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What We Believe and Why
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

WHAT A CHURCH IS AND WHEN IT WAS FOUNDED
MATTHEW 16:18

When we speak here of the church, we speak of the Lord's church. We realize there are many churches, but not all are the Lord's. We believe the Lord established a particular kind of institution which is called His church.

I. The new testament defines what the Lord's church is:

A. The word "church" is translated from the Greek word ecclesia:

1 . The literal meaning of the word is "assembly."

2. Ecclesia stems from two words:

a. ek meaning "out of".

b. kaleo meaning "to call."

3 . Thus, we can say the word ecclesia refers to "an assembly of called out ones," or literally a particular group.

B. The word ecclesia refers to three different types Of groups in the new testament:

1. In Acts 19:32, 39,41 it refers to the self-governing Greek state.

2. In Acts 7:38 it is used to refer to the old testament people of Israel.

3. In Mt. 16:18 and many other places, it refers to the Lord's church; "My church."

C. Of 115 definite uses of ecclesia in the King James version of the Bible, 111 of them refer to My (the Lord's) ecclesia, or some aspect of the church of Christ.

D. Each of these uses refers to one of two aspects of the Lord's church:

1. The general assembly in glory:

a. This will consist of all the members of the Lord's church in a glorious heavenly assembly.

b. The church in this sense does not now exist, except in prospect; in the future in God's great plan.

2. The particular assembly:

a. The church today exists only in this sense.

b. The word employed in this sense simply refers to alocal group of baptized believers in common assembly.

c. The word ecclesia is used 92 times in the new testament in this common, ordinary sense.

E. The word ecclesia referring to an earthly, particular assembly of Christ's, in existence now, is used in two ways:

1. In a concrete sense:

a. I Cor. 1:2 "The church of God which is at Corinth. "

b. Acts 13:1 "The church that was at Antioch."

c. Rev. 2:1 "The church of Ephesus."

2. In an abstract sense:

a. Eph. 3:10, 21 uses the word in an abstract way.

b. Mt. 16:18 and Mt. 18:17 both use church in the abstract.

C. These scriptures can only be applied in a concrete or particular way. The "church" is referred to in the abstract so the truth may be understood as equally applicable to all churches.

d. Eph. 5:23 says, "The husband is the head of the wife." Here the nouns "husband" and "wife" are used in the abstract and everyone understands this is the relation which should exist between every particular husband and wife. Thus is illustrated the abstract use of the word church.

F. So an understanding of the word church as used in the Bible will show that the Lord's church is not just any kind of group; but a particular kind of group:

1. Though this message is not designed to do so, other messages in this series will show that this particular kind of group bears distinctive, identifying earmarks.

2. Among those earmarks is the fact that those within the group are baptized believers, and the group preaches salvation by grace through faith.

II. While He was bodily on this earth, the Lord established His church:

A. There is wide, but erroneous, belief that the church was established and begun on the day of Pentecost:

B. The Bible teaches that Christ organized, while on earth, His church, and it was already in existence before the day of Pentecost referred to in Acts 2 ever arrived:

1. John the Baptist prepared the material for the Lord's church:

a. John was not the founder. (Jn. 1:6-8), but a witness for Christ (Jn. 1:26-34).

b. Mt. 3:3, Lk. 1:17 His purpose was to prepare the materials for Christ.

2. Jesus Christ organized and continues to build up the church:

a. He said in Mt. 16:18 "I will build my church," and the word build means to edify or build up.

b. Jesus took of His own disciples, those who had been baptized of John to put into His church, Acts 1:22, Jn. 4:1-2.

C. The first ones He put into His church were the apostles, I Cor. 12:28.

3. This organizing of the church had to occur before Pentecost since He ascended to Heaven before that day, (Acts 1:9-14):

a. Long before Pentecost, He had a large group of disciples, Jn. 1:33-51.

b. He chose the twelve apostles long before Pentecost, and they were organized too and had a treasurer, Lk. 6:12-16 and Mk. 3:13-19.

C. While on earth, He taught and trained them for 3 years, Mt. 5, 6, 7,; Lk. 24:27.

d. He sent out at least 70 to work in Mt. 10:1-16. See Lk. 10:1.

e. While on earth He instituted the Lord's Supper (Lk. 22:19-20) and Mk. 14:22-25) which all denominations agree is a church ordinance and this was prior to Pentecost.

f. He gave the great commission before Pentecost, Mt. 28:18-20.

g. The church assembled together (Acts 1:4), received other commandments (Acts 1:8), saw Him ascend (Acts 1:11), continued in prayer (Acts 1:14), and there were about 120 of them (Acts 1:15) all before Pentecost.

h. Before Pentecost, they conducted a business meeting too, Acts 1:15-26.

4. Other facts also show that the church was organized before and not on Pentecost:

a. Jesus said, "I will build my church" Mt. 16:18 and Acts 2:1-4 shows that the Holy Spirit "filled" it. How could the Spirit fill that which didn't yet exist?

b. It was already organized in Mt. 18:17, else how could Christ have told (tell) something to a church which didn't exist?

C. Acts 2:41 shows that on the day of Pentecost, about 3000 were "added to" the church. It would have been impossible to add to what didn't already exist.

5. We believe that Christ did organize His church while He was on the earth; and it was not organized by Peter or any other man.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"