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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This lecture is a part of the Shawn E. Belive core class.
It is on the doctrine of the church, or of God's people,
and it was taught on April 1st of 2025.
How many of you have seen this show, Speaking of Infants, House?
Yes, love House.
Christina and I watch House.
We're watching it again for like the thousandth time.
Love that show.
I've heard, out of all the medical shows,
it gets like a C+, which is pretty high.
For most medical shows, so it's still off.
But if you haven't seen House, it's
about Dr. Gregory House, who's a medical genius.
He's a diagnostician who can solve tough cases
with brilliant deduction, razor sharp logic.
But he's also deeply cynical.
He's convinced that people are selfish, emotions are weak,
and teamwork is a waste of time.
Everybody lies is his phrase, he says, often
throughout the show, especially in the earlier seasons, which
reminds him that he can only believe and trust
in his own intellect, not what people are reporting to him.
That's why, in the show, he often does not
have contact with patients.
That doesn't really matter what they say,
because they're probably lying anyways.
So at first, House has a team that he's given,
and he treats them like they're disposable tools rather than
colleagues.
He pushes them away, he insists on working alone,
he dismisses their input as irrelevant.
But over time, it becomes clear in the show
that he needs his team more than he realizes.
And it takes a long time for him to realize this,
a couple of seasons almost.
People on his team like Foreman, who challenges his authority
and keeps him accountable, another doctor named
Cameron, who reminds him that medicine is more than just
solving puzzles, it's about people,
and Chase, who proves invaluable with his instincts
and expertise, and even his friend, his best friend,
constantly calls him out on his selfish, destructive behavior.
So despite Dr. House's arrogance,
House is far better with his team than he is without them.
They help him see angles he missed,
they challenge his biases, and whether he admits it or not,
they give him something he desperately
needs, which is connection.
I think a lot of us are like House sometimes, especially
in Western culture.
A lot of us think we're better off alone, right?
We're smarter, we're stronger, more efficient
without the baggage of relationships.
But in reality, we thrive in community,
whether we recognize it or not, whether we want it or not,
we thrive in community.
We're designed to live and be in community.
Life's not just about us, it's about the people
we live life with.
That's why we're offering, actually, in the fall,
our second core class, it's actually the third core class.
I don't know how they number them.
It's the second one we're teaching called Belong.
And Belong is going to be and is a space
to learn what it means to live in community
as the people of God.
It's sort of a theology of church community.
This class will be more than just a theology community.
It will be highly relational.
It's a place to experience the joy of hearing someone else's
story, to know and be known, and to practice
vulnerability and accountability and grow together
into being the people of God.
This is deeply important to us at Christ Community,
being a community, not just a group
of loosely associated people.
And the idea that we can do well alone
is one of the many residues of modern Western individualism.
Is this CMA?
No, CMA is on Thursdays.
On Thursdays?
Yeah, no worries.
You're welcome.
I wish it was on Tuesdays as well, but it's not.
Yeah, the idea that we can live alone, be alone, and do well
is a modern Western ideal.
And human history, and in the Bible itself,
proves that we need to live in community.
I've been reading through the Old Testament,
and the one proverb that kind of just struck me as so obvious,
but so true is Proverb 18.1.
It says, "Whoever isolates himself, seeks his own desire.
He breaks out against all judgment."
The Bible teaches us that we should not be alone.
And actually, science tells us that, too.
It's not good to be alone.
One study from 2015 showed that chronic loneliness raises
early death risk by 26%.
It harms immunity.
It increases stress, alters brain chemistry.
And this study equates the health impact
of being alone to smoking 15 cigarettes every day.
Conversely, another study showed that strong relationships
improve health and longevity.
Social bonds reduce stress.
They enhance recovery and increase resilience
and well-being.
We're designed to be and live in community.
Culture glorifies the Western ideal of individualism,
but true flourishing is found in deep and rich community.
And the church provides this kind of life-giving community,
mirroring the biblical model of a body where each part depends
on other parts.
No part of the body can live separate from the body.
Neither can we really flourish separate from the church.
But it's more than just a place for people to belong.
