Sermon on Lord’s Day 21 Q&A 54 ⤒🔗

54. Q. What do you believe concerning the holy catholic Christian church?
A. I believe that the Son of God,[1] out of the whole human race,[2] from the beginning of the world to its end,[3] gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself, [4] by His Spirit and Word,[5] in the unity of the true faith,[6] a church chosen to everlasting life.[7] And I believe that I am[8] and forever shall remain a living member of it.[9]
[1] John 10:11; Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11-13; Col. 1:18. [2] Gen. 26:4; Rev. 5:9. [3] Is. 59:21; I Cor. 11:26. [4] Ps. 129:1-5; Matt. 16:18; John 10:28-30. [5] Rom. 1:16; 10:14-17; Eph. 5:26. [6] Acts 2:42-47; Eph. 4:1-6. [7] Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:3-14. [8] I John 3:14, 19-21. [9] Ps. 23:6; John 10:27, 28; I Cor. 1:4-9; I Pet. 1:3-5.

Scripture Reading: John 6:35-40; I Thessalonians 1:1-6

Read: Article 27 & 28 Belgic Confession

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 27:2
Psalm 84:1 (Baptism: Hymn 45:1,2)
Psalm 122:1,2
Psalm 87:2,3,4
Hymn 40:1,2

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Our Savior has ascended into heaven, and left us on earth. That doesn’t mean, though, that there is distance between Him and us; "with respect to His divinity, majesty, grace and Spirit He is never absent from us" – we said in Lord’s Day 18. In fact, through His out-poured Spirit our ascended Lord applies to us the gifts He has obtained for us on the cross of Calvary – Lord’s Day 19. In our Apostles’ Creed we mention five of these gifts, viz, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Last week we listened to what work the Holy Spirit does in the people of God; this week, with the first Question & Answer of Lord’s Day 21, we begin considering the gifts the Lord gives us through His Spirit. The first gift we consider is the church.

I summarize the sermon this afternoon with this theme:

Through his Spirit the ascended Christ gathers together the people God gave him

1. The work of Christ.
2. The responsibility of the Christian.

The work of Christ←⤒🔗

The term ‘church’ conjures up particular images in our minds. We think of ‘church’, and our minds go to this building, goes to the congregation that meets here, the preaching, the consistory, the people. That understanding of ‘church’ can in turn lead to positive thoughts, to the degree that we are comfortable with the people in church, comfortable with the work of the office-bearers, etc. Alternatively, that understanding of ‘church’ can lead to negative thoughts, to the degree that we don’t feel comfortable with the people, are not happy with the work of the office-bearers, etc. Positive thoughts about the people and the church can then lead to complacency, while negative thoughts can lead to being discouraged altogether. Notice: both of these perspectives have us busy with people, and that keeps our eyes focused on the wrong place.

As it is, the term ‘church’ has a different loading in the Bible. When the Bible speaks of the church, the Bible thinks immediately of Christ. Christ is pictured as the Head, and the church as His body. We realize well that you cannot separate head from body; to speak of the one is to involve the other. The Bible speaks of the church as the bride, and of Christ as the bridegroom. You can certainly distinguish between bride and bridegroom - the two are not the same!- but to speak of the one is to involve the other. There’s the point: when the Bible speaks of the church, always Christ is involved. That means for us that when we think of ‘church’ we need to think first of all not of people (be it in positive or negative terms), but we’re to think first of all of Jesus Christ. For the church is His work.

Jesus Christ. He ascended into heaven. Yet from heaven Christ does not keep Himself distant from the earth. In His discussions with the Jews He once said –Jn 6- that the Father had given certain persons to the Son (vss 37, 39). In His highpriestly prayer Jesus described these persons as "the men whom You have given Me out of the world" (Jn 17:6). Jesus pictures all mankind as divided into two; on the one hand there’s "the world", and on the other those "whom You have given Me out of the world." Christ’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary was for the benefit and eternal salvation not of all men, but for the benefit and salvation of those whom God has given to Christ; these are the elect, none of whom would be lost (Jn 6:39; 17:12).

