Compass Point Church

Sermon 10 – I Believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of the saints.
This is week 10 in our study of the Apostles' Creed. One of the unique things that begins to happen now in the creed is that up until this point, it has been giving us a picture of who God is. God is triune in nature. It is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one.
Today we take that truth of who God is and look at it as it plays out in our day to day lives as Christians all across the globe.
To help us understand this we will look at Jesus’ words in Mark 12:28-31. So, turn there and before we read that let me say that once we have this vertical understanding established, we next see the creed start to turn to the horizontal implications of that vertical understanding.
I'll start with Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer, who is a prominent theologian. Here's a quote about how our understanding of God begins to affect our understanding of one another. "Because God is three persons in relationship, the only way we can realize the imago Dei in humanity is to form a community of persons in loving relationship. "The church then is the community of God, not only because it has been created by the triune God but because the church shares in the triune community itself."- Kevin Vanhoozer
The imago Dei is that you and I as human beings, as Homo sapiens, have been made in the image of God. Because we have been made in the image of God, we are more valuable than all the rest of the creative order. We know this at a basic level.
ILL. I have three dogs and three kids. If there's a trade, the dogs go. It's not like, "Should it be Emery, Jocelyn, Annaliese? " It's not a wrestle. It's a no-brainer that my three children are far more valuable than my dogs.

Because you and I as human beings have been made in the image of God, God is at work among us in a way that is unique. Vanhoozer argues that the only way we can realize the imago Dei, the only way we can realize the purpose for which we exist in humanity is to form a community of persons in loving relationship. He would define that as the church.
See, the Trinity means that God, in essence, is relational. He exists in relationship. Then it's not a stretch to understand why you and I were created for the glory of his name and right relationship with him and right relationship with one another.
Our God is a relational God, and if we begin to look at what he does, this relational God forms a people.

When God creates a people, that people, according to both the Old and New Testament, are the people who are in right relationship with him. God gives these people names like, God's friends, the sons and daughters of God, priests, God's assembly, the people of God, the bride of God, servants of God, God's flock, and subjects and citizens of God's kingdom. All those titles are put on the people of God throughout the Old Testament.
Then when we move into the New Testament, the big debate in Jesus' day is how do you distill, how do you take all the prophets taught and all the law taught, and how do you boil that down? What is the greatest commandment?
If there's a commandment that sits over and on top of all of the other commandments, what is the thing I have to focus on above all else for the fullness of life, to please God, to live in the richest, fullest life possible horizontally? What is it I must obey? Jesus answers that question here in Mark 12:28-31 (NIV) - One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
We see in another gospel that here is Jesus' argument. You want the key to what God is up to in the universe? God is after establishing right relationship with himself, then between us and him, and then a right relationship with one another that is flowing out of that right relationship with him. So, Jesus is arguing here that the greatest commandment, the one you must be living is that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and you must love your neighbor as yourself.
If you know your Bible, the argument then becomes, "Well, who is my neighbor?" Jesus' answer to that is, "Yes." "Who is my neighbor? Great question! " It’s anyone God puts across your path in life that He directs you to.
The biblical worldview for your life and mine is that we might be in right relationship with God and right relationship with one another. If you're paying attention, this is what your heart is hungry for. This is what you desire. This is what you're trying to get a hold of.
Yet, the modern world we live in wars against us. We're a back-porch people, aren't we? Nobody spends a ton of cash on their front porch. You don't have a fire pit in your front yard. We spend money on our back porch with giant, 9-foot privacy fences, barbed wire, to defend our kids from the dangers of Mechanicsburg and Dillsburg and wherever you live.
We hide. We scarcely know our neighbors. In fact, if we're really honest, we know a ton of people and none of them well.
Yet, the life God has designed for you and me to live in the fullness of what God intended is that we would be right with him and that we would walk deeply with one another. Those two are connected. This is Jesus' argument. "You want to fulfill the law and the prophets? Then love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself, for on these two hinge all of the law and prophets." If you're doing this, you're obeying everything else.

This truth speaks to our statement of the day, "I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints." When this phrase is used, "the holy catholic church," this is not a reference to the Roman Catholic Church, but rather the universality of the church worldwide.

I. Belonging to a Bigger Family Balances our Ecclesiology.
A. It reminds us that the church is continually growing.
We have brothers and sisters all over the world who have no shared language but the language of the gospel, who have no real shared socioeconomic status or race, but you and I belong to a family of faith that goes well beyond what we see here today. All over the world, in different languages and different contexts and different styles, men and women, our brothers and sisters are making much of Jesus Christ, preaching the Word of God, singing to God, breaking the bread of Communion, and enjoying the God of our salvation.
Seeing what God has done at Compass Point has always been fun for me to marvel at, but it's so tiny in comparison to what God's doing globally. Right now, all over the world, people we will not meet until that day we are worshipping and making much of Jesus in heaven, are gathering AND this is an ever-expanding family.
ILL. Parents have conversations about, "How many kids are we going to have? Are we going to have this many kids?" Moms will be like, "Look, I'm done. If I get pregnant again… I'll harm something. I'm just saying we're done." The husband is like, "Yeah, I think that's…" God is like, "We're going to keep going. We're going to keep adopting. We have a whole globe here. Let's just keep getting them." He's saving and adopting and bringing into his own the family. The Bible says, 1 Peter 2:10 (NIV) - Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
it's referencing all Christians everywhere over all time as a part of our family, as a part of something very large that we belong to.

