Restoration Roots
“Restoration Roots”
Matt. 16:13-19
A. Our message, today, is about roots.
1. Back in the 1976 Alex Haley wrote a novel called “Roots: The Saga of an American
Family.” The next year Roots was turned into a TV show shown over 8 consecutive nights
in January 1977. That series chronicled several generations of a black family and the
awfulness of slavery. (Alex Haley—“If you see a turtle on a fencepost— you know it had
help getting there.”)
2. Roots are important to families, organizations, companies, schools, and to churches
because they tell us about our past and from whence we have come.
3. The Christian Churches are a people to whom roots are important. People came to this
country seeking religious freedom because they were tired of tyranny and the King’s tea.
They brought their religion with them, but here in America there was no state church so
people had the opportunity to worship God. Men in different parts of the country began to
have the same idea—let’s drop these denominational names, doctrines and creeds and
let’s restore the church in 19th century America like it was when the apostles started it in
Acts 2.
We trace our roots in America back to men such as Thomas and Alexander Campbell,
B.W. Stone, and Walter Scott. But our roots go way beyond them. They go beyond
Calvin and Luther and protestant reformation, they go beyond the Roman Catholic Church
and the Orthodox Church. Our roots all the way back to Jesus and His church that was
started in Acts 2.
B. The word “church” is first mentioned in the Bible in Matt. 16.
1. Jesus said to His disciples, “who do men say that I am?” In other words, what is the word
on the street about my identity? They said, some say you are Elijah, Jeremiah, John the
Baptist or one of the prophets. Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am? Peter said, “You
are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
2. Jesus said, “Blessed are you Simon Barjonah for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you,
but My Father who is in heaven. I also say that you are Peter and upon this rock I will
build My church.” That is the first place the word “church is mentioned in the Bible.”
Who said it? Jesus. Whose church did He say He would build? His church.
3. The church Jesus promised to build was brought into existence by Jesus 12 apostles in
A.D. 30. We are now 1986 year’s removed from the first church of Christ. I wish we
could say what claims to be Christianity today looked like the church that we just read
about in Acts 2, but in the past 2,000 years, Jesus’ church has been divided, denominated
and diluted to the point that much of what claims to be Christianity holds to tenets and
teachings that are not taught in the New Testament
4. As we think about rediscovering our roots, who is us?
I. A PEOPLE WITH A HIGH VIEW OF THE BIBLE.
A. There are many good reasons for believing the Bible—Jesus did, unity, no contradictions,
fulfilled prophecy.)
1. Heb. 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and
able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
2. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate,
equipped for every good work.”
B. Scripture is the last word not the church.
1. It is popular in our day and time to hear of denominations voting on what they believe.
Someone might say, “We voted to approve bylaws for this congregation. What is the
difference?” The difference is some denominations vote on matters the Bible has already
spoken clearly about. Where the Bible speaks, we have no vote. It’s not thus saith the
church, but thus saith the Bible. We voted on things the Scripture doesn’t speak about in
regard to protocol like budgets, how to distribute assets if the church ceased to exist,
selection of elders/preachers in the church.
2. Cardinal Gibbons “We must therefore conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a
sufficient guide and rule of faith because they cannot at any time be within the reach of
every inquirer because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible nor even in matters
of the highest importance and because they do not contain all the truths necessary for
salvation” (Faith of our Fathers, Cardinal James Gibbons, May 1, 1917).
3. In 1792, a Methodist preacher named James O’Kelly in North Carolina did not like the
hierarchy telling him what to preach so he held his NT aloft and said, “Brethren, hearken
unto me, put away all other books and forms, and let this one be the only criterion and that
will satisfy me.”
C. Scripture is the last word not personal experience.
1. We live in a time when personal experience often trumps Scripture. People say, “I like
that church because it makes me feel good.” Feelings are not the number 1 reason why
you choose a church. The number 1 question is, “What does the church teach?”
2. Of this subjective salvation, H.W. Everest said, “The consequences of this teaching are
most injurious. Mental excitement and anguish of the soul prevent all calm observation
and judgment; and yet upon this change life and death depend….It depends on mental
states. In times of despondency, when most needed, it vanishes away” (New Testament
Christianity, Volume I, pg. 133).
3. Jesus never said we are saved based upon how we feel. John 8:32 “and you will know the
truth and the truth will make you free.”
