2026 Summer Gospel Meeting: James Luedecke - Our Mission Mindset to Restore the New Testament Church

I am excited to be here this morning. Thank you

so much for having me come and be your teacher.

It means a lot to me that when you all sat down

and planned your summer 2026 gospel meeting,

you thought of me, you asked me to come, and

you give me another opportunity to stand before

you like this, to teach, and to share the Word

of God with you. Thank you for being here. I'm

looking forward to and I hope you are as well

to all the events and all the activities that

we have planned throughout the course of this

gospel meeting. I'm very, very excited to come

to you this time and share a topic with you that

I think is very, very important, a topic that

is important to me, that I get excited about.

I hope to inspire you to be excited about this

topic as well and see the importance of it. And

that is the topic of restoring New Testament

Christianity. You might be sitting there and

wondering, well, what in the world is restoring

New Testament Christianity? What does that even

mean? Well, I hope by the end of this lesson,

through our study of the Scriptures together,

that you will have a good idea and a good understanding

of what it means to restore New Testament Christianity.

When we boil it down to its most basic elements,

restoring New Testament Christianity is just

going back to the Bible. We're going back to

the Bible to find our faith, to find our doctrine,

and to find our practice. So this morning I want

to talk about our mission in churches of Christ.

We as the people of God should be about a mission,

the mission of the Lord. And we should have a

mindset of that mission. We should keep that

mission in the forefront of our minds. We should

keep it on the tip of our tongues. It should

be evident in the way we live. We walk and we

talk. and our mission mindset as Christians should

be the restoration of the New Testament Church.

And we're going to dive into this topic and try

to understand it better by starting with this

fact. And this is a fact that we know just by

simple observation. We look around us today,

we survey the religious landscape around us,

and we see that many different churches today

exist for many different reasons. It's obvious

to us that some churches today exist to advance

some kind of social political agenda. And we

know that by going by church and seeing the rainbow

flags that it's proudly flying out front. When

we see that, we understand that church exists

to advance a social political agenda. We also

look at the way a lot of churches worship God

and we see the grand productions that they put

on as part of their worship, concert, like experiences

in the way they worship God. And it's obvious

to us that some churches today exist just to

entertain the masses. And people flock in masses

to attend churches that worship God in these

very entertaining ways. We also look around us

and see that some churches exist to prop up and

exalt some kind of popular preacher. And you

know, The popularity of preachers, it's always

changing. Sometimes a preacher becomes very popular

and his popularity declines and then another

preacher pops up and he's more popular than the

last. And it's an endless cycle of ups and downs

concerning the religious world and the popularity

of preachers in the religious world. And some

churches today, that's why they exist. They exist

to popularize and hold up some popular preacher,

whoever that might be. You know, it's easy for

us to look around and see our religious neighbors

and understand why they exist. But before we

go any further, you know what we ought to do?

We ought to think about ourselves. And let's

do that for a moment. Let's turn our focus inward.

And let's ask the question, why do we exist?

Why do we exist in churches of Christ? What is

our purpose? What is our mission? I think it's

so very, very important that we be able to answer

that question. Parents, grandparents, it's so

very important that you teach your children and

your grandchildren how to answer that question.

Because if we lose sight of our purpose and we

lose focus of our mission in churches of Christ,

we run the risk of going astray as many churches

already have. What is the reason for our existence

in churches of Christ? I believe our mission

needs to be this. Our mission is to be the same

church that Jesus Christ built. Brother Daniel

put it so well in his introduction this morning

that we exist as a church to be the one and the

same church that Jesus built many, many years

ago in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day in Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2 as you can read right there in your Bible.

That needs to be our purpose. That needs to be

our mission in churches of Christ. Now what I

want to do is I want to go through some scriptures

this morning and maybe it's a review for you,

a refresher, or maybe it's new information altogether

for you. Regardless, I want to help you discover

or rediscover, if you will, the church that Jesus

built or the church that your New Testament teaches.

And to do that we're going to go back into the

book of Matthew. I appreciate the reading this

morning from Matthew chapter 16. As we read,

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Jesus is in a place called Caesarea Philippi.

He calls his disciples together. And he says,

who do men say that I am? And there were a lot

of different ideas and theories about the identity

of Jesus. Some people said he was John the Baptist.

Others said he was Jeremiah. Others said he was

one of the prophets. And then Jesus asked his

disciples the question. He said, but who do you

say I am? And you remember that's when Peter

spoke up, and he said, well, you're the Christ,

the Son of the living God, and Peter was right.

He gave the right answer. And you'll remember

that's when Jesus pronounced a blessing upon

Peter and made a promise. to Peter and the disciples.

In Matthew 16 verse 18, Jesus said to Peter,

Matthew 16:18

thou art Peter and upon this rock, and that rock

was Peter's confession that he just made that

Jesus was the Christ. Upon the rock of that truth,

that confession, Jesus said, I will build my

church and the gates of hell or Hades shall not

prevail against it. Here Jesus makes a promise.

He says, Peter, I will build my church. We learned

some very important things about the church from

this teaching. Number one, Jesus says, I will

build my church. He's pointing into the future.

He hadn't built his church yet at this point

in his earthly ministry, but he would soon do

it. He would soon do it. Jesus said when he built

his church, it would be his church. He takes

ownership or possession of that church by saying,

it's my church. It wasn't going to be Peter's

church. It wasn't going to be John's church.

It wasn't going to be Brother James's church.

Jesus says, when I build the church, it's going

to be my church. It is going to belong to Christ.

And another important thing that Jesus teaches

us here is the only promise to build one church.

