God was present in His garden. He walked in the cool of the day and spoke with Adam & Eve. There was abundant life in the Garden because God was there. This was symbolized in the tree of life.

Presence After the Fall
One curse of the Fall is that the Couple were driven from God’s presence. They would know death and decay. However, there remained small ways for God’s people to experience God’s presence: Remembering His Word, prayer, worship and the visitation of Angels. These were all ways in which God’s presence could be mediated. Occasionally God’s Spirit would come upon an individual for a special purpose. All of this was founded upon faith.

Presence Under the Old Covenant
When God rescued Israel from Egypt He was present with them, leading them by the pillar of cloud and fire. When the Tabernacle was built His glory rested upon the place. This was where God’s people could come to meet with the Lord. Much of the imagery (menorah and artwork of plant life) were reminiscent of the Garden. This was later reflected in the Temple.

Presence in the Incarnation
God’s people longed for God to be present with them. This longing was finally realized when God became flesh and dwelt among us. The Incarnation or Immanuel, “God with us.” Whoever met Jesus was in the very presence of God and had a taste of life (e.g. healings, etc).

Presence in the New Covenant
Jesus had said it was to the disciples’ advantage that He return to Heaven for He would send the Helper (Jn 16). They could only be with Jesus if He were with them. When the Helper came, Jesus would be with His followers 24/7/365 and wherever they went. He would come to dwell in their hearts by faith (Eph 4).

The Temple was no longer needed for God’s New Covenant people as Christ was our temple (Jn 2:19) who is building us into a spiritual temple (2 Pet 2:15). God’s presence goes wherever the Church goes! (This is why the early Christians forsook the physical Temple; believing its destruction as prophesied by Jesus was a judgement for Jewish unbelief).

Presence in the New Heavens and New Earth
As wonderful as the Spirit’s help is, we still pine for Jesus to return and physically be with His people. We await Jesus’ return and the New Heavens and the New Earth (a restored Eden) where Rev 21:3 says,

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Believers will spend eternity with the Lord! Come Lord Jesus, come!

Many themes are traced throughout the book of Acts. There is the Spirit, Word, witness, courage, encouragement and care, perseverance, etc. One commonly overlooked area is God’s sovereignty (i.e. the doctrines of grace or predestination, election and providence, from here on simply ‘election’). This shouldn’t surprise us as Paul, Luke’s travelling companion, wrote a great deal on these doctrines in his epistles. Yet, election and evangelism are often seen as being in contradiction rather than complimentary. Examining this theme in Acts reveals this as untrue. Election undergirds evangelism, recognizing that this doctrine is not the content of our witness.
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Acts, like most New Testament letters, is not written to a general unbelieving audience but a Christian one. Acts is written by Dr. Luke to Theophilus, “to have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Lk 1). We teach election, not preach it. As such, in Acts, the Gospel is always what is proclaimed to unbelievers even while Luke’s narrative is seasoned with election for the teaching of believers.

Election in Acts

• 1:8- Jesus promises that His mission will succeed
• 2:23 & 4:27–28- Christ was predestined to die
• 13:48- “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed”
• 16:7-“the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (the Macedonian call, which meant that some heard the Gospel and the others didn’t)
• 16:14- “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” (effectual call)
• 18:10, 27- “many in this city who are my people” and “those who through grace had believed.”
• 20:24- “the Gospel of the grace of God.”
• 23:11- promise that Paul will go to Rome
• 26:16/Paul’s testimony- chosen to be an apostle to the Gentiles
• 27—God providentially preserved Paul in the storm
• 28:26–27- a citation from Isaiah that “a partial hardening has come upon Israel” (Ro 11:25). Curiously Luke bookends Acts with reminders of God’s sovereignty.

Acts, which is about evangelism, is entirely consistent with election.

We also see this from a simple review of history from recent centuries.

History
The following all upheld election and are all likewise famous examples of evangelism.

• During the Reformation Calvin’s Geneva was at the centre of a European wide missions movement sending missionaries across the continent.
• Puritans were at the forefront of evangelizing England.
• The evangelist George Whitfield was the most prominent figure on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1st Great Awakening/Evangelical Revival.
• William Carey was the “father” of modern missions.
• Charles Spurgeon helped to found hundreds of churches and preached to thousands more making a beeline to Christ in his sermons.
• Ontario Baptists upheld the “election and effectual calling of all God’s people” in 1925 as they zealously supported Western and Francophone missions.
• Martin Lloyd Jones preached Christ crucified—truth on fire—especially cultivating indigenous missions throughout the Empire.
• John Stott advocated Christian mission in the global world, especially amongst students.
• There are many more contemporary examples that could be given.

From Acts and recent history one sees that election and evangelism are compatible.

Specifically, it teaches a humble dependence upon the Lord to fulfil such a Great Commission; it grounds us that we preach grace through faith in Christ; it assures us that our mission or fishing for men isn’t in vain, that some will indeed believe the Gospel (2 Ti 2:10- “I endure everything for the sake of the elect”; Tit 1:1); it produces comfort in affliction; and inspires worship for in the end God alone is glorified.  
 

You can view part one (History of the Land to 1917) here; and part two (History of the Land Since 1917) here.

How Christians approach the land/modern state of Israel today depends on their answer to an number of theological questions:  the way they understand the Bible, their view of salvation history, who the people of God are and their understanding of the future. 

My View
Jesus said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesars and God the things that are God’s.” This is useful to understanding the question of the State of Israel.

