About this sermon
1. We are citizens of God’s kingdom (v. 19).
2. We are God’s household, and are growing into a holy temple in the Lord (vv. 19b-21).
3. We are a living temple of God, who dwells among us by the Spirit (v. 22).
Sermon transcript
standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our Foundations of Faith sermon series which is based on the, is being guided by the Apostles’ Creed. We consider this morning the communion of saints and for my sermon text today I would have us turn to Ephesians chapter 2. I’ll read verses 11 through 22. You’ll find that on page 1160 in your Pew Bible. letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians 2, beginning at verse 11. Dear friends, here, with reverence and awe, the Word of our God. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Dear ones, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word. Oh Lord and Father in heaven, how amazing it is to consider that you, the great, the awesome, the infinite creator of the universe, would stoop to speak to us. We thank you that you have given us a sure and certain word in the Holy Scriptures, which are indeed a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. We thank you, O Lord, for your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. We would pray, Heavenly Father, that we would sit as it were at the feet of Jesus as we learn by your spirit through the word this day.
We pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word and we ask that you would set a guard over my lips that I, your unworthy servant, might speak forth your word with clarity and power for the salvation of the lost, the edification of your people, and the glory of Jesus our Lord. In his name we pray and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, the Communion of Saints, and there’s quite a number of key words that you can be listening for if that helps you to follow along in the sermon. If you’ve got your sermon outline, the words are holy, saints, communion, kingdom, household, temple, and spirit. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning we continue our consideration of the foundational biblical truths of our holy Christian faith as those truths are summarized and affirmed in that classic Bible-based creed of the church known as the Apostles’ Creed.
The Apostles’ Creed is not, of course, itself inspired, but it is a summary of inspired biblical truth. We find ourselves today in the third and final credo or I believe section of the creed and today we reflect upon an important but much neglected and sometimes misunderstood affirmation of our faith, namely the affirmation I believe in the communion of saints. But that affirmation, if you think about it, think about those words, think about what you are affirming when you say, I believe in the communion of saints. Right away, some questions should arise in your minds. What is the communion of saints? Indeed, what is a saint? And are you and I saints? Are we part of the communion of saints? So friends, right away, right out of the gate, this affirmation of our faith has the potential of being misunderstood.
After all, what do many folks think of today when they think of a saint? I would suggest to you that due to the ongoing cultural influences of certain Roman Catholic ideas about sainthood, that many today imagine a saint to be a super spiritual Christian. If you’re a saint, then you are a super spiritual Christian. Or perhaps many think of saints as referring exclusively to faithful believers who have died and who now reside in heaven. You might overhear a conversation, you might hear a coworker or a friend talking about maybe one of their neighbors and they might say something like, oh yeah, my neighbor Joe, he’s a nice guy, he’s a decent guy, but he’s no saint. In other words, he’s a really likable fellow, but he’s got some character flaws. You might hear people say, hey look, I’m no saint, but I try my best, right?
This kind of popular usage of the term saint reflects a misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches about the saints and about sainthood. You see, friends, in the Bible, the term saint is not referring to a class of super holy or ultra pious or exceptionally godly Christians. You know, believers who live their lives on a higher plane of spirituality than the rest of us schleps, the rest of us ordinary Christians. Nor does the term only refer to Christians who have died and gone home to be with the Lord in heaven. No friends, in the Bible, a saint is a holy one, a set apart one. one who is set apart by and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. And brothers and sisters in Christ, that includes each and every one of us. According to God’s Word, this would include all genuine believers, all who through sovereign grace have come to trust in Christ and Christ alone for their salvation.
For the Bible teaches that all true believers have been born again and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. And the fact that saints include all true believers, well, this is reflected even here in Ephesians. If you go back to the beginning of Ephesians, in Ephesians 1, verses 1 and 2, notice how Paul addresses these Christians here in Ephesus. He says this. as was customary in the letter writing customs of the time, he starts off by identifying himself. Nowadays, when you write a letter, you sign your name at the end, but back then, they signed their name at the beginning, and so he identifies himself, the author. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, so he’s identified himself as the author of this letter, and who’s he writing to? To the what?
