What about the Church?
I don’t know what your conception of church is, or was before you started fist looked into the Christian message or spent time with Christians. For many it is all about services and vicars, buildings and plans to save buildings, about rebuilding roofs, church fete’s and silent places visited only a Saturday day trip. For others it is about pious folk sticking their noses into others peoples business - where it is not wanted. It’s about disputes between denominations or about past experiences that have put us off the idea of church altogether. I have a friend who once told me that the “day I got him into church would be the day Hell freezes over”. We got him to our wedding – but didn’t get married in a church!
So what is church?
Well, the first place we should turn to see what church really is, is to the words of the one who invented church in the first place. So what does the Bible have to say about church?
We are going to look at 5 pictures the bible paints that display what the church is.
1. The people of God
2. The family of God.
3. The body of Christ.
4. The Holy temple
5. The Bride of Christ
So, firstly
The People of God.
Peter, Jesus closest friend and follower wrote to a first century church.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10
The word church is literally ‘ekklesia’ which is where we get the insurance company ecclesiastical insurance from (they insure churches!) The word literally means an assembly or gathering of people. But a gathering of people could mean anything. In fact the word is used of a riot in the book of Acts.
So a church is a gathering of which people?
Those who are chosen, a priesthood, a people who belong to God, who praise God and who know God’s mercy.
The picture Peter is painting is a picture that has its origins in the Old Testament Jewish community. The Jewish nation was a people conscious that God had chosen them. They were the people that had the temple of God, the people who were holy and set apart, the people with the priesthood – those who talked too and mediated between God and mankind.
But Peter takes this ancient image and alters it to give it new meaning. We writes to non Jews saying- “you are now the chosen people, the holy nation. You are all priests because you all have access to me. You are those who belong to me.”
Just as the nation of Israel, with God as their King, were his Kingdom, now the church from Peters day on is God’s kingdom – God is king, and the church is the people belonging to God.
This church therefore means all of God’s people everywhere. It is the Universal church
In Ephesians, Paul says that it is God’s intent that now, through the church his wisdom should be made known to the spiritual authorities (Ephesians 3:10) – not meaning an individual group, but all, everywhere over all time.
This is a big vision.
In 2005, official statistics tell us that there were roughly 1,900 Million people who would call themselves Christians. Now, many of those wouldn’t actually know what a Christian really is (as explained in the first 3 weeks of the Alpha course – see “Who is Jesus?”, “Why did Jesus die?” and “How can I be sure of my faith?”) but even so, that is a lot of people.
Most of those around the world who call themselves Christians would not identify much with the structures we have in place in the church in the West.
The church in many parts of the world is persecuted. In fact the Barnabas fund informs us that 1 in 10 Christians are persecuted. More people are killed for being Christians today than at any other time in history.
But strikingly, the church in the third world is not in decline, like that in the west. It is growing rapidly – much more rapidly than the western church is declining. The church is still in net growth!
The Universal church is staggering, especially when we normally think of it in terms of the church in the west!
But the church is not just universal, it is local too.
Much of the New Testament is written to churches in a town, city or region – local churches. In fact, just look in the index of any Bible at the names of the New Testament books. A large proportion of them, and most of the epistles are the named after towns with churches such as Philippi, Ephesus, Galatia, Thessalonica, Colossi etc. We read elsewhere of the church in Asia, Antioch, Jerusalem etc.
Much like today, these churches had certain things in common which have become the marks of the gathered church.
Acts 2:42-47 tells us that they did a number of things together, but 4 things in particular.
• Apostles teaching
• Fellowship
• Breaking of Bread (worship)
• Prayer
In one form or another, every church from then on has been marked by these four things.
You would find these things in the largest churches in the world. They might be done in Mega churches such as those you might find in the United States. The largest Church in the world is in South Korea – lead by a man called Paul Yongi Cho with a claimed 850000 people.
These things would also be done in the smallest of churches. My Father once spoke to a 14 year old lad who was the Pastor of the only Bible largest church in Siberia, with around 50 members.
