• Is Christ’s church the means or result of salvation?
  • “Church” refers to saved people
    • Ephesians 5:23,25-27; Hebrews 12:22-29
    • ekklesia = “called out ones” (group)
    • Collective noun
      • a team of players; a herd of cows
      • Ephesians 5:29-30; I Corinthians 12:27-28
      • “Church” refers to (collects) saved people.
    • The Bible uses “church” in several ways:
      • Universal sense – saved people everywhere
      • Local sense – saved people joined together in a certain area to do spiritual work.
      • Assembled sense
  • Be loyal to Christ, not the “church”
    • The church does not save. It is the saved.
    • Acts 2:4,11,14,36-38,41-47
    • People were first saved by Christ in Acts 2, and so the church began in Acts 2.
    • What do we mean when???
      • “He’s a church of Christ preacher”
      • “I’m church of Christ”
      • “Our family is church of Christ”
      • “I’m a church of Christ-er”
    • Those who follow Christ are called the “church.”
  • The church (universal) is composed of individual Christians, not local churches. (I Corinthians 12:27,13)
    • Acts 8:38; III John 10