Welcome to this week's edition of the sermon. I am glad that you are reading this message, and I hope that it brings you closer to the Lord.
I am sorry that the sermon was delayed this week. I had a lot of business to take care of yesterday before I had to go into work. I have a new supervisor and some new responsibilities at work. So far, everything is going well. Today, I have a meeting with the new supervisor, so please pray that all goes well in that regard.
The past couple of days have been kind of sad for me. As I mentioned a few weeks back, a friend of mine who I had known for many years died. It would have been his birthday yesterday. Today, is my friend Toby's birthday. I miss my friends, but I know that they are with the Lord.
As we go to prayer this week, please remember the people in Canada. The prairie fire there is terrible. Over 80,000 people in one city have had to be evacuated. Pray that this fire will be extinguished quickly. Also continue to pray for an end to the Zika virus.
Pray for peace around the world focusing on Syria, Iraq and Sudan this week. Please pray that many might hear the message of Jesus in Turkey and Turkmenistan.
As you are aware, we have been in a series of messages dealing with the doctrines spoken of in the Apostles' Creed. After today's message, we will have two more messages on the Creed. I have several other sermon series planned to take us through this year and probably into the next, Lord willing.
Last week, we discussed the doctrine of the church. We looked into what the church is and what its mission is in the world right now. Today, we turn our attention to the section of the Creed dealing with the belief in the communion of the saints. This ties into what we discussed in our message last week.
We saw from Revelation 7:9 that all nations and races make up the church which is the body of Christ. We are all united together in Jesus. This has some very important ramifications that I just don't see Christians living into today.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a common purpose and a common identity no matter our race, ethnicity, socio-economic background or country. As believers in Jesus, our primary allegiance is to be to Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
Unfortunately, over the course of history, Christians have not seen themselves primarily united in Christ, and they have placed other allegiances and identifications over unity in Jesus. For instance, look at the wars that occur between nations where most of the people claim to be Christians. Why are Christians fighting with one another like this. We are supposed to be joined together in Jesus.
Look at the divisions among people that claim to be followers of the Lord. Christians are often divided over political, economic and racial lines. We are forgetting what really matters. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. He is our leader. We are to put other identifications and allegiances in proper perspective and focus on being the people of God in this world.
Also people within the body of Christ our divided over so many things. Just look at the thousands of different Christian denominations. Most of these were formed because people couldn't seem to get along with one another.
Jesus prayed that all of His followers might be one. Why are we not trying to follow what our Lord wants? Also, Jesus said in John 13:35 that the world will know that we are Christians by our love for one another.
Part of the doctrine of the communion of the saints starts with understanding that we are one in Jesus. That is our primary focus. We look to Him and are unified one with another as Christ's body.
There is another aspect of the communion of the saints that I would like to emphasize. Communion means that we are in fellowship with one another. Individual members of the church have the mission of helping each other and encouraging one another. We are to build each other up in Jesus, and not bring each other down.
Unfortunately, this is not the experience for many. Many have very negative experiences with the church, and this has led them to abandon the faith.
In my own life, and I am sorry to have to say this, most of my early experiences in the church were very negative. When I was a young man, my family was involved with a very fundamentalist brand of Christianity. It was very legalistic. I was exposed to this negativity and condemnation in church and in the church run school that I attended.
During this time, I became very depressed and a lot of what happened during that time still affects me today. I almost left the faith and this world.
Thankfully, the Lord Jesus allowed me to find out who He really is. I started reading many books about Jesus outside of the narrow theology I knew as a young man. I truly understood who Jesus was and that He truly did love me and care about me.
Also, about the time when things were at the worst in my life in fundamentalism, the Lord brought my friend Toby into my life to help me with my depression and to help me make it through to the other side.
I said all that to make the point that the church is supposed to help people and not make people depressed to the point of illness. Legalism and condemnation are not what Jesus is about. The church is supposed to be a community of encouragement and helping. It is to be a place of inclusion and not exclusion. It is a place where the love of Jesus is to be overflowing. This is part of the true communion of the saints.
Now the main historical aspect of the communion of the saints has to do with the fact that the church exists on earth and in Heaven. Those who have died in Christ are still part of Christ's body. They are still united with us in the faith.
Hebrews 12 tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that are encouraging us to run the race of life as we are focused on Jesus. Those who are in Heaven are watching us and cheering us on.
In some churches, the doctrine of the communion of saints involves the idea of invoking the saints to pray on our behalf. Some people think that this is a completely wrong idea, but I don't think so if it is not taken too far. We ask people on earth to pray for us, I don't see why it would be wrong to ask someone that we know who is with Jesus to pray for us.
This might sound strange to some, but when I think of my Mom and the fact that she is with Jesus in Heaven I will sometimes tell her that I love her and ask her to put in a word with Jesus for me when she sees Him. That doesn't mean that I don't pray to the Lord Jesus myself. Some may disagree with me on this. That's OK.
For me, I experience the communion of the saints on earth and in Heaven when I am worshiping in church on Sunday morning. As we are singing, I like to imagine all of my family and friends who are with the Lord singing and praising the Lord along with me. It brings comfort to my heart.
We are one in Christ. Let us love one another and work with one another to bring Jesus' love to this world.
Next week we will discuss the forgiveness of sins. I will post the verses on Monday, and there will be a review of a book with a good dog character on Wednesday. May God bless you. Amen.
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