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“Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”
[1]
Churches are to be autonomous; no outside agency should dictate to a congregation in matters of faith and practise.
This means that we should have no ecclesiastical hierarchy to dictate belief or practise.
Biblical Christians have no headquarters to compel uniformity.
It means there is no “church boss” to control the church.
Because we are autonomous does not, however, mean that we do not seek to co-operate with other churches of like faith and practise in advancing the work of the Kingdom of God.
It is only because contemporary Christians are confused about the distinction between the church and the Kingdom that this issue even needs to be discussed.
Together with all who have been born from above, we work to build God’s Kingdom.
Building the Kingdom is a labour that will not be completed through our human efforts, but we are nevertheless responsible to live as citizens of the Kingdom—honouring Christ our King, fulfilling His call to evangelise and glorifying Him through holy lives reflecting His righteousness.
This work is assigned to all who are called by the Name of the Son of God.
Though we encourage Kingdom work, and though we labour together with all Christians in the Kingdom of God, we do not—indeed, we cannot—co-operate with every religious organisation in missionary advance.
The reasons for this are several-fold, revolving around our understanding of ecclesiology.
Baptists are a doctrinal people, and our doctrines define both who we are and how we carry out the work our Lord has assigned.
Our work is never done in isolation, but rather we realise that we are engaged in a great work that unites churches throughout the world.
The message this day is designed to explore briefly the co-operative work of Baptists.
OUR MISSION AS CHRISTIANS — Reviewing the text, you will notice an arresting phrase.
John speaks of Christians as “fellow workers [sunergoì] for the truth” [VERSE EIGHT].
Clearly, the term, “fellow workers for the truth,” suggests the interrelated nature of our Christian life.
Apparently, God wants Christians to co-operate at some level.
This does not mean that distinctions between the several communions claiming to adhere to the Faith do not exists; but it does mean that Christians are obligated to seek unity in the Faith.
This unity must, however, be based upon doctrine.
That co-operation must be centred on Christ is evident from an earlier missive.
“Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.
Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works” [2 JOHN 9-11].
Our mission is to exalt Christ, and when we co-operate in Christian missions, we fulfil this mandate.
I have just introduced two similar terms that are vital to our understanding of the will of God for us as children of God—“mission” and “missions.”
Every Christian, and consequently every church, is expected to be on mission with Christ.
Before His ascension, Jesus issued a weighty charge to each Christian.
That charge is iterated at least five times in the several Gospels and in the Book of Acts.
In the evangelist Matthew’s account of the Ascension, Jesus is recorded as saying, “Go … and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19, 20].
Mark records Jesus’ commission to disciples as, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” [MARK 16:15, 16].
Doctor Luke has the Master addressing His disciples with these powerful words, “It is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.
But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” [LUKE 24:45-49].
John, the Beloved Disciple, recorded a terse account of the charge Jesus issued.
“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” [JOHN 20:21].
In his historical account of the early churches, Luke relates the words Jesus spoke before His ascension into the heavens.
Jesus pointedly charged His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” [ACTS 1:8].
These statements lead me to conclude that the mission assigned each individual who would believe in the Son of God was quite dear to the Saviour’s heart.
Our mission is to glorify Christ through telling others of His sacrifice and inviting them to receive the life that He offers.
We accomplish this goal through personal and corporate witness to the Good News of His salvation.
Each Christian is responsible to tell others of Christ’s offer of life.
Peter writes that we are to be always “prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks … for a reason for the hope that is in us” [see 1 PETER 3:15].
This is the mission assigned each Christian.
If we are not witnesses of Christ, we surely serve as witnesses to our own perfidy—we betray both the Master and the work that He entrusted to us.
It is of little consequence whether we claim to be Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians or whether we piously present ourselves to be “just Christians,” if we are not witnessing to the grace of God we are disobedient to the charge we have received.
We Christians are always on mission with God.
Also, our mission is to glorify Christ through adorning the doctrine of Christ [TITUS 2:10].
This is accomplished through endeavouring to be holy.
Holiness is perhaps seen as an anachronism, a relic of a bygone age without relevance to modern life; however, holiness defines us as Christians.
We are redeemed by Christ to be His people and we are set apart for His purposes.
This is the essence of holiness—being set apart for Christ’s purposes.
Being ethical and being moral are certainly part of being holy, but holiness is much more than merely being ethical or being moral in our conduct.
Holiness is marked by a desire for unity surrounding the Person of Christ.
The call for unity is presented repeatedly throughout the New Testament.
Christians are to seek the unity of the Spirit [EPHESIANS 4:3], the unity of the Faith [EPHESIANS 4:13] and unity of mind [1 PETER 3:8].
We are enjoined to live in harmony with one another [ROMANS 12:16] and we are to be of the same mind [PHILIPPIANS 2:2].
The harmony sought is clearly a doctrinal harmony leading to unity and not uniformity.
The unity of the Faith is agreement concerning Christ and all that He has done for us.
Some Protestant Christians have imagined a strange entity that they identify as a universal church.
This church is supposed to be invisible, in contradistinction to the Catholic concept of a visible, universal church.
Let me state quite clearly that there is no “invisible” church, nor even a visible, universal church.
The concept is a reaction against Catholic doctrine of the universality of the Catholic Church as the true church of Christ.
Protestants trace their origins from Catholicism, and not surprisingly, they carry much of the baggage that they brought with them when they exited their mother church.
Baptists, however, never were Protestants.
We had nothing to protest since we did not have our origins among the Catholics.
We indeed share some tenets in common with both Catholics and Protestants.
Nevertheless, there are great differences between our understanding of the Faith and that held by these broader groups within Christendom.
Perhaps our greatest difference with Catholic friends is our understanding of justification.
Perhaps our greatest difference with the churches identified with Protestantism is our view of ecclesiology and the doctrines that rightly belong to that particular discipline.
Nevertheless, there is unity in Christ.
All who through faith are born from above and into the Family of God share a common salvation and serve a common Lord despite obvious distinctions in various areas of belief.
This is Paul’s assertion in EPHESIANS 4:4-7.
“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.
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
The Psalmist certainly set a godly standard for Christians when he wrote:
“I am a friend to all who fear You,
to those who keep Your precepts.”
[PSALM 119:63] [2]
So, we seek co-operation without compromise in our faith.
The key to understanding this statement is the concept of “co-operation without compromise.”
The unity we seek and the co-operation we enter into are defined by the teaching about Christ.
The corollary is that when a church or a denomination no longer exalts Christ as Lord of life, or when that church or denomination begins to tolerate practises that are unholy, we must resist the temptation to ignore these differences.
There can be no debate concerning our response to religious error concerning Christ and His presence among us.
We must immediately cease walking with those who choose sin.
Co-operation in the cause of Christ to advance the Kingdom of God, to share in evangelistic efforts, are limited to co-operation with other Christians who are Trinitarian and orthodox in theology.
This includes a proper understanding of Christology and soteriology—the teachings of Christ and of salvation.
Agreement on broader doctrinal issues, including especially agreement on issues of ecclesiology, permit co-operation at the level identified as denominational labours.
Through denominational union, we may co-operate in educational and missionary enterprise.
Training institutes, schools and seminaries are facilitated as we work together in a common cause.
Missionaries require support from groups that share a common focus for the expression of their faith.
Mission boards and the various missionary causes generally enjoy support from churches that agree on general issues of doctrine.
When we agree substantially on all issues, including methods of worship, we unite into communities of faith identified as local churches.
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