What the Church Is and is NOT

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Roseberg. The scripture for our meditation for tonight is taken from Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 22. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at one time separated from Christ.

You were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are now fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the Apostles and the Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is the word of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. I remember very vividly the funeral for Bert Egan, a member of the community out here in Oslo and Alvarado.

It was a very cold winter day, in fact the ice was really, really tough that particular day, and one of the things I did not expect that I ran into was that Bert Egan, as well placed in the community as he was, when he died, everybody in the community, I don't think anybody was left at home, everybody showed up.

Of course the pastor decided he was going to show up like 15 minutes before the funeral, because we had already worked this all out with the funeral home, and I had nowhere to park. I ended up parking like five blocks away, walking on the ice.

I should have brought my skates. But what was fascinating to me was vividly seeing, and kind of starkly seeing, the community that lives out here. They were all there to say their farewells and their goodbyes.

And I think it's amazing to me, as somebody who grew up in Southern California, that I never was part of a community like that, or like the one that exists out here. And so I think it's wonderful that in some way I get to serve some of the people of that community.

And you notice I say some, because unfortunately I do not have the privilege of serving all of the members of that community. And so as we embark on our study of what the church is, let me remind you what is in our small catechism.

On the third article of the Creed it says this, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, and here's the phrase we're going to kind of zoom in on today, the communion of saints. The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

But there's our phrase, the communion of the saints. In Luther's explanation he asks, of course in his German brogue, was ist das? What does this mean? He says, I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him.

But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Now in the same way he calls, he gathers, he enlightens, and he sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

And in this Christian church he daily and richly forgives all of my sins, and the sins of all believers. And on the last day he will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

And then of course we get these wonderful words, this is most certainly true. And so you begin to get this idea, the communion of the saints, that there's something a little bit different about the church, because it's not the same community as the community that lives in Oslo, or Alvaredo, Warren, or even Radium, way out there, you know, near the borders of the very earth itself, right?

Instead we learned that members of that community out there, also are members of a different community, a community that Christ has gathered, and he is the one who gathers us. And so many people, they oftentimes think, you know, what is the church?

And the first thing they point to is the building. Take a look at this building. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it gorgeous, decked out for the holiday season? And we got the steeple, of course, our lights off on our steeple, but you know, it's warm and cozy and everything.

But see, this isn't the church. The pews aren't the church, the altar isn't the church. Y 'all are the church. And one of the things that it's so amazing to me, is the privilege that I have to preach the gospel and to administer word and sacrament to people who live thousands of miles away, who gather in homes.

This past Sunday, Aletheia Lutheran Church of Percival, Virginia, they had an LCMS pastor who we've been working with, with our Aletheia project. Come, he drove an hour, and he did the divine service in the home of one of our Aletheia families.

And they had set up chairs, and they all had hymnals, and it was beautiful to see that they had created an altar for the occasion, complete with pyramids, complete with pyramids, and a cross, and an advent wreath, and candle.

And it was just absolutely stunning and amazing to think about the fact that a church was meeting in their home. But see, their home isn't the church. It's just the place where the church, this past Sunday, met.

And they met to hear of the forgiveness of their sins, to feast on the Word of God, and to feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ, broken and shed for them for the forgiveness of their sins. To be, again, pointed back to their baptisms, where they were united with Christ.

And see, that baptismal font is a very active font here, because that font is the place where Christ continues to grow this different community, this community of faith. And so, quoting then the great theologian and pastor of the LCMS, C .F .W. Walter, he actually wrote a book on the church, and he wrote some theses regarding what the church is.

Walter writes, he says, the church, in the proper sense of the word, is the congregation of the saints. That is, the entirety of all those who are called out of the lost and condemned human race by the Holy Spirit, through the Word.

Truly, they believe in Christ, and by faith are sanctified and incorporated in Christ. And so, you hear the word there, he said, called out. Ekklesia. Ekklesia, the Greek word. You can translate it as congregation, or community, or assembly, but if you break the word into its little component parts, ekklesia literally means the called-out ones.

And that's what Christ has done for us, in His Word, and in the baptismal font. He has called us out from the world, forgiven us, sanctified us, sealed us with His Holy Spirit, and now feeds us with His means of grace.

And so, with that, consider then what Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll actually do a little bit of a study on some of the texts in the book of Ephesians, as they so clearly bear this out. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, starting at verse 16, Paul says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, and this is a plural you, y 'all.

