What The Bible Teaches About The Church Of The New Testament
Theme: What The Bible Teaches
About…
Speaker: Dub McClish, Editor of The Gospel Journal
Date: March 17, 2004, Wednesday Evening
Worship Service - (During a Gospel Meeting March 14
Through 17, 2004, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New
Mexico)
Main Scripture References: Matthew 16:13-20, 28; Mark 9:1; Ephesians 3:10-11; Isaiah
2:2-3; Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2
Centered on the Text:
2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works. (KJV)
Tonight,
we’re studying what the Bible teaches about the church.
I don’t know of a better place to begin than in
Matthew, chapter 16. If you want to read
along with us, we’ll begin with verse
13:
Matthew
16:13-20:
Now when
Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His
disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man
is?
14 And they
said, Some (say) John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others,
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith
unto them, But who say ye that I
am?
16 And
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
17 And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
My Father Who is in heaven.
18 And I
also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this
rock (that is, the
confession you have just made) I will build My church; and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.
20 Then
charged He the disciples that they should tell no man that He was
the Christ.
Jesus Christ
never built anything except what He
said He was going to build in this passage:
“I will build My
church.” He came to this earth for the
purpose of building it, and He did build it.
It was, and is, of exceeding preciousness to Him,
and we will see that degree of preciousness in the
course of our study tonight. It must be precious to us, as
well. The only religious institution on the face of the earth
that exists with the approval of heaven is
the
church…that…Jesus…built.
In
Matthew 15, verse 13, the Lord said that
“Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted,
shall be rooted…up.” He
was not giving a lesson in agriculture, or horticulture. He
was talking about religious plants. Sooner
or later, every competing religious institution
will go the way of all fleshly and material things, because that is
what they are. There is one spiritual
institution that shall endure—it’s the
church that Jesus built.
There are
five things that I want to study with you
tonight—and they’ll have to be studied very
briefly—about the church. We’ll
look at its origin; we’ll look at its
past; we’ll look at its nature and
work together; we will look at its
identity; and then we will look at its
destiny.
The
Origin of the Church
With
Whom did the church begin? It was no mere
man who said, “I will build My church,” in
this text. It was not even an angel or an archangel. It
was the Son of God Who said before He left this
earth, “All authority hath been
given unto Me in heaven and on
earth,” Matthew 28, verse
18. In the fact that Jesus, the Son of God,
built His church lies the Truth that
we…dare…not…tamper…with…it!
No man has the right to change anything about
it. The very term “change agent”
connected with the church is out of place; it’s an oxymoron;
we have no right to be agents of
change in that which is
changeless, which the church
is!
There is only
one sense in which the church is a human
institution. It was built for
humans—for our benefit. It wasn’t built
for angels. There’s not an angel who has ever been, or
ever will be, a member of the church Jesus built. It
wasn’t built for lower animal forms. It was built
exclusively for the benefit of we human
beings. When we’re talking about the
plans for the church, the
organization of the church, the
worship of the church, and every other
feature of the church the New Testament reveals to us,
that’s sacred ground. The Lord built
it like He wanted it, and we dare not question His wisdom in how He
built it. The church originated with
Christ.
When we think
of origin, we think of time and
place. The time was drawing near when Jesus
said, “I will build My church.” The last
verse of that very same 16th chapter of
Matthew [verse 28] has Him saying,
“Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming
in His kingdom.” That’s not a “second
coming” passage. That’s a
statement saying that “I’m going to
come in My kingdom; I’m going to bring My
kingdom,” which He identified with
His church in the passage we read, “in the lifetime
of some of you men.”
Mark’s account has it a little bit differently
worded, chapter 9, verse 1:
“Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that
stand (by), who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the
kingdom of God come with power.”
That’s what Jesus was saying. Within
the lifetime of His contemporaries, He said,
“I…will…establish My kingdom.
I will build this church.”
Now, if the 98%
of Protestantism that believes in the future
kingdom, that says the kingdom has not yet been
established, if they are correct, then Jesus was a false
prophet. He didn’t know what He was talking
about—either that, or there are some 2,000-year-old men
walking around on this earth somewhere! The Lord
did establish His church! He
did set up His
kingdom—just…when…He…said He
would. It was in the lifetime of the men whom He addressed,
particularly His apostles.
In a certain
sense, the church is an eternal institution; that
is, its origin is IN eternity.
Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 10 and 11 says that
the church is “according to the eternal
purpose which He (God) purposed
in…Christ…Jesus…our…Lord.”
Just whenever it was in the trackless time of eternity that the
Godhead decided on this scheme of redemption for humankind,
the church was right there CENTRAL to that decision and
plan! Let no one suggest to you
that “the church is a second-rate
substitute, an afterthought in the mind
of God when His first plan failed.” His first plan
didn’t fail, my friends. The kingdom
WAS established; we’re not
waiting for another kingdom. The church was
built just as Jesus said it would be, in the lifetime of His
contemporaries. It’s always been in
the plan of God.
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