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The Holy Christian Church, (The Creed, Part 17)
[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]
Genesis 11:1-8
I believe in the Holy Christian Church. This statement of faith in the Apostle’s Creed is a wonderful comfort. It assures us that throughout time, from the very beginning, from the very first promise of the gospel given to Adam and Eve. There’s only really been one true church, one saving faith in the very one Savior that we have, Jesus Christ our Lord. And that same faith unites all of us together into one church.
Oftentimes, people come to me with the question, wouldn’t Christianity be better off if we were all just one church? If we put aside all these different divisions and petty arguments and all joined into one giant mega-church? I mean, just imagine all the work we would be able to do. Imagine the pooling of resources and manpower and how much we would be able to get done if we all just join together. And though that makes sense from a worldly human point of view. When we have a problem, what do we do? We throw a lot of resources at it, and that’s going to solve the problem, right?
Well, the part of the Bible I like to take people to is Genesis chapter 11. There’s this fascinating account of life after the flood, where all the peoples of the world have come together and are working together. They’re living in peace. They’re living in harmony. They say, come, let us build a tower that reaches up to the heavens. And God looks down at this vision of tranquility and people working together in harmony. And you know what God says? He says, if as one people with one language, they all work together, nothing will be impossible for them. Isn’t that interesting? Nothing will be impossible for them. And what does God do next? He goes down and he confuses the languages which cause the people to scatter, to fracture, divide into different nations, and ever since then, we’ve been separated. We’ve been divided.
Why does God look down at this cohesive human organization and say that is not good? Well, through your life, you’ve probably experienced that sometimes the larger mass of people that you all have living and working in close proximity together, doesn’t it seem like evil increases exponentially? Or why is it that the bigger the organization, the more cold and impersonal it can be towards people? Or the more power an organization has, the faster and faster it can become corrupt?
That’s what the sinful human nature does when you have a big group of people all working together. The human assumption is always that bigger is better. But when we look at Scripture, we have to argue that. Since when has God ever needed bigger to accomplish his will or his purposes? Look at little frightened Gideon with his 300 water lapping men. Look at David, who overthrows Goliath or Jesus. One man, the God man who throws down the powers of sin, death, and hell. Look at his small band of frightened apostles and how he uses that group of people to spread Christianity across the globe. God does not need our wealth. God does not need our manpower to accomplish his purposes. What he wants, is faith and faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can move mountains.
No. When it comes to the Holy Christian Church, we’re assured by God that there is one head of the church. It is not a human organization. It is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And in the body, the church. It has many different members, and these members shouldn’t say to the other, I don’t need you. And they also shouldn’t say we should all be an eye. For where would the sense of hearing be?
See, God wants us to recognize that every church and every church body has its unique function in the body of Christ. And what I like to tell people, do you know what the Lutherans are? We’re the kidneys. We don’t have to be big to do our job. It’s not a glorious job, but someone has to filter out the toxins. Someone has to make sure that God’s Word is taught in its truth and purity. Someone has to make sure that the law and the gospel are clearly proclaimed. God wants each of us to focus on our unique task in the kingdom, and to do that task exceptionally well. Our task is proclaiming the gospel. We do our job well and let the Holy Spirit worry about the rest. Let Jesus be the head over his church, the body.
Amen.
