One Church What Would It Be Like?

By Robert Wyeth

We all follow rules and traditions because that's what all the church practised; this is the way to God. But no, traditions are painful memories, we can't think what the traditions are about, they seem too far away. We do things that are totally wrong before God, studying in the Bible.

Our village or town, do we know the names o

• Language: English
• Publisher: WorkBook Press
• Release date: Nov 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781952754678

Robert Wyeth

After university I went to the London Bible College. I expected to prepare for missionary work, but the Lord didn’t want me to go there. I carried on as a project engineer, working in industry. I have been going to church for a number of years, and I have been an elder, so some things are good and the rest of them are bad. One friend commented to me, "After I am dead, I will be an angel. Floating around doing good for anybody." Really? Particularly so with the concept and themes of the Bible. You are children of God, welcomed in the kingdom of God, do you want to be an angel? Remember the good and bad angels. What will happen to the bad angels?

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Copyright @2022 by Robert Wyeth

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ISBN-13: 978-1-958176-46-7 (Paperback Version)

978-1-958176-47-4 (Digital Version)

REV. DATE: 05/24/2022

One Church What Would It Be Like?

Robert Wyeth

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Summary 1

The Early Church 3

The Church is One Body 3

Jesus Asked Them to Go 4

Jesus was glorified 5

Feast of Pentecost 6

Fellowship of Believers 7

Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin 9

Persecution in Jerusalem 11

Jesus Teaching the Church 13

Jesus Teaching 13

The Word Church 18

The Word Love 20

Brother Who Sins Against You 24

The Bishop of Rome 26

Excommunication from the Church 28

The Prayer of Faith 31

Their Missionary Journeys 32

Around the Churches 34

Palestine 34

The Church in Caesarea 34

The Absent Church in Capernaum 37

The Church in Jerusalem 39

The Church in Galilee 43

The Church in Joppa 45

The Church in Lydda 47

The Church in Samaria 48

The Church in Sharon 50

Syria 51

The Church in Antioch 51

The Church in Damascus 56

The Absent Church in Mesopotamia 58

The Church in Phoenicia 60

The Church in Ptolemais 62

The Church in Tyre 63

Arabia 65

The Absent Church in Arabia 65

Egypt 67

The Church in Alexandria 67

The Church in Cyrene 69

The Church in Egypt 71

The Church in Ethiopia 73

Cyprus 75

The Church in Paphos 75

The Absent Church in Salamis 77

Asia Minor 79

The Church in Bithynia 79

The Church in Cappadocia 81

The Church in Colosse 83

The Church in Derbe 85

The Church in Ephesus 88

The Church in Galatia 93

The Church in Hierapolis 96

The Church in Iconium 97

The Church in Laodicea 98

The Church in Lystra 100

The Church in Medes 103

The Church in Miletus 105

The Absent Church in Mysia 107

The Church in Pamphylia 108

The Absent Church in Parthia 111

The Church in Patmos 112

The Church in Perga 114

The Church in Pergamum 115

The Church in Philadelphia 117

The Church in Phrygia 118

The Church in Pisidia 120

The Church in Pontus 122

The Church in Sardis 124

The Church in Smyrna 125

The Church in Tarsus 126

The Church in Thyatira 128

The Church in Troas 130

Greece 132

The Church in Achaia 132

The Church in Athens 135

The Church in Berea 137

The Church in Cenchrea 139

The Church in Corinth 141

The Church in Greece 144

The Church in Macedonia 146

The Church in Nicopolis 149

The Church in Philippi 150

The Church in Thessalonica 155

Crete 159

The Church in Crete 159

Italy 162

The Absent Church in Illricum 162

The Church in Italy 164

The Church in Puteoli 166

The Church in Rome 167

What Would the Church Be Doing? 171

The Way of New Life 171

No Splits in the Church 173

A New Priesthood 176

The Points to Remember 178

Only One Church 183

Qualifications for Believers 186

Church Going Forward 188

Acknowledgements

Most of the verses were taken from the NIV Bible:

The Holy Bible, New International Version ®, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Copyright 1985 by the Zondervan Corporation.

Anglicisation 1987 by the Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

This edition first presented in Great Britain in 1987.

Other versions:

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust, issued by the Tyndale House Publishers.

The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Published by Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville. Tennessee.

It contains the 1611 version of the Authorised Version for the Holy Scriptures.

Summary

At the end of his life on earth when he was being taken up by God. A cloud hid Jesus from the disciples’ sight. Before he went Jesus said,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew ch.28 v18-20

However, the church did not do what Jesus instructed them. They copied something of what he told them, but they followed the traditions of their elders and leaders.

Consider the book of Nehemiah. He was authorised to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall (ch.2 v6), but the non-Jews heard about it they were furious (ch.2 v19; ch.4 v7). Finally, the wall was finished (ch.6 v15) and the Jews fasted, wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads (ch.9 v1).

Then Nehemiah went back to his master (ch.13 v6). The people returned to what they had been doing, back to their traditions:

A non-Jew took over a room in the temple (ch.13 v7).

The provisions for the Levites had not been carried out (ch.13 v10).

The Sabbath was not kept (ch.13 v15).

Men were coming into Jerusalem on the Sabbath (ch.13 v16).

People were married off to the Gentiles (ch.13 v23).

In Nehemiah, you start with what is good, but the false teachers and false prophets came in and convinced the Israelites to amend their ways. Amazing! even after completing the wall, still the Israelites returned to their traditions. When Nehemiah left to go back to king Artaxerxes over 800 miles away.

Peter said,

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute 2 Peter ch.2 v1-2

We can follow the believers at the end of the first century. It is all laid down for us to see how they managed to recover from the sins of the past and what they were currently doing.

The Early Church

The Church is One Body

Jesus prays for all believers before he was arrested and taken by the Jews and handed over to the Romans to be executed (see John ch.17 v2-26).

He understood that this was his last hour before he was crucified. He was going back to the Father. Before he went he spoke to his Father:

He prays for himself.

He prays for his disciples.

He prays for all the believers.

Jesus says, I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John ch.17 v22-23

Unity: He prayed for that unity that is harmony, solidarity and oneness. It is not disunity, disagreement and discord. Not to separate off, but have complete agreement and that the church would be strong and vibrant.

For the rest of the Bible, the church fought together as one. There were a series of false teachers and prophets in the church. But they stayed together, as one, they remained as one throughout the Bible.

However, it is not unity that binds them together, it is more than that.

Jesus Asked Them to Go

Jesus had told them what to do: ’Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of God. Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’ (see Matthew ch.28 v18-20).

Most people do not enter the church except when they are married, baptise children and die. It is a comfortable, safe place to go to church where you might be protected and have the outside world passing by. You could easily spend some there, looking at the furnishings, pillars, windows, seats and hear the readings and prayers from the Bible.

However, Jesus said, ’Go’. It is a call for all the nations, to go outside. It was a reminder for us today, to get out and teach and preach what God says in the Bible.

Baptism is an important step to witness outside where many people could be staying and watching. It is a crucial step to belong to the believers. To count the cost of being prepared to do that. It is a reminder of Jesus being killed, buried and raised again as you come out of the water.

Teaching them what Jesus has commanded. To shepherd them and keep them true to the faith. If you don’t do it, people would depart from the truth being convinced by what many others believe. There are a lot of false prophets and teachers in the church and we have it today. It is impossible to remove them. This is why the apostles wrote letters to the churches to remind them to follow