The Church That Jesus Built Jesus promised that He would build His church. The statement made by Jesus in this passage is a response to the great confession Peter had just made. He had said to Jesus, “ thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was upon this great truth that Jesus said He would build His church. He did not tell Peter that He would build the church on him, but on that great confession. Jesus went on to tell Peter and the other apostles that He would give them the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. What did Jesus mean by that? He explained it when He told the apostles that they would speak those things that were bound in Heaven, and those things would be bound on earth. This demonstrates that the kingdom of Heaven would come in the lifetime of the apostles because they would have the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. Indeed, they used those keys on the day that the kingdom of Heaven, the church, was established. These keys opened the door of the church to all who would respond to the invitation to come. The doors of His church are still open to all who will come. The promise of Jesus was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The wonderful events that are recorded in Acts 2 bring hope to a lost and dying world. The promise of Jesus was fulfilled. He did what He said He would do. He built His church on that great bedrock of truth that He is indeed the Christ and He is Lord. Peter and the other apostles used those keys that Jesus had given them to unlock the doors of His church and bring salvation to those who would enter those doors. Listen to Peter as he says concerning Jesus: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” (Acts 2: 33) Peter proclaims that Jesus has been raised from the dead and exalted at the right hand of God. He then states that what is happening is being done by Jesus through the Holy Ghost. Jesus has kept His promise. He has built His church. Dear Reader, how many churches did Jesus say he would establish? How many churches did He establish? The answer can only be “one.” That same church still exists. Remember He said, “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” The church that Jesus built does not consist of many different “denominations”, or “faiths.” Although there is a plea in today’s religious world for “unity in diversity” one can plainly see from the above scripture (and others) that the church that Jesus built is to have no divisions, no diversity of doctrines. We should “speak the same thing” and be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement.” Jesus prayed to the Father “that they may be one.” He said that the unity of His disciples would show the world that God had sent Him. (John 17: 20-23) Did Jesus mean by this that all “churches’ should agree to disagree and share a fellowship even though they do not “speak the same thing”? Certainly not, for to do so would be to contradict scripture. He prayed that we all may truly be one. How? By believing and speaking the same thing, and having the same mind and judgement. The church that Jesus built must be united in doctrine and practice. Conventions, associations, councils, synods, and creeds must be discarded. God’s Word must be upheld as the only standard of authority. The church that Jesus built is founded on God’s Word. In that same prayer in John 17 Jesus said that His followers would be sanctified (set apart) by the truth of God’s Word. This makes it quite simple to recognize the church that Jesus built. All one has to do is compare that church to the Bible and see if it is the same as the church in the Bible in doctrine, practice, worship, constitution, and name. Since Jesus built His church 2,000 years ago men have created a lot of churches and made the claim that they are the church that Jesus built. Most claim that their church is a part of the “universal church” that is the church that Jesus built. These are called denominations because they are said to be a part of a greater whole, much like a dime is a denomination of a dollar. It is true that a dollar can be divided into denominations of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, but that is not the nature of our Lord’s church: Jesus built only one church. The Bible says that the church that Jesus built is one, with one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one Lord. Jesus is the only head of the church which is His body (Col. 1:18). The church that Jesus built recognizes only Jesus as its founder and head. No man can be so exalted. Any church that has a man as it founder or leader cannot be the church that Jesus built. Have you seen the church that Jesus built? Please visit the church of Christ in your area.
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