The Identity Of The Church

Speaker: William Woodson
Date: May 7, 2000, Sunday Evening Worship Service - (During a Gospel Meeting May 7 Through 10, 2000, by the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Main Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 4:14-17; Romans 16
Theme: The New Testament Church (Matthew 16:18: And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.)

Certainly, I am happy to be with you tonight. I’ve looked forward to being in this area for a good long while, and except for the fact that I can’t get enough water, I’m doing just fine. I hope that by the end of the time here I’ve gotten past that problem, but several have told me that it’s not likely. We’ll see.

Tonight, I want to think with you about a passage in 1 Corinthians, chapter 4. In this section, Paul is discussing with the Corinthian brethren some of the difficulties that they have experienced. He says, among other things, in verse 14, “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. 15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. 16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. 17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus [Timothy], who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church” [1 Corinthians 4:14-17].

Notice that last expression, “…as I teach every where in every church.” Tonight, we think about the topic, “The Identity of the Church.” Let me think with you a moment about the word “identity” or “identify.” To identify a particular object is to show that it is the same as something described or claimed or known. That is to say, there are at least two objects, and you are saying that object one equals object two.

For example, in my carport at home, unless my older daughter has confiscated the truck, which she would rather drive than a car, there sits a Ford pickup, two years old, forty plus thousand miles on it, used solely (I hope) for meetings and fishing—the proportion depends on the time of the year. It is crimson; it has on the front bumper “Bama – Roll Tide.” I know ya’ll don’t understand about that. That’s fine. Maybe one day you’ll come to know, but ‘till then, keep on. [The University of Alabama’s sports teams (football, basketball, etc.) have the nickname of “The Crimson Tide.” Their colors are crimson and white. “Bama” is an abbreviation for Alabama. “Roll Tide” is an expression for playing well and winning, rolling over opponents much as a tide rolls onto the shore, but as a “crimson tide”.] And in the back seat of it and all around in the floor of the back seat there are assorted fishing materials, in various stages if disrepair, and my wife would say, “disrepute.” In any case, that’s the truck.

Now, let’s just suppose that someone steals that truck. Well, the police would want to know, “Well, what make is it?”

I’d tell them, “It’s a pickup.”

“Alright. Made by the Ford Motor Company?”

“Yes.”

“It is crimson and white?”

“Yes.”

And on and on and on. Now, if the police were to see a truck of that description in, say, Nashville, eighty miles away, they would immediately say, “We’ve probably got that truck.” There would be more precise information—serial number and other matters about the technical aspects of it—but the point of it is, you have got a description, a set of particulars, and you’ve got that object.

We do that all of the time:

“Where do you live?”

“I live at Number 123 Street XYZ, and it is in a house. There are two windows on the left, one window on the right, etc., etc. Brick house, black roof…”

We’re telling something, and we’re wanting the person who is being told to know the identity of the thing being described.

Now, when we apply that idea to the church, we are talking about whether we can go from the New Testament, with a description of the church, unto the present, and BE SURE that what we know NOW as the church is the SAME as the church in the 1 st Century. If we can establish that, then we can know that there IS a continuity, not in terms of year by year, but as to essence between the church described in the New Testament and the church that is known today.