➤On the day of Pentecost, the Church was born in the power of the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Acts 2, but she was only a babe, not the adult she was destined to become. She would still need to grow up, with many growing pains along the way.
Those first believers received the promise of the Father – the indwelling presence of God’s own Spirit – and the brand new body of Christ began its earthly life and ministry; and it was glorious! Yet as glorious as that moment was, no one had any idea that such a long, arduous journey of ups and downs through great spiritual warfare lay straight ahead.
Even the Apostles wondered whether the Promise of the Father at Pentecost would usher in the long-prophesied millennial-kingdom righteous reign of Jesus Christ on earth immediately (Isaiah 9:6-7; Habakkuk 2:14; Micah 4:3; Acts 1:5-6; Revelation 20). To Him, they asked:
“Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
At that moment, the outworking of the Church Age was a complete mystery to them. Their assignment, like that of Adam and Eve, was to multiply! And they would do so by proclaiming Him with power to a lost world. The mystery of the Church and its completion would be revealed later.
They had no idea that 2,000 years was a part of God’s plan! And certainly, they had no idea what a rugged road it would be.
It was the Apostle Paul who received Holy Spirit revelation from our Lord Himself about the way to spiritual maturity for the Church until finally God’s Spirit would “present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27) (Galatians 1:12).
He describes a radiant, finished, mature body of believers who have been made pure by the washing of God’s Word, prepared for her heavenly Bridegroom!
The Church is prepared judicially once and for all time in right standing with God already by the washing of Jesus’ own blood; but she is progressively prepared (into His likeness) in practical sanctification like a bride is dressed for her groom, by His Spirit’s refining fire, and the washing of the water of His Word (Matthew 3:11; Ephesians 5:26).
All those who have died, and who will die in Christ, are fully accepted into eternal life with the Father and the Son, regardless of whether they “become glorious” in the sense that the “last Church” will become glorious.
The last Church is the finished work of the first Church born at Pentecost.
The Word of God does a type of cleansing, too – not a cleansing from sins already committed. All sins committed are cleansed by His blood. The Word of God washes us by keeping us from sinning, thus making us fruitful.
By abiding in His Word and yielding to His Spirit, we are aided in rejecting temptation to sin in the first place, therefore, helping to keep us “clean” (John 8:31-32; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 8:13-14; Ephesians 5:27).
If we allow it to, His Word will lead us into a transformed life of holiness, righteousness, and fruitfulness – a practical work of sanctification for everyday life that reveals God to the world through us.
Of His disciples, Jesus said: “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” They had not been cleansed from their sins committed, since He spoke this before He went to the cross, but they were cleansed from whatever things prevented them from bearing fruit (John 15:1-4).
That was a form of practical sanctification that produces the completeness Paul speaks of when He speaks of “the washing of the water of the word.”
In addition, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the Word of God will not allow us to hide things in our hearts that lead us to sin, but that it “divides” even “the thoughts and intents of the heart,” revealing those areas of temptation to sin to help us keep from sinning.
Here again is a kind of cleansing done by the Word of God.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Our ability to live a life of practical sanctification (holiness) was and continues to be part of the complete work that was accomplished through Jesus Christ to set us free from the bondage of sin in this life (Romans 6:6-7, 11-14; 18-19).
He is the Word made flesh – and Perfect. His Perfect Word, along with His Spirit in us, is like constant, 24/7 preventative medicine that helps keep us from sinning.
Again, this is the kind of washing the Apostle Paul is inspired by the Spirit to teach us about with regard to how we become glorious like “a bride without spot or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing” – and that we shall become glorious too! Hallelujah! I want that! Do you?
This final glorious presentation of the bride (the Church) is the result of that finished work and is connected to the blessed hope of the Church that Paul described in his first letter to the Church at Thessalonica, when Paul says that “He will present her to Himself…” (Ephesians 5:27).
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).
It’s been a long journey. And most of us have endured pains along the way. But God’s not done yet!