Civilly (Caesar)
I sympathize most with the ancient Jewish land claims of the State of Israel, which far outweigh that of the Arab Palestinians; add to this Israel’s international recognition, defensive victories and productive sovereign presence and they have every right to exist, even if imperfectly. It certainly has a right to defend itself, remembering compassionate justice.

Yet the Arabs of Palestine have been there many centuries and likewise have a right to co-exist, either in Israel or over their own state (something that Zionism challenges). They have certainly been impacted by the arrival of Jewish settlers and refugees. However, the Arabs lost the wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973. The Arabs have clearly leveraged refugees against Israel when in all other international examples displaced people are reintegrated. Most Arab Palestinians simply want to live peaceably (and many do so as citizens of Israel). However, 5 times the PLO has turned down peace deals that would have seen them sovereign over Gaza and the West Bank, why? If Israel laid down their arms there are enough people who hate her that she would cease to exist. If the Palestinians laid down their arms (in the sense of terrorism and not police and military forces) then there would be peace. The adage that the conflict is “easy to explain, difficult to solve,” seems very true. One reason why the Jews are hated is theological, they are God’s “chosen” people; but this must be defined.

Religiously (God)
Religiously I do not sympathize with Israel with the exceptions of my Judeo-Christian heritage (Ro 9:5, chs. 9–11) and also my desire that all ethnic Israel may be saved (Ro 11:26). My sympathy stops here because I am a covenantalist (I see continuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant people of God, the elect, c.f. Ro 9–11—the Church is Israel) and an a-millennialist (the millennial Kingdom is today, Christ reigning over His Church on earth by His Spirit—the promises of land have been fulfilled in Christ).

Indeed, God choose to save a people to himself (the elect). He sought to bring salvation by choosing, under the OC, to work through one nation (Israel). Even in the OT Israel was made up of visible and believing Israel, or those elect to service and those elect to salvation. Under the New Covenant, unbelieving Jews remain “elect to service,” but in a much diminished sense, to bring about the salvation of the Gentiles, and even the Jews (Ro 11:11b). The New Covenant community are God’s people, believing Jew and Gentile, in salvation and in predominant service. However, because unbelieving ethnic Jews are still elect to service they are a hated people (anti-semitism). It seems clear that God, in His providence, has been kind to the Jews by allowing them back to their historic lands; a kindness no doubt intended to lead to repentance (Ro 2:4).

We must remember to read the whole Bible through the lens of Christ (Christologically, e.g. the road to Emmaus). The promises of the Promised Land were surely realized in a literal sense under Solomon. Because the promises were contingent on covenant faithfulness the Jews were expelled from the land for their unfaithfulness. It was according to God’s mercy they were even able to return to the land in part under the Persians. The destruction of the Jewish Temple and the expulsion of the Jews from the land under the Romans was a judgement for not accepting the New Covenant of the Messiah. (During the first millennia Christians were disinterested in the land, except for its connection to Christ and the saints). When secular Zionism emerged, Rabbis were quick to point out that the dispersion was God’s judgement and that the Jews would not return to the land, in their view, until the Messiah came. Today Israel is largely a spiritually godless Western nation of atheists and legalists. Even if the Old Covenant had not been fulfilled in Christ, ethnic Jews would have no claim to the land because of their covenant unfaithfulness. How much more so today because they reject the New Covenant.

While Zionism is a powerful and tantalizing drug that even the disciples dappled with (Acts 1:6). Jesus in the Kingdom of God, however, had far more in mind. At the Fall God’s presence in His place (Eden/earth) was lost. Since that point His presence on His place has been expanding. The Promised Land was a type of Eden. Today the Kingdom’s reign through the New Covenant People of God (the Church) is typologically expanding His rule all over the earth, not simply in one place (Israel). In the words of the Reformers Luther and Calvin, the restoration of Israel is a mere “Jewish myth.” When Christ returns His rule over earth will be completed in the New Heavens and New Earth. Perhaps the most we might say of the land of Israel in this is that it is likely Christ will return to the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:11), and so in that sense Israel might feature in future events.

But what of God’s promises to Abraham of the land? It was fulfilled in Christ just like all Old Covenant promises. We must covenantally understand the expansive nature of this promise. Imagine a father promised his son a carriage as a gift for his marriage in 1900. However, when he was married in 1910 he gave him a new automobile. Did the father not give what he had promised? Abraham never lived to see an inheritance in the Promised Land. This was because he was hoping in what the Promised Land signified, the New Heavens and New Earth, God’s reign over all (Heb 11:10). These were partly fulfilled in Solomons day (1 Ki 4:21), today through the Church (Ro 4:13; Mt 5:5) and in the future (Rev 11:15, Rev 21:1). 

Conclusion
Civilly I sympathize with Israel; religiously I also sympathize with Israel, but not in a way many ministries and Christians have paraded on social media since the recent conflict began. It is a modest sympathy. My sincere sympathies lie here:

Existing in both Israel and Palestine are believing Jews and Arabs, members of the New Covenant, Christians. These are our brothers and sisters. These are the ones caught between a worldly power struggle (unbelieving Palestinians and Israelis) that we ought to sympathize the most with, whether it is an Israeli Christian being killed by Hamas rockets or a Palestinian Christian being killed by Israeli missiles. Our great desire for Israelis and Palestinians is that they might join Christ’s Kingdom through repentance and faith and thus be assured of a place in the New Heavens and New Earth.