Who is the Church?
“The Church confronts the world with a message the world craves for but resents because it comes through the Cross of Christ.” Oswald Chambers
Read Romans Chapter 12.
“What is a church?”
Now that seems like a easy question, the sort of question one might answer in an simple sentence or two. “A church is a building in which Christians meet for worship,” is one obvious answer. “
Why is this study called Who is Church? Rather than What is Church? “A church is a group of Christians who gather together to worship or fellowship together”
People have a wide range of ideas about what church should be. If you ask a dozen people you’d probably get a dozen different answers. Most people get their ideas about church from a wide variety of sources.
Before you came to church what shaped your expectation of church?
When you first came to church was it what you expected?
Where do most people get their ideas from about what church is?
“Modern” views
Past experience
Some people get their ideas of church from their past experience of church. Many people come to church with no religious background. They may have some prior history limited to weddings and funerals. People usually have both positive and negative past experiences from which to draw.
The News
Some people get their ideas of church from the news. Much of the time, what people get from the news is not very positive. Church scandals make headlines. Churches that are faithfully living out the Christian life are ignored by the media.
Personal needs and preferences
Some people get their ideas of church from a projection of their personal needs and preferences. They may have a need and assume the church is the place that should meet that specific need. The church does meet many needs. Often people are drawn to church because of that are not the church’s main business. For example, someone might come to church hoping to make new friends.
Some people expect the church to be like some similar organisation or event. For example, some people expect a church to be like a concert. When you go to a concert, you file into an auditorium. You sit in rows and watch something happening on the stage up front. If the concert is any good, you feel lots of positive emotions. At times you might even get into the act, but just a bit. You leave feeling uplifted and satisfied by the performance. Church, for many people, is just like this, only better, because you don’t need a ticket, and don’t even have to pay anything if you don’t want to.
School or club
Some people think of church like a school. They come for religious education. For others, a church is like a club, perhaps a social club or a service club. Churches have regular meetings. We have members and a process for joining. Members can become leaders in the church. We do lots of different things together, including service projects and social gatherings. At church, as in a club, we make friends and find a centre for our socialising.
Just looking
Some people today see the church as some kind of shop. Small churches are like neighbourhood markets; large churches are like department stores. Both churches and shops “sell” products. Both have professional staff. Both “market” their wares in the community, hoping to attract interested “consumers.” Larger churches, like larger shops, offer a wide array of “products.” Smaller churches, like small shops, offer more personal service but fewer “products.” If the church you attend provides what you want to consume, you continue to go there.
If that church stops meeting your needs, you think nothing of finding a better church, just as you might switch markets or clothing shops.
Who cares!
It’s also common for some people to see the church like a hospital. When you’re physically sick, you go to a hospital to get well. Similarly, churches promise to help you overcome your spiritual ailments. Both hospitals and churches have professional experts to help you heal (doctors, pastors).
Both hospitals and churches offer specialised treatments for particular ailments. People who care staff both hospitals and churches, or at least that’s the way it should be.
Modern Misunderstanding
All of these analogous institutions – concerts, schools, clubs, stores, and hospitals – are like churches in many ways.
Thinking of a church in these categories may seem to make sense, to a point.
But if people see a church exclusively in light of these analogies, they will misunderstand essential aspects of church life. For example:
A church is like a concert, but it’s better to see a worship service as a concert in which God is the audience and the worshippers are they performers, turning the concert imagery upside down.
A church is like a school, but church offers much more than religious and moral education.
It seeks to transform people’s hearts and lives, not just to educate their minds. And it seeks for join people together in life-changing community.
A church is like a club, but unlike most clubs, membership isn’t a privilege, but a gift, and non-members are welcome to participate in virtually every aspect of “club” life. A church, unlike a club, exists not just for its members, but especially for its non-members.
A church is like a shop, but it should do far more than offer “products” for consumption. A church will thrive only if its members are committed to the church in a way far beyond consumer loyalty.
A church is like a hospital in that it offers healing to those who are spiritually sick, just like Jesus did. But a church is not like a hospital because it seeks, not only to get “patients” well, but also to enlist them on the caring team. When you go to a hospital, you’re not expected to become a doctor or a nurse. When you got to a church, you could join the care-giving team as well as receive care.
Ironically, biblical teaching on the church uses analogies to reveal the essence of the church. Each analogy has certain strengths; each analogy also has certain limitations.
