Text: Lord’s Day 21 Q&A 55

55. Q. What do you understand by the communion of saints?
A. First, that believers, all and everyone, as members of Christ have communion with Him and share in all His treasures and gifts.[1] Second, that everyone is duty-bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the benefit and well-being of the other members.[2]
[1] Rom. 8:32; I Cor. 6:17; 12:4-7, 12, 13; I John 1:3. [2] Rom. 12:4-8; I Cor. 12:20-27; 13:1-7; Phil. 2:4-8.

Scripture Reading:
I Corinthians 6:9-11
I Corinthians 12

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 16:1
Psalm 65:2,3
Hymn 38:1,2
Psalm 133:1,2
Psalm 122:1,2,3

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

We learned to our delight last week that our Lord Jesus Christ, though ascended into heaven, remains busy on this earth. Through His Holy Spirit He bestows His heavenly gifts on us His members. His gifts include the church, the gathering together, all around the world, of those whom the Father has given to the Son. And we, we confessed last week, may be among those gathered together through the working of Christ’s Spirit. Exciting!

As it is, the Lord God tells us that the ascended Savior does more on earth than gather His church. For by His sovereign working, the church He gathers on earth in this town and that is characterized by the same love that the Son of God displayed in His self-emptying work on the cross. That love, that self-emptying attitude for the sake of the other, is the communion of saints – another work of the ascended Savior on this earth. It’s about this work of the Lord in our midst that I may speak to you today.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

Christ makes his church into a communion of saints

1. The labor of Christ,
2. The responsibility of the Christian.

The labor of Christ⤒🔗

What work, brothers and sisters, does the ascended Christ do in forming His church into a communion of saints? To get a clear picture of that work, we need first to appreciate what people really are.

After Adam and Eve fell into sin, the Lord God put to Adam this question: "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" (Gen 3:11). Adam’s reply was this: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (vs 12). Here, congregation, is your classic blame shifting; ‘don’t look at me, look at her.’ But what, now, prompts the one to point the finger at the other? Is it not selfishness? That exposes fallen human nature for what it is: selfish to the core.

That selfishness produces other evils. So Cain could be jealous with his brother, and that jealousy could grow into hatred, and that hatred into murder. Lamech could take two wives instead of one, and then boast of killing a lad because that lad had wounded him. It’s all selfishness, self-centeredness, and it’s bitter fruits. See there human nature (cf Rom 3:10ff).

It pleased the Lord God to send His only Son into the world. To this Son the Father gave certain persons from out of the whole human race (we learned last week), and for these persons Jesus Christ laid down His life. After His triumph on the cross Christ ascended into heaven, and now, in the course of church history, He gathers together these persons of every tribe and tongue and nation whom the Father has given to Him. In that church-gathering work of His, He causes the Word of life to go out to those whom the Father has given to Him, yes, He causes that Word to meet with faith in the hearer. Then at His time He gathers together the believers of a given community. So there is a church in Kelmscott, and there is a gathering of believers in Cape Town, and there is one in Unai too – all sinners redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ, now gathered by Christ through His Spirit into one body in that community.

But what kind of persons are these people who Christ has gathered together? By nature they are selfish, by nature they are given to sin, any sort of sin. And when sinners are brought together, and each may live out his selfishness as he wishes, you have a recipe for disaster! For each by nature feeds off the other, each by nature is out to preserve his own skin – of course, at the cost of the other. Here, now, is the work of Christ known as the communion of saints: Jesus Christ changes people so that selfish sinners in fact live together in peace and harmony, even need each other in a positive way.

I draw your attention to the church gathering work of Christ in Corinth. The city of Corinth was notorious for its sexual corruption, was the San Francisco of the times. God the Father, though, had given certain persons of this town to the Son, and so the ascended Christ caused the gospel of Calvary to come to Corinth. That gospel came to what sort of people? Or to put the question in terms of Lord’s Day 21: what sort of people did the Lord Jesus Christ gather together into His church in Corinth? The passage we read from I Cor 6 gives us some indication. For those verses give us a list of what sort of persons cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and then closes with this pronouncement: "And such were some of you" (vs 11). In other words, within the congregation of those gathered by Christ in Corinth were fornicators and idolaters and homosexuals and sodomites and thieves and drunkards and extortioners, etc. As long as one is a fornicator or a homosexual or a thief, what is one doing? This: one is giving in to the passions of the flesh, one is letting oneself be governed by your own selfish drives. As in: I want this and this, and I’m going to taking advantage of you in order to get it. Depraved human nature at its worst…. A group like that together is a definite recipe for disaster, especially for the weaker in their midst.

In Corinth Jesus Christ gathered His church together – including these idolaters and sodomites and thieves and drunkards and extortioners. But see: this gathering of sinners did not blow apart, for the people Christ gathered did not remain idolaters and sodomites and thieves and drunkards and extortioners. Vs 11: "such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." That is: through His Spirit the ascended Christ worked a change in these sinners so that they became what they were not. These sinners were made saints. And ‘saints’, we have to understand, are not sinless people, or very good people; saints are sinners who have been washed by Jesus’ blood and renewed by Jesus’ Spirit. The church Christ gathered in Corinth was "a holy congregation and assembly of the true Christian believers, who expect[ed] their entire salvation in Jesus Christ, [were] washed by His blood, and [were] sanctified and sealed by the Holy Spirit." Saints they were, because of Christ’s work.

