Sermon Tone Analysis

I Believe --- Communion of Saints

Ephesians 4:1-16 & Hebrews 12:1-3

“There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Ephesians 4:4-6

We have a lot of ground to cover before we get to communion.

We have been working our way through the Apostles’ Creed over the past seven weeks.

We know that this creed was used as a baptismal confession and was an early teaching of the church.

Creed means believe, so the Apostles’ Creed would mean what the apostles believed.

And—I’m really happy that we will be doing an actual baptism this week.

Join with me the reading of the Apostle’s Creed.

The Apostles’ Creed

1.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;

2. and in Jesus Christ, His only (begotten) Son, our Lord;

3. who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,

4. suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried;

He descended into hell;

5. the third day he rose again from the dead;

6.

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

7. from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

8.

I believe in the Holy Ghost,

9. the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,

10. the forgiveness of sins,

11. the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen

We have two New Testament readings for today.

The first reading comes from Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

Paul loved the church in Ephesus and spent three years there with the saints.

The second reading comes from the letter to Hebrews.

No one knows for sure who wrote the book but many scholars believe that Paul was the author.

Let us come to the throne of grace and pray before we open God’s Word.

“God, You are the creator and sustainer of life.

We give You our lives and ask that the Holy Spirit would come and transform these written words into the living word of life that will forever change our heart and mind.

Thank you for the living example of Jesus and help us to walk in the light and truth of Your Words.

Amen”

Ephesians 4:1-16

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

3 Make 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 when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.[i]

Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.[ii]

I am amazed and overwhelmed to think that for over 1800 years the faithful followers of Christ have gathered week after week.

They have repeated these simple words of faith.

From homes, to caves, to ships, to prisons, large and small churches have gathered to confess what they believe.

“I believe in God the Father!

I believe in Jesus Christ!

I believe in the Holy Spirit!

I believe in the church … communion of the saints!

I believe in the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting!

Amen!”

So What?

What do you believe?

Who do you believe today?

Why do you believe?

Let’s jump into the deep end of the pool of faith.

I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church

What does it mean when we say that we believe in the holy catholic church?

First, we need to note that words holy catholic church are not capitalized as in the Holy Roman Catholic Church; no, the letters are all lower case.

If you’d look it up in the dictionary, you’d learn that it means, “all embracing.”

When we say we believe in the holy, catholic church, we are saying we believe in the all-embracing—backwards and forwards—church.

From the time of Jesus Christ through today, we believe in this holy, all embracing body of Christ.

Someone told me the other day that their son had a tattoo on his shoulder.

“IBIB” I believe!

I belong!

When we say that we believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we are saying that we belong to body of Christ called the church.

The Greek word for church is “ekklesia” and it literally means “those who are called out.”

The word “catholic” simply means universal, all embracing.

Stop and think for a minute.

Imagine all of the churches throughout the past almost 21 centuries.

Think of all of the different continents (7) on earth.

Think of all of the different cultures.

Each local gathering of believers belongs to the one universal, all-embracing church because of the very profession Paul wrote about in Ephesians … “There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called --- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

The word “one” is used 7 times in these three-short verses.

Seven is the number of completeness.

“One Body --- One Spirit --- One Hope --- One Lord --- One Faith --- One Baptism --- One God and Father of all!”

The church is universal or catholic because it makes up an all embracing microcosm of human society.

The church --- “the ekklesia” --- “the called out ones”--includes every kind of person: rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, white, black, brown, yellow, red, all colors.

And it is the waters of baptism that makes all of our social divisions irrelevant.

The thirteenth-century Italian theologian, Thomas Aquinas, wrote, “because no one is rejected, neither lord nor servant, neither male or female.”[iii]

Stop and think about this for a minute.

Jesus gathered around Him twelve disciples.

He taught them for three years and then commissioned them to go out and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching all that he had commanded.

This was the beginning of the church, the called out ones and we are a part of this all-embracing community.

Matthew 28:18-20 says … Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

When we confess that we believe in the holy catholic church, we are saying that from the very beginning of the Christian church in 33 AD…through to this very day…we affirm and we believe in the fact that this church is holy, all-embracing and universal.

Not just this church, the SEED, and not just the other 37 million churches around the world (thank you, google) TODAY but we are saying that we believe that the body of Christ from the days of Christ to today—we believe in this body—past, present and future.

I Believe in the Communion of Saints!

First, the word “saint” means “someone who is holy.”

Have you ever thought of yourself as holy?

Have you ever thought of yourself as a saint?

Christians are holy, not because of anything we have inside of us, or anything that we have done or could do.