Identifying the True Church

by Independent Baptist Pastor and Missionary Van George 1914-2007

Upon this Rock I will build my church.. Matthew 16:18

Part 1 Founding The Church

In the gospel of Luke 6:12 we are told that Jesus went out into a mountain to pray. He continued His prayer to God all night. The thing He was about to do was so important to Him, to God and for all the world that He spent the entire night. Verse 13 tells what that important thing was, for when it was day He called His disciples. There were many of them for out of them He chose twelve men whom He named apostles. Verse 12, He names them, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Judas and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him. These are the same men that are named in Matthew 10. Matthew says they were sent to the lost sheep of Israel to preach “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Again after Jesus was resurrected they are named in Acts 1:13, except for Judas the betrayer. These eleven apostles elected Matthias to take Judas Iscariot’s place. Those twelve men preached to a multitude of Israelites on the Day of Pentecost. About 3,000 of them were saved and added to the twelve by baptism. Then in the last of chapter 2 they are called church. If those twelve men in Luke 6:12-13 and Matthew 10 were the same as those named in Acts 1 and 2 and were called to be the church, were they not the church even before Jesus was crucified? Yes, they were.

In Matthew 28:18-20 after His resurrection and before His ascension Jesus promised these men that He would be with them always even unto the end of the age.

The age or world, has not ended as of the writing of this article in 1997. We can but conclude then that His church is in our world today. She has been here for the last 1966 years and will still be here when Jesus comes again.

The purpose of this lesson is to examine in some way all of today’s churches to see if His church or at least which one of all different denominations is the one Christ is yet building. Can the true New Testament Church be identified in our present conglomeration of more than 2500 different church? She is one of them.

Note three things about the Lord’s Church that cannot be said of another.

1. The Lord’s church was planned in the Pre-determinate Council and foreknowledge of the God-head before the world was created. Acts 2:23 Ephesians 1:3-4; John 15:27
2. There are many prophesies related to the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Two I will give, Isaiah 2:2-3; Joel 2:28-32 which was fulfilled in Acts 2:15-21. The true church had to be in prophecy.
3. Jesus’ church had to have a foundation. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.” Notice “my” is possessive and church is singular not churches. Eph 4:4a. One body, There never has been but one church.

To build anything a foundation is essential. The apostles and prophets were the foundation upon whom the Lord would build, Eph 2:20. The body of Christ, His church, is built by adding through baptism more saved people and teaching them to keep on winning the lost. She grows spiritually in grace and knowledge of her head, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Ephesians 3:18, 2 Peter 3:18.

The foundation material had to be chosen from all the other prepared material, John the Baptist prepared men for the Lord. John had many disciples but they all eventually followed Jesus. In Luke 6:12 after leaving a multitude of disciples Jesus spent all night in prayer, the next morning He chose from the multitude twelve men who He named Apostles, Jesus in John 15:16 ordained them then sent them to the lost sheep of Israel. The entire chapter of Matthew 10 is about their mission to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus was head of the twelve. He directed their visits to the lost sheep of Israel, provided for them, cared and watched after them for three and one half years.

Even though they believed He was the Christ, their King and Son of the living God, they had failed to understand that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was speaking to them when Jesus spoke. Nor did they comprehend that whatever Jesus did, it was the God of Israel doing it for them. Matthew 16:21. Jesus related to them that He was going to die. Peter didn’t accept what He said. He took him aside and rebuked him. In spite of his being corrected by Jesus, he never gave up that God and Jesus was correct until in the garden at the betrayal of Jesus. There he drew his sword and cut off the man’s ear. Jesus said for him to put up the sword. Humiliated, he followed Jesus afar off and then denied Him three times.

Their first commission, “I send you as lambs among wolves”, had but little visible results. Ending in one of the twelve betraying their Master, the man who had healed the sick, made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak and raise the dead was being led away bound by His enemies. Besides, all that He even volunteered himself to them. So all His apostles were scattered. Not one of them stood by him. All these things and much more had to be experienced by the eleven, one of them dead, all of them fled, all of them saw Barrabas, the convicted criminal, released and their master nailed to his cross. None of this they could understand yet they needed all of it exactly as it happened that they could be true witnesses under their new world wide commission. Forlorn, discouraged and disappointed like sheep without a shepherd, they did not know what to do. But when they were with Him the Resurrected Christ, for forty days learning their final lessons, they saw him ascend into the cloud. According to Matthew 28:18, during these forty days Jesus gave them their Great Commission. Though it was world wide they did not comment. Though it was age long they accepted it, they just exercised what for three and one half years they had failed to do; “Just believe what God said to them through Jesus and keep on believing.” Jesus knew truth, He was truth, He had life, He was life, He had all power in heaven and earth.” He said, “you men go. You witness of me, you will have someone to baptize in the name of our Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit, Teach them to do exactly as I taught you. You won’t fail until this age of my church mission is finished.”

(Note from Kris Minefee: Van George was my grandfather and more than any other man taught me to love the Lord, reverence His Word and honor His true church. He went to glory just before his 93rd birthday but left behind a heritage of truth in the many people he taught and discipled.)