Zach Fulginiti | Gathered, Protected, Preserved

Sunday Evening, May 24, 2026

Given by Zach Fulginiti | Pastor of Campus Ministry, Christ Covenant Church

Gathered, Protected, Preserved
Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Days 21

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Lord, how grateful we are to be counted amongst your people. As we come to these questions this evening, Lord, we ask that you would help us to see the beauty of your church, the glory of Christ, and the work of your Spirit. Pray, Lord, that you would help me to be faithful to your Word. Would you open the eyes of our hearts? Would you help us to receive what you have prepared for us? In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. 

Well, I have come to believe that there are two types of people in the world today. There are people who, when they go on vacation, they like to do puzzles. And then there are people who, when they go on vacation, they like to do normal things. If you have ever been on vacation with someone from the other side, you will know just how jarring this is. The non-puzzle people will wonder why you are just sitting around, staring at these pieces, when you could be out there doing normal things at the beach or the mountains or exploring. And the puzzle people will wonder, well, why don't you help us finish this puzzle? I am not a puzzle person. I get too frustrated when the puzzle pieces look like they will fit, when I try to put them in their place, but they just won't go in. But even though I'm not a puzzle piece person, I do appreciate seeing the final piece of work. I do appreciate seeing how all the pieces come together in the end. I like seeing how the pieces fit together, even though I personally don't have the patience to see it from the beginning to the end. And so that's how I've come to our questions tonight here in the Heidelberg Catechism. I've been wondering to myself, as I've been studying these three questions, how do these pieces, how do these questions fit together? How do these three questions – one about the church, one about the communion of the saints, and one about the forgiveness of sins – how do these three questions all fit together? 

If you're just joining us here this evening, we're so glad you're here. You're jumping in with us. Question 21 – Lord's Day 21 – questions 54, 55, and 56. We've been spending this year in our evening service looking at this precious little Heidelberg Catechism, these questions and answers about the faith. And if you've been with us throughout this series, you've known that the pastors have taken lots of different approaches to how we are preaching and teaching through these different series and topics. Some have given a good overview. Others have picked a certain topic that's striking and gone deeper on that. Others have taken a text that the catechism was derived from and taught through that. Tonight, we'll draw out the essential point that each question and answer is speaking to and then close our time by asking how do these pieces – how do questions 54, 55, and 56 – all fit together? 

Well, let's start with question 54.

Q: What do you believe concerning the holy catholic church? 

A: I believe that the Son of God, through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith, and of this community I am and always will be a living member. 

One of the challenges to preaching these catechisms is that they are so densely packed with rich truths. We see here in just this one little question a theology of the Spirit, election, predestination, covenant theology, perseverance of the saints, union with Christ – all packed into one little question and answer. So, where do we even begin? Well, I said we were going to try to identify the essential point of each question. So, let's start with a little grammar 101. Let's identify the subject of the answer here. Who is the subject in this answer? It's the Son of God. The Son of God is the subject. It's interesting, isn't it, that the question about the church doesn't actually start with you or me. Doesn't start with the people of God. It doesn't start with the church as an institution of organized religion. It doesn't start with some church leader, like a pastor or a bishop. It starts with Jesus. “I believe that the Son of God” – and I think that tells us something. I think that this tells us that the church is not first defined by the people that make up the church. The church is not first defined by who the people are in the church. The church is not first defined by what the people in the church do. Rather, the church is chiefly defined by the Son of God, by Jesus Christ, who he is, and what he does. So many people today want to make the church about you and about me. And that's understandable and unavoidable to some extent. But the catechism redirects our attention. It redirects our beliefs concerning the church, from you and me, and it sets our eyes, and it sets our belief about the church on Jesus, because he is the subject. 

All good sentences have both a subject and a predicate. What's the predicate here? What's the main verbs? What is it that the subject, the Son of God, is doing? He's gathering. He's protecting. And he's preserving. That's what Jesus does as the head of his church. He gathers, he protects, and he preserves. Let's break these three down. 