To the saints who are in Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. To the saints He is writing, and then he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is Paul only writing to a certain segment of the church at Ephesus, to certain mature or super spiritual believers? Well, no. Is Paul writing to dead people, Christians who have died and gone home to be with the Lord? No. He’s writing to the Christians, to all of the Christians in Ephesus, and he calls them all saints. So friend, whether you are a brand new convert to Christ or have been a follower of Jesus for decades, whether your faith in Christ is weak or strong or perhaps somewhere in between, whether you’re young or immature or unstable or perhaps even somewhat backslidden in your faith, or whether you are the most seasoned, mature, godly, stable, consistent follower of Christ on the face of planet Earth, If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then you are a saint by the biblical definition of that term.
And because, believer, because you are a saint, you are part of the communion of saints. That means that you belong. You are connected. Indeed, brothers and sisters, we are connected. We are connected first and foremost to our faithful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are connected to Christ, and in union with Him, we are connected to one another in the communion of saints. By the grace of God, we are citizens of God’s kingdom, Jesus is our messianic king, we’re part of his kingdom, God’s reign of grace and salvation that has drawn near to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only are we citizens of God’s kingdom, we are members of God’s household. So God is not only our king, he is our father. and we are part of his household.
Through Christ, we belong to God in a unique way, in the way that the unbelieving world does not belong to God. We are connected in the ultimate spiritual saving sense. We belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And friends, in belonging to him, We belong to his universal church. We belong to the body of Christ. We belong to the communion of saints. For the Holy Spirit dwells in us and among us and has set us apart, consecrated us to belong to our Father in heaven, both now and forever. Well, friends, our passage for this Lord’s Day morning underscores and explains all of this by stressing the fact that we who are believers in Christ, we are, as it says in verse 19, we are what? We are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
It is to this powerful and instructive passage of God’s Word that I would now like to direct our attention. And as always, it’s important to understand the context of our passage if we’re going to get its full impact. In writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul is writing to a congregation of mostly Gentile believers. Before they had been converted to Christ, the Ephesian Christians, to whom Paul wrote, had not belonged to God’s covenant people. They had been pagan, idol-worshipping Gentiles. They had lived outside of the commonwealth of Israel. They had been strangers from God’s covenant of promise, living in this world without hope and without God, and that is a bad place to be. as Paul writes in verses 11 through 13 as Paul is reminding them of their situation as Gentiles before the coming of Christ and before the coming of the gospel into their lives.
He says, therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, the circumcision referring to the Jews, the uncircumcision referring to the Gentiles or how the Jews referred to the Gentiles. He says in verse 12, remember that you were at that time, either meaning at that point in redemptive history before the coming of Christ or at that point in time before your conversion to Christ, at that time, You were what? Separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. By the way, I want to briefly draw your attention to what Paul says here at the end of verse 12. What is the condition of those, the spiritual condition of those who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? those who do not have access to the word of God.
What is their spiritual condition? Can they find Christ through their own religion, through their own efforts at seeking the God that is revealed in natural revelation? No, they have no hope and they are without God in the world. That’s why the church must take the gospel. That’s one of the major impetuses, one of the major motivations that we have for taking the gospel to the lost because without the gospel, they have no hope. They have no hope of salvation. And then he goes on to say that something has changed. Verse 13, but now, now that Christ has come in redemptive history, now that the gospel has gone out to the Gentiles, now that they’ve heard the gospel, now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, Far off from God, far off from the possibility or hope of salvation.
You were once far off, but have now been brought near. How? By the blood of Christ, by his substitutionary atonement. So in terms of their covenantal status, they, along with the rest of the unbelieving Gentile world, they were outsiders to God’s covenant community, outsiders to God’s household. They had lived their lives separated from Christ, separated from God’s covenant people, as verse 12 makes so clear. At that point in time, they did not belong to the communion of saints. But now, now that they had heard the gospel and by sovereign grace had come to trust in Christ, now they are again, as verse 19 says, no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Now they belonged, and for those of you, for some of you who maybe were not raised in the church or did not, or you came to Christ later in life, you can remember a time in your life when you were separated, when you were an outsider, but God had mercy upon you.
