“Church.” Whose idea was it anyway? Was it a good idea, or a bad one? Well, the answers we will get on that will be as many as the colors of the rainbow. Did you know that word "church" appears 114 times in the New Testament? So, it is a biblical subject. Let us see what the Bible says about it.
Thank you, my friend, for joining in our Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. We know all the choices of the programs you have at this time, and we are glad you chose ours. If you are new to our program, you need to know we are closed captioned for the hearing impaired people you may have in your household. And you also need to know that you will not be harassed with appeals for money because we are presented here by churches of Christ right here in your area.
Who are these people in churches of Christ? Do they form a "cult?" If you were watching the Nancy Gray segment of the CNN nightly news program on the evening of March 27th, you may remember that the hostess of that one segment of the newscast interviewed a Baptist preacher in which she said was attempting to learn something about churches of Christ-- who we are and what we believe. I don't know why she asked a Baptist preacher. Would he know more about us, who we are and what we believe than one of us would? A-n-y-w-a-y, I asked one of my staff to download the interview so I would know what the man actually said. And he identified churches of Christ as "a cult-like sect," "a borderline cult," one of the youngest, begun about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell. Well, some good, honest people have been so misinformed that they believe that.
However, because of the many requests received here, to the effect that since this program is the most widely received ministry of churches of Christ at this time, we are responding to that. We are honoring those requests with a series of four programs this month. They will all be published in a little booklet and made available to you free. But you would do us-- and yourself a favor, if you would like one, to request it now. Already we are receiving orders from churches for as many as a hundred of them for their congregations. And we can't make them free to churches in such numbers, but we can-- and will-- make them available to our cost of printing, plus the shipping on it. So, if you want one or any number of them, please get your request in now.
N-o-w let me make this clear: we are not trying to get that preacher-- or anyone else "told off" or "set straight" or anything like that. I doubt he would hear us out. His mind is probably closed to anything we would say anyway. We are simply honoring those requests. And after all, don't you think we should be given an opportunity, as much as is possible, to respond to a falsehood like that? Mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail to searchtv@aol.com. Or you may use our toll-free telephone number, 1-800-321-8633 and call us free. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing and then I will be back with a message titled, Who Began the Church of Christ and When?
Our Bible reading today is that familiar passage in the gospel of Matthew, the 16th chapter. We will begin reading at verse 13. “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, Am?” So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the Prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” We read through verse 19. Now let us go to God in prayer. Our heavenly Father, we are so thankful indeed for the wonderful relationship we sustain, relationships that we sustain in the church, and we are thankful for our relationship with You as our heavenly Father and with our savior, Jesus Christ, as our redeemer, and with one another as the redeemed of God. And we pray, Father, that You will bless our study in this relationships today. In His name we pray, Amen.
In the event you didn't get to hear the message last week, I need to begin again by saying; no one can speak officially for all churches of Christ. We are a closely knit fellowship of independent congregations as those were in the days of the New Testament. We have no organization larger than the congregation. We subscribe to no one’s creed by whatever name it might be called, no university or publication, no one person (certainly, not I) can speak officially to what all of us believe and teach. We are in perfect agreement on this one thing, though: acceptance of the Bible as our only rule of faith and practice. Just as it is about everything, everything nowadays-- law and morals and-- well, most everything else you can think of-- we have those who give a more strict (or some would say "conservative") and some who are more loose (some would say more "liberal") in their interpretation of the Scriptures. Then, there is the vast majority of congregations who are, for the most part, fitting the word we will say they are "moderate." They do as God told Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 32, to "turn neither to the right hand or to the left." We try hard to avoid extremism. Of course you know, in our present-day atmosphere, anyone who adheres strictly to the Bible as his sole rule of faith and morals, is considered an "extremist." And this one fellow went so far as to use the word "cult-like." Well, it isn't for us to question the honesty of his intent, although, his information is extremely limited and his choice of words was very poor.
