Today, Chuck Swindall describes what happens when you become a Christian.

When you trusted Christ Jesus as your Savior, many things happened to you, but these two

significant things I'm going to tell you were automatic and immediate.

First, within you, you became a new creation.

Second, you were automatically and instantaneously placed into the family of God.

The ancient landscape of Cessaria Philippi was widely known for its temples.

These structures were erected for the sole purpose of worshipping strange idols.

It was in this godless setting that Jesus asked his disciples a defining question.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall opens the Bible to Matthew chapter 16.

In this passage, Jesus was teaching his disciples about the church, all within view of these temples.

He posed this leading question, who do people say that I am?

And their conversation led to a teachable moment regarding the family of God.

All through the years, God's program has been like a crescendo mark on a musical score.

From the point which would be the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came right up to the present day,

it is ever expanding, ever enlarging. And you can even put a little dotted line for the future,

it will continue to enlarge. The church is larger today than it was yesterday.

It will be larger tomorrow than it is today, because even this day, God is reaching into

lives and bringing them into His family. Matthew chapter 16, not only is the church developed

late in history, as far as doctrine is concerned, it appears late in Scripture, never once in the

Old Testament, and not until Christ is well underway in His ministry. Does it appear in the Scriptures?

Matthew 16 is one of the earlier references to the word church.

It appears at the end of a dialogue between Jesus and His disciples. The dialogue starts at verse

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