Major Bible Themes

We're going to talk about the church today and the first thing to talk about is what does the word church mean? I found it kind of interesting that the secular meaning up there, it doesn't refer to people, it refers to a formal meaning of a political assembly. So I thought about calling up my congressman and asking him how church was going. Because that's what it really means in the secular, the Greek word is Ekklesia and what do you think the Ekk part means? So the New Testament meaning has two basic uses.

The church is an organism I've called out one. So let's do this. Boy, you guys got all these. Look, there isn't a single guy in the front two rows with a Bible. So it's actually, I've got many Bibles. But it's the modern day equivalent of Borg Ward. Yeah, I know. I feel totally out of place. I showed up with the iPad and then the next thing you know, iPad City. Do you know that everybody knows the Borg Ward story? I'll have to tell it again.

My first experience as a Christian was at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, because that's where Jack and Winnie went. I didn't know anything about church or where to go and what to do. And it was a pretty big church. And the pastor there, Dean Wolf was his name, was a really good preacher.

But he had this hobby He'd buy these German cars called a Borgwart, and they were ugly little boxy looking things, and he would restore them, and he had like two or three of them. Well, I was only there a few months, but the other elders began to show up with these Borgwarts. So I asked them one day, I said, is the sign of spirituality in this church is that you've got to have a Borgwart? But it's like someone could walk in here now and say the sign of spirituality in this church is that you've got to have an iPad.

Actually I spent the weekend last weekend with Jim McCauley and he's convinced us that we probably ought to get one too. But I remember when Vern Peterman first came here and he would teach from the puppet up there and he used, you know, PowerPoint and stuff. And one of the old, old standing members of our church didn't think that was spiritually proper, that he didn't stand up there with a leather-bound King James in his hand. Somehow it wasn't right. So if the church from, the word church, the called out ones, when I, oh, we're going to look at verses.

You get to look up Ephesians 1.22 and 23 and Hebrews 12.23, Ephesians 5.23 and I'm going to skip over you because you don't have any electronic media.

No, Colossians 1.18.

Hebrews 1.22 and 23, I'm sorry Ephesians 1.22 and 23.

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. The church is his body. It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself. There's a designation there that the church is called the body of Christ. So why wouldn't you say that the church is just like the Elks Club or the fraternity or the Boy Scouts of America? What makes it different? Yeah it is, it's a living body.

Hebrews 12.23 to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Okay. Very interesting point there about the Church of the Firstborn. Who's the Firstborn? Christ. Christ is. And he has a church. And what's the characteristic of that church in that verse?

Is that bad? No. We've been made perfect? No. Location again. Where is it? Heaven. It's really, really, I can't overemphasize enough, that the church is a heavenly organism. It's not an earthly organization. All of us are members of a heavenly organism. And so therefore, as we seek to figure out who we are and what's going on as members of the body of Christ, we need to look to heaven and the heavenlies where Christ is because that's what it is.

Now granted we as members of it here, but it's like this, when Craig went to the Czech Republic, he could assimilate to some degree But the underlying fact was that he wasn't from there. He's not a Czech. He can hang out, live someplace, eat their food, maybe even buy a condo. But he's not from there. He's just sort of passing through. He's a sojourner and a pilgrim. That's what we are. We're not from here. We are not from this earth now because we are members of the body of Christ. Our home where we're from is heaven and we're temporarily here passing through, as Peter says, just passing through. So, when you were in the Czech Republic, how did you find out about what was going on in Denver or in the United States? I didn't. You didn't care? No, I was oblivious of the United States.

That's awesome. It was pretty good. Yeah, that's nice. But I know like when we go We haven't been out of the country in a while, but Hawaii seems like you're out of the country. But you kind of look up and see what's... like Super Bowl Sunday was coming up, so we would look that stuff up.

But the link, the link between you and your home is what? You have two, as best I can understand. You have the Holy Spirit and you have the Word. The Word is the newest from home. Okay? So we're in a living union with Christ, His body. So we're connected to Him in this union with Him. Can you describe to any degree what that union is? Union means oneness. What's true of Him that's true of you? You have a union of life. You share the same life, right? You're positioned in Him, so you have a union of position. We have a union of purpose, destiny. We live under grace. When we study the 34 things that happen to us at the cross, we have a union in inheritance and a union in future and all those kinds of things. The most important part of all of that union is, because we're an organism, and share the same life, it should manifest itself the same way, shouldn't it?

