What Is The Church? Series

You are most likely familiar with the children’s hand motion and rhyme to learn about church. Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the door and see all the people. Well, when we really understand church we say, here is the building and here is the steeple, open the door and see the church.

When you read the word church in your English Bible it is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia. The literal meaning is those who are called out. The general use in Greek was to express the idea of an assembly.

An example of a secular use of ekklesia would be a gathering of citizens in a self-governing city. This is the use of the word as it happened in Ephesus. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. (Acts 19:39)

Jesus put a new meaning to the word ekklesia. Jesus said, And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18) He was saying that the Hebrews have their assembly, the Greeks have theirs and now I will build my called-out people. I will build my church.

The word ekklesia is used 115 times in the New Testament. There are 92 uses that are the local church and 23 times the word is used for the universal church.

The church universal means all true believers in Christ. Another name for the universal church is the body of Christ. It refers in general to all redeemed in Christ. We can use the word church in the general sense as a reference to all who are in Christ.

The term body of Christ is found in Ephesians 1:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 12.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:22-23)

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Corinthians 12: 12-14)

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:9)

Church members are interrelated. We need each other in the body of Christ. We also need to look to the head of the body, that is Jesus Christ to carry out the desires of Christ.

Another metaphor for the church universal is God’s building. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9) It suggests God’s indwelling of the church.

The cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ. The foundation is the apostles, and all believers are the stones joined by the Holy Spirit to form God’s building.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Another metaphor for the church is the bride of Christ. This picture symbolizes the love and fruit bearing aspect of the church.

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:22-33)

When we look at the meaning of church, with its emphasis on the assembled group, the universal church will be the sole operation of church after the Lord’s return. But until that time the local church is central. That is why we should not be surprised that the New Testament places more emphasis on the idea of the local church.

We are born again into the universal church, but simply being born again does not make us a member of the local church. We join the local church and normally we are baptized into membership of the local church.

In the New Testament the local church acted under the Lordship of Christ. He is the lead of the universal church and of the local church. The local church directed its own affairs. You did not find a supervisory board, or a bishop who dictated the affairs of the local church to it. The churches were independent.