Between the Church’s birth at Pentecost and her presentation at the rapture lies a long and turbulent age – an era marked by revival and resistance, triumph and testing, and temporal points of unity but mostly division. Yet through it all, God has still multiplied us according to His will, and He’s been with us all the way, and will be till the end.
But for nearly two thousand years, the people of God have endured intense spiritual warfare.
How well I remember that, while I was ministering God’s word throughout South America, I learned that in the small country of Chile, alone, there were literally thousands of registered Christian denominations! How much more division is there throughout Christendom worldwide?! One can only imagine!
Our Lord Himself told us that it would be this way, saying, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) Jesus knew that there would be warfare and that it would be great.
Before Jesus even mentioned building His Church, He revealed that spiritual warfare in the world had increased, beginning with the heralding of John the Baptist. From that point forward, the Enemy went all out to stop Him, but he could not; and since that time, that old Dragon has been trying to destroy both Israel and the Church, but he cannot and will not (Revelation 12)!
Matthew 12:11
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force”
The late John MacArthur (1939-2025) points out that Jesus said this around the midpoint of His ministry – six to twelve months before the events of chapter sixteen, when Jesus first spoke of the Church. MacArthur also recognized that Paul’s letter to Ephesus indicated that the Church would grow spiritually mature, too, even though MacArthur didn’t acknowledge a work of completeness as a literal reading of the scripture plainly says, even in Greek.
God doesn’t reveal all things to anyone, and the highly respected Pastor/Teacher John MacArthur is no exception. None of us is. We’re learning progressively together into “the knowledge of God” of His plan to the end.
And it’s all in the Word. No extra-biblical revelation here, friends.
I believe, like most believers and even most Bible scholars, Brother John, despite the blessings of his gifts, simply never saw the mystery of “the bride” Church (the last Church), but only the first Church at Pentecost and a struggling Church that has endured great warfare throughout the entire Church Age and does even now.
Regardless, God continues to reveal and unfold His divine plan for the Church as we grow closer to His return.
False doctrines, leading to schisms, persecutions, and many religious men and women with ill motives, and more, have constantly overwhelmed and obscured what God enabled all along by His Spirit for the maturity of His Church (Colossians 2:8; Ephesians 4:14).
I admit, it’s hard to imagine that it will ever change. The struggle in the worldwide Church today is real.
I believe Jesus looks over the Church and that His heart is heavy in the same way that it was when He looked over Jerusalem when He was here.
Matthew 23:37
“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
We are so entrenched in the fog of spiritual warfare and the countless religious complexities with which we’ve been relentlessly bombarded by the Devil that we have little vision for anything better on this side of eternity. We just want out!
But ask God to give you a new perspective – His perspective – a thoroughly scriptural perspective!
The Glorious Church promise is right there in plain sight!
God wants to reveal to us all that He’s accomplished through Jesus Christ – and that includes a glorious Church yet to be revealed.
Paul prayed that we’d have a spirit of revelation to know all that God accomplished through His Son.
Ephesians 1:17-18
“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”
When Paul speaks of “…the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” I believe that includes becoming glorious, not a church in shambles! That’s exactly what He wrote to the Ephesian believers for all of us.
That Jesus Christ would woo the Gentiles and adopt us by His Spirit is a mystery held for the New Testament era (Colossians 2:27).
The whole gospel is a mystery that wasn’t revealed until God’s time (Ephesians 3:1-12).
Our marriage to Jesus Christ, His coming to catch us away, our wedding ceremony, our marriage supper, and our becoming glorious that will usher it all in – these are all mysteries yet to be revealed – God’s mysteries! And all will be revealed to us in His time.
I believe the Holy Spirit is beginning to reveal the mystery of the Church, the last Church, becoming glorious to more believers even as He did to me nearly thirty years ago (Ephesians 3:9; 5:32; Colossians 1:26-27; Revelation 19:7-9)!