There are churches that only meet in small groups, others that meet in homes, warehouses, stadiums or whatever. But every church that fits the Bibles model for church will seek to keep the principles of devotion to the apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer central as they try and be God’s people.
The Family of God
The second image makes this clearer. The church is also the family of God
Elsewhere in Ephesians Paul puts it like this.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-20)
We are members of God’s household.
This aspect of family that produces unity is spoken of commonly in the New Testament – and is sadly something that the church has often not done terribly well at. But this unity, the unity of family is not something we have to try and create - it is something we have. What do I mean?
Well, God is our father – the father of every Christian.
John 1:12 makes this very clear – “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children or God.”
Because we have the one Father it means we (all Christians) are brothers and sisters – and therefore united as family.
Just a chapter or 2 further on in Ephesians 4:3 , Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” They are to make an effort not to attain unity, but keep it – keep what has already been created.
Rupert Meldenius famously said “on the necessary points, unity; on the questionable points, liberty; in everything, love.”
Because we are brothers and sisters, we are to be faithful to one another!
Paul again, but this time in Galatians wrote – “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
This family is very precious.
On one occasion on a trip to Zambia I was left stranded in the middle of nowhere (nearest town 70 miles) with a broken axel. Thankfully we managed to drag our way to the nearest town, called Solwezi and knock on some German missionaries door. We had never met them and they didn’t know who we were. They took us in and looked after us for 3 days – generously and caringly. I remember being struck by the fact that, even though I was halfway round the world, I was still amongst family – family to whom I was united by our love for the same Father and Saviour.
Of course families don’t function by accident. For families to function well we must forgive one another. And of course we have the ultimate model for this forgiveness – our Father who has forgiven us more than we could ever imagine. The number of churches that have split over a lack of forgiveness is criminal…
Families share fellowship – we saw that earlier in the verses from Acts 2
In John’s first letter, Jesus’ friend tells us that “we proclaim to you what we have seen and hears, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” 1 John 1:3
The fellowship (partnership) within the family is two way – fellowship one with another, and with God.
So- the church is the people of God and the family of God.
The Body of Christ
The next picture painted is that the church is the ‘Body of Christ’
The apostle Paul had learnt a few things about this ‘body’, the church. Before he was converted he was the churches chief persecutor, doing more to try and destroy the church in the early years than almost anyone else. But then, whilst on his way to Damascus he saw a bright light and heard a voice saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Saul had been persecuting the church – but Jesus took it personally and accused Paul of persecuting him! Why?
Because the church is the Body of Christ
Later on in life Paul writes of this body in a number of places but perhaps most famously in 1 Corinthians 12. A quick read of that shows us that, just like a body the church is made up of all sorts of different parts which are interdependent upon one another. Each is important - the church is united but diverse – and we need one another.
The Holy Temple
The church is also spoken of as the “Holy Temple”
Just turn back to those verses we quoted earlier from Ephesians 2. Here they are again.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-20)
The church is built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets – Old and New Testaments. It has Jesus as it’s cornerstone keeping the whole structure standing and it is, as Paul goes on to tell us, indwelt by God’s Spirit.
The church is made up of individual bricks – Christians who build the walls in which God dwells. It is an amazing, exciting and exhilarating picture what a privilege we have in being church together!
Which brings us on to our last point
The Bride of Christ
Finally, the church is the Bride of Christ
A quick glance at Ephesians 5 v25-32 tell us that Jesus Christ loves the church and his purpose for the church is that she (Christians) reflect what he is like to the world – by being pure and blameless, without blemish etc. In fact, the last 2 chapters of the last book in the Bible are about this wedding.
And our response – to try and be the type of people he wants us to be.
There is much more to say – and this simply scratches the surface, but the church is God’s means of bringing hope to a lost world. It is his Kingdom, visible on earth and he loves it and will build it. So get involved and give you life to it – you will never regret it!
With thanks to Alpha International. This talk was based upon the outline in the Alpha manual. For more information visit Alpha.org