Origen (church leader in Egypt in 4th century): “Jesus is always being falsely accused… He is silent in the face of this and does not answer with his own voice. But he makes his defense in the lives of his genuine disciples, for their lives cry out the real facts and defeat all false charges.”
I wonder if he would he say the same thing about the church today?
What he’s saying is that the lives of Jesus’ disciples is the most powerful defense of the Christian Faith. And that doesn’t mean that we don’t proclaim the faith or defend the faith through apologetics and evangelism where we answer intellectual doubts; but it means that a life consistent with the gospel message gives that message credibility; and a life inconsistent with the gospel message makes it all the easier for someone to reject it.
The lives of Jesus’ disciples is the most powerful defense of the Christian Faith. Because Jesus didn’t come to establish a dead religion; he came to bring a living faith of new spiritual life & power that results in a new way of life that reflects the radical transformation of the gospel, lived out in a new community of people bound together by the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of God living lives of selfless love for one another and their neighbors.
And in the creed we profess our faith in this reality: “I believe in the fellowship of the saints.”
And this comes right after the affirmation of the holy catholic church church – because it’s telling us what the church is: it’s a fellowship of saints.
- We are Saints
2. We are a Fellowship of Saints
- The church is a fellowship of saints.
I worry that some people in the church make this part of their profession excluding themselves – for two reasons:
- the confusing and incorrect use of the word saints in the history of the church
- simply feeling themselves too un-saintly.
A lot of people think that a saint is a super-holy christian and so the fellowship of the saints is a super-exclusive group of super-holy Christians who in this world have attained to an other-worldly level of holiness and accomplished out-of-this world spiritual feats – of which the rest of us are hopelessly left on the outside – where the struggling Christians aren’t allowed in; where there’s no room for the ordinary Christians; where they receive a special measure of God’s love and favor and acceptance; whereas the rest of us are lucky to admire them but otherwise, second-class citizens.
But that’s not how the NT talks about saints.
Or, some people think that saints refers to only those Christians who are already in heaven. Certainly they are saints. But so are we. And we and them together make up the fellowship of the saints. They are perfected saints; we are persevering saints; they are victorious saints, we are struggling saints; they are saints who have arrived at their eternal rest & home; we are saints who are still on the way there.
But we and they are still saints. “Saint” simply means “holy one” – in fact, because of the misunderstanding and confusion around the word saints, the NIV got rid of it in favor of simply, “holy ones” –
but, listen to who the NT so graciously includes in this category of “saints”:
Romans 1:7 “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people – or, saints.”
1 Corinthians 1:2 “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours.”
2 Corinthians 1:1 “To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia.”
Ephesians 1:1 – “To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”
Philippians 1:1 “to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi”
Colossians 1:2 “to God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.”
These are all addresses in letters written by the apostle Paul to real living on earth Churches. Full of people – real people – sinful people who confess their sins and ask for forgiveness – but nevertheless are God’s people – and Paul addresses all of them – everyone in the church, as “saint”.
There are three ways in which we are saints – we looked at two of these last week when talking about the holiness of the church –
first, we are holy as in set apart. Set apart from the world, to God, our whole lives consecrated to him and to his service and praise; and so to live consciously different from the world and be willing to go against the flow of the world around us when the values and ways of the world go against the values and ways of our God – and to have the courage and conviction thats necessary to do just that.
Where recognize that we belong to him by virtue of creation and redemption; we owe him all we are; and so we gladly give him our lives, our love, our all; where we no longer live for ourselves but for God.
Second, we are holy in terms of our righteous status with God: in our justification we are forgiven all our sins and accepted as righteous in God’s sight, not by any righteousness in us but only for the righteousness of Jesus credited to us by faith. Such that, no matter how unholy we feel; or not matter how unholy we might be in our every-day living and struggling and failing; if we are in Christ, we have been made right with God. We are accepted as God’s beloved children.
And the beauty of the gospel is that we can be assured of the constancy of those realities even in the ups and downs of our Christian life; because our status with God doesn’t depend on how well we happen to be succeeding or how spectacularly we happen to be failing on any particular day. It depends on God’s grace of justification.
This simple truth is so key for the Christian life, because living out of it will change the way you approach God and it will change the way you respond to your failures.