B. It helps us realize we are not alone. (Rev. 7:9-10)
When Pat and I went on a short-term missions trip to Nepal we were so blessed to see the family of God worship there. The same family of God that we belong to. We couldn’t understand anything they said. I preached with a translator. I would encourage anyone to go on a short-term trip outside the US and observe the bigger picture of what God is doing around the globe.
To just sit there and vaguely understand, but to watch the zeal of others burn for our Jesus is really profound. In fact, we get a glimpse of it in Revelation 7.
Revelation 7:9-10 (NIV) 9 After 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. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Grasping this view of the holy catholic church, the church universal, can help us to not be discouraged in our local work. We are called by Jesus to be faithful and whether we are 50 people or 5000 we are still just a small part of the church universal and we only need to do our part in being faithful to God.

C. It reminds us to be humble and not competing with other churches.
This view of the kingdom of God should stifle and stunt any type of arrogant swagger around one’s church home. We are simply a part of the church universal. And this is a fulfillment of the redeeming promise God made, starting in Genesis 3, when God promised there would be a people who would love God as well as those who wouldn’t. Then later in Genesis 12, God promises to make a vast people through Abraham, the old guy with no kids!
Genesis 12:2-3 (NIV)
2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
This vast nation is part of our heritage throughout time! Knowing this we can humble ourselves before God’s amazing plan! Do you think Abraham was thinking, "Oh, yeah, those Pennsylvanians. God is going to rescue those Pennsylvanians one day." Gosh. We weren't anywhere on his radar. He didn't even know we existed, yet here we are by God’s grace. It is humbling!

So, in humility we can stop competing with other churches. I can assure you this. There are thousands of churches who are faithfully preaching the Bible all around us, faithfully proclaiming the gospel. We are to praise these churches and pray for them as they proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Differences in style and methodology are not critical to one’s salvation. Jesus spoke of such differences when He said, John 10:16 (ESV) - And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This passage was referring to Gentiles as opposed to Jews only and was extremely radical. The overall point was that there are some differences that do not result in a need for division. There are, however, some that go beyond simple doctrinal differences and move into false doctrine and even heresy. That is why the Bible warns us to be discerning.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 (ESV)
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

TRANS: So, that's the big, holy catholic church. The second part of the phrase moves on to talk now about our interaction, the communion of the saints. What does it look like, “up close”?

II. The Communion of the Saints is Our Local Church.
It speaks to that spot where we cross paths, where we gather, where we come together, where our lives kind of mingle and marinate. We take on the flavor of one another.
A. We are to belong to a church. (Gal. 6:10, 1Cor. 12:15-23)
Galatians 6:10 (NIV) - Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
We are to be good to all people. It is part of our witness as Followers of Jesus. However, it is especially important to do good to those who belong to a church family! Over the top good to one another!
The Bible speaks about being a part of a church “body”. And in 1 Corinthians 12 it speaks about all the different parts belonging to one-another.
It is God's good design that we would belong to a local church, not that we would go to one. There is a big difference between going and belonging. The example we see in the Bible is one of belonging to a local community of faith. And here is the part too many people fail to grasp. People in that local church will sometimes bother us. In their sinfulness they will be bothering us occasionally, and in our sinfulness we will likely be bothering them. However, we will be sanctified, made more holy, and reflect more clearly the beauty of Christ's gospel as we love one another in the midst of our efforts to look past our failures, our shortcomings. We differ on many things, but we have unity in Christ!
B. We are to belong to “one-another.”
Not just like belonging to BJ’s or Sams club. Church is so much deeper! The Bible gives us a clear sense that we are to speak into each other's lives and hold one another up to what Christ has called us, to affirm in one another the presence of Christ is what we are to be about. But, how do we do that?
In the New Testament, again and again we see these “one another” passages. There are at least 59 "one-anothers."
Love one another. Serve one another. Accept one another. Strengthen one another. Help one another. Encourage one another. Care for one another. Forgive one another. Submit to one another. Commit to one another. Build trust with one another. Be devoted to one another. Be patient with one another. Amen? Be interested in one another. Be accountable to one another. Confess to one another. Live in harmony with one another. Do not pass judgment on one another. Do not slander one another. Instruct one another. Greet one another. Admonish one another. Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Meet with one another. Agree with one another. Be concerned for one another. Be humbled to one another in love. Be compassionate to one another.
How could you possibly be compassionate to anyone when you don't know their story, you don't know their life, you don't know their history, you don't know what they've been through?
To know where people are coming from creates empathy and compassion. If you know someone's background, you're far more apt to have empathy and compassion for them than if you don't know their background. In order to know someone's background, you must actually know them, right? And NOT on just the Facebook level.

