I grew up in a small city called Grafton on the Mid North Coast of NSW. For most of my formative years I attend 1 of 4 different church’s. In high school when I had a little more autonomy, I attend yet another church with my friends. When I graduated and went away to university, I had to find yet again another church to be a part of. When I finished university and went home, the church situation was vastly different to when I left and I had to find a new church once more. I eventually moved to Brisbane to work as a chaplain and once again I needed to find a new church home. And during my time in Brisbane, as part of my work I regularly visited a wide range of churches from different denominations as part of my work. All of this left me with a wide range of experiences of what different denominations, groups, people, think church is, what doing church is, what being church is. And of course, this raises the question,
What do you think church is?
Brothers and sisters when I say the word church, when you hear church mentioned what comes to mind?
Do you think of old large ornate stone buildings with steeples, beautiful stain glass windows, row upon row of hard wooden pews. Or maybe something more modern, you picture a converted warehouse, a large long flat roofed building with a nice paint job some fancy looking signage, dark rooms with coloured lights and movie theatre seating.
If you were to talk to a stranger on the street about church, what kind of language would you use?
Would you say “My church is on Norwood Street just behind racecourse road.”, what about “When you drive in it is the building right in front of you, you can see the side.”
Or maybe you think in terms of identity and you proudly declare “We’re Presbyterian”, or “we’re reformed,” “we are traditional,” or maybe “you identify church as a group of people who adhere to a specific set of rules, an organisation where fun is banned and that wants to ban everyone else’s fun.”
Or perhaps the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of church is the Sunday service and maybe you think “10am every Sunday, we come and we sing some songs, some hymns, we pray, we read the bible and then we go and have some good food and catchup with our friends for the week.”
But are these ideas of church, what God had in mind, is it what he teaches us in His word? Is this how we are actually meant to understand and live out church?
And of course, we can answer this question simply by looking at what God has told us about church in his word.
But unfortunately, we cannot just go to one passage of the bible that details every facet of Church. We have to do a little bit more work than that. But a good place to start is the word church itself. The word that the first Christians chose to use to describe church, the word that we translate into English as church, the word that God chose to describe church in the Greek is “Ekklesia, Ekklesia.”
Now you might say that’s nice, so what?
Well in understanding this word we immediately get a better picture of what church is meant to be.
So, then what does Ekklesia mean?
Well, it arises from 2 words the verb Kaleo which means To Call and the preposition Ek which means Out Of. Together this gives us “The Called Out Ones… The Called Out Ones”
Yet there is still more to this word Ekklesia. In the ancient world the word was used to refer to a group of citizens who had been called out to administrate civic affairs or to defend the community in battle. And in a more general sense the word came to be used to describe any assembly or congregation, in other words, “a gathering of citizens.”
Okay we are a bit better informed about the meaning of the word but still in regards to the way it is used in the bible what does it mean? What does Church mean? What does it mean for us? Can we develop a working definition?
Well, we know that it refers to a group of people gathered together so it must mean something to do with a community. We also know that it refers to those who are called out by God. So, it must have something to do with a community that is called out by God.
So, we could say that a working definition of “Church” is that it refers to the community of those who have been called out by God from their slavery to sin through faith in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ.
That is important so I am going to repeat it.
The church of God is the community of those who have been called out by God from their slavery to sin through faith in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ.
Okay so we have a definition, but does this hold up? When we look at the scriptures can we say it stands? Let’s have a look.
Romans 1:7 says “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people”
That is a community of people called by God.
And 1 Corinthians 1:2 itsays “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours”
Okay so the church is all the people that are called by God.
And then in 2 Timothy 1:9 it says “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time”
Meaning the church is comprised of those God saves and calls out of slavery to sin through faith in Jesus Christ.
Okay and the we see in Romans 8:30 “30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
And then in Ephesians 1:11 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
Now remember Predestined means decided before hand, Justified means made right with God, and in this context Glorified means the final removal of sin from the life of believers at the end of time. So, In other words, the church is made up of those whom he, God, predestined in eternity past, called and justified in this present life, and promised to glorify in the future.
That is looking an awful lot like a community of people called out by God from slavery to sin through faith in Jesus Christ.
Alright but maybe we should look a little deeper:
And then when we look at John 6:37 which saysAll those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
And then in, John 17:6 & 9 6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours
Okay so here, the church is the assembled redeemed, that is those who have been called by God the Father to salvation as a gift to His son.
