Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:08]
A
Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature John Stott. Whether in the west or in the Third World, a hallmark of Stott's ministry has been expository preaching that addresses not only the hearts but also the minds of contemporary men and women. In 2011, the evangelical world lost one of its greatest spokesmen and and I have lost one of my closest friends and advisors, said Billy Graham, paying tribute to the Reverend John Robert Walmsley Stott. Today, John Stott presents a study on the communion of saints.
- [00:58]
B
We come today in this series of addresses on the Apostles Creed to the phrase the communion of saints. None of the earliest forms of the Apostles Creed included this phrase. Bishop Pearson, in a very learned footnote in his very learned volume on the Creed, cites about 20 of the early creeds from which the phrase is absent. The fourth century creed of the church of Aquila in North Italy, for instance, expounded by Rufinus, which was a kind of prototype of the Western creed, omits this phrase. Indeed, although it is found in one Creed of the 6th century, it was the latest clause to be universally added as late perhaps as the 8th century A.D. writes Bishop Westcott. It's uncertain, moreover, why it was introduced thus late into the Creed. The Communion of Saints what does it mean? Well, we must, of course, begin by defining our terms, and first, the word sense sense in this phrase must be understood in the biblical sense of the word of all Christians. Sense does not mean the Christian dead, nor does it mean Christians who have attained an advanced degree of sanctity. Nor does it mean Christians canonized by the Church of Rome, although I trust it includes all these. But no, in the Creed as in the Bible, sense is the term used indiscriminately for all Christians and not for a saintly minority among Christians. Why then, are Christians called saints? Christians are called saints because the word hagios, saint or holy means separated or set apart. A person is called holy or a saint in Scripture, not primarily because he is righteous in character, although he ought to be, but because he has been separated from the world unto God. That, of course, is why certain things are said in Scripture to be holy. Also we read in the Bible of holy vessels, not because there is anything in the vessel itself that is holy, but because these vessels were set apart from common and secular use to special and sacred use. We read also of holy days and holy places, because these places and days were marked out from ordinary places and days for the worship and the service of God. In the same way Israel was called a holy nation, although I'm afraid it was very wayward often in its behavior, yet it had been chosen out from all the nations of the world to be in a special way God's people. In the same way the Christian church, which is the new Israel, is called a holy nation and a holy people. Thus when Paul read his letter to Corinth, he revealed in his letter that there were certain features of the inner life of the Corinthian Church which were disgraceful and even positively scandalous. The Christians were quarrelsome and jealous and complacent. One of them had been guilty of the grossest incest. Others were taking each other to court, and that before heathen magistrates, and the behavior of some of them at the Lord's Supper was shocking. And yet, knowing all this, the Apostle Paul addressed these Corinthians as those who had been sanctified in Christ Jesus, and he refers to the Corinthian church in chapter 14, verse 33 as one of the churches of the saints. Mind you, Christians are also called to be saints. There is called to be in practice what they already are, in their position as being set apart to belong to God. But since these Corinthians were professing Christian believers, since they had been baptized into Christ, they belong to God, and they were truly and properly speaking, since so are we, every Christian is a saint sanctified in Christ Jesus, set apart from the world to belong to God. And we cannot escape this fact. Now we come back to the phrase in the creed that between such saints there is, or there should be a communion, a communing we who are saints should commune with one another we should have fellowship with one another. And there are three aspects of this communion which exists between us, and I take as our basis 1 John 1 verses 3 and 4 that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that your joy may be complete. The first aspect of the communion of saints is the basis of it. What is the basis of this communion? 1 John 1:3. We proclaim to you that you may have fellowship with us as we have fellowship with God. Fundamentally, then, it is plain from this sentence that Christians fellowship with one another depends on their fellowship with God, and that with the three persons of the Trinity we have fellowship with the Father, because we are his children we have fellowship with his Son, because he is our Savior, and God has called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:9. We have fellowship with the Holy Spirit because he dwells within us, making our body his temple and our heart his home, and because the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Spirit, is the strongest bond of unity between Christians. The Christian fellowship is sometimes called the fellowship of the Spirit Philippians 2:1 and 2 Corinthians 13:14, while Christian unity is called the unity of the Spirit. Ephesians 4, verses 3 and 4. There can then be no communion of saints without communion with God. That's the plain truth of the Bible about the basis of this communion, and is all I want to say about it. Secondly, we consider now the extent of this communion. John says in 1 John 1:3, we proclaim to you that you may have fellowship with us. But who is this you, and who is this us? St. John, of course, was an old man. Now as he writes this epistle, he is perhaps the last surviving representative of the first apostles. And he uses the plural we proclaim not as an editorial device, but because he associates with himself in this letter all the first apostles who were eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ. Theirs was a joint testimony to what they had seen and heard and handled. And St. John writes this to the whole church, coming after to new generations who had not seen and heard and touched the Word made flesh as he had and his brother apostles had, but who could yet have fellowship with those who had gone before them. His Epistle then all the way through, is, we proclaim to you that is, we, the first apostles who saw, heard, and touched Christ. We proclaim to you who come after us. I then would not want to circumscribe