Revealing the Local Fellowship (koinonia)

Acts 2:42-47 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the

prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many

wonders and signs were being done through the

apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had

all things in common. 45 And they were selling their

possessions and belongings and distributing the

proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by

day, attending the temple together and breaking bread

in their homes, they received their food with glad and

generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with

all the people. And the Lord added to their number day

by day those who were being saved.

Matthew 16:13-2013 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea

Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that

the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the

Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of

the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say

that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the

Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered

him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and

blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is

in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this

rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall

not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the

kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth

shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose

on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”20 Then he strictly

charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the

Christ.

Introduction

A few minutes ago we again rehearsed our core

conviction as a church that we worship a Triune God:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three and yet one. God is,

in himself, a picture of perfect unity and the sharing of

common ministry.

Most scholars divide the Apostles’ Creed into 12 clauses,

12 different things “I believe” that are mentioned there.

However, as I have studied the Creed and for our

purpose of confirming and reconfirming our faith, I

think it is more convenient – and certainly more

important – that we recognize it is The Trinity we are

confessing. So I break the Creed into three main

sections.

Using this approach, the clauses that have to do with the

Church and the eternal destiny of the Christian are all

tied together and they all hang on the work (mostly

behind the scenes) of the Holy Spirit. In saying this I do

not want us to drift even for a moment: the principal

work of the Holy Spirit is to witness to the Person and

Work of God the Son: Jesus, who is the Christ.

Colossians 1:28 says, “Him (Jesus) we proclaim, warning

everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we

may present everyone mature in Christ.” That is the

purpose of this series, and that is the only goal Pastor

Chris and I have for you. Everything we do as a church

must ultimately serve that one purpose or else is

worthless and must fall away.

With Christ firmly in view then, “I believe in the Holy

Spirit,” and his works: “the holy Catholic Church, the

communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the

resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Last week we revealed that the church is One, Holy,

Catholic or Universal, and Apostolic. That is, there is

only one true church; it is set apart from the world, and

yet wherever the name of Christ is honored around the

Globe, the church is the same and has the one mission of

spreading the salvation that is in Christ Jesus to all

persons everywhere. This is a work of the Holy Spirit.

The Missing Piece

But there’s something missing from the Creed’s

description of the church. When we talk about the one

holy Catholic and apostolic church, we’re really talking

about the impact of the Holy Spirit in the world. What’s

missing is a description of the impact of the Holy Spirit

on the Church. That’s the function of clause we’re going

to look at today.

Most scholars think this phrase “the communion of

saints” was a late addition to the Creed and probably

originated in the Armenian Church in the late 300s. I

have an Armenian heritage on one side of my family; so

I’m quite proud of whatever obscure group of

theologians realized this needed to be a part of our

common confession.

Common Sharing

Common for All Eternity

Literally, the phrase should be translated, “the common

sharing (or participation) in what is set apart.” By way

of full disclosure, the word “saints” never appears in the

original Latin of the Creed. And yet, we already know

from what we studied last week that the church herself

is “set apart” from the world, and therefore, we who

believe Jesus are and must be set apart.

It should come as a comfort to you that I said, “Are and

must be;” because if you are a believer in Jesus, in the

Holy Spirit it is true that you are set apart from the rest

of the World, whether or not you behave that way. You

are set apart now. Right now; right where you are; just

as you are. You are set apart for all eternity. This is the

first great thing we share in common.

The Gospel this morning from Matthew 16 contains the

fearsome phrase, “I will give you the keys of the

kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth

shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose

on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” I have heard

well-meaning Christian teachers twist that phrase to

suggest that Christians need to be very careful; very

discerning in all their choices in life for fear they will

bind lovers or friends or possessions or ill-gotten gain

to themselves for all eternity and that they’ll be judged

by what they bring along with them to heaven.

There’s an old Far Side cartoon that shows a distraught

woman leaning out the window of her house as

furniture, rugs, the piano, even the cat fly out the door

upwards toward heaven. The woman is screaming, “It’s

George! He’s taking it with him!” That kind of thinking

is utterly and entirely a false teaching, and does not

come from faith. Your salvation and mine does not

depend on our works, our possessions, or our

associations. Your salvation depends on Jesus Christ,

and him alone.

So what does Jesus mean when he says this to Peter? “I

will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” –

“Peter, I’m going to teach you by confession and

suffering to be my witness in the World. And everyone

devoted to me will ultimately rise to find their proper

place before me in eternity.”

