The Church
At this point in the Creed, we see a sort of a shift in the content of what we profess: a shift from professing our faith in the essentials of our triune God and how our salvation was accomplished by Jesus; to professing our faith in the essentials of our life in that triune God and how we live out that salvation which we receive from Jesus. From the Trinity of our faith to the lives of the faithful. From the source of that salvation to the results & effects & outworking of that salvation.
And, I don’t know that in the process of the Creed’s formulation that this order was intentional but whether intentional or not, but I think it’s nevertheless instructional:
that the first thing mentioned in terms of our new lives of faith in the triune God, is the Church – that we live out those new lives in God in the new community of God – the church.
I believe in God the Father; I believe in Jesus Christ His Only Son our Lord; I believe in the Holy Spirit; I believe in the Church.
I think if we were re-writing the creed to reflect the functional faith – not the claimed but the real-life-real-attitude-reflective faith of many Christians today, it would sound something like this:
I believe in God the Father; I believe in Jesus; I believe in the Holy Spirit; I believe in the forgiveness of sins; I believe in the resurrection and the life; oh and also the church I guess; if I have the time and don’t have other things going on, and can find a church that at the same time both suits all my preferences perfectly, and doesn’t require anything of me.
The church in the lives of many Christians is an afterthought; in the Creed, it has priority.
And whether or not it was intentional it is instructional, because:
The Church wasn’t an afterthought to God – and so the Church can’t be an afterthought to our lives as believers in our God – no! The church is central & essential to our lives as believers in God.
You can’t get very far reading the NT without seeing the centrality of the church.
To be a Christian person means to be a church person.
To be committed to Christ means to be committed to the body of Christ, the Church.
To love Jesus means to love the bride of Jesus, the Church.
To be committed to Jesus is to be committed to what Jesus is committed to – the church, which he bought with his own blood.
Stott: “I trust that none of my readers is that grotesque anomaly – an un-churched Christian. The NT knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God’s new community.”
God’s ultimate design and intention wasn’t just to save isolated individuals and then to leave them in their isolation, but to gather them into his church – to reconcile them to himself and to one another – to build a new spiritual family; to build a new humanity redeemed in Jesus who exist bound together as the church of Jesus.
Because, the church isn’t our invention – if it was, then it’s just some human social voluntary organization and it isn’t essential and it can be tangential – but the church wasn’t our invention – the church was God’s idea.
And the Church isn’t our church, It’s God’s church;
And so the church is central to our lives as those redeemed by the grace of God.
The Church is what Jesus came to establish, build, strengthen to perseverance.
Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Hear in that, Jesus determination to build his church; Jesus’ determination to strengthen and nurture to perseverance into the day of perfection and eternal rest, his church.
And a lot of people say that they don’t need the institution of the Church – they just want the loving fellowship of the church – they want churchless Christianity.
But in scripture the church is both institution and living organism – it’s both organization and loving fellowship – and those things don’t exclude each other but enhance each other.
During the time of the NT – especially in Paul’s ministry – we see that he didn’t just evangelize – he started churches; and organized them under eldership and instructed them in their corporate life together as churches.
“Don’t go to church; be the church. Yeah we shouldn’t merely go to church apart from living out the realities of what the church believes in our lives; but still need to go to church if you want to be the church because the church is a gathering – a fellowshipping – a sharing – .
1 Cor 11: “When you come together as a church…” – there was something unique about when they gathered as the church that wasn’t the same as them just existing as individual believers.
When you read the NT you can’t help but see the institutional element of the church – leadership – elders, deacons; defined rituals – sacraments; doctrinal standards and terms of admission & membership into it’s communion; covenantal responsibilities & obligations within that communion; discipline; authority & submission;
but at the same time you see the living breathing fellowship of the saints – we’ll look more at this next week, but this is the living and breathing and loving and fellowshipping element of Christians’ life together in the church.
One writer refers to both of these things and how they work together as a trellis and a vine – a trellis without any vine is kind of useless – it’s purpose is to support and direct the life of the vine; but without a trellis can’t grow in the right direction and attain to the strength & maturity it needs.
“To believe in the church is to recognize the need for support structures for faith.” For faith to grow and mature and strengthen and be nurtured as God intends – he does these things through the church.
In Acts 2:47 we read of the early church that “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Stott: In this statement we see God doing two things together. He 1) added to their number 2) those who were being saved. He didn’t do those things separate from one another but in conjunction with one another – “He didn’t add them to the church without saving them; and he didn’t save them without adding them to the church.”
“Salvation and belonging to the church went together. They still do.”
The three tasks of the church is the worship of its God; the nurture of it’s members; and the mission of bringing the task to the church – and if we want to do things things well and rightly – can you really do those things better without the church than with the church? – if we want to contribute to the church’s doing of those things and if we want to benefit from the church’s contributions towards those things – then we need to be part of the church.
Calvin: “for those to whom God is Father, the church may also be Mother.”