“One proof of the inspiration of the Bible is that it has withstood so much poor preaching. Likewise one proof that the church is God’s instrument is that it has not blown apart with all of us in it” A.T. Robertson
The Biblical view
What does the Bible say about church?
After Jesus died, rose from the grave and ascended to Heaven His disciples spread out into Greece, Rome and beyond. By 60 AD there were small congregations meeting together from Jerusalem to Rome. The Gospel message impacted the lives of both Jews and Gentiles.
Outside of the Hebrew world, the dominant religions embraced a vast array of gods and goddesses with a common similarity – they were remote from humanity and took no involvement in the everyday lives of people.
Through one-on-one witnessing and through dynamic messages in public forums the message of Jesus grew. By 100 AD it is estimated that this group of believers had grown to 10% of the Roman population.
The Christian believers met regularly and “joined together constantly in prayer” from the start. The book of Acts records in chapter 1 that 120 of them met together and Chapter 2 speaks of three thousand being added to the group. By Acts chapter 4 the number of believers is five thousand (Acts 1:14-15; 2:41; 4:4).
In the New Testament, the Greek word ekklésia, is the word we translate as church, in the Greek this word refers to a “called out group” or “assembly” a word that was used regularly for secular gatherings of any kind.
Flesh not wood, brick or stone
Applied to Christians the word ekklésia means “those who have been called out to Jesus Christ.” It refers to a group of people not buildings.
Jesus idea not ours
It was Jesus who first mentioned the church: “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” Matthew 16:18.
Jesus used the word a second time in Matthew 18:17 when He instructed His followers to take disputes to the “church” as the place to arbitrate disagreements between people.
Jesus also described the simplest type of church: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” Matthew 18:20.
From Acts 2:47, the rest of the New Testament constantly uses “church” when referring to the collective gathering of Christians.
The NT Church
The book of Acts was written by the physician Luke, the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament. The book of Acts continues the history of the Gospels. Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and if you read Luke then Acts you are presented with a seamless account of the life of Jesus and the early church. The book of Acts provides historical context for every book in the New Testament except 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus.
Overview of the book of Acts
Acts 1 God the Son ascends
Acts 2 God the Holy Spirit arrives
Acts 6-7 Saul watches as Stephen is stoned to death
Acts 9 Saul is saved
Acts 13-20 Paul goes on tour
Acts 24 Paul goes on trial
Acts 27 Paul under sail
The New Testament describes church in two ways: worldwide & local.
Worldwide, the universal, invisible church, all true believers in every place, those who have gone on and those who are still alive.
Local, the group we belong to and identify with. A.H. Strong in Systematic Theology wrote, “The individual church may be defined as that smaller company of regenerate persons who, in any given community, unite themselves voluntarily together in accordance with Christ’s laws, for the purpose of securing the complete establishment of His kingdom in themselves and in the world.”
Three periods of New Testament Ministry
The first period. Jesus ministry with the seventy he commissioned. The apostolic ministry of those given leadership after Pentecost. The ministry of deacons, elders and bishops. The three pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) give the principles and qualifications for ministry.
The transitional period. During most of the lifetime of the Apostles, letters were circulated to the various Christian communities. Their aim was that the revelation of truth would be circulated and that the Spirit of God would strengthen believers.
The permanent ministry. A bishop or elder, taught spiritual truth and exercised rule and discipline in the local church. “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” Hebrews 13:7. Deacons also helped administer the business of a church (Acts 6:1-6; 1 Timothy 3:8-12), though it is clear there are spiritual overtones to their activity.
Where is your church?
The church is the people not the buildings, but today we use the word church in additional ways. In answer to the question “where is your church?” we are more likely to answer Rayleigh or Ashingdon rather than at work, or home, or school. A church is where its members are at a particular moment. Part of the problem of us reaching out to the world around us is caused by a “building” mentality. When we think of the activities of the church we often think only of what goes on within the four walls of the church building rather than what takes place in the world through what believers say, do and are.
The church in Jerusalem
Some Biblical scholars refer to when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost as the day of the birth of the modern church. After Peter preached his sermon, “those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” Acts 2:41.
At first the church consisted mainly of Jews who recognised Jesus as the Messiah. Many of them were Greek speaking Jews who had been scattered all over the empire and had come to Jerusalem as pilgrims.
