Be shepherds of the
I was talking with a Presbyterian pastor in
the neighbourhood this week. We were talking about church boards and stuff like
that and he started to explain what their “session” was. I told him I grew up
in
English is a funny language. It has bits from all over the place. It’s originally really related to German, but it seems to have forgotten its family line because most of the words we use now actually come from French and Latin. Strangely enough, one word that English hasn’t borrowed from somewhere else is “church”. That’s a real German word. In German it’s kirche, in Dutch it’s kerk, in Scots it’s kirk.
When I was working with Persian speaking Afghans I had a rude surprise. I didn’t expect the word for church in Persian to be related to the English word, and it isn’t. But neither did I expect it to be related to the original word used in the original Greek New Testament. But it is.
What’s the French word for church?
The Spanish word? The Portuguese word?
The Gaelic word for church is eglis.
(That’s where
The Persian word is kelisa
The New Testament Greek word behind all of these kelisa, igreja, iglesia, eglise, eglis, is ekklesia.
Normally when I preach, I take a passage of scripture and work my way through it. This morning I’m going to do something a little different for me. We’re going to do what is called a “word study”. Instead of a passage, we’re going to look at one word, but it’s an important word Church, and we’re going to see if we can figure out what it means. I’m going to start off in Acts 20, the passage that was read, but I’ll be listing a bunch of references where “church” is used. They’re listed on your handout but I suggest that you don’t try and look them all up in the service. If you want to check on what I’m saying I suggest you look them up later.
When Paul meets with the elders of the
church in
There are two ways in which the New
Testament refers to the church. One way is the church at a place,
The Greek word ekklesia, that we usually translate “church”, appears 114 times in the NT. Almost always it’s translated as “church”, but a few times it comes out as something else. In 1 Cor 14:13 and Hebrews 2:12 it’s translated as “congregation” and three other times it comes out as something quite different. Those three times are right next door to our text, in Acts 19. Acts 19:32,39-41
Acts
19:32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some
another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.
Acts
19:39-41 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled
in a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting
because of today’s events. In that case we would not be able to account for
this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” After he had said this, he
dismissed the assembly.
In verse 32 the ekklesia is practically a riot. In verses 39-41 a city official is speaking to the crowd and warning them that if they have a problem it needs to be brought before a legal assembly, an ekkelsia, not a mob.
When you think of the word “church” what picture comes into your mind?
For most people it’s a picture of a building. Perhaps a little white clapboard church from a greeting card, or a great cathedral. If you’re more theologically educated you might think of a congregation of believers, a religious gathering. It’s very unlikely that you thought of something like the city council in session, or parliament.
That’s what two thousand years of use does. It changes our perspective. When people in the first century heard Paul and others talk about an ekklesia they certainly didn’t think of a building. They didn’t even think of a religious group or gathering. They had other words for that kind of thing, words like thiasos.
When they spoke about an ekklesia, they would have had a clear picture in their minds of a public assembly because ekklesia is a very secular word. It’s the word for the assembly that discusses and decides the direction of the city council. So, you see, the picture in the minds of the people in the New Testament is of a group of people meeting together, in public, around important issues, issues that can’t just be shunted off into the area of personal religious preferences.
One of the reasons that the church was persecuted was because they refused to call themselves a religion. One of the stock phrases among Christians today is that Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship. The early church would have disagreed with both statements. They would have said it wasn’t just a religion in the sense that it was just about personal salvation or improvement. But they would also have said it wasn’t just a relationship for the same reason. It isn’t just about “me and Jesus”.
They chose to identify themselves primarily as an alternative way of living, and by calling themselves an ekklesia they let people know that it wasn’t just a personal preference. This way of living was valid for everybody, a different standard by which to decide and direct their private lives and the public life of the community. No wonder they made enemies.
If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time you will have run into people who have translated ekklesia literally as “the called out ones”. They say that the word means we have to be radically separate from the world. We shouldn’t do what they do. We should strive to be different, almost for the sake of being different. This is the idea behind strict sects like the Amish and Old Order Mennonites. But if you look at the context in Acts 19 it’s clear that the word simply means an assembly of people. It isn’t primarily about “coming out of” something but about “assembling about” something. And it’s what we assemble about that makes the difference.