We got to get a plural you in English that's better than y 'all. What's the King James Version? I forget. But here's the idea. He says, I do not cease to give thanks for y 'all, remembering y 'all in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all glory, that He may give to you the spirit of wisdom, and of revelation, and the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you.

That are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe. And there's the idea. And so you'll note that of the greater community from around here, there are those who believe, who've been called out, and separated into a different community.

A community where we are forgiven, and now we are to love each other. And so Paul continues. He says, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age that is to come.

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body. Now not every human being is part of the body of Christ. Only those who believe. And so we have been called to be part of the church, the body of Christ, which, according to Paul, is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

John Christostom, the great preacher from the city of Constantinople, which is now in modern day Turkey, Istanbul, used to preach in the building that they now call the Hagia Sophia, right? It's a mosque now.

But the great John Christostom, preaching a sermon in that building when it was still a Christian cathedral, he said, when you flee to the church, you do not flee to a place. And what a stunning thing for him to say, because considering where he preached this from, I mean, we can still walk into the Hagia Sophia today.

And granted, you know, all of its Christian greatness has been papered over by the Muslims. But still, you can get glimpses of its former glory. And so here, John Christostom, preaching in this magnificent edifice, one of the first megachurches of the world, if you would, he says, when you flee to the church, you don't flee to a place.

And you'll note, there is no church in the Hagia Sophia today. It's not a church. It's a mosque. You see, but it was never the church. It was never really a church. It was just the place where the church met.

And that's his point. He says this, but when you flee to the church, you flee to her with your heart. For the essence of the church does not consist in wall and masonry, but in faith and in virtue. She is called a mountain because of her firmness.

She's called a virgin because of her sanctity. She's called a queen because of her glory. A king's daughter because of her relation with God. A mother having given birth because of the great number of children she conceived after she had been childless for a long time.

Not to speak of the uncountable other names that Holy Scripture gives to her in addition. Beautiful picture if you think about it. Paul then, in Ephesians 2, goes a little further with this idea of the fact that we, the human beings who believe in Jesus Christ, that we are now citizens.

In fact, Paul writes in Ephesians 2, and we heard it in our reading earlier, then you, you, you all of y 'all, you are no longer strangers. You are alien, and the aliens, but you are now fellow citizens with all the saints.

And you are members of the household of God, which is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And Jesus Christ being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure is now being joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, it says this, Paul writes, do you not know that y 'all, there it is again, the plural you, y 'all are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in, and it's plural, y 'all.

God's Spirit dwells in you. So if anyone destroy God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy. And you, y 'all, y 'all are that temple. This building isn't that temple. You are that temple.

And then we learn this from a text that is so despised today, so out of sync with so much of the communities around us. You see, you got to understand this, when people do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they do not believe that he's the Christ, that he's bled and died for their sins, that they're hostile to God.

And they're hostile to what his word reveals. And so here's a text that is just seems so out of vogue, and the modern-day feminists would literally probably throw an egg in your face if you quoted it to them.

But listen to what it says regarding our relationship to Christ. Ephesians 5, 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. And by the way, I counted it up. There are six letters in submit, not four.

Okay? Many people think that's a four-letter word. It's not. We are to embrace it. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, and here's the comparison, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

So now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. And so you'll note then that in our community, Christ is the head. We cannot do theology or doctrine or what we are to believe, teach, and confess by our decisions, our consensus.

We are not the rulers of this community. This is a community attached to the kingdom of Christ, and in that kingdom Christ is king. He is above all rule and authority, and his church, his community, submits to him.

And see, so much of what's gone wrong in the church today is that the bride of Christ has rebelled against her husband and has decided to call the shots. We'll call that the ultimate sinful form of feminism, if you would, when the church rises up against Jesus.

And so we learn from this text that informs us how we are to relate to each other within our own marriages, that we as the church, as the community of faith, we are to submit to Christ. Now regarding this idea then of what the church is, this communion of the saints, I love what Luther wrote in the large catechism.

It's quite helpful for us, and I'll read some snippets from it. Luther says, so if you asked or you are asked, what do you mean by the words, I believe in the Holy Spirit? He says, you can answer this way.

I believe that the Holy Spirit makes me holy, as his name implies. And this is a good way to talk about the Holy Spirit, right? So then he says, well, how does he do this? By what means? Well, here's the answer.

Through the Christian church, through the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. So in the first place, he has a unique community in the world. Christ does, the Holy Spirit does.

And see, it, this community, is the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the word of God. The Holy Spirit reveals and preaches that word, and by it he illumines and kindles hearts, so that they may grasp and they may accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it.

