Church Is A Body People
The New Testament describes true believers in a
variety of ways. It calls us
the church, the Body of Christ, the family of God, a royal priesthood, and
so on. One example that you
might think describes me is a “peculiar people”. (1 Peter 2:9)
The word church is translated from the Greek word
“ekklesia”, which simply means
“a gathering of people”. “Ekklesia"
was an ordinary word used in everyday conversation.
It was not a religious word.
For example, in Acts “ekklesia”
is translated as the “mob” that hassled the apostles.
Jesus used this word when He said that He would
“build His ekklesia” – His church.
Note that Jesus said “His church”, not
“His churches”.
We hear of people building churches all of time.
Someone asked me, “why don’t you start a church”?
Why would I do that? Jesus
already started one. I’m not
interested in competing with Jesus. We
don’t need to build another church.
We just need to find the people Jesus has joined us with
and work with them by serving Jesus.
When Jesus said that He was going to build His
church, was He speaking of the building down the street?
We all know He wasn’t. If
that was the case, He would have appointed
contractors to help Him build, instead of
apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers/pastors.
Did Jesus mean that He would build many distinct,
individual, and self sufficient churches in certain localities?
I don’t think so. The
people who visit a particular building from time to time do not constitute
the church, only part of the church. There’s
only one true world wide church.
Concerning this one church, I heard a Bible teacher
give a prophecy. It was short
and to the point. Jesus spoke
through this man and said, “I want my church back”.
If this prophecy was from Jesus, and I believe it was, Jesus feels
that we have hijacked His church. I
certainly don't want to be a hijacker.
As “peculiar” as I am, I believe these things are
more than just words. What we
think and believe determines
how we live. We need some
fundamental changes in our thinking, especially in relation to church
life. Only then will fundamental changes come to church.
We need to see church as an “ekklesia”,
a gathering people, holy and faithful men and women placed together
in His Body, that are networked around the world.
Actually the word “network” is a good word to use in this
respect. Our problem is that
we don’t see church as people networked together in a body.
We see it as many different organizations,
with little contact with each other.
Our English word church has evolved into something
far different than what Jesus meant when He used the Greek word
“ekklesia”, assuming He spoke these words in Greek and not Aramaic.
Church is the Body of Christ world wide.
We are joined to certain people, other body parts, for mutual
friendship and ministry.
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