INTRODUCTION
Christian is a church word. A Christian is a person who wants to follow Jesus. "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37) A Christian is a person who has LIFE in God (II Corinthians 5:17. "If any (one) is in Christ (they) are a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new."
A Christian is also a member of Christ's Body, the Church. (Acts 2:47) " And the Lord added to their number daily such as were being saved." Every Christian in the New Testament after Pentecost was a baptized member of the Body of Christ.
The relationship between the individual Christian and the Church of Jesus Christ is basic and vital. To best understand this relationship it is essential to ask "Just what IS the Church?"
How? Since total objectivity is impossible, I would state where I am coming from in this look at the church. I believe in a Christo-centric study of scripture; that is, reading to find out how to draw closer to Jesus; how to be more like Him; how to get to know Jesus better. My desire to know more about the church is a quest from faith to faith: I believe that we here (in Wollaston) are even now a true church, and part of the one true church of Jesus Christ. This coincides with a growing conviction that ultimately the local church is the basic unit of the Church.
Without apology, our look at the church stems from an honest quest for growth: I believe that we are/are to be a part of a larger whole. This larger church is not limited to our denomination or even to our particular tradition (or that branch of Christendom with which we are most familiar and comfortable); our spiritual pedigree is Wesleyan/Anglican/Reformed/Arminian. But I want to see this church be all it can be!
Wesleyans are not fundamentalists.
Given our Wesleyan viewpoint, still I want to be as honest as I can. And any study of the church fosters controversy over definitions. When we look for an authoritative word, on the church or about any other spiritual term, we probably feel pushed into an either-or battle between the liberals and the fundamentalists, based squarely on the nature of the scriptures. This struggle has monopolized the attention of many theologians and most of the pastor-theologians for more years than we would care to admit.
What neither liberals or fundamentalists would care to admit is that there seems to be a common thread in their approach to the scripture. Both wish to speak with an authoritative voice about what the scripture is or is not, what it says, what its purpose is. In short, both sides seek to have control of the holy writ.
When we talk about God and the holy things it is all too easy to fall into saying very profound and very stupid pronouncements.
Fundamentalists have a reputation for denying obvious scientific facts. Grudgingly and slowly the ultra-conservative religious positions have accepted some new ideas. The human side of the God-human connections have been down-played; i.e., the humanity of Jesus, and the human authorship of the books of the Bible. Sometimes this has been carried into a rejection or downplay of the human part of the God-human relationship we call salvation. God does everything, even to the selection of who shall-shall not be saved. Liberals have a reputation for denying or "scientifically explaining away" the unseen or spiritual realties described in the Bible. The divine side of the God-human connections have been reduced to natural phenomena. Jesus was the highest expression of humanity, but that is all. The Bible is inspired exactly as other great literature is inspired. Prayer and religious exercise are subjectively true and useful if the individual so deems them.
Is there a way to break the hold of this controversy? Can we come to the Bible to seek and find God's mind about the church without either throwing away our living faith in God OR being so closed-minded that we know exactly where we should end up even before we begin?
Wesley's Authority Checks
In a Christo-centric approach to scripture, where shall we look for identification of who the church is, and what the church should be/become? As a Wesleyan, I suggest that we let John Wesley help us define what the church is.
Wesley had four sources of authority.
Above all the other authorities was the scripture as accepted in our Canon, the 66 books of the Bible.
Wesley also looked to what he called tradition; the accumulated wisdom of the centuries of people calling themselves Christian, including the Creeds and the writings of the early fathers.
Wesley also appealed to reason. He understood that the keenest reflections of the wisest persons thinking about God and holy things reason could not penetrate mystery; but he also understood that God's truth would not ultimately contradict itself. God is not capable of lying.
Finally Wesley believed that religious truth should be proved in the crucible of everyday living, by experience.
THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH
Lesson Ephesians 4:4-13
Ephesians 4:13 ". . .until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."
The Orthodox Statements about the Church
To get a fresh look at the church we jump back over the years of liberal-fundamental debate, and look at what the church has said about itself, historically. I would give scriptural and prayerful consideration to these words which perhaps can help us have a better living relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ.
The "Reformation definition" of the church, ascribed to various Reformation figures (Luther, Calvin, even Wesley): The Church is where the Word is preached and the sacraments administered. The verbs are usually modified: faithfully preached, duly administered. Let us pray that here in our "basic unit of the Church" those two basic fundamental components will happen with faithful regularity.
The other definition of the church is one I would like to spend a great deal more time with; the simple statement contained in every orthodox church's beliefs: The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. Theologians call these the "marks" or "notes" of the church. These essential parts of the church have deep and practical impact on the Christian and the local church.
Ephesians, Chapter Four, gives something of an overview of the universally accepted marks of the church. Later we will look at each mark separately. In this first, introductory sermon, just a brief word about each of the four:
THE CHURCH IS ONE
The scripture fragment "until we all reach unity in the faith.." as well as " Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit- just as you are called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in (you) all." from our text chapter are not isolated proof texts, but rather reflect the great concern of the Lord of the Church that His church be united.
The Church of Jesus Christ is ONE CHURCH! This is both a statement of fact and a goal to which we will be striving until Jesus returns. We have to accept this statement by faith when we observe the fragmentation that is so obvious. There is a need for Christians to come together.
THE CHURCH IS HOLY
Here the text challenges Christians to "attaining to the whole measure of the stature of Christ." The church is to be like its Lord.
How can we ever say that the church is HOLY? What does it mean "to be holy?" Is holiness an unattainable goal, or is it the normative way of life for Christians, or is it somehow a combination of the two?
Holiness, for the Church, has all to do with Christlikeness! Doctrines and textbook theology are important as we shall see; but totally, completely, unreservedly belonging to Jesus Christ, and reflecting His spirit and doing His will are ALL-important in this great "mark of the church."
THE CHURCH IS CATHOLIC
"From (Jesus) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (16)
The word "catholic" means world-wide. The church is ONE, it is also for the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! Which simply means that the one church is to be cross-cultural and not only the way WE think it should be!
We exist to build up the church where we worship. The church where we worship exists to support and build up the larger whole of which it is a part. That larger whole may often, perhaps usually, be the denomination or network of similar churches— culturally tied together. But it will inevitably reach across culture barriers, inevitably bring health or weakness to the whole,
No doubt we are all guilty of saying, "So let them come to US! After all WE are the right ones!" In Jerusalem just now, three competing Christian groups hold portions of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, each one sure the other two are in error.
There are many tribes and nations; many different ways of praising the Lord. We may not always be sensitive to each other, but there is a universal LIFE that under-girds the true church wherever it meets.
THE CHURCH IS APOSTOLIC
Again we look at Ephesians (4:x) "until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God"
I will not spend any time on this this morning, except to say that our Word, our Truth, our Scripture is and must be the same that was once delivered to the apostles. Times change, methods change, cultures evolve, but the Gospel of God's love in the Life and Death and Life of Jesus remains forever the same, to all eternity!
The church is US! We hold the plumb-lines of the scripture and the marks of the church against the reality of this church where we worship and prepare and seek to serve our Lord. The abstractions "one" and "holy" and "catholic" and "apostolic" want to leap off the pages of the theological textbooks, and challenge us to fuller, deeper service of our Master. They want to stretch our perceptions, and broaden our horizons, and energize our efforts.
The church is not my church! It isn't yours, either. It is HIS church. We belong to the church because we belong to Him!
When you speak, or even think of His one, holy, catholic, apostolic church, never think "they!" Think "US!"
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Dr. Russell Metcalfe is Pastor Emeritus of the Wollaston Church of the Nazarene.
