"THE CHURCH CHARACTERIZED" #3

Good day everyone and welcome back to part three of our study on "THE CHURCH". If you have read the previous two devotions on this site, you may be asking, "How can I know which church is His? How can I know I am in His church? How can I know which church is right?" The best answer to those, and other, questions, is found only in one place; THE HOLY WORD OF GOD!!

There are many characteristics of "THE CHURCH" that are found in the Bible that are simply there for the reading and understanding. I want to encourage you to take the time to read THE WORD and know what it says, then do what God has instructed for each of us. We have way too many man-made ideas about Godly things and not enough study of God and what He has already spoken. We will not change the mind of God no matter how many "good ideas" we can invent.

So let's look at some of the footprints of The Church that we see in God's Holy Word. You will find the church’s blueprint in the New Testament scriptures. There are many characteristics of The Church which Christ established, some are as follows:





I. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST WAS BEGUN BY CHRIST

Jesus said in Matt. 16:18, " . . . I will build My church . . ." Jesus and God either spoke The Truth, or They did not. It cannot be both ways. Christ, The Messiah of God, The One who was from the beginning, and who created all things, is the very One who created and established The Church. A church begun by man, at any time in history, is not the Church that Christ established on The Day of Pentecost. Whether that be in 606 A.D. formed after the Roman government, or any other denomination of any decade or century, if it is not His Church, governed by His Laws and Statutes, it should be abandoned so that others will not be deceived in the same way.

If following God is important at all, it should be done according to what He said in His Word, and not by what any man or group may devise in their own minds. Ultimately, it does no one any good to follow a religious group not established by Christ. The reason; we will all die one day and stand before Him and not those who have mislead so many. Obey God and Christ as you read and follow by Faith what He has already spoken in His Word because we will be judged according to what is written in that Word, not the practices or bylaws of any religious organization.


II. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST HAS NO EARTHLY HEADQUARTERS BECAUSE JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY HEAD OF THE CHURCH AND HE IS IN HEAVEN.


The Bible says in Eph. 1:22, "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,". When God put ALL things under Christ's subjection, that leaves nothing out. Man has no reason to design a new headquarters to The Church than what God has already established. If Jesus Christ is the Head, and He is, then it is only our responsibility to be in subjection to HIM and ALL HE has spoken in HIS WORD. Doing things HIS way will never get us into power struggles or competition. There is certainly enough of that in the world already.


III. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST WAS THE SCRIPTURAL NAME OF "CHRIST'S CHURCH" AS A COLLECTIVE BODY, AND "CHRISTIAN" AS INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.


In Matt. 16:18, Jesus said the church is His. Therefore, the church is called the "Church of Christ." The Bible says in Rom. 16:16, " . . . All the churches of Christ greet you." Each individual local body of Christ was identified as being a "Church of Christ". The members who make up the church are referred to as "Christians". The Bible says in Acts 11:26, "the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." The church and the individuals who make up the church are named after Christ as is taught in Eph. 3:14-15, "For this reason,, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name," If a person were to have asked in the first century, "to what denomination do you belong?," nobody would have known to what they would be referring. There was One Church, one Name on the church and only One who was recognized as The Leader, or Head, Christ Himself. Religious organizations with men's names attached are not biblical and certainly not what God and Christ had in mind in The New Testament.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you will leave a comment or question and keep on being faithful. Until next time, may God and The Lord Jesus Christ be praised.