我想在今天早晨开始时，先从圣约翰福音第十七章，为诸位朗读我们主的大祭司祷文的 一段，从第六节起。这里是圣安德烈堂，虽不算圣安德烈堂的敬拜聚会，但有从圣安德 烈堂来的人，他们若见我不邀请诸位起立恭读神的道，恐怕会以为我已背离了正道。 I'd like to start this morning, if I may, by reading to you a passage from the Gospel according to St. John, from chapter 17, from a portion of our Lord's High Priestly Prayer, beginning in verse 6 of chapter 17. And this is St. Andrew's, though it is not a St. Andrew's worship service, but we have people here from St. Andrews, and they'll think that I have become apostate if I don't ask you to stand for the reading of the Word of God.
「我已将你的名显明给你从世上赐给我的人。」 I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.
「他们本是你的；你将他们赐给我，他们也遵守了你的道。」 They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
「现在他们知道，凡你所赐给我的，都是从你而来。」 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
「因为你所赐给我的道，我已经赐给他们；他们也领受了，并且 确实知道我是从你出来的，也信你差我来。我为他们祈求。」 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from You, and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them.
「我不为世人祈求，却为你所赐给我的人祈求，因为他们本是你的。」 I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.
「凡是我的都是你的，你的也是我的，并且我因他们得了荣耀。」 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
「从今以后，我不在世上，他们却在世上；我往你那里去。」 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.
「圣父啊，求你因你所赐给我的名保守他们，使他们合而为一，正如我们一样。」 Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
「我与他们同在的时候，因你所赐给我的名保守了他们，也护卫了他们。」 While I was with them, I kept them in Your name.
「其中除了那灭亡之子，没有一个灭亡的，好叫经上的话得应验。」 Those whom You gave Me, I have kept, and not one of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
「现在我往你那里去，我还在世上说这话，是要叫他们心里充满我的喜乐。」 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
「我已将你的道赐给他们；世界又恨他们，因为他们不属世界，正如我不属世界一样。」 I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
「我不求你叫他们离开世界，只求你保守他们脱离那恶者。」 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
「他们不属世界，正如我不属世界一样。」 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
「求你用真理使他们成圣；你的道就是真理。」 Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth.
「你怎样差我到世上，我也照样差他们到世上。」 As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.
「我为他们的缘故自己分别为圣，好叫他们也因真理成圣。」 And for their sake, I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
以上只是这段大祭司祷文的一小部分，借着圣灵丰 盛的眷顾，我们得以像旁听般聆听这祷告的奥妙。 This is just a small portion of this High Priestly Prayer that, through the generous superintendence of the Holy Spirit, we are given the opportunity to eavesdrop, as it were, on this prayer.
我今天的任务并不是要详细讲解此处经文，而是要阐释尼西亚信经的一部分，其中 载有那四个著名的形容词，宣示教会乃是独一、圣洁、大公且使徒传承的团体。 And I have not been assigned to give an exposition of this text, but rather an exposition of a portion of the Nicene Creed, in which we find the four famous adjectival qualifiers that describe the Church as one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic body.
但我之所以朗读这段经文，乃是因为其中…… But I've read this text because in it...
我们可以看见这些教会属性在圣经中的根基。 We find the biblical foundation for those attributes of the Church.
愿诸位听从这出自约翰福音的真理，并以其为神的道来领受。 Hear this word that comes to us from the Book of John and receive it as the Word of God, for which it is.
请坐下。 Please be seated.
让我们同心祷告。 Let's pray.
我们的父我们的神，当我们在这个时候共同思想你教会的 本质、职分与归宿，求你俯就我们的软弱，赐下帮助。 Our Father and our God, as we consider the nature, the function, the destiny of Your Church together in these days, we ask that You would condescend to our weakness and send us help.
求你差派圣灵，使我们借按手所领受的恩赐再次被点燃 ，在你赐给我们的呼召中重新得着心灵的喜乐与热忱。 Send us Your Spirit to rekindle the gifts that have been given to us through the laying on of hands, to awaken and quicken within our hearts a fresh joy in the vocation that You have given to us.
在这段时日里教导并鼓励我们；我们如此祈求，是奉耶稣之名。 Instruct and encourage us in these hours, for we ask it in Jesus' name.
阿们。 Amen.
若有人看见当今教会的光景，却又听说教会被称为独一、圣 洁、大公、并具使徒传承的群体，也许会生出怀疑与讥诮。 If someone were to look at the contemporary Church and heard it being described as one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic body, they may be inclined to cynicism.
因为，当我们瞻望当代教会内部的破碎与纷争时，似乎毫 无独一、毫无圣洁、毫无大公性，更遑论使徒承继了。 Because when we look at the fragmentation and dissension that exists in the contemporary Church, we see anything but unity, anything but sanctity, anything but catholicity, and anything but that which is apostolic.
这样看来，教会在我们的视野中，可谓支离破碎 、腐败不堪、心胸狭小且深受现代主义影响。 And so we could say that the Church, in our purview, is fragmented, corrupt, parochial, and modernistic.
