Beth-El Baptist Church

01/15/2012

Greg Tomlinson


What is the church?


Ask any number of people about what they think the church is you will get several answers. They may think of the church as a building or the assembling of Christian people, or the Christian people themselves. The scriptures will give us God's view of the church.


  1. What does the word “church” mean?

Acts 7:37-39; 11:25-26; 14:26-27 1 Corinthians 11:18; 12:27-30

Ephesians 1:22-23


The word “church” is generally translated from the Greek word “ekklesia” which means assembly or congregation. It is the gathering of a group of citizens together into a public place for a specific purpose. It is generally used today to indicate the assembly of Christians together. The term church can also be a reference to the assembly location for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ. The church is also the full body of Jesus Christ that is built up by and for Jesus Christ.


  1. What makes the church unique?

Matthew 16:17-19 Acts 2:46-47; 5:9-13; 8:1-4; 12:1-3

Romans 16:5, 16 1 Corinthians 1:2; 6:3-4; 12:27-30

Ephesians 5:23-27, 31-32 Colossians 1:18, 24


The most unique thing about the church is that it was specifically created by Jesus Christ. Largely because its found is Jesus Christ (God in flesh) and is His divinely appointed representative on earth before all man kind, it has throughout the ages encountered persecution for its stand and promotion of the issue of holiness and righteousness. It has publicly demonstrated its divine origin through the execution of great power. In the beginning, the church was based upon a home church model in which Christians would gather together in another person's home. The use of the plural “churches” further indicates that the church is also a plural entity. The intention is that though there is a plurality of gatherings, each gathering is to be a continual reflection of the person and work of Jesus Christ and thus a distributed representation of Jesus Christ.


  1. What is the purpose of the church?

Matthew 28:19-20 Acts 11:20-23; 12:5; 13:1-3; 15:19-22; 20:27-31

1 Corinthians 14:3-5 Ephesians 3:8-12

James 5:14-16 1 Timothy 3:15-16

2 Corinthians 5:19-20


One of the great purposes of the church is to be witnesses of Jesus Christ and His work. Because we are to be His witnesses, we are called ambassadors and we are to do what Christ did and would do. This includes times of specifically focusing on prayer, sending out missionaries, explaining and encouraging others to live in obedience to Christ, to proclaim ALL the counsel of God (Old Testament as well as New Testament, the agreeable and the disagreeable), and to buildup and encourage all who call themselves by the name of God and Christ. The church is to maintain its role as the “pillar and ground of the truth”. That is why the scriptures are expected to be so important. The scriptures are the very words of God and they are by nature the truth of God. Since man is severely broken, he is incapable of coming to grips with the truth by his own power so he must learn to rely on and trust in God, not another man, to teach him the truth. This teaching of the truth is actually the work of the Holy Spirit of God.


  1. How can you recognize the church of Jesus Christ?

John 13:35 Matthew 18:15-17; 28:19-20

1 Corinthians 14:32-33, 34-35


Some ways to recognize the church is to see the presence of the Love of Jesus Christ in their midst. Love of another does NOT mean encouraging others in whatever the individual believes to be true, important, or honorable. Instead it means to love them enough to tell them the truth, even if it hurts. Part of communicating the truth to another is found in church discipline. When a brother is living in error, the loving and kind thing to do is to expose and explain to the brother the reality of their sin so that he may learn to depart from it. The church should also be marked by evangelism and discipleship training. In order to protect itself from destruction from without and from within, the church needs to maintain all that it does and believes to be in accordance with the scriptures. Confusion, by everyone deciding for themselves what is right and what is wrong, is to be stopped and adherence to the scriptures is to be encouraged and exalted.