A Believer's Church

BIG IDEA: The Community of Baptized Christian visibly express the local professed church of Jesus Christ.

What do we have to know?

Why do we need to know it?

What do we have to do?

Why do we have to do it?

ME

We have gone through many Baptist distinctives since we started on this journey back in mid-July and have look at the traditions that make us, well, us. Jesus is LORD, Priesthood of all Believers, Authority of Scripture, Church Governance, Mission and Evangelism, and today we are going to talk about the one I find evident in practice but not as evident explicitly in scripture. A Believer's Church. What does it mean to be Believer's Church? Is there an unbeliever's church? Is church still church if there are unbelievers. What is a church? Simply put, a church is not a building or an organization, which is the way it was largely described in the 80s and 90s especially amongst the church growth movement. It has definitely components of an organization, with its hierarchy and structures, and that of a building, after all, you need to house a community of believers somewhere. But a church is primarily a people and/or an organism. It's not even hard to answer is there an unbeliever's church? Jesus himself even said so, in the Gospel to beware of ravenous wolves in sheeps clothing (), and elsewhere in the parable (), he also says the kingdom of God (which comprises of the church), is like a field which the a man sown good seed and the enemy sown bad seeds. When the servants ask the man can they pull out the weed, the fman tells them to refrain so as not to pull out the good ones in the process, but wait until full maturation, then they can take out the weeds. Now that doesn’t mean you need to look to your left or your right and start guessing are you a weed? Actually we shouldn’t even mention about weed anymore.

So what are we talking about when we say MCBC is a Believer's Church. Again, we go to the CBOQ, our denomination document, Why Baptists? and find this definition:

"Baptists believe that Jesus Christ chooses to form his church by bringing together believers for the purpose of worship, witness, fellowship and ministry (both spiritual and social). Baptists recognize the church universal as all who truly profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. They also profess their understanding of the church as being visibly expressed in local congregations. Each local church must thus be made up of believers

who, upon their profession of faith and their baptism (almost always by immersion), are incorporated into the local church through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Baptists believe that Believers’ Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two ordinances required by the New Testament and are to be administered by the local church."

That is a loaded statement, which is why pinpointing what to say and where to emphasize for this message has been so difficult. The above statement reminds us first of all, about a statement, most likely an early church creed found in :

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The church is one body. It's a universal body composed of all the churches in the world, saints of past, present, and future. It is joined together by one spirit and hence the church is a community of the Holy Spirit. The One hope is of course because of Jesus our Saviour and LORD, our sins have been forgiven and we will one day be with God forever, and for now, we are not alone and belong to a community of believers. God's call is begins with one Lord, who acted on our behalf whose benefit can be appropriated by faith, that is, trusting and surrendering and pledging our allegiance to Him, of which the first step is baptism. And verse 6 tells us the scope once again of these truths in verses 4 to 5 is universal.

WE

But where I find most difficult with the statement are these two lines:

Baptists recognize the church universal as all who truly profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. They also profess their understanding of the church as being visibly expressed in local congregations.

How do we or are we previewed to know who truly profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and who doesn't? Didn't we learn just at the beginning of the message there are unbelievers in the church? Then how do we know who truly profess their faith? It is arrogant and dangerous to think who is "in" and who is "out" which makes this tradition pretty hard to implement. Also, the idea of "church as being visibly expressed in local congregations" is a matter of fact, because we are spacial creature and we can only be physically and visibly in one space at a time, in one people at once, serving one God and his people tangibly in worship, witness, fellowship and ministry. Then how does the local congregation relate to each other as the universal church? Does one hold more authority then the others? This goes back into the church governance discussion. We see this in the relationshp between the Jerusalem council towards Paul and Barnabas' church where a dispute arose to the point where it needs to be brought back to the first church to resolve an issue of the planted church: should Gentiles be incorporated into the body of Christ and what do they need to do in . We also see this in Philippi and Corinth where Paul as a missionary receives help or reminds the church to help him in his missionary endeavours which include financial assistance. It will take a course to work out all the intricacies of these relationships but suffice to say the relationship of MCBC as a visible expresssion of a local congregation to CBOQ, our denomination composed of many churches with similar traditions is one of association. CBOQ helps and offers resources and support, but does not govern MCBC in any shape or form. The Jerusalem council incident would actually be more closely affiliated with an epsicopal hiearchal structure of governance.

Anyways, I digress. While the second question of visible expression of local congregation is a fascinating discussion, our time at hand is to answer the question, are there no way to gauge or at least have an inkling towards determining if someone truly profess faith, in other words, to be IN or INTO Christ, that is into the body of Christ? Not necessarily. This is the place to which the remaining part of this message will now turn to. Instead of focusing on one verse at length, we are going to survey a number of verses to develop what it means to be IN Christ. Let's first go to the Letter to the Romans, pew bible page 942.

