Week Six: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints

Transcription

1 Week Six: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints Was there anything from this week s sermon that stood out for you or alternatively that confused you? The Communion of Saints: An act of Rebellion! 1. What does the word Saint mean to you? Are you one? What do you understand The Communion of Saints to mean? 2. How would you paraphrase 1 Corinthians 1: 2 3. Are these three aspects just bundled into a sentence for convenience or are they connected? How? The Holy Catholic Church: An act of Unity (Acts 2: 42-47) 4. What does being part of church mean to you? 5. How do you respond to someone who says they don t need to go to church to be a Christian? 6. What is the same and what is different about the church in AD40 and the church of today? 7. Can and should the church be a rebellious force in 2017 in what ways? The Holy Spirit: An act of Inspiration (John 14: and John 16: 12-15) 8. Was there a time when you don t recall The Holy Spirit working in your life? Did you 9. What would you say to a Christian who doubted if they understood or saw the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives? 10. Who or what is the Holy Spirit? 11. How would you respond to someone who said that the Holy Spirit is just an impersonal force like lightning? 12. In what ways have you experienced the Holy Spirit? Page 1 of 7

2 Date: 4 December 2016 Services: 730, 5pm Series: This I believe Title: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints Passage: Acts 2:1-4, John 14:23-27 Outline: The Holy Spirit: An act of inspiration The Holy Catholic Church: An act of unity The Communion of Saints: An act of rebellion! I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the father; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Introduction Speaking of the Creed, well known preacher and author John piper warned his congregation: I feel strongly about this that among those of us who have grown up in church and who can recite the great doctrines of our faith in our sleep and who yawn through the Apostles Creed that among us something must be done to help us once more feel the awe, the fear, the astonishment, the wonder of the Son of God, begotten by the Father from all eternity, reflecting all the glory of God, being the very image of his person, through whom all things were created, upholding the universe by the word of his power. He said as much because for the early church to recite a creed was an act of rebellion, an act of unity an act of inspiration! And these three points: 1. Rebellion 2. Unity 3. Inspiration are going to be our guides for today s sermon, for in each of them we find a reflected image of: 1. The Holy catholic Church 2. The communion of Saints 3. A belief in the Holy Spirit So firstly today we ask what it means, to believe in the holy catholic church and why oh why Mr Dredge is that an act of rebellion??!! 1. Rebellion (The Holy catholic Church) Page 2 of 7

3 When the church gathered together, any time across those first centuries they didn t sit or stand in comfort or air-conditioning; they didn t have prayer-books or projectors to help them to worship God and understand His Word; and they certainly weren t protected by the government or any law. They didn t know who was watching them and how their rejection of the pluralistic, amoral society and its gods would play out. they were rejecting the leaders of the world for one leader over the world. Caesar? Divine Lord? No they would state there is only one Lord Now One man or woman defying the firm hand of Roman law made them a nutcase or a nuisance. But a decentralised, flourishing assembly of people a group who believed that they belonged to God for that is what Church, in the New Testament meant Who universally (and that is what catholic means universal) stated what they believed And in doing so defied Caesar and Rome s menagerie of gods - well that is a rebellion. By the end of the 1 st century there were an estimated 1 million Christians across the Roman Empire fewer than 1% of the Roman population. But with very few exceptions, this fragile network of churches were entirely on the same page, and it was this that made this 0.6% of the population VERY powerful. Leaders of the day found this guerrilla group who cared for the poor and preached of one God threatening. And while persecution by Nero from AD is relatively well known, lesser known but extreme prejudices and persecution continued for centuries And it did absolutely nothing Nothing but galvanize the believers to pray more fervently to understand Jesus and the letters of the apostles more clearly and live more and more dangerously and yet somehow attract more and more of society as it did so. This was how the Church operated for the first 400 years of its existence. And this is what it meant to be a catholic church a universal group appointed by God a church that no matter the distance and circumstances the people found common ground within Not apostolic succession Not papal decree or liturgical colour But unity in Christ - despite all else that is what it meant to be a catholic church Century s long rebellion and subsequent persecution earnt them the name the church, universal And for us today Well, for us today in the church of the western world Could we claim to be a rebellion? Should we? Page 3 of 7

4 Are we a mighty guerrilla force of which authorities are wary? Far from it. Today there is vast disenchantment with organised religion and institutionalised churches right across the western world and with good reason: We have become separated from our foundations; too often in the western church I mean not here - preaching a message that is relative to the gospel and grounded only in modern thought. Our institutionalised church has become a political and burdensome beast. Liberal theologians and preachers lament that the church is saddled with burdensome and outdated views that corrupt its relevance I mourn this But I still state the Creed with conviction Not because of what we are but because of what I wish us to become again When I say: I believe, I say it in anticipation that one day our entire denomination and all others with it will once again become a holy catholic church a universal vessel In which truth is made clear Disciples are formed and universally celebrated And is a voice to be reckoned with feared by governments and adored by people And who will it be who will bring in this reality? My second point: 2. Unity (The communion of Saints) In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul began by saying this: Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,. 2 to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What did Paul mean when he wrote this? To paraphrase it: you who gather you who are different from the world because of God, who know and love Jesus, Grace and peace to you from me a fellow brother. When I say: I believe in the communion of saints I say: I am a part of a brotherhood, a movement Page 4 of 7