If you are trying to earn God’s love and earn your status as God’s child by your Christian performance or obedience, you will either be puffed up with pride or dragged down in despair. Puffed up with pride on the good day when you think you’ve earned it or dragged down in despair on the bad day when you realize you haven’t.
You won’t be able to engage honestly with your failures and struggles if you think those failures and struggles disqualify you from knowing God’s love; and instead of engaging honestly with them you will cover over them with dishonest hypocrisy;
You won’t be able to persevere in your failures and struggles if you think those failures and struggles disqualify you from knowing God’s love; and instead persevering in them you’ll just give up.
But we are freed to live in the freedom of the gospel where we obey and love God not to earn his love but because we already have it – and there’s a great difference in those two motivations.
Because Christians are saints and sinners at the same time.
Third sense of “holy” – righteous lives – which we don’t have fully yet, but we are being made holy by our holy God.
“The church is a fellowship of forgiven sinners who are in the process of becoming holy.”
Christians aren’t perfect. Christians are forgiven people which means they are sinful people and Christians are commended by our lord Jesus to regularly ask for forgiveness in this life which means that we continue to sin and struggle throughout this life;
but we will be made perfectly holy in thought, heart, deed. That’s our destiny. And though in this life we are sinners and saints; we aren’t eternal sinners but we will be eternal saints – and so though in this life we recognize our dual identity of sinner and saint, saint is our eternal identity and the one that we attach our hope to and the one that in the with the strength of the Spirit we strive towards. We will be eternally saints.
But before we enter into the fellowship of the saints – we need to be clear that we are still sinners; and that everyone else too are still sinners – otherwise (if you don’t realize you are still a sinner) you are going to either do a lot of damage: if you always assume the problem is everyone else and are never willing to examine yourself and admit wrong or confess sin or repent;
a lot of damage; or (if you don’t recognize that others are still sinners) you are going to be in for a rude awakening: fi you assume that everyone will always do everything just right; or assume that no one would ever sin against you or do things you don’t like, you’ll be caught off guard, disappointed, and possibly embittered.
And, just like in human life where our growth into maturity happens in the context of the human family; so in our spiritual life our growth into spiritual maturity happens in our spiritual family – the fellowship of the saints.
- We are saints
- We are a fellowship of saints
The NT never used the word church with a building in mind. Because the church isn’t buildings, it’s people – people living their lives in fellowship with one another.
Acts 2:42 – they devoted themselves to Fellowship.
They were devoted to one another. Fellowship means close association, but more than that, the sharing of live and that flows out of that close association – and as you read this description of the early church – they had everything in common – they shared all they had – the were a family – such that the needs of someone else in that family were “none of my business” but were treated as their own needs;
they loved one another;
outsiders called the early church “the people who love each other”
they loved one another; and that love for one another took shape in how they cared for one another; how they shared with one another; how they bore one another’s burdens; how they showed hospitality to one another; how they were generous to one another; how they sacrificed for one another; how they had joy & gladness in their hearts through their fellowship with one another.
They gave time and money to one another; they had affection for one another; they were familiar with the insides of one another homes. In our Romans 12 passage we see that they served one another with their gifts; they honored one another and lived at peace and in harmony with one another; The joys of others were their joys, and the sorrows of others were their sorrows.
Those things are beautiful. But they don’t come naturally or easily, they are only the result of devotion and commitment and effort.
They put in the hard work of getting out of being absorbed in their own lives and getting into one anothers’ lives.
they were a band of brothers and sisters. And they eagerly, warmly welcomed new people every day – new people that didn’t feel like they were outside the clique but could enter into that fellowship.
the world is looking for this kind of thing.
Nouwen: “Loneliness is without doubt one of the most widespread diseases of our time.”
It’s everywhere and effects everyone – no one is immune to loneliness.
“Out of all this pervading loneliness many cry, “Is there anyone who really cares? Is there anyone who can take away my inner sense of isolation? Is there anyone with whom I can feel at home? It is this paralyzing sense of separation that constitutes the core of much human suffering… When we feel cut off from the human family, we quickly lose heart.”
That was written nearly 40 years ago. But I think it’s more true today – more true today than when we are more connected to people than we’ve ever been but nevertheless often feel at the same time more isolated.
because easy friendship isn’t real friendship. That’s why Acts 2:42 tells us that they were devoted to fellowship – because fellowship doesn’t come easily – but things that are worthwhile are never easy; but in order to benefit from the worthwhileness of them we need to first do the hard work of devoting ourselves to them.
the world is looking for this kind of thing – somewhere to belong; somewhere to call home; somewhere where everyone knows your name; somewhere to take away the sting of loneliness of life. Will the church offer it to them?