Jesus didn't say, I'm going to build many different

churches. He said, I will build one church and

it will be my church and I will soon do it. Jesus

made the promise. Listen, when Jesus makes a

promise, you better believe that He's going to

keep it. And he made this promise to his disciples

that he would build his church. And in connection

with that statement, the very next verse, he

says something else about the establishment of

the church. He tells Peter, I will give to thee

the keys of the kingdom. He told Peter, I'll

give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Did

Jesus literally take keys out of his pocket and

give them to Peter? Is he talking about literal

keys here? No. Keys, of course, are symbolic.

What is a key symbolic of? A key is symbolic

really of authority. If I gave you the keys to

my car, what am I giving you? I'm giving you

the authority and the privilege to jump in my

car, turn on the radio, take it for a spin if

you like. If I give you the keys to my home,

what am I giving you? Essentially, I'm giving

you privilege and authority to go in and out

of my home as you please. And so the keys here

symbolize the authority. to open and to grant

access to something. And Jesus tells Peter, I'm

going to give you these kings. I'm going to give

you the authority and the power to make available

to open and to extend access to this kingdom

that I'm soon going to establish in the form

of the church. Jesus gave Peter the keys of the

kingdom. That's very important because not long

after this, after Jesus died, after he was buried,

and after he rose from the dead, it would...

Come time for Peter to use those keys, if you

will, and unlock or open the gates or the doors

of the kingdom so that people could come into

it. So if we keep reading in the Gospels, of

course, we're going to read about the death of

Jesus, his terrible, traumatic death. We're going

to read about his burial. We're going to read

about his glorious resurrection. And after the

resurrection of Jesus, the Bible tells us this

in Acts chapter one, verse three. We're getting

closer and closer. Now to Jesus's promise to

establish His church. Before He did that though,

the Bible tells us in Acts 1 and 3 that He spent

about 40 days with His disciples teaching them

things pertaining to the kingdom of God. You

know why that was? Because the kingdom was oh

so very close. It was oh so very close to coming

in Acts chapter 1. He spent those last 40 days

Acts 1 · chapter mention

before He went back to the Father teaching them

things about this coming kingdom. And then that

takes us into Acts chapter 2. And as I mentioned

Acts 2 · chapter mention

earlier, Acts chapter 2, in that chapter we find

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the time, we find the place, we find the occasion

upon which Jesus fulfilled that promise that

He made in Matthew 16 to build His church. This

is the day, this is the time, this is the place

when Jesus built His church. I'm not going to

read all of Acts 2. I'd encourage you to go home

and read that entire chapter, all 47 verses.

It's packed with a lot of exciting information

in the story about how all this came to be. But

I'll just summarize it briefly for you. In Acts

chapter two, verse one to four, the first thing

that we read is that God sent the Holy Spirit

upon the twelve apostles. They were baptized

with the Holy Spirit. And being baptized with

the Holy Spirit gave the apostles power and ability

to speak foreign languages that they had never

spoken before. And they spoke the languages of

all those Jews. who were gathered at Jerusalem

for Pentecost from the far reaches of the Roman

Empire. God gave the ability for those apostles

to speak the languages of those Jews by way of

the Holy Spirit in verses 1 to 4. In verses 5

to 7, Peter and the apostles stand up and they

start teaching and preaching the people. They

start speaking by way of the Spirit and they

start telling them about Jesus and the gospel.

And you know, all the Jews that were gathered

together for Pentecost, they saw this, they witnessed

this. And they tried to assess what was going

on and they were confused. The Bible says many

of them were confounded. They didn't understand.

You know, some of the Jews even pointed to him

and said, don't worry about them. They're drunk.

They're full of new wine. These are just drunk

men. But that's when Peter stands up in Acts

Acts 2:14–36

2 verse 14 to 36 and he says, men and brethren,

we're not drunk. He says it's just the third

hour of the day. It's just nine o 'clock. And

he told him, he said, what you're witnessing

is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy through

the prophet Joel that God would someday pour

out his spirit on his servants and they would

prophesy. And then Peter takes advantage of that

opportunity and he goes on to preach the gospel

to those Jews. He preaches the death of Jesus.

He preaches the burial of Jesus and he preaches

the resurrection. Now he doesn't, if you go in

and read Acts 2, 14 to 36, you'll notice something.

He doesn't spend a whole lot of time dwelling

on the death of Jesus. You know why? because

the death of Jesus was indisputable. Just fifty

days prior to this, many of these Jews were first

-hand witnesses to the death of Jesus. They walked

outside the city walls and saw Him hanging on

the cross. They were witness to His phony trial

and His conviction. The death of Jesus was not

a fact that was disputed. The Jews knew it. It

was the talk of the town. Peter doesn't spend

a lot of time on the burial of Jesus because

it almost goes without saying, what do we do

with dead people? We bury them. And that's what

they did with Jesus. After he died, he was buried

in a tomb. But you know, Peter does spend a lot

of time in this sermon focusing on the resurrection

of Jesus. And he goes back to Old Testament prophecy

to prove that yes, Jesus died and was buried,

but God had raised him from the dead. And that's

the gospel that Peter preached to those Jews

in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day. When we get down

to verse 37, we find the effect of the preaching

of the gospel. The Bible says that those Jews

were convicted. They were pricked in their hearts.

And they cried out to Peter and the apostles,

Men and brethren, what shall we do? You know,

that's what the preaching of the gospel does.

It pricks our heart. It's a wonderful message.

The message of Jesus. and His sacrificial death

for you and for me. Jesus didn't deserve to hang

on that cross. We deserve to hang on that cross

because of our sins, because of our transgressions.

