The Marks of a True Church

 

One Sunday after the service a small group of young adults gather together and start complaining about their church.

‘Gosh, the music is very old-fashioned here.’  ‘That sermon was dull.’  ‘These people are so unexciting.’

Then Tom comes up with a suggestion.  ‘Let’s start our own church.’  ‘Let’s “do church” in a way that our friends will want to attend.’  ‘Let’s “do church” our way.’

So, they got together a praise band, one of them agreed to preach, they even appointed a couple of elders and deacons, and they met together the next Sunday.  That Sunday they shared the Lord’s Supper, and over time even baptised one of their friends when he came to put his trust in Jesus.

Have those young people created a true church?

I have wondered about this for years.  When a group of Christians set up a community and start meeting together what makes them a church?

This is a big question for us in LBC because we have committed ourselves to church-planting.  We need to know what are the ingredients of a true church?  We need to remember that what we are seeking to do is something that actually depends on divine favour.

1.        The historic marks of a true church

These were big questions around the time of the Reformation.  Afterall the Reformation saw a large number of groups of people breaking away from an institution that claimed to be the one true church.  They knew that the church is the body of Christ, and that to be a Christian involves being connected with that body.  How did these break-away groups know that they really were churches of God?

Various groups all came up with three similar marks of a true church, and these marks can be seen in the various historical confessions of faith.  They claimed that a true church—taught the Bible faithfully, shared the sacraments/ordinances (which they limited to baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and practiced church discipline.

In those days those new churches were quick to write each other off on the first mark—teaching the Bible faithfully.  The Reformation was after all a battle for truth.  Churches in those days often split on what we might think as secondary issues of doctrine.  But if that was the weakness of their time, the weakness of our time is that we tend to ignore the Bible’s call to lovingly hold our members to account.  You should not join a church that won’t challenge you about what you think and how you live.

A couple of things about this discipline.

Church discipline does not expect church members to be perfect.  John wrote saying that if we say we are without sin we are liars and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).  Christians struggle, and often fail, in our aim to live a holy God-honouring life.  Church discipline is for those who are persistently opposing the truth, stubbornly refusing to address issues of serious sin in their lives or are constantly causing division.

Church discipline is only for those who are claiming to be followers of Jesus.  People who don’t know Jesus are welcome to come to our meetings and see what we do.  Our job is not to judge their lifestyles.  That is between them and God.  But if they submit to Jesus’ loving rule, and so join a local church, that local church is to hold them accountable in their Christian walk.  That is the advantage of having a formal system of membership.  It can be hard to know who on a Sunday understands the gospel and has committed to following Jesus.  In going through a membership process these things are clarified.  Becoming a member involves agreeing to come under the discipline of the church.

It is not the pastor or elders alone who practice church discipline, it is the role of the whole church.

Discipling might begin with a serious chat.  It might then be suggested to a person that it is dangerous for them to participate in the Lord’s Supper.  Finally, their membership might be withdrawn and there could be the withdrawal of convivial discourse.

What do I mean by the withdrawal of convivial discourse?  I mean that we don’t pretend that all is well.  They might come along to church, and it is good to see them there because they need to be challenged by the gospel.  But after the service they would prefer to talk about Munster’s latest rugby triumph, or the book they are reading, rather than address what is going on in their life.  Withdrawing convivial discourse means that we are not going to be rude, but neither are we going to be trivial.  We might reply, ‘I know you want to talk about the Munster rugby team, but I can’t pretend all is well in your life.  I love you too much to pretend that you are not in grave spiritual danger.  I only want to talk about how things are between you and God.  We can sit down and see what the Bible says about these things.  But do not have me pretend everything is okay.’ 

This sort of thing interaction, or lack of interaction, goes on until the person concludes that they never understood what it meant to follow Jesus, and aren’t born again, or, show that they are born again by repenting.

The aim of church discipline is both to protect the purity and witness and the church (we want the world to see that we don’t agree with certain behaviours) and the loving restoration of failing people.

2.        The divine marker of the true church

I don’t see these three marks of a true church as simply ingredients that you put together and then say, ‘hey presto here is a church.’  I think they are also like fruit that show that God is creating a true church.  We must remember that a local church is a divinely constructed entity, and not just a humanly constructed one.  When the Holy Spirit is moving among a group of believers who are claiming to be a church, if it is a real work of God, you will see a strong emphasis on submitting and being shaped by the Bible, a reverence and rejoicing in the ordinances that demonstrate the gospel, and a loving concern for purity of the church and its people.

