The Church

Conclusions

1. The church of Jesus is rooted in the Jewish tradition.
• Jesus came to fulfill the law, i.e. Israel’s religious system (Matthew 5:17)
• Jesus empowered two or three with His presence (undoing the power of titles & policies) while also instructing that the church (ecclesia) be involved in the process of disciplining sinners within His body
• James later uses the same term as synagogue (qahal) when referring to the Christian church

2. The church is built upon Jesus as the cornerstone. What ‘upon this rock’ means:
• Jesus is the rock:
• The church will be built upon Jesus Himself; He sets the direction and boundaries by which everything is aligned
• Peter’s act of believing builds the rock:
• The church grows every time a person, like Peter, believes and confesses that the man Jesus is God’s beloved son, sent to be our Savior
• Jesus invites us, like Peter, to join Him in the work of building His (Jesus’) church:
• Peter as first among those to believe, along with all believers that have followed, we have a part in the co-mission to build Jesus’ church

3. The church has a universal identity and a local address -the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:22)
• Also 1 Corinthians 1:2:
• To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those csanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place ecall upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
4. The church meets together for teaching and learning. (Acts 11:27)
5. Jesus should be so central to what we’re about that we earn the nick name Christians
6. The language of scripture implies an organized congregation assembled in Jesus’ name
7. ‘Those who believed’ are first called the church when fear (of God?) overcame them after seeing Ananias & Sapphira be punished for their sin of lying about how much they’d given
8. The church should be something people belonged to even at great cost (Acts 12:1)
9. The church prays earnestly to God, interceding on behalf of those they love & respect
10. There should be in the church prophets and teachers
11. Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel, made many disciples, strengthened them, encouraged them to remain in the faith and appointed elders for every local church in the region
12. Elders are to pay careful attention to themselves and the church in which the Holy Spirit made them overseers, to care for the church which he obtained with his own blood, specifically to guard against wolves that would hurt the flock (Acts 20:28)
13. Women like Phoebe were commendable servants in the church
14. Priscilla and her husband Aquila housed a church in their own home and risked their life for the gospel (Romans 16:5)
15. Christians have no business judging those who are outside the church, but they have the duty to judge and purge evil within the church. (1 Corinthians 5:12)
16. Those within the church have sufficient wisdom and authority to judge a matter. It is their responsibility to take decisive actions to maintain order and peace in the body. (1 Cor 6:4)
17. The church comes together and should do so free of divisions (1 Cor 11:18)
18. People are individually members of Christ’s body (1 Cor 12:27)
19. God has appointed in the church 1) apostles 2) prophets 3) teachers 4) miracles, then gifts of 5) healing 6) helping 7) administration 8) tongues (1 Cor 12:28)