What, now, does the ascended Christ do from heaven for these elect-for-whom-He-died? Paul says it in I Thes 1: in the power of the Holy Spirit the gospel of salvation came to the elect of Thessalonica (I Thes 1:5). More, as a result of the working of the Spirit the ascended Christ caused these elect to become followers of the Lord (I Thes 1:6). And so it is around the world, throughout the ages, wherever there are persons whom the Father has given to the Son. So there was the eunuch from Ethiopia; by the urging of the Holy Spirit Philip entered his chariot, found him reading the prophecy of Isaiah, and explained it to him – with as result that the eunuch came to faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 8:26ff). There was Lydia of Thyatira, living in Philippi; by the leading of the Holy Spirit Paul spoke the gospel in Philippi in the hearing of Lydia, and "the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). There was a Frank Dong in studying in China; by the leading of the Holy Spirit the Word of the Lord came to Frank’s ears, and he came to faith.

But does the Lord in heaven now leave these elect-come-to-faith to drift as they would? Does He leave them to exist as isolated individuals in this hostile world, islands to themselves? The answer is No. Rather, in His time and in His manner the ascended Lord gathers together into one body all those in a given community in whom He has worked faith. That gathered-together group is known as Christ’s church.

Here we need to pause for a moment to consider what the church is. In today’s popular understanding, the church is all the people of God anywhere in the world, all those with faith in Jesus Christ. You can’t see this church, for you can’t see who really has faith, and you can’t see all the believers of Perth (let alone of Australia or around the world) in one go, and so the concept ‘church’ has become a vague, indefinable thing; in our minds we attach the word ‘invisible’ to this ‘church’. But that, congregation, is not how the Bible speaks about the church.

We find the word ‘church’ various times in the New Testament, and each time the word translates the Greek word ‘ecclesia’. That Greek word ‘ecclesia’, however, appears more often in the Bible; it’s not always translated with the word ‘church’. That’s because the word ‘ecclesia’ was a common word amongst the pagan Greeks, used simply to describe a gathering, an assembly of people. So I read in Acts 19, for example, about the riot instigated by Demetrius the silversmith. The people had "rushed into the theater with one accord" (vs 29), and that angry crowd packed in the theater is called in vs 32 an ‘ecclesia’ – and this time our translation gives it to us as ‘assembly’. This, now, is the word the Holy Spirit was pleased to use for the result of Christ’s work; the persons in whom He has worked faith are brought together into an ‘ecclesia’, into an ‘assembly’. But when our Bibles translate the word ‘ecclesia’ where the word describe the gathering of the true Christian believers, it does so not with the word ‘assembly’ but with the word ‘church’. That’s OK, as long as we understand that the Greek word remains ‘ecclesia’, and that teaches us what the church is; it is the assembly-gathered-by-Christ, it is the gathering of those Christ brings together – true Christian believers. So Paul wrote a letter not to the individual products of the Spirit’s renewing work in Thessalonica, Christians-who-existed-as-so-many-islands-to-themselves. Rather, he wrote his letter

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1), to the body of believers that comes together at such and such an address.

What, then, is the church? The church is the assembly, is the gathering of the people of God. The church is not the people of God scattered hither and thither across the world, but it’s these persons gathered together in the name of the Lord. As a result of Scriptural data as these, we confess in Article 27 of the Belgic Confession this:

We believe and profess one … Church, which is a holy congregation and assembly of the true Christian believers….

Congregation, assembly: both words give back to us in English what is captured in the Greek word ‘ecclesia’.

This church, this gathering-of-the-people-of-God is the work of the ascended Christ. Let it be fixed in our minds: in heaven on high our ascended Savior does more than intercede for God’s own at the Father’s right hand (Lord’s Day 18), does more than govern the world for the sake of His church (Lord’s Day 19), does more than give us His Spirit to comfort us (Lord’s Day 20); this Savior in heaven labors on earth through His Holy Spirit to gather into one all those whom the Father has given Him. This gathering is His work.

And it’s a work, congregation, that you can see with your own eyes. You need but look around you, need but look at yourself. Where are you? Think: you are sitting in the congregation of the redeemed, in the congregation of those righteous before God through Jesus’ blood. And in this gathering of the righteous the Word of the Lord is now being proclaimed to you. Tell me: is what you are seeing around you simply human work? Is your coming here this afternoon perchance your own doing? Is the proclamation of the works of salvation strictly human activity? No, brothers and sisters, we are ourselves dead in sin and will certainly not proclaim the Word of life or listen to it. Nor, for that matter, will we on own initiative come to the gathering of God’s people to hear that Word, to use the sacraments, to call upon the Lord in prayer or to give Christian offerings for the poor - for the dead do nothing. What you see happening right now is the work of the ascended Christ Himself! He, through means of His choosing, has brought you this afternoon to church – why?- because He loves you enough to work and to strengthen faith in your heart.