One of the passages in the Bible that reminds us that the local church is something that God establishes is the first chapter of Revelation.  There we see Jesus walking amongst the lampstands, which are the churches.  I am not sure whether these lampstands refer to the churches across a city or to individual churches.  The point I want to make is simply that only God can create such a lampstand.  A true church is something that God establishes and maintains.

I also think that there are at least two other fruit of a true church: love for other churches and perseverance. 

In John’s first letter, the beloved apostle points out that you can not claim to love God, who you have not seen, if you do not love your Christian brothers and sisters, who you have seen (1 John 4:20).  There is a real problem when a Christian is so exclusive that they cannot find a church that they are willing to join.  There is a real problem when we are overly critical of every other church.  There can also be a real problem when a church is so focused on itself that they have no delight in what God might be doing through other groups.

With regards perseverance, I think of a conversation that happened when the Jewish Sanhedrin were debating the early Christian church.  A leading Pharisee, called Gamaliel, suggested that if this movement was of God it would last (Acts 5:38-39).  Luke records these as wise words coming from the mouth of an unbeliever.  I think something similar can be said of a true church.  While a church might reach the end of a faithful ministry due to movements of population or the passing on of believers, things that God creates tend to last.  I would even go so far as to say that some groups that decided to set up as a church for reasons that might be less than ideal over time have come to show themselves to end up as true works of God.

3.       Every Christian needs to be a member of a true church

Different churches have different ways of recognising who is a member of the body.  If you are a Christian you need to be committed to a true church.  Is it possible to be truly born again and not be connected to the body of Christ?  Maybe there are certain exceptional circumstances where this can be, but it is not normal.  One of the evidences that we are born again is that we love and belong to a local church.

Sometimes a person will refuse to join a church because they cannot find one that agrees with them on every issue—be careful, it may be that you are letting a doctrine of secondary importance cause you to disobey a primary issue of behaviour.  The writer to the Hebrews warns us not to give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25).  Sometimes people struggle to settle into a church because the church doesn’t do things the way we want or they are not all our sort of people.  No one said that membership of a church is not easy. 

By the way, I don’t like church-shopping.  Churches are not a product and you are not a customer.  Don’t simply look for a church with the nicest people, the best music and the most dynamic speakers.  Pray about it.  Join an imperfect community that displays the marks of a true church.  Then fully commit yourselves to serving and encouraging.  Remember the words of the writer to the Hebrews: ‘let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other—all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-35).

Remember that to be a spiritual member of a church is compared to being a member of a body, and that body is the body of Christ.  There are times when it is right to leave a church and join another one.  But remember that if you do this badly it will cause hurt—just like tearing a finger off a hand.

Conclusion

Remember how we began this talk.  A group of young adults decide to “do church” their way.  They appoint leadership, the commit themselves to teaching the Bible and the gospel ordinances, and they are evening willing to hold each other to account.  Have they created a true church?  I am not sure!  Their motives don’t seem to have been particularly God-honouring, loving or humble.  Who knows?  God is gracious.  Perhaps over time they will show themselves to be the real thing.

Aren’t we at such an exciting time in LBC.  We are asking God to use us to plant a true church.  That is why we need to be so clear about what a true church is.  God may choose to use us in creating something that is ultimately God-built.  We can be involved in God creating a body of Christ in this area.  We can be involved in something that God might choose to keep glowing for generations.  We can be there at the start—at a truly historical moment.

I want to finish by explaining the gospel in turns of church.  When our first parents rebelled against the loving rule of God people were alienated from Him and from each other.  God has always sought to restore to Himself a people.  In fact, in His great love God promises to put the lonely into a family (Psalm 68:6).  The church is a family belonging to God and we are brothers in sisters in Christ.  But God brought us into this family at a great cost to Himself.  As His Son took the punishment for our guilt He felt forsaken by His own Father.  Now when we are brought to Jesus, we are called to be a part of His body—a local church.  This is both our privilege and our opportunity.  Those who are born again are to love and serve the church remembering how precious it is to God.  Jesus is the groom and the church is His bride!  It is precious to Him, and it must be special to us.