Jesus promised “I will build my church….” He began the work officially on the Day of Pentecost, when 3,000 souls were added to the infant church. He is still building it, one person at a time, and will continue to do so until Christ comes back “in the air” for the church. (I Thess. 4:13-18) The church, therefore, has never, since that historic day recorded in Acts 2, met as one body. But it will meet together when Christ “raptures” it. All believers since the Day of Pentecost, from every nation on earth, will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.
Nine out of ten references to the church in the New Testament are to local assemblies. The “general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Hebs. 12:23) has never had a meeting and will not until the rapture of the church. The Church Universal is comprised of His body—all believers from the birth of the church to the rapture—waiting for that longed-for meeting.
Until then, we gather worldwide in local assemblies. In the New Testament, it was the church at Ephesus, the churches of Galatia, the churches in Macedonia, the Jerusalem church, the church at Antioch, etc. Local assemblies—churches, with people and pastors and deacons—are the subject of most of the epistles of Paul and other writers of the New Testament. Some of the New Testament letters were, to be sure, written to “saints scattered abroad,” such as the books of James and I and II Peter. But even those letters were written to believers in association with local churches.
It was a church meeting (recorded in Acts 15) when the Antioch assembly and the Jerusalem body hashed out the issue of salvation by grace through faith plus nothing. The demands of certain Judaizers that converts to Christianity be circumcised was rejected after some discussion and testimonies. James, the pastor, rose and issued his summation of the disputing after everyone had spoken, affirming that Gentiles who come in repentance and faith to Christ ought not to be troubled by any further constraints, but that “they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15:19-21) Following that summation, Luke records: “Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch.” (Acts 15:22) So, the debate and the decision were settled by an agreement of the whole church, including the elders, or pastors, the senior pastor being James.
That illustrates how the New Testament churches conducted themselves. A careful study of each church reveals that each was independent, with its own pastor(s) and people autonomously governing its affairs, sending out missionaries (Acts 13), disciplining unruly members (I Cor. 5), and teaching sound doctrine—all the while fellowshipping with other churches of like faith and practice.
So, though there is a sense in which the church is universal, it is also local. Members worship together, keep the ordinances together (baptism and the Lord’s table), gather up offerings for other churches where hardships prevail (II Cor. 8,9), ordain pastors, send from their ranks evangelists (missionaries) who will start churches in other locales, contend earnestly for the faith, train disciples, faithfully proclaim the Word of God, meet regularly for praise, prayer, and preaching, not forsaking their assembling together, and minister to one another by the exercise of spiritual gifts, with which the Holy Spirit equips believers. (I Pet. 4:10)
One can see, then, that it is impossible to be a “lone-ranger” kind of believer. Every saved person ought to be a member, actively and faithfully serving in a local church.
I am thankful that, from the time I was a child, God led my parents to a local, Bible-believing church where they could learn from the faithful teaching of a godly pastor, and where they could serve the Lord. I learned so very much about God’s will and work and Word by listening to and looking at the model that it was my privilege to be a part of as a young person who loved Christ and His church. A perfect church? No! But a New Testament assembly of believers, sincerely attempting to do all the things that were incumbent on any group of New Testament believers assembled together as a “local church.”
God called me to preach, eventually, because of the Word that I had learned and had responded to in and through a local church ministry—led by a God-called, Spirit-filled pastor who loved the Word of God and the people of God.
It has been my unspeakable privilege to have pastored three local churches for a total of 48 years. Never did I feel worthy of that high calling of God through Christ Jesus. But I was always deeply grateful that in some way He allowed me, with my devoted wife, Ellen, to give ourselves to the ministry of His (local) church.
The last words of Jesus, literally, were directed to seven of these local, New Testament churches. (Rev. 2,3) They are words of encouragement, admonishment, rebuke, and praise. They speak volumes to churches yet today. So, if our Lord and Savior prioritized His words and works to local churches, should we not also determine that we will serve Him fully and faithfully in and through the Body that He gave Himself for, His church, meeting in big cities and small hamlets, in ornate edifices and in the simplest of structures—all for the sole purpose of worship, fellowship, and worldwide evangelism?
Find a church. Join it. Support it. Faithfully serve your Lord through it “even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it.” (Eph. 5:25)
“That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:27)
YOU and GOD 