Article 26: The True Nature of the Church.
Over the next three weeks we are going to be unpacking the doctrine of the Church we will be looking at the true nature of the Church ~ The Marks of the Church ~ and the true purpose of the Church. Today we are looking at the Nature of the Church answering such questions as . What is the Church? How do we belong to the Church? Who builds the Church? How Did originate? Where is the Church?
There are many Metaphors for the Church;
• Eph: 3.14 as a family with God as our Father.
• Rev: 21: 2. As a bride with Christ as the Bridegroom.
• 1Cor12: 27 As a Body Eph 1;22—23;4;15-16. Again but with Christ as the head.
• 1Pet: 2.5 As Living stones with Christ as the chief cornerstone.
• 1Pet2; 4-8 A group of priests
• Jhn15; 5 as branches belonging to the vine
• Jhn10: 10 As Sheep that belong to the good Shepherd
These metaphors reveal the richness of Gods Church .
What do you think some of the other metaphors mentioned stir us towards?
• The Church as a bride should motivate us towards greater purity, love and submission to Christ.
• As a family to closer bonds of fellowship.
• As a Body the inter dependence upon one another
• As stones to be built up together correctly with good foundations in Christ.
• As priests together the call to Holy living and acts of service.
• As branches being connected to the true vine , bearing fruit in our lives.
• As Sheep the need to stay close, prone to wander, our Good shepherd cares and leads his Church in paths of Righteousness.
So what is the Church? Often I get the opportunity to ask people are you a Christian? And one of the most common responses is well I go to Church........ As if entering a building somehow makes you a Christian. Of course the answer is no....... I often go into a garage, it doesn’t make me a mechanic or I go into a Bank, it doesn’t make me a banker. These are but buildings, Church is always the people within it not the building
1) The Church is a community of believers from all time
The Church is not a man made institution; it is Gods household (Eph 2;19) 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. The New Testament does not put emphasis upon the building or as the true Church but upon people, who have been truly saved.
How do we belong to the Church? Paul says Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her (Eph5;25) This implies that the true Church is all those who Christ died to redeem, this includes all believers throughout time. With Christ as the Head of that Church~ So great is Gods plan for the Church he has exalted Christ to a position of highest authority for the sake of the Church. (Eph; 1:22-23.) 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
So although people may come and enter into this building and that is our desire, they don’t truly become part of Gods spiritual Church until they have been redeemed by Christ through his atoning death and found in him (Eph.2:21-22) 21In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. So not until an individual truly repents and believes do the belong to the true community called the Church.
• “Some people may well call themselves, Baptists, Anglicans or Methodists, and think they belong to the Church, some people may do endless good works & consider themselves part of the Church, some people might regularly attend or the ordinances of their particular denomination and consider these things as entitling them to be a Christian and belonging to the Church. But the Big Question people need to ask themselves, “Am I part of this new community called the Church. Am I actually in Christ?” This is how we truly become part of the Church~ we might be part of this Baptist assembly here this morning but are we part of Christ’s community. That’s why as a Church we are called to examine ourselves before we enter into the Churches ordinances (communion~ Baptism). They should only be undertaken by those who are redeemed through the blood of Christ.
Whose Church, who builds the Church?
Becoming part of the Church of Christ is His work not ours (Matt16:18) And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church~ (Ekklesia called out ones), and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. Here Christ foresees His Church being built as he calls them out! Which is built on solid foundations (Eph2:20). 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. The important foundations of apostle teachings, Christ chief cornerstone.
Hence Christ builds & it’s His Church
The church does not belong to the pastor or the body of members, it doesn’t even belong to the associations its associated with or trustees the true Church (people) belongs to God, who purchased it with the blood of Jesus. Therefore as a Church we must always seek Him in determining the course of actions the church will take day by day.
b) The Church community of all time ( past, present and future).
The Church in the Past & present.
So is the Church just a new Testament pattern or is the Church of older origins well Jesus Christ Builds the Church by calling his people to himself, but this pattern of calling out his Church is just a continuation of the pattern what had already started by God in the Old Testament.
On many occasions we see God calls His people to assemble and be a worshipping community before Him, it is clear that God thought of his people as a Church ekklesia ~ Greek meaning a called out people. (Ex 35.1. Deut; 4;10, Neh 8:1) .The Word for assembly is related to the Greek word ekklesia, ‘Church’ which Jesus uses here in ( Matt 16:18) and used extensively in the NT. It’s not surprising that the NT believers refereed to OT people of Israel as the Church also. (Acts 7;38).
These OT saints are still examples to us still today of people of faith like Heb;11;4-32 Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets all looked forward by faith to Christ. That’s why the author of the Hebrews continues by saying since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Heb12:1.
