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In the last article of this series, we
looked at some things concerning the church that Jesus built of which he
spoke in Matt. 16:18. We noticed that it was never spoken of as an
“organization”. It had no “by laws”, it had no “dioceses”, it had no
“districts” over which some person presided, nor did it have some “creed” or
“church covenant” to which the members must agree. In short, it was not
organized, stratified, sectarianized or denominationalized. There will be
more on this in a later article.
We mentioned also that many
people, including many who profess to be “Christians” don’t think that the
church is very important. Think about these things and be honest.
1.
The church that Jesus built was paid for with His precious blood!
Acts 20:28 I would say that alone makes it pretty important, wouldn’t you?
2.
He adds the “saved” to that church. Please read Acts 2:47. Now if the
saved are added to that church then it logically follows that there are no
saved ones not added to that church; hence, if you have “been saved” you are
a part of that church whether you understand it or not. There must be
something of importance about being a part of the church if Jesus adds all
of His to it, don’t you think?
3.
He is returning to take His church out of the sorrow, sin, sickness
and dying that is a everyday part of the human experience and it is to those
who are a part of what was bought and paid for with His precious blood that
this promise is made. Please note that in every scripture that relates to
the promise of His coming, the promise is always to “brethren”. II Thess.
2:1, I Thess. 5:1-9 And then, lastly, the church is pictured in scripture as
“the bride of Christ” (Eph. 5:25-32) and we are told that when He returns
“the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready”.
Rev. 19:7 DON’T MISS THE WEDDING BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT THE BRIDE WAS NOT
IMPORTANT!!!
Perhaps this is a different
concept of the church that Jesus built than you have ever thought about but
I believe that if you will begin to peruse the book with this subject in
mind you might be surprised at what it actually says rather than what
someone said that it said.
In the next few articles we
hope to point out some other things that need to be thought about. Today
Christianity is hopelessly divided into a myriad of groups and splits. There
are major splits, minor splits, and then splits of the splits that split off
from the other splits that split! If it were not so tragic, it would be a
great comedy show!
With all these divisions man
has to have a way of keeping his “faithful” groups identification intact and
so each group, sub-group, etcetera, comes up with a “name of the church” to
identify it and separate it from other believers. These “names” have one
purpose and one only and that is to keep us separated from other believers.
One of the strangest things
about the church that Jesus built, is that he did not give it a name or an
official title. It is described by many phrases in scripture, none of them
being “the name of the church.”
CONSIDER THAT EACH GROUP WAS:
·
A “church of God” (I
Cor. 1:2)
·
A “church of the
firstborn” (Heb. 12:23)
·
A “church of God in
Christ” (I Thess. 2:14)
·
A “church of the living
God” (I Tim. 3:15)
·
A “church of Christ”
(Rom 16:16)
But none of these were “the name of the
church”. In fact, more than any other thing in scripture it is referred to
simply as “the church”.
So what about all the “names”
we use today to designate “the church”? These are most often man-made names
or the using of a biblical phrase for a non-biblical usage.
Think about the following:
Ø
The church that Jesus
built was a Pentecostal church in that it began to function on the day of
Pentecost. But it was not THE
PENTECOSTAL CHURCH.
Ø
The church that Jesus
built was a Methodist church in that it certainly used methods in its work
and worship. But it was not THE
METHODIST CHURCH.
Ø
The church that Jesus
built was a Baptist church in that it practiced baptism but it was not
THE
BAPTIST CHURCH.
Ø
The church that Jesus
built was a church of Christ for he said “my church” but it was not
THE
CHURCH
OF CHRIST.
Ø
And the church that
Jesus built was a Christian church in that it was made up of Christians, but
it was not THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
This is not to say that there are not
Christians in some or all of these. It is noteworthy that in the “seven
churches of Asia of Revelation chapters 1 thru 3 that there were true
Christians in all of them even though those churches were in the main not
what God would have them be. We need to remember that all God’s sheep have
not been corralled into one denominational pen.
I feel sure that there are many
Christians in the Loyal Order of the Moose Club, but that fact does not make
the Moose Club the church that Jesus built! Who then today constitutes the
church that Jesus built? What is its purpose and work?
In Love,
Gerald
If you would like to leave a comment or
question, please go to the Guest Book or email me @:
thornsandnails@avsia.com
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