What Does the Bible Say About Christ's Church or Men's Churches?

In this episode, Arnie, Fred and Glenn begin by briefly tracing the establishment of the Lord's Church. In later episodes we will look at the beginnings of various religious bodies existent today. We begin by noting that Jesus promised to build His Church.  We note the meaning of the word "Church" and also point out that it is also called His Kingdom. We move on to discuss the fact that Christ did establish His church as He promised. Our discussion notes that the Bible tells us when it was established and how it was to come into being and we note those passages. The Bible is clear as to the Founder of Christ's Church and we talk about that. Christ's Church has a head that is specified in one passage, and we look at that passage. The basis of the establishment of Christ's Church is also revealed to us in the scriptures. We discuss two of those passages found in Acts. We close out this episode by noting the uniqueness of Christ's Church. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying, There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ, meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com or to Glenn Landrum at scbamaboy2003@yahoo.com.

Arnie: 0:42

Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke and Fred Gosnell and Glenn Landrum. We're with the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. We have, if you happen to be in the Sumter area, we would certainly welcome you to come to Bible classes and and worship with us and talk about things that pertain to the Word of God while you're while you're here. This is what does the Bible say, and we want to talk about things pertaining to God's will. Glenn, what's the topic for tonight?

Glenn: 1:21

Well, the topic is Christ's Church, or men's churches. So we want to take a look at the the difference between the Church that belongs to Christ and the churches that men have have established. We want to take a look first in Matthew 16, and the basic passages, passages that that we'll cover in this begin in verse 13 and go through verse 20. So beginning in verse 13, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I am, the the son of Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiahs or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But who do you say that I am? And Simon, Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. So this was the the first passage, and they're and our next several points will include this, this passage, or portions of it and one other passage. But there's several things in this that we're going to talk about. They're important for us to understand about Christ's Church

Fred Gosnell: 3:29

Well. And what he said was, he says, I will build my church. And that's verses 18 and 19. Let's just go ahead and read that again. So Jesus said, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades or hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Of course, when, when we read that passage, you know everybody's going to look at So, wait a minute. He also mentioned the kingdom of heaven there. And of course, one of the things we learn we've got to go to another passage in Colossians, chapter one, verse 13, now, now notice there Paul writing to the Colossians. He says, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. So So Jesus said, I'll build my church. And of course, he also has a kingdom. The Church translated would be assembly that that refers to the people, and the word kingdom just refers to the establishment where the church is. And of course, Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. So he's talking about a kingdom that's spiritual in nature. It's not a physical earthly kingdom. So, so he said, I'll build it. And he said something about Peter there. And I think probably Arnie has got something to talk about this. Peter being the rock.

Arnie: 5:02

Well, as as a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter chapter 16, Jesus was with the 12, and they did have a discussion about about things that were going to come to pass, namely, with regard to the church. And Jesus said to to Peter, he said, beginning in verse 18, rather in verse 16, Peter, Peter is the one speaking. And he answered, and he said, Thou art the Christ. Jesus said, Who do men say that I the Son of Man, am? Peter. And and the other apostles were with, were with the Master that they were up in in the area of, of pretty, pretty much north of of where all of them lived and talking about Christ, establishing his his kingdom. And and in Matthew, chapter 16, and in verse 16, Simon, Peter speaks and and he answered and said, Thou art the Christ. Jesus had said, Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Peter and Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed. Art thou Simon barjona, or literally, Simon son of Jona, For flesh and blood have not revealed it unto me, unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Incidentally, the name Peter is from Petros, and it means a rock. So no coincidence there in that particular situation, in in that reading, Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Nothing is going to be powerful enough to stop the Lord from establishing his church. It's not going to be the church of of John, it's not going to be the church of Peter, and it's not going to be the church of Matthew. It's the Lord's Church. And nobody else's name is afixed to that.

