The Identity of the Church

There are some who think the identity of the church is something we should not talk about anymore. They think it is irrelevant. They think it is unnecessary to discuss. There are some, even, who have stood in pulpits and apologized that they once preached on the identifying marks of the church of Christ and have promised that they will not do that anymore. They’re ashamed that they’ve done it. But I’m not among them, and I pray that I never shall be.

Suppose when we dismiss tonight John and I go out to get in his Explorer—I assume. (I’m speaking by faith here, now, that he’s going to give me a ride back to the place I’m staying.) But his Explorer is not there. Somebody has stolen it. I suspect that he will take his phone off his belt and call 911. And the dispatcher will ask him what his problem is, and he will say, “Someone has stolen my vehicle. Would you please find it?” The dispatcher says, “Sir, would you tell me what the make and the model are, the color of the vehicle and if possible, your license plate number?” He says, “Don’t bother me with those details! You’re wasting time! Just find my vehicle!” You might want to be looking for another preacher.

Identity is important, isn’t it? How can you know whether you have found the church of the Bible, or not found it, if you don’t have any way to identify it? You might be in it, and not even know it! Or, you might stumble upon it, and didn’t know what you’d stumbled upon! Of course, it is important to have identifying marks.

There are those today who are just “anti-pattern” in their thinking. They just cannot stand the idea of the fact that the Bible sets forth patterns for various things, and God is a God Who has operated with men through patterns through the centuries. He had a pattern for worship outside the Garden of Eden, with Cain and Abel. He gave a detailed pattern for the building of the ark when He gave Noah that pattern in Genesis 6. He certainly had a pattern for worship during the Old Testament period when He gave Moses the Law. And then, there’s the tabernacle. Have you read the pattern of the tabernacle lately? I mean, it…is…detailed!

Hebrews, chapter 8, verse 5, speaks of that: “…even as Moses is warned (of God) when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount.” Now brethren, is the Hebrews writer urging people of his day to build a tabernacle in the New Testament age? No. This passage is in keeping with the entire general theme of the Hebrews letter. These Hebrew Christians were on the verge of going back into Judaism, of deserting Christ for Moses. And so, the entire underlying premise of Hebrews is to show the superiority of Christ over Moses, of the Gospel over the Law, of the church over the tabernacle, and so on. And so, this statement in Hebrews 8:5, which is taken directly from Exodus 25, verse 40, where Moses was told for the first time, when he came down from the mountain with the “tabernacle blueprint,” “…for, See…that thou make all things according to the pattern….” It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater! The Hebrews writer is saying, “If God is so concerned about His pattern for the lesser institution (the tabernacle), then what follows? How much GREATER concern, if possible, He would have for the greater institution, the church!”

And so, in the very next verse, Hebrews 8, and verse 6, the writer says, “…But now hath He (Christ)obtained a ministry the more excellent (the greater), by so much also as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.” You see his argument? Oh, yes, God is concerned about the pattern for His church, and He has a pattern for His church. His church can exist anywhere and in any age this side of the cross, where men and women hear the Gospel of Christ; they believe it; they obey it; and the Lord adds them to the church and they begin worshiping according to this book [the Bible]. That’s how a church begins anywhere.

The church worships in a certain way, according to the New Testament. We haven’t time to look at the passages. We’ll just have to summarize. But, every Lord’s day the church in the New Testament met together; they partook of the Lord’s Supper in memory of the death of Christ; they prayed unto the Father through the Son; they sang psalms, hymns and spiritual songs unto the Lord; they gave of their money; and the studied the Word of God. A church that doesn’t do those things every Lord’s day is not a church that Jesus built; if it was at one time, it has ceased to be. Those are NECESSARY identifying marks.

The church is organized in a certain way in the New Testament. It is not a hierarchical form of government, where one or a few individuals sit in a headquarters somewhere and pull all the strings of all of its member congregations, and they all have to jump at the same time, like puppets. In the Lord’s church, each congregation is autonomous, or self-governing—independent of the others, but drawn into fellowship through their common obedience to the Gospel of Christ. And when fully organized, when men can be qualified according to New Testament qualifications to serve as elders, each congregation has its own plurality of elders—two or more in each congregation. You never see in the New Testament a congregation with only one elder; you never see in the New Testament more than one congregation with only one elder over them; you never see more than one elder over more than one congregation, but always a plurality of elders over one congregation.

And when men can be found that meet the Scriptural qualifications, servants, working under the supervision of those elderships, called deacons, are appointed. And there are evangelists and teachers.

The church does not have just one exclusive name in the New Testament, but it is known by several designations. In both of his epistles to the Corinthians, Paul begins them by addressing them to “the church of God which is at Corinth….” In Hebrews 12:23, we read of “the church of the firstborn,” but don’t let “firstborn” throw you off track there; that’s not referring to Christ. If you read just a little bit further, you’ll see it’s the firstborn ONES, whose names are written in heaven. It’s talking about those who make up the church. On the basis of Matthew 16, verse 18, where Jesus said, “I will build My church,” if He built the church, which we’ve seen He did, it would be perfectly Scriptural to call it “the church of Christ.” But Paul uses that very terminology in Romans 16, verse 16, when he sends greetings from a number of congregations to his brethren in Rome and says, “The churches of Christ salute you.”

The most common identifier by name, or designation, of the church is just “the church.” That is ALL that was needed in the 1^st Century. There was NO denominational setup in the 1^st Century. You had three religious choices in the 1^st Century: Judaism was still alive, although God had already sounded its doom, and the Law had been taken out of effect with the death of Christ. The temple was still standing, though, and so the sacrifices were still being made, though illegitimately; you had paganism, the Roman’s gods, the Greek’s gods, the Egyptian’s gods, and so forth; and you had the church, Christianity. If you asked someone, “What religion are you?” in the 1^st Century, and the said, “I’m a member of the church,” they didn’t ask you “What church?” There was only ONE! They knew what you were talking about. That’s the way the Lord intended for it to always be. He said, “There is one body,” Ephesians 4:4. And He said, “That body is the church,” Ephesians 1:22-23.

We shall never see that day, I’m convinced, where there will just be that one church that Jesus built, with all competing institutions fallen away. But that does not give us an excuse for not BEING that one institution, that one church that Jesus built, regardless of the competition all about us. Oh, yes, there are identifying marks of the church. Even the time it was established and the place it was established are a part of those identifying marks.

We’re just about through—stay with me a little bit longer.