First, Jesus Christ gathers his people. Out of the entire human race, Jesus takes special time and attention to gather his people to himself. Think with me over in John 10:16. What does Jesus say? He says, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice." He's gathering his people. John 10, Jesus is declaring himself to be the good shepherd, and a good shepherd is one that goes out and gathers his sheep. How are they gathered? The catechism tells us that they are gathered by the Spirit and the Word. Remember what John 10 also tells us. It describes that the sheep hear his voice. They know his voice. They listen to his voice, and so the shepherd calls out to his sheep. They hear his voice, and they are gathered together. Jesus Christ gathers his people to himself. You know, I think for many of us here tonight, we need to remember that. From time to time, we need to be reminded of the gathering work – not only the gathering work that Christ does out there, but the gathering work that Christ did in our own lives. We need to be reminded that at one time we were separated from him, and he took time to gather, to bring us in. Yes, he's doing a gathering work out there. Yes, that gathering work is continuing through the work of evangelism. But we, ourselves, were once gathered in by the Son of God. 

Tom prayed for our ministry with Campus Outreach in his pastoral prayer. I got to spend the last week with the students and our staff members down at the Alpha Project. That's a place that we get to train our students how to share Christ, and that's a place where I've gotten to spend many, many summers hearing of this training, of how to share Christ with others. And as I was there again, I was listening and being reminded of how to share the gospel, and it was so good for me once again to be reminded of what God had done in my own life to gather me in. When we are sharing with others the invitation to come to Christ, we ourselves should be reminded of how he gathered us in. It's good for us to reflect upon that, to meditate upon that, and to give thanks for how he's gathered us to himself. I think certainly in a church like this, many would have testimonies that would lend themselves something like, "I always knew Christ. I grew up in the church. I never knew a day apart from Christ. I've always considered myself to be a Christian." And we praise God for those testimonies, don't we? We pray those for our children and for our grandchildren. But friends, even if that is your testimony, you, too, were gathered together by Christ. Even you were plucked. It is Jesus Christ who does the gathering. You and I did not find ourselves here on our own. Someone chose us all to be here tonight. Someone picked us out and gathered us to be a part of his people. 

If you have ever been on the church campus around 3:00 on the weekdays in the afternoon, you will know that it is a rather crazy time, because that's when school lets out here. The fine teachers and administrators and security team do a wonderful job, but I would not recommend just casually roaming around the school and church campus. Whenever it is my great privilege to pick the kids up from school, the last thing I want to do is be last in line for the pickup. It can take a while. So, typically what I will do is I will park and walk up and try to find my kids. But, as you can imagine, that is not an easy task. We only have one in lower school, so I'm only having to pick one out now, but, as you can imagine, walking up to a sea of lower school children and trying to find your one kid is not easy. But I'll park, and I'll walk up, and I'll look, and I'll search until I find him, and I'll say, “That one. He's mine. That little blonde boy, he's mine.” And I gather him up, and I take him home. That's what Jesus does. He says, “That one. They're mine. It's time to take them home.” Jesus gathers his people. 

Second, he protects. Jesus protects his people. A lot of us feel like we don't need protection. We feel as if we ought to be able to protect ourselves. It's quite prideful, is it not? I remember during our first year of marriage, whenever I would leave the house, I would go for a run or something like that, my dear wife would say something to the effect of, "Be safe. I'm praying for you." And what she meant as a sweet, tender “I'm thinking about you,” I took as a sign of she didn't think I could handle myself on the mean streets of Indian Trail at the time. I could protect myself if I needed to out there, going for a run around the neighborhood. I fear that's how many of us approach our spiritual lives as well. I don't need protection out there. Oh friends, yes you do. Yes, I do. For what does Ephesians 6 say is being shot at us? Flaming darts. 1 Peter 5 says that our enemy prowls around like what? A roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Proverbs describes the adulterous woman as one who leads you to death, “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. In the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol.” Oh, we need protection in this life, because there are flaming darts and roaring lions and those whose steps would take you down to Sheol. The catechism says Jesus protects you from all of this. He watches over you. He guards you. He keeps you. He defends you. 

