Our
help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Beloved,
grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus
Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Psalm
of praise: 36:2
Prayer
Psalm
34:6
Scripture
reading: Ephesians 5
Scripture
text:
Ephesians 5:25-27; Catechism Lord’s Day 21
And
you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the
church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed
by baptism and God’s word. He did this to present her to
himself as a glorious church without a spot or a wrinkle or any other
blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. (Ephesians
5:25-27 NLT)
We
so often, and without really thinking, talk about the church and what
it is. We read in newspapers and magazines and hear on the radio and TV
about people who change the contents of the Bible and who start new
churches. Can it really be done just like that?
- The church is a very intimate communion between Jesus Christ and the
chosen people.
- It is a love relationship between God and us.
- It is also a sacred relationship between God and us.
- In addition it is a relationship in which the church (the chosen
people) are under the protection of God.
This
is why – in the passage we’ve read – the
Lord compares the relationship between a man and his wife with that of
Jesus and his church.
We
focus on the following two matters:
1. The
essence of the church of the Lord
2. The task of
the church
1.
The essence of the church of the Lord
Let’s
first consider the essence of the church. What is the church?
- First of all we should know is that the church belongs to the Lord.
- The word church means: that which belongs to the Lord, and
- the word congregation means: the chosen.
Remember
what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 16:18. The Lord had a conversation
with Peter after Peter had confessed that Jesus is the Son of the
living God.
- Then Jesus said that He would build his church upon this rock.
- This clearly shows that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.
- We also read in Acts 2:47: And each day the Lord added to their group
those who were being saved.
- In summary: Jesus himself builds his church, and every day He adds
people to his church.
Just think about why the
Lord calls the church his property.
- First of all it definitely is because He is our Creator.
- And another reason is that the Lord brought us back to Him after we had
estranged ourselves from Him.
- This was done through the salvation and propitiation of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
- Christ died and conquered death and made propitiation for the sins of
the church.
- Therefore the reason for us belonging to God is twofold.
From
the above Scripture passages it is clear that the church is an
institution established by God and that God also manages the number of
members of the church. Every day He adds to the church those who have
been saved.
It
is also clear, especially from what is revealed in Acts 2, that the
church is not only a group of people who belong to God,
- they also practise real fellowship with one another.
- Every day they gathered in the temple and at one another’s
houses to pray and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
They
would not have gathered in worship so often had they not known that it
was the will of the Lord. This is why the Lord had this written down!
- With this the Lord emphasises the importance of attending public
worship.
- This reflects the principle of the faithful who are united at all
levels.
- n addition: Belonging to the church also means that you enjoy
– in an invisible (hidden) way the fellowship of the Triune
God. In Colossians 3:2, 3 we read about it.
Let
heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on
earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with
Christ in God. (Colossians 3:2-3 NLT)
In
1 Corinthians 1:9 it says that God invited us into this friendship with
his Son.
- We therefore share in the redemption of Jesus Christ, and in his mercy
for us – therefore also in the guidance and comfort of the
Holy Spirit, because we received the Holy Spirit by virtue of the Jesus
Christ’s se redemptive sacrifice.
2.
The task of the church
Let’s consider
– in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ’s
redemptive sacrifice and salvation – what exactly the church
should do.
- We should bear fruit of faith. This means that everything we do should
reflect our faith.
- Through the redemptive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ we received
forgiveness of our sins: The Lord died to reconcile God with the entire
church so that not a single member of the holy catholic Christian
church will be lost.
- But then our lives should reflect the fact that God has been reconciled
with us!
- We should not be so involved with ourselves and our own interests that
we call ourselves church, while we are actually serving ourselves.
Therefore
the church should continuously:
- pray for forgiveness of their trespasses against the Lord an against
one another;
- reflect on what is right and what is wrong – based on what
the Bible says!
The church should clearly show
that God is at home in it.
- History has taught us that the church has often gone astray in the past
and that reformation was required to get it back onto the right path.
This
brings us to the features of the true church. What should a church do
to really be the body of the Lord and that would prove that its members
are the chosen people whom God called and added to his church?
- Firstly, this church practises the pure preaching of the gospel.
- A church that preaches heresy cannot claim to be the body of the only
true God and that it would be in the presence of this God in the
hereafter.
- In order to practise pure preaching of the gospel the church should
also make sure that its members live a pure life.
- This implies that church discipline should be exercised to bring those
who believe and live contrary to the Word of God to repent, and if they
would not repent to ban them from the church.
- Also, the true church administers the sacraments as Christ instituted
them, because sacraments are also a way in which the gospel is preached.
- When are sacraments administered in a pure way? Only when they are
administered as the Lord instituted them.
- All human additions and inventions or variations are falsification of
the sacraments.
- But administering of sacraments are in essence closely related to
discipline, because the church should make sure that those who do not
believe and act according to the Word of God do not partake in the
sacraments.
- Therefore the third feature of is exercising church discipline.
- The moment this is neglected, the other two features also collapse,
because if a preacher of heresy is not banned from the church, he will
soon influence the other members of the church. Soon he will establish
a group of followers, resulting in degeneration of the congregation.
It
is of no use to know all these wonderful things and confess that the
church belongs to the Lord while our lives do not reflect it.
- We know what the church is, but what about ourselves? Are we the body
of the Lord? Can we prove beyond all reasonable doubt that we are the
body governed by our Head – the Lord Jesus?
We
should be living members of God’s church at all times
– hence: our salvation should be clearly visible in the way
we live and in our fellowship with God and one another.
- Otherwise I/you simply are here, but I/you and my/your faith are dead.
- In that case our membership of the church is no proof of our communion
with God and our salvation through Him.
Let’s
read together Catechism Lord’s Day 21.
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.
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.
56. Q. What
do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
A.
I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no more
remember my sins,[1] nor my sinful nature, against which I have to
struggle all my life,[2] but He will graciously grant me the
righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.[3]
[1]
Ps. 103:3, 4, 10, 12; Mic. 7:18, 19; II Cor. 5:18-21; I John 1:7; 2:2.
[2] Rom. 7:21-25.
[3] John 3:17, 18; 5:24; Rom. 8:1, 2.
Amen.
Closing
prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 22:2, 9
The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 23 October 2005 (evening)