We said there are two ways to speak about
the church. The most basic way is, “the
Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Corinthians 11:16; 1 Corinthians 11:22; 1 Corinthians 15:9; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:4.
What does it mean to say the church is the assembly of God?
In the Old Testament there’s a parallel
expression, “the assembly of the Lord.” That expression reaches right back to
the formation of the people of
In 1 Chronicles 28:8 David says to his son Solomon, “So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.”
The basic idea here is that the people are the assembly of the Lord because they assemble around the Lord. He is the centre. In Deuteronomy he commands “Assemble the people before me to hear my words” . In 1 Chronicles David says I charge you in the sight of … the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God”. God is very much present in these events and he is the centre of activity. Without him there would be no assembly.
As a church we do all sorts of things. We
run Sunday morning services. We maintain a building, run Sunday school, and
bible studies, and the Tuesday morning drop in, etc., etc. But that is not
where we get our identity. If it is, like the
The church is the
So one way that we are the assembly of God is that he is the focal point of our assembling together. Another way that we are the assembly of God is the same way that this is the “Bible of Robin” or that is the “guitar of Will”. Of course that isn’t how we normally say it in English. We normally say “Robin’s bible” or “Will’s guitar”. In the same way we are “God’s assembly”. We are “God’s church”.
I’m always a little worried when I hear people talk about “my church”. I know it’s usually said as an expression of affection, but we need to be careful with our words. It’s not “my church”. It doesn’t matter how long I am a part of it, it never becomes “my church”. I am only ever part of “God’s church”. It is always “God’s church”.
I am particularly concerned when I hear pastors or deacons or other leaders speaking of “my church”. I try and avoid saying that when I am talking with others. I try to say something like “the church where I serve”, or “Wentworth”, simply because we can be drawn in by our own words to believe that we have some kind of ownership of the church.
And in Baptist congregational polity that isn’t just a danger for the pastor. It’s easy to come to believe that, because we make decisions by voting, we somehow control the church in the same way that we (at least in theory) control the government that we vote in. That’s not how it works. It’s God’s church, to do what he sees fit with it. We believe that God makes his will known through the congregation and the wisdom found in a plurality of leaders. That’s why we have the form of government we have. But it’s God’s church; not the pastor’s, and not the members’ either.
The church is the
One of the best descriptions of Christian
discipleship is found in Mark 4:13 Jesus
went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to
him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him
and that he might send them out to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons.
Jesus called the men who would be known as the twelve apostles first “to be with him” then “to be sent out”. We’ve talked a number of times over the last few weeks about how God calls people, like Abraham in the Old Testament or Peter or Paul in the New, to be “with him” and how that call always includes a call to also be a blessing to other people.
Christian discipleship has a rhythm to it. We are called into God’s presence to walk with him and be changed by him, as the apostles were changed by walking with Jesus. Then we are sent out into the world to spread the good news and release people from bondage. Then we come back into God’s presence to be renewed and refocused on him. Then we go back out into the world to be a blessing again.
It’s like breathing. And like breathing, you have to do both parts to stay alive. You can’t just breathe in, and you can’t just breathe out. You have to maintain the rhythm to stay healthy.
As the
Church isn’t just something we do on a
Sunday morning because we’re not into baseball in the summer or hockey in the
winter. The New Testament calls us the “
We gather together here and now because God has called us together into a community with Him at the centre. As soon as we forget that and get caught up in the “business” of church we run the risk of going the same way as ancient Israel – God will leave us and we will slide into oblivion and irrelevance.
We gather together here and now because we belong to God. We are his, collectively and individually. This isn’t our church. We are His church.
And we gather together here and now because he has called us to be with him, to be changed by him, to be conformed to the image of his son; and then to go out and serve the world around us in his name.
Paul had a high view of the church. He called
it “the