Epaggelia

1. His Story / Our history
2. His Purposes / Our purpose 
3. His Names / Our name
4. His Gift / Our gifts 
5. The Church’s State and End-Goal

Most Christians understand and believe that we are baptized into the body of Christ which is the church, (1st Cor. 12:13, Eph. 5:23, Col. 1:24) Right? Helping the world understand what the church is, is a huge task, kind of like helping a toddler understand what a computer is, he can see it and enjoy it, but he finds it impossible to understand how to interact with it and really use it, all the toddler can really do is, spectate & speculate. If he tries to use it, the toddler ends up frustrated or breaking it. One of the first tasks Jesus gave His apostles was to make disciples, Matthew 28:18-19. Secondly, He commands baptism, then thirdly he tells them to teach them basically everything! So how do we make disciples before baptizing them, if they don’t even know how to relate to what the church is that they are being baptized into? That conundrum must be one of the biggest hindrances to disciples becoming Christians. I’m convinced infant sprinkling in some denominations, is maintained for that very reason. If you “baptize” a baby, you don’t need to worry about them making a choice, they can’t! It’s like labeling them a “christian” before they even have a chance to know what a disciple is, much less decide to become one. If it wasn’t so unscriptural, it would be hilarious. Jesus commands us to make disciples of Him, not us, the church. That’s great, considering most people in the world think the church is a building! Thankfully some people in the world think the church is a group of people, but they have no idea what God thinks of these people, or how He treats people, they call “the church”. So the best place to start with making disciples is to show them the Christ. If they will follow Him, they prayerfully can understand what God thinks of the people He calls the church. If they will follow Jesus for any length of time, they can not fail but to understand His love and morals. His love & morals should encourage them to be baptized and then they can start interacting as part of His body. Which is much more complicated than a computer but also much more beautiful, so they should grow and stay functioning as part of his body. The church is truly like a lampstand, not the light itself. The light is Jesus, the lampstand is the church, Matthew 5:14-15. But what is a light without a stand? It is like a city in the dark, dangerous! 

That is why it is very important to know God’s view of the church. He introduced it through prophecy. Read Micah 4:1-5 and see the prediction of a new nation with a judge that promotes eternal peace. There are many more Old Testament passages that prophesy about the church, so let’s learn and rejoice in God’s word/message about who we are and what He wants us to do, so that we might share it with people in the world that can see the love and morals of Christ.