Or not? I took my dog for a walk this morning, right? He's a retriever. I throw the ball. Guess what he does? He retrieves it. And I almost didn't have to teach him. He kind of knew, you know, from the first time I threw the ball. I was down at Courtney's last night. He's got a couple of dogs. They're not retrievers. But they're dogs and you can tell just by the way they act. They have a union of dog life.

So we have a union of life with the Lord Jesus Christ. So what member of the organism are you? And what member of the organism are you? Do you understand what I'm asking? God has designed a specific place for every single one of us in the body of Christ.

And it's different. But we're all members of the same body. And an organism, in order to function correctly, all the little pieces have to operate in union, right? For your body to function right, everything's got to be moving at the same time. If it isn't, then you're considered either sick, or handicapped or something like that, right?

When I lost my finger, that part of me wasn't part of the organism anymore. So I remember laying on the emergency room and I look over at the table and there's my finger sitting on the table. And I thought, I wonder if I could get it to move. I couldn't. I couldn't, you know, because it wasn't attached to me anymore.

Well, we're attached. in that sense to Christ. And he being the head of the body, if he wants the finger to move, he's the one that gives the direction. And we are in harmony with him in the sameness of life. Christ being the head means that all the direction for the functioning of the body of Christ comes from him. And the operating principle that we all live under is grace.

Romans 8.2 is an interesting verse. It says there's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. A new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

That's the principle of life. And the second part of that verse says that has already set me free from the law of sin and death. I lived before I was saved and placed in the body of Christ under the principle of sin and death. It controlled me, I didn't control it. But now, as a member of the church or the body of Christ, there's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That's what I am. That's the organism. Okay?

Ephesians 5.23, Where the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body. Christ is the head of the church, which means that what? He's the dictator. Has Christ ever dictated anything to you? What does he do? He woos you.

But the fact is that he is the head of the body. and thank him for that. It's a good thing you and I aren't ahead, or that we don't, it isn't a committee. Okay, Colossians 118. He is also the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. Awesome. He'll have first place in everything, and that doesn't mean he's the first one that showed up on the scene, although he is the first one that rose from the dead. But he has first position and everything. Now, when did the church start? The day of Pentecost. And so what happened on the day of Pentecost? The Spirit came down and lit these guys up. Right? And what did he do to them? From a positional spiritual standpoint, what did he do with them? What did he do with Peter and James and John and the other 2,997 people? What did he do with them? Where did he put them? He put them into Christ.

That was the day that the body of Christ was born. And so there was all these external symbols and the tongues of fire and the speaking of tongues and all that kind of thing, but spiritually what was going on was the church was being created and those were the first 3,000 people that began the body of Christ. So, how about the thief on the cross, the good one? Or the one they call the good one?

Is he in the body of Christ? He's not, is he? Why not? The train hasn't left the station yet, right? It was pre-Pentecost. I'm trying to think of where this is. I think it's in Acts where Paul runs into these guys in Ephesus or someplace and he asks them if they've received a spirit. And they said, we didn't even know what is a spirit. But they were believers in what John the Baptist taught. Were they in the body of Christ before Paul ran into them? I don't think they were. Because he didn't know what was happening. So what did he do? He baptized them.

So what does baptism show? The physical aspect of the water baptism. What does it really portray? Death, burial, and resurrection, right? So in order to get into the body of Christ, what's the mechanics? What are the spiritual mechanics that have to take place?

That's your side. What happens on the other side? That's where identification comes in. It's so important. In order to get in the body of Christ, you have to first die. You see that? Death means separation. It means you have to be separated from your association and your union with Adam, with sin, with the world, with the legal principle of law, and under the dominion of Satan.

You have to die to all of that from a positional standpoint, and then when you're raised to newness of life, you're in the body of Christ. Now you're alive under God, and if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. So part of the mechanics is the identification process takes place at the moment that you believe.

Those 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost, all of them went through the cross. Every one of them died. Every single believer that's ever been in the body of Christ or found their way in there, got in there through the cross. That's how you get in there.

Because the body of Christ is a new organism in which there dwells no sin. Christ is the head, new source of life, and freedom from all of the things that aren't of Christ, positionally. When does the church cease to function on the earth? The day of the rapture.

So we should be looking around for that last guy, right? Don't you think that the Lord, once that last person is in Christ, how long do you think the Lord is going to wait before he comes, or before he takes us out of here? I don't think so. I think it's bang bang. So, wherever that last guy is.

By the way, speaking of souls, my son, to his credit, brought his girlfriend over last night, or night before last, so we could tell her the gospel. I think we scared her. I think we did. But she seems to have a heart for it and is eager to know. He said, Dad, I exhausted my understanding. She wants to come and talk to you and Mom. So we spent a couple hours with her. It was kind of neat. I think she left, though, a little intimidated. Probably overdid it. You ever drink out of a fire hydrant? Yeah. So, I don't know. So pray for her, name's Helen. When she believes, maybe she's the last one. How cool would that be? If she's the last one, I'll see you on the way.

