.CHURCH OF CHRIST.
Christ family is a dynamic army, always pressing forward despite constant attacks. Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 2nd Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
In this spiritual world, we need each other; we need team work and team spirit. We need spiritual food and supplies. We need refreshed strenght and renewed focus on our mission. That is why Hebrews 10 : 25 urges us “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one and another, and let all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Meeting poses problems today, but there are many different Churches or leaders, we would like to think that they all agreed, sadly, their separations often go back to differences in beliefs. Acts 20 : 28 – 30 « Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will rise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. »1st Timothy 4 : 1 –3, “The spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons such teaching come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” As Peter foretold, these differences give Christianity a bad name. 2nd Peter, 2: 1 – 3 “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways, and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not been sleeping. » Divisions are the problems with human nature, not with Jesus and His purpose. You might have heard someone say, for financial or for what and what problems, “Go to this and this Church.” If Christ is really our Lord, shouldn’t we be more interested in the Church of Christ’s choice?
Yet, no congregation in the New Testament times was perfect, yet the basic meaning of “disciple” is learner or follower. Jesus says in John 8: 31, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples » Jesus is Lord. He has ‘all authority’. Matthew 28:18, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He is the head over everything for the Church, which is His body. Ephesians 1 : 22 – 23 “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” In Christ we become a living temple of the living God. 1st Corinthians 6: 9. Says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
REFLECTION QUESTIONS.
What makes the Church so special? Read Acts 20: 28 and Ephesians 5:25.
What does « the Church of the first born » mean? Read Hebrews 12: 23; Ephesians 3:14 – 19 ;John 14 :18 – 23.
In conclusion, there is one Christ, therefore all in Christ are one, there must not be hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, fraction and envy, for all these resist the very nature of God. If unity leads to faith in Christ, John 17:21- 23 “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Then disunity drives people into disbelief and despair. We see today many separate groups or assembly constantly splintering. The trend works directly against the goal Jesus pursued through the agony of the cross. Ephesians 2: 16 – 18 “And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
May we be blessed in sound doctrine of the Church of Christ in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Christ family is a dynamic army, always pressing forward despite constant attacks. Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 2nd Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
In this spiritual world, we need each other; we need team work and team spirit. We need spiritual food and supplies. We need refreshed strenght and renewed focus on our mission. That is why Hebrews 10 : 25 urges us “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one and another, and let all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Meeting poses problems today, but there are many different Churches or leaders, we would like to think that they all agreed, sadly, their separations often go back to differences in beliefs. Acts 20 : 28 – 30 « Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will rise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. »1st Timothy 4 : 1 –3, “The spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons such teaching come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” As Peter foretold, these differences give Christianity a bad name. 2nd Peter, 2: 1 – 3 “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways, and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not been sleeping. » Divisions are the problems with human nature, not with Jesus and His purpose. You might have heard someone say, for financial or for what and what problems, “Go to this and this Church.” If Christ is really our Lord, shouldn’t we be more interested in the Church of Christ’s choice?
Yet, no congregation in the New Testament times was perfect, yet the basic meaning of “disciple” is learner or follower. Jesus says in John 8: 31, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples » Jesus is Lord. He has ‘all authority’. Matthew 28:18, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He is the head over everything for the Church, which is His body. Ephesians 1 : 22 – 23 “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” In Christ we become a living temple of the living God. 1st Corinthians 6: 9. Says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
REFLECTION QUESTIONS.
What makes the Church so special? Read Acts 20: 28 and Ephesians 5:25.
What does « the Church of the first born » mean? Read Hebrews 12: 23; Ephesians 3:14 – 19 ;John 14 :18 – 23.
In conclusion, there is one Christ, therefore all in Christ are one, there must not be hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, fraction and envy, for all these resist the very nature of God. If unity leads to faith in Christ, John 17:21- 23 “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Then disunity drives people into disbelief and despair. We see today many separate groups or assembly constantly splintering. The trend works directly against the goal Jesus pursued through the agony of the cross. Ephesians 2: 16 – 18 “And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
May we be blessed in sound doctrine of the Church of Christ in Jesus’ name. Amen.