Now let us move on to the message of the day, "Who Began the churches of Christ, and When?" In the first part of the third chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus, the apostle Paul affirmed his apostleship. Because he became the apostle of Christ, as he, himself, says in 1 Corinthians 15:8, "as one born again out of due time," he had to contend with that denial everywhere he went. He began his affirmation in verse one of this chapter, but for time's sake, I am going to pass over those first seven verses today and we will call your attention to what he wrote in verses eight to eleven.
"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints," he said, "this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Christ Jesus; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus..." You see, my friend, that a way, way back before time was-- before the events of Genesis chapter one-- in eternity-- God had the church in His mind and in His "masterplan" for creation. Philosophers have long said the church was a good thing until Paul organized it into a church, or Christianity was a good thing until Paul organized in into a church. Well, I would not dare to disparage the church by calling it a mere human arrangement, Paul's or anyone else's. The church you read about in your Bible is a vital part of God's eternal plan-- even before the creation. Eight times in the Scriptures it is called "the church of God." And three times the congregations are called "churches of God." It is no wonder the man of God wrote in verse 21 of Ephesians chapter three: "to Him (that is, to God) be glory-- in the church-- by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
A-n-d, as God always acts with purpose He did so with the church. He created it with a purpose. It was His intention for the church to be the agency to tell the true story of salvation to all people everywhere in every generation. So now you know the mission of the church of God. Yes, yes, yes, members of the church are to "love one another, of course so. And they are to be good people in a world of evil, and they are to live in families, and support good works. All that and more. And that is who we are. We are the children of God! But the church's business, the church’s mission, is to preach and teach the gospel to every creature in the whole world!
S-o-o-o, God the Creator planned the church even before the events of Genesis 1:1. A-n-d, in the passage we read for our text, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, announced to the apostles and subsequently to the whole world, "I will build my church." Please excuse my cough as you know for several weeks now I have been suffering from this laryngitis problem, but I think it is improving and I thank you for bearing with me. But, anyway Christ also assured the apostles that "the gates of Hades" would not prevail against it." By that, He was not saying the church would always thrive and prosper because Satan and all his devils would never have sufficient power to prevail against His church. Neither the grammatical construction of the sentence nor the context demands that interpretation. Besides being wrong, that teaching in churches of Christ has been extremely unfortunate-- destructive, and besides that, it is false. It has lulled many of us into a deep sleep, from which we have yet to awaken!
Well, what was Jesus saying, then? He was saying "the gates of Hades" will not prevail against it or my building it. My friend, death is the only entrance, or it is "the gates of Hades," the only entrance into the hadean world. Jesus knew the time was swiftly approaching when He was to suffer death. And in substance, He was saying, "Evil men will soon crucify Me, but you apostles can be comforted in this: I will be build my church. I will do it! Even death can not prevent it! I will build My church.” And in spite of the crucifixion at the hands of wicked men, He did it, friend! Because only about two months later, in Acts 2:47, He is found adding to the church daily those who were being saved. That is the first time we read about the church in actual existence. But, it is mentioned some 109 times after that in the King James New Testament as a reality. Furthermore, it is referenced in many different types and figures, such as His body (1 Corinthians 12:27); the kingdom of Christ (Ephesians 5:5); the bride of Christ (Revelation 22 and 17), oh, in other ways, too.
"Church of Christ" is not the "name." That terminology is possessive. The church of the Bible belongs to Christ. First, because He built it. He said He would (Matthew 16:18). Two, it is His because it is built upon the foundation of His proven Deity (Matthew 16:18). Number 3, because He "purchased" it member by member, with His own blood (Acts 20:28). And number 4, because He is the head of it (Ephesians 1:22 and 23). And number 5, because He is its Savior (Ephesians 5:23), its Redeemer (I Peter 1:18). It is His church, my friend! And, God is glorified in it, when it is as He designed it.