The early church was considered as a sect within Judaism. One of the Apostle Paul’s accusers referred to him as “a troublemaker, stirring up riots among Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect” Acts 24:5. The Roman government gave Christians the same exemption from military service it gave to the Jews. The first Jewish Christians in Jerusalem continued to recognise their obligations to the Mosaic Law and still participated in the worship services of the temple or synagogue.
Jewish proselytes (Gentiles who had embraced Judaism) believed the Gospel message and came into the church. Philip preached in Samaria and later baptised an Ethiopian (Acts 8). After a vision from the Lord the universal scope of the Gospel finally got through to a reluctant Peter (Acts 10:9-16). He later explained to Cornelius, a Gentile, that it had been “against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” Acts 10:28.
On hearing Cornelius’ declaration of faith, Peter uttered these historic words: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right” Acts 10:34-35. While Peter was speaking this, the Holy Spirit moved on the listeners while Peter spoke. Most of the audience were Gentiles and the Jews were amazed that Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit. Peter then baptised the Gentile believers.
From a human perspective, Peter was possibly the most unlikely candidate to step up as leader of this new movement. A rough and impulsive man, Peter had been inconsistent in his life. Often he would make great claims and then stumble badly, for example when he told Jesus he would never deny him and then denied Jesus three times. Yet Jesus saw the real heart of Peter, when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). By the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, Peter became the first leader of the new church and one of its most powerful preachers.
Other Christian Jews preached the Gospel in Antioch, where a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles came into existence (Acts 13:1). It was in Antioch that believers were first called Christians or “Christ’s men” (Acts 11:26). The church held a council in Jerusalem to decide if Gentile converts were required to observe Jewish laws on food and circumcision, the result was a momentous declaration: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things”
Acts 15:28‑29.
Metaphors
The Body of Christ.
Jesus is the head of the body. Every member functions under the leadership of the head and with interdependence upon other members: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ” 1 Corinthians 12:12 (See also Ephesians 4:4, Colossians 3:15).
Christ is the leader of the church, the church is subject to Him (Ephesians 5:23-24). Jesus is the source of unity: “For you are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28.
Every part of the body is important, just like in a physical body, the largest part to the smallest part is significant. The prayer warrior is as important as the bible study leader. “There should be no division in the body” for each part is needed and has purpose
(1 Corinthians 12:25).
Members of the church are called to be in relationship with God and in relationship with each other in God. The church is meant to be like a human body. But it is not meant to grow old and die in three or four generations. So it is both like a body and unlike a body.
The House of God
“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood” 1 Peter 2:5.
The household of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” Ephesians 2:20.
The building, or temple, is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit; it is built of individuals that the Holy Spirit lives within (1 Corinthians 6:19).
The building is not built from stones or wood but from “living stones”. A church building is not the church, it is a place where the church meets. Those who attend the church are the dwelling place of God.
The Bride of Christ
Marriage is a powerful illustration that is used to illustrate Christ’s relationship, love and total commitment to the church (Ephesians 5:25-27,
31-32; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7; 22:17).
Can someone be a Christian and not be part of the church? Think of it this way, if someone said “I will get married, but never see the bride again, or join in any activities, except maybe at Christmas or Easter!” It is the same as someone who is unwilling to spend time with other believers or spend time listening and growing as part of a local church.
The biblical picture of church is people meeting together as family, as children of the Living God.
The first church
In the New Testament we learn about the activities and membership requirement of the first church. In the book of Acts we are given a description of the four primary activities of the first church: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42.
Teaching
Everything they had heard Jesus say and do, the apostles declared it to the believers. Jesus spent time pouring out His heart teaching His disciples.
He told them to make disciples of all nations teaching them “everything I have commanded you” (John 10-17; Matthew 28:20). A church must be founded on biblical teaching.
Fellowship
Around three thousand believers were involved fellowship. This was not a quick trip to a local building once or twice a week, followed by a cup of tea and a quick exit and no contact with anyone for at least another week. The fellowship of the church was a mutual involvement, caring, studying, and living in relationship and community. Jesus referred to this as “oneness”.
Communion
The “breaking of bread” was the usual term for the “Lord’s Supper”, remembering Jesus death. It was not a feast for the physically hungry, it was an event based on the words of Jesus “Do this in remembrance of me”. This was an opportunity for the church to remember that Jesus had made the ultimate sacrifice for His church. With communion must come a time of inward examination, giving thanks and seeking purity of life congruent with obeying God.
