I BELIEVE…IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH
I Corinthians 1: 10-17
01/ 15/12 © Dr. Ronald W. Scates
After 32 years of pastoral ministry, I’m convinced of two things: #1—that there are only two religions, only two faith systems in the entire world. One is the gospel of grace which is the Christian faith and then everything else, all of which are pretty much variations on the theme of “works righteousness”. And the 2nd thing I’m convinced of is that there is only one church. Only one church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a church that the Apostles’ Creed refers to as the holy catholic church.
I’m also convinced that as you and I go through this 21sts Century as followers of Jesus Christ, there are two words that we need to reclaim. The first word is the word, “religion.” I’ve always been repelled by that word. I’ve spent most of my ministry talking about how I am not religious; I am a follower of Jesus Christ. But recently I’ve discovered that that word literally just means “connected,” a reminder to you and me that we cannot faithfully follow Jesus alone, by ourselves. We need other Christians; we need to be connected to other believers, thus we need the church. And the 2nd word that you and I need to reclaim is a grand word, the word, “catholic.” Sometimes we knee-jerk against that for a variety of unfounded reasons. That word, “catholic” is a beautiful word. It simply means “worldwide, universal, global.” A reminder to you and me that the one church of Jesus Christ encompasses all races, tribes, tongues, nationalities and denominations.
As we continue our sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed, first of all, an apology about the sermon title: That proposition “in” should not be there. Remember last week, I told you that I don’t believe in Satan. I do believe Satan exists. That preposition “in” implies that we put our faith, our trust, our confidence in something or someone. You and I are only to put our ultimate faith or confidence and in God as He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are not to put our ultimate faith, trust and confidence in the church. We are to believe in the holy catholic church but we are not to believe in her.
Earlier in the service, right during the baptism time, we stood and we said we believe the holy catholic church and that was a statement of ecclesiology, that’s just a fancy word for what you and I believe about the church of Jesus Christ.
Well, what should you and I, what do you and I believe about the church? What do we believe about denominations? What do we believe about Highland Park Presbyterian Church?
Let’s do a little exercise in ecclesiology this morning as we turn in our bibles to the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth and take a look at verses 10 through 17 of chapter 1 of Paul’s letter but I invite you to pray with me before we read.
Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds now to Your Word that we might clearly understand it, that we might gratefully receive it and that we might faithfully apply it to our lives. For Jesus’ sake! Amen.
Now, if you’re able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word this morning, beginning to read at verse 10 of 1st Corinthians, chapter 1. The Apostle Paul writes:
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Please pray with me again. And now Father, as my words are true to Your Word may they be taken to heart but as my words should stray from Your Word, may they be quickly forgotten. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Please be seated.
Occasionally someone will come up to me and say something along the lines of, “Ron, what we really need to do here at Highland Park Presbyterian Church is we need to get back to being like the 1st Century church.” My reply to that is always this, “Ah, I see you’ve never taken me up on my challenge to read through the bible,” because if they had, they would know that the early church, the 1st Century church was no paradigm of virtue. It was no church that was calm and cool and pristine. It was full of fussing and fighting and full of heresy and immorality. The early church, the 1st Century church, we do not want to go back there, my friends. They were fighting over who the church belonged to. They were dividing up into camps. They were lining up behind personalities rather than behind the gospel of grace.
“I’m of Paul!” “I’m of Peter,” that’s Cephas. “I’m of Apollos.” Paul is flabbergasted by this. This is one of these woodshed texts where Paul takes those 1st Century Corinthians Christians out to the woodshed.
He hits them with a question in verse 13. He says, “Is Christ divided?” The answer to that rhetorical question is a resounding “No!” Jesus Christ cannot be divided. And neither can His body, the church. It cannot be divided. That phrase in the Apostles’ Creed: “We believe the holy catholic church,” that’s an ecclesiological statement.
Let’s take a look now at what the Creed says about the church: chiefly that it’s one, that it’s holy and that it’s catholic. My friends, there IS only one church of Jesus Christ. That church transcends all denominations. It includes anyone and everyone around the world who confesses Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior. That includes Pentecostals and Presbyterians. That includes Anglicans and Amish. That includes Roman Catholics and bible church folk. The Scottish word for church, “kirk” comes from the Greek, which literally means those who belong to the Lord. That includes Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox church who preached from this pulpit last February; he and I are brothers in Christ. We belong to the same one church. It includes Monseigneur Don Zimmerman down the street at Christ the King Roman Catholic Church. Don and I are good friends. At the end of the day, we would both agree that he and I are a part of the one church of Jesus Christ.
Denominations are just that! They’re denominations. They are not THE holy catholic church. Any denomination that thinks its’ THE church is a sect, not a denomination.
Let me illustrate this, using the U.S. monetary system. You open your wallet and you pull out three bills, a $1, a $10 and a $20. You’ve got three bills of 3 different denominations. That $10 bill is a particular denomination. It is not the whole U.S. monetary system. If the $20 dollar bill says, “I’m it. $20 bills are the only valid…,” well you get the point.
