Transcript

A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted island in the Pacific for years.

One day a boat came sailing into view, and the man frantically waved and got the skipper’s attention. The boat landed on the beach, and the skipper got out to greet the stranded man.

After a while the rescuing sailor who noticed three huts on the island, asked the castaway, “What are those three huts you’ve built?” The formerly stranded man replied, “That first hut is my house.”

“What’s the next hut?” asked the sailor. “I built that for my church.” “What about the third hut?” asked the sailor. “Oh,” the castaway answered matter-of-factly, “that’s where I used to go to church.”

In the episode, we’re going to be talking about multiple churches in the Scriptures. The reason we need to, is because there is more than one church spoken of in your Bibles.

Acts 7:35-38 reads, “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

“He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

“This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.”

Much confusion exists today about the biblical word “church.” Without understanding the term in light of Scripture, many people conclude this word refers to a building for worship.

The Bible teaches the church is not a building, but that believers themselves are the church.

Others assume that anytime they find the word “church” in Scripture, it refers to them or truth about them; but this is not true either. And this conclusion can lead to many practical and doctrinal errors.

First, we need to establish the fact about the word “church” in the Bible, that every time we find the word “church” it does not always mean the same thing, and it doesn’t always refer to the same group of people. As it is with many biblical words, it is critical to look at the context in which they are used to understand their meaning and which group is intended.

The Bible refers to several different churches. First, in Acts 7, we find a reference to a church, but it’s not the Church, the Body of Christ. It is a different church.

Acts 7 speaks of “the church in the wilderness” referring back to the days of the books of Exodus and Numbers in your Bible.

So we see here that God had a “Church” long before Christ said, “on this rock I will build My Church” in Matthew 16:16-18. But who is this church here in Acts 7?

We see it explained here by Stephen in his discourse before the religious leaders in Israel how the people of Israel initially “refused” the leadership of Moses (v. 35), but later accepted him and followed him out of Egypt “after that he shewed wonders and signs” (v. 36), and then to Moses God gave the “lively oracles” on Mount Sinai “to give unto us,” which is Israel (v. 41).

Here the word “church” is referring to the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt.

And what we see here is that there was a “church,” in the past in the wilderness which had laws, requirements, and instruction specifically for them. They also had a place to worship at the tabernacle, and they had Moses as their leader. This Church was Israel.

When we read about this “church” in the O.T., it does not refer to us. This is not the church of this dispensation. That was a different church, a different group of people.

The word “church” is the Greek word “ekklesia,” and it simply means “called out,” or “called-out group,” or “a called-out assembly.” It is a general term and can be used to describe any group of people, from an angry mob to a group of saints gathered for worship.

Acts 19:32 says this, “Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.”

The word “assembly” in that verse is the Greek word “ekklesia,” which is usually translated “church.” But, of course, this was not referring to a church in the sense that we think of a church.

This called-out group was referring to an angry, riotous mob of people who came apart, assembled together for the purpose of trying to do away with Paul at Ephesus.

But it’s been rightly said, “Unfortunately this verse is probably a better definition of most churches than any verse we can find: ‘Some…cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not [why] they were come together.’”

So the Greek word for “church” is a very general term that can refer to both an unruly mob of unbelievers such as was at Ephesus or to a group of believers.

The context will always govern which “church” is being spoken of. Israel was a Church, a called-out group. They were called out of Egypt, they were called out of the world to be a special people unto God. We, today, are a called-out, special group of people.

We are called out, not as a special, chosen nation as Israel was, but instead we’re called out to be a part of the Church, the Body of Christ.

So we too, are a church, but we are not Israel. Israel was a church but they weren’t the Body of Christ. These must keep these separate.

In doing this, this clarifies many misunderstandings about God’s instructions for Israel under the law, and God’s instructions for the Body of Christ under grace. When we rightly divide between these two, the Bible becomes more clearly understood.

Therefore, we need to be careful NOT to indiscriminately apply to ourselves the instructions or promises that God gave to a different church, i.e., which God gave to Israel.

Matthew 16:13-19 reads, “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

“And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In Matthew 16, we find another reference to a church. But again this is not the Church, the Body of Christ. Instead, it refers to the Church of the coming Kingdom on the earth.

Notice in verse 18, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” So we should immediately ask: What church? And then as we read in its context in the next verse we read: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

The Kingdom of Heaven does not refer to Heaven in heaven above, but to the Kingdom that will come from heaven to the earth at Christ’s Second Coming to Israel. Christ will establish a kingdom of heaven on earth, in which He will rule and reign as King over all the earth. So the church the Lord is talking about here is the earthly Kingdom Church.

Throughout the Gospel accounts, the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples went everywhere “preaching the gospel of the Kingdom” promising that “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17; 10:7).

