WHEN DID JESUS BUILD HIS CHURCH?

by Lloyd Mahanes

"I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

The Lord Jesus established the First Church during His earthly ministry. The work of its construction began with the reception of the material prepared by John the Baptist. The organization became a reality with the appointment of the twelve apostles (Luke 6:12-16). With the selection of the apostles, these twelve men, for the first time became a body. They had a head -- Christ. They had a treasurer -- Judas. They were baptized believers. They were banded together to carry out Christ's will. That this marks the founding of the first church is substantiated by I Corinthians 12:28 -- "and God hath set some in the church, first apostles."

Jesus built this church before His death, not on the day of Pentecost. We know that the church was in existence before His death because He instructed His disciples as follows: "Tell it to the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and publican." Certainly they could not take a grievance to a church which did not exist. We also notice that those who were saved on the day of Pentecost were merely "added unto them" (Acts 2:41). Another proof that the church was in existence before Pentecost is that they had a church roll and they had a business meeting.

Jesus promised perpetuity to this institution. He said, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16;18). And we find Paul saying, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus in every age" (Ephesians 3:21). When Jesus gave His church its commission He began by saying, "all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). As He finished the commission He said, "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). As to His power to preserve, to lead and empower His church, Paul said, "And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1:22). There has never been a day since Jesus established the first true church that there haven't been true churches upon the earth.

History proves that Baptist Churches had their beginning in the days of Christ and the Apostles. John Clark Ridpath, a great Methodist historian, says: "I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as A.D. 100, though without doubt there were Baptists then, as all Christians were then Baptists." Mr. Alexander Campbell, founder of what is known as the Christian church, said: "From the apostolic age to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists and their practice of baptism have had a continued change of advocates, and public monuments to their existence in every century can be produced." Concerning Catholicism and Protestantism Mr. Benjamin Franklin said: "If popery was born too late, or is too young, to be the true church, what shall be said of those communions born in the past three centuries? They are all too young by largely more than a thousand years. No church that has come into existence since the death of the apostles can be the church of the Living God."

I believe then, that true Baptist churches are the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be sure that I am a member of a true church. If I am to be a member of a true church, I must be sure that it was not founded by a man. Baptists can, without doubt, trace their history back to our Lord. If you are a member of one of our Lord's churches you should consider it the greatest privilege of your life. Your first loyalty should be given to the program of the church. Christ purchased it with His own blood, it is the pillar and ground of the truth, it reveals God's wisdom, it is commissioned to get folks saved, to handle and preserve the ordinances in their purity and to teach the Word of God, and its greatest purpose is to exalt and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

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