I was counseling a young couple a while back, and they were sharing with me an interaction where someone else had spoken to the young wife in not the most honorable of ways in a public setting, and they were telling me about this interaction. It wasn't the most egregious example that you had ever heard, but they were offended by it. And the young man, the young husband, wanted to have a conversation to share his disappointment with the other party at how that went down. And the young wife said to me, "I don't want him to have to do that. I should be able to defend myself." And I looked at her, and I said, "I understand that. And I think that's a natural reaction. I know that it may be a bit uncomfortable. I’ve lived life as a single person, but trust me, the last thing that you want is a husband who is unable, or maybe worse, unwilling to protect you.” Jesus Christ is not only willing, but he is also able to protect us, to defend us, to guard us, and to keep us. 

Third, Jesus preserves us. He gathers us. He protects us. Third, he preserves us. What he starts, he finishes. You know, it's hard to finish things today, isn't it? We start projects, we start tasks, we have ideas and dreams of things that we want to see happen, but bringing them to completion, now that's hard, isn't it? But not for Jesus and not for his divine project called the church. He initiates by gathering us. He sustains by protecting us, and he finishes by preserving us. While most commonly known in Reformed circles as the perseverance of the saints, the P in the TULIP acronym could also be known as the preservation of the saints. While believers are required to persevere, that perseverance is only possible because of Jesus's preserving work. Alone, the perseverance of saints focuses on the work of the Christian and what he or she must do, namely endure to the end. But as RC Sproul notes, he makes an important distinction. He says that, “Perseverance is somewhat misleading. It suggests that the continuity of faith and obedience is accomplished by the believer alone. Preservation is what God does. We persevere because God preserves.” John 6:37, "All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out." Later in John 10:27-29, Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.” Jesus preserves us to the end. 

So, Jesus, we see in this first question, is the subject. And what does he do? He gathers, he protects, and he preserves. That's the predicate. And who is the direct object? Who is the recipient of these actions? It's a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. It's you, and it's me. It's the church universal. It's the church, a community gathered, protected, and preserved by the Son of God. And how can you not love this last little tender line? “And of this community, I am and always will be a living member.” The catechism starts with Jesus. He's the main subject. But it does end with you and me. Why does this matter? Why is this a comfort? It's because this community that Jesus gathers, protects, and preserves, we get to be a part of. If we're in Christ, we're a part of this community. If I'm in Christ, I am and always will be a member of this community. What a gift to know that, friends, to be assured of that. Who is question 54 for? I think question 54 is a question for every believer. 

Question 55: What do you understand by the communion of saints? 

A: First, that believers one and all, as members of Christ the Lord, have communion with him and share in all his treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members. 

If question 54 is a question for every believer, then question 55 is a question for isolated believers. Believers have communion with Christ and communion with one another. It is noteworthy to, again, observe that we start vertically, not horizontally. Believers first have communion with Christ. It is very common to hear Christians referring to communion of saints or community as fellowship or being friendly, some kind of social warmth or belonging, maybe just small groups. And those things are not wrong in and of themselves, but they are secondary to the primary communion that we enjoy, and that's with Christ. The catechism begins with participation in Christ. Believers are members of Christ, and therefore we are partakers of him and all his riches and all his gifts. That is what union with Christ means. Christians do not merely share the same set of values. They do not merely share the same set of opinions on what is going on in the day, the same preferences for liturgy or other things. Christians share Christ. Because we share Christ, we also share in his treasures and his gifts and all his benefits. We share in his righteousness, forgiveness, adoption, sanctification, access to the Father, the Spirit, perseverance, resurrection, hope, eternal life, and we could go on and on and on. We share in those, because we are united to Christ. 