This is all sounding rather familiar, isn’t it?
Okay just 2 more. Col. 1:13 “13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,”
Sound likes being called out of slavery to sin.
And Phil. 3:20 “20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
Okay citizenship that would be community and awaiting a saviour that would be being called out of slavery to sin.
So, it would seem these passages are saying the church is the corporate gathering of those who have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Christ so that they are citizens of heaven and not of this world.
Now when we put all these passages together what do they tell us? What do they declare about the church?
Well, the answer is: the church is the gathered redeemed who have been called by God the Father to salvation as a gift for His son.
Now what did we say our definition was?
Oh yes that is right. The church of God is the community of those who have been called out by God from their slavery to sin through faith in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ.
So how did we do? Does our definition hold up?
I don’t think we did too bad.
Now with this all-in mind, how does our definition compare to your original thoughts about church? [Hmph]
I mean based on this definition I think we can safely conclude: that the church is not a building.
I don’t see anywhere in our definition or the verses we just checked something about the church being an organisation, so it is not a religious institution an ethical organisation, or a sociopolitical association.
There was no mention of specific rites or practices, so it is not a set of traditions, customs, or rituals.
And there was no reference to the order of service so it is not a Sunday service.
Just let that sink in for a second.
It is not a building or grounds, it is not a religious organisation or institution, it is not a specific set of traditions, rituals, customs, or rites. And it is not a service.
Now, all these things may be things that the church does…oruses…, or values. But the church is not those things. It is not those things.
Okay this is good, we know what the Church is not, we have a working definition of what Church is, but can we distil this down further? Can we make the language simpler? Can we get an illustration to make it more tangible?
Well, how about Israel and the Exodus. I know you know the story, but let me read Exodus 6:6-8 to you for a summary: “Therefore, say to the Israelites (There is your community of people): ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them (Thats the called out from slavery part), and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment (there’s the redemption). 7 I will take you as my own people (Community again), and I will be your God (thats the imagery of the church being for Jesus.). Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession (And that is where we find the analogy for Glorification, and it finishes with). I am the LORD.’”
What about another one?
In Ephesians 5:25-27 we are given the imagery of Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride, who God makes clean and blameless.
In the image of bride and bridegroom we see that the church is cleansed or saved by God, for God. To be in eternal relationship with Him. Husband and wife, together, forever.
Okay so we have done a word study, we have looked at the scriptures, and we have thought of 2 illustrations all with the purpose of developing a clear, and simple idea of church. So, after all of that, how might we define church?
Well, the church is a group of people saved and brought together by the Holy Spirit, eternally bound to Christ and each other.
Did you get that church?
Church is a group of people, saved and brought together by the Holy Spirit, eternally bound to Christ and each other.
And you that’s great, thanks Pastor, that is just great. I appreciate the lecture, I really do, but what on earth can I do with this? How does this apply to my life?
Great question. What does being church mean? What does being a group of people saved and brought together by the Holy Spirit, eternally bound to Christ and each other look like?
Well, we find the answer to that in Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
In other words, church is first and foremost about devotion to God and to His word and prayer. And secondly, it is about daily and consistent fellowship with one another, loving one another and supporting one another as we are devoted to Christ and his word.
Did you catch that church?
Daily, consistently.
Not just on Sunday, it is not just singing some songs once a week, praying a couple of times a week, looking at your bible every now and then. It is not about buildings, or organisations, or traditions, and rituals.
Church is about daily, regularly loving and supporting one another as we devout ourselves to God by studying His word together, praying together, and acting together.
Daily together studying, praying, and acting.
Daily together studying, praying, and acting.
You know we could do that church. On Monday you organise to get together with a couple of others and you all head over to Pete’s place to study the bible, pray and have dinner. On Wednesday we could catch up out on Racecourse Road for lunch, we read the bible and pray together. And then maybe on Thursday you find out that John is moving so you ring him up and say “hey mate, I am coming I am just 10 minutes away.” Then maybe on Friday night we all get together here at St. Stephen’s and share a potluck dinner and we sing some songs, and do a bible study and pray together.
And nobody misses out, everyone is included, everyone is loved and supported, everyone has a go, and we all grow in faith together and God is glorified.
And people look on from the outside, and say “Gee that’s different. I want that, how do I get that?” and the church grows.
We can make that happen church. You can make that happen.