Introduction
We been going through the Nicene Creed since last October. And we’ve seen how the first part is about God the Father Almighty, who is the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And the second part is about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son of God, who came down from heaven and was made man and was crucified and suffered and was buried for us and for our salvation. And he was raised from the dead and he’s now seated at the Father’s right hand and he’ll come again to judge the living and the dead. And the third part is about the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son and who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified as God.
Last week I suggested that the remaining lines of the Creed are a continuation of what the Creed says about the Holy Spirit, because the next lines — which are about the church, baptism for the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead and eternal life — refer to the work of the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes us members of the church, because it’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to repent and to believe in Christ so that we’re united with him and with our fellow believers in the church. And as members of the church, we rejoice in the forgiveness of our sins and we look forward in hope to the resurrection of our bodies and to everlasting life in the presence of God. If it were not for the Holy Spirit, uniting us with Christ through faith, then we wouldn’t be members of the church and we’d know nothing about forgiveness and we’d have no hope.
Last week we began to look at the line of the Creed where we confess and proclaim that ‘[We believe] in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. And we spent our time on the words ‘one’ and ‘holy’ last week. The church is one because the Holy Spirit has united every member of the church through faith to one and the same Saviour, Jesus Christ. And we are holy for three reasons. Firstly, because the Holy Spirit has set us apart from the rest of humanity to belong to God. Secondly, because God regards us as holy in his sight because of the perfect righteousness of Christ which is counted as ours. And thirdly, because God is working in us by his Spirit to make us holy. He renews us in God’s image and enables us more and more to die to sin and to live for righteousness.
Today we come to the remaining two words which describe the church. The church is catholic and the church is apostolic.
Catholic
When we say the church is catholic, we mean that it is universal. Catholic means universal. And the church is universal in several ways.
Firstly, it is universal because it’s not confined to one country or place. Before the Lord’s death and resurrection, God’s people had to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, because the temple in Jerusalem was the one and only place where God met with his people. And you might remember from our studies in 1 and 2 Kings, how the people built places of worship on every high place. But this was not God’s will for them in those days. He tolerated those other places of worship, but he did not approve of them.
But after the Lord’s resurrection and just before he ascended to heaven he commanded the apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. And the apostles went from place to place to preach the good news of the gospel and to plant churches. And churches were planted all over the Roman Empire. And since those days, new churches have been planted throughout the world. And Sunday by Sunday, God’s people gather together in all kinds of places to worship the Lord and the Lord has promised to be with his people wherever they meet in his name. The church is no longer confined to one nation or place as it was in the days before the coming of the Lord. It’s no longer confined to the land of Israel and to the temple in Jerusalem. God’s people are able to meet anywhere to worship the Lord.
And secondly, the church is universal because it’s not confined to one people. In the past, before the coming of the Lord, you had to become a Jew in order to become a member of the church. But since the coming of Christ, the church has become a global body of people and its members are taken from every nation, tribe, people and language. Membership of the church is not restricted by nationality or race or gender or age or social standing or anything else. The church is not from one nation only and it’s not for one race only. It’s not for men only and it’s not for women only. It’s not for adults only and it’s not for children only. It’s not for the middle class only and it’s not for the working class only. The church is for everyone who believes.
Thirdly, the church is universal, not only with respect to place and people, but with respect to time. From the beginning of the world, God has been calling out a people to belong to himself and he has promised that he will be with his church always, to the very end of the age, which means he will ensure that his church will continue to exist right to the very end of history. So, the church is not restricted to one time. It has always existed and it will always exist.
And as one writer (Myers) has put it, ‘The body of Christ is the most inclusive community imaginable because it includes not only those who are now living, but also all believers who have ever lived.’ So, we distinguish between the church militant and the church triumphant. The church militant is the church on earth and it’s a militant church, not because we go to war against other people, but because we’re fighting continually against the wicked schemes of the devil and against temptation and against our own evil desires. That church is on earth. On the other hand, the church triumphant is the church in heaven. It’s the assembly of people we read about in Revelation 7 who gather before the throne of God to worship him. But the church on earth and the church in heaven are not two different churches: they are one church, made up of believers who are on earth and those who are in heaven. And when we gather in this place on Sundays, we’re joining with the saints who have gone before us and who are worshipping the Lord in heaven.
Fourthly, the church is universal with respect to truth. The members of the church throughout the world and throughout time have always believed the same things about God. And so, Christians in 2026 can pick up and read something like the Nicene Creed which was written 1700 years ago. And we still believe these things. If you were to pick up and read a medical book from 1700 years ago, we’d dismiss it as being hopelessly out of date. What we know about medicine and science and so many other subjects has advanced over the years. What people believed 50 years ago about computers is not the same as what we believe about computers today. And yet, what people believed 1700 years ago about the faith is the same as what we believe today. And anyone who denies what the church has always believed is called a heretic. They are heretics, because they do not believe the ‘faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’.
