FOUNDATION OF FAITH PART XI

Blessed sunday to everyone

THE CHURCH

There are beautiful buildings and cathedrals, humble adobe missions and huts that have on them the name "Church." They have steeples and crosses, bells and towers that have their own way of announcing to passers-by, "This is a church." These man-made structures are churches in one sense of the word, but the church spoken of in the New Testament is something more. The church in its larger sense is made up of all believers. It is called the Body of Christ. God dwells among these believers by His Spirit. We have studied about the Holy Spirit and some of His function, but one of the functions we did not mention is that He unites the church. Ephesians 4:3 says. "Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together." In this lesson we will study what the church is, what it should be doing, and what is going to happen to it. Again, it is the Bible that will give us the right answers.

ITS NAME

When you hear the words body, building, bride, family, do they suggest something in common? All relate to people and in biblical language these words refer to a specific group of people--those who make up God's family. The church is compared to a body of which Christ is the head. Colossians 1:18 says, "He is the head of his body, the church: he is the source of the body's life." " God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things. The church is Christ's body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere" (Ephesians 1:22-23). "All of you are Christ's body, and each one a part of it" (1Corinthians 12:27). The Bible also likens the church to a building, a temple dedicated to the Lord. "You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through His Spirit" (Ephesians 2:20-22). Another name given to the church is the bride of Christ. The Bible calls Jesus the Lamb and states that the church is the bride that will be married to Him. Revelation 21:9 says, "Come, and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." "For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it" (Revelation 19:7). Christ is compared to the husband and the church to the wife in Ephesians 5:25. "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it." As you read the Bible you will find other comparisons. The important thing to remember is that the church is made up of all those who are truly born-again followers of Christ. It's a growing group, "praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people. And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47).

VERSE OF THE WEEK

You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through His Spirit. - Ephesians 2:20-22