The Holy Spi­rit marks the begin­ning of the church. But even befo­re that, God had alre­a­dy cho­sen peo­p­le to tra­vel with them. The­re is con­ti­nui­ty bet­ween Isra­el and the Church. But who belongs to the Church? The true church con­sists of all tho­se who belie­ve in Jesus Christ. This is invi­si­ble to us humans, as only God knows the hearts of peo­p­le. Do you belong to it too?

From temple to church

God has always cho­sen peo­p­le with whom he wants to walk tog­e­ther. In the begin­ning it was indi­vi­du­als, then a who­le peo­p­le. The­se peo­p­le had a place to encoun­ter God: the temp­le in Jeru­sa­lem. From the very begin­ning, faith hap­pens in com­mu­ni­ty with God and other peo­p­le. But how did the temp­le come to be God’s dwel­ling place? God com­mis­sio­ned Moses while he was still in the desert: «The Israe­li­tes shall build me a sanc­tua­ry, that I may dwell with them» (Exodus 25:8 NLB). At first it was a tent, and when they lived in Isra­el for a long time, it even­tual­ly beca­me a temp­le. The kings of Isra­el were often jud­ged by how they dealt with the temp­le cult and the sacri­fi­ci­al sites around it. After all, the reli­gious cent­re was Jeru­sa­lem. Anyo­ne who wan­ted to meet God had to go the­re. All wor­ship was con­fi­ned to this one place and this one building.

Jesus Christ is now sud­den­ly the wal­king God. Peo­p­le can the­r­e­fo­re now also encoun­ter God out­side the temp­le. But the temp­le is also cen­tral to Jesus. He was often the­re. But Jesus also says: « «Very well,» Jesus repli­ed. «Des­troy this temp­le, and in three days I will rebuild it» » (John 2:19 NLB). What began with Jesus» life con­ti­nues with his death. At the moment of Jesus Christ’s death, the curtain in the temp­le is torn in two. It is a sign of what has hap­pen­ed and of what is to come.

Alt­hough a new chap­ter beg­ins with the church, God is no dif­fe­rent than in the Old Tes­ta­ment. Both are refer­red to in the Bible as God’s flock. On the one hand, the peo­p­le of Isra­el: «For he is our God and we are the peo­p­le he pro­tects, the sheep he tends. If only you would lis­ten to his voice today!» (Psalm 95:7 NLB). On the other hand, the mem­bers of the church: «Take good care of the flock of God that has been ent­rus­ted to you. She­p­herd them glad­ly and not grud­gin­gly, but as God wills. […]» (1 Peter 5:2 NLB). God does not chan­ge. He is a God of grace from the begin­ning. This is how the peo­p­le of Isra­el should remem­ber their redemp­ti­on, which pri­ma­ri­ly refers to their deli­ver­ance from Egypt. «Remem­ber his migh­ty deeds, his mira­cles and the jud­ge­ments he made» (Psalm 105:5 NLB). Jesus Christ hims­elf refers to this exodus from Egypt when intro­du­cing the Lord’s Sup­per (Luke 22:14–20). To the gre­at act of grace in the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit in the church

Pen­te­cost is now the gre­at tur­ning point of God’s jour­ney with man­kind. It is the birth of the Church. God no lon­ger dwells in the buil­ding, but in the peo­p­le of God. This too is expan­ded. Ancestry is no lon­ger the decisi­ve fac­tor, but faith. «The true child­ren of Abra­ham are tho­se who belie­ve in God» (Gala­ti­ans 3:7 NLB). The church is a living place of God’s pre­sence, led by the Holy Spi­rit. What hap­pens in the church and at Pen­te­cost (Acts 4b-5a) is a reflec­tion of what should have hap­pen­ed in the temp­le. The first fol­lo­wers of Jesus sell ever­y­thing they have so that they can look after the poor. This was alre­a­dy the task of the temp­le in the Old Tes­ta­ment (Deu­te­ro­no­my 14–15). The new temp­le, the church, is the com­mu­ni­ty of Jesus» fol­lo­wers, whe­re peo­p­le expe­ri­ence God’s gene­ro­si­ty and heal­ing presence.

The Holy Spi­rit in the church is a para­do­xi­cal state­ment. Becau­se the Holy Spi­rit is the start­ing point of the church. But he was also a sign from God befo­re that. Beza­lel, a craft­sman, recei­ved the Holy Spi­rit to give him wis­dom to car­ry out the work on the taber­na­cle (Exodus 31:3). Saul, the first king of Isra­el, was pro­mi­sed that he would speak pro­phe­ti­cal­ly through the Holy Spi­rit (1 Samu­el 10:6). Jesus hims­elf casts out demons through the Holy Spi­rit, ther­eby making it clear that the king­dom of God is pre­sent. And at Pen­te­cost, the who­le thing cul­mi­na­tes and the Spi­rit of God is pou­red out and no lon­ger just sym­bo­li­cal­ly on indi­vi­du­als. «On the day of Pen­te­cost, ever­yo­ne was gathe­red tog­e­ther. Sud­den­ly a roar like the sound of a migh­ty storm came from the sky and fil­led the house whe­re they were gathe­red. Then some­thing appeared that loo­ked like fla­mes that par­ted, like ton­gues of fire that sett­led on each and every one of them. And all tho­se pre­sent were fil­led with the Holy Spi­rit and began to speak in other ton­gues as the Holy Spi­rit prompt­ed them» (Acts 2:1–4 NLB).

