Bibles For America Podcast

People, even Christians, have many concepts about what the church is. But what is the church exactly? Is the church a building Christians go to on Sundays to worship? Is the church an organization of people who believe in Jesus Christ? To discover what God’s thought is concerning the church, we must come to the Bible. While we can’t cover this enormous matter in a single podcast, we’ll begin to look at what the church is according to God’s Word. A good principle in reading the Bible is to pay special attention to the first mention of a matter. This sets the stage for understanding that matter in the rest of Scripture. The first mention of the word church in the entire Bible is in Matthew 16:18. In this passage, Jesus brings His disciples outside Jerusalem and asks them who they think He is (v. 15). Peter responds by declaring, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Jesus tells Peter that he received this revelation from God (v. 17). After such an important revelation, we might think the Lord