This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for reading the Weekend Sermon. I hope that everyone has a wonderful day.
It has been a busy and stressful week for me. We have had a lot of severe weather threats in my part of the world. Thankfully, it hasn't been too bad. Tonight is supposed to be bad again, so I would once again ask everyone to pray that the weather won't cause problems.
Let us remember in prayer once again this week those who are suffering because of natural disasters. Ecuador and Japan have both experienced earthquakes, and the southern part of the United States is still dealing with the terrible flooding. Let us also continue to pray for an end to the Zika virus.
I would also ask you to continue to pray for peace in this troubled world. The situation in Syria just keeps going from bad to worse. There is conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Ukraine. Please Lord, let there be peace.
We have also been praying for those nations where there are not many Christians. This week, let us make our prayer focus the nations of Thailand and Laos. Continue to pray for Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in the Lord Jesus.
Last week, we continued with our series of messages in the Apostles' Creed by looking at the role of the Holy Spirit in the world. Today, we will focus on the phrase, "the holy catholic church" and focus on the what the church is and what its mission is.
Before we get into that, let's just clarify what catholic means in this part of the creed. Catholic in this section of the creed means universal. It is not signifying the Roman Catholic church. Some Protestant churches to avoid confusion on this matter have changed this part of the Creed to read, "the holy Christian church." There is nothing wrong with that, but I am somewhat of a traditionalist, so I prefer the original wording.
Our first order of business should be to define what the church is. The Bible in passages such as I Corinthians 12:27 refers to the church as the body of Christ. We as believers in Jesus Christ are members of the body. Colossians 1:18 refers to Jesus as the head of the church body. In the book of Revelation in chapter 19, the church is referred to as the bride of Christ who will share in the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The church is made up of all those who have accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. We see this in passages such as Acts 2:47 which tells us that those who were being saved were added to the church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said that His church was built on the rock of the confession that Peter made that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. In other words, the church is made up of those who believe in Jesus as Lord.
The church is both local and universal. All over the world we see gatherings of believers who meet for worship. Some of these local fellowships are small and may meet in houses. Some fellowships are huge like the church a few miles from where I live that had 25,000 people attend for Easter worship. Each of these gatherings is a local church body.
The church is also universal as stated in the Creed. All those who have Jesus as Lord all over this world make up the church which is the body of Christ. Revelation 5:9 states that by His shed blood, Jesus has purchased people from every tribe, language, people and nation to be part of the church. All those who have come to faith in Jesus are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and they are part of the church.
What is the purpose of the church. Let me just discuss a few of the aspects of this. For one thing, the church is a body with many members each being gifted by the Holy Spirit to help the other members of the church, bring glory to God and spread the message of the love of Jesus. In other words, the church is a fellowship where those who are in Jesus work together to aid each other and share Jesus with the world.
The church is to be a place where the Lord is praised and glorified. In John 4, Jesus said that the Father was seeking true worshipers who would worship in Spirit and in truth. The church is the place where believers come together to worship the Lord in song, in word, in sacrament and in work.
The way I see it, the church has four important missions in the world today. The church is the place where believers are equipped to carry out the mission of Jesus. Churches need to teach the Word so that people will know Jesus better. I think that this is lacking in some churches. We need more in depth Bible preaching
The church also has the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are millions of people in this world who do not know Jesus. The church needs to evangelize the people so that they will know that Jesus loves them and wants to forgive them of their sins.
Another important mission of the church is benevolence. In the early church, the Apostles appointed deacons to help distribute food, clothing and other necessities to those who had need. There are so many people in need in our communities. I thank the Lord for all the churches in my community who have food pantries and other ministries that help those who are hurting. I know that when I was at a low, low point in my finances, a church food pantry helped me out a lot.
The church also has the mission of working to make this world a better place. By this I mean that those in the church must try to do as much good as possible. There are many needs in our communities. There are a lot of dark places where the light needs to shine. It is the mission of the church to shine the light in the darkness in the name of Jesus.
If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you are a member of His body the church. If you have not trusted in Jesus, you are outside of His body. You can become part of His body and His bride by turning your life over to Jesus today.
Next week, we will continue to study the Apostles' Creed when we look at what it means to believe in the communion of the saints. On Monday, I will post the memory verses. On Wednesday, there will be a review. May God bless you all. Amen.
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