“I Believe – the Church”

Scripture: Acts 2:42-47; Acts 11:19-30

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

As we continue to reflect on our statement of faith and what it should mean for our lives, and specifically today, in what the church must be for and in us, we need to first consider the significance of three important words in this portion of the creed, and how they apply to the concept of “Church”.

The first word is “holy”. The church is holy in that it is made sacred through the Lord’s creative desire. It is consecrated, it is blessed, it is righteous, because it exists by and through our Almighty God.
Next, the word “catholic”. This is not a reference to the Roman Catholic Church, of course. “Catholic” means that the Church is universal in nature. It is wide ranging and wide reaching. Within our “catholic” church, all are invited, and all are welcome, and no one who comes to her must ever be turned away.
The third word – “apostolic” – comes from the same root word as “apostle”. The church is called to “mission”, as every apostle is. The church is called to live and serve in conformity to the teachings of the apostles in the days of the early church, and is to never change those teachings to suit their own desires.

The church, our creed reminds us, is to be Godly, universally inviting and welcoming, missional, and a faithful assembly of those who love and serve in the way of Jesus Christ.

So how are we to actually live out that charge?

Read Acts 2:42-47

This is what the church should be like – together, not only in presence, but in fellowship, in service and, especially, in faith. The 1st century church spent time learning lessons together, they spent personal time together, they ate meals together, and they served the community around them together. The 21st century church has, seemingly, lost that zeal. Our decline all began with the infusion of secularism into the church’s belief and mission, and it was compounded through the advent of separation and the development of many denominations. Our own Methodist church has suffered those same divisive issues.
In the 19th century, several splits occurred in American Methodism over the issue of slavery and racial inequality. In the early 1800s, the black church broke away to form the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) churches. By the mid-1800s, the southern side of the church broke away to form the Methodist Episcopal Church South (MECS). And while there were other breaks during those years, it was only the southern cousins that were restored to their northern relatives about 100 years later.

And why did these divisions occur? The black churches left because the denomination was reluctant to live out the way of Christ that we read of in Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The northern/southern split was based on the conflict of whether the enslaving of one segment of society by a different and more powerful one was acceptable or not. The truth is that if we are all living and serving in Christ, as well as in the ways he taught, our human differences will never and can never cause any divisiveness in our faith. And yet, it always seems to happen.

The church is to work together, spend time together, study the scriptures and learn together, serve our community and the world together, love each other, praise God together, and be one in Christ - together. This is what Koinonia – Christian community - is all about, and our text today tells us that when we do, “the Lord will add to our numbers daily those who are saved”.

But do we?

Read Acts 11:19-21

Luke moves to the need and blessing that comes from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the world, or in other words, to become involved in evangelism. During the earliest days of the church, it was believed that Jesus Messiah had come for Israel, and only Israel, and that others were unworthy to become part of his ministry and life. But some understood that the Lord had come for all, and not just a select few, and that sharing in his teaching could not – MUST not – be restricted to just one segment of humanity. And again, the Lord blessed their efforts by rewarding them through the phenomenal growth of believers.

Of course, this huge change in direction carried with it a comparable risk. The establishment – the Jerusalem Council – wasn’t very supportive at first. Change is seldom a comfortable situation to find yourself in. It usually brings with it uncertainty, a major adjustment in your way of thinking, new people who you may not be comfortable with, new leaders who need to be trained, training that needs to address the new situations, and so on. Change is not only difficult to implement, it involves a fairly significant chance of failure!

But the one thing that those “rebel” evangelists had going for them is that they were stepping out in the will and way of Christ. And that always guarantees success. Even though they may have been fairly new to sharing Christ with the Gentile community, the Holy Spirit will always pick up the slack. Many of you have heard me use the term “the ministry of showing up”! The Lord seldom prepares us, or even expects us, to know all that is necessary in mission and ministry. He doesn’t need us to plan and prepare for all that is required in sharing his word with new people – he only needs us to do what we are asked to do, and sometimes that is simply “showing up” to allow the Spirit to work through us.

Most of us have participated in some form of team activity. Maybe on a sports team, in scouting, in Vacation Bible School, in military or government service, or in many other types of team work. In each instance, none of us needs to be able to do everything that the effort requires – we only need to do what our individual call requires. And so it is with the church. And the truth is that when we do try to do it all, we steal the opportunity for others to participate and serve, and that will never work to grow and improve the team – whether in sports, or military, or church – and it will not please the Lord. And in our ministry and missional work, the Holy Spirit is a vital part of the team – leading, and teaching, and coordinating, and working with and through us, and to exclude him, or even limit him, is a guarantee of failure. And that is never a good thing!

Read Acts 11:22-24

The Council was concerned about this new approach in ministry, so they sent Barnabas to investigate. In all likelihood, they weren’t happy about this new direction that began outside of their influence, and their emissary would have been charged with verifying that the teaching was faithful, that it was being offered in a Christ-like way, that it was bearing “good fruit” and if anything was amiss, he was to bring their efforts to a screeching halt. The Council, obviously, didn’t know that this new effort was being led by the Spirit, but Barnabas very soon discovered that it was, and rejoiced in all that was being accomplished.

The teaching was faithful, the growth in believers was Spirit inspired, the truth and life of Jesus was being spread to an entirely new people, and Christ was being glorified. And after all, isn’t that what the Church should be about?

So here is the question – is this what our church is all about? Is our teaching and celebration in accordance with scripture, or do we have a tendency to put ourselves into the driver’s seat of faith? If we aren’t praying and listening and studying before we set out on new endeavors, we have excluded the most important member of our “team”. If we tend to be content in doing the same things we have always done, and in the same ways that have been our way in the past, we, again, are failing to truly be the church of Jesus Christ. And if we think that we need to have all the answers before stepping out in faith, we will never be able to move, never be able to accomplish anything, never bring glory to our precious Lord, to never truly be the Church.

Our creed says that our church is to be “holy, catholic, and apostolic”. That means that each and every person who claims to be part of Christ’s Church must also accept that same call on their personal lives.
To be holy means that we commit to following the way of Christ – not just on Sunday morning, but during every moment of every day that we live.
To be catholic, means that we are not only welcoming of everyone, but are reaching out to everyone, whether we know them or not, or are comfortable with them or not, or even like them or not.
To be apostolic means that we are teaching and learning and living as scripture calls us to, and not as the world would.

Are we truly one in this church, celebrating each other, helping each other, praying with each other, serving with each other, feasting and loving and rejoicing in each other?

Maybe it’s time we started.