But Jesus, the perfect sinless Son of God, willingly

took that punishment we deserved on Himself.

That's why He went to that cross, to save us,

to deliver us from condemnation and punishment

for our sin. He took our place. It's a touching

story. It's a beautiful story. It shows us how

much God loves us. It shows us the abundance

of His mercy and His grace. And that He was willing

to give His only Son. Would you give your only

Son for the sins of the whole world? I'd have

a hard time doing that. But God did it nonetheless.

It's a wonderful, beautiful story when you open

your heart to it. When you look inside and see

your sin, And understand how terrible it is and

when you see the love of God demonstrated through

the sacrifice of Jesus. It's hard not to be touched

and convicted by the preaching of the gospel.

And that's what happened in Acts 2. Those Jews

were pricked in their heart. They said, what

are we going to do? And then in Acts 2 .38, Peter

told them what they needed to do to get right

with God. He said, first thing you need to do

is repent. Repent of your sin. He said, you need

to be baptized. He said, every one of you. He

said, it's... in the name of Jesus Christ or

by the authority of Jesus Christ and it's for

the remission or an order that you might receive

the forgiveness of your sins. And he told them

if they would do that there was an associated

promise with that. He said you'll receive the

gift of the Holy Ghost. He told them what they

needed to do to get right with God, to repent

of that sin and have it washed away in the waters

of baptism. And the Bible goes on to tell us

what happened next in Acts chapter 2 verse 41.

Acts 2:41

In Acts 2 .41 it says this, they that gladly

received his word, those who gladly received

Peter's preaching of the gospel, the death, burial,

and resurrection of Jesus. What did they do?

The Bible says they were baptized. Those who

gladly received his word were baptized, and the

same day, immediately, same day, they were added

unto them about 3 ,000 souls. Isn't that wonderful?

3 ,000 people that day heard the gospel. 3 ,000

people that day believed the gospel. And 3 ,000

people that day obeyed the gospel in baptism.

And you know, when these 3 ,000 heard, believed

and obeyed the gospel, the Bible says the Lord

added them to something. You notice the word

added there in verse 41. The Lord added them

to something. What did He add them to? We skip

down to the last verse of the chapter verse 47

and it tells us what the Lord added them to When

they were baptized and saved from their sins

These three thousand people were praising God

and they were having favor with all the people

and the Lord added to the church daily Such as

should be saved every day People continued to

hear believe and obey the gospel and baptism

and at that very moment God saved them from their

sins He washed them clean by the blood of Jesus

and He simultaneously added them to His church.

This is when it all started, right here. This

is when the first Christians came into the body

of Christ through baptism. This is the day, this

is the time, this is the place and occasion upon

which Jesus built His church all the way back

in Jerusalem in Acts 2 on Pentecost day. We have

it recorded for us and left to us in the Scriptures.

Now here's some things we need to understand

about Jesus building his church Paul would later

go on to talk to the elders of the church at

Ephesus and he told them to take heed therefore

unto themselves and to all the flock over which

the Holy Ghost had made them overseers or elders

and he tells those men in Acts 20 28 to feed

the church of God To feed the church of God and

he makes a comment about the church here which

he that's Jesus have purchased with his own blood

Jesus paid a high price to purchase the church.

The price that was paid was his own shed blood.

He died and shed his blood to purchase, to take

possession or ownership of the church that he

built. Now a lot of people today, they don't

think about the church as being essential or

important or necessary. A lot of people today

focus solely on just having a relationship with

Jesus. It's all about having a relationship with

Jesus and we don't need religion and we don't

need the church. All we need is Jesus. Well,

I'm here to tell you we do need Jesus. We do

need a personal relationship with Jesus. But

to have a personal relationship with Jesus means

that we are going to value the things that He

valued. What did Jesus value? What did he give

up his life for? What did he die for? The Bible

says Jesus died to purchase the church. If the

church was that important to Jesus, shouldn't

the church be that important to us if we're following

Christ? This idea of give me Jesus, but I don't

need the church. I don't think Christ respects

that idea or that attitude. I don't think he

accepts it. Because to follow Jesus is to happily

and thankfully be a part of the church that he

built and that he purchased with his own blood.

A high price was paid to purchase the church.

And because Jesus is the one who died to purchase

the church, He is the one who rules and reigns

supreme over His church. He's the head of the

body of the church. That's Colossians 1 and 18.

He's the head. No man, no council, no board of

directors, no organization, no priest, no pope,

no preacher is the head of the church. Jesus

Christ and Him alone, He rules and reigns supreme

over His body, which is the church that He built.

Now, those are some scriptures which help us

discover or rediscover the church that Jesus

built. I want to continue forward in history.

I want to talk a little bit about the past. I

want to talk about history this morning. I think

it's important that we understand some basic

history about the church. Because it's really

hard for us to see the need and the importance

of restoring New Testament Christianity if we

don't understand the history of Christianity.

If we don't understand how we got here today,

it's hard to see the importance of restoring

the New Testament church. We're going to continue

forward in the first century. In the first century,

the church enjoyed rapid and booming growth.

The church was growing rapidly throughout the

Roman Empire. It was being persecuted at times,

yes, but it was still growing rapidly into the

far reaches of the Roman Empire. Many, many people

come to know Christ. Many, many people come to

hear the gospel and be baptized. But at the same

time the church was growing and booming in the

first century, the apostles were also predicting

an apostasy. You can think about apostasy as

a falling away or a departure from the faith.

And I want to show you two of these prophecies.