In this overall context, the Lord Jesus asked His disciples who people were saying He was. They said that some were saying He was John the Baptist, others were saying Elijah, some said the prophet Jeremiah, other said He was one of the prophets.

The Lord then asked them point blank: But who do you say that I am?

Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Our Lord’s response was that He would build His church, not on Peter, but on Peter’s confession, that Jesus was Israel’s long-promised Messiah-King, the very Son of God.

The earthly Kingdom church was built on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ told Peter, “thou art Peter,” the Greek word petros, meaning little rock or piece of a rock, “and upon this rock,” the Greek word petra, meaning a large rock or rock mass, “I will build my church.” The large, massive rock was the truth of Christ and who He is as Messiah and God.

By believing that the Lord Jesus Christ was Israel’s promised Messiah and King and the Son of God, those who chose to believe this message were being called out as the Church at that time. And that Church was to go into the earthly millennial Kingdom.

And to this Church Christ said in Luke 12:“Seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms” (Luke 12:31-33).

The “little flock” Christ was speaking to was the seedling, the beginning of the Kingdom Church. These were the charter members of this Church. And Christ gave instruction to that Church in His earthly ministry.

The Lord told those of His day how, if a sinning brother could not be reasoned with, they should, “tell it unto the Church” (Matt. 18:17), the little flock Kingdom church that already existed of those who had repented, been water baptized, believed in Christ.

At Pentecost “there were added…about three thousand souls” and “the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:41,47). There was already a Church in existence on the Day of Pentecost.

It was the Kingdom Church, the “little flock,” and at Pentecost that Church was added unto, by 3 thousand, and it was growing. And those at Pentecost did what the Lord told the “little flock” Church to do in Luke 12:33, to sell all that they had.

Acts 2:45 says after they believed in Christ, repented, and were water baptized, they “sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”

That Kingdom Church is to go into the Tribulation, and then into the Millennial Kingdom.

And in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, gave Israel instruction for the Tribulation and their Kingdom in His earthly ministry, and for how that Church was to live, serve and operate during those times.

Instruction such as the need to forgive others in order to be forgiven. Because in the Tribulation, as a result of the Anti-Christ’s hatred, believers in Christ will be persecuted and forgiveness will be needed and will be required of them for their sins to be forgiven.

Christ told His church of the need to “take no thought for the morrow” or about providing for their daily needs, but to trust God to supernaturally provide for them. Christ will do this in the Tribulation when they are unable to buy and sell without the mark of the beast.

Christ told them of the need to forsake father, mother, brother, sister, spouses, because if they take the Mark of the Beast, they’ll have to forsake them and follow the Lord so they are not tempted to take the Mark as well.

Christ spoke of the mysteries of the kingdom, and things about the kingdom on earth, God had never said before until Christ revealed it to them.

In the Gospels, Christ gave instruction meant for Israel and the Kingdom Church, and not meant for the Church, the Body of Christ. Our eternal hope and instructions about how to live, serve and operate today are distinctly different from that Kingdom church.

Today we forgive others, because we already are forgiven. We do not forgive others to be forgiven.

Today, we need to take thought about providing for our daily needs and work to provide for them or we’ll be hungry, thirsty, homeless and cold. Today, we are not to forsake family, but care for them, and meet their needs, and be there for each other always. Paul says that we’re worse than an infidel if we do not provide for our own (1 Tim. 5:8).

Today, we don’t live by the mysteries of the earthly kingdom, but by the revelation of the Mystery committed to Paul which reveals the heavenly hope and walk for the Body of Christ today.

Instruction for how to live through the Tribulation does not pertain to us, because we won’t be here during the Tribulation. We are delivered from the wrath to come and have the hope of the pre-Tribulational Rapture of the Body of Christ.

After Israel rejected the ministry of the Holy Spirit in early Acts, God temporarily set her aside in her unbelief, and has delayed His kingdom and brought in the dispensation of the grace of God.

God will have a “called-out” group of people, a Church, after this present dispensation has been brought to an end, after the Rapture, an earthly Kingdom Church. And God is going to pick up where He left off with Israel’s program.

And there will be a Kingdom church reestablished of believing Kingdom saints that exists during the Tribulation and Millennial Kingdom when Christ comes as King to reign over the people of Israel and over the people of the whole world.

We see this also by the seven churches at the beginning of Revelation, which are seven local assemblies in Asia that are a part of the greater Kingdom Church.

And the Kingdom Church in that day will turn to the Gospels, and they will turn to the books of Hebrews-Revelation for their instruction for how to live during those times.

Therefore, when reading these sections of the Bible, we must NOT indiscriminately apply instructions or promises to ourselves that were intended specifically for a different Church, the Kingdom church, and a different time, and not for us today.

