“My Church”
PAT FARISH
Jesus said, “Who do you say
that I am? Simon Peter replied, ‘You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God’.
And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but my Father who is in heaven. And
I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:15-18).
Jesus’ church gets negative
notice from many sources. The
premillennial asserts that Jesus came to establish the kingdom, and was
thwarted by the Jews; so He established the church as a substitute. Not
so. The church and the kingdom are
the same, as indicated by the purchase price: the blood of Christ for both,
Acts 20:28, Revelation 5:9, 10.
Some claim to have no need
for a “church”. If in fact “all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and “the wages of sin is death …”, their
“need”, whether they know it or not, is real. God gave His Son to die because of that need. “Christ is the head of the church, his body,
and is himself its Savior” (Ephesians 5:23).
Christ saves the church, and this salvation is only in him: thus every
sinner “needs” the church.
What Is The Church?
Some think that the building
where people assemble to worship is the church; but it is not. Acts 8:3 tells of Saul “ravaging the church”;
and how did he do it? Entering “house
after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison“. Paul ravaged the CHURCH by abusing MEN and
WOMEN – because that is what the church is, men and women.
Analysis
Of The Word “Church”
There are two ways the
word “church” is used in the New
Testament. First, in a universal sense,
as when Jesus announced “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).
It is used in a second way,
to describe local Christians who have congregated to work and worship
together. When Paul wrote, in Romans
16:16, that “All the churches of Christ salute you”, he was using the word in
the local sense. (and, Revelation 1:11).
In both the local and the
universal senses, “church” is composed of
Christians: then, and now, and
tomorrow. Whether in the local or universal sense, church = people, saints. It is not correct to view the church
universal as being composed of local churches: it is composed of people,
saints.
Organization
There is no organization of
the church universal; Christ is the head, and the headquarters are in heaven. Therefore, the church universal having no
organization, has no work assigned it. Christians
as members of the church, have duties independent of any local church,
Ephesians 2:10; Matthew 5:16.
The local church, on the
other hand, has organization, and responsibility for work. Paul’s introduction to his letter to the
Philippian Christians greets “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at
Philippi, with the overseers and deacons” (1:1).
The overseers (elsewhere
called “bishops”) are identified also as elders, and pastors. I
Peter 5:1, 2 “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going
to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising
oversight …”. So: elders are to be
shepherds (pastors) of the flock and overseers.
Similar information is found in Acts 20:17, 28. In the churches of men, preachers are
pastors; not in the church of Christ.
Furthermore, because elders
are limited in their oversight to “the flock of God which is among you” (“the
flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers”, Acts 20:28) any
arrangement which has elders of one church yielding oversight of that church (or
any part of it) to elders of another church, violates the instruction of Paul
in Acts, and Peter. The autonomy
prescribed serves to protect churches from receiving – or passing along -- contagious
doctrinal error
Work
As noted earlier, a local
church has work to do. Churches can be
busy as beavers, doing all manner of things: sponsoring Scout troops, ball
teams, financial seminars – you name it, some church is doing it – all in the
name of Jesus, of course.
What would Jesus say about
that? Well, as a matter of fact, He has
already spoken; listen, Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek
and to save the lost”. Again, before His birth an angel of the Lord
told Joseph that Mary would “bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for
he will save his people from their sins”
(Matthew 1:21). Jesus did not come to
oppose social ills; He came to oppose spiritual, eternal ills. As far as social ills are concerned, as
people become Christians their manner of life changes, for the betterment of
society. The gospel does this. How can
people ignore this? One might also think
that they were dubious of Jesus’ deity, and thought they had to substitute to justify
their work.
The work of the church, consistent with Jesus’
mission to save, is primarily spiritual, preaching the gospel, edifying the
saints, and assisting brethren who have material needs. The church began with preaching the gospel
(Acts 2:22-41); as converts sought to grow in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord they were edified, “built up” (Acts 9:31).
When brethren became aware
of neglect in benevolence, in attending to the needs of some widows (Acts
6:1-6) they remedied it, without having to establish some kind of institution
to which they could send them.
A local church is so
arranged by God that it is able to accomplish the normal things that are its
responsibilities. When circumstances
overwhelm their abilities, other brethren may step in (Acts 11:28-30;
I Corinthians 16:1, 2; II Corinthians 8, 9).
Worship
Worship is adoration of and
praise to God. The ”church” worships God
by prayer, by contributing of our means, by the reading of Scripture, by
singing, and by partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus said, concerning worship, that “God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
Worship is to be “in
spirit”. We are pretty hard-bitten about
doing truth in worship – but
sometimes are casual about our attitude, our spirit. Are we not aware
that, as we pray, we are talking to God?
As we sing we are praising Him?
As the word of God is read, do you hear His will for you? as we partake
of the emblems of the Lord’s Supper, are we going back to Calvary, thinking of
His suffering there?
Or, are we faking it? Some seem to be faking it. Some seem to have forgotten, or never known,
that God is in heaven and He knows, where your heart is. Worship is to be “in spirit”.
Worship is to be in “truth”. We must
worship Him in truth. That means,
that the things we do must be things He has called for. We do not finance the work of the church by
garage sales; we give of our means, because He said to – and He knows. We do not use mechanical instruments of music,
because He said sing, Ephesians 5:18, 19; – and He knows. We do not eat the Lord’s Supper on Thursday,
because He named the first day of the week, Acts 20:7; and He knows. We pray without ceasing, because He said to
(I Thessalonians 5:16); and He knows. We
read Scripture, because He said “understand what the will of the Lord is” and only
in Scripture can we find His will, Ephesians 5:17; – and He knows.
The churches of Christ
salute you.