And where he does not cause the word to be preached, and does not awaken understanding in the heart, well then all is lost. All is lost. So therefore, there was no Christian church for where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Spirit to create, call, to gather the Christian church.

And outside of it, no one can come to the Lord Christ. So the creed calls the Holy Christian church a communion of saints. The word ecclesia probably then means an assembly. But we, however, are accustomed to the term, and he uses the German here, kirche, church, by which simple folks understand not a group of people, but a consecrated house or a building.

But the house should not be called a church, except for the single reason that the group of people assembles there. For we who assemble select a special place, and give the house its name by virtue of the assembly.

So the idea here is that this building is called a church, not because of its architecture. It's called a church because a church meets here. And that's the only reason it should be called a church. I think Luther is right on this, right?

So he says this, instead it should be called a Christian congregation, or an assembly, or at best, most clearly of all, a Holy Christian people. So the church is a community, and Luther says we ought to say a community of saints, of holy ones.

That is, a community composed only of saints, or still more clearly, a holy community. And so this is the sum and the substance of this phrase. I believe that there is on earth a little holy flock, or a little community of pure saints, under one head, Christ.

It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, mind, and understanding. It possesses a variety of gifts, yet it is united in love, without sect or schism. And of this community, I also am a part, and I am a member, a participant, and a co-partner in all the blessings that this community possesses.

It was brought to it by the Holy Spirit, and incorporated into it through the fact that I have heard, and still continue to hear God's Word. And now you see why that third commandment is so important.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. To fear, love, and trust in God, so that we do not despise preaching in His Word. To despise preaching in His Word is to cut yourself off from the community where the Holy Spirit is forgiving us, sanctifying us, molding us into the image of God.

Luther is so right on this point. And so we must continue to still hear God's Word, which then is the first step in entering it. So until the last day, the Holy Spirit remains with the holy community, or the Christian people.

Through it, He gathers us, using it to teach, and to preach the Word. By it, He creates and increases sanctification, causing it daily to grow, and to become strong in the faith, and in the fruits of the Spirit.

Furthermore, we believe that in this Christian church, we have the forgiveness of our sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments, the absolution, as well as through all the comforting words of the entire gospel.

Towards forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments, and in short, the entire gospel, and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly, for although God's grace has been won by Christ, and holiness has been brought by the Holy Spirit through God's Word in the unity of the Christian church, yet because we are encumbered with our flesh, we are never without sin.

Therefore, everything in the Christian church is so ordered that we may daily obtain forgiveness of sins through the Word, and through the signs appointed to comfort and revive our consciences as long as we live.

Although we have sinned, the Holy Spirit sees to it that it does not harm us, because we are in the Christian church, where there is full forgiveness of sins. God forgives us, and then we forgive, and bear with, and aid one another.

Boy, I didn't realize there was so much to that phrase, the communion of the saints, but that's the idea. So you'll note then that what we do when we gather as this community, as the communion of the saints, as the assembly of those who have been made holy by Christ, we have some peculiar things that we do.

And the members of the greater community where we gather may think that we're a bunch of odd ducks, and I guess we are, because we gather to hear God's Word, to sing praise to our God in response to the great gifts that He has given us in Christ.

We baptize our infants. We feast on the body and blood of Christ and that crazy pastor that they have. Have you heard what he says? He says to the people who come and show up, I forgive you all of your sins.

What a strange group of people they are, and indeed we are, but we've been made strange by Christ, right? And so the idea then is that if we're first going to understand what the church is, we have to understand what Scripture tells us we are.

And then when we do that, we can see how out of step we might become with the community or the world around us, and Jesus told us to expect that. And so we realize then that always as Christians, we are dual citizens.

We are citizens of the United States. We're local residents of rural Minnesota, but we are also citizens of the kingdom of God, and that citizenship and that community and that assembly is the one that informs everything that we do when we come together from outside of the world.

You see, here's the fun part. When you think of it, when we confess in the creed, I believe in the communion of the saints, that is an article of faith. And then when you disappear and you leave this building, you're like leaven that goes out into the bread, leavening the loaf with the leaven of Christ.

But see, then we can't see it anymore. You see, where I stand, I can get glimpses of this church for just a few minutes, but then in just a minute, we're all going to get in our cars and drive away, and whoosh, we disappear like a dream.

And that's the idea. And we disappear into the larger community, always remembering that we are a separate community set apart wholly because of Christ and what he has done for us and because of the work that the Holy Spirit has done on us here in this assembly, in this church, and in the church that mysteriously meets throughout the world.

In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching.

Ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again, that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744.

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