We sadly live in a day where many, even Christians, have a low view of the church; the church proper and the church as a local gathering of saints. And what I mean specifically is this: there is now a tendency among many Christians to disconnect their own personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ from the reality of corporate Christianity; that is, the gathering of the body of Christians. Many Christians disassociate those two things with one another in our day. You might even hear people say things like, "I'm a spiritual person and I believe in Jesus, but I don't go to church." Ironically, this is one of the most unspiritual things a person can say. Or what about this? "I have a personal relationship with Jesus. I just don't need to meet with other Christians. I worship God as I feel." Or perhaps you've heard, "I worship God when I'm in nature. I don't need to gather in a particular building to worship."

Sooner or later in life, you will come across people who sincerely believe that faith in Christ is something consigned really only to individual experience. To use a simple illustration, many people believe that Christianity is something like hopping on a bus. And on this bus, there are no other people. And on this bus, they get to tell the driver where to drive, what route to take, what stops to make, how fast to go, and where to stop. But is this true? Is this what being a disciple of Christ is all about?

What I want to convince you of this morning is this reality, that just as Christ says in his word that he is building his church, that he has laid down his life for the church, purchased the church, when we are saved, we are saved into a universal worldwide body of believers, and God places us in community. He calls us together to grow, to be equipped, and to be used as an outpost and a beacon of light in this sinful world for him.

So we are interested this morning in understanding the significance of the church of Jesus Christ as a corporate body and a gathered people in the will of God. And to do so, we want to look at the ninth article of the Apostles' Creed, which states as a Christian confession of belief that we believe in the "Holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints."

The way I want to do this simply falls under two headings: the first being the church Catholic, and secondly, the church communal.

The Church Catholic

First of all, the church Catholic. Immediately, we have to briefly unpack this word Catholic here. Some of you might be asking, in reciting the Apostles' Creed, does this mean we are all of a sudden affirming the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church? Well, no. That's not at all what this creed is saying. The word Catholic comes from a Greek word which has this idea of "the whole" or "universal". So when we say the church is Catholic, we mean that the church of Jesus Christ is a worldwide, universal body of believers bonded by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. By virtue of the new birth through the Spirit and our belief in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, we enter into this global body.

I trust even now that you can begin to see the consequences for those who don't see their professed faith in God and Christ as part of any greater reality than themselves. Because salvation, while it is an individual experience through the new birth by the Spirit, we are actually ushered into something greater than ourselves; a universal body of Christ's Church made up of people from all ages, from all backgrounds, from all tongues, tribes, nations. And so I believe in the "Holy Catholic Church", the creed states.

Do you believe in the Holy Catholic Church this morning?

Now what is the scriptural basis for this portion of the creed? Well, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:19, "So then you, that is believers, are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone; in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." Can you see the communal aspect, the Catholic aspect, to the church of Jesus Christ?

I hope you can see the importance of affirming the Catholic nature of the church. And if you are in Christ this morning, if you are professing him as your Lord and Saviour, you are a part of this global body. And so, as I said at the beginning, this means it is no longer valid to say something like, "I am spiritual but I don't go to church." It means we cannot say we have a relationship with Jesus, but I have no interest in gathering with the church. If you love Jesus, you love his Holy Catholic church because you are a part of it. You are a participant in his church.

Now here are five points on these words of Jesus: "I will build my church", to press upon you the importance of the universal church and the plans of God.

The first point is this: first of all, Jesus says, "I", "I will build my church," he says. When we are saved, we enter into a global worshipping community of people and local expressions as we are here, personally attended to and established by the risen and reigning Saviour, Jesus Christ. We went through a difficult time a couple of years ago at Woodlands Church, didn't we? Many of us were wondering which way things were going to go. Are we going to survive at all? I remember at the time, in the back of my mind, was this reality: when Jesus says, "I will build my church," ultimately, it's outside of our control. We can do what we can, but it's Christ who builds, establishes, and maintains his church. Jesus says to his church later in Matthew's account, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." "I", he says, "will build my church".

Secondly, Jesus says "will". The church as a universal body ought to take courage even in those times of trials and encircling darkness. We ought to be reminded, as another has said, of this positive expectation: that Jesus will guide and nurture his church unto glory. It shall not disappear from this world. It shall always grow. It shall always be nurtured. Paul writes of God's intention for his church, saying in Ephesians 5:27, "that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." He will do this. He will perform it.

Thirdly, Jesus says "build". The church cannot be explained humanly speaking. The only thing that explains the presence of the Christian church in the world today is the work of the Spirit of God to apply the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its presence on earth as the outpost of heaven is a testament to divine construction and activity. And this was the effect of the apostolic preaching. In Acts 2, we read, "Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." The church grew, it was built; it was God who was at work growing this corporate Catholic church.