然而那只是从讥诮者的视角出发。其实在更深的实质里，由我们 主耶稣基督所创立，并由祂亲自保守至今的教会，因着祂的能力 与祂的代求，依然是独一、圣洁、大公并且使徒相传的教会。 But that would be the purview of the cynic, because in a very real sense, the Church that was established by our Lord Jesus Christ and is sustained by Him through the ages remains, by His power and by His intercession, one Church, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
并且在尼西亚信经中，点明这些教会属性时，也是在信经的内容 里提及，所以我们可以默示地再添加一个属性：教会是认信的。 And even in the Nicene Creed, as these attributes are mentioned, they are mentioned within the context of a creed itself, and so implicitly we could add a fifth, namely, that the Church is confessional.
今天早晨，若主许可，我会为诸位探讨尼西亚信经中这四个形 容教会的特质之意义，先从“教会是独一的”这个宣告开始。 But I'm going to spend the time this morning, God willing, looking at the significance of these four qualifiers that we find at Nicaea, beginning with the affirmation that the Church is one.
当然，在第四世纪早期，尼西亚信经初被撰写之时——我这儿杯子底下有个洞， 差点把水洒下去，但神怜悯保守，未竟如此——那时的光景与如今大不相同。 Of course, when the Nicene Creed was written in the early portion of the fourth century, there's a hole in this thing, and I almost just dropped my libation into it, but God answered my prayer to visit us in His grace and kept that from happening.
然则在尼西亚信经之时，除去一些少数零散的异端团体，大体而言 ，教会在外在与组织上皆保持独一，其余都在罗马公教共融之下。 But at the time of the Nicene Creed, for the most part, except for some small isolated heretical groups, the Church was unified, visibly and organically, and the rest with the Roman Catholic communion.
然而岁月流转，如今在后来的教会历史中，我们看 见教会已四分五裂，成了无数宗派、派别与团体。 But though that is in ages past, now we see in the history that has ensued that the Church has been fragmented into a vast number of denominations, sects, and groups.
我不知道现今在美国究竟有多少宗派。 I don't know how many denominations there are right now in America.
我在一百年前从神学院毕业时，当时全美有两千个独立登记者的宗派，包括 第一升天梯教会与第二升天梯教会，后者是从第一升天梯教会分裂出来的。 When I graduated from seminary a hundred years ago, there were 2,000 listed distinct denominations in America, including the Church of the Ladder Up to Heaven number one and the Church of the Ladder Up to Heaven number two, which had split from the Church of the Ladder Up to Heaven number one.
自我从神学院毕业的这四十多年里，我亲历了普世 合一运动的高潮，也看见了无数宗派合并的情形。 In the last 40-some years since I graduated from seminary, I've lived through the pinnacle of the ecumenical movement that has witnessed an abundant number of mergers between denominations.
因此，你也许会以为这两千个独立宗派的数目已大大减少，然而事实并非如此。 And so you would assume that the number of 2,000 separate denominations has been significantly reduced, but that would not be the case.
事实上，宗派的数目反而明显增多了。 In fact, it has been significantly increased.
因为每当两个宗派彼此合并，本该从二变成一，结果却往往生成三个。 For every time there’s a merger between two bodies, instead of producing one out of two, it inevitably produces three.
除了新合并成的群体之外，两边又各自保留一部分不愿参与合并的分支。 You have the new group plus the continuity of the two groups' dissidents that didn’t want to become part of the merger.
于是，此种众多而各异的教会就这样持续存在下去。 And so these manifest plurality of churches continue.
我相信在座各位从事事奉的人，都听过这样一个故事：某人因船难 被困在一座荒岛上，孑然一身过了二十年，盼望着得救的那日。 I'm sure those of you who are in ministry all know the story of the man who found himself shipwrecked on an island and was living there alone for 20 years, dreaming of the day where he might be rescued.
有一天，他远远看见海面来了一艘船，船上的人注意到他，就派救生艇来把他从岛上救走。 And one day he saw this ship on the horizon drawing near, and somebody from the ship spotted him and came over and sent their lifeboats in to rescue him from the island.
人们上岛接他时，注意到他在这二十年里盖了三幢房子。 When they came for him, they noticed that over the period of 20 years, he had built three buildings on the island.
他们问他这几幢房子分别是什么，他答道：「左 边那栋是我的房子，中间那栋是我的教会。」 They asked him what the buildings were, and he said, Well, that building over there on the left was my house, the building in the middle is my church.
于是他们又问：「那右边那栋房子呢？」 So they said, Well, what’s the other building on the right?
他说：「那是我原先的教会，可是我在十年前就离开它了。」 And he said, Well, that’s the first church, but I left that one ten years ago.
因此，今日教会论的光景如此支离破碎，我们要如 何在任何真实的意义上，仍然谈教会的独一呢？ So in light of all the splinter groups that mark the terrain of ecclesiology today, how can we, in any real sense, still speak of the oneness of the Church?
我不知多少次听人表达苦恼：主在约翰福音大祭司祷文中「愿他们合而为一」的 祈求，经这许多世纪却似乎未被成就，看上去在我们的一生也可能不会实现。 I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people express frustration that the prayer of our Lord in the High Priestly intercession in John, that they may be one, has been frustrated for lo these many centuries and seems not at all likely to come to pass in our lifetimes.