It is that.
And it's deeply that, but it's more than that.
The church is for our good, yes, but it's also for God's glory.
So tonight we're going to be talking about the doctrine
of the church and sacraments.
And I want us to understand, here's our big idea,
this one thesis, that the church is God's redeemed and united
people on mission, worshipping God, known by love,
and making disciples, and experiencing his grace, action,
and presence in the sacraments.
The church is God's redeemed and united people on mission,
worshipping God, known by love, and making disciples,
experiencing his grace, action, and presence in the sacraments.
And we'll see this by looking at the church
as God's redeemed people who are justified by Christ
or unified by the Spirit, and they're locally expressed.
And they experience the gracious gifts of God in baptism,
specifically, and the Lord's Supper.
Sorry, and specifically in baptism and the Lord's Supper.
So our life in Christ is much more
than an individual salvation.
Paul tells us that in Acts 20, verse 28,
"to pay careful attention to yourselves
and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which
God obtained by his own blood."
Jesus didn't just purchase your individual salvation,
but that is how we tend to think.
Even our case study elutes this.
That's how we tend to think in the Western world,
Jesus saved me.
And that's true, yes.
But he also purchased his church, his people,
with his blood.
What exactly is church?
What does the word church mean?
Well, we start in the Old Testament, right?
Like all good things do.
The church has its roots in the Old Testament.
The Hebrew word kahal, or the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, it's the word ekklesia.
They mean assembly, convocation, congregation, people
with a shared belief, or a community.
And the Greek term is actually made--
I don't know Hebrew very well.
That's why I don't go there.
But the Greek term is made up of two different terms, ekk
and kaleo.
And this ekk means out of.
Kaleo means called, and so some people
would refer to the church as the called out ones
or the set apart ones.
In the Old Testament, this was Israel.
God calls out Abraham and promises
he will make him a great nation.
God establishes his covenant with Israel,
and he calls him his own people.
And when, for example, he calls them out of Egypt,
they assemble as his called out and set apart people.
In the New Testament, in the New Covenant,
these called out ones are those who
are, as our statement of faith says,
all who have been justified by God's grace
through faith alone in Christ alone.
In Galatians 6 16, Paul calls the church the Israel of God,
the people of God that are called just like Israel was,
but now this has expanded to all the nations.
So the church is comprised of those people
who are called out, justified by God, and faithful to Christ
alone.
What are some of the attributes of this church?
The Nicene Creed or the nice--
I don't know why it's titled this way--
the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
I don't think I even said that right.
But it's a Nicene Creed adjusted at Constantinople.
It spells out the nature of the church.
It says we believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic church.
A nice, succinct statement.
The church is one.
The church is united in Christ.
The church is holy.
It's set apart and belongs to God.
The church is Catholic, meaning it's universal.
It breaks the boundaries of space and time.
The church is apostolic.
It has its foundation in the teachings of the apostles,
as found in the Bible and the New Testament.
So the church is one.
The blood of Christ unites the church.
This is a reality, but it's also a constant plea in scripture
that the members of the church remember this unity
that they have.
Consider Paul's words in Ephesians 4.
This is sort of a long two verses, actually.
A couple of verses.
He says, "Therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you
to walk worthy of the calling you have received,
with all humility and gentleness,
with patience bearing with one another in love,
making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace."
There is one body and one spirit.
Just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
who is above all and through all and in all.
And later in verse 13, he says, "But speaking the truth in love,
let us grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ.
From him, the whole body, fitted and knit together
by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body
for building itself up in love by the proper working
of each individual part."
This is a constant urge in the New Testament letters
to be united.
The church is one.
We are all one in Christ and therefore have unity.
And there's no reason that we should divide over things
that are secondary to Christ.
There is room for disagreement and discussion,
but there's no room or reason for division.
In fact, theologian John Frame holds the view
that denominations are actually an embarrassment.
He says in his systematic theology,
when there are disputes within the church,
Jesus gives us in Matthew 18 directions for resolving them,
but he never gives us the option of leaving one church
and starting another.
That is what has happened in the history of denominationalism.