The first one is in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul writes to

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

the church at Thessalonica. And it's really verses

1 to 12. We're not going to read 1 to 12. I'm

going to focus in on here on verse 3. This is

where Paul tells the Thessalonians. He says,

let no man deceive you. So we don't want to be

deceived about this. We want to understand the

truth. Let no man deceive you by any means for

that day shall not come and the day that's under

consideration There is the day of Christ return

if you look at the context That's what they're

talking about the day of the Lord's return that

day will not come except there come a falling

away first Paul tells the Thessalonians Lord's

coming back and he is coming back He says but

before the Lord comes back There's going to be

a falling away First, Paul predicted that, an

apostasy, a falling away of the church. You know,

it's very similar to the language that he wrote

to Timothy. He wrote to Timothy, I believe, about

the same thing. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses

1 Timothy 4:1–3

1 to 3, listen to what he says. Now, the Spirit

speaketh expressly, clearly. The Spirit speaks

clearly about this, so we need to understand

this clearly. That in the latter times, Paul

says, some, not all, but some shall depart from

the faith. Wow, that must have been something

for Timothy to hear. You know, he's seeing many,

many people come to know Christ. He's seeing

the church grow. But Paul tells him there's going

to come a time when some are going to depart

from the faith. He's telling the Thessalonians

that there's going to be a falling away. These

are prophecies pointing forward to some events

that did happen and did unfold, just like Paul

predicted and prophesied in the course of church

history. Now, if you study church history, there

are some things that will become evident to you.

These are the undisputed facts of church history,

okay? Regardless of what faith you have, what

denomination you're a part of, we can study church

history and scholars across the board can agree

on the facts of church history that I'm about

to share with you. And I'm going to share the

good, the bad, and the ugly concerning church

history. We have to do that. We have to be honest.

And I want to tell you honestly and sincerely,

this falling away, this departure from the faith

that Paul predicted, it did happen over the course

of church history. It didn't happen all in one

day. It didn't happen all in one year. It didn't

even happen all in one century. But this falling

away, this departure from the faith happened

slowly over the course of about 1 ,400 years,

and it corresponded to the rise of what we know

today as the Roman Catholic Church. I want to

talk to you a little bit this morning about the

Roman Catholic Church. And when I do that, I

want you to understand something. When I mention

the Roman Catholic Church, please don't misunderstand

me. I'm not trying to attack individuals personally

who might be a part of the Roman Catholic Church.

You might have friends and family members who

are part of this church. I do. And this is not

an indictment on them personally or questioning

their faith or their sincerity. But we're going

to talk about some things concerning the Roman

Catholic Church. It would be hard for us to tell

the story of church history without talking about

the names of some of the churches that have been

involved. But slowly over a period of 1400 years,

what we see happening with the rise of the Roman

Catholic Church, some of the things that Paul

mentioned in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, they

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

come true. If you go back and read 2 Thessalonians

2, 1 -12, Paul talks about a man of sin being

revealed, the son of perdition who exalts himself

or lifts himself up above God or everything that

is called God so that he as God setteth in the

temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

A man rises up and takes the place and says,

I am God. And we see that prophecy fulfilled

in the rise of the office of the Pope. The Roman

Catholic Church teaches that the Pope is Christ's

representation on earth. He is God on earth.

He is the vicar of Christ, the representation

of God on earth in the form of the papal office,

the office of the Pope. Paul also said that they

will teach doctrines of devils. The Greek word

there for devils is demons. And the idea here

is that a doctrine would prevail that would teach

people to worship and venerate the dead. just

as many saints are venerated today. Many saints

that have died hundreds of years ago, centuries

ago are venerated and worshiped as part of the

Roman Catholic Church. He says that it's going

to get really bad and people's conscience is

going to be seared. They're going to get involved

in error and sin to the point that they're blinded

to their sin. They're blinded to their error.

Their conscience is seared with a hot iron. They

cannot see with a... with a clear mind. They

cannot feel with a good conscience that they

are disobeying God and doing things contrary

to His will. He said they would also forbid to

marry. You know, we see that today. That's been

practiced for hundreds of years in the Roman

Catholic Church that its leaders, its priests,

its bishops, its cardinals, and its pope aren't

allowed to marry. They're forbidden to marry

if they want to be in that office to serve God.

The doctrine is called the celibacy of the priesthood.

You know, Paul predicted that during this departure

from the faith, during this falling away, that

these things would come into Christianity, that

these doctrines would be a part of many people's

faith. He goes on to say that they would teach

people to abstain from meats, that at certain

times and on certain times of the year and certain

days of the week, you couldn't eat certain meats.

That's also a teaching today of the Roman Catholic

Church. And Paul goes on to say that because

of this, God would send many people a strong

delusion that they would believe a lie, he says,

because they didn't have a love of the truth.

I encourage you to go back and read 2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 2:1–12

chapter 2, verse 1 to 12, and see these things

for yourself. And unfortunately, it's come true.

Many people have believed a strong delusion.

And God's allowed them to believe a lot of the

religious lies that are propagated in religion

today. All these things happened and they corresponded

to the rise of the Roman Catholic Church. During

this period of time, the Roman Catholic Church,

which really had the market on most of Christianity,

over this period of time they became doctrinally

corrupt. Many false doctrines came into the church

slowly over this time. The idea of worshipping

or venerating Mary, the idea, as I mentioned,

of the celibacy of the priesthood, that church

leaders can't marry, The idea that you should

pray to the saints instead of praying to God.

The idea of infant baptism. And the list goes

on and on. Many, many other doctrines came into

the church that we have no scriptural authority

for, that we don't find taught in the Bible.