We must carefully distinguish between the Churches mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament you find a Church, “a church in the wilderness,” the nation Israel, which is different from the Church of today.

In the Gospels you find a Church, a Kingdom Church, which is different from today. And then in Paul’s epistles you find a Church, a Church which is for today.

Colossians 1:24-26 reads, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.”

In Colossians 1, we have another reference to a church. Here the Apostle Paul refers to a new called-out group of believers for today, the Church, the Body of Christ.

This Church began with Paul, and not before, and this is clear from the fact that the term and title “Body of Christ” is not mentioned anywhere in the Scriptures until we come to the writings of Paul. No other writer of Scripture mentions it, only Paul speaks of the Church, the Body of Christ, and it is the great subject of his epistles.

“The Body of Christ,” the Church under grace, was God’s own unrevealed secret, “hid from ages and from generations,” kept secret since the world began, until He revealed it solely to the Apostle Paul. And Paul was its first member.

Paul calls it the “one new man” in Eph. 2:15,16, of Jew and Gentile in one Body.

Ephesians 2:15-16 says, “…for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.”

The word “new” there means “previously unheard of, unlike anything existing before.”

And so it is with the Church of today, the Body of Christ. It was totally unheard of, never mentioned before anywhere in God’s Word. Only Paul reveals it.

And only Paul reveals it, because Christ revealed it to Paul alone in giving him the revelation of the Mystery, which had been kept secret since the world began.

The “one new man” is made of up of new men & new women, new boys and new girls, who are new creations in Christ, who are made new in Christ and are one in Him, and members of the “one Body,” who have been reconciled to God by the Cross.

Paul says here to the Church, the Body of Christ, he was made a minister. And this was so according to the dispensation, the divine administration, which had been given to him, which revealed the unique Church of this dispensation of grace, the Body of Christ.

This dispensation of grace fulfils the Word of God; it completed the divine revelation. To Paul was given the revelation which makes full or completes God’s Word.

This revelation gives us His plan for the heavens, for a people to rule and reign in Christ over the heavenlies: the Church the Body of Christ.

This was a revelation given exclusively to Paul as God’s apostle under grace to take with authority and reveal it to the world, a revelation God calls the Mystery.

Paul makes two claims here: first, that the Mystery had been given to him and second, that this truth had been hid from ages and from generations past.

And this distinct truth reveals Christ’s heavenly ministry, and the truth of the Church for today, the Body of Christ and God’s will for it under grace.

This mystery, this secret truth revealed to Paul is now no longer a secret, “but now is made manifest to His saints” Paul says.

And now ALL need to know about it, as it reveals the glory of the Cross, what God is doing today under grace, and how God is working through the Body of Christ today to reach the world with His saving gospel of grace.

Ephesians 1:22,23 says, “And hath put all things under [Christ’s] feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body.” Colossians 1:18 says, “And [Christ] is the Head of the Body, the Church.”

The Mystery reveals that the Church is the Body of Christ, and it also reveals a new office for Christ which also was never before revealed as “the Head” of the Body of Christ.

The Church, the Body of Christ, of today is a living organism, a body of believers and members who are in a living relation and union with its living Head, who are subject to Him, who derive their life from Him, and who operate through His power. This Church is the one that exists and operates today in God’s program today.

Within this dispensation of grace, only believers from this present dispensation are made a part of the spiritual organism the Body of Christ.

For the Church the Body of Christ, Paul is our apostle. He is the one apostle of this dispensation of grace and we get our instruction from his letters for how the church is to live, serve, reach out, and function under grace.

Through the message given to him by Christ, Paul reveals to us Christ’s will and the walk Christ desires for His Church, the Body of Christ today.

And we find through Paul how we become members of the Church, the Body of Christ. It is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.

It is by the gospel of the grace of God that we are saved and are made members of the Body of Christ. We are saved from the lake of fire, placed into the Body of Christ and sealed there for eternity, simply by believing that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

The mystery reveals how we, the Body of Christ, then have a heavenly hope and calling AND we have the blessed Hope of the Rapture.

The Body of Christ will never have to face the 7-year Tribulation period. We will be caught up to heaven before it ever begins.

The whole Bible was written “for our learning” Rom. 15:4 says, and we should never neglect the rest of God’s Word. There are principles and truths throughout the Word of God for our edification and learning and spiritual growth in Christ.

It is all for us. It is just all not written directly to us.

The section of the Bible that contains our direct promises, instructions, and doctrine for application by the Church today is found in the letters of the Apostle Paul. Romans – Philemon is “our mail” for today.

For our lives to be transformed by grace, we must read, study, learn, grow, and apply God’s grace instruction for His Church under grace found in the letters of Paul.