Will the church offer the world something that’s different than the friendship that the world offers – where it’s ultimately about what’s in it for me?
Where it’s not superficial fake friendship neither is it an exclusive self-focused clique but it’s deep and real and welcoming.
We all need this. Even before sin entered the world God our maker knew (Genesis 2:17) that it is not good for man to be alone.
Our need for fellowship exists not because we’re sinful and flawed – it is all the more because of those things – because (Hebrews 3) we have hearts that are prone to the deception of sin that leads us astray and so we need the encouragement of one another; but it isn’t there because of those things.
Our need for fellowship exists because we’re human.
Are you a human? Are you a sinful human? then you need the fellowship of the saints.
This fellowship of the saints is the visible expression of our bond as brother and sister in Jesus – this is the living out of that new command of John 13 – which is supposed to be so evident in the fellowship of the saints that it is readily observable & attractive to a watching world.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
This is at the same time the most obvious, basic, straightforward, clear truth regarding the Christian life as it is the most deep, profound, crucial, necessary, challenging, convicting, difficult, radical, life-reorienting, agenda-changing truths regarding the Christian life.
Jesus here deals with something that “is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, yet profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice.”
And that is this: that the Christian life is to be a life of love.
And the “one another” Jesus commands us to love is one another in the church.
In the NT, “one another” is a technical term that refers to the household – the family – of God. One another, is one another in the Church.
Bible & NT affirms that we owe love to all people; but we have a special, heightened obligation to love “one another”.
We love one another as members of the same family. We love the world as neighbors, neighbors who are friends sometimes, neighbors who are enemies sometimes – but neighbors.
And we should all love all our neighbors. But you love your neighbor differently than you love your family. And we love one another as family – as our true, spiritual, eternal family
And that’s why, in John 13-17, not only is love for one another emphasized but also unity with one another. We are 1 people – 1 family of God. And, so, the people you go to church with are the people you will be with for all eternity – and so this side of eternity we have an obligation to live at peace with; live in unity with; not let conflicts and bitterness divide and alienate; we have an obligation to love one another – because we are the family of God.
You may not like the people in your church; I hope you do, but you may not; but just like you don’t pick your family; you don’t pick your brothers and sisters in Christ – but:
Though it’s much harder, there is much more joy in the end in also loving those you wouldn’t easily or naturally love, than in only loving those you would.
v34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another (nothing new yet); just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
The new part, is the “just as I have loved you”.
It speaks of the new standard of love – Christ’s very own love;
and it speaks of the motivation for love – that we have received Christ’s very own love – not just that we’ve observed it from afar but that it’s come into our hearts & lives and so now we can love with his very own love.
And when we love like How do we love one another when we sometimes feel that one another are unlovable?
First, we love the unlovable by remember that they are precious to God.
Acts 20:28 – “Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”
The purchase price on every child of God was the most valuable substance in all the world – the blood of Jesus the son of God. And God made the transaction.
Richard Baxter: “Were they not worth my blood? Then are they not worth your love?”
Second, we love the unlovable by remembering that that’s who we are.
The very same blood that was shed for the redemption of the worst of sinners was shed for you and for me. “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”
And if we remember that God poured his love into our lives not because we were so lovable – we were enemies of God, object of his wrath – he didn’t love us because we were so lovable, but because he is love – and when we remember that we have a new strength to love the unlovable around us that flows out of a deep & genuine humility of our own unlovability.
Rom 12:3 – “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” – that’s the humility that the cross of Jesus teaches us.
Conclusion:
v35, “all people will know that you are Christ’s disciples”
Christians are on display before a watching world.
And, when we live lives of love that provides evidence of the truth of the gospel to a watching world.
And, when we do not love, it discredits the message we speak.
The love we have for one another will be an evidence to a watching world that the gospel is true, that it is powerful to transform us into people who love in a way that is so different that it seems other-worldly – and it is because it is Jesus’ love embodied in the fellowship of the saints.
The Church hasn’t always been a good witness of the truth of the gospel – Christians haven’t always displayed lives of love before a watching world. Let’s pray that Redeemer Church would be, and let’s not just pray, but let’s commit ourselves to loving one another.