Over this period of time, most of Christianity

became organizationally corrupt. A hierarchy

developed within the Roman Catholic Church that

is foreign to Scripture. We don't find anything

in the New Testament, in the Bible, about one

priest being over one congregation, and then

a bishop being over a number of priests, and

then an archbishop being over a number of bishops,

and then a cardinal being over maybe all the

churches in a nation, and then the idea of a

pope being over the whole church. spread out

throughout the earth. These are offices that

aren't taught in the Bible. This is man -made

religion. And this is a hierarchy that man slowly

established and evolved over a period of time

that we have no authority for in the scripture.

Jesus, in fact, gave us a pattern for church

organization. If you're able to come back Friday

night and you're interested in that topic, we're

going to talk more about that, about God's plan

for the organization of the church. And it was

not this. But yet this is the hierarchy that

developed within the church over this 1400 year

period. You know, most of the church also became

morally corrupt during this time. Morally corrupt.

For hundreds and hundreds of years the Roman

Catholic Church forged a worldwide empire. The

Roman Empire at first, then the Holy Roman Empire

through the Middle Ages. They forged a worldwide

empire that dominated most of Europe. North Africa,

even parts of Asia. And, you know, as part of

this one world empire, one world government,

they raised up a giant army. Roman Catholic Church

raised up a giant army to go and to slaughter

people by the thousands over a period of time

by the millions. In the crosshairs were what

they called heretics. A heretic was anyone who

disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church and

what it taught. If you disagreed with the Roman

Catholic Church, you were a heretic and you were

subject to the penalty of death. And they had

a giant army to go find you and hunt you down

and kill you. You know, they also raised up armies

to make crusades into the Middle East and to

slaughter by the millions of people living in

the land of Palestine as part of a crusade or

an effort to regain the territory of the Holy

Land. Millions and millions of people were murdered.

Over the course of history by the swords of the

Roman Catholic Church and the army that it raised

up now we can see that Jesus never Taught this

Jesus never advocated for this Jesus never commanded

anything like this It's evidence of it's one

of the evidences of how the church became morally

corrupt over this 1400 year period of history

I Told you I was gonna give you a good bad and

ugly and I realized a lot of that was ugly This

is the truth. These are the undisputed facts

of church history. If you're interested in this,

if I piqued your interest, you go do your own

research and you're going to find that this is

the history of the church. It's a dark history.

But you know there was a light that began to

shine around the year 1500. Some things began

to change. Around the year 1500, men actually

started to rise up and protest against the errors

of the Roman Catholic Church. And this began

a reformation movement. It's called the Protestant

Reformation. These men were protesting the errors

of the Roman Catholic Church. That's why it's

called Protestant. They were protesting and they

were demanding reforms. That's why it's called

a Reformation, Protestant Reformation. Men like

Martin Luther, who was a priest in the Catholic

Church, published his 95 Theses, which was a

list of objections that he had against the teaching

of the Catholic Church, 95 points at which he

saw the church was not teaching scriptural doctrine.

And he published that in Wittenberg, Germany

in 1517. He publicly published his dispute of

the Catholic Church on these 95 points. And,

you know, he was one of many at that time who

rose up to protest the errors of the Catholic

Church. And, you know, their rallying cry, their

plea was very simple. These men said, you know,

our authority needs to be found in the Bible

and the Bible alone. We need to go back to the

Bible. And our faith, our doctrine, our practice

needs to line up with the Scripture. Not hundreds

and hundreds of years of manmade doctrines and

traditions. And that was their... That was their

protest and that was their cry. Now, I want to

tell you something about the Protestant Reformation.

It was a very noble effort. A very noble effort

and I'm thankful for the men who stood up and

some of them lost their lives. They risked their

lives to stand up and say, no, we need to get

back to the Bible and do things God's way. It

was a very noble effort. However, I'm here to

tell you this morning in my estimation, Protestant

Reformation, as noble as it was, was unsuccessful.

And one of the reasons why I say it was unsuccessful

is that it led to the rise of all the religious

division that we see around us today. The different

parts of the Protestant Reformation eventually

fragmented, and from that fragmentation of that

movement, many of the denominational churches

that we see around us today were established.

So before the Reformation, we had one church,

and it had a lot of problems. Okay? After the

Reformation, we've got dozens of different churches.

all divided against each other, and they still

have not all the same problems, but a lot of

the same problems that they had in the beginning.

So that's why I say the Protestant Reformation

was a noble effort, but it really just led to

the rise of religious division that we see today.

Another movement came after that. From about

the year 1780, continuing on into the present

day, in the late 1700s, men began to look around

and see the religious division around them. And

all these different churches and denominations

said, hey, we all say we're Christians and serving

God, yet we're all divided against each other.

And a group of men tried to come together and

put aside all denominational differences to just

come around the Word of God and just practice

New Testament Christianity as it's revealed in

the Scriptures. They saw the need to do that

because they realized that many man -made doctrines

had been carried over from the Roman Catholic

Church into their denominational churches. So

they saw a need to go even further than they

already had in getting back to just practicing

the Bible. Also many unbiblical practices had

been carried over from the Catholic Church into

denominational churches. And these men saw the

need to continue to press on, to try to get back

to being the one in the same church that Jesus

built. Now I want you to notice something. We

call this movement the Restoration Movement.

And that's different than the Protestant Reformation.