So the church, the body of Christ leaves the earth at the day of the rapture. and we are joined in the air with those who have already gone to be with the Lord and when we leave the earth, what do you leave behind? What do you leave behind? All your clothes. That's good. What else? Your body goes and is changed between here and there, meet the Lord in the clouds The fleshly nature stays here. I don't know where it goes. Arvada maybe. Commerce City. And when we meet the Lord in the air, we'll be just like him.

The reason I make that point is, we're going to look at the local organization, but we're going to try to make sure that we are clear on the fact that the nation of Israel is not the church, and the church is not Israel. If you've been exposed to any sort of reformed or covenant theology, that's one of their basic tenets, that the church is just a continuation of Israel. That's not true, because they don't have any of the blessings that we have and certainly don't have the position and the union and it's not an organism.

So the local church, 1 Corinthians 16, 19, Colossians 4.15. Can you still see? I can see. Oh, awesome.

1 Corinthians 4.17. Debbie?

1 Corinthians 4.17. Yeah.

And we'll do Galatians 1.2. Okay.

1 Corinthians 16.19. the churches of Asia greet you, Akia, and wish I'd greet you heartily in the Lord in the church that is in their house. Okay, from a local church, local organization, back in 65 AD, there was the First Baptist Church of Corinth.

No, where did they meet? In people's houses, right? which meant that the churches, the local gathering of believers probably weren't that big a group. If you study Romans chapter 16, Paul goes through a whole bunch of names there and half of those, maybe even more, I think are all local churches in Rome because he names all these people and half of them he says that the church at so-and-so's house and the church at so-and-so's. Now what we do today is that we have Bible studies which in those days I think would have been the gathering of the church because they didn't have, it wasn't until after, I don't know, 200 AD or something when they began to buy buildings or build locations where more than a handful of believers could go. They only had iPad 101, right? Yeah, they had iPad 101. So, how many people does it take to form a church?

Colossians 4.15 Salute the brother which are in Laodicea and the church which is in his house.

See there's lots of references you can see where churches are in people's homes and so they came together and gathered together and they did all the functions of a church in a house. I remember when I first started coming to Holly Hills years ago, and this was after Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, and after a couple of years in a mission which I loved. I came here and it was, you know, small, kind of like it is today.

And I had met Miles Stanford and I was spending as much time with him as he would allow. And I said, how big should a church be? He said, about 35. I said, why? He said, well, if you think about it, if you have some gifted teachers and deacons and 35 people, that's about where an organism can function like it's supposed to.

As it gets bigger, people slip through the cracks. And I must tell you, being an elder in this church where there's three of us, there's stuff that slips through the cracks because we don't have time. or we don't know about it, or we don't hear about it, or something happens. And it's like my son went out to Imperial, Nebraska and said, Dad, it's just the coolest place because it looks like everybody knows what everybody else is doing.

Do you think the body of Christ is supposed to function like that? I think it is. Because if you're abiding in Christ, what have you got to hide? We pray for each other, we lift each other up, we come alongside, we share, we do all, you know. He said 35 he thought was the ideal number. I'm not sure you could support a church with 35 people today. Unless I can move in your basement. You could in-house. What's that? You could in-house. Yeah, good. 1 Corinthians 4, 17.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ. just as I teach everywhere in every church. Okay, so when Paul was going to different towns and there were churches there, he wasn't going down to the first congregational church at first in Broadway. He was going to people's homes, that's what he was doing. Galatians 1-2. Okay, all the brothers and sisters Here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia. OK. Lots and lots of churches.

Like he instructed his letters and some of his letters to be read at different towns. And we have it in our mind. Well, he went to town and there was a big church and everybody gathered. And so he talked. No, he went from. So I think that the original structure of the church was just small groups. It's the way it functioned.

Now, timeline. Let's take a look at this up here. Here is creation, incarnation of Christ, Ascension, Pentecost, and the Rapture. Now look what happens. In the Old Testament, you scholars, have you ever found any information in the Old Testament about the church? as we know it, you know, an organism, the body of Christ, no, it's not there. So when you engage in a discussion with someone who says that the church is just an extension of Israel, you have to start to distinguish things right there, right there, because the promises made to Israel and the facts of the truth of our position in Christ to the church are different, are different.

