The Church - God’s idea & Jesus’ bride.

We believe in one holy worldwide and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Psalm 133 “ 1 How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony! 2 It is like fine oil on the head, running down on the beard, running down Aaron’s beard onto his robes. 3 It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has appointed the blessing— life forevermore.”

John 17:11;20-21 — “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.”

20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.

Matthew 16:18–19 “18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.”

Ephesians 2:17–22 “17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.”

One Holy Church

The lines about the church are within the stanza about the Spirit.

The church is not a human idea or innovation; the church is God’s idea born on the day of Pentecost.

Believing in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hard as it is, is not as hard as believing in humans…the church.

“We believe in one holy worldwide and apostolic Church.”

The last two are factual…though they require some vigilance to remain connected

Catholic (greek): worldwide, universal, or global.

11% of Global Christians were American in 2020…predicted 8% by 2050.

Apostolic pointing toward a Historic Confessional faith.

started and assembled by the apostle work and teaching…doesnt’ mean a specific denomination called apostolic.

He also means sent

anchors us into a historic tradition with clear confession of faith as boundary markers and ties us beyond individualism.

The first two words, however, are the puzzling ones...and the ones I want to focus our time on today.

1. The Church is one.

There are four main branches of the Christian church in the world today:

• Roman Catholicism, the largest Christian church with nearly 1.4 billion members worldwide

• Protestantism, which includes Pentecostals, Charismatics, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, and more

• Orthodoxy, which includes churches located primarily in the Eastern part of the world, such as the Coptic Orthodox Church (Egypt), the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, and Orthodox churches located in Iran, Iraq, and other parts of the Arab world

• Emerging independent Christians, located primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (2)

For the first 1,054 years of church history, there was only one church—the holy, catholic (meaning “universal”) church. When problems or divisions arose, leaders from the five major cities of the Roman and, later, Byzantine empires—Alexandria, Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople—met to sort them out. These gatherings became known as ecumenical or church-wide councils. The councils worked through thorny issues to find agreement on such doctrines as the nature of God as Trinity and Jesus being both fully God and fully human. The first council happened when the Roman emperor Constantine summoned bishops to Nicaea to address the heresy of Arianism, which held that Christ was not fully God. This resulted in the Nicene Creed of AD 325. A second council met at Constantinople in AD 381 to revise and expand this document and to affirm what we now know as the final version of the Nicene Creed.

Part of what makes the Nicene Creed so important is that it has defined biblical Christian faith for over 1,600 years. The three oldest branches of the Christian church—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—agree that this creedal statement outlines the boundaries of Christian belief and provides a measure, or rule, for the proper reading and interpretation of Scripture. Every week, Christians around the world still recite this creed.

And to this day, churches or individuals whose beliefs disagree with the Nicene Creed are considered outside the boundaries of the Christian faith. While the first 1,054 years of the church were marked by cultural, linguistic, and theological tensions, there was still only one church. Sadly, that unity was lost forever in 1054.

Since 1517, the Protestant church has experienced over 300,000 splits.

illus:  Chapter 16 of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape explains that one of the best ways to neutralize a Christian’s spiritual life is to keep them dissatisfied with their current church and constantly seeking a “church that suits them better.”

Quote:

“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.”

Encourage church-hopping: Screwtape advises promoting dissatisfaction with one’s current church and encouraging frequent changes in churches, preventing spiritual growth and commitment. Treat church attendance like choosing a restaurant or entertainment — based on taste, convenience, or fashion, rather than worship or obedience.

Foster critical attitudes: Demons should lead humans to focus on the flaws of clergy and fellow parishioners, fostering pride, judgment, and disillusionment.

Exploit divisions and preferences: Encourage people to prefer certain styles (e.g., high church vs. low church), thus turning worship into a matter of aesthetic or political identity.

Undermine community and unity: By emphasizing personal taste and individualism, churchgoers become isolated and less rooted in a loving, forgiving community.