对此，我并不赞同。 I disagree with that sentiment.
我深信在真实且实质的层面上，主所祈求的「愿教会合而 为一」已经得以应验，并在最根本的层面上持续应验。 I’m convinced that in the real and substantial sense, the prayer of our Lord that His Church may be one has been fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled in the essential elements of it.
在尼西亚信经之前的一份更早的信经中，就宣告了教会所信的「圣徒相通」。 An earlier creed before Nicaea declared the Church's faith in what was called the communio sanctorum, the communion of saints.
而这个「圣徒相通」的观念，是我们理解教会时极为重要的一个概念。 And the idea of the communion of saints is one of the most important concepts that we have in the understanding of the Church.
「圣徒相通」的理论基础，即是新约中所启示的信徒与基督之间的奥秘联合。 That idea of the communion of saints is based upon the New Testament principle of the mystical union of the believer with Christ.
凡是在神学院学过希腊文基础的人都知道，一开始就会学习两个 简单介词之间的区别：即我们音译作 e-n 的 en，以及 e-i-s 的 eis。此刻，我们都在这个房间里。 Those of you who have been to seminary and have been subjected to the rigorous task of learning the fundamental elements of the Greek language know that at the very outset of your study, you learned the difference between two simple prepositions: the preposition en that we would transliterate for the English e-n and the preposition eis (e-i-s). Right now, we are all together in this room.
我们正身处其中。 We are inside of here.
但要进到这个房间来，我们先是在房间外，然后从外面走到里面。 But in order to be in this room, we had to first come from the outside and move from that spot into this room.
这就是这两个字之间最简单的区别，然而它们在新约中的运用却相当关键。 That’s the simple difference between those two words, but they are important in light of how they are used in the New Testament.
我们受召要信「入」耶稣基督；一旦我们信「入」 基督，就因着圣灵的大能，如今我们处于基督里。 We are called to believe into Christ Jesus, and once we believe into Christ, then by the power of the Holy Ghost, we are now in Christ.
我们在基督里，基督也在我们里面。 We are in Christ, and Christ is in us.
在这里，我们便看到了独一的根本所在。 So herein we find this essential unity.
若我在基督里，你也在基督里，基督在你里面，也在我里面，那么我们之间便拥有 极其重要的合一。这合一是无法被摧毁的，因为它的根基与源头乃在基督本身。 If I am in Christ and you are in Christ, and Christ is in you and Christ is in me, then obviously we have a profoundly important unity among ourselves—a unity that cannot be destroyed because it is a unity that has its strength and its initiation in Christ Himself.
这正是奥古斯丁在区分有形教会与无形教会时所要表达的。 This was the type of thing that Augustine was getting at when he made his famous distinction between the visible Church and the invisible Church.
他并不是说存在两个彼此独立的实体：一个是有形教会，一个是无形教会；相反，奥 古斯丁主张，无形教会实际上包含在有形教会当中，指在基督里真正被拣选的人。 He was not talking about two separate and distinct bodies— a visible Church here, an invisible Church over there— but rather Augustine insisted that the invisible Church existed substantially within the visible Church, including within it those who were numbered among the elect, those who were truly elected in Christ Jesus.
奥古斯丁也指出，每个世代的有形教会，都是一个「混合体」（cor pus permixum），其中有麦子和稗子并存，也就是说，其 中既有真正信主的，也有自称信主却并未真的拥有所宣称之信心的人。 Augustine also pointed out that the Church in every generation, the visible Church, is a corpus permixum; it’s a mixed body that includes within it wheat and tares that are growing together, which is to say there are believers and unbelievers—people who profess to have faith in Jesus Christ but don’t possess the faith that they profess.
这些人或许在有形教会中是名册合格的成员，但并未真正属于那无形教会。 Those people may be members in good standing in a visible Church but have no membership in the invisible Church.
那么，那些真正属于无形教会的人是谁呢？ Well, who are these people who are to be found in the invisible Church?
我们又为何称他们为无形教会？ And why do we say that they’re invisible?
道理很简单：我看不见你的灵魂。 It’s simple: I can’t see your soul.
你的内心状况、灵魂光景，超乎我肉眼可见的范围。 The state of your heart, the state of your soul, remains beyond the pale of my visual perception.
然而神却看得见你的灵魂。 But of course, God sees your soul.
神也彻知你的心。 God knows your heart.
我所能做的，不过是听你口里所说的信仰告白，并留意你是 否结出果子——而在这一生里，那果子也仍然会掺杂好坏。 All I can do is hear your words, your profession of faith, and watch to see if you manifest fruit, which will also be mixed throughout this lifetime.
因此，在任何有形教会之中，都有真信徒与虚伪之人，神知道这两类人分别是谁。 And so, within any visible Church, there are true believers and those who are false, and God knows who each of those groups includes.
所以，那些属于无形教会的人，与基督并彼此之间拥有坚不可摧的合一。 And so those who are in the invisible Church have an unbreakable unity with Christ and with each other.
