Colossians 1:18 – “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

What factors differentiate a genuine Work of God from everything else we see around us in the marketplace of religion? On the most basic level, pleading the blood of Jesus has led us to three fundamental discoveries: preaching the revealed Word, following the guidance or direction of the Holy Spirit instead of human opinions, and having our relationship with Christ express itself through a genuine participation in a local Body of the faithful church.

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Matthew 16:16 – Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The most common name for Jesus in the Bible, besides “Jesus” itself, is “Christ.”  In fact, the New Testament letters from Paul and Peter use this name much more often than they use “Jesus.”  Many people today think that “Christ” was Jesus’ last name, but it was not.  “Christ” was not a last name at that time.  It was a title.  Jesus would have been called “Jesus Bar-Joseph” by others around him.

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John 1:41 – “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).”

In the Old Testament period, the ancient Israelites had a word with the same meaning, pronounced “meshiach,” from which we derive our word “Messiah.”  Just like the word “Christos” in Greek, “meshiach” comes from the Hebrew word for anointing or pouring oil on someone. 

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