Prayer
For the early church prayer was a common practice. The first recorded meeting of the disciples in the book of Acts is when they met to pray: “They all joined constantly in prayer.” Acts 1:14.
Acts also records many other times of prayer: “Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer” Acts 3:1; “We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” Acts 6:4;
“The church was earnestly praying to God for Peter” Acts 12:5. Prayer was a pattern for early believers.
Church Membership
The requirements for membership of the church focussed on basic tenets.
Belief in the Jesus Christ
Faith in Jesus, and repentance from sin, was (and still is) the spiritual prerequisite to new life and membership in the body of Christ. When people asked Jesus the question, “What must we do to do the works god requires? He answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent” John 6:28-29.
Baptism
Baptism with repentance, was for everyone, “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” Acts 2:38. Water baptism is implied as a practice for those who believe in God, for example Philip and the Ethiopian, remember Jesus was baptised to “fulfil all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15.
Acting on truth
Paul warned of the danger of false teachers within the church (Philippians 3:2), and Peter echoed the same solemn theme. In the New Testament there is an emphasis on the need for doctrinal purity and holiness of life. Doctrinal or moral impurities were to be purged from the church (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Witnessing
Jesus said “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
Jesus told His followers to go into all the world, has the church fulfilled the Great Commission? Why do so many see this as the great suggestion?
The commission given to the Apostles applies to us today. We have the same authority, the same power and the same mission they did.
A visible characteristic of the church was witnessing. Some had the gift of evangelism, their goal was the communication and preservation of the Gospel Message to the immediate world and throughout the entire world.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8.
It’s simple but profound - start with your own community and don’t stop until you reach the world. Most of the disciples had never travelled more than a few miles from home yet they were told to go to the ends of the earth, and they did - the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:
“The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it” 1 Thessalonians 1:7. Paul spoke of them being “a model to all believers” 1 Thessalonians 1:8.
How would your witnessing change if you were not so concerned about how people responded?
Service
The normal function of church members was service. They met the physical and spiritual needs of both believers and unbelievers: “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” Galatians 6:10. Jesus was the example they followed because He: “went around doing good” Acts 10:38.
God gave individuals spiritual gifts to the church to prepare God’s people for works of service, “so that the body of Christ may be built up” Ephesians 4:12.
“Without the power of the Holy Spirit, all human efforts, methods and plans are as futile as attempting to propel a boat by puffing at the sails with our own breath” DM Dawson
Obedient
Is it enough to just believe, can someone call themselves a Christian if they never go to church or spend time with other believers?
There is no such thing as a “lone-wolf” Christian. Each genuine Christian, regardless of denomination, is spiritually one with every other believer. When we are united with Christ, we are like coals on fire – as we stay connected we keep the flame alive. Left alone, coal goes cold. Christians not warmed by fellowship and corporate worship grow cold and ineffective for the Gospel.
To be obedient to Jesus, we should identify and join with other believers for service and worship. We are blessed when we worship together. We are blessed when we serve together.
We can contribute the unique gifts God has given us to the local church so that we can be used by God to bless others.
Rick Warren wrote: “When we’re called to follow Christ; we’re also called to belong to the Body of Christ.” After affirming that the Church is Christ’s spiritual body on earth, God’s instrument in the world, he identifies one of the biggest hurdles pastors face today: “it is hard to convince people who attend church to commit themselves to the church family and become members.” Warren blames this on “today’s culture of independent individualism.” As a result, we have many “spiritual orphans who move from one church to another without any identity, accountability or commitment.” Rick Warren also gives several biblical reasons why we should commit and become members of the local church:
1. Belonging to a church family identifies us as genuine believers
2. A church family moves us out of self-centered isolation
3. A church family helps us develop spiritual muscle
4. The Body of Christ needs every one of us
We must remind those who fill our buildings each Sunday that joining the membership of a local church is the natural next step once they become a child of God. You become a Christian by committing yourself to Christ, but you become a church member by committing yourself to a specific group of believers. The first decision brings salvation; the second brings fellowship.
For personal reflection
Why it it important to go to church?
Why don’t we live our lives as though we are being watched by God every day?
Have you ever looked at a specific situation and thought: “The church really should do something about this”? Based on the fact that you are part of the church what stops you from doing something?