God in his sovereign grace caused you to hear the gospel, and the Spirit effectually called you to faith in Christ and repentance unto life. Now you are no longer an outsider. Now you are in Christ. Now you belong. Dear ones, what was true back then of these first century believers, it’s true of us today if we have trusted Christ as our Lord and Savior. So let us consider what we learn in this passage about our privileges and our identity as those who are now in Christ and members of the communion of saints. What do we learn? Let’s focus especially on verses 19 through 22. Right now, our focus is especially on verse 19. We are, first of all, citizens of God’s kingdom. This is the first point on your sermon outline, the first point of application.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are citizens of God’s kingdom. As Paul writes in verse 19, so you are no longer strangers and aliens. You’re no longer outsiders. but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Recently, in one of my sermons, I talked about the fact that the Bible says that we are actually dual citizens. We all have an earthly citizenship. Most of us gathered here today are citizens of the United States of America, and with that earthly citizenship comes certain privileges, rights, as outlined, for example, in the United States Constitution, but it also implies certain responsibilities. But not only are we citizens of an earthly realm, or an earthly kingdom, or an earthly nation state, We are also more significantly, as believers in Christ, we are citizens of God’s kingdom. we have a heavenly citizenship.
And there are privileges as well as responsibilities that come with being citizens of God’s kingdom. In this particular passage, Paul focuses on our privileges as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. And what are those privileges? Well, as already mentioned, we have the privilege of being no longer outsiders. We are no longer outsiders or mere temporary residents but we are full citizens who enjoy all of the privileges of God’s kingdom. What a contrast to the Old Testament situation. If you were a Gentile living in Old Testament times, You might come to hear about the God of Israel. You might even come to believe in the God of Israel. And the Old Testament law has provisions for temporary residents, for aliens and foreigners, sojourners, Gentiles who lived amongst the Israelites and so forth. But if you wanted to be a fully initiated member of God’s covenant people under the Old Covenant, you would actually not only have to personally convert and trust in God, but you would have to actually become an Israelite citizen.
Because under the old covenant, the church was a theocracy. Now under the new covenant, the church is not a national theocracy. Now the church is international. And Jesus says, take the gospel to all the nations. The kingdom of God is not bound by a particular nation state. It’s not nationalistic in its character. It’s international. So we’re no longer temporary residents. There were occasional Gentiles who came to faith in the true and living God in Old Testament times, and no doubt, if they shared Abraham’s faith, they would no doubt share in the salvation that Abraham enjoyed. But they were not, with respect to the visible church at that time, fully initiated members unless they became full, circumcised members of the nation of Israel. But now that has changed. We’re no longer outsiders or temporary residents, but full citizens who enjoy all of the privileges of God’s kingdom.
And Paul mentions some of these privileges. For example, one privilege is that we have access, free access and introduction in Christ to the very throne room presence of God. Look at verse 18. It says in verse 18, for through him, that’s Jesus, through Jesus, We both, we both meaning we Gentiles and Jews who believe in Jesus, through Jesus, we both, whether we be Gentile or Jew, through Jesus, what? We have access in one spirit to the Father. And by the way, did you notice how this passage is saturated with the doctrine of the Trinity? Our salvation is a Trinitarian salvation. The Father has chosen us in Christ, the Son has accomplished our redemption, and the Spirit applies to us the redeeming work of Christ. And so, our access to God is a Trinitarian access. And praise God, when we come to Christ, we are introduced and have access to the very throne room presence of God.
That’s what’s going on in worship, brothers and sisters. See, when you come to church, you don’t just come to hang out with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Although it’s wonderful to reconnect with one another and fellowship with one another, one of the things that I really appreciate about a grace church, even if I preach long, which I usually do, I confess, But still, even if the service goes a little long, a lot of you folks decide to hang around and just visit with one another after the service, and I praise God for that. Now, I know some of you need to run out the door and get home, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But praise God, we do get to hang out with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We do get to connect with one another.
But the most important and significant aspect of worship is that when we gather in the name of Jesus, we are actually entering by the Spirit and through faith. we are entering into the very throne room presence of God. And if the Lord were to take the scales off of our eyes, we would see this room filled with angels. God is here. Christ promises to be present in a special way where his people are gathered in his name. We have access. Of course, as individual believers, when you go to the Lord in your prayer closet, you are entering into the throne room presence of God as well. But when we come to church, we do that together. And if you realize that, if you realize spiritually what’s going on in worship. It’ll transform your view of worship and it’ll actually make you more eager for worship because you’re not just coming here to fulfill a social duty or to, you know, check off something on your to-do list.
You’re here, brother or sister, you are here to enter into the very throne room presence of God. the heavenly realm through faith in Christ and by His Spirit. That, I believe, is the implication of what we read here in verse 18. For through Him, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. We have access in one Spirit to the Father. Another privilege that we have in Christ is peace and reconciliation, both with God and in principle, at least, with our fellow believers. And this is made clear in verses 14 through 17. Paul, one of the big issues in the early Christian church was, remember Jesus was a Jew, the earliest Christians were Jewish believers, the earliest apostolic church made up of Jews, the apostles were Jews. But when the Gentiles started to come into the church, The Jews were like, the Jewish Christians were like, well, what do we do with all these Gentiles who are coming to believe in Jesus?
