JESUS WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN

Yes that’s right, Jesus was not a Christian nor was he baptised into the Christian faith. He was baptised with a Jewish baptism by John for remission of sins even though he had not sinned.

First and foremost he was the son of God who came in the form of human flesh to show us the Father God. Then he was a Jew who observed the requirements of the Jewish faith. Bearing in mind that he was without sin, he kept the law perfectly.

When he left earth to go back to his father, he did not launch the Christian faith. He instructed his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptise them and teach them to observe everything that he had commanded them.

He said that he was not doing away with the law it was going to be fulfilled in and through him as the final sacrifice for sin.

The church is only mentioned twice by Jesus and it uses the word that denotes the called out ones into his kingdom. Not called out into a church. The church in the New Testament was the called out ones that is why they could not meet in a church. That is why they met in homes and not in purpose built buildings.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said he would build his called out ones on revelation, not degrees or a religious structure.

Jesus started the “calling out” when he chose the 12 disciples. Later on at the day of Pentecost thousands more were “called out” by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It was common place for Jews to meet in homes and usually to eat a meal together. The New Testament called out ones did this because they were the called out ones. Meeting together in homes and sharing meals together was a natural outcome of being called out ones.

On the day of Pentecost, they did not become Christians. They were still Jews who were members of “The Way’ as they were known as. It wasn’t until Antioch that they were called Christians (Christ ones), not by themselves but by others as a term of ridicule.

The concept of ecclesia which is what called out ones were known as and meeting together was not exclusive to the new faith as any group that were called out for any purpose were known as an ecclesia so its roots were in Judaism, not Christianity.

The other aspect of “calling out” is the fact that we are not called out to be an individual believer. We are called out to be part of the worldwide church of God to establish God’s kingdom on earth.

The church was evident when the called out ones met together. Only two or three were needed for a visit from Jesus himself. This in itself signifies that large numbers are not important; that homes are quite adequate for the called out ones to meet; that ritual and religion has no part in the called out church.

That means most of what we do is a waste of time.