We Believe In One Holy... Church

So we believe in one holy…church. Or do we? I wonder what the word holy means to you? For many holy is a word which turns them off. It suggests to them a holier than thou attitude or that the church is full of self-satisfied bores or is a holy huddle that is difficult to relate to and to break into. A few years ago the publishers Hodder & Stoughton obviously picked this reaction to the word holy up with regard to the title of the NIV Bible when one of their representatives said, "Its just called 'The Bible' now - we dropped the word 'Holy' to give it a more mass market appeal".

Yet if we dropped holiness from our lives and the life of the church, as some church leaders seem to want to do with regard to Biblical morality, then there would be no appeal. And you might also be thinking, as you look round this evening or as you ponder the problems at the church in Corinth, is the church really holy? CS Lewis writes about this in his book 'The Screwtape Letters', in which the new convert goes to church, expecting to find it full of saints - and instead discovers it is full of ordinary people like himself! But to understand this aspect of the church, we need to recover the true meaning of the words holy and saint, which along with the word sanctified all come from the same root Greek word. Which brings us to our first heading.


First, SET APART BY GOD

Look at v.2:

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - their Lord and ours.

As we've seen before the word church here means a called out people. And each true church has two addresses: a geographic address (at Corinth, or at Oslo or at Taiwan or at Jesmond) and a spiritual address (in Christ Jesus).

The church of God is made up of saints, meaning people who have been sanctified or made holy or set apart by God for God. A saint is not a dead person who has been honoured by men because of his holy life. No, Paul wrote to living saints, people who through faith in Jesus Christ, had been set apart for God's enjoyment and use. In other words every true Christian believer is a saint because every true believer has been set apart by God and for God. And we are not saints or holy because of our holy deeds. No, we are only saints or holy because of what Christ has done. Indeed faith in Christ is the beginning of all holiness. "Until we believe in Christ we have no holiness at all."

This was true of the Corinthians. In spite of the fact that Paul found much to criticise, he still called them sanctified, not because of their conduct, but because of their relationship to Christ. So Christians are holy, not because of anything we are in ourselves, but because of the one who has called us. The fact that we are holy has nothing to do with our personal merit, rather it has everything to do with the fact that we have been called by a holy God and have responded to him - that we have called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are holy because of our calling, not because of our natures.

Think of the moon which shines by reflecting the light of the sun. The moon is a dead world. it possesses no light of its own. But it can reflect the light of the sun. Christians are holy in much the same way as the moon shines at night - by reflecting something or someone else. God's holiness can be reflected in our lives, even if we are sinners. God calls us while we are sinners into a community within which his work can begin. We are called to be holy not because we are holy. "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners", said Jesus.

In 1 Peter 2:9 the people of God, in other words those who have been called out of darkness into his wonderful light, are a holy people, a holy nation. So the church is holy in the same way that every individual Christian is holy - by virtue of being united to Christ, separated to him and credited with his perfect righteousness. As the true church stands before God in Christ it is spotless and without moral blemish. Though this holiness does not belong to those in a congregation who have no personal trust in Christ as Saviour.

But union with Christ should involve a certain visible holiness of life. Some visible degree of holiness is a mark of a true church of God. A church which is a stranger to holiness is a stranger to Christ. When Christ addressed his churches in Revelation he expected a moral difference and was severe in his judgement when he found it lacking. What about us? What visible holiness of life do people see in us and in our fellowship? What do we need to work on with the Spirit as he makes us holy, as he makes us more like Christ?

For although holiness is God's work we do have to co-operate, we do have a part to play as individuals and as a fellowship as we grow in holiness, as we as a church grow up into him, the head who is Christ. What about our love for Christ, our love for one another and our love and care for the outsider and for those in need? Bishop Ryle in his powerful book, Holiness, which I encourage you all to read says that, "practical holiness and complete self consecration to God are being neglected. Godliness has been smothered by worldliness, personal devotion to Christ hardly exists and standards of Christian living have been lowered. The importance of making the teaching about God our saviour attractive has been forgotten (Titus 2:10)."