Fourthly, Jesus says "my". Jesus is possessive about his church. It's his. He is the chief Shepherd of the flock. And her members, each one of you if you are in Christ, are individually part of this corporate body of his and are blood bought sinners. He gave himself as a substitute for his church. And on the cross where he died, the wrath of God was absolved from the believer, and we are saved from judgment. He is possessive about his people, therefore, for he has died for them. He has given his life for them. Listen to these words written to church elders in Acts 20:28: "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood." Christ is possessive concerning his people. It's his church and it doesn't belong to any other.

And fifthly, Jesus says the word "church". The Greek word translated church has the meaning of "the called out congregation" or "assembly". That's what it means. The believer in Christ has been called, spiritually speaking, along with a great multitude, out of this world, out of darkness, and into God's glorious light. They have fellowship now with Christ, reconciliation to God. And it's the church alone who enjoy, by no merit or no right of their own, the incredible privilege and blessing of communion with God. And through this collective people, Paul writes in Ephesians 3, "the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord." So God is witnessing to the world through his church.

I hope all these points stress this take-home point: that salvation in Christ, while nothing less than an individual experience, God's purposes for the church and your place in it are far deeper and richer than what you might realise and there is a key corporate element to your faith in Christ.

The Church Communal

Let's look now at the church communal. Once we come to appreciate that God's purposes in salvation reach beyond individual experience into a corporate reality, we must then realise that God has purposes for worship through the corporate gathering of his people. God gathers his church in all different places to himself so that he might receive their praise and he might minister of his own divine graces to them.

So we often say things like this, don't we? We often say, "Will you be at church this coming weekend?" Or "Can I expect to see you at church on Sunday?" We use that language and understandably so, but is this technically correct to speak of it in that sort of way? "Will you be at church?" is that right? You see, we don't actually go to church; rather the church goes in, and that's a big difference. The church goes in, to gather. You were the church outside of the gathering this morning, and now this morning at 10:30am, the church came in together. It gathered as a local body of Christ. The church meets, it communes together through the Spirit with the Lord. And in that gathering, as we are now, she is the local assembling of that universal Catholic church.

To quote one author, he says, "Meeting isn't just something churches do as if it were an additional feature which is a good idea. A meeting is, in part, what a church is." It is a meeting! A corporate meeting of the saints. We are a gathering, we come together and then we scatter and then the church will be gathered and be back together again; never ceasing to be the church, but always longing to gather again and enjoy fellowship with one another and be ministered to by God in communal fellowship.

And one theologian said this, and I've simplified the language a little: he says, "So highly does the Lord regard the communion of his church that he considers everyone a traitor and deserter from Christianity who disobediently withdraws himself from any gathering which preserves the true ministry of the word and sacraments." So tightly united is your personal faith in Christ with what God is doing in his corporate gathering of believers, you see.

In other words, we are to build our lives to every possible extent around our gathering each Lord's day with God's people. And, of course, life is life. Sometimes we cannot gather. Sometimes there really is too much on the farm and you can't be at the corporate gathering, but our hearts should sink when that happens. Or perhaps there are family or health issues that mean that you can't gather. But in so far as we are able and we will work towards it, we are to build our lives so that we might gather with the Lord's people each Lord's day.

Now listen to these words from Hebrews 10: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

So we must gather. But when we gather, are we to arrange our worship and our practice in whatever way we please? Surely not. It is God who gathers, and it is God who regulates how he is to be honoured among the peoples by his word. And Paul says to Timothy, "But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." So we do not gather on the basis of human creativity. We are trying to gather in a way that is in accordance with the revealed word of God.

So in all, saying "I am a Christian and go to church only on special occasions" is a foreign concept to scripture. Or "I'm a Christian but all my hobbies are on the Lord's day so I don't usually have time to go to church." This is another non-biblical idea. God would have us rejoice that at the beginning of each week, we can set apart a time where we can gather to hear from God's word, hear it preached, for the public reading of scriptures as we do, or to see baptisms or to share in the Lord's Supper, to offer prayer and spiritual songs and worship. All these things are primary ways in which God declares his great love for his people, and he grows them, and he shapes them. God communicates his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, and himself most profoundly in the corporate gathering of the church.

So my heart sinks, as yours should too, when I hear of professed believers who do not cherish the assembly. They are casual about the gathering and try foolishly to go about the Christian life alone. So we must sacrifice and we must deny ourselves to every practical extent, of course, that we can come and gather with the church and serve the church as well. For it is God who gathers, it is God who sings over his people, it is God who rejoices over his people because he has redeemed them through the Son, and we want to respond to that rejoicing of God; to learn of him, to hear of him, to pray to him, to sing to him, to speak to him.

