If we are to be Christians like those described in the New Testament. Why not start where the New Testament Church starts? In Matthew 16:18, Jesus speaks in the future tense, saying “I will build My Church.” After His death and resurrection, Jesus ascends to reign beside His Father.
Acts 1 : 9 – 11 « After He said this, He was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.” Men of Galilee, “they said,” why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” He sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. From then Acts of Apostles describes the Church as a present reality.
Acts, 5: 11, “Great fear seized the whole Church and all who heard about these events.”
Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Whoever comes to me I will never drive away (John 6: 37)
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16)
We should understand that people are not converted to us, but to Jesus.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. (2nd Corinthians 4:5) Jesus wants us to belong to His Church, which is His family. One enters a family by birth or adoption, not by “joining” it like a club.
When the Lord saves us, He adds us to the body of saved people.
Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5: 25 – 27)
People do forget that the Church is like hospital for saving the sick.
(1st Timothy 1 : 15- 16 ; Matthew 9 : 12 – 13) How easy it is to focus on the illness and losses, rather than the work of mercy! Our enemy is the “devil,” which means “accuser.” He parades, therefore, the problems so evident in congregations like the one at Corinth of the Bible time.
(3 John 1: 9 – 11; 2nd Timothy 1: 15) Are there problems? Of course! Personalities clash and tensions flare. False teachers and sectarian try to highjack the faith, today’s problems remain basically the same as the old problems. And the very same solution also continues unchanged.
« Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever » (Hebrew 13: 8)
He still saves and transforms sinners.
As “Head over everything for the Church.”
Jesus has the answers to every question. (See 1st Timothy 6: 3 – 10)
People often wonder, “Who, in all today’s confusion, will be saved?
The Lord’s simple but striking answer is that He saves His own body the Church.
(Col. 1: 18 -20)
Over whom is Jesus the Head? (See Ephesians 1: 22 – 23)
In 1st John 2: 3 – 6, what is the basic test John gives for the true Christianity?
Acts 1 : 9 – 11 « After He said this, He was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.” Men of Galilee, “they said,” why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” He sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. From then Acts of Apostles describes the Church as a present reality.
Acts, 5: 11, “Great fear seized the whole Church and all who heard about these events.”
Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Whoever comes to me I will never drive away (John 6: 37)
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16)
We should understand that people are not converted to us, but to Jesus.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. (2nd Corinthians 4:5) Jesus wants us to belong to His Church, which is His family. One enters a family by birth or adoption, not by “joining” it like a club.
When the Lord saves us, He adds us to the body of saved people.
Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5: 25 – 27)
People do forget that the Church is like hospital for saving the sick.
(1st Timothy 1 : 15- 16 ; Matthew 9 : 12 – 13) How easy it is to focus on the illness and losses, rather than the work of mercy! Our enemy is the “devil,” which means “accuser.” He parades, therefore, the problems so evident in congregations like the one at Corinth of the Bible time.
(3 John 1: 9 – 11; 2nd Timothy 1: 15) Are there problems? Of course! Personalities clash and tensions flare. False teachers and sectarian try to highjack the faith, today’s problems remain basically the same as the old problems. And the very same solution also continues unchanged.
« Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever » (Hebrew 13: 8)
He still saves and transforms sinners.
As “Head over everything for the Church.”
Jesus has the answers to every question. (See 1st Timothy 6: 3 – 10)
People often wonder, “Who, in all today’s confusion, will be saved?
The Lord’s simple but striking answer is that He saves His own body the Church.
(Col. 1: 18 -20)
Over whom is Jesus the Head? (See Ephesians 1: 22 – 23)
In 1st John 2: 3 – 6, what is the basic test John gives for the true Christianity?