And so, the church is catholic or universal in respect to place and people and time and truth. And the church is universal because the gospel message is universal. The gospel is the message that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God loved not part of the world, but the whole world. And the gospel is not for some who believe, but it’s for whoever believes. The gospel message is for all; and therefore the church is for all: it’s for all who believe in the Saviour.
Last week, I tried to show how the attributes ‘one’ and ‘holy’ were seen in what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. And we can also see the church’s universality in the reading from 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul was writing to a local church: to the church of God in Corinth. He addressed them in particular in verse 2. However, he then went on to refer to ‘all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Do you see? Paul was addressing a local church, all those people who met every Sunday in 1st Corinth Presbyterian Church. But he was also aware that the church is not confined to Corinth, because the church comprises all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus. And so, the church is catholic. It is universal.
Apostolic
And the church is also apostolic. What do we mean by that? Well, this means different things to different people. To Roman Catholics it means that, through an apostolic succession of bishops in Rome, the pope has inherited the authority of the apostles and of Peter in particular. They say that this apostolic authority is passed down from pope to pope. To charismatics, an apostolic church is a church where miraculous spiritual gifts are demonstrated. For others, to be apostolic means getting rid of denominations and having a simple church structure, the way things were, they say, in the days of the apostles. But for others — and this is what Presbyerians mean by apostolic — to be apostolic means the church is built upon the teaching of the apostles. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:20, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles — and and what they taught — are the foundation of the church.
And so, we’re not to introduce new ideas and new doctrines into the church. What we teach today is meant to be the same as what the apostles taught. And their message and our message is the glorious gospel of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the church ever drifts from that message, then it can no longer call itself apostolic, because it will be teaching a different message from the apostles.
And, we see from the opening to 1 Corinthians the importance of the apostles’ message. Verse 17: Paul wrote that Christ did not send him to baptise, but to preach the gospel. Baptism is not unimportant. However, when Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, he commissioned Paul to go and to preach this gospel message. Then look down at verse 18: Paul refers to the message of the cross. That sums up the apostolic message. Then verse 23: he said that we preach Christ crucified. That again sums up the message of the apostles. And if you were to jump on to chapter 15, you’d see Paul reminding his readers of the gospel which he preached to them which is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised according to the Scriptures; and people saw him. Paul says in chapter 15 that this is the message he preached and this is the message by we are saved if we hold firmly to this message. The apostolic teaching of the gospel is crucial. The gospel is proclaimed. And when people believe it, they are saved from the wrath and curse of God and they’re given eternal life. And so the church must preach this message — the message of the apostles about Jesus Christ — again and again and again.
The marks
The church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These are regarded as the characteristics or attributes of the church. However, there’s a question for us. How do we know that a particular congregation is part of this one, holy, catholic and apostolic church? How can we know that a group of people who gather together and call themselves a church really is part of this one, holy, catholic and apostolic church which we confess in the Creed? How can we tell?
That might strike you as an odd question. You might be thinking that surely a church is a church is a church? It’s obvious what a church is. What are you talking about? That might be the way you react. However, very soon after Christ’s ascension, this became a very real problem, because there were people who gathered together and claimed to be a church, but what they preached was not the same as what the apostles taught. Heresies or false doctrines were introduced. People denied the divinity of Christ. Or they denied the reality of the incarnation. They denied the divinity of the Spirit. People called themselves a church, but they did not believe and preach what the apostles believed and preached. And then at the time of the Reformation, when the Reformers broke away from the church to form the Protestant churches, the Catholics claimed that these new churches were not true churches at all. It was said that the Reformers had left the true church and were no longer part of the church.
The Reformers, of course, wanted to say that the Protestant churches were true churches. So this became a vitally important question. How can a true church be recognised? How do we know that a particular congregation is part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church?
The Reformers therefore began to talk about the marks of a true church. What are the marks which show that a church is a true church and not a false church. What are the marks, or the signs, which show us that a group of people who claim to be a church really are part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church? And they came up with three marks. Firstly, there’s the pure preaching of God’s word. Secondly, there’s the proper administration of the sacraments. And thirdly, there’s church discipline. And that’s it. The Reformers decided that those are the marks of a true church. because where you have the reading and preaching of God’s word, the administration of the sacraments, and discipline, there you have a true church and a place where God meets with his people and works among them so that they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
True not perfect
Of course, we need to understand that there’s a difference between a true church and a perfect church. A true church is where we have the pure preaching of God’s word. But no preacher is perfect and he may misinterpret a passage of the Bible or say something wrong from time to time. And no church member is perfect and you may therefore misunderstand something I say or you may not always believe the things you’ve heard. Does that mean we’re not a true church if the preacher or the members sometimes misunderstand God’s word or doubt it? No, it just means we’re not a perfect church. All we can do in this life is try out best to be faithful to the Lord.