无形教会并不局限于任何特定的有形教会派别或宗派。 The invisible Church cannot be found in any one particular visible Church sect or denomination.
在本次会议中，我们讨论的是对教会和平、纯洁与合一的关注。 We’re talking in this conference about concerns for the peace, the purity, and the unity of the Church.
要谨慎那些只谈和平与合一的教会，因为历代以来，这种现 象一直困扰着教会——路德称之为属肉体的和平与合一。 Be careful of churches that only talk about peace and unity because there is a plague that has afflicted the Church throughout the ages—what Luther called a carnal peace and unity.
耶利米就曾对此发出怨言，说：「这些人喊着『平安了，平安了』。」 It was the complaint of Jeremiah when he said, These people cry, 'Peace, peace!'
其实并没有平安。 when there is no peace.
他们只不过轻轻医治锡安的损伤。 They heal the wound of the daughter of Zion but slightly.
也要记得耶利米那篇著名的圣殿讲论，他曾直言挑战当时在锡安的人。 And remember also Jeremiah's famous temple speech when he challenged the he's in Zion that was present in his day.
他说：「你们来，说『这是耶和华的殿，这是耶和华的殿，这是耶和华的殿！』」 He said, You people come and you say, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!'
这些是虚谎之言，毫无益处。 These are lying words, words that cannot profit.
他说：「你们且往示罗去瞧瞧。」 He said, Go to Shiloh and see.
他为何如此说呢？ Why did he say that?
因为示罗之处有昔日敬拜中心的废墟，他说：「若 这民不悔改，耶路撒冷日后就会如同示罗那般。」 Because in Shiloh were the ruins of the earlier central sanctuary, and he said, This is what Jerusalem will look like in future times unless this people repents.
因此，这位先知以及其他先知被差来，不仅关心 教会的和平与合一，也同样关切教会的纯洁。 So this prophet, among others, was sent not only to be concerned for the peace of the Church and for the unity of the Church but for the purity of the Church.
当一个教会，不论是独立教会或宗派，一旦背离其认信与基督教正统 ，若有人敢提出纠正，就会立刻被指责为破坏教会的和平与合一。 And any time that a Church, individually or denominationally, begins to lose its moorings and departs from its confession and departs from Christian orthodoxy, if anybody dares to speak a word of correction to it, they will immediately be rebuked for destroying the peace and unity of the Church.
另一方面，我们也可能太过热衷于纯洁，以至于 失去了爱心，不公义地扰乱教会的和平与合一。 On the other hand, we can be so zealous for purity that we have no charity, and we unjustly disturb the peace and the unity of the Church.
然而，我们所讲的独一，确实是不可被毁坏的，乃是借着基督与圣灵所成就的。 But the unity of which we’ve looked already is a unity that is certainly without destruction and cannot be destroyed, and it is affected through Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
现在让我们来看第二个性质，这往往是人们认为最有问题的： 教会既是独一的，也是圣洁的，同时还是大公且使徒承传的。 Let’s look then at the second, which is the one that seems to be most problematic: that the Church is one, holy, as well as catholic and apostolic.
从某个角度来说，说有形教会是地上最腐败的组织，也许并非夸大其词。 You know, I think from one perspective it would not be too much of a stretch or even hyperbole to say that the visible Church is the most corrupt organization on the face of the earth.
有人会说：「世上还有诸如国际杀手组织、盖达组织， 以及其他以罪恶为业的团体，你怎能如此说教会？」 You say, How in the world can you say that when we have organizations like Murder Incorporated, like Al-Qaeda, and a host of others that major in corruption?
我指的是从某种角度而言，若我们如同主一般看事情，就知道多给谁，就向谁多要。 Well, I said from a certain perspective, if we look at things as the Lord does, that to whom much is given, much is required.
没有任何团体负有比有形教会更神圣的职分或使命。 No organization has a more sacred task or mission than that which has been given to the visible Church.
若我们按照对自己使命与目的的忠实程度来衡量，就能看出我们堕落得多深。 And if we were to be measured by our conformity to our purpose and to our mission, then we can see the depth to which we have fallen.
由于这使命的圣洁性，我们也就难以把自己看成是圣洁的。 From the sanctity of that task, and in light of that, it is difficult to think of ourselves as being holy.
然而在新约中，特别是使徒书信对各教会信徒的称 呼，正是「hagioi」，即「圣洁的人」。 Yet in the New Testament, the believers of the various churches who are addressed, particularly in the apostolic epistles, are called the hagioi, the holy ones.
且看保罗在写给哥林多人时，称他们为「圣徒」，也就是「圣洁的人」。 Look at Paul writing to the Corinthians as he calls them the saints, the holy ones.
但他在书信中又花了大半时间来责备、警诫并纠正他们的罪。 He has to spend most of the time of the epistle rebuking them, admonishing them, and correcting them for their sins.
因此我们会纳闷：像哥林多人那般多罪的人，怎能被称为圣洁？ So we wonder how in the world somebody who is as sinful as the folks were in Corinth could ever be called holy.
这是十六世纪宗教争论的焦点之一，也正是路德所言「同时是义人也是 罪人」这句名言的理由：信徒在同一时间既是被称义的，也是罪人。 This was one of the issues of the 16th century—one of the reasons for Luther's adage simul justus et peccator, that the believer is at the same time just and sinner.