Listen to John’s account of the first day after the

reconciliation of all things in Jesus. This is Revelation

19:6-9

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great

multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the

sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

    the Almighty reigns.7 Let us rejoice and exult

    and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

    and his Bride has made herself ready;8 it was granted her to clothe herself

    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those

who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And

he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Last week I said the Church is nearly always identified

in Scripture as “she.” Here’s why. We – all who were

bound to Jesus on Earth – will one day sit at table with

our husband, Jesus Christ; bound to him eternally. We

are now and will be forever in common union with all

believers who ever lived.

Communion and Common Union

When you and I come to the table to share the bread

and the cup; what we call “Communion” is both a way of

us receiving spiritual sustenance from Christ (though

the Holy Spirit) and participating with one another in

Christ. This table is a great mystery, and it is meant by

God to do us profound good every time we gather here.

I wish though that the Protestant churches had never

called The Meal “Communion”; because it hides the true

sacramental nature of what’s happening here from our

view.

We who believe Jesus are in Common Union with all the

other “holy ones” – those set apart in Christ – who have

ever lived, and we share together in their blessings,

prayers, and especially in the common confession of

Christ. When you come to the Table, in that moment,

you are sharing a meal with every believer all down

through the years. This is not the Marriage Supper of

the Lamb – that is yet to come. This is an unfinished

Passover Supper; for Jesus left the fourth cup – the Cup

of Restoration – on the table and didn’t drink it with the

disciples.

The Cup of Separation

The Cup of Judgment

The Cup of Redemption

The Cup of Restoration

We who believe Jesus sit at table and share in

fellowship with all the saints; with all the holy ones

devoted to Jesus. We do it here and now; we will do it

again one day when Jesus sets all things right and raises

the fourth cup; completes the Passover, and drinks it

with his Bride.

Common Union Here and Now

We are in common union with them, but how about

with one another? That’s a bit more problematic. The

saints worldwide aren’t of any concern to me

personally; they are elsewhere and I don’t generally

worry about them except with the perfunctory prayer

when I hear of their persecution, for example.

It doesn’t strike me what I might contribute to the saints

already worshipping before the Throne; they are with

God and I take great comfort in that.

Where I experience common union most often with is

with those who are right here; right now; those I must

do business with and who I run into at the store and

who I worship falteringly with week to week.

The Church as we experience her is not primarily a

missionary enterprise, reaching out to the lost,

though that is our commission from Christ.

The Church as we experience her is not primarily a

social service agency for those in need, though the

love of Christ urges us to help whenever and

wherever able.

According to Jesus, the church as we experience it

is a vine in a garden. She has a common root and it

draws her nourishment from a common source

through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said (John 15), “I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears

much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” And

Paul, writing to the Church at Colossae (2:6) said, “Just

as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in

him, rooted and built up in him and established in the

faith, just as you were taught, abounding in

thanksgiving.”

It is that common union that should motivate us to

gather regularly the way the Church did at the time of

the Apostles.

Nothing has changed; though the World would like you

to think that it has: We read our charter from Acts 2:42-

46 already: “All who believed were together and had all

things in common.”  That’s what the new bulletin board

in the Loggia is all about. “And they were selling their

possessions and belongings and distributing the

proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by

day, attending the temple together and breaking bread

in their homes, they received their food with glad and

generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all

the people. And the Lord added to their number day by

day those who were being saved.”

These words are remarkably compact for what they tell

us about a Church whose first priority is Christ:

Common wealth

Common worship

Common witness

That is the common union – the communion of saints in

action.

We’re going to put a bit of that into practice after I

release you. I’m sure you noticed that we’ve removed

the back wall of the church this Sunday. The way into

Robertson Hall isn’t open in a publicity effort to

demonstrate that we’re having Family Brunch after

church. Those First Century Christians worshipped in

the synagogue and then had to move to another location

entirely in order to break bread and share the Lord’s

Supper together. We don’t. On Wednesday evenings we

begin by eating together and then worship together.

We move from one Table to another seamlessly. This

morning we reverse that process by moving from this

Table to that, also without seamlessly.

My challenge to you this morning is to stick around. I

know how uncomfortable it can be when you don’t

know people or when you’re someone who hates coffee

hour fellowship, particularly if you’re an introvert. But

this is an chance to experience the communion of saints

up close. As you sit at table ask about each other’s lives;

what are your joys and sorrows right now? Propose

new ideas to one another about how we can extend our

witness to Jesus and bring him to the table in real ways.