One author said this: "God serves us before we serve him. He ministers to us. He blesses us. He reveals himself to us. He pours out his grace upon undeserved grace. And only once he serves us do we serve him. And even then, we serve him with the strength that he alone provides."

Let me give you three points as we close about the gathering of the church communal.

First of all, God gathers his church to ascribe praise to his own name. We must understand and appreciate that God desires to be worshipped and honoured in a certain way. It is true our lives are to be offered in service to God as a response of worship, so we can worship God whilst we're on the farm, we can worship him in the office, we can worship him as we go in life. Yes, that is true. But nonetheless, there remains a specific peculiarity and gravity about what occurs when God's redeemed people gather as the body to worship. Something glorious, something not found any place else in the world, where the church unite their voices with the heavenly hosts, ascribe to the Lord the praise and honour that is due his great name for his works. He is the Lord of hosts, the creator and sustainer of the universe. Would we withhold our corporate praise from him? And he is especially enabling the church and his people to behold him in the gathering.

So we worship as a body with one voice, joining the myriads and the heavenly beings ceaselessly crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." This majestic God, this Almighty God, this glorious, infinite, powerful, sovereign God who made all that is. We worship him in Spirit and in truth, and we worship in the name, the only name given among men, the name of Jesus Christ. The psalmist writes, "Sing praise to the Lord, you his godly ones, and give thanks to his holy name" (Psalm 30:4). Such a gathering as this, entirely focused on the worship of God through Christ, is our goal. I love this quote by C.S. Lewis, He says that "the perfect church service would be one where we were almost unaware of it, for our attention would have been on God."

The second point is this: God gathers his church to strengthen and sanctify them in the faith. Hiding away routinely from the gathering of the saints is a sure way to find yourself lost in the spiritual wilderness. God works on his people in many ways outside of the gathering, yes; in Bible reading and prayer and fellowship with other believers during the week and the trials and difficulties of life, yes, God is ministering to his people. But in the gathering on the Lord's day, the coming together of his people, there we find the principal place where God builds his church.

In the gathering, the weaker believers are encouraged and uplifted by the stronger. There the flock of God's people are led by those whom God has appointed as overseers over the flock. There they are instructed. There they are taught. Here the one who is suffering has another to come alongside them. In the gathering, believers can exercise their various gifts to edify, equip, and serve the body. Here in the gathering, the special grace of God is communicated to his people through the accurate teaching and unfolding of the Scripture. Through the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine, we experience God's great reminder afresh of the gospel and the outstanding debt of love that we owe our Saviour and God. The early church theologian Augustine called the Lord's Supper "the bonds of love", because in them, we experience the real presence of Christ in a unique and special way together. And in baptism, a fresh profession of the gospel is illustrated; a declaration to the gathered church that through union with Christ, our hearts can be cleansed from sin and we can be made anew and washed. God intends and does, in that place where we are gathered faithfully to his name, to shower and communicate his love for his people.

The third and final point, to drive home this emphasis on the church communal, is this: God gathers his church as a witness in the presence of the world. One author has said rightly, think here that "worship is protest". Have you ever thought about that? The worship of God's people on a Sunday morning is protest. You see, there is a worship war going on in the world, and in the gathering of the church is found a protest because it's a condemnation of all that the world offers to tempt man to put before God. And we say no. We will gather in the name of the one true God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we testify before the world of an eternal kingdom, which unlike the kingdoms of men cannot be shaken. We testify the message containing the power to save the soul from hell. We decry false gods of the day. We testify of sin, of judgment, of eternity, of damnation, of salvation in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.

Friends, a church like this has power before the world. When you regulate your worship according to Scripture, when you preach the whole counsel and the full gospel of God, you won't need advertisements. It's like a house on fire. The community is drawn to that blaze yet only as God is pleased to grow it. And while we never gather only with a focus on the unbeliever, we don't forget them either. For God delights to save amidst the gathering of believers. That's what Paul says in First Corinthians 14. When things are conducted in order and with reverence, he says in First Corinthians 14, "the secrets of his heart are disclosed; so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you."

So friends, the Church Catholic, your personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be extracted from your place in this corporate, holy, universal body called the church. See your place among the people of God. See yourself as coming in this local expression together, as we are commanded. Also see the church communal; all that God is doing and pouring out his good gifts upon us occurs in this beautiful community called the church. We're not perfect; it's a hospital for sinners in a way; there are always struggles, always tensions. But God is there, and he is working, and he is moving to sanctify us through his word.

So let's cherish the church. This holy Catholic church and the communion of saints.