Secondly, ENRICHED BY GOD'S GRACE

Look at vv.4-7.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way - in all your speaking and in all your knowledge - because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift.

Perhaps partly because of some of the problems in the church of God in Corinth and their pride in their gifts Paul doesn't give thanks for qualities in the Corinthians like faith and love as he does in his letters to other churches, but rather for what God's grace has done in them and given them. "Because of his grace given you in Christ." That's Paul's emphasis here and how he wants to redirect the focus of the Corinthians so that they can live up to their calling, live more holy lives and better serve Christ and his church.

Does our focus need redirecting? Is it on the giver or on ourselves? Are we depending on the giver who is faithful or are we depending on ourselves? Do we have a wrong attitude to the gifts we've been given? Perhaps we're keeping them to ourselves instead of using them for the good of the whole church? Or perhaps we're so humble that we don't think we have any. Or maybe like some of the Corinthians who lacked no spiritual gift we're tempted to think we've arrived spiritually and there's no progress to be made in our sanctification. How we can grieve the Holy Spirit in so many ways.

Now I'm sure that God's gracious gift of salvation in Christ was not far from Paul's mind here but he's also thinking of the graces or gifts of God given in Christ to those who have been saved. Spiritual gifts that are given to us for the building up of the body of Christ, the church. Gifts or graces that Paul speaks about in more length in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Indeed in Christ the Corinthian church has been enriched by God's grace in every way (v.5). Therefore as a church they do not lack any spiritual gift (v.7).

The original word for enriched here gives us our English word 'plutocrat' which means a very wealthy person. The Corinthians were especially rich in spiritual gifts (2 Cor. 8:7) but, as we've already noted, they were not always using these gifts in a spiritual manner and were forgetting both the grace of giving and the giver. In 2 Cor. 8:9 Paul reminds them of

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

The fact that God has called us, set us apart, and enriched us ought to encourage us to live holy lives.

What's our response? What's our response as a church? It's not easy when, like the Corinthians, we live in a world which wants to squeeze us into its mould - when the temptations of materialism and the pornographic industry are now both on our TV, computer and WAP mobile phone screens in our homes and even, if we have a portable computer and a mobile phone, in our laps and in our hands. When society encourages us to become self satisfied, selfish and boasting in mere mortals. When the world the flesh and the devil tell us to satisfy our own desires even if that means compromising God's Word and therefore what's best for us - often in the area of relationships - by marrying an unbeliever for example, or how we live out our faith at work, school or college.

We have been set apart by God for God. Not to separate ourselves from the world but to live for him in this world. How then do we live holy lives as individuals and as a church? Well as we saw in our home groups this last week we remember God's mercy and grace and live in response to them. As Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In 1 Corinthians 13 we learn that having the gifts of the Spirit without having love means nothing. And love is a fruit of the Spirit - how we need to allow that fruit to be cultivated in us - to live by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit and to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5: 16-26). And God gives us the Holy Spirit for our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). Similarly for us as a church, as Bishop JC Ryle pointed out over a century ago,

professing good evangelical doctrine is useless unless it is accompanied by a holy life. The insincerity of claiming to be a Bible believing Christian without holy living is soon recognised as a sham which brings contempt for our religion.

But to come back to vv.4-7 of 1 Corinthians 1 we must not forget that Paul is giving thanks to God for the Corinthian church here because of God's grace given them in Christ Jesus. For what God's grace given in Christ has accomplished in them. In Christ they have been enriched in every way - in all their speaking and in all their knowledge which are gifts of the Spirit. And Paul's testimony about Christ was confirmed in them. In other words the changed lives of the Corinthians demonstrated the validity of the message preached to them. The effects of the preaching were the guarantee of its truth.

The result of all this is that they lack no spiritual gift. Yes there were problems in the church of God in Corinth - sins, division etc - problems that needed addressing and correcting as Paul was to do. And Jesus in the letters to seven other churches in Revelation does not mince his words about the problems in those congregations, telling some of them to repent or face immediate judgement. And there will be sins and weaknesses which we will need to repent of here at JPC. As someone once said: "The church is a fellowship of sinners before it is a fellowship of saints."But it is also a fellowship of forgiven sinners, who are in the process of becoming holy.

