The Church Is Invisible

Fifty days after the Passover Festival, Jewish believers in N.T. times celebrated their third great annual festival, the Feast of Weeks (Hag Shabu'ot), literally, the Feast of Seven-periods following the Passover. This feast began on the day after those seven full weeks, the fiftieth day, also called the Fifty Day (Hamishim Yom) Feast. The Greek word for this feast is Pentecost (fifty). It marked the early wheat harvest at about the sixth of Sivan, their month near the end of our own month of May. Later Jews celebrate God's giving of the Torah on this festival.

We Christians celebrated Pentecost this past Sunday as the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the assembled believers in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul calls Christ the "first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20), linking Him to the Passover and this Festival of Weeks. The first sheaf harvested in the spring belonged to the LORD as a token that all the harvest was His gift to His people. In turn, the resurrected Christ is the first sheaf, the guarantee that all God's people redeemed by Christ will also share in His resurrection. In that sense, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is a symbol of the coming resurrection.

Pentecost more specifically marks the birth of the Christian Church by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We believers argue back and forth about whose church is the true church. Lutherans like me point out that only God knows that. This is why we've often called the church invisible. By that we've never meant to say you can't find Christians anywhere, because they're not visible to the human eye. That would be silly. What we do mean, however, is that only God truly knows who has faith in Christ and in His sacrifice upon the cross. In that sense the church, the body of Christ, is known only to God and is invisible to us. We cannot see the church here on planet earth. It is hidden. It's what Paul refers to when he says,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. - Col 3:1-4 ESV

On the other hand, believers are found wherever the Gospel, the good news of Christ, is proclaimed and taught. We have Christ's Word on that. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by means of God's Word. That's one reason why we call the Scriptures and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper the means of grace. So we can trust God to be creating His church wherever Christians gather to hear the Gospel and to celebrate the sacraments. Paul again,

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. - Rom 10:12-17 ESV

This is also why we may never dare to insist that only Lutherans or only Catholics or only Baptists are the church. But you can probably guess that I'm getting myself—and you—into deep trouble now, because many among each of these named groups like to claim that theirs alone is the true church. Let's look at this more carefully next time.