What in the World is the Church to Be? Part 1
What in the world is the church to be? And we're going to give you just a basic outline of what God intended the church of Jesus Christ to be. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, just reading the text there for a moment, Acts 2:42 says this describing the life of the early church, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and break bread from house to house, did eat their food 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."
Now, there you have a description of the early church, which really is basic to understanding the purpose of the church, particularly verse 42, and the effect of the church from verse 43 through 47. Now, we who love Jesus Christ are the church. We are the body of Christ. We are redeemed. We are invisible in the sense that the world cannot see us. And very often we can't even see ourselves. Sometimes, you know, we struggle over whether somebody's really a believer or not. But we belong to the collective one body. Whether we're alive or in glory, we're still a part of the one body of Christ. We are Christ's church because we love Him. We are His ekklesia, His called out ones. His assembly of beloved sons.
The church basically is people called of God to be His children. We have become one positionally by being united by faith in Jesus Christ. And it was Jesus who said, "I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." And when He said that, He meant He would gather together His body. He wasn't talking about buildings. He was talking about people. We are the church of Jesus Christ. We who know and love Him. We are one with each other because we have been born into the family by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
We are the living church of the Firstborn. We are the general assembly written in heaven, as the writer of Hebrews states it. We are just men because of Christ. We are a living body, a community of those who are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the invisible church. The world really can't see who we are. They cannot discern us. They see only the visible church, not the invisible. That is those who are real Christians and those who aren't.
But there is also a visible church, and I believe the Lord intended there to be a visible church. As Paul mentioned at the beginning, not Paul the apostle, Paul the youth director. As Paul mentioned earlier...basically, we have a testimony to the world as a visible church. When we gather together on the Lord's day, we are a testimony to the world, indeed, that Christ is risen. And the visible church has a testimony to bear to the world. Now some people are saying we don't need any buildings, and we oughta be purely spontaneous, no organization, no building, no structure at all. But I don't think Christ pointed that way at all.
I think if you go back to Matthew 18, for example, you find very clearly there that Christ prophesied the church would be a structure with form that would meet together in a given place. Where in Matthew 18, particularly, there are several verses that I believe indicate this. Verse 15 of Matthew 18, "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." If a brother does something wrong, go to him and tell him.
"But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that 'in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church." Now, he must be referring to a visible group of people. The church hasn't even begun yet. It won't begun...begin till Pentecost. Christ is predicting that the church will have a visible form, a group of people meeting in a special local place for the purpose of fellowship, worship, and, here, for the purpose of discipline.
So there is, in the New Testament, the definite indication that God intended in His design that there be a visible church. It would be impossible to take this problem to the invisible church. There would have to be a body set together to meet with this individual consisting of at least more than three people. Christ predicted, than, that the church would be a visible assembly of people gathering together in a certain place, that it would have structure, and that it would have form.
And so as we begin to read the Book of Acts, we find that the invisible church becomes more clearly visible. And, first of all, the invisible church and the visible church were the same. Today, the invisible church and the visible church are not always the same. There are congregations meeting that appear to be a visible church that are not the true church at all. They are the false church. They are the harlot. They are the prostitute church.
But, initially, the invisible church became visible, as they began to gather together in the Book of Acts, as they began to meet together visibly before the world...They met together, first of all, in homes. And then as the homes would become small, they would expand and meet together in annex built onto the home. And pretty soon, by at least the third century, the church was meeting in its own building as it grew.
To be continued.
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