The birth of Jesus Christ was the most unique birth that has ever occurred, because Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was born of a virgin. But the birth of Christ, as He took the form of man, became flesh, and dwelt among men, was for a specific purpose—that He might become the sacrifice for our sins through His death, burial, and resurrection, and, in so doing, that He might bring into existence His church. Without the birth of the church there would be no salvation for any of us.
A study of the birth of the church is particularly important when we understand that there is much error taught concerning the church. The church is a vital institution, absolutely essential to our salvation. There are those who teach that the church is not essential, that it is a temporary institution, that the church was simply brought into existence as an afterthought. They say Jesus came to establish a literal earthly kingdom on earth but was unable to do so because the Jews rejected Him. He then set up the church to last until such time as He would come again and then be able to set up His earthly literal kingdom and reign therein for 1,000 years.
This doctrine is known as premillennialism. There are many forms of premillennialism, but all are false. The most prevalent form is dispensational premillennialism. In our study today, as we talk about the birth of the church, we will refute, without question, the dispensational form of premillennialism. As we refute this false notion of premillennialism—that big “P” word as we might call it, we’re going to use some other “P” words (six of them to be exact) that will clearly refute the false doctrine of premillennialism.
PROMISED Jesus Christ promised to build His church. Now, if something is promised, then it’s not really an accident. We are also going to see that, in giving the promise to build His church, Christ used the words church and kingdom interchangeably. That tells us that the church and the kingdom are one and the same institution. Look at Matthew 16:18,19: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Peter had just made the good confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus said, “Upon this rock” [that is, the confession of the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God], upon this foundation, “I will build my church.” But notice, He said, “…And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus used the terms church and kingdom of heaven interchangeably, clearly showing they are one and the same institution. The church is not plan B, not an afterthought, not a temporary institution. The church is plan A, promised by Jesus Christ, clearly PROMISED.
PLANNED The church was planned by God, and that plan was implemented through Jesus Christ. After the fall of man in the Garden, after Eve succumbed to the temptation of Satan in the form of the Serpent, God set in motion a plan by which fallen man might be reconciled or redeemed. Because of His great love for us, God made this possible through Jesus Christ. The culmination of that plan would be the crucifixion of Christ, His resurrection from the dead, and, ultimately, the establishment of His church, His kingdom, which He purchased with His own blood.
In Genesis 3:15 God says to Satan, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” God was saying to Satan, “You will deliver a minor blow to my son, Jesus Christ, through the crucifixion. But, in coming forth from the dead, Christ will deal you a fatal blow.” In coming forth from the tomb, after shedding His blood on Calvary, Christ, through that shed blood, purchased the church. The church was in the mind and plan of God long before these things ever occurred.
Another passage along this line is Ephesians 3:8-11, where the apostle Paul writes, “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Notice, the manifold wisdom of God was to be made known by the church, according to the eternal purpose. The church was the purpose and plan of God, long before Christ ever died upon Calvary.
PROPHESIED The church was prophesied. The prophets spoke of the coming kingdom or the church. Time does not permit us to look at several prophesies, but let’s concentrate on Isaiah 2:1-4, where we have a clear prophesy concerning the coming kingdom of Christ or the church. “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
“The last days” to which the prophet makes reference are the days of the Christian age as they were ushered into existence. When he says that the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem, the law out of Zion, that is exactly what happened when the church was born. When the church was established on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Christ, the Word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem.
Daniel prophesied also of the coming kingdom. In Daniel 2:31-44, in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he said that in the days of the Roman kings the kingdom or the church would be established and would endure forever. The church has been established according to prophecy.
PREPARED Just prior to its coming, preparation was made for the church to be ushered into existence. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord. In Matthew 3:1,2, we read, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
In Mark 9:1, Jesus spoke to some who were standing with Him, “And He said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.’” Notice, Jesus said some of those standing there would not die until the kingdom of God had come. Not only would it come, but it would come with power within the lifetime of some of the people standing there with him.