WCF: “The visible church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.”
And in the creed, when we say that we believe in the church – certainly that’s not the same as when we confess our faith in the triune God – the church isn’t the object of our faith in that we don’t find our salvation in it; but we hear of our salvation from it and live out our salvation in it and are nurtured in our salvation by it.
We are going to look at four things we see in the profession of faith in the Church:
What the Church is:
- The Church is One
- The Church is Holy
- The Church is Catholic
- The Church is Apostolic
These things aren’t all made explicit in the Apostles’ Creed – actually, you may recognize them because they are made explicit in the Nicene Creed – in which we profess that “we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church;”
Only two of them are made explicit in the Apostles’ Creed, but the other two even though they aren’t explicit are implied – the apostolic nature of the creed is sort of implied by the fact that this is the apostles’ creed in which we are confessing our faith in the church; and likewise the oneness of the church is suggested by the fact that we profess our faith in “The Church”, rather than “many churches”.
We believe in the church – there is only one church.
There may be many different churches and denominations, but so long as those different churches and denominations are genuinely and truly the Church, then there are all part of the one church.
And though they have differences and divisions they ought to realize that what they have in common is far more important than what divides them.
We may be Presbyterians; but we don’t find our identity in that – our identity is that we are Christian – children of God & members of his church together with those who are baptist and anglican and none-of-the-above and whatever else – with whom we share a true, real spiritual unity that persists even with our outward divisions & distinctions.
Division rather than unity, is the norm of the world; and that’s to be expected to some degree. But division, rather than unity, has become the norm of the Church; and that’s a tragedy.
Now I don’t believe that every denominational line or local church division is necessary wrong; in fact, in God’s providence, those outward divisions sometimes help us where, for example, the barriers of language would obstruct us; or where, for example, fighting over differences in secondary matters would be an obstacle and distraction from being able to focus on our mission as the church, whereas denominational organization helps us to avoid that by sort of agreeing to disagree over those things.
But, when we consider how fractured the church is, I think we should all wish there were less of those divisions;
because the truth of this passage in Ephesians 4 is something that the visible reality of the church sometimes obscures: that we – all Christians are one; all true Churches; are one.
That is the invisible unchangeable reality. We are one. That the point of this – v4 – “there is one body and one spirit” – that there can no more be 2 bodies of Christ than there can be 2 Spirits of Christ. “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism” – there can no more be more than 1 Christian faith than there can be more than 1 Jesus.
Stott: “The unity of the church is as indestructible as the unity of God himself.”
People often ask me “what kind of Christianity is your church?” and I know what they mean but the real answer is: ‘the only kind of Christianity”.
And this unity doesn’t mean uniformity – Paul in Ephesians 4 goes on to talk about the God-given diversity of Churches in light of the differing God-given gifts which God gives to bind the church together in mutual dependence for the strengthening of the church. It’s unity in diversity – a unity that incorporates together and exists underneath all other differences that according to the worlds wisdom would divide us but in God’s wisdom ought to bring us together.
And so, there’s something interesting here:
The church is one. There is one body; one faith – as much as there is one Spirit, One Lord, one Father.
The church is one. And so, v3: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
We are one; so make every effort to be one.
What Paul is saying, then, is to live out the unity that we have. To give visible expression to that unity by how we live in God’s one church.
We’re called to have unity even in our differences and diversity.
Aren’t you glad we’re not all same? Aren’t you glad that everyone is not you? or me?
Isn’t it beautiful that God takes the vast differences and diversity of his children and makes then into one church?
Then why are afraid of our differences? Why do we stay away from people who are different from us and view them as suspect instead of being drawn towards the unique way God has made them and equipped them to serve in their unique way in the body of Christ?
We’re called to have unity even in our differences; and we’re called to live at peace even in our difficulties.
It’s not just differences that threaten the visible reflection of the spiritual unity of the church. It’s sin and conflict and pride and bitterness that all threaten the peaceful unity of the church with division.
Difficulties – sin, conflict – they’re going to come; and sometimes we aren’t going to be able to work those things out in this life – we see that in the life of Paul and Barnabas; but of all ppl Christians should make every effort – and realize they have the resources in the gospel – to work those things out and live at peace with one another.
The Church is One;
2. The Church is Holy
Now, if the visible state of the church obscures the fact that it is one; then certainly the visible state of the church sometimes obscures the fact that it is holy.
In fact, many people would not think that “holy” is a desirable characteristic as it brings to mind a “holier than thou” kind of prideful condescending attitude; and certainly many times perhaps, the church has reflected that ugly false kind of holiness.
But true biblical holiness is not that. First, holiness means set apart.
The church is holy because the church is set apart. Set apart from the world; as our passage in 1 Peter puts it – called by God out of darkness into his wonderful light. God’s chosen people; his special possession; the people of God.
