"My Church"

 “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.