What Is Church

What is the Church

In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. - Ephesians 2:22

Who needs the church? Well, the answer is: if you're a child of God, you need the church. I need the church. We all need the church. And when we say the word "church," some people have this great sense of joy and delight. Some people have this sense of, "Who needs the church?" Some people have a sense of confusion . . . "What is the church?" Let us meditate and address some of those questions.

What’s wrong with the church? A man from Wales gave this answer. “What’s wrong with the church is “our failure to realize and wonder at the beauty, the mystery, the glory, and the greatness of the church”.

That is so true, and I think it's very needed in our generation, especially in our younger generation, that we redeem the concept of the church. Many people today feel, even many believers feel, "I don't need the church." I want us to look into God's Word and wonder at the beauty, the mystery, the glory, and the greatness of the church."

The Church was not man's idea; it is not man's institution. It is God's idea; it is God's plan. You're going to see that you need the Church; I need the Church. Every child of God needs the Church. Acts 20:28 tells us, Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The Church has something of an identity crisis today. And We know, we grow up as little children: "Here's the church. Here's the altar. Open the doors. Where are all the people?" The church was a building. It's a place you go to. Well, we have buildings that we call churches, but essentially the Church is not somewhere you go. Basically, the Church is not just an organization. It's not just an institution. It is not just a place. It's not just somewhere you go. It's something we are. The Church is something we are.

I. Church is the Hidden Mystery

Now the book of Ephesians has a lot to say about the Church. It's kind of a theological text on the Church and it lifts up the glory and the wonder of the Church as God ordained it. In Ephesians chapter 3:-9-11, Paul says that he wanted to: . . . bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 9–11) NIV.

And to the Old Testament saints this plan was a mystery. It was hinted in the Old Testament, but those Old Testament saints could not see clearly what we now learn in the New Testament. It's God's plan to have His body, the body of Christ, be a Church. It was God's plan from the beginning of the ages, and it is crucial to God's redemption purpose on this earth. The Church is the core, it is central to what God is doing in making all things new in this earth. It is the expression on earth of the kingdom of God, the body of Christ.

In Ephesians 3, Paul says that "the manifold wisdom of God . . ." That word "manifold" means variegated, many-sided, many-splendored, many-faceted, "wisdom of God is revealed to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church" (v. 10). What does that mean? the principalities and powers? Those are angels, both holy angels and fallen angels—demons. He said the angels and the demons see the glory of God in the Church. Psalm 96:6 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

They see something that they marvel at, that they wonder at, that reveals the wisdom and glory of God when they look at God's plan for the Church. It's a magnificent plan of God. So, magnificent that even the angels and the demons wonder at it. Psalm 96:9, Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

Tremble before Him, all the earth.

II. Church is the body of Christ

Now in the New Testament, there are a number of metaphors for the Church. The first is that the Church is the body. It's the body of Christ. Ephesians 1: 22 says that God gave Christ "as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (vv. 22–23). Christ is the head; the Church is the body, and God has designed us to fit together to be united as one.