"THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH"
Third Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42 (ESV)
This may sound like a ridiculous question to ask a “church crowd,” but what is the Church? I suppose that question could be answered in any one of a number of ways, depending on your perspective. Some people might identify "the church" with a particular building. They see some buildings as homes, some as offices, some as stores, some as schools, and some as churches. Others may look a little deeper and say that "the church" is people. Perhaps they have in mind the children’s song of a couple of generations ago that says: “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together.” Some will look a little deeper still and acknowledge that "the church" is not just a bunch of individuals but a unit--a congregation of God’s people. Some may perhaps look at it a little more broadly and define “church” as a religious denomination--a group of congregations united around a common confession of faith. And those who think theologically might even go so far as to distinguish between the Invisible Church (which is the sum total of all true believers in Christ, wherever they may be found) and the Visible Church (which is the sum total of all those who profess faith in Christ and use the means of grace, but among whom there are also hypocrites).
One of the primary Lutheran Confessions, the Augsburg Confession, defines the Church as “the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel” (Augsburg Confession, Article VII). This definition points out certain things by which the Church of Jesus Christ can be identified. These identifying characteristics (or “marks”) of the Church are the Word of God (specifically the Gospel of Christ) and the Sacraments that our Lord has instituted. These are in fact the same things that marked the Church of Jesus Christ in apostolic times, as the text before us makes clear. Let’s listen to the Lord’s Word given through Saint Luke in our text as we examine this morning the marks of the Church.
We are told in the passage before us that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” “The apostles’ teaching” was and is nothing more or less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ--the Good News that sinful man is now reconciled to the holy God whom he has offended through the perfect life and innocent death of the incarnate Son of God. On the surface this may appear to be utterly simple and broad-based, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which is “the apostles’ teaching”) is, in fact, the whole body of Christian doctrine. That’s why we call the earliest and shortest of the three ecumenical creeds “the Apostles’ Creed”: not because it was written by the apostles (the truth is that it was not), but because it is a confession of the faith that was confessed and proclaimed by the apostles--a statement of the Gospel that they so faithfully and boldly preached and, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, committed to writing in the documents that we now know as the New Testament. That’s also why we confess in the Nicene Creed: “I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church”--because this Church rests on the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was confessed and preached by the apostles of the Lord Jesus.
The earliest followers of Jesus were also devoted, we are told, “to the prayers.” This statement is not referring to just a table grace or a bedtime prayer; this is talking about the entire prayer and worship life of the whole Church. The worship and prayer of the Church and of all its members is to be saturated with and characterized by the revelation of God, not by the opinions or feelings of humans. The Church sings and prays the Word of God, since it is the Word (particularly the Gospel of Christ) that invites us to pray and empowers us to pray, with the promise that God will hear and answer, and since it is the Word (particularly the Law of God) that instructs to pray. Without the Gospel of Christ we would have no guarantee that God the Father would hear, accept, or answer our prayer; with the Gospel we know that for the sake of the Christ in whose name we pray and worship God accepts us, hears our prayer, and answers us in a way that is always best for us, whether we always recognize it as being best for us or not.
The text goes on to tell us that the disciples of Jesus “devoted themselves to . . . the fellowship.” No, this is not talking about church socials. The fellowship of the saints is sealed and proclaimed in the Sacraments. All who are baptized with water in the name of the Triune God and marked with the cross of Christ the Crucified are one fellowship in Him. But that fellowship is defined by a maturing in the faith through the study of God’s Word, resulting in agreement in the doctrines of Scripture. Nowhere is this fellowship expressed more intimately than in the Lord’s Supper. Here believers declare their oneness not only with the slain and risen Christ, but also with one another. When people commune together, they are making a public statement that they are one in faith and doctrine--that they all believe the same thing and share the same confession of faith. That’s why communing with people whose faith you don’t share or don’t understand is, in fact, making a false or misleading statement.
Specific mention of the Lord’s Supper is made when Luke states that the early Christians “devoted themselves . . . to the breaking of bread.” He is clearly talking here about something far more significant than simply sharing a meal. We all eat several times a day, sometimes alone and sometimes with others. Nice though that may be, it’s not something that requires anyone’s devotion; it's something that we do merely by nature and out of bodily necessity. The Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, however, is something altogether different. If it is to be of any benefit, it requires of those who partake of it a devotion to the truths revealed in the Holy Scriptures. We are being told here that celebrating the Lord’s Supper is a vital part of what the Church does when its members come together in the name of Jesus. It is a regular feature of the Church’s worship; not just an occasional add-on.
Identifying and looking for the marks of the Church may seem like a purely academic pursuit, but it becomes very practical and important when you look at the confusing religious landscape of our society today and begin to wonder what out there is legitimately Christian and what is not. The marks of the Church are the Word of God and the Sacraments that the Lord Jesus Christ has instituted. Wherever these means of grace are in use by people who believe in and confess the Lord Jesus, there is the Church. And there the Holy Spirit is at work creating and strengthening saving faith in the hearts of sinners and thereby making them the saints of God--all through the mercy of the Christ who was crucified and raised again "for us . . . and for our salvation (Nicene Creed, Article II).
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.