the limits of this you it must have included many readers in the first century who had not known Jesus and probably were not known to John personally. And it includes us today. We read this epistle today. I read this text to you today as if it was addressed to us. And so it is. We understand that it is possible for us to have fellowship with the apostles and with all those who know or have known Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord, that you may have fellowship with us. What then is the extent of the communion? Well, may I suggest this? A It includes all living Christians. Each of us has met only a tiny fraction of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We've enjoyed active Christian fellowship with only a very few of our fellow Christians. But the communion of saints includes all living Christians, whether we've met them or not. The body of Christ is one one head governs and directs it one Spirit animates and pervades it. Therefore, all the members of the body of Christ, even if we've never seen them, even if we've never heard of them, are in fellowship with one another, because we are subservient to the same head and indwelt and animated by the same spirit. It includes all living Christians. B. The communion of saints includes all former Christians, that is, former Christians who are now in Heaven Some early Christian writers thought that the clause in the Apostles Creed, the communion of saints, was added as an extra to the holy Catholic Church in order to specify the glorified saints and in particular the martyrs. Thus Professor Sweet quotes the author of a Gallican homily who wrote as follows. This clause, the communion of saints, that is, this clause shuts the mouths of those who blasphemously refuse to honour the ashes of the saints and friends of God, and who do not hold that the glorious memory of the blessed martyrs is to be cherished by doing honour to their tombs. Such persons are false to their creed. Most scholars today do not agree that the clause was added in order to refer exclusively to the dead, the glorified dead and the martyrs. But although the clause does not refer particularly to them, it includes them because death does not disrupt the communion of saints. The Church of Jesus Christ is composed of two parts, the Church Militant on earth and the Church Triumphant in heaven. And these are not two churches, but one church. One communion of saints comprises all believers in this world and the next. This truth is surely taught in Hebrews 12, verses 22 and 23, where Christians are described as having come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and as the spirits of just men made perfect. So every time we approach the throne of God, whether in private prayer or in public worship, we should seek to be aware of the whole church in heaven and on earth, with whose voices we blend ours in prayer and praise. The 1928 Prayer Book, the rejected book in the Church of England, includes in its exhortation, we are come together in the presence of Almighty God and of the whole company of heaven, to offer unto him our worship and praise, etc. And in the Holy Communion service after the circumcorda, we say, therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, et cetera. Now, many, many Christians have written about this aspect of the communion of saints. For instance, that is Richard Baxter's lovely hymn, he wants not, friends, that have thy love and may converse and walk with thee, and with thy saints here and above, with whom forever I must be in the blest fellowship of saints is wisdom, safety and delight. And when my heart declines and faints, it's raised by their heat and light. As for my friends, they are not lost. The several vessels of thy fleet, though parted now by tempests tossed, shall safely in the haven meet still we are centred all in thee Members, though distant, of one head, in the same family we be by the same faith and spirit Led before thy throne we daily meet as joint petitioners to thee in spirit we each other greet, and shall again each other see the heavenly hosts. World without end shall be my company above, and thou my best and surest friend, who shall divide me from thy love. Very similar the sentiments expressed by Charles Wesley in one of his hymns. Let saints on earth in concert sing with those whose work is done. For all the servants of our King in heaven and earth are one. One family we dwell in him One church above, beneath, though now divided by the stream, the narrow stream of death. So far, then, with regard to the extent of the communion of saints, we have suggested that it includes all living Christians and all former Christians. But can we go further? Let me ask and seek to answer three questions, subsidiary but I think, important questions. A. Do the saints in heaven know what the saints on earth are doing? And vice versa? To this question I would give a cautious yes. The saints on earth know to a certain extent what the saints in heaven are doing, because the veil has been lifted for them in the Book of Revelation. And I believe the saints in heaven know what the saints on earth are doing. Dives in the parable spoken by Jesus seems to have known what his five brothers at home were doing. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author describes the heroes of the heroes of the past as being a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. I know the word witnesses can here simply mean those who are borne witness to their faith or to God. But why are they described as surrounding us? And he seems to liken them to the serried ranks of spectators round the arena in which the saints on earth are running. This, to me, is a noble thought. The knowledge of the saints watching us can be an incentive to faithfulness and to perseverance. But I would not be dogmatic about it. Other interpretations have been given of these verses at the beginning of Hebrews 12. That brings me to question. Can the saints on earth and the saints in heaven make contact with each other? Can they pass messages to each other is this aspect of the communion of saints a conscious communion? To these questions I would give a categorical no, the communion of saints is not meant to be conscious, nor can it be. It's one thing to say that there are watching us it's another thing to say that they are communicating with us. Indeed, especially in the Old Testament, when necromancy was commonly practiced in the nations among whom Israel dwelt, all attempts to make contact with the dead by media or by other ways are strictly and categorically forbidden. Question c. Can the saints in heaven and the saints on earth help or influence each other? I'm not referring to the inspiration of their example, nor of the inspiration we may derive from the fact