Preached during the week of Reminiscere 2014
James 5:13-20 + Mark 9:17-29
Last week we heard that the Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. And we noted that this congregation, this gathering of saints includes both pastor and people, both preacher and hearers. No hearers, no Church. No preacher of the Word and administrator of the Sacraments, no Church.
Tonight we expand on our definition of the Church. We have to, for a very practical reason. If the Church is the congregation of saints, and the pastor is a necessary part of that Church, and the pastor is a devil at heart—not a believer, not a saint; but a pretender, a hypocrite—, then, is the Church still there? Is the Word spoken by such an unbelieving pastor still the efficacious Word of Christ? Are the Sacraments administered by such an unbelieving pastor valid before God in heaven? Are you truly baptized? Are your sins truly forgiven?
We confess in Article VIII of the Augsburg Confession:
Further: although the Christian church is properly nothing else than the congregation of all believers and saints, yet, as in this life there are many hypocrites and false Christians,—open sinners remaining even among the pious,—the sacraments, nevertheless, are effectual, even if the preachers by whom they are administered, be not pious, as Christ himself says, Matt. 23:2 : “The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat,” &c. On this account the Donatists are condemned, and all such as teach contrary to this Article.
Although the Christian church is properly nothing else than the congregation of all believers and saints…
“Properly.” The Church, as God sees it throughout the world, is made up entirely of believing Christians, and since they believe in Christ and have been baptized into Christ, they are covered in the righteousness of Christ and are declared by God to be saints, holy people. God sees into the heart of everyone and knows those who are penitent, who trust in Jesus alone for forgiveness and salvation. Those are the ones who make up the Church in the “proper” sense. All believers. All sinner/saints, as Luther put it. Sinful because of your deeds, but righteous, saintly, because you’re covered with Christ by faith. That’s the reality as God sees it. That’s the Church in the proper sense.
The reality as we see it, however, is quite different, because, as God told the prophet Samuel long ago, man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. The Lord knows those who are His, because He sees the heart. But you and I can’t see the heart. You and I can’t know for certain who is trusting in Jesus and who is only pretending. And yet, that’s all we have here on earth—our eyesight, our ears. We can hear what a person confesses with his or her lips. We can gather with those who we see have been baptized. We can commune with those whose confession of faith we have heard and agree with. That’s how we must define the Church from our perspective, based on what we can perceive with the five senses. Don’t fall for the trap of those churches where the pastor and people go around trying to figure out who is truly born again or not, who is truly believing or not. You don’t get that privilege of looking into your neighbor’s heart. Ever. God reserves that right and that ability for Himself.
So, we go on to confess: nevertheless, since in this life many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled therewith…
Many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled with the congregation of truly believing Christians. We’re not talking about the world in general. We know that there are many evil persons in the world. But we’re talking here specifically about the Church as we see it. Even where people gather around the preaching of the Christian Gospel and where the Christian Sacraments are administered, there may be hypocrites and evil persons mingled with the believers, all of whom call themselves Christians, all of whom have been baptized. The Church, as we perceive it, is made up of both believers and unbelievers, and you can’t necessarily tell the difference.
It’s what Jesus said in the parable of the wheat the tares, or again in the parable of the dragnet:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Notice, Jesus doesn’t say, “the world is like this.” He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like this.” The kingdom of heaven is the Church, with Christ as her King.
Now, to be honest with you, it doesn’t affect you directly if some with whom you gather in church are hypocrites at heart, (and, again, don’t even think about trying to judge your brother and sister in Christ. Christian charity compels us to think and assume the best of those around us, not the worst). But as I said, it doesn’t affect you directly if another member is an unbeliever, because your fellow members don’t connect you with God. Your pastor, on the other hand, the minister whom Christ has placed among you to represent Him… What if he isn’t sincere? What if he doesn’t mean the words he preaches, or doesn’t believe them himself?
We confess: it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, etc. Matt. 23, 2. The rest of that passage goes like this: Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. And just a few verses later, Jesus calls those Pharisees and scribes, “Hypocrites” and pronounces woes upon them.
Jesus never said, “Look into the heart of the one preaching to you,” or, “Look into the heart of the one who baptized you or who is giving you the Sacrament and try to figure out if they’re true believers or not.” Instead, there is such a thing as “Moses’ seat,” or at least it was called Moses’ seat under the Old Testament, because the Old Testament was ratified through Moses. There are authorities whom God has appointed in the Church. Who are the authorities in the New Tesatment Church appointed by God? It’s those who sit in the “seat of Christ,” that is those who have been ordained into the office of the holy ministry and serve as ambassadors of Christ. It’s not the faith of the minister that matters. It’s the God-given authority that matters.
So we confess: Both the Sacraments and Word are effectual by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, notwithstanding they be administered by evil men. This is important, and so contrary to the American spirit where the personality and the sincerity and the supposed spirituality of the preacher is almost the only thing that matters. Not so in the true Church. The institution and commandment of Christ are what make His Word and Sacraments effective, in spite of the personality or the faith or the lack of faith in the preacher himself.
That’s why Paul could write these words to the Philippians from prison: Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. St. Paul could rejoice, because the Gospel preached from false motives is still the efficacious Word of Christ.
Finally, we confess: On this account the Donatists are condemned, and all such as teach contrary to this Article.
The Donatists were a group of Christians who broke away from the Catholic Church in the 300’s AD. At that time there was a severe persecution of Christians being waged by Roman Emperor Diocletian. But in some places, like Northern Africa, the governor made it “easy” on the Christians. Just hand over your Scriptures and renounce your faith, and we’ll leave you alone. Most didn’t. But some did. They were known as “traitors.” But some of those traitors repented of their sin of denying Christ before men and came back into the Church after the persecutions were over. The Catholic Church (that’s our church!) welcomed them back in when they repented and forgave them in the name of Christ. Some of them who had been pastors and bishops before were allowed to be pastors and bishops again. The Donatists didn’t accept that. They taught that once you fall away and deny Christ after you’re baptized, that’s it. No forgiveness for you. And, if you happen to be allowed by the Church to become a pastor again, the Word of God from your mouth has no power, and the Sacraments administered by your hands are invalid. Your baptism isn’t a valid baptism before God, your forgiveness pronounced in Christ’s name isn’t Christ’s forgiveness, and the bread and wine you consecrate remain mere bread and wine.
The Catholic Church condemned the teaching of the Donatists, and we Lutherans are part of that Catholic-not-Roman-Catholic Church. We condemn them, too. To deny forgiveness to the penitent is wicked, because if there’s no forgiveness for that guy who repents, then there’s no forgiveness for you, either, or for anyone. That’s a denial of the very blood of Christ and of His Word that says, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.” And to deny the efficacy of the Sacraments administered by those who stand as the called and ordained servants of Christ is to place your trust in the man, and not in the Word and commandment of Christ.
This is what we confess in Article VIII of the Augsburg Confession, that, even though the Church is properly made up of believers only, in the Church on earth there will always be unbelievers mingled in the with the believers, and it’s not our place to try to read people’s hearts. That includes the ministers. Their hearts don’t matter one bit when it comes to the Church, but their preaching of the Gospel and their administration of the Sacraments do matter very much, because these remain God’s tools and God’s means of handing out all the benefits won for sinners by Jesus’ death on the cross, even the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Amen.