D. Scripture is the last word not creeds.
1. Some churches/denominations are governed by creeds—the creed has as much authority
or more than the Bible such are the Apostles’ Creed, the Philadelphia Confession of Faith,
the Augsburg Confession of Faith, and the Westminster Confession of Faith.
2. In His book, Letters to a Young Methodist Preacher, Ashley Johnson said the following
about creeds. “Out of [creeds] grows and immense train of errors that are divisive rather
than unifying in their relations to the children of God….There were no creeds in the
apostolic church…Creeds were born of the great apostasy which had begun its destructive
work even in Paul’s day” (He references II Thes. 2:1-17, I Tim. 4:1-4 as examples.)
3. It has been rightly said, “If a creed says more than the Bible it says too much, if it says less
than the Bible it says too little, and if it says the same things as the Bible it’s not needed.”
4. John 10:35b “the Scripture cannot be broken.”
II. A CHURCH THAT ORIGINATED WITH JESUS’ APOSTLES.
A. Peter said to Jesus, “Upon this rock I will build My church.”
1. That church came into existence less than a year and a half after Jesus made that
statement. After the resurrection, Jesus walked upon the earth for 40 days. They He
ascended into heaven. 10 days later, His disciples/apostles received a special gift of
speaking in languages they had never studied that got the attention of the crowd in
Jerusalem. Then Peter preached His sermon about Jesus and the church was born.
2. When you look for a church, you ought to ask the question, “Where did this church
originate? Where did it start? Where you end up depends on where you start.
The church that originated with Jesus and the apostles is….
B. One that exalts Jesus and wears His name.
1. Jesus ought to be exalted in the church. (The King is exalted on high, I will praise Him.)
a. Col. 1:18 “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything”
2. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus said, “I will build My church” but nobody puts Jesus’ name
on the church? The bride usually wears the name of the groom.
a. Rom. 16:16 “All the churches of Christ greet you.”
C. One that is free and autonomous.
1. What does it mean that the church is free and autonomous? It means the church is
governed by the leadership in that congregation. There is no bishop, archbishop, synod,
convention or any other outside ruling body that makes policy for the church. In the New
Testament, the congregation was governed by the leadership in each congregation.
2. Col. 4:15 “Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church in her
house.” (The church met in Nympha’s house was perhaps made up of just a few people,
but was just as much “the church” as a congregation of 10,000.)
3. Christ’s Church doesn’t give missions’ money to some headquarters who decides where it
will go—those decisions are made right here. Christ’s Church doesn’t have a conference
who says who the preacher will be and for how long. Christ’s Church doesn’t have a
convention that votes on what we believe—God already decided that for us. We are an
independent, autonomous church that is governed by Christ, through His word and by the
human instruments of a preacher and other leaders in the church.
4. There is a tendency today away from denominational loyalty in our day and time. These
popular, big churches around here, none of them have a denominational name. Those
churches are self-governed too without outside influence. We had that idea long ago
5. 50 years ago some of the Christian Churches were contacted by the Disciples of Christ
denomination who said, “your church/your property belongs to us.” Churches had to go to
court to win their freedom and they did!
6. As it relates to being a denomination, we are loyal to the concept of not being one!
D. One that gives a Pentecost answer to the Pentecost question.
1. When I say “Pentecost” I don’t mean Pentecostal as in the denomination, but as in Acts 2
and the church’s establishment.
2. One of the major differences between the Christ’s Church and the evangelical
denominations is what we teach about how a person is saved.
a. After Peter preached his sermon on the day of Pentecost and told the people about
Jesus miracles, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension to heaven, then he said
Acts 2:36 “God has made Him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Acts 2:37 “they cried out “what shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent and
each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
1) The only preacher outside of the Restoration Movement that I ever heard tell
people what Peter told them in Acts 2 was a blind preacher in Tennessee, but he
said Acts 2 only applied to the Jews and not Gentiles.
3. Our contribution to the religious world is to say this, you haven’t gone far enough in your
teaching about salvation. Yes, a person needs to believe in Jesus and they need to repent
of their sins and they need to be in a spirit of prayer like Saul, but they also need to be
baptized. For in the act of immersion of a repentant believer God forgives their sins and
gives them the gift of His Holy Spirit. This is God’s work and not salvation by works.
4. Acts 5:32 “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God
has given to those who obey Him.”