Why I’m leaving the church building and joining the Living Church of Christ
He declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). This is just one of the many He declared the end of in the beginning. Allow the Word of God to speak. (Scriptures quoted from the International Inductive Study NT: New Berkeley version)
· The declaration of the end from the beginning
Matthew 24: 1 – 2
1 Leaving the temple, Jesus went on His way; and His disciples came forward to point out to Him the temple buildings.
2 And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? I assure you, not one stone will be left here on another, that will not be thrown own.”
Hebrews 8: 7, 8 – 12 [Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34], 13
7 For if that first covenant had been flawless, no place would have been sought for a second.
8 But, finding fault with it, He says, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not remain faithful to My covenant. So I let them alone, says the Lord.
10 “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, the Lord says, I will fix My laws into their minds and will write them on their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be my people.
11 No longer shall each citizen be teaching his neighbour and each person his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, because they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful towards their wrongdoings, and their sins I will no longer remember.”
13 By saying, ‘new’, He has made the first out of date. But what is antiquated and obsolete approaches the vanishing point.
Isaiah 55: 11 (CEV)
11 “That’s how it is with My words. They don’t return to Me without doing everything I send them to do.”
· The beginning of the end
John 2: 18 – 22
18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign will you show us for Your doing these things?”
19 Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.”
20 Then the Jews remarked, “This temple has been in process of building for forty-six years, and will You rebuild it in three days?”
21 But He was speaking about His bodily temple;
22 so, when he had risen from the dead, His disciples recollected that He had said this; they believe the Scripture and the message which Jesus spoke [Luke 24: 45].
Matthew 27: 50 – 51
50 Jesus, once more crying with a loud voice, dismissed His spirit.
51 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook; the rocks were split;
Hebrews 9: 1- 15
1 To be sure, the first covenant had its own regulations and its earthly sanctuary;
2 for the first tabernacle was furnished in this way: in what is called the Holy Place were the lampstand and the table and the presentation loaves.
3 Behind the second curtain was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies,
4 containing the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant completely covered with gold; inside it the golden jar of manna, Aaron’s rod that sprouted, and the tablets of the covenant.
5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, - about which we cannot now go into detail.
6 With these things so arranged, the priests always enter the first tabernacle to perform their priestly duties,
7 but into the second the high priest alone enters once a year – not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the thoughtless sins of the people.
8 Through this the Holy Spirit evidences that the way into the Holiest was not yet opened with the first tabernacle still standing.
9 This is a symbol for the present time. It means that the gifts and offerings which are presented cannot make the worshipper’s conscience perfect,
10 as they consist only of food and drink and various ablutions – physical regulations that are in effect until the time of the new order.
11 But when Christ appeared as High Priest of the good things that have come, He passed through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands – no part, that is, of material creation.
12 And not with blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered once for all into the Holy Place, procuring eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, as it sprinkles those who were defiled, renders them holy so far as physical purity is concerned,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who though the eternal Spirit offered Himself a flawless sacrifice to God, cleanse your conscience from lifeless work for the service of the living God!
15 For this reason He is the Mediator of a new covenant so that, with a death occurring for atonement of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance that was promised.
Hebrews 10: 19 – 23
19 Since, therefore, we have confidence, brothers, to enter the Holiest through Jesus’ blood
20 by a new and living way, so recently made for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have a great Priest in charge of God’s house,
22 let us draw near with honest hearts and full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies bathed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unwaveringly our grip on the hope we confess, for he who promised is faithful.
· What does all this mean???
Ephesians 2: 19 –22
19 Therefore you are not strangers but immigrants, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household;
20 you are constructed on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, of which the cornerstone is Christ Jesus.
21 The whole building, framed together in Him, rises into a temple that is holy in the Lord [this is what I refer to as the Living Church of Christ],
22 in whom you also are built up together for a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Acts 17: 24 – 25
24 The God who made the world and all it contains, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples built by human hands,
25 neither is He served by human hands as if He lacked anything – He, the Giver of life and breath and all things to everyone.
· Conclusion
Galatians 4: 8 – 9
8 Previously, however, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to gods that essentially are not gods.
9 But now, when you know God, or better yet, are known by God, how is it that you are turning back again to those weak and beggarly rudiments to which you want to be enslaved all over again?
Luke 5: 36 – 39
36 And He spoke this parable to them: “No one patches an old garment with a patch taken from a new one, or else he will tear the new, and also the patch from the new will not match the old.
37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and run out and the skins will be ruined.
38 But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins.
39 And no one, used to drinking old wine, wants new wine right away, for he says, ‘The old is preferable’.
Galatians 1: 10 – 12
10 Am I now trying to win men’s favor, or God’s? Or do I seek to please men? If I were still pleasing men I would not be a slave of Christ.
11 For I declare to you, brothers, that the good news that is preached by me is no human affair;
12 for neither did I receive it from a human being nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
All GLory to Him
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Topic: Why I'm leaving the church building (Read 4790 times)