他并非本质上就为义，也非本身就为圣洁。 He is just not inherently; he is holy not in and of himself.
他之所以称义，全凭以色列的圣者把义归算给他。 He is just only by the imputation of the righteousness of the Holy One of Israel.
在十六世纪的核心问题就是：我们被神称义的那份义，是否植根在我们本身之内？ This was the heart of the issue in the 16th century: is the righteousness by which we are declared just by God something that inheres within us?
还是如路德所言，这是一种「外来的义」，出于我们以 外，不属我们本身，而是属另一位，并由祂施予我们？ Or is it, as Luther called it, an alien righteousness—a righteousness that is extraneous outside of us, that doesn’t belong properly to us, but belongs properly to somebody else who gives it to us?
那由信而得的神之义，使得信徒身处基督耶稣里， 并披戴基督的义袍，因此就可以说是真正的圣洁。 That righteousness of God, which is by faith, and so in that sense, the believer is in Christ Jesus and wears the cloak of Christ's righteousness; he can be said to be truly holy.
并且，在圣经中「圣洁」一词的首要含义并非纯洁，那是次 要层面；首要意思是与众不同、分别出来、被分别为圣。 Not only that, the primary meaning of holiness in the Bible is not purity—that comes secondarily with the term—but rather it has to do with being different from, being set apart, from being consecrated.
而教会之所以被称为圣洁，就是因为教会是神所建立 、神所圣化、神所分别、并赋予神圣使命的群体。 And insofar as the Church is that community created by God, sanctified by God, consecrated by God, set apart by God, it has been given a holy vocation.
我们再来看新约里「教会」这个词，乃是 ekklesia，由一个前缀与词根组成。 We look at the very word for church in the New Testament; it is the word ekklesia, made up of a prefix and a root.
那个前缀表明「从……」「出自……」之意。 The prefix means from or out of.
词根出自希腊文「kaleo」，意为「呼召」 。因此，教会就是那被呼召出离世界的一群人。 The root comes from the Greek word kaleo, which means to call, and so the Church is that group of people who are called out of the world.
耶稣的那段祷告正蕴含着这个观念，不是吗？ That prayer of Jesus drips with that concept, doesn’t it?
「我不为世人祈求；我为你所赐给我的人祈求。 他们原是你的，你已赐给我。求你保守他们。」 I don’t pray for the world; I pray for the ones that You gave Me. They were Yours; You’ve given them to Me. Keep them.
「我不求你使他们离开世界，只求你在世上保守他们。」 I don’t ask them to be taken out of the world but to be kept by You in the world.
「这就是我的教会——那些你从黑暗中呼召出来、从世界里呼 召出来，并赐给我的人。他们原是你的，如今是我的了。」 This is My Church—the ones who You have called out of darkness, called out of the world, and given them to Me. They were Yours; now they’re Mine.
因此，耶稣在那段祷告中，把教会称作祂的产业。 And so Jesus there in the prayer speaks of the Church as His possession.
这也就是英文「church」一词的词源由来。 Hence the etymological derivation of the English word church.
它是对希腊文「ekklesia」的翻译，但「chu rch」本身却来自另一个不同的来源、不同的词根。 It’s a translation of the Greek ekklesia, but the word church comes from a different source, a different root.
英文是「church」，苏格兰语是「kirk」， 荷兰语是「kerk」，德语则是「kirche」。 In English, it’s church; in Scotland, it’s kirk; in Holland, it’s kerk; in Germany, it’s kirche.
请注意，这些字开头的发音相似，只是中间的元音不同，但结尾的发音却相同。 Notice all of those words start with a hard c sound and have a different vowel in the middle, but they end with that same sound.
这些德语、荷兰语、苏格兰语、英语中表示教会的字眼，都源自希腊文的「ku rike」，意指属于「kurios」的人，也就是祂买赎、祂拥有的人。 And it’s all German, Dutch, Scottish, English—all of that word for church derives from the Greek word kurike, which means those who belong to the kurios, those who are His possession, those whom He has purchased, those whom He owns.
这正是我们之所以成为教会的原因，也正是我们之所以 为圣洁的缘由，因为我们是被那至圣者呼召出来的。 That is what makes us the Church, and that’s what makes us holy because we have been called out by the Holy One.
「要圣洁，因为祂是圣洁的」，这不只是空洞的命令； 主也借着圣灵内住在教会，使教会成为真正的教会。 To be holy even as He is holy, this is not merely a vacant or simple command, but with it, our Lord has enabled the Church to be the Church by virtue of indwelling that Church with the Holy Spirit.
有趣的是，谈到三位一体，我们就会说父、子和圣灵。 Isn’t it interesting that when we talk about the Trinity, we talk about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost?
我就在想，我们为何要这样称呼呢？ Well, I wonder why we do that.
因为圣经多次提到父神的圣洁，而圣子也被称为那位圣者。 Because the Bible constantly refers to the holiness of God with reference to the Father, and the Son is called the Holy One as well.
