God builds the Church? (Part 1)
When Jesus said to Peter “Now I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18. What kind of church did Jesus want built? What was going to be the composition of God’s church? We can start by going back to the Old Testament as we read about God’s people in Genesis. We can first look at what God did to bring His people together. God made a covenant with Abraham that we read “I will give you (Abraham) and your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession and I will be their God.”
Genesis 17:8.
God wanted a people to be together to worship Him and Him alone. He made that very clear in Exodus when we see the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai as they came together to hear God’s commandments as Moses spoke to them. And later we have God’s promise to King David concerning the building of the temple for His people to worship. “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendants after you, who will come forth from you and establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name,”. 2 Samuel 7:12-13.
God had every intention to bring His people together, but was it to be many gatherings of people in many buildings of many denominations throughout the world? Was there a greater purpose of God in building the church? Was it only for “His people” that the nation of Israel was established in the Old Testament?
We must now fast forward to the New Testament and we learn that the primary mission of Jesus was to save the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. Matthew 15:24. But were they the only people that Jesus would seek to save for God’s church? During his mission, he interacted with different people, not just those of the Jewish faith. He healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15: 21-28), healed the Roman’s centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10) and in a Samaritan city He stayed a few days and many believed His word. (John 4: 39-41)
When the earthly ministry of Jesus was over, He appointed the apostles to bring the gospel to all the early churches, the believers that made up the body of Christ. They, along with Paul, and others would continue to bring the good news to people of all walks of life in many lands. It was the people who made up the church, not the places of worship throughout the region. One example of many were the believers in the church of Ephesus. Paul proclaimed that “in Him (Jesus) you also after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Ephesians 1:13
We will further explore this question “Why does God build the Church?” next week…. Enjoy these songs too.