I. "I will build My church"
A. Matthew 16:13-19. In contrast to the beliefs of others that Jesus was John the
Baptist or Elijah, Jesus promised to build His church on the rock of the confession that He was the Christ, the Son of God (v. 16).
B. "I will build"-Jesus promised to build it in the future.
C. "My church"-It would belong to Him and be subject to Him.
D. "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"-Death would not destroy
Jesus' church. Although its members would die physically, they would still belong to Jesus' church. Death would not defeat it.
E. "The keys of the kingdom of heaven"(v. 19)-Keys are used to open. Peter
and the apostles (see also Mt 18:18) had the rules that opened the kingdom of heaven (or Jesus' church) to men.
F. "Whatever you bind on earth…"-The apostles' teachings would be the same
as those in heaven. This is because they were inspired of God (John
16:13).

II. What is Jesus' church?
A. Acts 2:47-When the first people became Christians on Pentecost (after
Jesus' resurrection and ascension to heaven), the saved were added to the church by the Lord. Since Jesus had promised to build His church and now is adding the saved to a church, we must conclude that His church had been built.
B. Acts 5:11, 8:3-The church is talked about as being in existence. The apostles
and believers who composed it were part of Jesus' church.
C. Eph 5:22-32. Paul uses Christ and the church to illustrate the husband-wife
relationship. We must point out some important things here:
1. He is the Savior of the body (v. 23).
2. The church is subject to Christ (v. 24).
3. Christ gave Himself for the church (v. 25).
4. Christ cleansed and sanctified (set apart) the church (v. 26).
5. The means by which He did this were "with the washing of water by
the word"(v. 26).
6. Christ wants the church to be "holy and without blemish"(v. 27).
7. The church is "one flesh" with Christ (v. 30-32).
D. Because of these things, we can learn that the church is the body of those
saved by Christ (Eph 5:23). All saved people are in the body of Christ.
E. Eph 1:22-23. Since the body of Christ is the church, all saved people are in
Christ's church. Jesus built His church and everyone who is saved is a
member of it!

III. God's eternal purpose
A. Eph 3:8-12. Notice especially v. 10-11. God's "eternal purpose"(v. 11) was
for His wisdom to "be made known by the church"(v. 10).
B. As saved people and as Christ's church, it is our obligation and duty to make
known God's wisdom.
C. Premillennialists teach that Christ's church was an accident or a Plan B. Since
Jesus couldn't make people accept Him and His kingdom, He decided to
set up His church instead.
D. However, the Bible teaches that it was God's "eternal purpose" to set up the
church and by it spread the gospel to every creature. Jesus told us He
would build it (Mt 16:18), He did, and now we can be saved. "To Him be
glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen"(Eph 3:21).

IV. How many churches?
A. There are many denominations today. How many were there in New
Testament times?
B. Eph 4:4-There is one body. Remember, the body is the church (Eph 1:22-
23).
C. 1 Cor 12:13-We were all baptized into one body. Not into different ones,
but into one body. All those who have been saved by Jesus' blood are in that one body.
D. When people became Christians in New Testament times, they became just
Christians. There were no denominations at that time.
E. Does that mean that we are all Christians and can worship God in different
ways? If we want to become Christians, we must follow Christ and Him
alone as our head (Eph 5:23, Col 1:18).
F. If we do not follow Christ as our head, we are no longer in His body!
G. How do we know if we are following Christ as our head? What are the signs
of the church Jesus built? We'll examine these questions in the next
lesson.___Jacob Hudgins