But our communion is not mere association. The catechism moves us towards participation as well. We don't just bask in the glory of our communion with Christ. We don't just sit on his treasures and his gifts. No, we are instructed to use these gifts for service and the enrichment of others. It says that it is our duty. The communion of saints isn't just a privilege. It's also an obligation. It's not just something I receive. It's something that I owe my fellow members. Look at the language with me, because this is strong and searching language. Duty does not mean optional preference. Readily does not mean reluctantly. Joyfully does not mean resentfully. For the service and enrichment of others does not mean for my own vain glory. This language should cause us all to ask a few questions, to do some evaluation in our own hearts. Do I treat this duty as optional or only when it suits me? Do I use my gifts readily, or do I make others feel like a burden? Do I use them joyfully or with hidden resentment? Do I seek the service and enrichment of others or only my own recognition? Now, I fully recognize that this is the Sunday evening crew, but I do hope that we see that church membership is never synonymous with mere passive attendance. That's what question 55 is pointing us to. Question 54 is for every believer. Question 55 is for the isolated believer. A Christian who says, "I do not need the church” does not understand the communion of saints. To be united to Christ is to be united to his members. And the gifts that Christ gives me are not merely for me. They are to be readily and joyfully used for the good of others. Question 54 is for every believer. Question 55 is for the isolated believer. And question 56 is for the guilty believer. 

Q: What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins? 

A: I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no longer remember any of my sins or my sinful nature, which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, by his grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into judgment. 

What an incredible truth, that God will no longer remember any of my sins. I don't know about you, but I remember my sins. I don't remember them all, but I remember enough. And maybe worse than that, I remember the guilt and the shame and the embarrassment from sins that I committed decades ago. I'm sure some of you do, too. Is it not astonishing, then, to read that God will no longer remember any of my sins? I remember them, but God will not. Psalm 103 says that he forgives all of your iniquities. He heals all of your diseases. He redeems your life from the pit, and he crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Micah 7, “He will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea.” What does the forgiveness of sins mean? It means that God will no longer [remember] any of my sins or even my sinful nature. That's what was promised in Jeremiah 31, and that's what we get to experience as Christians today. And our need to know that we are forgiven is not just a one-time thing. Yes, the judge has declared once and for all that we have been forgiven for all sins, past, present, and future, but notice what the catechism says about our experience with sin. First, it says that the forgiveness that we received is not just for sins I commit, but also, we receive forgiveness for our sinful nature. Second, the catechism also acknowledges that this sinful nature will be a struggle for you and me all of our lives. This is such a realistic picture of the Christian life, is it not? Forgiven? Yes. Still struggling? You better believe it. 

I think this helps us avoid two errors. The first is perfectionism. We're told here that we are not going to become sinless in this life. The battle against sin and the struggle against our nature will be a lifelong one. The second is antinomianism or licentiousness or moral permissiveness. Just because we have this sin nature with us all our life does not mean that there isn't a struggle. The catechism instructs us to struggle against it, to not make peace with our corrupt nature, so though we are forgiven, we are still fighting. Though we are justified, we are still striving. Though we are safe from condemnation, we are not free from the war against our sin. Pastor Tom covered the topic of forgiveness back at the beginning of the year as he preached from Lord's Day 4 and 5. I'd encourage you to go back and listen to the sermon as Tom takes us to Psalm 130 – shows us that guilty sinners have one hope: forgiveness through Christ. And indeed, if you go back and look at the catechism, it's already spoken about justification extensively. Questions 12-18 speak about why we need a mediator. Questions 37-40 address what Christ suffered on the cross. And in a couple of weeks, Lord's Day 23, questions 60 and 61 will cover how Christ righteousness becomes ours. We won't belabor the point tonight, but it is human to feel guilt and shame because of our sin. That's because sin is something we struggle with all of our lives. So, we need to remember that Christ has satisfied divine justice. The believer can receive forgiveness freely because it was costly to Christ. So, friends, if there are believers out there tonight who are struggling with guilt, question 56 is for you. Because of Christ's satisfaction, God will no longer remember any of your sins. What a great gift that is. 