The Holy Spi­rit is pou­red out in a simi­lar way to how the glo­ry of God fills the sanc­tua­ry. A cloud cover­ed the sanc­tua­ry (Exodus 40:34) and fire fell from hea­ven (2 Chro­nic­les 7:1). Here, too, the­re is con­ti­nui­ty. The new temp­le is the new coven­ant fami­ly of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spi­rit is the dri­ving force behind unity, fel­low­ship and ser­vice. The church is not an orga­ni­sa­ti­on, but an orga­nism through which the Spi­rit works. Church is the com­mu­ni­ty of belie­vers – not a building!

Who belongs to it?

But who belongs to it? With Isra­el, it was clear. It depen­ded on the lineage. But what now? The­re are various dis­cus­sions about who belongs to the church. I am focus­sing here on just two opi­ni­ons. One is that of the pure church, the other is that which Augus­ti­ne cal­led the «cor­pus per­mix­t­um». The ques­ti­on behind this is: What con­sti­tu­tes a true church? For the puri­ty move­ments over the cen­tu­ries, the Church must be a purely spi­ri­tu­al and moral­ly holy com­mu­ni­ty. Not a mix­tu­re of fol­lo­wers of Jesus and tho­se who are not. Sal­va­ti­on can only be found in a moral­ly pure church, and the­r­e­fo­re the church lea­der­ship must ensu­re that the church is pure and remains pure. My church of ori­gin is cele­bra­ting its 50th anni­ver­sa­ry today. Its roots lie in the Breth­ren move­ment, which can also be cate­go­ri­sed as a puri­ty move­ment. In the ear­ly days of the church, only tho­se who were known were allo­wed to take com­mu­ni­on. Anyo­ne new had to eit­her pro­ve them­sel­ves or have a let­ter from their church lea­der­ship con­fir­ming that they were a fol­lower of Jesus and wort­hy. It was about kee­ping the com­mu­ni­ty pure. They were also cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the fear that someone would take com­mu­ni­on unworthily.

The other view is that the church is a «cor­pus per­mix­t­um» – a place whe­re fol­lo­wers of Jesus and tho­se who do not fol­low him are tog­e­ther. A distinc­tion is the­r­e­fo­re made bet­ween the visi­ble and the invi­si­ble church. I share this view. The back­ground to this is the para­ble of the tares in the wheat field from Matthew 13. «Jesus told ano­ther para­ble: «The king­dom of hea­ven can be com­pared to a far­mer who sowed good seed in his field. But in the night, when all was asleep, his ene­my came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. When the wheat began to grow and form ears, the weeds also appeared. Then the farmer’s labou­rers came and said, «Lord, the field whe­re you sowed good seed is full of weeds!» «My ene­my has done this,» the far­mer exclai­med. «Should we pull out the weeds?» the labou­rers asked. He repli­ed: «No, if you do that, you will dama­ge the wheat. Let both grow until har­ve­st time. Then I will tell the labou­rers to gather up the weeds and burn them. But they are to bring the wheat into the barn» » (Matthew 13:24–30 NLB). The visi­ble church includes ever­yo­ne who belongs to it, even if they live moral­ly dif­fer­ent­ly or have no real faith. All peo­p­le who belie­ve in Jesus Christ belong to the invi­si­ble, true church – regard­less of their out­ward affi­lia­ti­on to an insti­tu­ti­on. It is invi­si­ble becau­se only God knows people’s hearts. This can­not be iden­ti­fied by exter­nal signs. For tho­se who orga­ni­se their lives in faith and love for God and stand in the grace of Jesus Christ belong to it. «The­re are wol­ves and sheep, weeds and wheat in the church» (St Augus­ti­ne of Hip­po, Church Father from North Afri­ca, 354–430 AD)

This mor­ning we are cele­bra­ting the bap­tism of five peo­p­le. It is an out­ward sign of an inner pro­cess. What is important in the who­le dis­cus­sion about «who belongs» is that it is what Jesus has done that counts – not me! Alig­ning one’s life with Jesus Christ is a reac­tion to what Jesus has done for me. Anyo­ne who ali­gns their life with Jesus Christ belongs to the church. All the sub-series in this year’s the­me revol­ve around pre­cis­e­ly this: alig­ning your life with Jesus Christ. Are you one of them? Are you one of the fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ? Only you can ans­wer this ques­ti­on. Becau­se your matu­ri­ty is taken serious­ly! The out­pou­ring of the Holy Spi­rit is the birth of the church – and he is also at work here! «[…]. Rather, remem­ber that you bear his seal and ther­eby have the cer­tain­ty that the day of redemp­ti­on will come» (Ephe­si­ans 4:30 NLB). If you ans­wer no to this, then I would like to invi­te you to a life as a fol­lower of Jesus Christ.

Possible questions for the small group

Read Bible text: Matthew 13:24–30 & Acts 2:1–4

1. Whe­re do you see con­ti­nui­ty bet­ween the Old and New Testaments?
2. «The church is not an orga­ni­sa­ti­on, but an orga­nism through which the Spi­rit works.» Whe­re are you in dan­ger of rely­ing too much on the orga­ni­sa­ti­on? Whe­re do you per­cei­ve the work of the Holy Spi­rit in the church?
3. How do you expe­ri­ence the work of the Holy Spi­rit in your life?
4. Who belongs to the church? Can you agree with the state­ment «Cor­pus Per­mix­t­um»? What bothers you about this idea?
5. What about your per­so­nal fol­lo­wing of Jesus? How do you ori­en­ta­te your life towards him?