In the Image of Christ:
The True Church of Jesus

What does the real Church of Jesus Christ look like?  How can we know it?  We must look to the New Testament.

• The Church is headed only by the Lord Jesus.
  
  
• The Church is made up solely of committed disciples of the Lord Jesus.
  
  
• The Church abides in Christ Jesus and His words abide in them.
  
  
• The Church loves the Lord and therefore obeys His commands.
  
  
• The Church seeks to build the Kingdom of God.
  
  
• The Church seeks to build up mature disciples of the Lord, who are being conformed to the image of Christ.
  
  
• The Church proclaims the same message Jesus and the Apostles did;    primarily, Christ crucified and resurrected, and salvation and the new life through faith in Him.
  
  
• The Church practices the same things Jesus and the Apostles practiced, such as, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, teaching sound doctrine, true
  fellowship, walking in love and truth with one another.
  
  
• The Church exercises discipline and excludes those whose lives demonstrate that Jesus is not their Lord.
  
  
• The Church is overseen by elders who meet that qualifications laid down by the New Testament and who act in Jesus' interest rather than their own.
  
  
• The Church's principle 'program' as an assembly is to care for the poor among them.
  
  
• The Church is hated by the world.

What the true Church doesn't do:

• Doesn't love the world or the things of the world.
  
  
• Doesn't have a pope, hierarchy, or denomination.
  
  
• Doesn't exclude people who have been accepted by Jesus
  
  
• Doesn't invent their own doctrines, rules, and laws.
  
  
• Doesn't seek worldly power, acceptance, or wealth.
  
  
• Doesn't seek to please men.
  
  
• Doesn't accept those who are not submitted to Christ Jesus
  
  
• Doesn't build buildings, corporations, shrines, television networks, or amusement parks.
  
  
• Doesn't tolerate false teachers and false prophets
  
  
• Doesn't conform to the world.

"What?  You didn't mention evangelism."  Right, evangelism is done outside the assembly of the Lord, by His disciples.  There is no "evangelism program."  Programs do not make disciples; disciples make disciples.   Nor does or can the Holy Spirit dwell in organizations or programs.  He lives only in His temples, which are the bodies of the redeemed.  Because we live in a decadent materialistic nation and world which believes that money and wealth is true power, in our unbelief we have brought the same attitudes into the "church."   Money is nothing!  I will say that again louder:  MONEY IS NOTHING!   Jesus said that apart from HIM we can do nothing!  He called money "unrighteous mammon."  He says that we can do all things through HIM.  He says that it is not by power or might but by HIS Spirit that He will accomplish His will.

Do we really believe this?  I think NOT!  Look at what is called the "Church";  So-called Christians who spend billions to build buildings of of steel and stone, even though the Word of God says,  "the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands."  They spend billions on satellites, television, radio, private jets, universities, colleges, bible schools, and grand auditoriums with all the technology of the world.  But where are the disciples of Jesus they have made?  All this man made stuff is vanity, emptiness, and void of spiritual value.  To the degree we have adopted the ways of the world, to that degree we have departed from the Lord Jesus. To the degree we have adopted the ways of the world, to that degree we testify to the world that we have more faith in the ways of the world than in God Almighty.

We might use technology, but we must never think that God needs it.  Disciples may band together to build facilities and ministies to support the preaching of the Gospel. We might use radio or print to proclaim the TRUE GOSPEL, but we must never confuse the "power" of the medium with the power of the message.

And let me same a word about the HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT.  Though I am in agreement with much of what is said in support of this, I must repeat the words of Jesus:

Jesus *said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers."God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:21-24)

This real issue is not where we worship, but WHO we worship and whether we are new creatures in Christ.  I have noticed that some of the leaders in the house church movement make much out of where the Church worships but spend little time dealing with what the Church is made up of.  Jesus said, "Where two or more [of My disciples] are gathered together in My name..."  The emphasis is on the gathering of DISCIPLES - not where they gather.

Did you ever notice that in the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, these were the only three out of the multitude that refused to bow before the image?  Let us likewise stand almost alone in the midst of a "church" that prostrates herself before the god of this world and risk the fiery furnace.  Brethren, the hour of testing draws near.  Let us learn now to put our full confidence in the one who died for us, for He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.  When we are cast into the furnace, He will be with us, and not a hair of our heads will be lost.