I remember back then that an elderly South American pastor responded to my teaching with great joy at the thought of a glorious church to come, yet he was uncertain about whether such a wonderful thing could become a reality. Not because he couldn’t see it in the scriptures, but because he couldn’t imagine such a blessing actually coming to pass.
He was so acquainted with the mess we’ve made for most of twenty centuries that his vision was stuck there. Even reading the scriptures could do little more than cause him to wonder. Other faithful believers have expressed the same thing to me over the years.
Herein lies the problem: Many true followers of Jesus Christ have become so accustomed to spiritual warfare and the damage it has done that it is difficult to imagine the Church reaching full maturity before the Lord’s return.
Oh, how we do underestimate the ability of our God! “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14)
Notice what God spoke to the Prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
God is the God of all flesh, and He can and has transformed the worst of men and women into those who become great for His glory. Can He also not fulfill His Word and transform this fleshly Church we’ve assembled into a truly glorious one, finally revealing Himself as He really is to the world? Of course, He can! And He will! He said He would! Hallelujah!
Is He not the One who formed us in our mother’s womb? Is He not the one who brings us to adulthood?
Is He not the One who made you and me a new creation by His transforming power through His Son and His Spirit?
Is He not the One who birthed the Church to life from dead men by His Spirit? And is He not able then to bring us to full maturity?
Of course, He is! Of course, He can! And He will!
The Church is both a perpetual and a perfecting work of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus said, “…the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
Jesus, using the word “Hades,” meaning death and the grave, was specifically referring to the fact that even death could not prevent His Church from being built. And indeed, that proved to be correct. He rose from the grave, and so will all those who are saved through Him!
However, metaphorically speaking, we find scripture showing that His Church will be a perfecting work as well as a perpetual one, despite great spiritual warfare, and that, in the end, we will be made “glorious” here, before being “glorified” the moment we are called up to meet Him face to face (I Corinthians 15:35-49; I John 3:2)!
Hallelujah! Notice the following passages of scripture that tell us of His perfecting (completion) work in His Church, as well as His perpetual work, before we are glorified when we see Him:
In perpetuity until the end:
Matthew 28:18-20
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
In spiritual warfare until the end (already noted).
In spiritual maturity at the end:
Ephesians 4:13
“Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Ephesians 5:27
“that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
And again, be sure to note that it is not by our might, but by His!
Zechariah 4:6
“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the LORD of hosts.”
We need only to yield, to follow Him, and to trust Him in order to be a part of it!
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6
We are not there today, but we can be confident that the last Church will become “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish,” and I believe this is speaking about us!
We can pursue it now by simply going back to the instruction manual – the Bible! More about how-to, later.
The Glorious Church will not be the work of our hands. Ours is the disaster we see all around us.
But we are His workmanship, the finished work of Christ, who began His “good work” in us at Pentecost and who “will complete” us in the end, made ready for His soon return!
May our Lord Jesus Christ be praised, and may His Church begin to desire to leave our present state to become truly glorious!
The Church was born in the Spirit and is destined to be glorious.
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind… And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2, 4).
“…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).
The Church Age and its completion were a mystery later revealed, especially to Paul.
“Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
“For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12).
“And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery… which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God…” (Ephesians 3:9).
Believers are cleansed judicially by Christ’s blood and practically by the Word and Spirit.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11b).
“That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26).
“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
“For the word of God is living and powerful… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Our sanctification is part of Christ’s completed work that frees us from sin’s bondage.
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with…” (Romans 6:6).
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).
The Church lives in an age of intense spiritual warfare, yet Christ’s promise stands.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).
“I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
“Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun… Then another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon…” (Revelation 12:1, 3).
God intends a mature, unified, Christlike Church at the end of the age.
“…that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18b).
“Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man…” (Ephesians 4:13).
The Glorious Church is tied to our blessed hope: Christ’s return and our gathering to Him.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout… And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him…” (1 John 3:2).
God Himself guarantees the completion of His work in His Church by His Spirit.
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” Says the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 4:6).
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20).
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
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