There are many reasons the church of the Lord is the most important “institution” on earth. Consider these three for a moment.
(1) God PLANNED It. Plans are often only as good as the one behind them. God planned the church! The church is not some man-made institution… not the church we read about in the Bible anyway. Paul says in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
People are baptized “into Christ” (Gal. 3:27; see also Rom. 6:3-4), and they are also said to be baptized into the body or the church (see 1 Cor. 12:13; also Acts 2:41; 47). The point is that God blessing His children “in Christ”, or in the church, so the church was in His mind before the world was created.
If God planned the church from before the foundation of the world, and He did so for the salvation of the world, just how important do you think the church is?
(2) The Prophets and Apostles PREACHED it. Aside from the Lord, some of the most critical people in God’s eternal plan of redemption are the prophets and apostles. Now the prophets taught hundreds of years before the church was even established, but yet they prophesied of the coming of the church or kingdom. Daniel said in Daniel 2:44, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.”
The prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 2:2, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.”
The prophets anticipated and preached a high and holy view of the church or the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The apostles, who were present from the beginning of the church, did even more so. The Lord gave Peter the “keys of the kingdom” (Mt. 16:19), which in part alludes to the fact that he would preach the message of the kingdom on the day of Pentecost, as the church itself was established. That very day, 3,000 were added to the church (Acts 2:41).
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In fact, the word “kingdom” is mentioned 157 times in the NT and the word “church” is mentioned 74 times. Not all of these are by the apostles. Many times, before the church was established, it was Jesus who preached regarding the coming kingdom.
We especially emphasize here that the prophets and the apostles preached and taught the kingdom. They considered it extremely important, as they were guided by the Holy Spirit. How important do you think it is?
(3) Jesus PURCHASED It. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus preached the church and Jesus built the church. But Jesus also purchased the church. This was no ordinary purchase. He did not give a percentage of His means to buy the church, but He gave Himself, His life and His blood, for the church.
Paul says to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). That last statement adds very serious gravity to what Paul says. Great care for the church is to be taken because of the price Jesus paid for it!
The church is the most valuable organization in the world, the only one that God gave His Son for! If Jesus gave His life for the church, how much should we value it? Shouldn’t it be first in our lives? (see Mt. 6:33).
Daren Schroeder
