Being in the right church matters
Because of the age we are born into, we have a unique view on churches. There are so many, with different names, different doctrines, different patterns of worship! I bet you could name 5 different “Christian” churches right now! And a widely held view is, they are all pointing in the same direction, just find one, and get comfortable with it. It’s all about Love, and making you a better person.
To get God’s perspective on this thinking, you have to go back to the original establishment of the church. Go to your Bible, turn to the book of Matthew 16:18 and note what Jesus said, “I will build my church” and then start reading through the rest of the New Testament asking, well did He, or did He not? And if He did, when did He build it and what was its nature, it’s make-up, its composition? And you get to the book of Acts, chapter 2, and you see that by the time that chapter ends the Lord is adding people to something! 3,000 souls in fact, and then verse 47 of Acts 2 tells us that the Lord was adding to the church.
Which church? It's the only one that existed at that time. The church that belongs to Christ “which He purchased with His own blood” Acts 20:28. That is the church that we need to be a part of. Now it's different from a lot of churches you and I see on planet earth today. Jesus promised to build the church, and He said “I will build my church”, singular and possessive in nature. And I know that for a lot of people they look at a name and they think, well we're all the same. In the 1st century there was just one church, Ephesians 4:4 points out there's just “one body”, the body being the church.
Immediately, this should raise some alarm bells. What if I am in the wrong church? How can I identify the true church, the one Jesus died for? What do I need to do about this?
Isn’t one form of worship as good as another?
That raises the question, does God care whether we worship Him according to the details He specified or not? Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord, Leviticus 10, which God had not authorized and there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them. As you read the account, there is no evidence that they said “we don't care what God said to do about worship, we're going to do what we want to do and as long as we worship that's enough”. God struck them dead and that shows following God’s pattern is a major issue. If Nadab and Abihu were alive here today, would they say how we worship is important? Why did they die? Because when God said worship me this way, they said they were going to do it another way and does God care whether we do it his way? He cared enough to strike them dead to set an example for the rest of us to say, I really want you to do it my way.
Does the church have an earthly head?
Yes, the good news is that the church has a head. He resides in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. He is the head of the church, according to Ephesians 1:22. In Colossians 1:18 He is the sole monarch and legislator of the church. We don't have any examples in the New Testament of the apostles coming together and on their own coming up with their own ideas about how the church should and should not be led. They were led by the Holy Spirit, sent to guide men into all truth as they were guided into all truth John 16:13. The organization that the Holy Spirit gave the Church of Jesus Christ is a plurality of Elders in each congregation. They have to meet certain qualifications that are found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. If a plurality of men meet those qualifications, they can serve as elders over one local flock, the flock that is among them, 1 Peter 5.
Where is this church today?
There was a church, it belonged to Christ. You can read about it in the New Testament and you would not have been out of order at all to refer to those people as members of the churches of Christ. Paul in Romans 16:16 called them churches of Christ and said they salute you at Rome. He was telling them the actual churches of Christ that belong to Christ have sent you greetings. Given that churches of Christ could exist then and go by divine pattern, why can't we go by that same pattern today?
Here is the good news; the way back to the right path is to get on the path of scripture, speak as the Bible speaks be silent where the Bible is silent. To call Bible things by Bible names, do Bible things in Bible ways and if we do that, we'll hear, we will believe, will repent, will confess, will be baptized. These things are not made up. I know they are true because hearing is Romans 10:17; believing is John 8:24, repenting is Acts 17:30; confessing is Romans 10:9-10. Being baptized to wash away sins as Acts 22:16 and that adds me to the Church of Jesus Christ that's Acts 2:47. Anything different from that is too different and that is a “thus sayeth the Lord”. And the beauty of being in the church, Paul said in Ephesians 5:23 is that Jesus is the savior of the church, and so if were in the church we will be among the saved, the redeemed, the cleansed, and ultimately if we remain faithfully until death, promised a Crown of life Revelation 2:10.
Being in the right church matters. Being saved in the body of Christ, matters. Worshiping as God has requested, matters. But it takes a good heart, and the question is what condition is your heart in?
Luke said this in Acts 2:41 “Then those who gladly received his word”. If you don't have an honest and good heart you're not going to receive the Word and be saved. The Church of Christ is the church of the book of Acts. The reason we have churches different from the church of Christ found in the New Testament, is because churches have departed from the actual teaching. Churches are different from what? That's what we need to ask. Different from the plan laid down by the Holy Spirit. Tampering with Gods Word has been around for a long time. You know it was the devil who started doing that in the garden of Eden, when God says you do this and this will happen, Satan came along and says no it won’t. Satan is referred to as the Father of Lies, and has deceived many into believing a lie and is it dangerous to believe a lie. 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 says you can be damned for following a lie, and that's a frightening thought. How can I know what the truth is? John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”. What will the truth do for me? John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Is the Word of God that important? John 12:48 says “the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day”. This Word will Judge us for eternity, and that’s a very serious matter. We need to get to know the Word.
In conclusion, if we do as they did on the day of Pentecost, and follow the pattern laid down by the Apostles through the book of Acts, then we will be as they were. We will be in the Lords church (singular), the one He promised to build. Started on the day of Pentecost, doing bible things in bible ways, part of the “one body”, which Jesus gave His life to save. There is salvation for your soul in no other body. Won’t you join us?