Then at the Incarnation here Christ comes on the scene and he has a ministry here and in Matthew 16.18, let's Matthew, Bruce, Matthew 16.18. Isn't this great how fast he looks stuff up?

16.18. I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. The Lord Jesus is saying to Peter, you're Peter and upon this rock, meaning himself, he's going to build his called out one. First mention. I think Peter understood what he was talking about. This is before Pentecost.

Do you think he understood? I don't think he did. I don't think he had a clue. Now if you come out of Catholicism like I did and Bruce did, guess what they use that verse for? Peter is the head of the church. He's the Pope. And if they just took a 15 second grammar lesson with some, you know, what do pronouns mean, they would have that all figured out. but they don't want to have it figured out.

So, and right here, does everybody, you see this symbol of the cross and this part of it and that part of it, it seems to be a Hal Malloy and Ron Merriman kind of a thing. You know what that symbol means? Death, burial and resurrection. That's right. So, death, burial and resurrection. And so that, and then Christ ascends into the heavenlies and then Forty days later, the church begins. Now there's a transitional period right here. What's the transitional period about? Acts 19, 1-7, we don't have to go there. What's the transitional period about?

When the Lord Jesus stood, right before he went up into heaven, do you remember what he said to the disciples? Wait for the Holy Spirit. Wait, that's right. What's the next thing he said? I want you to proclaim me, and here's where it went. Jerusalem, Samaria, and the rest of the world. Start here, go here, and go here. That's the transition period, where the information went to the Jewish nation first.

And then you got this guy Cornelius, that Peter shows up one day, and you talk about a surprise guy. There's what we could refer to as a Gentile Pentecost where the Spirit of God came down with the tongues of fire on these Gentiles. And notice that even with Peter there had to be kind of a sign. And he goes back and gathers the rest of the apostles together and he says, guess what guys? God intends to save the Gentiles. And they said, nah. He said, let me tell you what happened.

Remember when we On Pentecost, when I was over at Cornelius' house, these guys are all Gentiles, same thing happened. Big surprise to Jews. Big surprise. So there's a transition period from Jews only to the whole world. What's the reason given by Paul that the Gospel went to the Gentiles? Remember? Because the Jews rejected it. I'm glad they didn't.

So, Christ is building his church, Acts 2 and Ephesians 4, and the Holy Spirit is ministering. He is the one who's forming the church, because he's the one that baptizes believers into Christ. Do you see that? He's the one who's forming the church, and he's also the one that is conforming believers to the image of Christ.

So there's a great dependence by us on him to what he's accomplishing. Then you get to the rapture right here. We don't know how many years this is. So far it's been about 2,000 years, maybe 1,900 and some years. I'm hoping that we're getting really close to the end. Two events are going to happen. Christ is going to come for his saints and maybe we ought to look at that.

1 Thessalonians 4.13-18. He's going to come for his saints and we're going to go meet him in the air.

1 Thessalonians 4.13-18. And Tristan, would you look up Ephesians 5, 27? 14 through 18? Yeah, please. 13 through 18. 13?

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you who will grieve, so that you will not grieve as do the rest. him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not proceed with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words. Okay, big problem in the scene.

Thessalonica. Believers were wondering, well, gee, if the Lord comes while we're still alive, how about those people that died before he comes? I'm worried about Aunt Josie, you know? She died a couple of weeks ago, and if the Lord comes, she's going to miss the train. Well, he's explaining to them, look, the Lord will come in the clouds, And we'll all go. Those who are, he uses the term, asleep, in the Lord, go first, and then we second.

It's going to take, what, a couple of months to get that done? It's going to be bang. It's going to be over. So he's comforting them by explaining to them, here's how the rapture is going to be. So you don't have to worry about your relatives and people within the body that you know that may have gone to be with the Lord before now. Don't worry about it. They're going to be there. As a matter of fact, they're going to show up before you do. But, you know, it's like, one-two.

So, as far as earlier you were saying that, deep on the cross to Gideon, he's not part of the body of Christ. What about him? Yeah, what about him? What was said about him is, today he will be with me in paradise. Is that Elitch's? He's like Abraham. Yeah, he's in Abraham's bosom. Well, actually, I don't know if he was a Jew or not. More than likely he was. Is he a saint? Is he saved? Absolutely he is. Where will he spend all eternity? Paradise. Yeah, paradise.

But the body of Christ had not been formed yet. See, that's one of the reasons why we're going to spend three or four weeks on the body of Christ, because one of the things that will expand on Well, in the endgame, what is the body of Christ? Are we just, you know, like all the Democrats on this side and the Republicans on that side and we're all the same? No, no, no. Our position as members of the body of Christ is infinitely superior to all other persons on the earth. Jews and Gentiles and the church.