Of course, Bible students know the church began on the day of Pentecost (AD 30 or 33, depending on the way you measure time). It was when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles as Jesus had promised them in John 16:5 to 15; and Acts 1and 5, and Peter preached, and "about three thousand souls were added to them," (verses 38 to 42). Well, you need to read the whole second chapter of Acts as a matter of fact. It began in Jerusalem, the church did. But it spread rapidly, just as the Lord had planned it, in "Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:7 and 8). And the apostle Paul said only about thirty years later that it had spread to every creature under heaven (Colossians 1:23). Reliable historians tell us that with a-half-billion people in the world, by the end of the first century, only about seven decades at the most, there were, well, already more than one million Christians! They also tell us that that church in the first century, without our modern means of communication and transportation, was the fastest growing movement of any kind in the history of the world to this present day! It is amazing, isn't it! It is exciting! And that was during one of those periods when the Lord's church was persecuted most -- and most severely than any time in it's near two-thousand-year history! Much of that time, Christians were forced to remain anonymous and to assemble for worship in secret places.
The Jews had rejected Jesus as the Messiah of the Old Testament prophecies. They had crucified Him. And, they were no less friendly toward His church. In fact Jesus warned the apostles, "You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved...It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub (the prince of devils), how much more will they call those of his household!" Well, that is Matthew 10:22, 24, and 25. So, it is as Peter said in 1 Peter 4 and 12, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as through some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings..." That is applicable to the 21st century churches of Christ, too. Beloved, don't think it strange that unlearned and evil men speak evil of you. They called our Savior and Leader "the prince of the devils." So, we shouldn't be all that surprised that they say things about us-- His followers-- that are not true. Just don't be persuaded and defeated by such things.
Why do you suppose the church of the New Testament grew so mightily? Why do you think they were sometimes dubbed "those men who turned the world upside down" in Acts 17 and 6? Could it have been because they believed and taught something extremely different from the cultures into which they took the gospel? Or, might it have been because they were willing to compromise their doctrine and conform to, conform their Christian lifestyle and become like the world around them? Would they desert the Lord to get more "joiners" and maintain a popular stance in the community of the lost? Only the spiritually blind can't see that? They were-- and they taught something that was new and different and fresh! They certainly could have avoided a lot of that persecution because, well Jesus said they would experience some of that, had they not been so different, so unassuming, and so unyielding, and so demanding. It may be-- perhaps-- could it be that is one reason they were dubbed a "sect." I am saying, the Lord's church today might be called a "cult-like-sect" because it is different, and it teaches a different doctrine than people can hear down the street or up the street or across the street in other religious groups. I am simply running out of time now, so please go to your Bible and read 1 Peter, the second chapter, verse nine and forward, and Titus chapter 2, verse 14. Pray with me now. Father, we are thankful to You for your word and for the distinctiveness of Christianity that is to be the light of the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
We have shown from the Bible that the church was planned by God, and begun in Jerusalem by the risen Christ on the first Jewish Day of Pentecost following the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Churches (not denominations, now, but congregations of that one church begun by Christ in Jerusalem) sprang up in Antioch and Syria and Islands of Cyprus, then in Antioch of Pisidia and later over in Asia, in Ephesus, and the regions of Galatia,-- and on and on and on, as the gospel was preached churches sprang up all over the known world-- in Europe, in Corinth, and Athens and Thessalonica and Smyrna and Permgamus and Thyatira and Rome and the British Isles and to North and South America and on and on to the end of the world. You see the gospel of Christ produces churches of Christ wherever it is preached, and believed and obeyed. Neither in the first century or the twenty-first century, are the churches of Christ even trying to be just another denomination. We are not even trying to be the only right denomination. We are not trying to be a denomination at all, my friend. We are trying to be all the church you read about in the New Testament in this twenty-first century. Doesn't that excite you? It does me! None of us has ever become a perfect Christian, but we keep trying. Just so, no church that I ever knew anything about was a perfectly developed church of Christ, but, we are still working at it!
By now you may be thinking, "W-e-l-l, that all sounds good. But I don't know. I, I, well I just need to get one of those books I guess and read it, and I hope you will, that you will know about it, and that you can know who we are and what we really believe. Send your request to us and we will respond with all four messages for this month. We hope you will do that right away, my friend, so we will know how many books to mail. The address is given below, just a little bit later and so if you will send it to us. Be with us again next week. God bless you. We love you. |