It’s a thought, brothers and sisters, that needs to fill us with awe. All around us people are busy on the Lord’s Day doing their own thing. Each one, as long as there is no faith in their hearts, is dashing blindly into hell. But the Lord Jesus Christ takes you from among the thousands who desecrate the Lord’s Day and brings you to church, to the assembly of the redeemed, because here the Lord would strengthen you in faith, and here the Lord would give you a small foretaste of the eternal life He’s prepared for the elect. Marvel, beloved, at the Lord’s church-gathering work laid before you for you to see, and marvel that you are allowed the privilege to be included in His work! Here’s what we confess in Lord’s Day 21: "I believe that I am … a living member" of the church. And if the ascended Christ has worked faith in my heart (for the Lord God has given me to Christ as one of the elect out of the whole human race), then He will not desert me tomorrow – and that gives me confidence to confess that I "forever shall remain a living member of it" too.

The ascended Lord works. Yet He doesn’t work only with me or only with the 300 members of this church of His. Already to Abraham God had said that His seed would be a blessing to "all the nations of the earth" (Gen 22:18; cf Is 49:6). That is: Christ’s work on the cross would benefit not just Jews, but people of every tribe and tongue and nation. That’s why Ps 87 could exalt that persons of Babylon and Philistia and Tyre and Ethiopia would join the Israelites to say that their salvation was in Zion – in the temple with its proclamation through the sacrifices of Jesus’ atoning work. In accordance with such Old Testament prophecy, then, the persons whom the Father gave to Jesus out of the world could not be only Jews; the elect given to Jesus had to include persons from every tribe and tongue and nation (Rev 5:9; 7:9). For God keeps His word.

So it’s no surprise to find that Jesus’ church gathering work is not restricted to God’s Old Testament covenant people alone. I mentioned the eunuch of Ethopia in whose heart the ascended Christ worked faith. I mentioned too Lydia of Thyatira, in whose heart Christ worked faith and joined her to His church in Philippi. I can mention Christ’s work in Kelmscott, where the ascended Savior has joined you and me to His assembly in this place – and we’re not descendants of God’s Old Testament covenant people. We heard last month about South Africa, and the work the Lord is doing there. The handout in the pigeonholes last Sunday about the China Mission Project in Vancouver informed us about the work the ascended Christ is doing through Rev Dong among Chinese people. Before our eyes, brothers and sisters, the ascended Christ is working in agreement with the promises God voiced to Abraham centuries ago; Christ is working here, Christ is working there, Christ is working anywhere on the earth, wherever there are persons whom the Father has given to Him – and we can see places where He is busy. Through His Spirit He’s working faith, and some of those in whom He’s worked faith He is sovereignly, graciously gathering together with other believers of town into His sheepfold.

This, brothers and sisters, is what the catholicity of the church is all about. Sunday by Sunday we confess with the Apostles’ Creed that the church is ‘catholic,’ and with that we certainly do not mean that the church of Christ is somehow connected to the Roman Catholic Church; the church of Rome has no biblical claim to the word ‘catholic’. Rather, with that term we confess that the ascended Christ works here, there, anywhere on the face of the earth to gather His own together; ‘catholic’ means universal. Lord’s Day 21: "I believe that the Son of God, out of the whole human race, … gathers, defends and preserves for Himself … a church…." Or, in the words of Article 27 of the Belgic Confession: "this holy Church is not confined or limited to one particular place or to certain persons, but is spread and dispersed throughout the entire world."

We find the notion of catholicity somewhat hard to grasp. That the church is ‘catholic’ prompts us to picture the church as invisible, to think of that supposed indefinable and borderless body of all the elect of all tribes and tongues and nations. But the catholic church, congregation, is not invisible or hard to define. Rather, by its very definition the church is visible, and this very visible church is spread all over the world. I was in Fremantle a couple of weeks ago, and I saw the ocean. Last January I was in Albany, and I saw the ocean too. A year ago I was in South Africa, and there I also saw the ocean. No, I didn’t see the whole ocean; we all realize very well that the ocean is too big, too spread-over-the-whole-world for us to see in one look. But that doesn’t make the ocean invisible or indefinable and vague; that instead makes the ocean ‘unoverseeable’ – for want of a better term. So too the church. Right now I see the church of Jesus Christ in Kelmscott. After this service I can travel to Byford and see Christ’s assembly-of-the-redeemed there too. I can also travel to Vancouver, to Pusan, to Rotterdam, and so many other places in the world and see the results of the labors of my ascended Savior in those communities. That’s the catholicity of the church.