There's a difference between Reformation and

a difference in Restoration. And I'll have more

to say about that in just a few moments. But

notice this was not an effort to reform. They'd

already tried to reform the church, already tried

to change it. They said, you know what, instead

of trying to reform the church, we just need

to go back to the very beginning. Instead of

trying to change it one piece at a time, a little

bit here and a little bit there, we just need

to start all over. And we just need to make up

our minds. We're going to be the church Jesus

built. And our faith, our practice, our doctrine,

if we can't find it clearly authorized in the

New Testament, we're not going to be a part of

it. So they just wanted to wipe the slate clean

completely and start all over in restoring the

church that Jesus built. Now, I believe that's

a noble effort. I agree with a lot of the underlying

principles of that effort and that movement.

And that effort is still ongoing today. That

effort and this movement lives on in the minds

and the hearts of people who still feel compelled

to be working as we go along trying to reach

a clear and a perfect understanding and putting

into practice of the New Testament. And I think

that's a noble effort. I want to be about that

effort today. I'd encourage you to be about the

effort also of restoring the New Testament Church.

So that's some history. Thank you for your patience

and let me lay out that history. That explains

kind of how we've got to where we are today and

I hope through explaining this history you can

see that we do have a great need for religious

restoration. We do have a need to restore the

New Testament Church Jesus built. I've thrown

out this word restoration. Before we go any further,

I want you to understand what that word means.

Restoration, the root word, is the word restore.

And we understand that when we restore something,

we want to take that thing and bring it back

to its former, original condition. You take this

old car. It don't look too good. It's seen better

days, hadn't it? If you had a mind to and the

money to, you could buy that car. If you had

the skill, the talent, the ability. and access

to all the parts, what could you do? You could

restore that car. You could return it back to

its former original condition. And that's what

we're talking about when we talk about restoration.

We're not wanting to restore a car or a piece

of antique furniture. We're talking about restoring

the church that Jesus built. We're talking about

restoring it back, taking it back to the very

beginning. and returning it to its former original

condition as it's revealed to us in the New Testament.

We have a desperate need for religious restoration

today for these reasons. One, man -made doctrine

still abound in Christianity today. There's still

many things taught in churches today for which

there's no scriptural authority, for which there's

not a book, chapter, and verse to back it up.

and to show that it's truly from God. There are

many man -made doctrines and traditions in religion

today and because of that we still have a need

for religious restoration. Many practices in

religion today are unauthorized. No scripture.

No scriptural authority. Scriptural authority

is so very important. If we want to be the church

Jesus built we have to question the authority

of everything. We teach, preach, and practice.

But yet many churches today don't... look to

the authority of Scripture as important. They

do what feels right. They do what the people

want instead of doing what the Bible tells us

to do and is authorized in the Scriptures. And

I'll tell you something else. This is another

reason why we need religious restoration today.

Religious division abounds. And you know, I'm

afraid that we just become desensitized to it.

Desensitized to it. And I'm guilty of this very

same thing. You know, back home to travel from

our home to New Harmony Church of Christ where

we worship on Sunday morning, I think I passed

like seven or eight different churches. I passed

seven or eight different churches to get to the

place where me and my family worship. And those

churches all have different names. They teach

different doctrines. They worship in different

ways. They preach different Gospels. One has

a preacher. One has a priest. One has a minister.

And you know what, and I'm just being honest,

to me I'm almost desensitized to it. But we should

really never be desensitized to the religious

division we see around us because I'm here to

tell you, we're going to teach on it multiple

times this week, religious division is not the

will of God. Jesus prayed that we would all be

one. And let me tell you something, we are not

all one. We are not all one in Christianity today.

We are divided tremendously. And for that reason,

We need to come together around the Word of God

and restore the one in the same church that Jesus

built. So I've introduced the idea of religious

restoration this morning. You say, Brother James,

is it even scriptural? Is the idea of religious

restoration even scriptural? Yes, it is. I'm

going to give you three examples from the Bible

to show you that religious restoration is scriptural.

The first example will come from the Old Testament.

You remember in 2 Kings chapter 22? In the days

2 Kings 22 · chapter mention

of King Josiah, the book of the law of the Lord

had been lost for many years and it was rediscovered

in the temple. And you remember the priest, the

high priest gave the book to a scribe. The scribe

went and read it to King Josiah. And you remember

what Josiah's response was when he heard the

Word of God straight from the book for the first

time in probably his life? Josiah said this in

2 Kings 22 -13. He says, Great is the wrath of

the Lord that is kindled against us, because

our fathers haven't hearkened, they haven't listened

under the words of this book. Josiah recognizes

and realizes that he and his people had strayed

far, far away from the will of God. They hadn't

been following God's word for many, many years.

And when Josiah realized that, what did Josiah

do? You go read 2 Kings 23. If you allow me to

just paraphrase it and put it to you in straight

and simple terms, Josiah cleaned house. Josiah

cleaned house. He immediately looked at the ways

the Jews were worshipping God. And if it wasn't

a part of the law, if it wasn't part of God's

Word, he got rid of it. And the things that they

had long forgotten, that God told them to do

as part of their service to him, he brought those

things back into their faith and practice. Josiah

restored the religion of the Jews. He returned

it back to its former original condition because

it had been long lost and forgotten. And because

Josiah restored the religion of the Jews, I want

you to look at how he was remembered in the Word

of God. 2 Kings 23 -25, Like unto him, Josiah,

was there no king before him that turned to the

Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with

all his might, according to all the law of Moses?

Neither after him arose there any like him. He

was like no other. Like no other. Why? Because

when he read the Word of God and saw how far

he was from the truth, he immediately made up

his mind, I'm going to change to get back in

line with God's truth. And that's what restoration

is about. Second example of restoration in the

Bible is the fact that Paul had to restore the

doctrine of the gospel for the churches of Galatia.

