by Bryan Gibson
“I will build My church”—that’s the promise Jesus made in Matthew 16:18. Jesus was not talking about a building, or some centralized organization. He was talking about people. He was talking about building a temple, not a physical one, but a temple made up of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5). With all the preparatory work done, the actual work of building His church began in Acts 2, where we first read of souls being “added to the church” (v. 47—note: the word church is not found in all translations, but it is clearly intended). Do you want to be a member of the church Jesus built, or of some church that man built (and man has built quite a few)? Hopefully, your sincere desire is to be a member of the church Jesus built. As mentioned in the previous article, you can be a member of this church and still have no denominational ties whatsoever.
How do you become a member of this church? The only way to get the right answer to this question is to go to the Scriptures, to the New Testament specifically. The passage in Acts 2:47 was mentioned earlier, where certain ones were “added to the church.” What did these people do? In v. 37 of this same chapter, they asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” These people wanted to know what to do to be saved. Peter, through his preaching, had convicted these people of sin. They knew now that this Jesus whom they had crucified was the Christ, the Son of God. Now they wanted to know what to do to be saved from their sin. This is the answer Peter gave: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (v. 38). The response is recorded in v. 41: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” When these people obeyed Peter’s instructions, they were saved from their sins, and the Lord added them to His church (v. 47). If you do the same thing they did, you too will be saved from your sins, and the Lord will add you to His church. After all, that is what the church is—His people, those who have been saved from their sins. Please understand this, too. In obeying these instructions, you will not become a member of any denomination. Clearly, these people were not, and neither will you be.
But what if you did something different than what these people did? Perhaps you were taught to “ask Jesus to come into your heart”; or, “pray the sinner’s prayer”; or maybe you were taught that belief was all that was necessary to be saved. Please examine what you were taught against what the apostle Peter said in Acts 2. Those people had already come to believe in Jesus, but they were further taught to repent and be baptized “for the remission of their sins.” Many people leave baptism completely out when talking about what one must do to be saved, but even Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). To further strengthen the point, consider 1 Corinthians 12:13: “…we were all baptized into one body.” The body is simply another description of the church (Ephesians 1:22-23), so we are baptized into the church. That is certainly consistent with what we read in Acts 2, because when those people were baptized, the Lord added them to His church.
Let’s not make this any more complicated than it is. When we’re talking about the Lord’s church, we’re simply talking about those who have been saved, those whose names are written in heaven (Hebrews 12:23). Certainly, you need to be numbered among the saved, and you can be, if you do just what those people in Acts 2 did. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and are willing to confess Him (see Acts 8:37; Romans 10:9-10), then please repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Upon obeying these commandments, you will be saved and the Lord will add you to His church. (For additional study on this subject, please read Acts 8:12-13; 8:35-39; 16:14-15; 16:31-34; 18:8; 22:16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13; 1 Peter 3:21.)
In the next article, we will continue to follow these people in the Book of Acts. We want to see what they did after they were saved and added to the Lord’s church. We will find them worshipping and working together with other Christians—in local churches, without being a member of any denomination.