Whatisthechurch

Mat 16:18 "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 overpower it.

We find here a very significant statement. What is spoken here speaks to the deity of Jesus, and also the establishment of Jesus' church. And what we're seeing here, is the glory, the greatness, the marvel that is the church of Jesus Christ. It is the church built upon the faith that Peter expressed, that Jesus is the Son of God, and it is the church that will not be overpowered even by man's greatest enemy - death.

It is important for us to talk about the Savior, and in talking about the Savior, we need to consider what he talked about, and what he came to do. What Jesus the savior came to do on this earth was not only provide salvation, but to establish the body of the saved – the church, His church, Christ’s church. And so let us contemplate his church, not just any church, but the Lord’s church. The church that Jesus told Peter he was going to build. The church of our savior. Let us try to learn something about the nature of this church.

There are a lot of ideas about what a church is in the world today. Men have created and modified churches for a long time now, and men have a lot of different ideas of what the church should be.

What we’re going to see from scripture however is that the churches of man are just that, churches of men. The church of our Savior however, is the New Testament church. It is a church not created by man. It is a church not developed through time. It is a church rather, that was purposed and planned before the world began.

Listen to Paul talk about the nature of the church:

Eph 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Eph 3:11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Eph 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Eph 3:11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

This church was not just a spontaneous thought. It was not a man made concept. It was purposed and planned from the beginning, and it was purposed and planned by God. The church was purchased with the blood of the savior and thus the church has an eternal purpose. The purpose is that it may proclaim the wisdom of God (1 Pet 2:9). The spiritual powers and heavenly hosts look at the church and are made aware of the manifold wisdom of God. This shows us something of just how important a subject the church is.

THE CHURCH IN PROPHECY

Something that distinguishes the Lord’s church is its place in prophecy. Old Testament prophecy teaches us about Jesus the savior and His kingdom to be established. The prophets reveal the church to us through God’s eyes.

Micah 4:1 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 peoples shall flow to it.

Micah 4:2 Many nations 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."

The prophets understood church was something to be exalted above all else. They understood it was something to live for, and to die for. They understood it was going to be a spiritual kingdom made up of the faithful, a body of those who inherit a promise and an eternal hope.

Isa 2:2 Now it will come about that In the last days, The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.

Isa 2:3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

We see the fulfilment of this in Acts 2 when the church was established. This however, mentions more than the establishment of the church. At the end of v3 we read “out of Zion shall go forth the law”. Back then, Zion meant Jerusalem, but prophetically, we’re talking about the spiritual Kingdom of Christ. We’re not talking of physical Israel, but of the spiritual body, the kingdom, the church of Christ. What does this church do? What comes from it? The word of God, and the church teaches the word of God.

WHAT IS THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH

But what is he New Testament church? What is the church we read about in our bibles, the church that was purchased with the blood of Christ? Can we actually identify the New Testament church? There are so many churches in the world, some are very similar, some are very different, but there is only one true New Testament church and that is because there is only one church belonging to Christ. There is only one church that Jesus died for.

A lot of images and ideas and concepts come to people's mind when they hear the word "church". The church, in our time, has become such a confused idea, and it's become drowned in a sea of human thinking and physical objects and earthly tradition. Many don't know even what the church is, not in any real or legitimate way. Many relate that word to a particular denomination. Many relate that word to certain procedures or physical things. Some say, which church is which doesn't matter, because all churches are God's churches. People just have their own customs and traditions they like to follow but as long as people believe in Jesus, nothing else really matters. The problem with this idea is that it is simply not biblical. Biblically speaking, there is only one church belonging to Christ, and all other churches are in error. Such an exclusive concept is obviously not popular in our world today, a world that says everyone is right in their own way, but the nature of truth is that it is exclusive. Truth is truth, and anything that is not of the truth, is excluded, and the truth of God’s word, never tells us about more than one church. It never tells us about all the churches of man that we are familiar with today. The bible only teaches us about one church.

Let us understand that there is only one true church. That's all we read about in the Bible, one church, and it was not a church made by men, it was a church made by God, through Christ. Listen to how Ephesians 4 talks about this:

Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

One body – he’s talking about the church here when he says one body, and Jesus is the head of that body, the church.

Col 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church;…

There is only one body, just as there is only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. God did not create through Jesus hundreds of churches. He created one church, and there is only one church that belongs to Jesus, and thus, only one church. Therefore, what we need to be doing, is not trying to create our own churches based on our own preferences, or picking and choosing churches based on which one seems to suit us the best. Nor should we just blindly go along with whatever church we may have grown up with. What we need to be doing is asking questions, and reading our bibles, and learning to identify the New Testament church.

The Lord's church is people, and it is made up of people. The Lord's church is not made up of all kinds of denominations and organizations and institutions, and the Lord's is not whatever we want to make it up to be, and whatever we want to create. We don't find that sort of thing in the Bible. We only find the Lord's church, and we find just what it is, and how it is to worship and how it is to function.

-Derek Chambers