Serving the church

[AI translation] Last Sunday, the teaching of the Word among them was about the gift and the task of the church community. We heard then that believers who have consciously received the saving grace of Christ belong together as different parts of a human organism, a living body. It is precisely through faith in Christ that the individual person is incorporated into the people of God, is incorporated into the body of Christ. Following Christ is never just an individual undertaking, but an entry and departure with a team, each member of which has given his or her life for the same purpose: to represent the cause of Christ, to spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world. Everyone who believes in Christ as Lord and Saviour: has a place in this community, has a task, together with others, a need for him, his person, his service, his credibility, his prayer. In short, what we were talking about a week ago today, how is the church community built? What is the need on this earth for such an entity, the church? Let me say at the outset that Christ does not build His church for the church itself, the purpose of the church is not for the church itself, but the church is for the world. Christ has placed His church in this world to preach His gospel to this world, Jesus Christ came to bring this world, this world of men, which had been separated from God, back under the rule of God. That is why He lived, that is why He died, that is why He rose again, that is why He gave His Holy Spirit, that is why He gathered an army for Himself, to continue the fight with Him as its head and leader, for the kingdom of God, for His rule. The church is therefore by its very nature a missionary body, a community of labour for the spread of the Gospel.This truth is illustrated in a practical example in the passage we have just read, this small passage in the history of the first Christian church in Jerusalem. It tells of the persecution of the Christian church in Jerusalem, whose members fled, and, except for the apostles and the leaders, were scattered throughout the country, some even going abroad. And the simple believers, wherever they go, "preach Christ," "preach the Word," and such an awakening has come on the heels of these simple words, so many have come to the Lord, that from Jerusalem came to see a miracle by an apostle who could not fail to rejoice at this vision of God's grace. Behold, a church fulfilling its calling with great missionary vigour. And surely it is no accident that the report specifically mentions that the apostles did not take part in this evangelistic crusade, but only the so-called "ordinary" members of the congregation, the shepherdless flock. By this the Word also wants to express that there is no distinction between "ordinary believers" and apostles or pastors in terms of missionary responsibility. Mission, the extension of the Gospel of Christ, is not a matter for pastors and presbyters, but for the congregation, that is, for everyone! It is not only the pastor and presbyters who hold official office in a congregation, but every member of the congregation is an official officer by faith in Christ. In fact, the Lord's true church is made up entirely of officers, men or women, young or old, who have been commissioned by the Lord, who have sworn obedience to the Lord.
Let us not think of the church as a spiritual train going to heaven, with passengers sitting comfortably, one dozing, another looking out of the window, another reading in a corner or bored - they can do it, because the train is moving alongside them, there is the engineer, he has to look after it, and the stoker, and maybe even the conductor, but the passengers are just being carried along. Well, it's not like that in the church. In the church, from the largest to the smallest, everyone has some kind of task, some kind of service, every member of the congregation has a position of responsibility. They hold an office for which they must give an account at some point. No one can say that he or she does not feel like it or does not have the time. It is not a question of whether we have the inclination, but whether we have the faithfulness to fill the office. Let us imagine, for example, that a presbyter whose office in the church is nevertheless more obvious, more public: a presbyter would want to sit in the presbyters' pew, but would not feel like serving as a presbyter: then that person could no longer be a presbyter. In the same way, a Christian who wants to be a member of the congregation, but has neither the time nor the inclination to serve the cause of Christ, to spread the cause of Christ in the world, and therefore to hold office, cannot be a Christian!
Jesus Christ continues His missionary work in this world through His body on earth, the church. In this work of Christ, therefore, all the members of the body participate, are active. Just as it is in the human body that almost every member is involved in the simplest act, for example, as I speak now: my head thinks, my feet hold me, my hands help me to express thoughts, my heart and lungs provide fresh blood for my brain cells. Each member has a role to play and so the whole body is involved. So does the body of Christ. The body of Christ is not the presbytery, not one of its committees, but the congregation! You are the body of Christ!
Look, this church in Jerusalem is like an ant-hill gone mad. It's all in motion, believers coming and going, speaking, preaching, witnessing, and all the while the church is multiplying, a great multitude coming to the Lord! It is true that all this is because of persecution in Jerusalem - but God sometimes awakens the church to its true purpose through historical storms! He shakes it from its rest, rouses it from its sleep, throws it into the world, scatters it around, like salt from a salt cellar is scattered into food. Here it is in our church in Pasaréti! What do you see this church as? An institution that gives you something, something that expects something from you? Many people see the church as a kind of hospital where the sick soul receives medicine and treatment. The wishes of the sick tend to be very different. One wants lots of sun, another wants shade. One wants the pastor-doctor to encourage the patient always, the other wants to hear the threat of the end always. Still others like to have their souls dissected to the last detail, and still others are most afraid of this. Then, if the service in that hospital is not good enough, the patient will look for another where he will receive more tender care.