A key passage is Acts 1:6-8, where Jesus promised the apostles the power of the Holy Spirit: “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” Whenever the Holy Ghost came upon them was when the kingdom came into existence. Remember Mark 9:1, where Jesus said the kingdom would come with power. Then He said to the apostles that the power would come when the Holy Spirit came upon them. We are now about to see when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
PRESENTED The church was presented on Pentecost. That is when the power came from the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. Look at Acts 2:1 “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” What did they speak on this occasion? They spoke the words of the kingdom of God. They used the keys to the kingdom, as Jesus had promised, in order to admit people into the kingdom, or church, for the first time. The church was PRESENTED on Pentecost. It was PROMISED, PLANNED, PROPHESIED, PREPARED, and PRESENTED. Therefore, our final “P” shows us that it is, indeed PRECIOUS.
The church is the only plan God has had for saving mankind. Look at I Peter 1: 18-20: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”
Notice, Christ was foreordained to shed His blood before the foundation of the world. Does that sound like that the crucifixion of Christ was something He had not anticipated? It was planned by God. The shed blood of Christ is the substance through which redemption or salvation takes place. We must be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. In Acts 20:28 beginning, the apostle Paul addressed the elders at Ephesus and said to them, “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
So, the church is not, as premillennialism teaches, an afterthought, an accident, or a temporary institution to last until such time as some earthly kingdom can be established. Such is not taught in Scripture. The church is the only institution God has ever had in mind, through which, and in which, all men must be saved.
How do we get into that kingdom, the church? Through belief in Christ as the Son of God, repentance of sin, confession of the sweet name of Christ, and burial in baptism for the forgiveness of sins. God’s Word says the church is the bride of Christ. In Ephesians 5:23, we read, “As the husband is the head of the wife, Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body.” It is essential, then, that we be in that body in order to be saved.
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Truth For The World
P.O. Box 5048
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e-mail: info@tftw.org
A mother was explaining to her little girl about the death of her father. The mother said, “God has sent for your father and will send for us, but I do not know just when.” Finally the little girl said, “If we do not know just when God is going to send for us, do you not think we had better pack up and get ready? God might send for us when we are not ready to go.” Great truths are often spoken by children, and in this story is the truth that we should be prepared at all times, for we do not know when we will be called upon to leave this world. It may be much sooner than we think. Are you ready?
The Bible clearly points out that life is brief. In James 4:14, the Scriptures declare, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” The Bible also states, “For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psa 90:9-12).
In Job 9:25,26, the Scriptures say, “Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping on its prey”
Yes, not only does the Bible reveal that life is short, but it also points out that death might occur at any time. In Genesis 27:2, Isaac said, “I do not know the day of my death.” No one of us is any different than Isaac. We do not know when we are going to die. It may happen many years from now; it might occur even today. Isaac was an old man when he made that statement. He did not know the day of his death, but he felt it would be soon. But did you know that more than twenty years passed before God called him home? You may be an older person and feel that death is imminent. In all likelihood you are right, but who knows? Perhaps you will be one of those who reaches and surpasses the century mark. On the other hand, you may be a young person and feel you have many more years. In all likelihood you are right, but death may occur shortly.
In Luke 12 is recorded the story of a man who thought he had many years in which to get richer and to live a life of ease. [Read Luke 12:16-21.] Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, `What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The man who counts on tomorrow is a fool. This rich farmer made great plans, but he did not include God in those plans. There is nothing wrong with planning for the future, but there is something wrong when we plan for the future and do not include God in those plans. Yes, something is desperately wrong! We talk about what we are going to do tomorrow, and yet tomorrow is something of which we cannot be certain. Solomon said, “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).We do not know when death will come, but neither do we know when the Lord will return. He may return in our lifetime. We know not the day nor the hour. In Mark 13:32, the Bible says, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, Paul said the Lord’s return will be like a thief in the night. You know, one thing that makes a thief successful is that he strikes at a time when one least expects him. The Lord’s return will be somewhat like that. He will return at the time when we least expect him. The tragic thing about all of this is that most of the world will not be prepared for either death or the Lord’s return.
In Matthew 7:13,14, Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” These verses indicate that a majority will be lost. Therefore, the majority will be unprepared for death or for the Lord’s coming. The story is told of a slave during pre-Civil War days. His master died, and someone said to the old slave, “Well, I guess your master has gone home to heaven.” “No, sir,” the slave replied. “Whenever my master was going to go somewhere, he spent a long time talking about it and a long time getting ready, and he never did say anything about going to Heaven.” How well this story illustrates this truth that preparation must be made!