And here, now, is another remarkable thing, beloved. Despite the fact that the ascended Savior is working anywhere on earth to gather His church, the church He gathers is united, is one, is the same. The Savior does not work a different faith in the hearts of Zulus than He works in the hearts of Europeans. For there is one way to be saved, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). The apostle wrote to the Ephesians that:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all Eph 4:4ff

The Spirit of the ascended Savior works the same faith in one God in the hearts of all those whom the Father has given to Him. So, when we confess the faith Sunday by Sunday with the words of the Apostles’ Creed, we confess faith "with the church of all ages and places" – for all God’s own, by the working of one Spirit sent by one Christ, believe the same thing. But this unity does not mean that the Lord’s church in each culture is identical. If I may come back for a moment to the analogy of the ocean: the ocean off the shores of Fremantle is the same as the ocean around Albany or Cape Town. In each place the water is wet, is salty, can thrash the shoreline violently; we’ve got no trouble identifying that water as ocean, we see its oneness, its sameness. Yet we recognize that there are local variations; the water temperature isn’t the same, and the waves that batter the shoreline differ in intensity and frequency, etc. So too the church. Though spread and dispersed throughout the entire world, the church is one – though there are different ‘temperatures’ and ‘storm patterns’, if you will, from place to place and culture to culture. But the church is ‘one’ nevertheless by the power of faith, for the Lord who works faith and gathers His church is not divided.

How marvelous, beloved, is this work of the Lord around the globe. Yet the Lord tells us that this work is not complete, that it remains an ongoing labor on the Savior’s part. We saw something of that this afternoon. Through baptism Melissa was engrafted into the Christian church (Lord’s Day 27), and that was Christ at work. Similarly, there are more people in town whom the Father has given to the Son than are today members of the church of Christ in this place. In His time the Lord works faith in these elect ones, and at His time the Lord also gathers these people together with the rest of His elect. So, in the course of years, we have seen persons joining the church – Christ at work! And His church gathering work on earth will continue until the day of Christ’s return; not until that day will all the elect be gathered together, will the assembly-of-the-Lord be complete (Rev 7:9; 14:14). Meanwhile, it continues before our eyes, continues around the globe. And that’s exciting!

But that work of the Lord, brothers and sisters, does not pass our responsibilities by. The Lord has created us to bear responsibility, and that responsibility pertains to the Lord’s church gathering work too. That’s our second point this afternoon:

The responsibility of the Christian←⤒🔗

When we spoke last week about the Holy Spirit and His work with Lord’s Day 20, I said that "the Spirit’s work and our work come together, need to be mentioned together, is a co-operation." That is: the believer does what the Spirit of Christ works in him. Well, a concrete application of that point is found in relation to the church. It is Christ who gathers His people together, gathers His church. But God’s people can’t just sit on their hands and wait for Christ through His Spirit to assemble us; it’s for God’s own to gather with Christ. That means specifically that it is for those persons whom the Father has given to the Son, those persons in whom the Son through His Spirit has worked faith, to make it their business to assemble with other believers. Yet the assembly where Christ calls His people is not a place where people need to look at each other, as in: do I like that person, do I agree with all yonder man has done, has that lady always been nice to me, etc. The church can never have people as its focus; the church must have Christ as its focus. The bond that keeps redeemed sinners together is not the bond of blood or the bond of friendship; the bond that keeps redeemed sinners together is their common love for their one Savior. So the place where God’s people congregate must be there where Christ Himself is present. Where that is? There where the voice of the Shepherd is heard. Christ calls His people to Himself, to where He is. And one knows where Christ is in the same way as sheep know where their shepherd is; they hear His voice.

That is why the first mark of the church is the preaching of the gospel. It is the Spirit of the ascended Christ who takes men and causes them to proclaim the gospel. Where this gospel is proclaimed from the pulpits, there Christ is present, there Christ is gathering His redeemed together, and so there the redeemed of God need to gather together.