Glenn: 7:39

Okay. So the the word church means the call out ones, and we read that passage a few moments ago in Colossians, 1, 13 who had delivered us from the power of the darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the his dear Son. So we we as saved to the Christians, we have been called out by Christ, and it was to be in his Church, or the Kingdom. If we go a few verses down from, from Colossians, 1, 13 to verse 18, it says, He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in all things, he might have preeminence. Well, if he's the head of the kingdom and also the head of the body, we can conclude that the body or the Church, is the same as the kingdom, and we have been placed in that kingdom, which is the church,

Fred Gosnell: 8:45

Right. And of course, somebody might ask, Well, okay, when was the church established? And of course, Jesus said, I will build it. And of course, when he said that, it wasn't built yet, and He promised to do it. So when we go to Pentecost, or in Acts two, which was on Pentecost. Chapter two, verses one through four. It says, there, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as it were rushing mighty wind. It filled all the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them, cloven in tongues like as a fire, and sat upon each of them, each upon the apostles. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So, so, so we have the Holy Spirit coming. Of course, Jesus had told them a little earlier in chapter one that the Holy Spirit would come and they would have, they would receive power. So later on, in chapter two, in verse 46 and 47 it tells us that They, the disciples there, Continued daily, with one accord, in the temple and breaking from house, bread, from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Of course, these are the ones that were repented and were baptized when they asked Peter what to do, and that's what he told them to. So Jesus added those who obeyed that gospel there to the church. So the church was established, was in existence on the day of Pentecost in AD, verse 33.

Glenn: 10:28

Fred, oh, I'm sorry.

Arnie: 10:29

Go ahead.

Glenn: 10:30

Fred, I think you had mentioned that, that that Christ had told them to go to to Jerusalem, to to wait there until the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them power. Well, Luke, 49 Christ is mentions to them, and behold, I send the promise My Father upon you, but tarry you in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with the power from on high. So they were, that's that's why they were in Jerusalem. He because Christ had told them to go there and wait for the helper or the Holy Spirit to come come upon them and to help them. So our our next passage was Acts 2, 46, and 47 and it reads, And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the Church daily such it should be saved. So if God added the save to the church, the church was in existence on that day. It had it had just begun. And this is why the the evidence that the church began at that time,

Arnie: 11:54

I think we would recommend to everybody that you want to read the entire second chapter of of Acts, because all of that deals with things that occurred on the Pentecost, the day of Pentecost that followed Jesus, death, burial and resurrection. And so it is about the establishment of the church. The city of Jerusalem was filled with celebrants who had come together to observe Pentecost. And while they were there, these events began to unfold. And then you see Peter speaking to the people, and people responding to that. So it's well worth your a little bit of time to to read that entire chapter. Mark, chapter nine and verse one adds adds another word when we think about the church. The church is actually known by a number of different terms, nouns, and one of them, of course, is the Church. But another one is that it's that it's a Kingdom. And in Mark chapter nine, verse one, he said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, there'll be some of them that stand here which will not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. So it's not only known as the church, it's known as the kingdom, and there's some other terms as well. And when we, when we get to those, we'll, we'll call your attention to that. But Christ is the King, and it is His Kingdom, and everyone who obeys the gospel and becomes a member of the Lord's church also becomes a citizen in the kingdom of Christ.

Fred Gosnell: 14:05

Exactly. And of course, we've, we've mentioned a couple of times that that this occurred on Pentecost in Jerusalem, but let's, let's go to Chapter One of Acts and see the specific passages where Jesus said where it would come, and that's in Acts chapter one, lengthy reading, verses four through 12. And there, of course, Jesus has been resurrected and and he's, he's with his disciples and the Apostles, and he, he's with them for 40 days. So Acts one, verse four, says, And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time, restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hathput in his own power, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him, go into heaven. Then returned they into Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. So Jesus told him to go to Jerusalem and wait that the Holy Spirit would come upon them, and then they would they would receive power. So Jerusalem is the place that the church was to come.