So Together with the Saints in the past it is only right we are part of Gods Church.
1Pet;1;10-12 Although we as NT believers have had new privileges and blessing that the OT people did not have, living on the is side of the Death and resurrection of Christ none the less the whole of past and present constitute Gods spiritual assembly or Church.
The Church is also the future
The Church also exists in the future in eternity beyond the realms of our time and space, the Church has an eternal eschatological dimension not only taken from a community of worshipping believers from past & present but made up with those very believers from the past & present translated into the future in eternity!
(Heb2;12) The author to Hebrews tells us that great throng in heaven will be called a congregation of brothers singing praises to God. ( Rev7:9) 9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. The great multitude praising God. This will be the community of believers from all time Past – Present – Future Together with the Lamb in the centre.
Where is the Church?
2) The Church is visible yet invisible
• When I was a kid I used to have a secret agent pen it was a double sided marker pen which wrote in invisible ink but when you turned the marker pen over and mark over where you had previously written the invisible became visible, as with this marvelous marker pen so is the Church both invisible and visible .
a) The invisible Church (definition: the Church as God sees it)
In its true spiritual reality the Church is invisible because none of us can see into a person’s heart. We can see those who outwardly manifest Christian traits like reading the Bible , prayer, tithing, acts of service and personal holiness all these are outward manifestations of an inward change, but we cannot see into their hearts only God can do that with certainty and without error!
And in Him we can completely rest………. 19Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"[a] and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." (2Tim;2;19)
Heb12:23 to the Church of the first born whose names are written in heaven. This is with whom present day Christians worship with. Rev20:12 A Christian again is one whose name is written in the book of life they alone belong to the Church.
Both Martin Luther and J. Calvin affirmed this invisible aspect of the Church over and against the view of the RC Church who argue the only true Church is through the visible organization the Roman Catholic Church could we find the one and only true Church. This is brought about to them through the succession of Bishops after the apostle, which has continued to this days.
• This is a view still held today published in a pastoral statement for Catholics on Biblical fundamentalism in origins 17,no21 (November5th 1987)the RC Church holds this view!
Both Luther and Calvin held the view that these Bishops had departed from the true preaching of the gospel from Scripture, and so their visible organization was no LONGER the true Church. Just like Caiaphas had come from the priesthood line of Aaron yet had departed from the truth of the ministry that God had intended. .
b) The Church is also visible
After all Jesus said, “ where two or three are gathered in my name there I will be in the midst.” (Matt 18:20) The visible Church is not always seen just by the eye, It’s not brought about by any visible denomination or a particular priestly dress, or old Church building, but the visible Church of Christ upon earth includes all those who profess faith in Christ and give evidence and such a person may be found anywhere!
In the building where the Church meets you will have believers and unbeliever and even false prophets: Jesus himself warned us in the parable of the weeds (Matt13: 24-30). Here is a visible picture of the Church with weeds and wheat within it ( Tares ~ Darnel looks like wheat until near harvest time) both allowed to grow together until harvest time, then it will be separated. Then in regard to deceivers in the Church Matt: 7; 15. 15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
• We should not to exclude people from fellowship, we must be kind to all upon confession of faith and outward godly living and participation of the sacraments profess the same Lord and Saviour. On the other hand the Church should not tolerate within its membership public unbelievers and deceivers who by profession of life clearly proclaim themselves to be outside the true Church.
3) The Church is local and universal
Jesus said Matt.18;20 Where two or three come together in my name their I am in the midst. The NT the Church can be described as a group of believers at any level ranging from a small group meeting in a home (house Church Rom:16:5) to a small chapel like this, all the way up to multi sited Church with 1000’s of members. The true Church will always be meeting together and are called not to give up meeting together (Heb10:25): (Luke 4;16) Jesus needed to meet with others in Nazareth, he meet up with his disciples on many occasions . (Acts 2;46) The early Church also meet together.
The Church in an entire city can be called a Church (1Thess1;1)
The Church as a region can be called the Church (Acts 9:31) And finally the Church throughout the entire world constitutes the Church . So we can see at any level local and universal can rightly be called a Church.
• So the true Nature of the Church is that it is an institution established by God and not man, it is a community of believers and not a building who have repented and believed in the redemption that comes through Christ.
• It consists of believers from the past present and future all worshipping the lamb who was slain, this is the true Church .
• The Church is invisible in that God sees and knows those who are truly His and it is visible in that it is made up of all those who profess faith and live a godly life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• And geographically it is local and universal.
As a local church made up of a community of believers we now turn to one of the marks of a true church the ordinance of communion ~ whereby we remember the death of our savior until he returns ~ whom by his blood redeemed a people to himself thereby establishing a community of believers in Christ who constitute His church.
Amen
