THE CHURCH
OF CHRIST - GOD’S ONLY CHOICE
The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)
1. When we refer to God's Only Choice - the church of Christ,
a. we are
NOT referring
to a denomination.
b. We are NOT
talking
about why we are a member
1. of one particular denomination as opposed
2. to being a member of another particular
denomination.
2. Nor are we talking about being “Church of Christ”
a. as
opposed to being
Catholic or Lutheran or Presbyterian or Baptist.
b. When we
speak of the
church of Christ,
c. we simply
mean
Christ's church.
3. When we speak of the church of Christ,
a. we speak
of that
very same institution
b. that the
New
Testament refers to as the church of God (1 Corinthians 1:2),
1. the household of God (Ephesians 2:19),
2. the kingdom of God's dear Son (Colossians 1:13)
3. and the body of Christ, which is His church (Col.
1:18, 24).
4. No discussion of the church of Christ
a. and
reasons for
being a member of that church
b. could be
conducted
without a consideration
c. of
Christ's divine
promise to build His church (Read Matthew 16:13-18).
1.
Incorporated in
this reading are several reasons for being a member
2. of that very church that Christ Himself built.
I. The Church Was
Established by Christ
1.
The Bible says, “Every house is built by someone" (Hebrews 3:4).
a. Every
church in
existence today was established by someone,
b. somewhere,
at some
time.
2. The Lutheran Church was established by Martin Luther
a. in 1530
at Augsburg,
Germany.
b. The
Episcopal Church
(Church of England)
1. was established by King Henry VIII of England in
1535
2. when he separated the Catholic Church in England
3. from the control of the pope in Rome
4. and declared himself the head of the church.
3. The Presbyterian Church was founded by John Calvin
a. in 1535
in Geneva,
Switzerland.
b. The
Baptist Church
was established in 1607
c. by John
Smythe in
London, England.
4. Baptist doctrine and practices were first brought to America
in 1637
a. by Roger
Williams,
one of the settlers of the state of Rhode Island.
b. The
Methodist Church
was formed by John Wesley in 1729
c. in
London, England.
5. A number of different kinds of Pentecostal Churches
a. were
formed between
1900 and 1925 in the United States,
b. including
the
Assembly of God Church
c. which had
its origin
in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
6. Christ's church existed long before these denominations were
formed by
men.
a. People
were
Christians and members of the church that Christ established
b. hundreds
of years
before these
1. and the many other denominations
were ever established.
2. All
denominations (except the Catholic) are less that
500
years old.
7. But someone says, "I thought a man by the name of Alexander
Campbell
a. started
the church
of Christ,
b. and that
it broke
off from the Christian Church."
8. Alexander Campbell was born in County Antrim, Ireland (now
North
Ireland),
a. on
September 12,
1788.
b. He
migrated to
America in 1809, and died in Bethany, Va. (now West Virginia)
c. on March
4, 1866.
9. But in the New Testament, Paul says, "The churches of Christ
salute you" (Rom. 16:16).
a. This was
written
around A. D. 60,
b. over
1,720 years
before Campbell was ever born!
c. Obviously, Campbell did not establish those
churches of Christ.
10. Christ's church was established by Christ Himself
a. and did
not break
off from any existing church,
b. but was,
in fact,
the original church of the New Testament.
11. One of the reasons it is called the church of Christ is because
Christ is
its founder.
a. Christ's
church was
founded in Jerusalem on the first day of Pentecost
b. after the
death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ.
12. The record of its beginning is in Acts 2.
a. On that
occasion the
Gospel of Christ was preached (vv. 22-36),
b. and the
people had
their consciences pricked
c. and asked
what to do
to be saved (v. 37).
13. They were told in plain and simple terms what to do (READ v. 38),
a. and those
who gladly
received the Word were baptized (v. 41).
b. At that
point they
were saved and added to the church (v. 47).
14. What church were they added to?
a. Whose
church were they
added to?
b. Certainly
not to any
denomination such as Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian,
1. Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, Catholic, or Assembly for
God.
2. Why? Because none of those churches existed at that time.
15. The people on the Day of Pentecost were saved
a. and added
to the
very church about which Christ Himself said,
b. "I will build" (Matthew 16:18).
16. If people do the same thing today (to be saved)
a. that the
people did
on the Day of Pentecost,
b. they will
be added
to the same church that Christ built (cf. Eph. 3:6).
17. "The seed is the word of God!” (Luke 8:11)
a. And this PURE seed will
produce the
same thing today
b. that it
produced on
the Day of Pentecost - that is, a Christian -
c. not a Baptist,
Mormon, or
Catholic, etc.
18. If the seed produced people whose only church affiliation
a. was the
church
Christ established,
b. why will
that same
seed (Word) not produce people today
c. whose
only church
affiliation is the church that Christ established?
II.
Christ Is Its Foundation
1.
Every church started by man is based on some distinctive doctrine,
a. some
particular
practice, some form of worship,
b. or some
system of
government.
