“What is the Christian Church?”
Introduction:
A lot of people have the mindset that it does not matter where they go to church, as long as they are going. I do not think that this is the truth. First of all, the church is not a building, and many places that have the word church on their building are not the Church of the Bible. Secondly, if we say it does not matter what church we go to we are also saying it does not matter what is taught. We need to be concerned about the truth being taught wherever you go to church. Always check to see if what is being taught is truth like the Bereans did of Paul. Surprisingly, people can be wrong about things. I believe several factors should come into play when you choose which church you attend. One, that Christ is glorified. Secondly, that the Truth is taught. Third that they are seeking to fulfill the great command to love man and the great commission to reach the lost. I believe it does matter where we go to church because one church is not as good as another.
I hear people often ask, “What type of church is this?” “What is the Christian Church?” Well, this morning I want to talk about what type of church this is.
In this part of the country you do not see a whole lot of Christian Churches, but the Christian Church is a movement comprised of over 2 Million people in over 7,000 congregations. The Christian Church is the fastest growing Christian Movement in the United States.
Most people have some knowledge of Church history, and most people are aware of the efforts of men like Martin Luther and John Calvin to reform the church. During their time they stood up to a church that was corrupt and that was teaching that you must earn your salvation. They looked at the Scriptures and saw that Scripture teaches that we are saved by grace, not by works. A few hundred years after these men came along many different people came along and saw that there were still many problems with the church. These Christians broke out of denominationalism, announcing their intention to follow the Bible only. The Christian Church began from many people’s desire to bring unity and truth back to the Church as a whole. These people not only wanted to reform the Church they wanted to Restore it to it’s New Testament pattern.
Now, I want to clarify a few things before I get into this message. I do not believe that everybody is wrong and I do not believe that the Christian Church is the only church that is going to Heaven. I do believe that there are some ideals and principles that all Christians should follow. This message is simply aimed to explain the plea and the message of the Christian Church, which I do not believe anyone can find fault in.
Again, this message is informational for all those hear, to show what the Christian Church is and what the message is. Secondly, it has application for all Christians. I do not believe that you must go to a Christian Church to go to Heaven, but I do believe that you need to be a Christian, and I do believe that truth matters and that we need to grow and mature. I do believe it matters that you fin d a church that teaches the truth, I do believe that our loyalty is to Christ not any particular Church or institution.
Text: Ephesians 4:1-16
I. The Christian Church is Not a Denomination
A. A Non-Denominational Church
During election season a common question you here is, “what party are you?” More often than not people today are saying, I am neither, I just vote for the best candidate. I believe that shows something about our society, we do not like labels restricting us and rightly so.
A woman went to a village post office to ask for ten dollars worth of postage stamps. The clerk behind the counter asked her: "What denomination, Ma’am?"
She replied: "Well, I never thought I would see the day that I’d have to state my religious affiliation before I could buy some postage stamps!
People often times ask what religion I am; I tell them I am a Christian. They usually respond by saying, “I mean are you Baptist, Methodist, Catholic.” I then tell them, “I am none of those, and I am a Christian and a Christian only.”
We live in a world in which there are hundreds of different Christian denominations, Christianity has become the most divided religion in the world. If you drive down the road a distance you are likely to see many different type of Churches. The word denomination means to divide or split. I think that it is a shame that Christians are known for being divided.
The Christian church is not a denomination, we have no denominational structure. Many churches have a denominational headquarters; we say that our headquarters are in Heaven. Having a headquarters, which dictates beliefs and practices can be a danger. One of the biggest problems that the early American settlers had with the British domination of the colonies was that they did not understand how a King could dictate what they must do from miles away, they wanted to be self-governed.
I believe that the Church too should be self-governed and responsible for what they do.
Many churches have to send in a percentage of their offerings to the denomination, which governs them, we handle our money here within this congregation and the elders make the decisions for this church. We are totally autonomous – meaning that each church in the Christian Church is independent. Each church makes their own opinions, and may even differ in some things, which they believe.
If you are not familiar with the Christian Church this might be a hard concept to grasp, and you may wonder, why does it really matter?
John 17:20-23
Jesus prayed for the church to be united, to be one so that the world might believe. I believe that the world will never be won for Christ, until Christians are one in Christ. Non-Christians do not understand why there are so many different denominations, which claim to be Christians. A united force of Christians is powerful.
“Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic.”
Unity is one of the most significant goals of the Christian Church. A divided church the way it is today is contrary to Jesus’ prayer for the church.
Psalm 133:1
Another reason why it matters that the Church is united rather than divided is because it is pleasing to God when the Church is one.
Therefore the Christian Church is not a denomination because denominating the Lord’s Church is dividing his church, we seek to unite in truth. We are not a denomination because the Scriptures teach that the elders are to make decision for the local church, and having a headquarters to tell people what to do is setting ourselves up for trouble. The Christian Church is a non-denomination church.
B. A Christian Church
In 1794 some of the early father’s of the Christian Church met together to discuss some issues. During the discussions regarding their name one man stood up with a New Testament in his hand and said, “Brethren, this is a sufficient rule of faith and practice, and by it we are told that the disciples were called Christians, and I move that from now on the followers of Christ be known as Christians simply.”