There were false teachers, Judaizing teachers

that went throughout Galatia, teaching if you

wanted to be saved, you had to believe in Jesus,

but you also had to be circumcised. And that

was a false gospel. Being circumcised is not

part of the gospel. They're the plan of salvation.

But that's the gospel that was taught in Galatia,

and that's the doctrine that they began to believe.

So Paul wrote Galatians to correct that false

doctrine. He said in Galatians 1 .6, I marveled

that you're so soon removed from Him. You see,

they'd moved away from something. They'd moved

away from Christ and His truth. They strayed

away. Removed from Him that called you into the

grace of Christ, you've been removed unto another

gospel. He says, which is not another. It's not

really a gospel. It's a false gospel. But there

be some that trouble you and would pervert, twist,

change, alter the gospel of Christ. He says,

but though we are an angel from heaven, preach

any other gospel unto you than that which we

have preached, let him be accursed. Paul found

it necessary to write to the Galatians to restore

the true doctrine of the gospel because they

had believed a false gospel. And you read the

rest of Galatians, he goes to great detail and

painstaking detail, if you will, to help them

see the problem of their error. The third example

of religious restoration, Paul had to write to

the Corinthians to restore their practice of

the Lord's Supper or communion. As Brother Jared

mentioned this morning from the table, the Corinthians

had lost track. They had turned the Lord's Supper

into a common meal. The Lord never intended it

to be a common meal for the satisfaction of the

flesh, for filling of the belly, if you will.

They had turned it into something the Lord never

intended for it to be. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians

to them to correct them and to restore the true

practice of communion in their congregation.

In 1 Corinthians 11, 17 -34, we're just going

to look at 20 and 21. Paul said this, when you

come together therefore into one place, this

is not to eat the Lord's Supper. That's his way

of saying, look, you're coming together and you're

doing something and you're calling it the Lord's

Supper, but what you're doing is not the Lord's

Supper, it's something different. You've turned

it into something else that it was not supposed

to be. He says, For in eating, everyone taketh

before other his own supper. One is hungry and

another is drunken. You've turned this into a

common meal. Paul wrote to them the rest of that

chapter to correct them and to explain what a

true and proper observance of the Lord's Supper

should look like. That had to be restored. It

had been lost. That practice had been lost. Paul

wrote to them to restore. the truth in their

observance of the Lord's Supper. Now, I've explained

to you this morning what restoration is. I've

given you three Bible examples of religious restoration.

Is religious restoration even possible today?

Some people hear these things and they say, yeah,

it sounds good in theory, but in practice it's

just too hard. In practice it's just too hard.

Would it really be that hard for us as hard as

we might think to restore New Testament Christianity

today? I don't believe it would be that hard

if we'd have the right mind and have the right

heart and To illustrate that I want to use an

example some of you may have heard before maybe

the first time you're hearing it But I want to

use the illustration the example of restoring

the game of baseball To show you how easy it

would be to restore the church that Jesus built

every single time a major league baseball team

gets together to play baseball they follow a

rule book this is 2026 official rules of major

league baseball every time they play they follow

this rule book and you know this rule book tells

you everything you need to know to play major

league baseball it tells you three strikes is

an out we all know that tells you four balls

is a walk tells you there's six outs per inning

three three outs at the top of the inning three

outs at the bottom of the inning tells you you

play nine innings in a game It says you need

to put all the players on the field, and it says

the field needs to have a diamond -shaped pattern,

and there needs to be so many feet between home

plate and first base, and first base and second

base, and there's a pitcher's mound in the middle

of that diamond, and it's so many feet away from

home plate. All the details are laid out in the

rule book of Major League Baseball. And because

they have a rule book when they play baseball,

guess what? They can go anywhere on the face

of the planet. And they can play Major League

Baseball the same way in Japan that they do in

America. They could take this rule book to the

North Pole and they could play baseball at the

North Pole the same way they play it here in

Tennessee. Because the rule book ensures consistency.

If you want to play baseball, it's simple. You

can play it anywhere you want. All you got to

do is follow the rule book. Now what if we took

this rule book of Major League Baseball and we

put it in a time capsule and we buried it? and

we stop playing baseball altogether, what would

happen? A few generations would go by and we'd

forget about baseball pretty quickly. We'd move

on to other things. We'd move on to other sports,

right? Our grandkids might go to a museum and

see the bat and the ball and say, hey, grandma

and grandpa used to play that game. A few more

generations would go by and baseball would be

forgotten. Suppose a thousand years went by.

Thousand years from today, 3026. Suppose our

great, great, great, great, great, great, great,

great, great, great, great, great, great, great,

great, great, great grandkids unearth that time

capsule. And they pulled out this book and it

says, Official Rules of Major League Baseball,

2026. Suppose they read it. Could they play Major

League Baseball a thousand years from today?

Without any prior knowledge of it whatsoever.

Could they play major league baseball? Well,

sure they could All they need to do is read the

rule book. They'd say, you know, it's three strikes

isn't out It's four balls in a walk says right

here in the rule book It's six outs per inning

three at the top of the inning three at the bottom

of the inning It says we need to play nine innings

and it says we need to go out on a field and

make a diamond -shaped pattern and put first

base there and second base there and third base

there and There's so many feet from home plate.

We need a pitchers mound Could they play Major

League Baseball? Sure they could. It's simple.

Why? Just follow the rule book. Just follow the

rule book and you know what they could do. They

could go anywhere on the face of the planet.

