THE CHURCH

“THE CHURCH”
What a study!
Just what does the church look like?
Is it a building? If so is it white wooden with a tall steeple or brick or some other stone, is it large or small , does it have stained glass windows?
Or is it people gathered together.
All white or all black, all speaking English or another language .
How it looks could go on and on, it has an easy beginning, but there’ll be no ending until Jesus Christ take’s the true church home to glory.
The true church is people who come together in the name of the Lord, no matter color, nationality, male or female.
He has said wherever two or three come together in my name I will be there.
THAT MY FRIEND IS THE CHURCH
He is to be glorified and worshiped, He will become greater while we become lesser.
He is to be loved with all your heart soul and mine, then love one another.
Now lets look at the church in the New Testament.
We did not see the church in scripture until the New Testament.
In Matthew 16: 18, And I also say to you, that are you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Next we see that Christ as the “Redeemer” laid down His life on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for the sin’s of the whole world. The grave could not hold Him, and on the 3rd day He came forth alive forever more. (Acts 1;3-8 3 To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God: 4 and, being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, [said he], ye heard from me: 5 For John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. 6 They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority. 8 But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth
Matthew 28:19 Jesus had given them a charge Yet In the above scripture He told them to wait. This they did, about 120 of them, taking care of business, seeking for God’s direction, praying and waiting.
And then the day of Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit came in “POWER”, after Peter told the people there what was happening and preach a powerful message, 3,000 repented and were baptized thus the church was up and running.
The body of believers had no building, yet the Spirit of God drew them together. The book of Acts in chapter 2 tells of one of the first practice of one group. Vs. 42-47.2
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. 46 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
This was the very beginning of what we today call the church. There was harmony, and love for one another, they continued to go to the temple daily,(this would have been at 3 p.m. each afternoon.) They shared there meals, had respect for those in authority over them
There are 7 benefits of belonging to a church or maybe you like gathering together better.
At Citrus Hill Park where church was held on Sunday evening it was called
“Sunday Gathering.”
Notice the N T church came together for more than an hour on Sunday morning.
It was daily and they eat together, worshiped and praised the Lord, had teaching, shared there needs and spent time in prayer.
These were the benefits.
Instruction, apostles teaching
Fellowship
Communion (remembering the Lord)
Corporate prayer
Outreach (people being added daily)
Sharing of material goods
Fear of, respect and reverence of God. (He Is LORD)
Here are some more not mentioned in the above, worship, discipline, pastoral oversight. and obedience to God’s word.
The growth that came from the early believers is something we need to look at long and hard, it came not from planned programs but from there living out what the believed,
Come to think of it could that be what holds back the church today?
As the church grew, it began to spread trough out the then known world, some of the spreading came from the persecution they were receiving.
Then the Holy Spirit began equipping and edifying the body of Christ (church) with making some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelist, and some pastors and teachers, also by giving different gifts of the Holy Spirit such as word of wisdom, word of knowledge, gift of faith, gift of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. along the gift of giving, helping, and the list goes on for the Holy Spirit has equipped the body to be servants just as Jesus demonstrated with the disciples when he washed there feet.
“HI’ HOW MAY I HELP YOU?
No one gift or talent is more important that any of the others. In fact just this morning I read in 2 Timothy 2 from the Message “ In a well finished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets---some containers to serve fine meals and others to take out the garbage out. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guest for their blessing.”
We don’t do anything to our glory, everything id for His glory.
As the church grew, problems arose, why? Because of the carnal human spirit of man wanting it his way.
When Christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. So Christians churches are not, as a rule, not model communities of good behavior. They are rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open and dealt
with. People when they become Christians They at the same moment DON’T necessarily become nice. Dealing with them is so much more that putting on a band aide or looking the other way.
Christians do not have to always agree with each other, but they need to learn to agree to disagree and respect each other in love, for love covers a multitude of sins.
God did not make us from one mold, but made each one to be different from any other living being. He did however give us leader that we are to respect and to be under there authority in the local church, and in doing that ‘HOW MAY I HELP YOU” become the building of the body of Christ is this world
There is much more, or is there, but this I believe would