Does that mean that we must expect perfection in the preaching – be it the audible preaching or the visible, the word or the sacraments? While the norm is that preachers around the world bring the Word of God without error in any way (for it is God’s word), the fact remains that God uses sinful men to proclaim the gospel. Their sinfulness will invariably come out in the preaching. Christ calls His people together not where the preaching is perfect (for that happens nowhere in this life), but where the preaching is faithful, where the good news of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ is proclaimed with integrity. Where that occurs - no matter in which language or among which race of people, or in which culture- where that occurs Jesus Christ the Shepherd is present, and that is where His sheep must congregate.

Similarly, must we expect perfection in church discipline? While the norm is that elders around the world discipline God’s people without error in any way, the fact remains that God uses sinful men to teach and admonish His people. Their sinfulness will invariably come out in the way they exercise church discipline. The point is though whether, despite the shortcomings of the elders, the sheep of the Lord are told in their circumstances what the will of the Lord for them is. Christ calls His people together not where the discipline is perfect (for that happens nowhere in this life), but where discipline is applied faithfully. Where that occurs, be it with so many shortcomings, Jesus Christ the Shepherd is present, and that is where His sheep must congregate. More, where that occurs His sheep are not permitted to depart from that gathering-of-the-redeemed, for that is to work contrary to where and how the Lord is working. That is why we confess together in the Belgic Confession, Article 28,

that no one ought to withdraw from [the assembly of the redeemed], content to be by himself, no matter what his status or standing may be. But all and everyone are obliged to join it and unite with it, maintaining the unity of the church. They must submit themselves to its instruction and discipline, bend their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ….

Yet what do we see in our midst? So often in the last number of years we have seen persons withdraw from the church; we heard it this morning again. Yet that is so wrong, so very wrong. To withdraw from the assembly of the redeemed is to work against Christ. While He is gathering His people together, the person who withdraws is scattering himself from that gathering. Then sure, the person who withdraws will have his reasons. Invariably he’ll see sin, weakness, failures with people in the church or with the office-bearers. And that’s no surprise, simply because the people Christ gathers to the church and the office-bearers He calls to office remain sinners. But what is the Lord’s will in the matter? This, that we have to get our eyes off the people, and onto Christ, and then work along with Christ in His church gathering work. If this assembly-of-believers is His work, no child of God is allowed to withdraw from it – "no matter what his status or standing may be." To work against Christ is always sin, and it requires repentance. As long as one acts contrary to the ordinance of God there can never be a blessing.

You will say: those who have gone out from us join other assemblies of believers in town where Christ is also present and His voice is faithfully heard. Good and well. But again, beloved, what is the will of the Lord in the matter? This: where Christ is gathering His people together in multiple places in one town, these churches need to work together, need to recognize from each other that the Lord has worked one faith in one Savior in these various assemblies. Christ’s church in Kelmscott sees that work of the Lord in Armadale, in Byford, in Mt Nasura. But we do not see that work occurring in Gosnells or in Bull Creek or in Bicton. Hear me well: I do not say that there are no sheep of the Lord in those suburbs, or that churches in these suburbs have no true believers among their members. But when you speak of ‘church’ you speak of Christ – remember?- and that’s the question: is Christ present there, ie, is His voice heard? And the answer to that question may not be made by any single one of us individually. After all, Solomon said that "in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Prov 11:14). .It’s the congregation together, or even the bond of churches, and not you as an individual member, who may decide whether the assembly in the next suburb rightly calls itself a church of Christ, is the church where Christ calls you to be. Here we need to be very wary that we do not adopt for ourselves the individualism that is so rampant in our times.

Through His Holy Spirit the ascended Christ gathers together the persons whom the Father has given to the Son. In His incomprehensible mercy He has taken you and me and brought us together in the assembly of the redeemed in Kelmscott. Very much sin remains in each of us; the Christ who brought us together has not yet perfected us. But the sin that remains may never be cause for anyone to withdraw from Christ’s church in this place; to withdraw is to work against the ascended Christ – and there’s no blessing on that. Instead, it is for each of us to keep directing each other’s attention to Christ, what He is doing in our community and how He wants us to respond in turn.

And the other believers in town? By a mercy as incomprehensible as the mercy with which the Lord has joined us to His church, these believers will one day be drawn also to the assembly of the redeemed – if not in this life, then in the life to come. Meanwhile the duty remains: we and they need to work along with Christ, and so be where He is gathering His church. Amen.