Glenn: 16:03

And there's another passage that deals with this, uh also, and that's Acts two, verse five, and it says, And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And this is an important point. It was. It was an opportunistic time for for this to occur. There's, there's a passage in Acts two, and Arniementioned reading the entire chapter, but you'll see beginning in verse seven. You know, there were Galileans, there were Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, people from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya and Cyrene, Rome. There were people from all over, Arabians, also Cretes. There were people from all over the world at the time in Jerusalem, so for, and this was a great time for this to happen, for for the the church to begin. It enables the church to spread very quickly. These people heard the word, many obeyed, and many went back home to take the gospel to others. So that Acts two, verse five, I said, and there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. It gave them the opportunity to hear the word that was going to be preached and to to respond to it.

Arnie: 17:38

When, when Jesus established the church, established the kingdom, and that was presented to the on the day of Pentecost, to the people who had assembled in in Jerusalem. There were a series of facts that that was was based on. You know, just thinking about, just thinking about the United States, since we're all here in in America, there are a number of facts that we need to know about about the the country, the fact that it has a constitution, that some of the events that surrounded the establishment of of the United States as a as a nation, and that's that's true as well, with with the situation, with with the Church, that that there are a number of facts about it. So read the chapter by all means, so that you fully understand what had occurred and what was expected, what was commanded, for, for people to to do. In Mark, Matthew, chapter 16 and verse 18, we find out also who the founder of of the church was. It wasn't Peter. It wasn't one of the apostles. It wasn't somebody from the Roman Empire or anything of of that sort. The founder is of Christ. Christ, of course, Christ. And Matthew, chapter 16, and verse 18, Jesus said, I say also unto thee. And this is to Peter there when, when he had confessed Jesus as being the Christ. And I say also unto thee, thou art Peter. And upon this rock. By the way, the name Peter means rock. Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades or hell shall not prevail against it. So the founder is is Jesus, and that's important for us understand,

Glenn: 20:01

There's something I want to add to this. We see here that Jesus was, was the founder. It was his church he would build. But in First Corinthians, 3, 10, through 14, it tells a little bit about this when we when we talk about a foundation, the foundation wears the name of the person who it is founded upon. But beginning in verse 10 of First Corinthians, three, According to the remarkable grace of God which was given to me to prepare me for the my task, like a skillful master builder, I laid a foundation, and now another is building on it, but each one must be careful how he builds on it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, if any person's work which he has built on his foundation, that is in any outcome of his effort remains and it survives the test, he will receive a reward. The foundation, it tells in verse 11, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the founder of the Church

Fred Gosnell: 21:12

And of course, he's the he's the chief cornerstone. Whenever we build a building, you start out with a cornerstone, and then you, you make sure that's level, and then the rest of the foundation is built based upon that. And one other thing, Arnie, I've got a passage for you concerning Peter. And of course, Peter, sometimes on the passage you read Jesus said, thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my Church. Of course, the word rock there is is feminine. Peter's name is masculine. But Jesus said something about Peter back in in John one verse 42. He brought brought him Jesus. And that's Peter's brother brought him Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him. He said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jona, Thou shalt be called Cephas or Peter, which is, by interpretation, a stone. So, so, so Peter. Peter was a piece of rock. He was a stone. He wasn't a foundation stone. Jesus was the foundation.

Arnie: 22:16

He's the foundation.

Fred Gosnell: 22:18

So, so, just for our listeners, just remember this passage John, chapter one, verse 42 because Jesus interprets Peter's name for us and so so we know from that that the church was not built on Peter. The church was built on Jesus Christ, as Glenn greatly point out.