2. The foundation of the church of Christ is a solid rock, Christ
Himself
(Matt. 7:24-25).
a. Paul
wrote,
"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11).
b. Thus, the
ROCK
foundation on which Christ established His church
c. is not
the apostle
Peter but the confession Peter made:
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
3. If Christ is not the Son of God, there is no basis for the
existence
of His church.
a. Paul said,
"But
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith
is also
vain"
(1 Corinthians 15:13-14).
b. But Christ
has been
raised from the dead and has been
"declared to be the Son of God with power" (Romans 1:4).
4. Peter said, in quoting the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, I lay in
Zion
a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to
shame"
(1 Peter 2:6).
5. Members of Christ's church can be absolutely sure that Christ
is the
Son of God
a. and is
the only
foundation upon which to build
b. an
acceptable
relationship with God.
1. The
church is
said to be OF Christ
2. because He is its ONE and ONLY foundation (cf. 1
Cor. 10:4).
III.
The Church Has a Divine Head
1.
Every church originating with man has someone at its head.
a. The
Catholic Church
has its pope.
b. The Church
of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) has its president.
2. Various protestant denominations have their ruling synods and
conventions,
a. their
conference
bishops, and their decision making bodies.
b. The church
of Christ
has as its only head Christ Himself (Eph. 5:23).
"And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence"
(Colossians 1:18).
"And He [God] put all things under His [Christ's] feet, and gave Him
[Christ]
to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the
fullness of
Him
who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23).
3. All normal bodies have only one head,
a. and the
spiritual
body of Christ has only one head.
b. The body
of Christ
is the church, and there is only “one body” (Ephesians 4:4).
4. Christ is not the head of a multiplicity of bodies
(denominational
churches);
a. He is the head of His one body, His
church.
b. It is
called the
"church of Christ" because Christ is its head.
IV.
The Church Was Purchased with the Blood of Christ
1.
Many of the denominations were established at a great cost.
a. Many
people in the
early days of the Protestant Reformation
b. gave
their very
lives in order to break away from the corruption
1. and tyranny of the medieval Catholic Church.
2. Others
made
great sacrifices in time, talent and study.
2. On the other hand, some churches have been established by
fakes and
frauds
a. preying
on the
emotions and finances
b. of
innocent but
biblically untaught people.
3. The church of Christ was purchased at a great price - the
blood of the
Son of God!
a. To the elders of the church in
Ephesus, Paul
said,
"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which
the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God
which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).
b. Christ's
church is
made up only of those people
1. who have applied the saving, cleansing blood of
Christ to
their lives
2. by their obedience to the Gospel of Christ.
4. Peter also taught the people of God
a. that they
were
REDEEMED with the precious blood of Christ (Read 1 Peter 1:18-19).
b. Thus,
another reason
why the church is designated as the church of Christ
1. is
because Christ purchased it with His blood - it is His church,
2. not
my church or your church or some other person's church!
V. After Obeying the
Gospel, Christ Added Us to His Church
1.
This is what happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2
a. when the
church was
established: "And the Lord added to the church daily
those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47; cf. vs. 41).
b. In
accepting Christ
as our Savior,
c. we did
exactly what
those people did on the Day of Pentecost.
2. We HEARD the Gospel of Christ in its purity and simplicity
(Romans
10:17).
a. We
BELIEVED in
Christ as the Son of God
b. and
CONFESSED our
faith in Him (Romans 10:9-10).
c. We
repented of our
sins (Acts 17:30).
d. We were
baptized for
(in order to obtain, not because of)
e. the
remission of our
sins (Acts 2:38).
3. Because God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34),
a. He saved us and added us to His body
or
church! (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13).
b. From that
day to
this we have never JOINED a denomination.
c. We have
stayed right
where the Lord put us (in His church).
4. This is getting at the very heart
a. of the
difference
between the churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16)
b. and the
denominations established by man down through the centuries.
5. The whole idea of denominationalism
a. is that a
person can
be SAVED from his sins
b. and then
JOIN the
church (denomination) of his choice.
6. However, according to the Scriptures,
a. the same
process by
which a person is saved
b. is the
process that
makes him a member of the spiritual body of Christ,
c. the
church (cf. Gal.
3:26-27).
7. In New Testament times, as we have already noted,
a. no
different
denominations existed for people to join.
b. Denominational
churches did not originate
c. until
hundreds of
years after Christ's church.
1. Yet,
Christ's
church did exist in New Testament times,
2. and all saved people were members of it (Acts
2:47).
8. No one in New Testament times
a. ever
thought of
himself or herself as a saved person
b. but not a
member of
the church Christ had established.
9. If it was possible for one to be saved
a. and a
member of the
kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13) in the first century
b. without
being a
member of any denomination,
1. why is it not possible to be saved
2. and a member of Christ's church in this century
3. without being a member of any denomination?
10. In the final analysis, we are members of the church of Christ
a. because
when we
complied with what the Scriptures say
b. a person
must do to
be saved,
c. the Lord
added us to
His church.
1. A wise
Christian will
be content to stay where the Lord Himself put him
2. without presuming to JOIN some religious
organization begun
by man.
Invitation
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