Do they need to get circumcised? Do they need to keep the Mosaic law in order to be fully initiated or fully saved Christians? No, no. Paul and the rest of the apostles, at least eventually, stood up and said, no, we are all one in Christ. As he says in verse 14, For he himself, speaking of Christ, Christ himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Under the old covenant, there was a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. There were ritual laws and food laws and even laws about how you were to clothe yourself that set you apart from and separated you from your Gentile neighbors. But now in Christ, those ceremonial laws, those food laws, those ritual laws were fulfilled. And now that dividing wall has been broken down.
And by the way, having said this, You need to reject any kind of theology or approach to Bible interpretation that suggests that someday that dividing wall’s gonna be built back up and there’s gonna be a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem with sacrifices taking place again. That’s to set up again the dividing wall of hostility that God in Christ has torn down. In Christ, Jew and Gentile are on equal footing as the covenant people of God. And this was an amazing revelation in the first century, and it has so many implications for our lives today. And those dividing walls, that dividing wall of hostility, he explains what he means in verse 15. He says, Christ has done this by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, I believe he’s referring there to the ceremonial laws of the old covenant that separated Gentiles from Jews, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body, how?
Through the cross. thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off. The far off ones, those are the Gentiles who had been before the coming of Christ, they had been far off. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. That’s to the Jews as well who came to believe in Jesus. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Note again how Christ’s saving work tears down the dividing wall of hostility between believing Jews and believing Gentiles. Through his cross work, Christ brings together into one body people from all kinds of different backgrounds. Notice, by the way, that there is only one true people of God. There’s not, as our dispensational friends would say, there’s not an earthly people of God, namely the Jews, and a spiritual people, the church.
Israel and the church, two separate things. No, the church is the Israel of God, and this is not replacement theology. This is fulfillment theology. This is expansion theology, because now the gospel goes to the world. and all peoples through faith in Christ are welcomed in to the communion of saints. There is only one true Israel of God, the church of Jesus Christ. But as I mentioned before, these privileges also imply responsibilities. There are duties that attend our heavenly citizenship. And Paul does not focus on the duties here in this particular passage, but later on in this epistle, Paul does speak about some of our spiritual duties as heavenly citizens. One of those duties is that we should seek to maintain our spiritual unity. Look, for example, if you’d skip ahead to Ephesians chapter four, let me just read the first six verses of Ephesians chapter four.
Paul writes, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you’ve been called. You’ve been called by the Messianic King, Jesus Christ, to be part of his kingdom. What a high privilege. Live your life as one in a way that is worthy of that calling. And how is that to be done? Verse two, with all humility and gentleness, with patience. bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Let us, brothers and sisters, as the communion of saints, seek to maintain that unity in Christ that God has blessed us with.
But not only are we citizens of God’s kingdom, as we move on and consider verses 19 through 21, we are God’s household and are growing into a holy temple in the Lord. We are God’s household and we are growing into a holy temple in the Lord. We are a temple that has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone. Look at verse 20. It says in the end of verse 19, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of what? The foundation of the apostle Peter as the first Pope. Is that what it says? No. built on the foundation of plural, the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. John Calvin, in picking up on this language of the foundation, Calvin writes, foundation in this passage unquestionably means doctrine.
For no mention is made of patriarchs or pious kings, but only of those who held the office of teachers and whom God had appointed to superintend the edification of his church. So he’s not talking about, again, about the Pope. Again, notice the church is built on the apostles and prophets, plural, not upon any one particular apostle or church leader like the Apostle Peter as the supposed first Pope. But notice the focus on Christ. Yes, God builds His Church, Christ builds His Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, meaning the apostolic and prophetic teaching, the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. But what is the cornerstone of the Church? Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. Dr. William Hendrickson in his commentary explains the significance of this language. He says, the cornerstone of a building, in addition to being part of the foundation and therefore supporting the superstructure, finalizes its shape for being placed at the corner formed by the junction of two primary walls.