I know I didn't give you an exhaustive answer, but he's because of the timeline he's not in the body of Christ. Now it doesn't mean he's got shortchanged. Would that be from the fact that in 1 Thessalonians it does say the dead in Christ. That's right. Which implies church age. Yeah, and it's interesting because that little phrase in Christ whether you're alive on this planet or not, never changes. You're in Christ. A guy sent me an email last week. I never thought of this before. This is a guy that I, sometimes you correspond with people you have no idea how this, this guy's a missionary in Mindanao.

So this little blurb said, he said, did you ever think about the fact that even secular books in the world never talk about Christ in the past tense? Never. You will not see writing about Christ is dead. Even people who aren't believers refer to him as in the present tense. They take the Lord's name in vain. They think in vain that he died and now I'm going to cuss. The discussions are always about him now. What about him now?

Anyway, Ephesians 5.27.

That he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Awesome thing. When we're raptured, we go to this thing called the Bema. belabor what the beam is, but right after that, what does he do? He presents the church to himself spotless. Spotless. Perfect, just like him. That's really cool. That's really cool. And then this little thing called the Wedding Feast of the Lamb takes place.

The church is never revealed in the Old Testament. The church was first foretold by Christ, and we covered that verse. He said it would start after his earthly ministry, Acts 1-4. The church started the day of Pentecost. The church increased numerically via the gospel, the good news. Christ is the founder and the foundation of the church. Okay.

You want to talk about ultra-dispensationalism? You have any idea what that term means? There are those within the body of Christ that teach that the church didn't start in Acts 2, which is where Pentecost was. And the reason they say that is that, well, you really didn't get the doctrine of the church until Paul came along. So the church couldn't have started without Paul being on the scene giving the correct doctrine about the church. What's the problem with that? Christ doesn't need Paul. Well the answer to that is like in Genesis, Moses wrote long after Adam was created. That's right. As we've already discovered, who creates the body of Christ? It's the Holy Spirit, right?

Does he need Paul to do that? No, he doesn't. Do you have to be theologically really well informed? after the day of Pentecost in order to get in we have a quiz like if you want to be an elder around here you have to answer 75 questions and if you get more than two wrong... Do you have to be really smart theologically to be in the body of Christ? No you don't. You believe the gospel. Now the Apostle Paul obviously a lot of the mysteries of the church God used Paul to reveal them.

That doesn't mean he's the head. Now what they say is, is that from the time of Pentecost to the time of Paul coming on the scene, there's this other group of Christians, or faux-Christians, or I don't know what they are, you know. Yeah, that they're, I don't know, that they're, it's a gang of 5,000. Who is it? I don't know.

And, uh, So, Acts 9, some say Acts 13, and most of these people will, some will observe the Lord's Table but they won't do water baptism because they think water baptism is a Jewish function. The extremes in Acts 28, no observance of the Lord's Table or what. Paul taught that the church started at Pentecost. He taught that. And he believed in Acts 9 and persecuted the church prior. Paul says, before I was saved, I persecuted the church.

Which meant, oh gee, those guys must have been hanging out before I got in. At least at this point in time, we don't have a lot of trouble with ultra-dispensationalists. What did I do? Was that slide four? Yeah. So that's it. Now, I had already I had also planned to go and start on the next slide, which is which I can't find now. I know why it isn't working. That's right.

But next week it's a little bit more comprehensive and we'll stay on the church for the next three or four weeks. It's important that every one of us as believers understand who we are, where we are, and what we have. And the church is unique in all of history.

There are three people groups mentioned in the Word of God. You know who they are? Gentiles, Israel, and the Church. That's right, Gentiles, Israel, and the Church. Those are the only three people groups. It's interesting that he doesn't divide humanity up into Americans and Europeans, you know. Or it's Gentiles, he starts with the Gentiles, right? Everybody is a Gentile until Abraham. And then Abraham, he makes a bunch of promises, places a bunch of promises in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And with Jacob he forms his 12 sons, he forms the nation of Israel, the 12 tribes. But then at Pentecost we start another entity.

What did he do with the church at that, or with the Jews at that point? He respected their rejection. And so what did he say? You know all the promises I made to you? Never mind, you guys upset me so much that I'm going to renege. No, he set them aside and when the rapture happens the focus on the earth will go back on to Israel. So the three people groups are the ones that are in play. for all eternity. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for the body of your Son and the Church and that we are members of it and as we go forward we are to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus which includes information and understanding of what the Church is and what it means to be in the Church. Father, we thank you and we pray in your Son's name. Amen.