所以我们也可以说，三位一体其实就是圣父、圣子、圣灵。 So we could say that the Trinity really is made up of the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Ghost.
可我们为什么特别给圣灵加上「圣」这个称呼，宣告祂是圣灵呢？ But why do we specifically add that appellation to the Spirit, that He is holy?
我认为，从历史来看，这源于我们对圣灵主要职分的理解：自 永恒起，圣灵的工作就是将圣子的救赎施行在祂的子民身上。 I think the reason for that, historically, is an understanding of the principal function of the Holy Ghost, whose task from eternity is to apply the saving work of the Son to His people.
祂借着祂超自然、直接的重生之工，把我们带入基督的身体里。 He is the one who brings us into the Body of Christ through His supernatural and immediate work of regeneration.
祂内住于我们心中，与我们同工，使我们成圣。 He is the one who indwells us; He is the one who is working with us to sanctify us.
耶稣在楼房里的祷告核心就是：「用你的真理使他们成圣；你的道就是真理。」 Again, at the heart of that prayer that Jesus makes in the upper room, Sanctify them by Thy word; Thy word is truth.
我们乃是借着真理的灵——也就是圣灵的工作，被真理所成圣。 We are sanctified by the truth through the work of the Spirit of truth indeed, the Holy Spirit.
那么，教会的「大公性」该如何理解呢？ Well, what about the catholicity of the Church?
这也许是最具争议的一点。罗马公教会常向其外的人提出质疑： 我们并非真正的教会，因为我们受制于国界或地方教会的限制。 This is the one perhaps most open to question, and the question that is raised constantly by the Roman Catholic Church to those who are outside of it insists that we are not true churches because our churches are bound by national or local borders.
我所受按立的宗派称为「美洲长老会」。 The denomination in which I am ordained is called the Presbyterian Church in America.
它与苏格兰长老会、加拿大长老会或其他国家的长老会不同。 That is distinguished from the Presbyterian Church in Scotland or in Canada or some other nations.
但罗马公教会在全球各地都称为罗马公教会，所以他们在这一点上 宣称自己对尼西亚信经有独特的契合，而我们则未能满足此要求。 But the Roman Catholic Church is the Roman Catholic Church all over the world, and so they claim a unique conformity to the Nicene Creed at this point where we fall short.
不过，若我们以先前所讨论的观念来看教会，无形教会是没有疆界的。 But again, if we consider the Church in terms of which we have already examined, the invisible Church knows no boundaries.
无形教会既不是局限于某个堂区，也不仅仅是地方或国家的教会。 The invisible Church is not a parochial Church; the invisible Church is not a local Church simply; it’s not a national Church.
而无形教会所在之处，正是圣徒共融普及在全世界之处。 But the invisible Church exists wherever the communion of saints extends throughout the world.
若你在异国也曾参与教会聚会，自然就会明白我所指的是什么。 If you’ve ever been in other nations and if you’ve ever participated in the worship of the Church in other countries, then obviously you will know exactly what it is I’m talking about.
几年前，我在东欧从事教导事工，行程中先到当时的捷克斯洛伐 克（现今的捷克共和国），然后到匈牙利，最终抵达罗马尼亚。 A few years ago, I had to do a teaching mission in Eastern Europe that took us to Czechoslovakia—what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic—and then to Hungary and finally to Romania.
那时正值铁幕方才瓦解，人们仍在努力脱离数十年共产主义束缚所带来的影响。 This was right after the Iron Curtain dissolved, and the people were still trying to recover from the decades of enslavement under communism.
这是他们相当艰难的一段日子，但我仍在这些国家的教会传讲信息 。显然我并不懂他们的语言，需要一位翻译来帮助我向他们讲道。 It was a difficult period for these people, but I preached in churches in all these countries, and of course, not because I could speak their language; I had to have the assistance of a translator in order to be able to preach to them.
不过，在崇拜中有一两处，我不需要翻译的协助。 But there were one or two portions of the services that I didn’t need a translator for.
其中之一是我们同声唱圣诗，另一个则是我们领受圣餐的时候。 One was when we sang the hymns, and the other was when we celebrated the Lord's Supper.
我并不懂主礼牧者在圣餐时所说的语言，但我明白他所传达的教义与其中的意义。 I didn’t know what the officiating minister was saying when he led us in the Lord's Supper, but I knew what he was saying and communicating and what it meant.
我知道圣餐的实质内容是什么。 I knew the content of the Supper.
我们当时唱了这些诗歌；我听不懂其中任何单词，但我认得我们用罗马尼亚语唱 了「Holy, Holy, Holy」，用匈牙利语唱了「A Might y Fortress Is Our God」，以及其他许多精彩的诗歌。 And we sang these hymns; I didn’t know a single word of them, but I recognized we sang Holy, Holy, Holy in Romanian, we sang A Mighty Fortress Is Our God in Hungarian, we sang all these other hymns that were amazing.
这些诗歌都属于普世教会礼仪的一部分。 They were all part of the liturgy of the Church around the world.
