Sermon Tone Analysis

I believe in the communion of saints.

This is the second clause of the ninth article of faith found in the Apostles’ Creed, and it is intimately tied together with the first clause.

You cannot confess with a good conscience /“I believe in the holy universal church” without also confessing “and the communion of saints.”/

The Body of Christ—His Church—is not made up of bricks and mortar, 2x4s and Sheetrock, plumbing and wiring.

We may announce to family or friends, /“I’m going over to the church today,”/ but this is an error.

More correctly you should be telling family or friends, /“I’m going to the building complex where the Baptist saints periodically meet together for worship, edification, and fellowship.”/

But that’s a mouthful, and so we just say, /“I’m going over to the church today,”/ We must never forget that the Church is not a building, but a community of believers.

The Body of Christ is made up of living saints—saints either living on Earth or saints now living in Heaven.

This article of the Apostles’ Creed reminds us of the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on Earth with the faithful in Heaven.

The primary difference between the two is that the Saints on Earth see Jesus and spiritual things through a mirror dimly.

The Saints in Heaven see Jesus and spiritual truth face to face.

The Saints on Earth should reverence the Saints in Heaven and seek to emulate the best of their lives.

This is why the Apostle Paul lists for us the role call of Saints in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

He ends his role call with a pointed admonition,

/"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,"/ (Hebrews 12:1, ESV)

The Saints in Heaven are to serve as an example of faith to us, and their lives should motivate us to lay aside all those things that hinder us as we run the race of faith set before us.

So then, let me take a few moments to dissect for you the meaning of the clause, /“I believe in the communion of saints.”/

!

I. WE ARE SAINTS

#. in Western culture, saint is a word that has come to refer to a Christian of deep spiritual piety that is a cut-above your “normal” run-of-the-mill believer

#. sometimes you’ll hear someone refer to their mother as a saintly woman

#. isn’t it interesting that we never hear of a father being praised as a saintly man

#. it’s only our mothers who are saintly

#. our Catholic friends, as you know, have a tradition of canonizing certain men and women as bonafide Saints

#. once these individuals are canonized they are considered a model of the virtuous Christian life to be emulated, and will intercede before God on the behalf of believers here on earth

#. those who the Catholic Church canonizes as Saints are seen—for lack of a better description—as spiritual nobility

#. the Catholic Online website lists about 10,000 individuals who have been named Saints over the centuries

#. as with the nature of the church, we are in sharp disagreement with the Catholic Church over the identity of the saints

#. the word Saint is never-ever used in the New Testament to identify some kind of spiritual nobility, or Christian elite, but is a reference to the People of God regardless of the depth of their spiritual maturity

#.

Saints, in the New Testament, are never deceased individuals who have been canonized by an ecclesiastical council and given sainthood

#. they are living individuals who have been born from above by the Spirit of God, who have become a new creation and have dedicated themselves to the worship and service of the one true God as revealed through his Son, Jesus Christ

#.

Saints are indeed a distinct and special people—not because of their own merits, but because of the merits of Christ

#. in his second letter to the Christians at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that /“His saints”/—God’s saints—are described as /“all who have believed”/

* /"when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed."/

(2 Thessalonians 1:10, ESV)

#. half of the Apostle Pauls’ letters begin with the phrase, /“ ... to the saints at ... “/

#. was the apostle writing merely to a select group of Christians in each of those churches, or is he addressing the entire congregation?

#. if God has done a miraculous work in your life—what Jesus called /‘being born from above’/—then you are one of God’s Saints

#. every believer has the right to call himself a saint

#. none of us is worthy of the title—we don’t always act saintly—but God has declared us to be saints because of our trust in His Son

#. this leads me to my second point

!

II.

WE ARE SAINTS BY THE GRACE OF GOD

#. the word translated saint in the New Testament is from the Greek adjective ἅγιος (hagios)

#. it is used 61 times in the New Testament

#. it means to sanctify or to make holy

#. ours is not an earned holiness, but an imputed holiness

* ILLUS.

In the tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, sainthood is something that has to be earned by the believer in question.

The official process for declaring someone a saint is called canonization, and is an involved process.

When a Catholic dies who has, what they refer to as, a "fame of sanctity" or "fame of martyrdom," the Bishop of the Diocese usually initiates an investigation of the believer’s life.

One requirement is whether any miracle has been granted through the candidate saint's intercession.

The Church will also investigate the candidate's writings to see if they possess "purity of doctrine," essentially, nothing heretical or against the faith.

All of this information is gathered, and a faithful copy, duly authenticated and sealed, is submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

Once the case is accepted by the Congregation, further investigation is conducted.

Throughout this investigation an official known as the "devil's advocate,” raises objections and doubts which must be resolved.

Once a candidate is declared to have lived life with heroic virtue, he or she may be declared Venerable.

The next step is Beatification.

A martyr may be beatified and declared "Blessed" by virtue of martyrdom itself.

Otherwise, the candidate must be credited with a “First Class Miracle”—a miracles that is an obvious intervention of God against the laws of nature.

In verifying the miracle, the Church looks at whether God truly performed a miracle and whether the miracle was in response to the intercession of the candidate saint on the behalf of living believer who sought the candidate saint’s intervention.

After Beatification, another miracle is needed for Canonization and the formal declaration of sainthood.

#. as Christians we should live holy lives, but holy living does not make us holy nor turn us into a saint

#.

Christ’s work in us, not our own effort either in this world or the next, makes us holy

* ILLUS.

Many of the men and women who have been canonized by the Catholic and Orthodox churches over the centuries were indeed pious, and holy believers.

Many were martyred for their faith.

But they were saints by the grace of God and not because some ecclesiastical council decided to make them so.

Jesus is the only Congregation for the Causes of the Saints we need!

#. believers are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, not by their own good deeds or by religious ritual

#. it is through this sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit that we are called to be saints

#. the Apostle Paul spells this out in his writings

* /"Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:"/ (1 Corinthians 1:1-2, ESV)

* /"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

11And such were some of you.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."/

(1 Corinthians 6:9-11, ESV)

* /"And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."/

(Hebrews 10:10, ESV)

#.

God provides us our holiness through His Son

#. man’s part is to claim holiness, to claim sainthood, by faith in the Son

#. we have a new nature, the divine nature, and we possess everything we need to live a life holiness and godliness

* /"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire."/

(2 Peter 1:3-4, ESV)

!! A. THE REDEEMING WORK OF CHRIST MAKES THE BELIEVER PART OF A HOLY PRIESTHOOD

* /"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."/

(1 Peter 2:4-5, ESV)

#. our holiness in Christ is both individual and cooperate

#. each and every true Saint is holy by nature

#.

God sees us as righteous, and holy, because He sees us through His righteous, and holy Son, who took our place on the cross of Calvary, and because He has planted in us a righteous new nature

#.

Presidents do not always act presidentially, diplomats do not always act diplomatically, kings do not always act kingly—but they are still presidents, diplomats, and kings

#.

Christians do not always act like Christians, but they are still Christians

#. but Christianity was never, ever meant to be experienced as a solitary life

#. in Christ, we are called into a communion of saints that the Apostle Peter here describes as a spiritual house that is to be a holy priesthood

#. the Apostle is teaching us that our position in Christ should translate into practice in the world

#.

now, I talked to you last week about our priesthood in Christ and what spiritual sacrifices are, so I’m not going to address that again

#. but I do want to address the holiness aspect of the believer’s priesthood

#. that leads me to me final point

!

III.

WE ARE SAINTS BY THE GRACE OF GOD CALLED INTO COMMUNION WITH OTHER SAINTS

#. so what exactly does the phrase “communion of saints” mean?