Arnie: 22:41

And that passage that you just read there from Matthew 16 and verse 18 tells you who the founder was. It wasn't founded by Peter or by any other human. It was founded by Christ, and he not only is the founder and many other things relating to that, but he's also the head of of the church. And Ephesians chapter one, chapter one, yeah, and in verse 22 mentions that, And have put all things under his feet, speaking of Christ, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. So just, just think in terms of all the roles that Jesus plays in in the church, he's the founder, he's the head, he's he's the body, he's the fullness, just everything that amounts to anything, brings you back to a recognition of Jesus and and his role in establishing and maintaining the Church.

Fred Gosnell: 24:03

Yeah, and when, when Peter preached that first sermon in Acts chapter two. And of course, when, when, when Peter preached that sermon, he provided the keys to the kingdom which Jesus said He would give to the apostles. In Acts 2, 22, and 23 we find out the basis of, what was the basis of the fact that Jesus was was going to build this church, and he was going to be the head of it, its body and everything? So Peter, in Acts 2, 22, and 23 he says, Now this Jesus hath God raised up where we are all witnesses therefore being by the right hand of God, exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit He has shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord, said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in the heart and said unto Peter, to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? So the basis for Jesus building his church, and all of the things that we are told about him is his death, his burial and His resurrection. And of course, these people that Peter preached to suddenly realized that, you know, we have a big problem here, we we killed our Messiah, and here he is. He's now at God's right hand, ruling in his kingdom. And then now they ask the question, well, what shall we do? And of course, Peter tells them.

Glenn: 25:44

Well, I'm going to back up just a little bit, because I believe our page that we're reading from had a misquote here. Acts 2, 22, and 23, what Fred read was Acts two, beginning in verse 32. Acts 22 begins. You men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked hands and have crucified and slain. This was Peter's way of beginning this, this, this sermon that he was preaching on this day of Pentecost, when all these people from all over the world were here in Jerusalem. He was beginning to by identifying who Jesus was and what they had done to him. Then he goes on, and as Fred had read in Acts 2, 32, to 37 that that it was that Jesus, that God, had raised up. Two, two points raised, raised Him from the dead and raised him into heaven, or he ascended to heaven, to the right hand, which he is going to say a little bit later on in Acts two,Arnie.

Arnie: 27:08

Well, looking, looking also at Ephesians chapter four, because a lot of times we we think in terms of of in a place like America where you've got almost a church building on every corner, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but there are many, many, many of them. Are all of those churches that the Lord has established? And the answer to that is that would not be correct. Ephesians, Chapter Four identifies the fact that that the church that Jesus built is unique, not talking about the congregation itself. You would have pieces of the church in various various places, maybe a number of them in, in each city, certainly in in many, many cities around the around the world. And Ephesians four, verse four speaks about the fact that the that it's unique, all of that is a part of one body. All the ones that are are the Lord's church. Ephesians, four, verse four, there is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. So you can't get much clearer in recognizing the fact that really not all the churches that happen to exist necessarily are a part of the Lord's church, uh, only the the ones that are described in these passages of Scripture.

Glenn: 29:08

There's, there is one point I'd like to make concerning what Arnie just read. If you back up to the previous verse, verse three, it gives the reason for these things that Arnie just read that they're being one body, one spirit, one hope of your calling. The reason, he says, in dev, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So this was a reason for these things, so that we all could be united. We could all be this, be the same. If you were to read John 17 and read the prayer that that Jesus prayed in John 17, you'll see that he is he's talking about unity between him, God and His followers, and He wants everyone to be speaking and believing the same thing. And this is the same thing as what we're referring to here. This is the basis. This is why we do it. It's unique. It's there's only one church that that is established. So we want, we want everyone to understand that's, that's why we're teaching this class. Because we want everyone to be united in Christ.

Arnie: 30:22

Well, we're, we're at the end of our time, gentlemen. And so we hope that you listeners will tune us in next Lord's day. Uh, read your Bible between now and then. Look at the passages that we've read with you and and things that we've noted about them and and Lord willing, we'd like to pick up what we've left off next Lord's Day afternoon. In a meanwhile, have a good week.