When Was the Church Established?
Categories: Sermon Outlines, Topical Sermon OutlinesSUBJECT: CHURCH
TITLE: WHEN WAS THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED?
PROPOSITION: To set forth “WHEN” the church of Christ was established.
OBJECTIVE: That by knowing “WHEN” the church of Christ was established we can know the church of Christ.
INTRODUCTION:
1. Read: Daniel 2:44.
1) Regarding the text:
a. Men often mistake God in His eternal Divine reality; and certainly mistake God as He was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,
b. Corinthians 5:19, as:
a) Matthew 16:13-14; and
b) The “Campbellite mistake.”
2) The prophecies of Daniel touch several aspects of the kingdom of God.
3) In Daniel 7:13-1A we are informed of the specific time for the “Son of man” to receive “dominion, and glory and a kingdom”: when He ascended with the “clouds of heaven…to the Ancient of Days.”
4) Daniel states in the verse of the text that the kingdom of Jehovah would be set up in the days of the fourth world power or kingdom, the Roman Empire.
5) God often uses words interchangeably to define His own will.
6) The words “kingdom,” “mountain,” “house,” and “church” are used interchangeably by God, and therefore mean exactly the same thing.
7) This being true, the kingdom, house, mountain, church of Christ is set forth by God, as coming into existence, is established, at a certain specific place and time.
8) This is one of the most significant identifying characteristics of the church of Christ.
2. Reference to Subject, Title, Proposition and Objective.
DISCUSSION: When was the church of Christ established? –
I. NOT IN THE EARLY 1800’s.
1. In the late 1700’s, Thomas Campbell came to America and began studying his Bible as the ONLY source of unity among professed believers.
2. In 1809 Thomas’ son Alexander Campbell came to America determined to explain to his father how he had turned to his New Testament and found the seed of the kingdom.
3. Both men, by independent study had come to the same conclusions: division is sinful; creeds, doctrines, traditions and commandments of men cause division; and the New Testament ALONE, taken strictly, can produce unity!
4. Out of a careful study of the New Testament, the slogan which can unite all humanity came: Speak where the Bible speaks; be silent where the Bible is silent; call Bible things by Bible names; and do Bible things in Bible ways: In matters of faith unity; in matters of opinion liberty; in all things charity (love).
5. This did NOT – NOT – NOT produce a new denomination, but by this pure New Testament seed, the original church of Christ was restored!
II. ACCORDING TO OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY.
1. Daniel 2:44.
2. Isaiah 2:1-4.
III. ACCORDING TO JESUS’ PROPHETIC STATEMENTS.
1. Matthew 16:18.
2. Mark 9:1.
3. Not in the days of John.
IV. ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
1. Acts 1:6-9.
2. Acts 2:1-4, 47.
3. Ephesians 3:10-11.
CONCLUSION:
1. When was the church of Christ established?
1) NOT IN THE EARLY 1800’s;
2) ACCORDING TO OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY;
3) ACCORDING TO JESUS’ PROPHETIC STATEMENTS; and
4) ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
2. The church of Christ, the real thing, was established nearly 600 years before Roman Catholicism and 1600 years before the first Protestant denomination, that is, on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus, Acts 2.