Yet that’s not all that Christ did. For these sinners-become-saints, gathered by Christ in Corinth, were not so many individuals in one place – like balls in a net; when you remove the net the balls go every which way because they’re not individually connected to each other. No, the saints Christ gathered into His church in Corinth He also made into a body. I Cor 12: the people Paul addressed in that chapter were the very same people addressed in chap 6, the group that included ex-fornicators, ex-homosexuals, ex-thieves, etc. Of these people Paul said in vs 27, "You are the body of Christ, and members individually." We’ve all got bodies, and we all know so very well that bodies are not just collections of separate parts. A body is a unity, with each member of the body needing to work together with the rest of the body for the well being of the whole body. So too the body of Christ in Corinth. The ex-homosexual and the ex-drunkard and the ex-thief were gathered by Christ into one body not so that they could each might be lame appendages living off the rest of the body as so many parasites – and meanwhile doing nothing for the rest of the body. No, the ex-homosexual and the ex-drunkard and the ex-thief were gathered by Christ into a body, and the point is that each contributed to the well being of the others – for each has an allegiance to the other, each has a commitment to the other, each needs the other. A church is not just a gathering of saints, of so many individuals that have no bond with each other, no commitment to each other, no allegiance to each other. A church is a communion of saints, and that term ‘communion’ says that there’s a bond between each of the members, a bond that compels members to do things for each other.

A classic illustration of the point is given in Acts 2. After the Holy Spirit had been poured out and Peter had delivered His sermon, the crowds responded with repentance. The result is recorded like this: "and that day about three thousand souls were added to them" (vs 41). We may be sure that these three thousand were not all good friends with each other; many were strangers to each other. And we may also be sure that there were various persons here with rather notorious reputations. Yet what do we read? Vs 42: "and they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship…." Fellowship: that’s being together, more, that’s depending on each other, supporting each other; the Greek word is ‘communion’. How amazing! Strangers, persons from any class in society, of decent and not-so-decent reputation - together! That they’re not together in a superficial sense is pointed up by vss 44f; they "had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need." How different, how vastly different from the selfishness of Adam in Paradise, how different from the selfishness characterizing all humans! Where this difference comes from? This, brothers and sisters, is the work of Jesus Christ! For by the powerful working of His Spirit, He makes His people share in Himself, and so reflect too the mindset He Himself has.

What that mindset is? Paul draws it out for the Corinthians in his second letter. For he says in II Cor 8:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich vs 9.

That Christ was rich describes the glory which He had with the Father in heaven from all eternity. But, says Paul, Christ "became poor." That’s Christmas, when the Son of God laid aside His heavenly wealth and was born in a manger, had nothing – and ultimately ended up on the cross. And why? "He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." In other words, Christ did not think of Himself, His own skin, His own comfort; He instead emptied Himself for the benefit of the other. And who is the ‘other’ who becomes rich through Christ’s self-emptying? That’s sinners – including the ex-drunkards and the ex-extortioners and the ex-sodomites of the congregation of Jesus Christ in Corinth!

But these selfish persons are now brought together, assembled by Christ into one body. What happens? This: these persons –by nature selfish- empty themselves for the sake of others! I Cor 12: they are a body! That is: these selfish persons of Corinth have been changed so that instead of leeching off others, using others to satisfy their own urges, they now give of themselves to make the body function together. See there, my brothers and sisters, the marvelous work of the ascended Christ! The communion of saints: it’s His work amongst sinful people!

We can trace Christ’s renewing work further still. Christ made the church of Corinth into a body. In a body the various members need each other so much. See now: Christ also gave gifts so that the persons He grafted into this body could all benefit each other in some way or another! I Cor 12: the one person has the gift to be a foot, another the hand, the third an eye. Vs 4: "there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;" it’s the one Spirit-of-Christ who gives different gifts to different people. But these different gifts –vs 7- are "given to each one for the profit of all." So the one person in the congregation –vs 8- "is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit," and so, if you in your difficult situation need a word of wise guidance it’s brother so-and-so you need to visit – that’s why God gave the brother to the body. To another –vs 8- the same Spirit-of-Christ has given the gift of knowledge; sister so-and-so is a walking encyclopedia and you with your question should feel free to pursue an answer from her – that’s why God gave the sister to the body. To another the Lord has given the gift of faith, to another gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, etc, etc; a variety of gifts according to the needs of the congregation. Christ through His Spirit gives diversities of gifts to the body, so that in the body there’s eyes and ears, legs and a liver, nose and knees and toes also. And what if there was no liver? Or the Lord hadn’t given any eyes? What if there was no gift of wisdom or of faith or of prophecy or of healing in Corinth? Then the body would not be able to function optimally; the whole body would suffer. But here is Christ’s care, Christ’s mercy to His redeemed people: He gives gifts according to the need of the body so that the body of Christ does not lack. That is true, beloved, of Corinth, and it’s true of Kelmscott also. Whatever the body of Christ in a given place needs in order to be a body is granted; Christ gives these gifts here and those gifts there, whatever He in wisdom determines that body needs in order to function as His body. Which, by the way, means that we need not expect to find the same gifts in Kelmscott as the Lord was pleased to give in Corinth. God gives us the gifts we do need, not the gifts we don’t need.