Are you prepared? Are you ready to go to heaven? Is it possible you are so attached to this world you would not be suitable for Heaven?
In Genesis 19, we read of Lot, his wife, and two of their daughters, who were escaping the burning city of Sodom. They were strictly instructed not to look back, and yet Lot’s wife looked back and immediately turned into a pillar of salt. Jesus, in Luke 17:32, simply said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” It seems Lot’s wife was just too attached to her worldly possessions. It seems she did not really want to leave them. She was not prepared to leave.
So many of us are so busily engaged in the game of acquiring this world’s goods that we do not serve the Lord as we should. We lay up treasure here on the earth but neglect laying up treasure where it really counts–heaven. We become so attached to this world we really are not prepared to leave it. We are so unprepared for eternity, and what a tragedy it is!
In John 14:1-3, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” From these verses, we may see that Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.
In Matthew 25, Jesus illustrated the tragedy of being unprepared. In verses 1-13, we read the parable of the ten virgins. The ten virgins were to attend a wedding. They were to accompany the bridegroom. Five of these were wise because they took extra oil for their lamps, and five were foolish because they took no extra oil. At midnight they were told the bridegroom was coming. The five foolish virgins then tried to borrow oil from the five wise virgins, but the five wise virgins would not loan the oil because they had just enough for their own lamps. The five foolish virgins went out to buy oil, but while they were gone the bridegroom came. Those who were ready accompanied him to the marriage. Later the five who had gone out to get oil arrived but the door was shut. They were too late. They were unable to gain entrance.
Jesus Christ is coming. Most are unprepared. Oh, some will try to make last minute preparations to no avail. Now is the time to get ready. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul said, “…now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” In John 9:4, our Lord said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.”
Listen to the words that were spoken to God’s people by the prophet of old in Amos 4:12: “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!.” Let me ask again, Are you ready? Are you ready for your appointment with death? Are you ready for the Lord’s return. Are you ready to confront Jesus at judgment?
We present these programs to help you better understand the Bible and to help you get ready for eternity. We appeal only to the Bible for our answers. We believe this is what you really want, Bible answers, because no man has the right to supply answers that do not come from the Bible.
Now, how can you get ready for the end? The Bible says one must hear the word of God: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). One must believe in Christ: “… if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24). Jesus said we must repent of our sins: “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). And we must confess Christ to be the Son of God, the good confession: “… if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9,10. And we must be baptized for the remission of sins, buried in baptism, for that is all baptism is, or ever has been– a burial, where the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins. In Acts 2:38, when the first Gospel sermon was preached and those there who heard, many of them, cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”–that is, What shall we do to be saved? Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Those who have not done these things are not prepared for eternity.
Have you obeyed these commandments? If not, our prayer is that you will do so. You may not have as much time as you think. You only have one life to live. Why not live it in service to your Lord.
For Further Information Contact:
Truth For The World
P.O. Box 5048
Duluth, GA 30096-0065 e-mail:info@tftw.org
Recording the lessons is really the easy part of this job. After the recording is done, there are many steps to actually getting the lessons on-line and into this podcast feed.
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Convert it from .MP3 format to .WAV format.
Equalize it. This is now much easier thanks to (free tool) The Levelator!
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Check that all the editing is correct.
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I hope you can forgive me for the big delays in getting these published and on-line. Just having The Levelator has reduced the amount of time by about 2 hours per lesson. Now I pray for time to catch up on all the recordings made in 2006.
Let me leave you with the scripture that led me to baptism in the 1990s. Acts 8:26-38
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading
the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?”
And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
I hope that before long you can find your water and be born again in Jesus.
Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you.
And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who
came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way,
and will continue to do so.
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat,
he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them
leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were
like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,”
they said, “and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding
countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend
that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they
sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish
and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.
Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it;
yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter
was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia.
She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings
and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock
that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God
wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you,
but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the
crown of glory that will never fade away.
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were
astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had
been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw
from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked.
“Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.
But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no
longer to anyone in this name.”
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were
praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