that they are watching us. But what I'm asking is, can we actively and personally help each other? To be more precise, can the merits of the saints in heaven be placed on our account on earth? Can the prayers of the saints on earth avail for the saints in heaven, or for the souls in purgatory, if there are such and to these questions we answer again with an unqualified negative the Scriptures give no warrant either for the practice of prayers for the dead, since there are no souls in purgatory, at least according to the New Testament revelation and the saints in heaven do not need our prayers, for they are glorified and the Scriptures give no warrant either for the idea of a transference of merit, since in any case the merit of Jesus Christ is sufficient, and his intercession for us is sufficient also. Here is what Bishop John Pearson says on this subject, what they do, what the saints do in heaven in relation to us on earth particularly considered, or what we ought to perform in reference to them in heaven. Beside, a reverential respect and study of imitation is not revealed unto us in the Scriptures, nor can be concluded by necessary deduction from any principles of Christianity. And again, the communication of the suffrages, the prayers of the saints alive to the Church in purgatory, and the communication of the merits of the saints in heaven to the saints on earth, are novel expositions of this article, not so much as acknowledged by Thomas Aquinas in his explanation of the Creed, much less to be found in any of the ancient expositors of it. The communion of saints therefore includes all Christians in this world and the next but the communion between saints on earth and saints in heaven is one of relationship in Christ, in that we are all members of his body, and not one of conscious communication or of beneficial intercession. So much for the extent of the communion of Saints. That brings me thirdly to the expression of this communion. It's all very well theorizing about the communion of saints, but what does it mean in practice? And why was this clause added to the Creed? The African church of the 4th century AD was disturbed by certain enthusiasts known as the Donatists who held an unscripturally purist and perfectionist doctrine of the Church. They were so keen to preserve the holiness of the Church that they refused to have fellowship with others and became separatists and schismatics against them. Augustine argued that the visible church of Christ was never perfect, but always a mixed multitude in which were the tares and wheat, the good and the bad, the genuine and the counterfeit. Now some have supposed that this clause I believe in the communion of saints was added to I believe in the Catholic Church as an answer to the false puritanism, that is of the Donatists, which was dissatisfied with the permixtum corpus, the mixed body of the Catholic Church. That's a quotation from Professor Sweet. This clause asserts that in this one church, this one Catholic Church, you will attain the communion of saints. That phrase comes from a homily attributed to one called Nicetas and again quoted by Professor Sweet. What then, to be again more practical, what is this communion of saints? How is it expressed? And I note, going back to my text in 1 John 1:4, that we are writing this to you that your joy may be complete, completed joy. The abiding joy and deep satisfaction which God has for his people can only be experienced in the fellowship in the communion of saints. Let me suggest you what it a It includes. Spiritual Exercises the communion of saints expresses itself in common worship, common prayer, common service, and especially in the common participation in bread and wine of the Holy Communion or Lord's Supper. Indeed, in the phrase communion of saints, some early interpreters thought that hagion or sanctorum was a neuter rather than a masculine and that it meant communion in holy things rather than holy people. To these early people, the communion of saints then meant a joint participation in holy things. Interestingly enough, the phrase is thus interpreted throughout the 16th century Catechism of the Council of Trent, although it's almost certainly a mistaken interpretation. But it's true as far as it goes, that the communion of saints does express itself in a participation in holy things, and particularly at the Lord's table. Spiritual Exercises B It includes material need. The earliest Christians in Jerusalem, of course, sold their possessions and shared out their realized capital among those who had need. This experience is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having all things common. And the word common is very similar to this word communion. It's the adjective of it. That early experiment in the Jerusalem church was a real communion of saints, and one more interpretation of this clause has suggested that this is what is meant by the phrase that the communion of saints is a sharing out among the saints our personal and material possessions. But apparently the Jerusalem expression of Christian commonwealth was not repeated. Nevertheless, Macedonia and Achaia did join together in a collection for the poverty stricken Christians of Judea, and I'm quite certain that a real communion of saints will express itself in a practical concern for fellow Christians who are in material need. See it expresses itself in personal fellowship. Here, for instance, is a quotation from John Calvin in the Institute's book four if they, that is the saints, are truly persuaded that God is the common Father of them all and Christ their common head, they cannot but be united in brotherly love and mutually impart their blessings to each other. In the very term communion there is great consolation. I wish there were more sharing of this kind among Christians, not just in formal services or in financial resources, but in spiritual experiences. We need to learn, in the words of the New Testament, to bear one another's burdens, to rejoice with those that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. We need to learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, to exhort one another to care about one another's spiritual progress, so that when one member suffers, all suffer with him, and when one is honored, all are honored with him. This is the communion of saints. Perhaps I could finish with that lovely text, 1 John 1:7 if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The more we walk in the light with God, the more deep will be our fellowship with one another, and so the more sincere our affirmation in the Creed. I believe in the communion of saints.
- [29:45]
A
You've been listening to John Stott. Listen to faith of our Fathers each Saturday and Sunday to hear more great 20th century preachers.