How marvelous, beloved, is the work of the Savior! We tend to look at each other, and ourselves, and see faults, weaknesses. And it’s a fact, the faults and weaknesses are certainly there. But the Lord would have us know, brothers and sisters, that He has supplied sufficient gifts in the midst of His congregation in Kelmscott so that we can be the body Christ wants us to be.

Again, God has not made us all eyes, and it’s just as well; "if the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?" – as Paul says in vs 17. But what happens now? We look at another, and we feel that he’s got more gifts than I’ve got, and so we wish we were like him…, and we become dissatisfied with what we received…. But let it be fixed in your mind, beloved: if Christ has performed a work, He’s performed it well. If Christ has made you a knee in the body of Christ, you have every gift you need to function as the knee in that body. You are not less than another, simply because Christ has not made you an eye! Jesus Christ has given us all separate gifts, and it’s in our uniqueness-as-individuals that we function together as a body.

Once more, since the body is Christ’s work, and He has joined you to His body in this place, then it follows that no member of this congregation should feel that he doesn’t belong. Just because the collarbone has a more behind-the-scenes function than the rest of the body doesn’t mean at all that the collarbone hasn’t a role to play in the body. Which gift you have is not the critical question; important is that Christ has joined you to His body, and therefore you have a gift. And the gift you have is important for the well being of the body; else the Lord would not have given you that gift. Out, then, beloved, with the thought that you’re not good enough, or the thought that you have nothing to contribute, or the thought that you don’t really belong. Don’t compare your gifts to those of others, and then think yourself less; delight instead in the fact that Lord has given you a place and task in the body – and therefore gifts to fulfill that task.

I realize: we look at the communion of saints in Kelmscott and we see so very many imperfections. We see some groups in the congregation, and we see brothers and sisters at enmity with each other. Yet, congregation, to stare at these imperfections is to make ourselves blind to Christ’s work. Human nature is to hate the other, is to be fully selfish and self-seeking; recall Adam’s answer to God, recall Cain’s killing of Abel. What, now, do we see in our midst? Many remaining imperfections, O yes. But we also see so very many fruits of the Christ’s work in our midst! Mutual encouragement does occur, and so does mutual admonitions in the face of sin. Carrying each other’s burdens does occur, and so does warning each other of dangers. Are we so many lonely individuals, like separate balls in a net? Not at all; there is real care, true sharing, genuine love. And that is the Lord’s work in the midst of His congregation in Kelmscott!

Does this mean that Christ’s work is complete in our midst? No, not at all. We very much experience that imperfection remains. And here, beloved, we are not unique; this is instead the way the Lord is pleased to work in this broken world. Concerning the very Corinthians of whom Paul could say in chap 12 that they were one body, he says in chap 1 that they are divided. I quote 1:10:

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.

Paul adds in vs 12 that in Corinth the one said, "I am of Paul," the other, "I am of Apollos," a third, "I am of Cephas," and still another, "I am of Christ". Yet of that group Paul says that they are one body! You see, it doesn’t take a certain standard of perfection to be a communion of saints; it takes Christ-being-at-work to be a communion of saints. And where there is love in Christ for one another, a self-emptying as Christ emptied Himself for sinners, there Christ is at work, there He has formed the individual believers of town into one body, a communion of saints.

Remember: the communion of saints is not first of all something we see or experience; the communion of saints is first of all something we believe. For the Christ who from heaven gathers into one those whom the Father has given Him does not leave these persons-by-nature-dead-in-sin in their depravity; He raises them to a new life so that they love as Christ loved. No, not perfectly; that will not happen until the day that Christ comes back. But changed they already are, and formed into a functioning body too. Our eye is not to be on the imperfections in our selves and in our midst (that would only make one despondent, cynical); our eye is to be on the work that Christ is doing. And His work in the midst of sinners in Kelmscott moves one to thankfulness, to praise.

So we come to our second point:

The responsibility of the Christian←⤒🔗

Here I can be brief. For what, brothers and sisters, is the responsibility of the Christian? Given the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has done, given that He has formed us into a communion of saints, a body, what obligation follows? It’s quite simple, beloved. In deep gratitude for the work our Savior has done and continues to do in us, it is for us to be what the Savior has made us to be. You are a hand, and your neighbor is a nose that itches? Reach out, in compassion scratch the itch, comfort your neighbor in her grief. You are an eye, and your brother is the foot about to trip over the curb? In love tell your brother of the danger that threatens. You have the gift of wisdom, and your sister doesn’t know where to turn in her problems? Go to her, draw her out, and point her in the right direction. In a word: simply recognize the work the Lord is doing in our midst, and work along with Him.  Amen.