We can look at the Church in two different ways, from God's view and from man's view. I discovered that most Bible Dictionaries describe the Church from man's view. In fact, in most christian books, the Church is often referred to according to man's view. Furthermore, the Church according to man's view, are popular serman topics. All these can be very confusing. Therefore, I do not intend to add another message to make it even more confusing. I believe as long as we fail to look at the Church as God sees it, we will not understand fully God's purpose for the Church. The only thing that is not confusing is what described by Paul in Ephesians 1:22,23 that the Church is the Body of Christ. Seen in this light, the Church is not an organisation but an organism. Every Bible teacher should know at least this truth.
In this message I attempt to look at the Church from God's view according to the Scripture.
The word "Church" is mentioned twice in the Gospel according to Matthew - once as the Universal (or Catholic) Church and once as the Local Church.
This is how Jesus described the Universal Church:
"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18, NKJV).
The Universal Church as a whole (the Body of Christ) is built by Jesus Himself, and all christians are members of this Body and members to one another. The Head is Jesus Christ who has His headquarters in heaven.
This is how Jesus described the Local Church when He instructed the Local Church how to deal with a sinning brother:
"And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector" (Matt. 18:17).
The Local Church is that part of the Universal Church situated at a particular locality. All christians living in this particular locality are member of this Church and God expects christians to "essemble" together on a regular basis (Hebrews 10:25). It is obvious that when a problem arises in the Local Church it is not possible to get the Universal Church involved in resolving the problem.
The main difference between the Universal Church and the Local Church is that there is only one "Worship Service" for the Universal Church. This will take place in the near future, when the Lord Himself descends from heaven and all true christians (dead or alive) who are members of this Universal Congregation shall meet the Lord Jesus Christ in mid-air (1 Thess. 4:16,17). This is the first and only meeting of the Universal Church under the direction of Jesus Himself as Worship Leader. Notice that only the true christians - the Bride of Christ are qualified to attend this Church Meeting!
On the other hand, the Local Church meets on a regular basis either in a home or in a Church building. But, we cannot assume that every member of the Local Church is qualified to attend the one and only one Universal Church Meeting as the Bride of Christ.
Paul said, God seals the true christians - "The Lord knows those who are His" (2 Tim. 2:19).
Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).
In my opinion, the main purpose of the Local Church is to ensure that all members will attend the Universal Church Worship Service! The life of the Local Church should be driven by this hope!
Here are some spititual facts concerning the Christ life and the Christian Church according to God's view.
1. A christian is a spirit being, he has a soul and he lives in a body. The moment a person is born again by the spirit of God he has entered the Kingdom of God on earth.
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:13,14, NKJV).
"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9).
Individual born again believer is also the temple of God. God's Spirit dwells in the spirit of this believer (1 Cor. 6:19).
2. Everything about the existence of the Local Church is spiritual and not physical. God is Spirit, and therefore He cannot dwell in the Local Church if it is merely a physical structure.
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Cor 3:16,17).
"Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy presthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4,5, emphasis added).
In other words, all chritians are living stones, and the Church is a spiritual house for living stones.
3. The moment a person is regenerated and born again by the Spirit of God, he autometically becomes a member of the Universal Church. In fact, according to Paul he becomes a member of the Household of God (Eph. 2:19). The only qualification for him to be a member of the Church is his right relationship with the Lord. If he is a member of the Universal Church, he is also a member of the Local Church in the locality where he lives. God places no other requirement for membership of His church.
4. In the Kingdom of God there is no difference between the basic family cell and Chruch which consists of many cell units. It is only the matter of size. God's will and purpose is not for man to be alone. He gives him a wife and a family. When a man believes in the Lord Jesus, he and his household will be saved (Acts 16:31) - albeit individual members of the family who knows how to repent needs the born-again experience. They enter the Kingdom of God and have eternal life and become a church cell unit. Therefore, the very existence of the Church depends on the existence of the family cells of christian believers.
Finally, let me illustrat how confusing it can be if we are to look at the Church from man's view.
A renowned author of a series of books (millions sold) concerning the christian life and the christian Church says,
"Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, ofter broken by divorce, distance, growing old, and inevitably, death. On the other hand, our spiritual family - our relationship to other believers - will continue throughout eternity."
As I understand it, he means only the Church family is spiritual and the relatioship between believers in the Church is spiritual and therefore more important than the relationship between family members in the christian homes, which according to him are merely physical and full of problems.
Confusing? In my opinion, if some individual basic christian family units are in such a deplorable and chaotic condition, the condition of the Church will be even more deplorable and chaotic. Chaotic family units makes a chaotic Church family. In fact the relationship between believers in a Local Church of this nature will not be acceptable to the Lord who is the Head of the Church.
A christian family should not be broken because of divorce, old age, death and children leaving home. I believe the root cause of this problem is, most christians fail to understan the importance of the restoration of the "Elijah Ministry" to the Church which I shared with you in my last two messages.
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