Do not anger one another. Do not lie to one another. Do not grumble to one another. Give preference to one another. Be at peace with one another. Be of the same mind to one another. Comfort one another. Be kind to one another. Live in peace with one another. Carry one another's burdens.
Again, these "one anothers" are impossible if you simply go to a church rather than belonging to one, right?
In fact, the very idea of belonging to a church is to operate in these "one anothers" imperfectly but seriously pursuing them. This is the battleground of the "one anothers." Right here in the local church. This is where we're going to commit to work out the "one anothers."
If we are going to be a genuine part of a local church family where we work on the “one-anothers” together as a communion of saints, then we need to be willing to get messy and jump in and really get to know one another. So, How do we do it?

III. How Do We Implement God’s Desire for His Church?
A. We learn to balance our community with quality over quantity.
If you know everyone, you don't know anyone. If you know everyone, you don't know anyone.
The rule of our day because of connectivity is 100 miles wide and a half-inch deep. It's why we can have 100 friends and feel lonely and unknown.
We can have all of these conversations on social media but we don't feel known. Nobody knows our hopes, our fears, our background, our struggle. We've hidden those things because we haven't built trust. This is not the pattern of the life of Christ.

Jesus had the 12. Then he had the three. Then you also see he has this group of 72. Then there were the crowds. Yet, Jesus spends the bulk of his time with 12 and some really intense, heart level, praying, sweat drops of blood with three.
He goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration not with 12 but with three. He's in the garden of Gethsemane pleading with God his Father not with the 12, but with the three. I'm telling you, you will never walk in what God has for you in regard to depth and meaning of relationship if you have 60 friends. Now, have your 60 acquaintances, but truly know what a friend actually is.
Proverbs 18:24 (NIV) - A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Most of your relationships are more acquaintances. If you were to move away, you would probably not keep in touch with most of who you know right now.
Yet God's call on our lives is deep, rich friendships that are rooted and established in how he has called us to himself.
I understand this is hard. There are so many people who it would be awesome to get to know. How do you tell people, "Hey, I'm full. Sorry, my dance card is full. I don't have band width for another good friend." We don’t do that, at least not consciously.
So, how do we do this?

B. Living in community as a church requires life choices.
Perhaps we need to be reminded of our limitations? I'm going to say a sentence, and I want you to say it back to me. Okay? "I cannot do it all. I cannot have it all." I wanted you to say that because you can't do it all, and you can't have it all. Let me explain.
You and I as finite creatures are limited in time and resources. What that means is we're constantly making tradeoffs, constantly. To say yes to this is to say no to this. Sometimes we're saying yes to this even before we know this was an option. Every time you say yes, you are saying no to something else. You have limited hours, limited energy, limited money, limited time, limited relational capacity.
You and I live in a constant state of trading off. " This is true about your life and mine. The question is, will we prioritize, will we create space, will we create buffers in which relationships might actually flourish and grow?
If we don't prioritize and create space, our lives will live us. We will not live them.
My question for you is…Are you prioritizing and creating buffer so you might sow into deep, meaningful relationships? It will not accidentally happen. You're going to have to create space for it. You're going to have to be serious about it.
It doesn't naturally happen in our back porch, high fence communities.

C. The church can provide Biblical counsel.
Where do you go when you need advice? I mean good advice. The Bible says there is wisdom in the counsel of many. Belonging to church means you can get good counsel from your church family.
That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 11:14, "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." Again in Proverbs24:6: "…for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory."
The Christian is open to the counsel of others. Our posture before a holy God and our brothers and sisters should be one of humility where we are earnest to hear wise counsel.
One great place to have direct access to this counsel is in small groups and one on one. You invite others in to help, or the Bible says you are a fool, trusting in yourself alone.

Implications for life:

1. Live like members of the bigger church. – when we see the bigger picture we can’t help but realize we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters around the corner and around the globe! I realize we need to get back to something we did back in the movie theater – praying for other churches more regularly. This brings humility and diminishes competing.
2. Start belonging rather than just attending. – It may be time to get serious about jumping in here? That may mean taking steps toward official membership or it may mean reexamining your membership and going to the next level of being in the communion of the saints. I know life is busy and I know you are nervous about another deeper commitment. It’s easier just to attend church and feel good about that. But I want us all to realize that to fail to do this we are missing out on what church really is meant to be by its creator.
3. Take steps to practice the “one anothers”. – This may mean saying yes to something new and no to something you were doing. It may mean realigning your life to make room for relationships with your brothers and sisters as you belong to this church family. Bible Study, small groups, mentoring?