And so, we are left with how do these pieces fit together? These are certainly wonderful truths for which we can be grateful for. But how does the church and the communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins, how do they all fit together? Why did the catechism put them in one Lord's Day? And maybe it's just me, but at first blush it appears as if they don't all go together. Sure, the first two we can see the church and communion of saints, those fit together, but forgiveness of sins and – how do those all fit together? Well, it is important for us to note that the catechism did not invent this sequence. It's following the sequence as ordered by the Apostles’ Creed. Children read that for us earlier. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins. And so, Lord's Day 21 is expounding on three consecutive clauses in the creed. And that's where we need to do a little bit of work in the creed itself, because these clauses are not independent of one another, and they are not independent of the first confession. I believe in the Holy Spirit. What these clauses are are the work of the Holy Spirit – the church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and then subsequently the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This is the Holy Spirit's work, to apply the benefits of Christ to the church. So, while on the onset the benefits may look somewhat unrelated, a deeper look suggests that there is continuity. Lord's Day 21 is asking, “Where does Christ's work become visible and beneficial to God's people today?” The answer to that is in the church Christ gathers by his Spirit and Word, in the communion of saints united to Christ, and in the forgiveness of sins granted through Christ's satisfaction. 

That's why the author of the catechism – Ursinus, in his commentary on this Lord's Day 21, says that these later creed articles concern the benefits of Christ conferred upon the church by the Holy Spirit. He treats the church, communion, and forgiveness as connected benefits, flowing from Christ and applied by the Spirit. So, what we see in the deeper structure is that Christ accomplishes redemption. The Spirit applies redemption. The church is gathered. Saints commune with Christ and one another. Sins are forgiven. Resurrection and eternal life follow. Lord's Day 21 is not, therefore, isolated ecclesiology. It is a bridge, then, between Christology, pneumatology (that is, the study of the Spirit), ecclesiology, soteriology. 

I mentioned how I'm not much of a puzzle person at the beginning of the message tonight, but I do love seeing how pieces fit together. These pieces fit together because of the Spirit's work to apply the benefits of Christ in your life and in mine, but it would behoove us just to see how these pieces fit together theologically. I think we need to see how these pieces also fit together in our lives personally. Are you a Christian struggling with guilt? Then you need to be reminded that through Christ, God will no longer remember any of our sins. Are you a Christian struggling with isolation? Then you need to see that it is both a privilege and an obligation to share in the gifts and treasures of Christ. Are you a Christian who simply needs to be reminded that Jesus said, “That one. He's mine”? Then be encouraged that he will protect you and preserve you until the very end. 

But maybe you're here tonight, and you're saying to yourself, "Well, to be honest, I'm not a Christian, and what does all this have to do with me?" Well, the missing piece of your life may not be a puzzle piece at all, but it may be a person. St. Augustine once said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. That is, there is something missing in all of us, but it's not a puzzle piece, but rather a person. All of the wonderful benefits that we have talked about tonight – a community chosen for eternal life, united in true faith, sharing in the treasures and gifts, the forgiveness of sins – friends, these can be yours tonight by placing your faith and your trust and your hope in a person, in Jesus Christ. You don't have to keep searching for the perfect piece of the puzzle in your life. All you have to do is simply take hold of Christ. He'll gather you. He'll protect you. And he'll preserve you. Amen. Let's pray. 

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this good word from the catechism tonight. We thank you for your gathering work in the world. We thank you for how you've gathered us to yourself. We wouldn't be here without you. We wouldn't be amongst your people. Our sins can't be forgiven on their own. We thank you for how you protect us each and every day out in the world from the flaming darts of the evil one, from the enemy who prowls around seeking someone to devour. We thank you for how you preserve us each and every day in ways in which we don't even see. We thank you, Lord, for the communion of the saints. We thank you, God, that you will no longer remember our sins. What a great gift that is. We thank you for these wonderful truths and the opportunity to be reminded of them tonight. We ask this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.