I have listened to some of your sermons and enjoyed them very much. My question is where do you believe the Church began, Pentecost or later?
The Lord does have two churches. “Church” is a called out assembly. Acts 7:38 Moses led “the church in the wilderness.”
Matthew 16:18 the Lord told Peter “upon this rock I will build my church.” In the Gospels and the early part of Acts the Lord Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles were calling out a believing remnant from within Israel. At Pentecost, this was the “church” they were “added to” (Acts 2:47). This church is “the nation bearing forth the fruits,” the nation the “Kingdom” shall be “given to.” Peter calls them “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9).
When God postponed building the kingdom church, and sent Paul to the Gentiles, it was for the purpose of forming “the church which is his body” (Ephesians 1:22,23). The reason Paul said “which is his body” is because there is a church which is not his body. The “church which is his body” is God’s called out assembly from Jews and Gentiles which, when saved, are no longer Jew or Gentile, but the “body of Christ.” They are called out, not to be a nation for the purpose of setting up God’s Kingdom on the earth, but a “body” raptured and made to “sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).
God has a two fold purpose according to Ephesians 1:10. A purpose for the heavens and a purpose in the earth. Both brought under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ in the “dispensation of the fulness of times.”
“Does the Lord have one church or two” is an important question to know the answer to. Another important truth for today is that there is only “One Body” (I Corinthians 12:13, 27; Ephesians 4:4).