You see here in vv.1-9 Paul is looking at the Corinthian church as it is in Christ, as God sees it in Christ before looking at the problems in detail. What we are in Christ positionally ought to be what we practice in daily life, but often we fail. So as Paul looks his confidence in the church of God at Corinth is based on God's generosity and faithfulness. We too have been enriched by God's grace in every way.

The local church potentially does have every spiritual gift within its corporate life. So let's use them - but let's use them rightly and with humility to build up the whole church, walking in the Spirit as we do. Well this present foretaste of the Spirit turns our thoughts to the fuller experience that awaits us at the last great day when Jesus will be revealed, which brings us to our next point.


Thirdly, EAGERLY WAITING FOR CHRIST'S RETURN

Look at v.7.

Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

Much of the church in Corinth were eagerly waiting for Christ to be revealed. But some in the church of God in Corinth did not have such eager expectation as we see later in 4:8 and 15:12. Some had forgotten that they were living in the now of the kingdom and the not yet was still to come. Some therefore thought they had arrived spiritually especially as they experienced the gift of tongues. So here's a reminder to them and to us that we still await the final glory. The word revealed points to the fuller knowledge that the coming of the Lord will bring. As 1 John 3:2-3 reminds us:

Only when he appears shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Do we have that hope? We may not feel we've arrived spiritually but do we forget that Jesus will come again and to live in the light of that? That all of us will appear before the judgement seat of Christ to give an account, even though those who are Christ's will escape hell? (2 Cor. 5:10).

Apparently one of my wife's distant ancestors is the famous explorer and missionary David Livingstone. And you will know that a journalist called Stanley met Mr Livingstone, I presume. Now much recently has been written about Livingstone claiming that he led an unholy life. Well while Stanley was with him in Africa he saw Livingstone slumped over the bed one night. Stanley rushed in and asked him if he was all right. "Yes", Livingstone replied, "I'm just reading my Bible through one more time to see if I have to adjust anything in my life before I meet Jesus."

How do we practically live in the light of that hope? Well 1 Peter 4 and 1 Thessalonians 4 tell us and can be summed up in this: "God did not call us to live an impure life but a holy life." But we can't do that in our own strength. As 1 John 2:28-29 puts it:

And now, dear children, continue in him, remain in Christ, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him

- ie some degree of holiness is a mark of a true Christian and a mark of a true church. And those verses from 1 John lead us on to my brief final point.


Fourthly, GOD…IS FAITHFUL

Look at vv.8&9.

He will [God will] keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

Paul is confident that God will confirm or guarantee them to the end, so that they will be blameless at the final judgement. His confidence is not in the Corinthians whose current behaviour is anything but blameless and who he must exhort with the strongest kinds of warnings, but rather in God by whose action they will make it in the end. Paul here continues to redirect their confidence from themselves and their own giftedness, to God. How can he be sure that they, of all people, will be found guiltless on that final day? Because, v.9, "God is faithful". He called them into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and he is faithful, he will keep them.

The same is true for us. If God has called and redeemed us, if we are in Christ the he will keep us and save us to the end. Our confidence must be in God and not in ourselves or in our own holiness or righteousness. Our righteousness is as filthy rags says Isaiah. But we can totally depend on God who will keep his word. The church is his responsibility: he is committed to the perfecting of the saints. This guarantee is certainly not an excuse for sin though! No - rather it is the basis for a growing relationship of love, trust and obedience. In Christ we are an elect people, an enriched people and an established people. Saints, set apart for the glory of God!

I know some students are leaving us shortly but whether we're here or at another church - let us live up to our calling. Let us abide in Christ. Let us be committed to the church of God where he has placed us and confident about God's desire and ability to make his church in that place more like Jesus Christ. And let us be uncompromisingly certain about the call for us to be holy, as he is holy.