Grace Thoughts
Assessing the Health of the Church after 2,000 Years (Part One)
The Church is coming up on its 2,000th anniversary. Many New Testament scholars point to the year 30 AD for when Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the dead. As we approach Easter Sunday about a month from now, just five years shy of Easter 2030 AD, I thought now might be a good time to assess the health of the true Church of Jesus Christ.
2,000 Years
Many historians believe Jesus probably started His earthly ministry about 26 AD. That means it was almost 2,000 years ago that Jesus came up from the waters of John’s baptism and the wilderness testing of Satan to declare —
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Mark 4:15
And so it began.
We are very close to 2,000 years since Jesus spoke those words in the region of Galilee (Mark 4:14).
Jesus also said –
I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
How did Jesus build His Church? The Apostle Paul explained it in his letter to the Ephesian Church –
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22
Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone of His Church. God the Father sent God the Son (Jesus Christ) to die on the Cross and rise from the dead to “save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10) and “take away our sins” (1 John 3:5). The Church is built on the foundation of the teaching ministry of the apostles and prophets who teach that Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the dead to save the lost and take away sin. Followers of Jesus Christ today are fellow citizens with all saints who have gone before us who believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead to save the lost and take away sin. Together, we are members of the household of God, being fitted together and growing into a holy temple of the Lord, being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. That’s Church.
An Honest Assessment
Many people point to the history of the Christian Church and call it a “failure.” They point to religious wars and thousands of denominations to support their accusation. They point to massive divisions within many of those denominations. It is true that there have been religious wars among people who called themselves followers of Jesus Christ. It is true that there are thousands of denominations. It is is true that there have been and are massive divisions within denominations. However, what is not true is that somehow Jesus Christ failed in His purpose of “building” His Church. Jesus said He would build “His Church,” and He has and continues to do just that. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, does not fail at anything He plans to do.
However …
What many people have called and continue to call the “Church” is not the Church, the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul made it clear in his many writings that while there diversity in the Body of Christ, there is also unity.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:4-6
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 1 Corinthians 12:27
Paul knew as an apostle and prophet that unity and diversity in the Body of Christ would not be an easy thing to accomplish, but he continued to call Christians to unity so that together they might glorify Christ and build up each other. How would that happen? Here’s Jesus’ method –
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16
Jesus has been building His “Body” of believers for the last 2,000 years. The “failure” claim that many people make is nothing more than a “straw man” fallacy.
Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument. Logically Fallacious
Jesus said He would build His Church and the “gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). On the night before Jesus died on the Cross, He prayed to His Father –
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. John 17:20-23
That is not a “failed” prayer.
The “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” the Apostle Paul described is not what many people think of as the “church” that Jesus Christ is building. People do not determine the membership of the true Church – only Jesus Christ can do that.
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Revelation 21:27
Membership in the Church that Jesus Christ is building is based on one’s name being written in the Book of Life. Having our name written on the membership rolls of a local church, a baptismal document, or in some denominational register do not confer one’s name being written in the Book of Life.
An Example to Consider
The ancient church in Sardis is one example for us to consider. It was one of the seven churches Jesus addressed in the Revelation letter He dictated to the Apostle John. Sardis was located northeast of Ephesus. Both were located in Asia Minor in the 1st century AD. The New Testament doesn’t reveal the founder of the church in Sardis, though some scholars speculate it was either the Apostle John, the Apostle Paul, or one of their disciples. Whoever the human founder may have been, Jesus Christ addressed the church as one of the “seven churches which are in Asia” (Revelation 1:11).
Here’s what Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone of the Church, said to the church in Sardis –
‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘ know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ Revelation 3:1-6
The key here is that this church had a name that it was alive, but it was really dead. However, there were “a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.” I believe that is a good description of both many historical and modern churches. They have a name that they are alive, but they are dead. Some of them, however, have real believers in them.
Based on the history of sudden destruction of Sardis at the hands of both the Persians and Greeks, the Lord’s words about His coming upon them as a thief would not have been lost on them. The people of Sardis had experienced great loss in the past because they were not vigilant. Jesus used wording that should have caught the attention of the church leaders.
Keep in mind that Jesus Christ dictated these words to the Apostle John in the last decade of the 1st century AD. We are in the early part of there 3rd decade of the 21st century. Though I believe the seven churches in Revelation were physical churches that really existed, I also believe Christians can and should learn lessons from what our Lord told those churches.
One lesson we learn from the dying church in Sardis is that we should not be like them. We should, as Jesus commanded, “hold fast and repent.” What follows that is important –
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Notice the “Book of Life” is mentioned in the context of the dying church, and that Jesus Christ had the authority of blotting out names “from the Book of Life.” How that works in the heavenly realms is a bit of a mystery, but we know Jesus has the authority to do it.
It’s interesting that the writer to Hebrews wrote this –
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24
The Greek word translated “registered” in the NKJV is apogegrammenōn (perfect participle, middle or passive) and means “enrolled, inscribed in a register.” The word was used for the taking of a census in ancient times. When the heavenly census is taken, those who are registered, those whose names are written in the Book of Life, will spend all eternity with God.
As to the example of Sardis, the dying church. Did it die or did it repent? I believe some in the church may have repented or at least the next generation did. We don’t know the names of the leaders of the church in Sardis who would have received John’s letter (Revelation), but we do know the name of at least one man who became the pastor of the church in Sardis. His name was Melito and he became one of the great defenders of Christianity in the 2nd century.
Most of Melito’s writings have been lost, but a few fragments have been found and he is quoted by other apologists of the same era. They show that Melito preached the Gospel of Christ with strength and vigor, often in the face of great opposition.
“For this reason did the Father send His Son from heaven without a bodily form, that, when He should put on a body by means of the Virgin’s womb, and be born man, He might save man, and gather together those members of His which death had scattered when he divided man.” Discourse on Soul and Body
“On these accounts He came to us; on these accounts, though He was incorporeal, He formed for Himself a body after our fashion, -appearing as a sheep, yet still remaining the Shepherd; being esteemed a servant, yet not renouncing the Sonship; being carried in the womb of Mary, yet arrayed in the nature of His Father; treading upon the earth, yet filling heaven; appearing as an infant, yet not discarding the eternity of His nature; being invested with a body, yet not circumscribing the unmixed simplicity of His Godhead; being esteemed poor, yet not divested of His riches; needing sustenance inasmuch as He was man, yet not ceasing to feed the entire world inasmuch as He is God; putting on the likeness of a servant, yet not impairing the likeness of His Father. He sustained every character belonging to Him in an immutable nature: He was standing before Pilate, and at the same time was sitting with His Father; He was nailed upon the tree, and yet was the Lord of all things.” Discourse on the Cross
Read more of the writings of Melito of Sardis here.
[Podcast version of this study coming soon.]
Next
In the next part of our special series, we will look at where the true Church of Jesus Christ really stands in this world after 2,000 years of growth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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