因此，我永远不会忘记那种敬拜经历：与操不同语言、拥有不同文化背 景的弟兄姊妹一同敬拜，但我们却只有一位主、一种信仰、一个洗礼。 And so I’ll never forget that existential experience of worshiping with people who spoke a different language and had a different culture but who had one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
对我来说，那正是基督教会大公性的一个体现。 So that was, for me, a taste of the catholicity of the Church of Christ.
最后，尼西亚大公会议宣称，教会不仅是独一的、圣洁的、大公的，同时也具备使徒性。 Finally, the Council of Nicaea says that the Church is not only one, not only holy, not only catholic, but it is apostolic.
然而，历史上对教会使徒性的理解曾屡次受到质疑与挑战。 Now, the understanding of the Church's apostolicity has been challenged time and again throughout the ages.
罗马方面主张，教会的使徒性体现于主教的使徒传承，尤其体现在罗 马的主教身上，认为其乃彼得的继承人，也是基督在世的代理人。 Rome claims that the apostolic character of the Church is vested in the apostolic succession of the bishops of the Church, and most importantly, the Bishop of Rome, who is the successor of Peter and the vicar of Christ on earth.
其他教派，特别是采用主教制的团体，也力图在历史中追溯按手 礼的连续性，宣称他们今日的主教可直接承自第一世纪的使徒。 Other communions, particularly those of the Episcopalian structure of government, also strive to be able to go back through history and see a continuity of ordination from the apostolic age down to the day and say that our bishops today come directly from the original apostles of the first century.
然而，不管教会在制度上是否真能通过按手礼一路追溯至使徒， 还有一个更重要的层面，使我们能正当地称教会具有使徒性。 But whether we can trace our governments directly through the laying on of hands back to the apostles, there is a far, far more important manner in which the Church can rightfully be said to be apostolic.
那就在于教会所持守的内涵，以及顺服使徒的权威——也就是顺 服圣经的权威，因为正是圣经向我们展现使徒所传之道的内容。 And that is in its content and in its subjection to the authority of the apostles, which means being in subjection to the authority of the Bible, which gives us the content of the apostolic word.
这也正是十六世纪新教宗教改革的重要核心：「唯独圣经」的理念。尽管历代教会与神学家 见解能给我们教导，但只有藉由使徒权威所赐给我们的圣经，才能绝对约束我们的良心。 This again was the issue that was central to the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, with the idea of sola scriptura, saying that though we may be instructed through the insights of the Church and the theologians over the ages, the only written work that can bind our consciences absolutely is the sacred Scripture given to us by and through apostolic authority.
当耶稣提到祂的教会时，使徒们也在新约中使用不同的比喻来形容教会。 When Jesus spoke of His Church, the apostles also described it with various metaphors in the New Testament.
其中一个常见的比喻便是「建筑」。 One of the ones that we find is the building metaphor.
彼得提到，每位信徒都像活石，被一同堆砌起来建造教会。 Peter speaks of each believer being a living stone that is added together to erect the Church.
如果我问神学院的学生——我差点说成公墓，或许我 很快就只剩这几位学生——「教会的根基是什么？」 If I asked my students in the seminary—I almost said cemetery; that may be the only students I have left soon—they would say, What’s the foundation of the Church?
他们就一定会说：「是耶稣。」 And they would always say, Jesus.
有首圣诗说「教会独一的根基就是主耶稣基督」，而圣经 的确声称，除了在基督里所立的根基之外，别无根基。 The hymn says that the Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Bible does say that there’s no foundation which can be laid except that which is laid in Jesus Christ.
但在新约里，有关教会这座建筑，耶稣最主要的比喻是「房角石」。 But the main metaphor for Jesus in the New Testament with respect to the building is that of the chief cornerstone.
而在书信与启示之中，教会的根基则是众先知和使徒。 But the foundation of the Church in the epistles and in the revelations are the prophets and the apostles.
诗篇作者曾问：「根基若毁坏，义人还能作什么呢？」 The psalmist asks this question: If the foundations be shaken, can the building stand?
而在当今时代，我们看到人们刻意地拒绝那个根基。 And in our day, we have seen a conscious rejection of that foundation.
有些人要重新塑造教会，想要修正或否定那使徒的根基以及圣经本身的权威。 People want to create the Church anew, correct the apostolic foundation, and repudiate the apostolic foundation and the authority of Scripture itself.
可当我们这样行时，就扼杀了使我们得以成圣的途径 ：「用你的真理使他们成圣；你的道就是真理。」 And when we do this, we take away the means of our sanctification: Sanctify them by Thy truth; Thy word is truth.
因此，当教会把神的道之宣讲摆在核心位置，并效法初世纪的信 徒——他们每周都专注在使徒的教训上时，教会便具备使徒性。 And so the Church is apostolic when the preaching of the Word of God is at the center of its concern, when we follow the Christians of the first century who gave themselves each week to the teaching of the apostles.
昨天我们来了位访客…… Yesterday we had a visitor...
我们那天敬拜时，来了许多访客。 We had many visitors in our worship service.
其中一位说，他在欧洲参观过许多哥特式教堂， 但对我们这个教会建筑的某一特点深感困惑。 One man said that he has been in many Gothic churches in Europe, but he was puzzled by one element of our church architecture here.
