The import of that inquiry was momentous. The inquiry that the Lord made on that day, on that occasion, weighed the entirety of Christianity in its balance. Am I overstating that? I don’t think so. I’ve done a good bit of reading on this and most scholars are pretty forthright.

“Well, what if Peter would have answered the question wrong?” someone might ask. The Lord would have found someone to answer it right. But, here is the Truth of the matter. Peter said this—this was his reply when Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,”Matthew 16:16. And it was following this acknowledgement of Who Jesus is, that He is THE Christ, the Son of God, that Jesus will then remark and say, “…on this rock I will build My church.” No, not upon this man, Peter, but upon what Peter has said, this profound Truth that he has uttered regarding who “I am.”

It is the acknowledgement that Jesus IS the Christ upon which He built His church. There had been imposters before. There were imposters after Him. Many denied Him. Many still do. But in this one statement, the Truth of Who He is, that He is the Anointed One of God, that He is the One Who was prophesied about in the long ago, that He has come to be the Savior of the world, that He IS the Son of God, there is such import! And so it was, then, that upon that fact, upon that premise, of Who He was, Who He is, His church would be built, would be established.

The apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear when he states, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 3:11. Could there be, can there be any other foundation upon which the church is built (other than Christ, upon Who He is and what His relationship is to God the Father? No. And so, any “church” built on a name or some special religious doctrine or some form of “church government,” other than Christ, is built on the wrong foundation, and thus, it will not stand. The church our Lord established is built upon HIM, on the fact that He IS God’s Son.

That is why every person who becomes a member of the church must confess that he has placed his faith in the Truth, that he makes the acknowledgement, that Jesus Christ ISthe Son of God, just as that Ethiopian nobleman did on that desert highway in the long ago. Philip was teaching him—teaching him the Gospel. Obviously Philip had said something to him about his need to be baptized for the remission of his sins, because we see there in Acts, chapter 8, that as they came upon a body of water the Ethiopian will state and ask Philip, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized,” [Acts 8:36]? And Philip answers him in this way, “If you believe with all your heart, you may,” [Acts 8:37].

Believe what? The nature of the Ethiopian’s question becomes clear in what the Ethiopian nobleman will state. In verse 38 of Acts, chapter 8, he makes this wonderful, this beautiful, this eloquent, this very profound confession: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

The church is said to be a “spiritual house,” made up of “lively stones” the King James says, but other versions say, made up of “living stones,” 1 Peter 2:5-6 [“…you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’” Before a person can be placed on Christ, Who is the foundation, and made a “stone” in that house, he must “believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,”and, of course, take action on that belief. And that will be the next part, actually, of our study, as we move on and see what happens here in this early church, this primitive church, the church that was established on the Day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem.

But for this lesson, we have seen that the actual historical formation of the church occurred on the Day of Pentecost in all the ways that it was prophesied about. It was the kingdom that came “with power.” It was the kingdom that was established “in the last days.” “All nations” were drawn to it, and it was established, it came about, in the “city of Jerusalem.” Those who responded and were obedient on the Day of Pentecost as Peter stood up among the multitude and preached the first Gospel sermon. Those who were obedient and were baptized were added to the church. Which “church”? Which denomination did they become a part of? No, there were no denominations. They were added to the church by God Himself, the only church, the church that was built and established by Christ, the church according to God’s plan and purpose.

Is there anything in a name? Is a name important? Well, some people would say that, when it comes to religious bodies, so to speak, that there really is nothing in a name, and so it is not important what that religious body is referred to, how they are referred to, what they are called, and so on. However, the church that belongs to Christ is correctly called thechurch of Christ. Such a designation is not a denominational name, nor, for that matter, is it exclusively the name that we read about on the pages of the New Testament. But because Christ founded the church, and because He is the very foundation of the church, it is very appropriately called the church of Christ, the church that belongs to Christ. And so, there, indeed, is something in a name.

Now, someone will argue and say, “You know what? We can put a sign up—we can paint a sign on a board and call it the ‘Church of Christ,’ and so what?” Well, it’s important what doctrine is being followed. It’s important what is being done. It’s important how that organization is organized. All of those things, indeed, are important. It is not the name that is on the marquee that makes the church, but what we are talking about here is not so much the name that appears on the marquee, because in our society, what that has come to mean and represent to people is simply a “title,” is simply a “name,” just like “Wal-Mart” is the name on their store, just like other commercial organizations have a name and that’s how we identify them. We identify them by their name. But when we refer to ourselves as the church of Christ, yes, that’s the name that we have on our sign, but more importantly and more correctly, it is not a name, it is a designation. We are really saying that we are the church that belongs to Christ, and that is what is most important.

Now when I say that, I’m not at all suggesting that we can, or we should, or we ought to, change the name on the sign out front—not at all. Some, as we know, have chosen to do that, some who formerly were part of our brotherhood. I think we need to keep the name as it is, but most importantly, we need to BE the church that belongs to Christ.

In our next lesson, we will look at the Jerusalem church and some things about it, as we continue our study of church history.