When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall riot prevail against it. Matthew 16:13-18

It is amazing how we accept things as true just because we have always heard them taught a certain way. For example, most people have always heard that the church is the body of Christ. We have been taught that Christ is the head of all Christians and that all Christians form His body. The Bible does not mean it in that way. Much of this has come from the Scofield Bible. It is not true, and I am going to show you that in this chapter. If you believe the Bible, you will understand exactly what the church is all about.

1. Jesus is the founder of the church.

The church was not founded on Pentecost. The Bible says in Acts 2 that they added to the church those that were saved. You cannot add to something that is not there. I do not know how long the church was there, but it was there before Matthew 18, where it speaks of taking something to the church. Mr. Scofield says that is the future church, but God does not say that. You cannot take something to a future church. You can take something only to a present church.

And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Matthew 10:1

Whenever the church was started, it was started with a called-out assembly. The first place in the Bible where I find such a statement is in Matthew 10:1. I feel the church was started here or before here. I know it was started some time in the personal ministry of Jesus Christ.

2. Jesus is the foundation of the church.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

The rock he was speaking about was not the pope. The church was not built on the Pope. The church was built on the foundation of Jesus. Jesus was the rock being referred to, not Peter. The word Peter means little pebble. The word rock means a strong. big rock. They are not the same word. Peter was a little pebble, but the rock is Jesus.

3. Jesus is its builder.

He said, upon this rock I will build my church. Our job is not church growth. Our job is soul winning. Jesus said that He would build the church. Jesus is in the church-building business. He never told us to build a church. He told us to go soul winning, and He would do the building of His church. We are witnesses. He never told us to go into all the world and build churches. Our job is to obey the Great Commission and His job is to build the church.

4. Jesus attended it, and sang and preached in it.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will! sing praise unto thee. Hebrews 2:9-12

We see here that Jesus went to church. He was quoting from an Old Testament prophesy by saying that He would declare God's name in the church. Luke 4 says that it was Jesus custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day. He was in a habit of going. When He went to the cross all the things attached to the synagogue were nailed to the cross with Him. In the place of the synagogue He gave us the local church.

Jesus preached in the church. I am not talking necessarily about a church building. They may have met under a tree, in a barn, or in a house, as they often did in the Bible. But, the fact remains that Jesus went to church and preached in the church. Jesus also said that He was going to sing God's praises in the church.

Did Jesus need to go to church? Absolutely. The Bible says He emptied himself of deity and became a man. He did what He did, not as God, but as man. Otherwise, He could not have been our pattern. Jesus needed to go to church because He was a man. It was not to keep Him from sinning, but for encouragement and fellowship, the same reasons we need to go to church.

5. Jesus is to be preeminent in the church.

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:18

Jesus must have the preeminence in every organization of the church. He is to have the preeminence in the preaching. He is to have the preeminence in the singing. I believe that songs about Jesus should be sung in the church, rather than the high-brow anthems that are used in so many circles today. Jesus is to have the preeminence in the Christian school. Jesus is to have the preeminence in the Women's Missionary Society. Jesus is to have the preeminence in the bus ministry. Jesus is to preeminent in all of the ministries of the church.

6. Jesus is the head of the church.

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Ephesians 1:22, 23

And he is the head of the body, the church ... Colossians 1:18a

Jesus is the head of the body. The church is the body of Christ. The word head is similar to the President of a business. It means that it is his body in the sense of ownership or control, not in the sense of being a physical body. The word head means authority. He is the authority of the church. He is the head of the church like the owner of a store is the head of that store. The church is a body of people that belongs to him.

If the body of Christ is all believers, then the church is all believers, but the church cannot be all believers, because the word church means a called-out assembly. All believers are never called out, so the church could not be His body in that sense. There will be a day when all Christians will be a member of the church, but that will not be until all Christians are called out. Hebrews 12:23 refers to a host assembled in Heaven. All believers will not be the church until all believers are raptured.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns... Revelation 13:1a

That word head is the same word found in Colossians 1:18 and Ephesians 1:22 where Jesus is called the head of the church. These heads are kings. A king has authority. A king is the head of his nation and the people which they control form the body. These kings are called the head just like Jesus is called the head of the church.

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Colossians 2:10

Jesus is the head of all principality and power. That is referring to governments and rulers. Jesus puts up kings and sets down kings. Jesus is the head of all of the governments and all government leaders in this world. They cannot do anything that God does not allow them to do.

He is called the head of principalities and powers just like He is the head of the church. He is listing something over which He has control. The world's governments no more make up His body, then Christians do. It merely signifies authority. He is the authority of the church, and He is the authority over the world's leaders.

Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands as under the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. Ephesians 5:22, 23

A man is the head of his wife, but that does not mean she is his body. It means that he is the authority of the home. This is not talking about a male head on a female body. As the husband is the head of the wife, so is Christ the head of the church. What does it mean? As the wife obeys her husband, so the church is to obey Christ. He is the head or the authority. In that sense Jesus is the head of the church and the church is His body. Consequently, the church cannot be an invisible church of all believers because the body is the church and the church is a called-out assembly.

This doctrine of all believers being members of the body of Christ is an attempt by Satan to unite us with people with whom we are commanded not to unite. It is an effort to say that we are all members of this body when, in reality, we are not.

7. Jesus is building a church.

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24

All believers will be called out and assembled in the sky. They will be called unto Jesus, and then all believers will become a church. God is now in the process of building an army of people which someday will become a church.

Let me give you three extreme positions regarding this issue.

1. That the church is the bride of Christ.

Some men teach what we call the doctrine of the Baptist Bride. They believe that the only people who will be a part of the bride at the marriage of the Lamb will be Baptists, and all other saved people will merely be wedding guests. Of course, that is not true. These people get the body mixed up with the bride. The bride will not be a bride until we get there, so it will include all believers. The future church will be the bride. The present church is not the bride; it is the body.

They are also wrong because many Baptist churches are liberal. How can all Baptists form the bride when there are hundreds of American Baptist churches that do not even believe that the Bible is the Word of God. There are some churches that do not call themselves Baptist which are New Testament churches. If Baptists form the bride, these New Testament churches will not be in the bride. So, according to them, a liberal American Baptist church would be in the bride, but a fundamental church that is not Baptist will not be in the bride. That is totally untrue.

2. The term the rapture of the church is unscriptural.

We will not become a church until we assemble in the sky. At the rapture we will form a church because then we will assemble, but right now all believers are not yet a church.

3. All believers do not belong to the church.

Somebody needs to set Baptists straight and stop them from being influenced by the inter-denominational crowd. I am not opposed to inter-denominational Christians, but I am opposed to their doctrine about the church. In the average inter-denominational school, many of those who are preparing for full-time Christian work are studying to start orphanages, or to be missionary pilots, or to do Christian drama or Christian movies.

At Hyles-Anderson College we are training men to start churches. We are training young women to go out and teach in the Christian schools started by those churches. We are training young men to go out and lead the singing and be bus directors in those churches. That is the hope for America.

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