他说：「你们这儿的讲台为什么设置在我身后的这个位置——那的确是 一个讲台，不是有机玻璃的，而是个真正的讲台，对吗？——究竟是 He said, Why is it that your pulpit, which is behind me—that's a pulpit; it's not plexiglass; it's a real pulpit, okay?—is
位于会堂的圣所区域里呢？」 in the chancel area?
他继续说：「我所看过的哥特式教堂，讲台通常是在旁边 ，比较低的位置，不会像你们这样在圣所的区域里。」 In the Gothic churches that I’ve been in, he says, the pulpit's usually off at the side and down on the floor, and it’s not up in the chancel area like yours is.
通常，在教堂后殿位置的是祭坛。 Usually, it’s the altar that’s found in the apse of the church.
「为什么你们的讲台会摆在那里呢？」 Why is your pulpit where it is?
这是宗教改革的一个要点：我们并不贬低或忽视圣餐的意义。 This was one of the things of the Reformation: that we don't decry or dismiss the significance of the Lord's Supper.
我们并不设祭坛；我们设的是主的桌子，而在主桌上方则是讲台。 We don't have an altar; we have the Lord's table, and above the Lord's table is the pulpit.
因为若离开神的道的宣讲，圣事本身就失去意义；若圣事取代了神的道，会有什么后果？ Because the sacrament is worthless apart from the proclamation of the word, and what happens when the sacrament usurps the word?
就会变成教权主义，顷刻间，人们认为得救是借着教会的形式或职事，而不是经由神的道。 It results in sacerdotalism, and all of a sudden, salvation comes through the ministry of the Church rather than through the ministry of the word.
因此，身为改革宗教会，我们把讲台放在中央位 置，不是为了突出讲道者，而是要突出神的道。 And so, this is a Reformed Church, and the pulpit receives a central place of focus, not to put the focus on the preacher but on the Word of God.
在我们的事工和教会中，我们顺服使徒的权柄，因为使徒的权柄就是耶稣的权柄。 In our ministry and in our Church, we submit to the authority of the apostles because the authority of the apostles is the authority of Jesus.
再者，问题在此：新约中首位使徒是谁呢？ Again, the question: who was the first apostle in the New Testament?
你现在该立刻明白了吧。 It should jump out at you by now.
那就是耶稣。 It was Jesus.
耶稣就是那位被差派的；在我们先前读的祷文中，祂说：「你已向他们显明， 他们知道是你差我来。」既然耶稣是受差遣者，正如使徒这个词所表达的，意 即奉差派者的权柄而被派出，所以圣子被差往世上，去宣示圣父的权柄。 It was Jesus who was the one who was sent, and even in this prayer that we read earlier, He said, You have made it clear; they know that You are the one who sent Me. And as Jesus is the one who is sent—that's what apostolos means, one who is commissioned and sent with the authority of the one who sends him—so the Son is sent into the world to speak the authority of the Father.
耶稣说：「我凭自己不能说什么，只说圣父所赐给我的。」随后，祂从门徒中拣选 一些人，赐下祂的权柄，说：「接待你们的就是接待我，弃绝你们的就是弃绝我。 」你知道，我常听一些女权人士对我说：「她们爱耶稣，却无法接受保罗。」 I say nothing on My own authority, Jesus said, but only that which the Father gives to Me. And then He takes from among His disciples and commissions some, transferring His authority to them, saying, Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever rejects you rejects Me. You know, I hear this all the time from the feminists telling me, Oh, they love Jesus, but it’s Paul they can’t stand.
朋友们，这种想法不通。 You can’t have it like that, folks.
正如爱任纽在早期教会抵挡异端时所言：若你弃 绝了使徒，也就弃绝了那差派使徒的那一位。 As Irenaeus had to speak against the heretics in the early Church, if you reject the apostles, you reject the one who sent them.
而若你弃绝那差派他们的，也就是弃绝了圣父。 And if you reject the one who sent them, you reject the Father Himself.
因此，若要成为真正的教会，就必须领受、拥护并顺服使徒的教 训与权柄，因为这权柄不是他们本身的，而是主赐给他们的。 And so a Church, if it is to be true, receives, embraces, and submits to the teaching and to the authority of the apostles because that authority, again, was not inherent in them but was given to them by our Lord.
所以，当我们评量自己的教会时，务要思想这些特质： 独一、圣洁、大公（而非狭隘）、并且具使徒传承。 So as we measure our churches in these hours, we need to think about these characteristics: one, holy, catholic—not parochial—apostolic.
这是基督所建造，也属于祂的教会。 That’s the Church that Christ builds; it’s the Church that He owns.
正如加尔文所言：「有形教会的任务就是将无形教会彰显在世人面前。」 And as John Calvin once said, It is the task of the visible Church to make the invisible Church visible.
让我们祷告。 Let’s pray.
圣父啊，我们为你的教会感谢你，因你将它分别为圣， 赐下真理之灵和大能之灵；它属于你，你也为它代求。 Father, we thank You for Your Church, for the consecration of it, for the endowment of it with the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of power, for Your ownership of it, and for Your intercession for it.
阿们。 Amen.