Weekly Devotional 4-10-23 / The Purpose of The Church
In His first advent, Jesus chose eleven men through whom He would establish His church (Matthew 16:18). He commissioned them to go throughout the world teaching and baptizing those whom He would add to their number (Matthew 28:19-20). Small groups of believers were brought together by their endeavors and these groups came to be known as local assemblies, local churches. Dr. Luke’s letter to his friend Theophilus, (aka, the book called “The Acts of The Apostles”), informed him and us how this small band of men grew to hundreds of thousands.
In that it was the Lord’s plan that His church would continue past the lifetime of the original eleven apostles, He made provision that His church would be nourished and strengthened. Consider Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.’9(Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till 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; 14that 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, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from 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 4:7-16).
We read from verse 11 that Jesus the Risen Lord, “gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers”. From verse 12 were read of His purpose in this supplying, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” And from verses 13-16 we read of what He intended , that they, we, “13 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; 14that 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,15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from 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.”
The gathering of saints in the 1st century church gathered for the purpose of worshipping God and maturing and strengthening the saints. As we read through the book of Acts and the Epistles (The letters of Paul and Peter) one would be hard pressed to find an instance when the church convened for any other reason. The saints, having been ministered to and energized by the Holy Spirit, went about witnessing to those outside the faith pointing them to their need of repentance and of committing themselves to the finished work of Jesus Christ, their salvation.
May we all be thankful for our Lord’s purpose and organization of the church and may we all be responsive to His purpose for us.
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