I do not know about you, but I think that the name Christian is the best name for the followers of Christ because it is a biblical name for the followers of Christ.
Many churches have put other men’s names on their church buildings. Martin Luther begged that no one call themselves by name, but by Christ’s names and urged his followers to cease from using party names and be known as Christians simply. John Wesley begged that all unscriptural names that have divided Christians be forgotten.
I believe Christian and Christian alone is a great name for the Lord’s Church. The name of the Church should be the head of the Church.
Colossians 1:18
No man’s name should be on the Church because man is not the head of the Church; no man was crucified for the Church. It is only logical that the followers of Christ be known by His name, that is why we call ourselves Christians only and are known as the Christian Church. Again we do not think we have all truth or the only truth, but our pleas are to be Christians and not hold to man-made names. The early founders of the Christian church went by the slogan, “We are not the only Christians, but Christians Only”. We still hold firmly to that. The Christian Church is not all the Christians, but we are called Christians only.
II. The Christian Church’s Goal is To Go Back to the Scriptures
The plea of the Christian Church as really should be every Church is to go back to the Scriptures. It seems that many of the problems that have arisen in the world today are because people have trusted in many and not gone to God’s Word as their only authority. People have trusted in human opinion and tradition and not found backing from the Bible. Always remember that the truth is not afraid to be checked out in the Scriptures. Our goal as a Christian Church is to go back to the Scriptures for our teaching and practice. We do not want any book but the Bible to be our authority.
One slogan, which became prominent in the Christian Church, which identifies well the feeling of using the Bible and the Bible alone as our guide is “No Creed, but Christ, No Book, but the Bible, no law, but love.” Creeds are statements of belief, which many denominations hold to in order to make their distinction from other denominations clear. The fear of having creeds is that people might rely more on a man-made statement than of God’s Word. Many people have taken creeds of churches for the Lord’s authority.
If a creed though says more than is in the Bible it says too much. If it says less than is in the Bible it does not say enough. If it says identically what the Bible says, it is not needed. The Church is founded upon the fact that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, not upon any man-made statements.
We often say that we want to be like the New Testament Church. As you read through the book of Acts you can read of the Church in its splendor, you can read of the works and teachings of the Apostles and we can see the Church the way that Jesus intended it in life and in doctrine. It is man who has corrupted the church over the years and this did not go without warning, Paul and the other Apostles warned of people who would come and teach false doctrine. The Christian Church has sought to go back to the Bible and restore the doctrine to the way the Church originally had it.
1. Restoring Biblical idea of Baptism
Baptism in some form has been a part of all church history and center of much controversy. Many of the founders of the Christian church grew up in churches, which they began to question the teaching on baptism. Alexander Campbell for instance could not support the idea of infant baptism because it is not supported in Scripture. Through study he came to learn more about what the Scriptures teach about baptism. He learned that the early church baptized by immersion and thought that since the Apostle’s taught it, it is still binding to us today. He then learned of the link between baptism and salvation. He saw that baptism was linked with the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38
His new ideas were radical and new, but I believe that he was right. One main difference you will find between the Christian Church and other churches is the purpose of baptism. Some churches say baptism is just an act of obedience, some say it is for church membership, but the real question we need to ask is what does the Scriptures say.
Mark 16:16
Many people through the teaching of man have switched the order of what Jesus said to he who believes is saved and should be baptized. That though is not what Jesus said. That is why we believe that one must be baptized in order to be saved and that baptism is a part of the process of calling on the name of the Lord.
Acts 22:16
If Peter preached it and Paul obeyed it, then I believe that we too should practice it. This is not a popular teaching and may be contrary to what some have been taught their whole lives, but I want to encourage you to study the Scripture as a whole. I understand that some passages say if you confess with your mouth you will be saved, but does that mean that Jesus was wrong when he said, he who believes and is baptized shall be saved? Didn’t Jesus say that you must repent or you will perish? Which one is right? They are all right. We run into danger when we do not take God’s Word in its whole.
2. Restoring Biblical idea of Communion
Another issue, which makes the Christian Church different from other churches, is its weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps you have wondered, “Why do they do this every week.” We do not do it out of tradition, or to be different, we do it because the early church did it and feel it is still binding to us. You may ask, “How do you know that they did it every week?” I can assure I wasn’t there, but the Scriptures tell us.
Acts 20:7
The Church met together on the first day of the week for the purpose of breaking bread, and the church today should do the same. This was not necessarily some radical view that the Christian Church invented many others such as John Calvin, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon came to the same conclusions that the Lord’s Supper should be taken every Lord’s Day. All history tells us that for the first few centuries the Church took communion every week. I do not know what brought about this change, but nevertheless somewhere it did. Again, I know this is different than what many churches do, this may be different than the tradition that you are used to, again I urge you to look unbiased into the Scriptures to see what the early Church did and what God’s Word teaches. You see the Devil wants us to keep away from the blood of Jesus. I do not think it is a coincidence that the two issues which most separate churches are the issues of baptism and communion. What two places in life do we symbolically come in contact with Jesus’ blood? Baptism and Communion.