And a true church is where we have the proper administration of the sacraments. We believe the Bible teaches that baptism should be administered to believers and to their children and the Lord’s Supper should be administered to believers. It may be the case that we have administered baptism to people who professed to be believers, but who are not. We may have administered baptism to the children of those who professed to be believers, but who are not. We may have administered the Lord’s Supper to those who profess to be believers but who are not. Does that mean we’re not a true church if sometimes errors are made in the administration of the sacraments? No, it just means we’re not a perfect church. All we can do in this life is try our best to be faithful to the Lord.
And a true church is where we have discipline and where elders watch over the Lord’s people so that they grow in the faith and don’t go astray and we keep from our membership those who do not really believe. But it may be the case that by mistake we’e admitted to membership people who profess faith, but who were not true believers. Or it may be that the elders have failed from time to time to watch over some of the members to keep them from wandering from the Saviour. Does that mean we’re not a true church? No, it means we’re not a perfect church. All we can do in this life is try out best to be faithful to the Lord.
The Westminster Confession says that particular churches … are more or less pure. Some church are more pure than others. But it goes on to say that there is no church that is completely pure and perfect. And so the Confession goes on to say that the purest churches under heaven are subject both to impurity and error. And why is this the case? It’s because the church is made up of sinners. Yes, our sins have been washed away through faith in Christ and we’ve been pardoned by God and reconciled to him. Yes, we have the Spirit of God, working in us to renew us in God’s image. Yes, we receive God’s grace which teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness. This is all true. But we’re still sinners. And so the church on earth, which is made up of sinners, will always be imperfect. And so, we’ll always be looking to God for forgiveness for his help to do things better.
Why these marks?
Finally, why did the Reformers settle on these three marks: preaching, the sacraments and discipline. It’s because it’s by means of these three things that Jesus Christ, the King and Head of his church, works in us to strengthen us and to prepare us for eternity.
For instance, it’s through the preaching of the gospel that we receive eternal life, because people hear the gospel and the Holy Spirit enables them to believe it and to turn away from their old way of life of sin and to turn in faith to the Saviour in order to receive the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. That’s how we receive eternal life: through believing the gospel which is preached to us.
And believers come to church, Sunday by Sunday, weak and weary and downcast and feeling guilty. During the week, we’ve let God down and we’ve sinned against him, and we’ve given in to temptation, and our devotion to him has been so poor, and our love has been so small, and our conscience accuses us and the Devil accuses us, and perhaps the people around us remind us of our sins and failures. So we come to church, weak and weary and heavy-burdened. And perhaps sometimes we wonder whether God can really love me. How can he love someone like me? And then we hear the gospel preached to us all over again, and we’re reminded of the greatness of God’s love: he loved us so much that he gave up his Son for me. We’re reminded of the depth of Christ’s love: he loved me so much he laid down his life for me. We hear the gospel and our faith is strengthened and we’re revived and refreshed and made ready for another week.
And then, we come to church, wondering if God can really forgive us. Will he really forgive that sin? And then we see the baptism font and we’re reminded that God has promised to wash our sins away forever and to make us clean. We wonder: will God really give me eternal life? And we take the bread and the cup which speaks to us of Christ’s body and blood and how our Saviour died so that we might have life. We see these things and we take part in the Lord’s Supper and our faith is strengthened and we’re revived and refreshed and made ready for another week.
And we come to church, week by week, and there are elders here, who have been called by Christ to watch over us the way a shepherd watches over his sheep. And they’re here to care for us and to warn us of danger and to ensure that we’re fed spiritually and that we do not wander away from the Saviour.
These are the marks of the church because this is what we need, Sunday by Sunday. Christ, the King and Head of his church, knows us and he knows how weak we are and how frail we are and how prone we are to wander from him. And so, he has given us the preaching of the gospel and the proper administration of the sacraments to strengthen our faith. And he has given us leaders to oversee us and to keep us from wandering. And so, we come to church on Sundays and week by week, month by month, year by year, our Saviour is working in his people in order to help us and to comfort us and to strengthen us and to revive us and to prepare each one of his people for eternity.
Sermons and Stuff 