In fact, the greek word church’s literal meaning “those who are called out”
the church is those who are called out of the world, to God – to belong to him and to be set apart as his own; for his purpose.
We are called out of the world – set apart from the world; not to remain separate and aloof from then world – but to go right back into that world that we are called out and set apart from to “declare the praises of him who called us.”
If we fail to see our identity as holy – set apart form the world – then we will become like the world, and we will no longer have any distinctive message of hope to offer to the world; but is we see our identity as holy – then we will seek to live as God’s holy people – faithful to him and resisting the temptation to be like the world and live as the world.
We’re called by and to a holy God; and by virtue of that calling we are holy – set apart – as God’s people; and that’s true even when in our lives we are less than holy
second: holiness means righteous and upright – It’s only to be expected that the life of the church and it’s members won’t always be as holy as they ought; because we aren’t called by God because we are holy; but we are called to be holy.
The Church is holy; but at the same time Jesus is making his church holy – that’s what we see in Ephesians 5 – that Jesus love for the church is what’s at the heart of his commitment to the church and it’s holiness.
It’s easy to score points on the church by bashing it and criticizing it; it’s harder to humbly accept that the church only has the flaws that we ourselves bring to it and commit ourselves to the lives of humble repentance and service that can make the church more what it ought to be;
and to realize that Jesus is the only one who has the right to disown the church or give up on it – and he never will. He loves the church, and so he gave himself up for her, to make her holy, to cleanse her by the washing with water through the world, and to present her one day to himself as a radiant church.
Isn’t it great that Jesus sees the church – wrinkles and warts and all – but is still committed to it? Shouldn’t we be, then?
The church is one; the church is holy;
3. The church is catholic
I said earlier that there are 2 specific parts of the apostles’ creed for which I receive the most questions – the first was the phrase about Jesus descending into hell; this is the second.
People are often confused or even distressed as to why especially in a protestant church we would profess to believe in the catholic church.
But, rest assured, that the Roman Catholic church is the proper name for particular branch of the church; but the word catholic, is an older word that simply means universal. wide- & far-reaching
This is similar to the oneness of the church – it flows from that: if there’s only one church, then there’s only one & the same church for all times and places;
but the universality of the church emphasizes that it transcends every barrier to be all-inclusive and ever-relevant. That the reach of the church and the relevance of its message are as wide as the human race and as long as human history.
wherever and whenever the church is found, it is the same universally needed and relevant church; and that wherever it’s message is preached and heard, it is the same universally needed and relevant gospel.
There wasn’t a different church and gospel for the second century than for the 20th century; there isn’t a different church and gospel for the church in china and America.
We don’t believe in christianities for then or there; or gospels for then and there; we believe in a universal Church and gospel message.
A universal church that is bound together as one across time and space – in different times places and cultures but is still one and the same church;
And the gospel message of that church that is valid and relevant across time and space – in different times and places, in every age and every situation.
And so, the task of the church isn’t to innovate or reinvent its’ message, but to preserve it’s message and remain faithful to it – trusting that “it is the same church, throughout the ages and across the world, which seeks to apply the same gospel in any situation it may happen to meet. Catholic is an affirmation of the universal validity and relevance of the gospel.”
And, this reminds us of the task of the church to go to the ends of the earth – because it reminds us that no matter who we encounter; no matter what situation they are in or what their upbringing or class or culture or gender or whatever else – they need the gospel.
Because no matter the difference time or space creates between humanity; they nevertheless share a common humanity; a common human plight that requires the same common divine salvation offered in the universal gospel message of the universal church.
The church is one; the church is holy; the church is catholic;
4. The church is apostolic
This is a reminder that the church can stray from it’s identity and it’s message. And that just because a church claims to be a church; or meets in a church building or appears on the outside to be a church, doesn’t mean it’s a true church – because if it has abandoned the truth of the church then it isn’t a church because the true church is built upon the truth of Jesus – the teaching of the apostles.
Ephesians 2:
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
The true church is devoted to the word of God – the teaching and faith of the prophets of the OT and of the apostles contained in the NT.
And in our Matthew passage, we see that Jesus builds his church on something – on Peter’s confession of the truth about Jesus. Jesus’ church isn’t build on a human person but on the confession of truth about Jesus – such that so long as the church is faithful in that confession of truth it remains the church. And if we try to build on something else we might be building something but it isn’t the church. And if we fail to believe and declare the truth about Jesus, then we can’t call ourselves a church.
Teaching & doctrine – treated as optional at best or harmful at worst – but not optional and certainly not harmful – if we want to be sure that we are building on the right foundation.
When a foundation has been laid, you build on it; you don’t build a different foundation.
Do we think that we are going to create a better foundation than Jesus’ and the Apostles? People try – and what they create ends up being a fad with a short shelf-life – it ends up being built on sand that can’t survive – but the true church can and will survive the test of time and the attacks of the enemy and the persecution of the world – because it is build on eternal truth – God’s truth.