Yes, there is such an attitude towards the church, dominated by the thought and the need: what do I gain from the church? But more important than that, what does the church, the church of Christ, see in it for me? Jesus did not place His Church in this world as a sanitarium, but as an army! An army whose mission, whose vocation, is to reconquer, to reclaim, to reclaim this lost province of the kingdom of heaven, this life on earth, for its Lord. In this fighting army every believer must take his place and do his service.
What is this service? We read of the church in Jerusalem that they went abroad preaching the Word and "preaching the Lord Jesus!" And they did not simply tell people what they knew about Jesus as a curiosity, but with a very definite purpose: to win them to Christ! So the ministry of those church members was, and has been ever since, to conquer human lives under God's lordship, to gather human souls to Christ. It preaches Jesus Christ so that others, many others, may be converted to Him, become believers! Like in this story! Of course, the Lord Jesus can be preached in many different ways! Today, without doubt, the most desirable is to proclaim Him to the world by the word of life. If you, for example, were to get excited right now and start preaching Jesus in beautiful words in the factory, you would not have much success. Mission is primarily expressed in the way the church and the individual believer lives. The most fruitful opportunity for evangelism is: the existence of the church itself and the life of the Christian man, the believer himself. The church as God's people, the believer as God's people, radiating into the world the power of faith, the gift of salvation.
There are many people who do not read the Bible. Well, for such people, our life is the Bible, where they can read and learn who God is, what forgiveness of sins means, what a real source of power grace is, how true it is that we have power for everything in Christ! From here we can know what God wants for us. In our church we have a lovely couple, caretakers in a two-storey house. They have both become true believers, living members of the body of Christ. There I saw Jesus Christ move into the hearts of these two people in the basement of a large house a few years ago, and today the second floor has been transformed in the relationship of the residents with each other. Instead of the old hostility and unpleasantness, there is now understanding and love throughout the house. God is placing the church and the individual believer there to witness, but with their whole life! This is our ecclesiastical office: to live in such a way that witness in word is both authentic and desirable. Being a member of the Church is not a passport, it is a tremendous responsibility! Jesus said of Himself, "I am the light of the world." And on another occasion he said the same word for word about his disciples: "You are the light of the world... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." (Mt 5,15-16) Isn't that strange, side by side? I am you, you are the light of the world. This means that each person is a transparent through whom the light of the Lord shines, radiating out into the world. And if we do not undertake this service to the world, then we are simply not needed.
That every member of the church should be engaged in a ministry of witnessing to Christ, of gathering people to Christ: this is the vital interest of the church. It is a question of to be and not to be for the church. Woe to us if we do not take the gospel of Christ out of this church, in word and in life, into the world. But this is also natural, for if the church - which is by its very essence a missionary church - does not turn with missionary responsibility to those outside to include them in salvation through Christ: it has denied the very thing that is its essence, it has buried its own raison d'être in the world. If the Church does not want to enter the world with the Gospel, what always happens is that the world pushes its own spirit into the Church and the Church becomes secularised. As long as mission and evangelization remain the concern of only some in the church, to which only some give their lives, to which only some dedicate their lives, and which is not a common, universal passion of the whole church, then the church will only vegetate, but not really live.
Christ has promised His power, His helping presence, His hand with those who approach all the problems of this perilous world with a missionary spirit. So much so, that where the missionary spirit and consciousness is failing in the members of the Church, the Church is slowly withering away. This is clearly evident in the history of the church. Where are the churches of Asia Minor: in the first century there were flourishing churches here. Most of the apostolic letters were written to churches in Asia Minor. Today Asia Minor is an area where there are almost no Christian churches. Or where are the churches in North Africa, Carthage, Alexandria, where Augustine came from? Today North Africa is the land of the lost churches. Yes, if a church does not fulfil its missionary mandate, it cannot count on Christ's promise to be with it until the end of the world. Moreover, as soon as the church ceases to be a missionary church, as soon as the church ceases to see that it is for the world: Christ is withdrawn from it, it is not there in it and with it - and without Christ there is no church! However, when the members of the church "preach the Word, go out among the Gentiles, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ", then "the hand of the Lord is with them, and a great multitude come to the Lord, believing".
It is certain that being a witness for Christ is not an easy life. In the New Testament, the word witness, in Greek, also means martyr, martyr. A witnessing church is a church that must also know the cross of martyrdom - a suffering church. Witnessing involves suffering. It cannot be otherwise, for the foolishness and stumbling of the cross must be proclaimed in the world. But it is not only suffering that is the witnessing Church, but also the joy of it, the fullness of life, the reality of faith, the fervour of prayer, the gift of fruitfulness: the reality of Christ's presence, his power! Let us draw strength, then, from his victory on Calvary and at Easter, for the faithful fulfilment of our witnessing ministry!
Amen
Date: 9 October 1955.