The Church’s One Foundation / Samuel Stone / Samuel Wesley
The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation, by water and the word:
From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.
Elect from every nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
Though with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed;
Yet saints, their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war
She waits the consummation of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed,
And the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union with God, the Three in one,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 23:1-12:
A Warning Against Hypocrisy
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
My Understanding: The Lord reminded me of a recent real life example he gave me of this.
• The pastor said that people in the congregation need to be in a position to trust that the Lord is speaking through him because of all the time he spent in sermon preparation, research, checking with the experts (scholars), and time spent in prayer.
• The pastor said that people in the congregation must not question his sermon, only to ask him for clarification of what he meant. He said people must be willing to hear from God through his sermon without questioning whether what he is saying is from the Lord or not, i.e. saying his is the only correct interpretation of the scripture.
That says to me, “I am right (absolutely) and you are wrong, I will not consider any other thoughts. You are not permitted to contend with me or to disagree with me and your role is to basically sit and just listen and to never question, challenge or disagree.”
Yet, the Bible says that we are to test everything, including ourselves – testing our own actions (Ref: II Co. 13:5; Gal. 6:4). I Thes. 5:19-22 says this: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire (or do not quench the Spirit). Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all (or test everything); hold on to what is good, reject (or avoid) every kind of evil.” I John 4:1 says: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
• The pastor said: We would ask you, and anyone else, to be willing to submit to our leadership and support the mission and vision of (the particular local body or denomination). We recognize that not everyone shares our mission and vision and that is 100% okay, and would pray for them and would help them find a community that might be a better fit.
• The pastor said: I will admit some concern that probably comes from my own ministry past that people with very strong convictions and ministries that are a little outside of the mainstream at least as far as my own experience can tend to create divisions and "camps" within a community of believers.
Yet, wasn’t Jesus “outside the mainstream”? Isn’t that why he was rejected? Didn’t he have strong convictions that people didn’t like? Another sermon really hit home on this when the pastor said that they rejected Jesus because he was different; because he did things differently than they did; because he did things that hadn’t been done that way before.
Yet, the teachings of I Corinthians 12 tell us about how the Body of Christ is supposed to function. I believe what the writer is saying in this passage of scripture is that the Body doesn’t always accept all the parts of the Body. Sometimes they say, “I don’t need you,” because they don’t accept that person’s part, or they don’t understand it, or they are afraid of it, are jealous of it, or for whatever reason, and so where the Body fails to honor all its parts, the LORD picks up the slack, i.e. he honors the parts that are lacking in honor. So, true divisions come, I believe, when all the parts of the Body are not honored like they should be and some are told, “We don’t need you” because you “don’t fit” our body. That’s what the Pharisees told Jesus, too.
This whole idea of having a vision that is particular to a particular flock is not of God if the idea is not of God. If it is of God, then it should be the view of 100% of Christians. If their thought is God’s vision for the universal church, which it should be, then it should be the model for the whole Body of Christ, as well, because we should all adhere to the Word of God and His revelation for His church. A “better fit,” by these human standards, would then be to be outside of God’s vision, which is no fit at all. There is no better fit than to be perfectly in God’s will and under his plan and goals for his Body. The Body of Christ is not to be divided; we are all one in Christ Jesus.
In this passage of scripture in Matthew 23, the Lord Jesus is addressing the crowds and his disciples. And, he is giving them instructions concerning the religious (and government) leaders of their day. He told them that they must obey what the leaders tell them, yet they were not to do what the religious leaders did, because they were hypocrites. They did not practice what they preached, in other words. And, this is so true of church leaders today, as well. Many of today’s churches have in their vision and mission statements that they love, embrace, accept, welcome, etc. all people no matter where they have come from, but in many cases that is not true. What they really mean is that they will love you and accept you as long as you adhere to their set of rules and you conform to their teachings (of man) and you submit, unquestioningly, to their human authority.
So, what does it mean to do what they say but to not do what they do? I believe Jesus and his disciples set a very good example for how this is to be applied. We are to obey the authorities over us unless they require something of us that is contrary to the teachings of scripture. The disciples told the religious leaders of their day, when they were asked to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, “We must obey God rather than man.” God’s laws and His Word and His teaching always trump man’s laws, teachings, visions, sermons, etc. So, where the leaders of our day require things of us not in contradiction to the teachings of scripture, we are required to obey. Yet, if they ask something of us that is not in accordance with the teachings of scripture, then we must respond with “We must obey God rather than man.” Jesus often told the religious leaders that mercy was more important than their set of rules and that their rules lacked love and mercy.
So, if the religious leaders of our day try to put heavy yokes on us (of man) that God does not intend us to carry (i.e. it is for freedom that Christ has set us free so do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery), then we must resist coming under those yokes of slavery again. Jesus said that we are to take HIS yoke upon us and to learn from HIM for HIS yoke is easy and HIS burden is light. If the religious leaders of our day try to get us to follow them and their teaching and their authority over and above Jesus Christ and his teaching and his authority, then we are not to adhere to what they are saying. We must obey God rather than man! If they tell us to accept whatever they say as the correct interpretation of scripture and that we are never to question or test what they say, then we are not to listen to them, because the Bible teaches us to test. We have only one Master, one Father, and one Teacher, and that is God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
So, if the religious leaders of our day tell us that we must become like them to be loved, accepted, valued, needed and wanted within the Body (their local Body) of Christ and that who we are in Christ, i.e. who God created us to be and gifted us and called us does not fit with their local Body, then we are not to become like them just to be accepted. We must remain true to our calling in Christ Jesus, provided it aligns with God’s word, as well. And, if the religious leaders of our day ask that we follow their vision and that it is ok if we don’t agree with their vision and that they would be glad to help us find some place that would be a ‘better fit’ for us, don’t listen to them. There is only One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism. There is not a vision of God for one congregation over another group of believers if the vision is truly of God. There are different gifts and different ministries, but we are all One Body and we are never to say to a member of the Body, “We don’t have need of you, so go someplace else. In fact, we will even help you find a place where you will be a ‘better fit.’” Don’t listen to that! Jesus says that if we are part of His Body that we do fit!! And, we should listen to Him.
Zondervan’s NIV Bible Commentary on Matthew 23:8-10 says this:
“Jesus thus concludes this section by declaring that he himself is the only one qualified to sit in Moses’ seat – to succeed him as authoritative Teacher of God’s will and mind. Certainly we may conclude from this that the risen Christ is as displeased with those in his church who demand unquestioning submission to themselves and their opinions…”The church’s ONE foundation is Jesus Christ, her LORD! – One Master; One Father; One Teacher.
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