I believe, John Frame believes, that denominationalism
is an offense to God and that it has weakened the church's
witness.
The rise of denominations is caused by sin,
either the sin of those who left the original church
or the sin of those who forced them to leave,
or most likely both.
There's an interesting topic to ponder, right?
Denominationalism, it kind of is a result of sin.
Either I sin and I have to leave the church
or something else happens.
It's almost always a result of sin.
But what this quote is really pointing to
is the fact that disunity is heavily preached
against in the New Testament.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1.10,
"Now I urge you, brothers and sisters,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you
agree in what you say, that there be no division among you,
and that you be united with the same understanding
and the same conviction."
And I don't think Paul is saying that in every instance
of every tertiary doctrine, even, you need to agree.
But on those things that make the church the church,
that make the believer a believer,
you should have unity in these things.
In Colossians 3.14, he says, "Above all,
put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity,
and let the peace of Christ, to which you were also
called in one body, rule your hearts and be thankful."
Christ's church, Christ's community,
is united by his blood.
We, as one church, should strive towards that love and unity.
We are one church.
And one of the things that marks the church as holy
and set apart is our love.
Jesus says in John 13.35, "By this,
everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you what?
If you love one another."
We should look distinct from other groups that gather
together for a common purpose.
We should have extreme love for one another.
This sets us apart.
But that the church is holy means
more than just bearing the mark of being set apart.
Scripture tells us that we are God's holy people.
1 Peter 2.9 says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
We're not a random group of people,
but a group of people set apart unto God.
We are his possession.
We belong to the Lord.
We're God's servants.
We're God's sons and daughters.
And since God is holy, those who are in relationship to him
in these ways, sons, daughters, are also holy.
We're so holy in the fact that the Bible says
that we are the temple of God.
This is why Paul records--
I'm sorry, Luke records in Acts--
Jesus responding to Paul's persecution of the church
as him saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Because in the church, in the temple of God,
made up of believers, that's where God dwells.
Because we are holy, set apart for him.
We are a church that is holy.
We're also a universal church.
Not just here are we a church, but believers of all space
and time make up the church.
The term Catholic in this Nicene Creed
does not refer to the Catholic denomination.
Rather, it's a Greek rendering of Catholicos.
It means general or universal.
The term was used in the early church
to refer to the people of God that extended
beyond local gatherings.
God's people are not restricted to being in one location, one
race, one nation.
In fact, I'm inclined to believe that the people of God
are not even limited to this realm of reality.
There are people who have died and left earth.
They are still a part of God's church.
In the Old Testament, God's people
are associated with a single nation, Israel.
But God's promise to Abraham is that he
would be the promise of God to many nations.
And so in the New Testament church,
that promise to Abraham is fulfilled.
And now the church is scattered throughout all the nations
throughout the whole world.
We are one Catholic church.
And finally, an apostolic church.
Church is apostolic.
What does this mean?
Well, Acts 2 42 tells us that the church
is devoted to the teachings of the apostles,
to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread,
and to prayer.
The teaching of the apostles is a church's doctrinal foundation.
They write in the New Testament.
They expound on what the Old Testament says.
So really, this is a way of saying
that it's the Bible on which our doctrinal foundation stands,
our source of scripture.
We are one holy Catholic and apostolic church.
I'm behind on these slides.
So with that, what then is the church's purpose?
This is who we are.
What is our purpose?
Do we exist simply to have community?
It's really fun to be here on Sundays
and hang out in the foyer and listen to people
and talk about our days.
But is that all we exist for?
Well, no, it's not.
The purpose of the church is really threefold.
The church exists to be united in love.
The church exists to worship God.
And the church exists to be continually on mission.
And there are certainly more marks of the church,
but these three are somewhat foundational.
So the first one is love.
The Bible is clear that God's assembled people
are marked by love.
Again, John 13, 35.
"By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."
And neglecting this crucial mark often
causes much of a division that we see in Christian community.
When we start to divide over secondary and tertiary
doctrines, if that divide becomes final and splits
into churches, it's because we don't love one another
to keep that unity.
