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About Jesus Steve Sweetman The Politics Of God And The Bible Part 8
Jesus
Will Build His Church In Matthew 16:18 Jesus told Peter and others
"that He would build His church and the gates of Hades would not
overcome it". This is
one very misunderstood passage. This
misunderstanding has unfortunately shaped much of our thinking
concerning church throughout the centuries.
The reason for the misunderstanding is due to the
word "church" that appears in our English translations.
The word "church" is translated from the Greek word
"ecclesia". "Ecclesia"
simply means "a group of people who have been set apart for a
specific purpose". That's
it. It's not complicated.
"Ecclesia" was not a religious word as our English word
"church" is. It
was an everyday word, with everyday usage.
An "ecclesia" could have been a town council, a fishing
guild, a ladies sewing group, or any group of people set apart for a
specific purpose. The problem arises when we define "church", and in turn "ecclesia", in this passage with our modern understanding of church. The New Testament was written almost two thousand years ago in a language few of us know or understand. Christians continue to impose 21st century definitions into a 1st century Greek New Testament. That's bad hermeneutics. It does great harm to the text, and even more harm to the way we think. This unfortunate misunderstanding of church has been passed down to us through various Christian movements that date back to Catholicism in the dark ages, and even beyond. Few have bothered to challenge the status quo on this issue. When Jesus told Peter, and those standing by, He was
going to "build His ecclesia", He was not thinking of anything
that closely resembles what church looks like in the western world
today. I believe Jesus'
intention was to take people out of the world and set them apart to do
His will in representing the Kingdom
of Jesus went on to say that He would give the disciples
the "keys to the Kingdom".
They would become the doorkeepers to the Kingdom
of We should therefore not view church as countless
organizations, each having distinct doctrinal differences,
real-estate, and ecclesiastical hierarchies.
Church is simply those people who belong to Jesus and
in turn belong to each other in order to do Jesus' will.
There is only one church, one group of people who
belong to Jesus. I suggest
that you can substitute the word "church" with
the words "those who belong to Jesus" when you read the New
Testament. Take Revelation
3:1 as an example. The NIV
states, "to the angel of the church at Sardis". You can easily say,
"to the angel of those who belong to Jesus at Sardis". In Revelation
2 and 3 Jesus addresses seven churches, or so our English versions
state. I don't see Jesus
addressing seven churches as we understand church today.
I see Him addressing people who belong to Him who reside in seven
different cities. There is
only one group of people who belong to Jesus, no matter where we live or
how we organize ourselves.
If you can grasp what I just said, and many won't, it will turn your world of church upside down. You'll never be satisfied with the
status quo again.
Church is relational.
We are people who Jesus has personally taken from the world.
We now belong to Him and to each other.
Each one of us who belong to Jesus are joined to a few others to
carry out His plans on earth. As
one bone is joined to another in a body, so each disciple is joined to
another as a bone in the Body of Christ, or, the invisible Kingdom
of What I'm about to say might cause some debate.
It's a bit technical, but I believe there's a point to be made.
God the Father was known to Now Jesus came along in Matthew 16:18 and tells us
that He was going to build "His ecclesia", or in my words,
"His own ecclesia". As
Yahweh took a people out of the world for His own chosen people, so
Jesus would take a people out of the world for His chosen people.
As Yahweh had His ecclesia, Jesus would have His ecclesia.
The bottom line to this is that Jesus was now making
a major change in the earthly expression of the invisible
Israel
Laid Aside But Not Forgotten Jesus was very upset with the Jewish leaders, as
Yahweh often was in the Old Testament. What
He says in Matthew 21:43 is key to this discussion.
Since most, but not all, Israelis rejected Jesus, He told them,
"… the Theologians have termed the age in which we presently
live as "the age of grace".
We now live in an age where Jesus' ecclesia, His special people
who we call the church, both teach and live a life of God's grace.
Jesus said, "as my Father has sent me, so I send you'. (John
20:21) As Israel
represented Yahweh to the nations, so Christians represent Jesus to the
nations of the world. We now turn our attention to the politics of Jesus
and His chosen people with the understanding that Yahweh has not set
aside His chosen people
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