The Church Jesus Built
It is made clear in the New Testament that Jesus built, owns and heads His church.
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Jesus said, "...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Matthew 16:18
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Speaking of Jesus, Paul said, "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."
Colossians 1:18
Universal & Local
In one sense, the church is that collection of Jesus' disciples around the world and throughout time, as expressed in this passages in the Ephesian letter.
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"And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."
Ephesians 1:22-23
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The church of our Lord works together and functions in local congregations. This is illustrated in Revelation 2 -3 where John records the letters Jesus sends to 7 local congregations located in Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
Hebrews 10:24-25
The Lord's Church - Designed to work together
Jesus did not leave us to figure out on our own how the church should work. He provided the design in the New Testament for the structure, mission and functioning of His church, His body. It is there that we find the pattern Jesus provided for His church.
"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Ephesians 4:11-16