And the church should be marked by that love.
God's people are and should be marked by love.
This is a functional part of Christ community's mission
and purpose.
"We exist to be a caring family," our mission says.
And love could be easily substituted for caring.
It's not just our mission as a local church,
but the purpose of the people of God
universally to be a church that is marked by love.
Secondly, marked by worship.
The purpose of the church is to worship God.
And if a church is assembling not to worship God,
then they're not assembling as the church
or they are not a church.
In fact, the origins of the word or words for church
come from the event of Israel gathering
where at Mount Sinai, where God is revealing himself
and they worship him on the day of assembly.
So the church is to gather, to worship God in spirit
and in truth, as Jesus says in John 4.24.
And third, the mission of the church
is the church's purpose.
At the end of the Gospel of Matthew,
Jesus commissions his disciples.
He says, "Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father--"
Thank you, Dylan.
"--of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
One of the purposes of the church is to be on mission,
to expand, not just stick with those who are around,
but to make more disciples as Jesus commands us.
We gather to worship.
We gather to love one another, to preach the word,
to equip the saints, and to lead people to Christ.
And here in Christ's community, our mission
is to be a caring family of multiplying
disciples influencing our community
and world for Jesus Christ.
Universally, the church worships God, is known by love,
and disciples, the nations.
These slides are all messed up.
Guess we're going to the sacraments.
Worship, love, and mission are lived out practically
in many ways--
preaching, literal missions trips,
loving your neighbor in many ways.
But there are two ways specifically
in which we live out the message of the Gospel, two really
impactful ways--
baptism and the Lord's Supper.
These two things are known as the sacraments.
And they're covenant signs that anchor us in God's promises
and unite us.
Sacraments confirm God's promise to us
and our commitment to Him.
But these things are not magical things, right?
Matt Chandler, a pastor in Texas,
he used to listen to his sermons a lot.
And they would go straight from sermon to communion.
And he'd always say, if you're not a believer,
you don't have to take it.
You can just let it pass by.
It's not like you're being magical in the bread
and the grape juice.
That's going to save you.
It's not like you're going to take it and then just
be in heaven.
These are signs.
They're real and powerful, but they
are signs and images and pictures
of inward or spiritual truths.
Something is really happening in the sacraments.
I think we need to recover that in church today.
I'm guilty of watching baptism kind of just flippantly
or taking communion just as a part of my Sunday morning
routine.
But I do think-- and I don't have all the answers to it.
I can't explain it thoroughly.
But I do think something is happening in baptisms
and in the sacraments.
I'm not much of a crier, but baptisms always get me.
And I don't think it's-- something's happening.
I don't think it's just an emotional moment.
I think something is really happening in those moments.
In them, we truly experience the gifts and presence of God.
They're signs.
They instruct us by words, imagery, and actions.
They are God acting on our behalf.
He's really there.
He's really doing something.
And more than that, they point to the fact
that he did act on our behalf in the person of his son.
And they are locations of God's presence.
Again, he's really there.
And in them, we have fellowship with God
and with other believers.
So we start with baptism.
Baptism is a right in which a believer visibly
enters the church.
John Frame says, as a person takes an oath
to become an American citizen, so we
undergo baptism to become members
of the Christian church.
In baptism, the one being baptized
proclaims that he or she is being cleansed, is repenting,
and has union with Christ.
Cleansing-- in the Old Testament,
a requirement for entering into God's presence
was that you were clean or that you were holy.
And so you went through, especially if you
were the high priest, you went through rituals
that made you clean or set you apart.
And in baptism, this is what is pictured--
the saved individuals being washed of those things
that makes them unclean, thus making
them fit for God's presence.
Cleansing is being symbolized.
It's not magical.
It's not the act of being dunked under water
that cleanses an individual.
I mean, actually, it does clean you physically, maybe.
But it doesn't do anything to your soul.
The water-- it's not special water.
It's not a special horse trough that we use.
It's not blessed in a certain way
to make you fit for God's presence.
It is an outward sign and symbol of the inward change
that you are saying has taken place.