Reflection:

This tactic turns the church into a commodity rather than a sacred community. Instead of growing through challenges, imperfections, and humility, the Christian becomes a critic — always evaluating but never rooted. This keeps them spiritually shallow, distracted, and disconnected from genuine worship or transformation.

With the challenge of tribalism and echo chambers, how do we live as one church?

Ephesians 4:2–6 “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

Ephesians 4:31–32 “31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.”

Practices for Preserving Unity:

Humility: Right-sizing yourself; admitting what you don’t know or don’t get it or are weak.

Managing reactivity: Slow down your body; we react emotively not biblically.l…but try (with bible) to justify the emotive reaction.

Understanding: Practice kindness / be tenderhearted, willingness to feel another’s pain

Forgiveness: Willingness to repent and repair

Don’t be dismissive of others who bear the name Christ and are marked by His spirit…even if you disagree with them. He is our unifier.

“The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.” PBJD

IF THE ENEMY CAN’T DIVIDE A CHURCH, HE’LL TRY TO DISCREDIT IT’S WITNESS…IT’S HOLINESS

2. The Church is holy.

1 Corinthians 1:2 “2 To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours.”

1 Corinthians 1:11 “11 For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe’s people, that there is rivalry among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:1 “1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife.”

“One” and “Holy” are who we are in Christ; formation is about becoming who we already are.

From a place of belovedness, begin to imitate Christ.

Move beyond belief to practice in community…beyond orthodoxy to orthopraxy…beyond rule of faith to rule of life.

It is our failure to be “one” and “holy” that leads us back to Jesus.

Who are we really putting our faith in to make the church holy and one? In Jesus who came for the church and the Spirit who gives life to the church.

“We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.”

we name and confront sin…our sin.

Baptism reminds us who we are…that we are both one and holy in Christ!

Both are realities in Christ that we must live into.

illus: The couple will spend their lifetime becoming one

Through the Spirit we have been declared righteous and we spend our entire life growing into that form.

Peter reminds us, that we are holy people and royal priesthood…called out of darkness and into light!

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the church must become what we already are.

The church is not actually a human idea…it’s God’s idea!

3. The Church is God’s.

That is not to say that everything the church does is like God… The Church does not belong to us!

The church is the body of Christ and the bride of Christ

the church is a Priesthood of ministers; imperfect jars of clay

What does Jesus see in the church that we don’t?

The church is Jesus’ bride and satan hates her.

When we say we’re hurt with “the church,” it’s actually a particular church or a particular person…

See a bigger Church! See what Jesus sees.

Response: Repentance and Return (turn away and turn toward)

• Repent of the ways we have contributed to the lack of unity and holiness

• How have we thrown the church under the bus?

• What would it look like to return to our “baptism,” to return to the saving power of Jesus and the Spirit…living a rule of life like our rabbi did?

“We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

The final word of the Creed is a word that faces us forward with real hope.

what if we really embodied these truths…these rule of faith that shapes a rule of life?

“How can this strange story of God made flesh, of a crucified Savior, of resurrection and new creation become credible for those whose entire mental training has conditioned them to believe that the real world is the world which can be satisfactorily explained and managed without the hypothesis of God? I know of only one clue to the answering of that question, only one hermeneutic of the gospel: a congregation which believes it.”

— Leslie Newbigin

______________________________________________________________________________

Talk it Over (being honest & open with friends, a spouse, or your Group)

The message was centered on what WE believe about Jesus’ Church. What is one idea from Sunday’s message that impacted you?

Read Psalm 133. What do you notices in the passages?

How would you describe what the church should be? What has kept it from being that way?

What do you think it would look like for the church to live in unity?

Read Ephesians 2:17-22. What do you notices about the church in this passage?

In what ways does your view of the church change when you think of other Christians as your brothers and sisters in Christ?

What does it mean to be holy?

What might make it difficult for us to see the church as holy? Do those problems change its holiness?

Do you believe the church is a human institution? Why or why not?

ReadMatthew 16:18-20. What is this passage teaching about the church?

In what ways does forgiveness help build the church?