History Of The Church
Lesson 2: The Establishment Of The Church

Speaker: John Phillis
Date: June 2nd, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class

In Lesson 1, we began a study of the history of the church, specifically “The Church in Prophecy.” We saw that there are those who would relegate the church to some kind of a “stop-gap measure” that God used because His plan to send His Son to reign on the earth as an earthly king, was thwarted, was overturned, by the Jews when they rejected Jesus and arranged to have Him killed. These people who believe this say that God had to come up with some kind of interim measure, a “stop-gap” sort of plan, to do something, and so that plan was, they say, the church. And this is only something that is temporary until the Lord comes back again.

We know that others, concerning the church, would say that it really isn’t important, that the church is not a divinely established institution, that there is really nothing that is distinctive, nothing that is remarkable about the church, and that the church is really nothing more than an “organization,” an “institution,” just something that is made by man. Well, in fact, there are many, many, man-made institutions which call themselves a “church,” no doubt about that.

However, in His very Own Words, Jesus made this decree, He made this promise, He made this prophecy, “I will build My church,” Matthew 16:18. He said, “I will establish My church. I will found (if you will) My church.” And in Lesson 1, we noted that, heaven did not wait until this declaration that Jesus made while He was here on the earth some two thousand years ago to have this divine plan in mind. No, the heavenly plan has always been a part of God’s plan for man’s redemption, that is, the heavenly plan for the church. It was not some “stop-gap measure” when God’s “original plan” was overturned and thwarted by man.

We saw that all the way back in the days of King David, a thousand years before Christ, there was a divine allusion to the kingdom, to the church. God’s prophet, Nathan, would tell the King, “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever,” 2 Samuel 7:16. Well, there’s a promise that God made to David. But certainly, David’s earthly house and kingdom came to an end long ago. We know that the “kingdom” that is in view there is a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ, a prophecy of the church, and it is an “everlasting kingdom.”

Peter, speaking of the patriarch David in that first Gospel sermon that he preached in the city of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, makes this statement, Acts 2:29-30: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne….” Well, is there any doubt, any question, in our mind that what the prophet Nathan spoke in the long ago concerning the throne of David being an everlasting one, was a view toward the kingdom, the kingdom that Christ would establish? No, there is no doubt about it. Indeed, it cannot be denied.

In Lesson 1, we also noted the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 2:1-3. We saw there that the prophet of God would prophecy concerning the Lord’s house that would be established. There were three criteria—three things—that we noticed there in Isaiah’s prophecy. First, the Lord’s house would be established. That kingdom that he prophesies concerning would be established in “the latter days.” Secondly, it would be established in the city of Jerusalem. And in the third place, all nations would flow to it.

We also looked briefly at the prophecy that’s contained in Daniel 2:44. We saw there that a kingdom was foreseen that would break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and would stand forever.

We also took a brief look at what the Old Testament prophet Joel would say concerning the pouring out of the Spirit of God in the last days, Joel 2:28, an event which, by the way, we are going to see had its fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2 and verses 16 and following.

In Lesson 1, in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John], we noted that the kingdom is “at hand,” according to what we read there. This is some time, some distance, removed from these Old Testament prophecies concerning this kingdom of God which would come, which would be an everlasting kingdom. Now we see that Jesus has come, the Messiah has come. His forerunner, John the Baptist, is going out before Him, and the Message that he is preaching is “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Matthew 3:1. Well that was the same Message that Jesus would repeat, as well. For example, in Matthew 4:7, He would say the very same thing as John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The “at hand” in both Messages means that it was close, that it was near by, that is was coming soon. And, of course, as we already cited, there is the passage in Matthew 16:18-19 where Jesus promised to build—future tense—build His church, the kingdom.

As we see there in the early part of the 1^st Century, while Jesus was still on the earth, while He was involved in His ministry, how near, how much at hand, was the kingdom at that time? Well, from what we see Jesus say, recorded for us in Mark, chapter 9 and verse 1, it was imminent. As a matter of fact, this was another prophecy that Jesus gave concerning the establishing of His kingdom. He would say there in Mark 9:1, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power,” [KJV]. Some people who heard Jesus speak, some people who were within the sound of His voice on that occasion, would be alive when His kingdom came with power. As we commented in Lesson 1, there are three options: 1) the kingdom came as Jesus prophesied, or 2) Jesus was flat wrong about it, or 3) there are some two-thousand-year-old people who are still waiting for the kingdom to come. Jesus was right in His prophecy.

After His resurrection, Jesus said this to His disciples, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,” Luke 24:46-47 [KJV]. In this prediction, in this prophecy of the Lord, He prophesies that “all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” would be associated with the establishing of His kingdom. Does that in any way sound familiar to us? Is that not what, in part, the prophet Isaiah said in the long ago, Isaiah, chapter 2, that we’ve already talked about? [“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His Ways, And we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem,” Isaiah 2:2-3.]

So Jesus confirms what Isaiah said in the long ago, and this, of course, was yet to come, even at the time that Jesus spoke this, even after His resurrection. In what Jesus said are two of three things that Isaiah spoke about, that this Word, this Message concerning repentance and the forgiveness of sins, would be preached among all nations, and that this would begin at Jerusalem.