The Presbyterian church is just one of many denominations. It’s not the holy catholic church; it’s a part of the holy catholic church but it’s not the whole deal and that one church of Jesus Christ is holy. The word “holy” has nothing to do with how good you and I are, in fact, the church of Jesus Christ is a hospital for sinners, my friends; it’s not a rest home for saints. That word, “holy”, literally and simply means, “set apart.” It means that the one church of Jesus Christ has been set apart by God to carry out His purpose, His mission in the world, not ours. That word, “holy” means that Holy Spirit creates the church and He sets it apart and do you know what He set it apart to do? God has chosen the church, set it apart, to be the chief instrument that He has chosen to transform the world, to get the gospel, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace through faith across this entire world to every human being. He’s chosen the church to be the chief instrument, warts and all to do that.
Now sometimes, our fussing and fighting and dividing up in camps and building walls between ourselves and other Christians, that actually gets in the way of God is trying to do. That word, “holy” also is about who the church belongs to. God has set apart, made holy, the church, set apart to be the bride of Christ. She belongs only to Jesus.
Sometimes I’ll overhear somebody say something like, “I go to Ron Scates’ church.” If I hear that, I’ll step in and I’ll go, “It’s not my church, it’s Jesus’ church. I just work for Him.”
Divisions and quarreling in a church usually come about when people forget who the church really belongs to and what the real purpose of the church is and that’s to carry out the mission of God, not our agenda. The mission of God to a very broken and needy world. And the church is catholic and we need to revel in and reclaim that beautiful word. It means worldwide, global, the church of Jesus Christ is just that. It consists, it encompasses, every race, tribe, tongue, every style of worship, ever form of government from bishops down to elders. The catholicity of the church means for you and me that our ultimate allegiance should never be in one local
congregation or one denomination or one para-church group but to THE holy catholic church, the church that transcends the entire globe. That means that I, in my day-to-day life shouldn’t just be concerned or interested in just what’s going on at HPPC but also at West Dallas Community Church, at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, over on McKinney Street, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Nairobi.
You hear me talk often about the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelization. I had the privilege of being a delegate to the 3rd Lausanne Congress in Cape Town back in 2010. I believe God has raised up the Lausanne Movement. I think it’s the healthiest, most global, it’s the catholic church at it’s best, every age, every tribe, every nation, gathered in Cape Town, 5,000 people, united in the person and work of Christ and the Great Commission. And as HPPC moves forward in the future, I think our best thing we can do is to really track with the Lausanne Movement because that will connect us and keep us connected to that one holy catholic church in a very healthy and challenging way.
Well, in our text, Paul brings up baptism, so I guess I will too. When you and I say we believe the holy catholic church that means in baptism we need to be reminded that we baptize adults and infants, not into just HPPC but into the holy catholic church.
Little Ashley who was just baptized a few moments ago, today in her baptism she just picked up somewhere around 2 billion brand-new brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and that’s not to mention the billions of believers who have gone on before her and us into the Church Triumphant.
To believe the holy catholic church means that when you and I are baptized, we confess God as our Father but we embrace the church as our mother. The church is our mother. It’s the church that raises you and me. It’s the church that nurtures you and me. It’s the church that disciples you and me in the faith. You know that old adage, “It takes a village to raise a child,” well; ecclesiologically it takes a church, the holy catholic church to baptize a disciple or believer. And discipling takes many forms.
A woman went to her small group bible study one evening, shell-shocked. When the bible study came to an end, every week with a time of prayer, and so she shared with the group her one loss after another. Her mother had recently died. Her husband had left her for another woman. Her son was in jail for dealing drugs and she’d just that week been laid off from her job. And she said to the group, “I am completely numb. I don’t even know if I believe in God any more. I have no desire to even live one more day.” And that small group bible study gathered around her and they said, “We’re going to walk this journey with you and we’re going to try to do our best to carry as much of your load as we can. And when it comes to your faith in God, if you can’t hold on to Him, we’ll try to hold on to Him for you. We’ll keep your faith for you until that time when you come and you can take it back for yourself. Until then, let our faith carry you.”
My friends, that is the one holy catholic church at her best.
Paul ends our text this morning talking about that the fact that the holy catholic church is one but it has different parts and different functions. He says, “My function was not to baptize. My function was to preach, to come preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he says, “not with eloquent wisdom but the plain gospel of the cross.”
There are preachers that want to impress you with erudite language and flowery talk. There are preachers that get into pulpits and want to entertain you. “It’s not hard for us to figure out what a congregation wants to hear. I’ll just preach that so that everyone will like me.” That kind of preaching, Paul says, empties the cross of its power.
My friends, you and I have no hope in this world and life and death without the cross. And when Christians divide up, “I’m of Paul!” “I’m with Cephas,” “I’m of Apollos,” when Christians quarrel and fight over whose church it is and who the church belongs to and what the mission of the church is, the cross is emptied of its power and the cross sometimes gets misplaced.