About the name church of Christ! Romans 16:16.
A. Eph 5:31-32-->
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;
and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great:
but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
1. Relationship between Christ and the church is described as:
Christ is the husband. His wife is the church!
2. Common practice tells us when a woman is married, she has a new name!
This new name is Mrs. the husband’s name!
This is why in the church there are Mrs. Li, Mrs. Zeng, Mrs. Yang…
3. One calls a man’s wife as Mrs. other man’s name is an insult to the husband!
This is why, I consider,
anyone who name or call a church any other name is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ!
4. In another word,
a wife accepts the name Mrs. other than her own husband’s name is an adulterous woman!
5. Why does a man call other man’s wife as Mrs. his own name?
I know this is spiritual adultery! Adultery in his heart! Matt.5:27-28
6. Do you think there is a man in the world
who does not care how other man calls his wife Mrs. other than his own name?
7. If you say, you never heard anyone preach this! Now, you have!
B. Col.1:18-->
Christ is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have preeminence.
1. This is a normal person’s common sense! One head has one body.
The body goes with the head! The body does not have its own name!
This is why Romans 16:16, the name churches is not in capital letter!
Dumb people even use this to argue about the name church of Christ!
2. There may be millions of members, parts in this one body! Ro.12:5
3. Christ is the one head. This is why there is the body, the church!
Christ’s body always naturally is church of Christ! No need to be named!
C. A real life story to tell how stupid can people in the world be
when comes to teachings in the Bible!
30 years ago, I met a retired physic professor.
He said the church can have many different names,
just like one billion people in China, they have billion different names!
And like you have 5 people in your family. Do they all name John Chan!?
I said, I am glad that he was retired. Otherwise, he will mislead his students.
I said, now let me show you how to come up a correct illustration!
There is one China. One China has one name!
One China has billion subjects. Billion subjects may have billion different names!
One church has one name. Members in the church have different names!
John Chan has one family. His one family name is John Chan’s family.
There are 5 members in this one family!
Five members in this one family have five different names!
When he heard what I said. He was in shock, didn’t know what to do!
He called for his pastor Li to ask me to leave!
I always remember this!
Too bad, I have to say this!
In reality, when comes to teachings in the Bible,
denomination people do not have much intelligence!
In the world he may be able to teach physic in an Ivy League university.
But when comes to a simple illustration for the name of the church he missed it entirely!
Please remember this is the right one!
One China has one name match one church has one name.
People in China match member in the church.
Denomination people do not have this level of intelligence!
There is more-->
In the one hand they like to say the name of their church is not important!
In the other hand they try so hard to defend the name of their church!
They put up lots of money to put up the name of their church!
More scriptures to show the name of the church is very important:
Matt.16:18, Acts 2:47, Acts 20:28, Eph.4:4-6,
Lk.8:11, Gal.1:8, 1 Cor.1:-3:….
May the one God bless you and keep you always!
Preach this on January 16, 2011.