5 I am part of something that aspires to greatness a unified movement that has and will change the world. A communion a harmony a cohesion that joins you to me this authoritative line in the creed speaks to controlling part of me screaming: No Ian, you can t do this on your own Christianity calls for the Beatles not just George Harrison And guess what you ve made the band! You MAKE the band! The very nature of the gospel wrote theologian James Bannerman, makes Christianity a social rather than solitary religion. And unified together under the cross we are a movement a communion of saints That is what this line means When I say I believe in the communion of saints I am saying that I believe in you and me together I believe in the power of God in you and me And though globally we may be more akin to a whimper than a unified voice screaming at the top of our collective lungs, begging for their attention Though it may not be what it could I believe in you and I hope you believe in those around you And together unified we need only the final ingredient inspiration in the form of the Holy Spirit my third and final point: 3. Inspiration (A belief in the Holy Spirit) So the Holy Spirit And what can we say of the Holy Spirit in just a few minutes? The first thing I must say which I said last week is to point you to our 6-week series we held earlier this year. They were fantastic, in-depth looks into the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Then I can say that while I am confident I know the Holy Spirit, and I know the Holy Spirit works through me I wasn t always. In fact, I was quite cynical of this line from the Creed. Because my first encounter with what I was told was the Holy Spirit was a charismatic teacher who bringing people to their knees, slain in the spirit. I didn t know what to make of it. I was there with a bunch of mates most Christian some not. The room was incredibly charged with emotion I can t describe how thick with emotion this room was it was palpable. After he had taught, he led us prayer for some hour or two I don t remember in which time people were screaming, speaking in tongues, crying falling over and my non-christian mate turned to me and said I prefer to watch exorcisms on the tele and left. I later found out that this guy had been seen with some little vial of something in his top pocket and was embracing people towards his top pocket before they collapsed on the floor Page 5 of 7

6 I smelt a rat at the time and I was right he was a dud. Now I m not saying that all such experiences are not of God I m sure they can be but mine wasn t and it left me really unclear when, as a younger man I would with my mum and sisters at church say I believe in the Holy Spirit? It left me unclear and cynical. Cynical not just of a fraud but of what role the Holy Spirit really took in the Church and in God s people. Because what I saw some people describing as the Holy Spirit looked to me liked it belonged more comfortably at parties I d been to. Where people got High, they had feelings of ecstasy, seeking visions, receiving revelations, speaking in tongues I know better now. I know God can work in ways which reduce people to their knees. I ve sincerely been there when praying and reading the Bible, listening to the organ in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of all places, I was overwhelmed by God and I fell to the floor. I know The Holy Spirit does sometimes heal But these are secondary elements of the Spirit s work The Old Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit as being associated with creation; ( both Godly and human as in Genesis 1:2 or Exodus 31:1-6 XXXXXXX check these references??????) In the Old Testament you can find references to the Spirit equipping God s chosen leaders and spokesperson and then in the New Testament we see these things again - So as we work out what the Holy Spirit is and means, we move away from the work of the Father, and the salvific work of the Son, into the re-creating work of the Spirit, whereby we are actually made new in and through Christ. And for many of us this is a tough concept to understand or even see this being made new but if you want to look for a basis for this in the Bible, start with Ephesians 2:1-6 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, Here is the radical change from what a person is by natural birth. Paul writes here and elsewhere of the clear difference between the new and old person the changed person who claims to believe who claims to be a Christian. The state of the old is shocking frightening. This person is dead in sins, is in bondage to sin, stands condemned by God but in the new the very core of the person of all of their humanity shifts. Page 6 of 7

7 No longer is a persons ideals and dreams shaped and warped by human desires by society or any other thing instead they are shaped by God. They desire to be Godly and they desire Godly things. A new perspective is gained when you become a Christian; a new quality and this is the doing of the Holy Spirit. I said before for many of us this is a tough concept to get our heads around. And there s a reason we don t necessarily see it so clearly. If you re like me and have been a part of a church since your birth then it can be harder for us to put our finger what the Holy Spirit is and does -because we ve lived under its influence since well, forever Our parents or some other influence in our lives made sure of this. this is what we mean when we state I believe in the Holy Spirit we are stating that we are changed transformed from what we were and what we could have become. And all of this then: - our desire to live unified - as a force to be reckoned with - Changed forever under the Holy Spirit Should leave us longing for what might be Should leave us with no doubt of God s intent for us together And should leave us with no doubt in mind when we together say: I believe Page 7 of 7