It determines the lay of the walls and cross walls throughout. all the other stones must adjust themselves to this cornerstone. So also, in addition to resting in Christ, the spiritual house is determined as to its character by Him. And John Calvin explains it further. He says that he, that Paul, means that Jews and Gentiles are two separate walls, but are formed into one spiritual building. Christ is placed in the middle of the corner for the purpose of uniting both, and this is the force of the metaphor. Now, what do we learn from all of this? We learn many things, but I think, again, to credit Dr. William Hendrickson, he makes some good applications here. First of all, Christ as the cornerstone is the principle of the church’s stability. Christ as the cornerstone, he is the principle of the church’s stability.
That is to say, the church is only stable as it builds its life and doctrine and worship on the solid rock foundation of Jesus Christ and his word, his gospel message. If a church wanders from the rock of Christ and begins emphasizing and focusing on other things, hobby horses or what have you, and loses Christ or waters down the gospel, the church that does that loses its stability and is headed in a bad way. Christ is the cornerstone and he as the cornerstone is the principle of the church’s stability. But Christ is also the cornerstone in the sense that he is the principle of the church’s direction. Christ, as the cornerstone, is the principle of the church’s direction, just as a cornerstone of a building determines the direction of its walls. Christ directs his church by his word and through the Holy Spirit, not by human tradition, nor by experience, nor new revelations, or signs and wonders, or things like that.
By his word and spirit. And Christ is revealed as the principle of the church’s growth as well. We see that in verse 21, where it says, in whom, in Christ, the cornerstone, the whole structure being joined together grows into a what? A holy temple in the Lord. Godly biblical church growth will only come about as the gospel is faithfully preached and as we live lives of faithful discipleship and grateful obedience. Dear listener, is Christ the source of stability, direction, and growth in your life? Is he the source of stability, direction, and growth at Grace Church? Finally, beloved, as we wrap up our time in the Word this morning, or right now this afternoon. We are a living temple of God who dwells among us by His Spirit. As Paul kind of brings this language to a climax here, and he says in verse 22, in Him, in Christ, you, whether you be Jew or Gentile, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
In Old Testament times, God’s special presence, his kingly, covenantal, saving presence dwelt in the temple. And it’s interesting that the old covenant saints were directed to pray toward the temple because that was the intersection of heaven and earth. That was the meeting place between heaven and earth. But now under the new covenant, how are we to pray? Are we to face any particular direction? We’re Orthodox Presbyterians, do we face Geneva when we pray? You can if you want to. We certainly don’t face Mecca, I hope not, or Rome. Where do we face? It’s not a matter of where you face. We don’t have to pray toward an earthly temple, because Christ is the living temple. So we pray in Christ’s name. And we are a living temple in Him. In Old Testament times, God’s special presence dwelt in the temple.
The Shekinah glory was there in the Holy of Holies. But Christ is now the living temple, the divine Son of God in whom the Holy Spirit dwells above measure. And together, we are a living temple in union with Him. As Paul writes in verse 22, in him, you are being built together into a dwelling place, that would be a temple for God, by the Spirit, or this could be translated as in or by the spirit. It could technically, the term spirit there could refer to either the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but I think given the Trinitarianism of this passage and given the context here, Paul is probably referring here to God’s spirit rather than to the human spirit. Basically, what Paul is doing here in this passage, what he’s discussing in this passage is similar to what the Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2, 4-10.
Let me just quickly read that as we wrap up our time in the Word today. 1 Peter 2. Verses 4 through 10, Peter writes, as you come to him, that’s to Jesus, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.
They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race. This is Old Testament language, by the way, that Peter’s using here. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. What is the end of this? What do we learn in all of this? Well, I think I will leave us and close our time by asking you to turn on the back of your Psalter hymnal to the Confession of Faith, Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 26, section one.
You’ll find that on page 935 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, 935. We have a whole chapter in our confession about the communion of saints. And section 1 says this. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head by his spirit and by faith have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory. And being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man. brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s spirit dwells in us both individually as believers and corporately as Christ’s body. And we are a fellowship of God’s spirit. In Christ and by his spirit, we are the communion of saints.
So let us live in love as the communion of saints. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you, Lord God. that you have redeemed us, and not only have you redeemed us as individuals, but you’ve brought us into the body of Christ. We thank you that in Christ we are citizens of your kingdom, members of your household, and part of the communion of saints. Grant us grace, Lord, as individuals and as a church to live our lives together as the communion of saints for your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. As we respond to what we’ve heard from the word, let’s rise and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, number 406. We’ll sing the first four stanzas as well as stanzas six and nine. Stanzas one, two, three, four, six, and nine.
Jesus with thy church abide. Let’s rise and sing 406.
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