GOD

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

What is the word which jumps out immediately in verses 3 to 4? Baptized or baptism. That is the act of immersing someone into water, as Jesus himself has done for the sake of righteousness by his cousin John the Baptist, which he commanded in the Great Commission of as an essential to being discipled, "baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spriit" and repeatedly seen in the Book of Acts the pattern of faith, then baptism, faith leading to baptism, whether it was the Ethiopian Eunuch in , Paul himself in , Cornelius in , Lydia in Philippi in , Apollos and Crispus in Ephesus in , etc. But also notice the word that follows baptized or baptism, INTO. Baptism is never for baptism's sake alone. By the very act of baptism you become a part of Christ, or into Christ. What does it mean baptized into Christ Jesus? Paul clarifies better in 1 Corinthians:

12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 

In other words, Baptism incorporates us into the larger body and the cloud of witness. Not only that, in this body, there are no longer racial barriers or social status barriers. That's part of what it means to we are baptized into the death of Christ. But of course it means a lot more. Being baptized into His death means to die to our sinful past and sinful nature itself. What about burial, to be be buried in Christ beside making the last part of the baptism trio so much more meaningful, that is being raised in Christ, if death is here (hand gesture), buried is here (hand gesture) then the opposite extreme of being buried is to be raised! (hand gesture) into newness of life. If death is symbolized by a life of bondage, oppression, shame, guilt, then newness of life surely means a life of freedom, vindication, flourishing, and acquital! This is what takes place in our lives not at the event of baptism itself, but the experience those who truly profess Jesus is Lord and Saviour will encounter. Dying to our sinful desires to overcoming them with His resurrecting power!

Another meaning for being baptized in Christ is also incorporation into his mission. One of the Acts baptism is the baptism of Apollos at Corinth.

Acts

19:1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

While the event of baptism is once, after a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the events of faith is continuous, even though at our baptism class we ask for the day we encounter Jesus, for example, my date is March 13, 1998 where I clearly marked as the day I am no longer my own, but belong body and soul, to Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour. We are all still growing, wrestling, struggling and overcoming in faith. Apollose was baptized by John the Baptist into repentance, which is an important but incomplete meaning to baptism. Sadly, many Christians take the baptism offered at MCBC as John's baptism. It's the get out of jail (hell) card. It's like I did it so my parents know I am saved. But from our previous definition, baptism without an ongoing and growing faith puts a huge question mark as to the quality of that faith. While we can't and shouldn't judge anyone if they truly profess, we also can't ignore the fact full incorporation into the body of Christ does mean being active in the body. Or else Paul would not need to baptize Apollos again, this time, in the name of the Lord Jesus. And if you remember what I preached before elsewhere what the Hebrew understanding of name means, it's " personal presence, character, power, and deserved reputation.." In other words, a life of dying to and newness of life, no longer estranged to God is good, but being baptized into Christ offers more, incomparably more! We become representative of Jesus not only in private but in public as witness to His gospel, His life, His death, and His resurrection. In other words, we are His witness to the world. His ambassador to reconcile the world, that is, all those who don't know, don't want to know there is a living God who loves us in who's actions we are accountable to.

Baptism is known as an ordinance in our heritage because it is one of the most visible sign we believe ourselves to be incorporated into Jesus Christ' death, burial and resurrection, and into his Name for the purpose of being a witness to the mission. As baptist, we have another ordinance which offers multiple events to visible represent our faith and connection in Jesus Christ: the Lord's Supper, pew bible 957.

1 Corinthians

10:16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel:4 are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Paul here uses very similar language here. First, he speaks of the meaning of the Lord's Supper. It has the component of a cup of blessing and bread. Although the context of this passage is not primarily about the Lord's Supper. Paul uses this illustration on the principle he wishes to bring out: "everythng is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." Still, we can draw a very important understanding about the Lord's Supper from verses 16-18 as a visible expression of those who are incorporated into the local church, if they partake in this meal. Once again it is similar to the Ephesians passage, focusing on the oneness. the cup of blessing is one cup, or comes from the one vine, Christ's body is the only source of life giving blood. The bread is one bread, broken for the whole body of Christ, that is, the church, yet it remains one body. So all who are part of the universal church participates in the Lord's Supper. However, Paul then draws from salvation history of the Israelites who ate of the sacrifices at the altar cannot at the same time participate in any other meal representative of a different belonging or incorporation. So while Baptism incorporates the believer's church into the death to life and the witness and mission of Jesus, the Lord's Supper expresses the holiness of the One God who would not share his glory and worship with any other. To belong to Christ is to reject all idols. This is the believer's church's stance on any rival to our one and pure affection for Jesus Christ alone.

YOU

So we now go back to the original question: while we cannot and should not with human limited judgment determine who is in and who is out in the Christian faith, no matter whatever evidences to the contrary or even appearancce of godliness, we simply don't know the human heart, Jesus has provided the ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for those who by faith have incorporated themselves to the local expression of the universal church of Jesus Christ.

So what does it mean for the Christians among us? If you have been baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, you are a brother or sister in the same one Lord, by one Spirit. There is a kinship, a raison d'etre we share, and overall our values are aligned and we are united. If you are a follower of Jesus but you have felt seemingly distant from the benefits of baptism and Lord's Supper, Jesus invites you to come to the banquet table and feast on him again.

But what about those who are still searching for answers to God's truth? May I appeal to you: don't you realize just how good God is in which He is patient to not close the door to anyone who seeks Him? He desires none to perish but for all to have eternal life. He allows ambiguity within his body because the church is not an elite club but a hospital for the broken, weak, oppressed, ashamed, vulnerable and sick who knows they can't save themselves. If you wish to