I don't know what nations would even exist. They

could go anywhere on the face of the planet and

they could play baseball the same way everywhere

they went because just like the rule book ensures

consistency for us today in baseball, it would

provide the same consistency a thousand years

from now. They could all play baseball alike.

It wouldn't be hard for us to restore the New

Testament church. We have a rule book, if you

will. We have a pattern, a plan. It's the New

Testament scriptures. And even though they were

written 2 ,000 years ago, they're still available

to us. If our descendants could play baseball

without any prior knowledge a thousand years

from today by following the rule book, we can

do the same with the New Testament. We can read

it, we can understand it, and we can... be successful

in restoring and being the church that Jesus

built. All we got to do is follow the rule book.

Our rule book, of course, are the Scriptures.

We could do it. I believe we should be about

doing it. But to do it, to be successful in this

restoration we're talking about this morning,

we got to go back to the Bible. We got to push

everything else aside. I'm going to talk more

about that this afternoon. I hope you'll come

back. and hear more what I have to say about

this topic this afternoon. Hey, I hope you'll

come back every single assembly, every single

service of this meeting. This is a series of

meetings, right? You know how it works with a

movie series or a sitcom series? Once you hear

the first one, you want to hear the rest in the

series, right? You don't want to miss an episode

in the series. Please come back and please set

your heart and your mind and your will to learn

more about these things. I'm going to talk more

about it this afternoon, but here's what we've

got to do. We've got to push aside our preferences,

our opinions, our tradition, our culture. We've

got to push everything aside to go back and find

the truth revealed in Scripture. We must go back

to the Bible to find our faith, to find our doctrine,

to find our practice. Only then can we truly

say that we are about the work of restoring the

church that Jesus built. This is a schedule of

services and topics that we're going to have

throughout the week. wrap it up pretty quick

here. I know that might be hard for you to see,

but I'd encourage you all, we'll leave this up

in between services, after services. These are

a list of topics that we're going to cover. If

some of these topics are interesting to you,

please make it a priority to be here and hear

what the Bible says about these topics. We're

going to talk about restoring the church in several

different ways, from several different angles.

And so I encourage you again to come back and

be a part of this meeting as we study these topics

together. As you come to this meeting, I want

to please ask you to come with an open mind.

Come with an open mind. Because I'm just going

to be upfront and honest with you. As we go through

this series, we're going to investigate and we're

going to give some honest self -examination to

things pertaining to doctrine. And if we don't

come with an open mind, the likelihood that we

learn something is very low. But if we'll come

with an open mind, we might learn something.

And I hope that you do. I hope that you learn

something through the course of this meeting.

I'm gonna ask you to come with an open heart.

Come with an open heart. Again, we're gonna scrutinize

and we're gonna challenge some commonly accepted

beliefs and practices. Things that religious

people do today. Even some of the things that

we do. We're gonna respectfully and lovingly

challenge and scrutinize some of those practices.

And it's not in an effort to condemn people and

put people down and damn people to hell. It's

in an effort for us to clearly see the difference

between truth and error. We clearly need to understand

the truth and stay away from error. Come with

an open mind, come with an open heart, and please

come with an open Bible. Follow along in the

scriptures. Pay close attention to the scriptures.

We're going to do our very best to validate everything

we teach with a book, a chapter, and a verse

from God's Word. And I hope you'll hold me accountable

to that. I'm going to try to show everything

we teach you, show it to you clearly from the

Bible. We're going to follow a simple four -step

approach. as we go through analyzing some of

these topics, some of these doctrines and practices

through the course of this meeting. Here's how

this simple four -step approach is going to work.

It might be confusing to you this morning, but

once we get into it, you're going to get the

hang of it. It's very simple. First thing we're

going to do concerning our doctrines and our

practices is we're going to go to the New Testament

pattern. We're going to see the original pattern

that was revealed in the New Testament for us.

We're going to see how things were in the beginning.

That's where we're going to start. And from there,

we're going to move to step two. We're going

to look down through the centuries of church

history to try to understand and analyze how

error slowly evolved and how people went away

from that original pattern as it was delivered.

So we want to understand God's original pattern

for something in the beginning, but then we need

to ask the question, well, what went wrong? What

went wrong over the course of church history?

Third thing we're going to do is it's going to

bring us forward to carefully observing and understanding

our modern -day practices, our modern -day doctrines

and traditions. What's the state of Christianity

today? What is our standing? That's the third

thing that we're going to look at and we're going

to analyze and then the fourth thing we're going

to do is we're going to talk about the ways that

we need to restore the original pattern as it

was given. We're going to talk about how we can

make it right. Though it was right in the beginning

and though we went astray and we can clearly

see that as part of our standing today, we're

going to talk about the steps that we can take

to rectify and resolve error and get back to

being the church that the Lord wants us to be.

So it's a cycle, it's a process, it involves

these four steps. I just want to introduce it

this morning. It'll become more apparent I think

as we get into further into the series. As I

wrap it up this morning, here's some things I

want you to take away from this lesson. I want

you to know for a certainty that Jesus did build

a church. It's His church. It belongs to Him.

He's the founder and builder of His church. Satan

has been working over the last 2 ,000 years to

corrupt that church, to derail it, to defeat

it. He's still working to do that today. And

we see evidence of that as we study church history,

the history I've shared with you this morning.

We have a desperate need to restore the church

that Jesus built. I hope my lesson this morning

has helped you to see that need. With God's help,

I believe we can. I believe we can be the church

that Jesus built. With the Lord's help, we can

do that. So let's let that be our focus. Let's

let that be in our mind and in our heart this

week as we go through this series of lessons

on restoring New Testament Christianity.