"The True Church?"

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church. This week I would like for us to spend our time together by looking at the seventh statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This seventh statement addresses what we believe as a church about the church. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “What is the church? Who can be a part of the church? And what is the church supposed to be doing?" So let’s look at this seventh statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

This week we are going to spend our time together covering the first half of this statement. We will spend the final two weeks of this series addressing the second half of this statement, which refers to the Lord’s Supper, or communion and baptism. As we have talked about throughout this series, to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement, we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this statement mean. So, as we have done throughout this series, I would like for us to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here.

First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase “We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone.” When this statement uses the phrase “true church” this phrase refers to the reality that just because a person attends church, that does not mean that they are a part of the church. And just because a person does not attend a church, that does not means that they are not a part of the church.

Another way that this concept is talked about is referred to as the visible vs. the invisible church. The visible church is comprised of all who claim the name “Christian” and who gather together for worship and participation in the Lord's Supper, or communion, and Baptism.  The visible church contains both believers and non-believers; that is, there are people in the visible church who are not really involved in a genuine and authentic relationship with Jesus as a result of being rescued by Jesus from the selfishness and rebellion that separates them from God.

By contrast, the invisible Church is comprised of those who actually have been rescued by Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus. You see, while we can visibly see everyone who is in church on a Sunday, it is invisible to us who actually has a relationship with Jesus and who does not have a relationship with Jesus. That is what is being referred to by the phrase “the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone.”

Now the word justified is a big fancy 50 cent theological word that simply means to be declared not guilty. How we are declared not guilty of having a problem with God as a result of our selfishness and rebellion against God is by God’s grace, which is the next phrase in this sentence. “God’s grace” refers to God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world to pursue and rescue fallen humanity throughout history through Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

And how we experience God’s grace in our lives is through faith in Christ alone. When we talk about faith, faith refers to placing one’s confident trust in the nature and character of God and His activity in the world that results in one believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

So, putting all these church mumbo talk words together, we believe that the church is made up of individuals who have been declared not guilty and have been rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that separates them from God as a result of responding to what God has done to rescue them from their selfishness and rebellion through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and leader.

While everyone is invited to attend church so that they can hear the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and explore faith, not everyone is a part of the church. To be a part of the church, one must have a personal relationship with Jesus as a result of believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. And as a result of being rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and leader, as followers of Jesus we are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, which is the next phrase in the statement that we are looking at this morning.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “What does that even mean?” As we discovered last week, one of the activities of the Holy Spirit in the lives of followers of Jesus is that the Holy Spirit unites us in Christ and to one another to form the body of Christ the church. This means, that, on a mystical level, when God sees His followers, He see them “in Christ”.

As we talked about a few weeks ago the phrase “in Christ” refers to the reality that when God the Father looks at us as followers of Jesus, He does not simply see us. Instead, He sees us in Christ. Right now, in a mystical and spiritual way, God the Father sees you, in Christ, in Heaven. As followers of Jesus we are part of the church, which is the body of Christ here on earth. But even now, we are mystically and spiritually a part of the body of Christ in Heaven.

Now that leads us to the next little phrase in this sentence, which is “of which He is the head”. In other words, as followers of Jesus, we are a part of the body of Christ, the church, and Jesus is the head of the body of Christ, the church. But what exactly does that mean? In a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Ephesians, we see the Apostle Paul provide to us the answer to this question? So let’s look at this section of this letter and discover the answer together, beginning in Ephesians 1:15:

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might  which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

In this section of this letter to the members of the church at Ephesus, we see the Apostle Paul pray for the members of the church at Ephesus church to be filled with the knowledge of God in spiritual wisdom and revelation. So Paul here is praying that the Holy Spirit would give the members of the church of Ephesus that capacity to understand and live in light of who God really is. Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit would make fully known to the members of the church of Ephesus who God is.

In addition, as part of that prayer, Paul prayed that the members of the church at Ephesus would be able to wrap their minds around God’s inexhaustible power as seen in His Son Jesus Christ whom He raised from the dead and who is seated with Him in the Heavenlies.

Tomorrow, we will see the Apostle Paul reveal the answer to the question….