Therefore, it is possible that one could be baptized and not
saved, because baptism itself is not salvific.
Second, baptism is a sign of repentance.
It's a sign that John says, when he announces a kingdom,
he says repent and believe and offers
a baptism of repentance.
In baptism, we acknowledge that we need cleansing by God,
that we are not clean.
And through the blood of Jesus, we can be clean.
If we turn from our sin towards Jesus, we can be clean.
We can be holy.
We can be saved.
In baptism, those are the things that we acknowledge,
that we are doing and has happened.
And finally, baptism is a sign of union with Christ.
In Matthew 28, 19, and 20, Jesus tells his disciples
to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
At Christ's community and many other churches,
pastors will say in baptism, when they're baptized,
they'll baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit in the likeness of Christ's death,
raised in your life.
But in the name, it means something.
In ancient times and historically,
that meant that whatever you're baptized into
is what you belong to.
And so when we're baptized in the name of the triune God,
we are symbolizing that we now belong to that triune God.
Thus, in baptism, we are united with Christ.
We're lowered in the likeness of his death
and raised in the likeness of his resurrection.
We die in baptism, the death that Christ dies.
And in baptism, when we come out of those waters,
we are symbolizing that we also have risen with him
when he rose from the dead.
Baptism is a sign and seal of the believer's entrance
into the visible church.
The Lord's Supper or communion is a blessing of fellowship
with the visible members of the church.
In communion, Jesus, his death, is pictured and symbolized,
and it's offered to God's people as a blessing.
In communion, we are reminded of God's reconciliation work,
and that through this work, we have fellowship with him.
We have fellowship with God.
We can communicate with God.
We can be with God.
We can depend on God.
That's made possible through Christ's blood
shed on the cross.
Now, at the table of fellowship, God invites the redeemed
to dine with him and to dine with his people.
And in those times, we have fellowship, true fellowship.
Again, I think something's happening here.
I don't think it's just bread and grape juice.
This is why, when things get awkward here at communion,
I try to call that out.
I'm like, "It's fine.
Why'd you take so much bread?"
Or, "Dip more. It's okay."
I like to break the tension because I am not stoic
at my family dinner table.
And when we are here taking communion,
we are at a family dinner table.
It should be done if you're sad, with tears, that's welcome.
If you're happy, with joy, that's welcome.
It's a real time of fellowship with one another,
but also with God, a time of remembrance.
It also symbolizes a future and final banquet
where we will eternally have fellowship
with God and with his church,
and we'll enjoy that when Christ returns.
The church is God's redeemed and united people on mission,
worshiping God, known by love, and making disciples,
experiencing his grace, action,
and presence in the sacraments.
So in light of this, how should we live?
What do we do with this information
of the purpose of the church, its marks,
and the blessing of sacraments?
How do we respond?
We respond as living as God's people,
respond by loving him and worshiping him,
that is what the church is for.
We respond by loving one another.
I think Ethan will talk more about this
in his lesson next week,
but that's a huge part I think we miss,
is Christian living, and in that Christian living
is loving God and loving neighbor.
When we love neighbor,
we are acting in the purpose of the church.
We should go to the nations,
and we should be strengthened by the signs
that he gives us in baptism and the Lord's supper.
And many of us probably here have been baptized.
That doesn't mean that you can still gain energy
and courage and strength
from witnessing the baptisms of others.
I know when we watched the baptism a couple weeks ago,
that was a blessing to me, and I wasn't being baptized.
We still get encouragement through those things.
So when you come to church on Sundays,
when you gather together in homes or in restaurants
or in coffee shops or pickleball courts,
slamming the wall that's over here,
you should do so with purpose in mind.
And this purpose I think should be so soaked in your mind
that it's becoming a part of your nature,
that when you gather together, you are loving God,
your loving neighbor, and you're on mission together
with your brothers and sisters.
And when those goings get tough,
remember the sacraments, participate in them,
experience God's presence in communion, in baptism,
and have deep fellowship
with brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let these experiences drive you
and move you towards more love for God
and more love for neighbor,
and let them fill your mission
to make disciples of all nations.
Amen?