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What is the church of Christ?
Jesus said in Matt 16:18 "...upon this rock I will build my church." Let's look to the word of God to see what the church is. The church must be of great value to Jesus since he gave his life for it (Eph. 5:25) and purchased it with his blood (Acts 20:28). The church that Christ died for is of tremendous importance because we see that it was in God's eternal purpose (Eph 3:10-11). We can read in the Old Testament that God promised a kingdom in which all nations - not just Jews - but all nations of the earth would flow into it. (Isaiah 2:2). In the New Testament, John the Baptist said the kingdom was at hand (Matt 3:2). Jesus said in Mark 9:1 and in Matt 16:28 that the kingdom of God was going to come in the audience's lifetime. Jesus calls the church the kingdom in Matt 16:18,19. Peter uses those keys to the kingdom that Jesus promised him in Acts 2 on the day of pentecost in appx 33AD where we see in vs 47 that the Lord added to the church(KJV) daily. The word church literally means called out or assembly. People who are called out by the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Thess 2:13-14), and saved by its power (ROM 1:16), are the the called out or assembly of Christ, or the church of Christ. |