Ekklesiatime I

Our first entry opened up the broad theme for this blog; now we'd better get into some of the nitty gritty. Where better to start than at the start?

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, "But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My [INSERT PHONOGRAPH NEEDLE SCRATCHING ACROSS VINYL RECORD HERE]...

"...I will build my ______?" Think you know the answer? Of course you do. Well... let's take a look at that for a moment.

Suppose that you were a first century Christian. Maybe even a very early believer before they began to be called "Christians" at Antioch. Or maybe you believed on one of Paul's missionary journeys, or through Apollos or Cephas. You saw the written letters of the apostles with your own eyes – even if you couldn't read it for yourself. You know first-hand the challenges and the imperfections faced by the Body of Christ in that ancient, pagan environment of almost unbridled idolatry and sin. But you saw the Bride in her glory, turning the world upside down despite brutal persecution; healing the sick, raising the dead, judging itself in righteousness and acting in one accord to establish for the ages the great truths and forms of the Body of Christ. You saw the Spirit working miracles, speaking through prophets, and edifying the believers and the body through tongues and interpretations. You knew people who were eye-witnesses of the resurrected Christ and the righteous ones who walked out of their graves in Jerusalem. You suffered for His name, and refused to take the easy path. You asked no quarter from your persecutors, and gave no quarter to the demonic enemies that oppressed your neighbors and family members. You were there, and saw it with your own eyes...

Now imagine that you were caught up by the Spirit – like Philip – and placed back on the earth some 2000 years later in Great Britain or maybe in America. Scrolls that once were so expensive they were closely guarded and rarely owned are now collected together in one simple book that you can read in English and can buy for a dollar. Opening the book you find Matthew's record of the Good News. Now there are handy chapter and verse markers to help you find your way quickly. You flip open to 'Chapter 16' when the Christ still walked the earth, and there you read the beginning of it all in 'Verse 17', "...you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My gleebok..."

My what?

Have you ever wondered in reading, "on this rock I will build My church" just exactly why He used the word 'church'? Or better yet, what was a 'church'? We have a tendency to think that since 'the church' had never existed prior to the 'church age' that perhaps Jesus just coined an all new word in preparation for that event. In point of fact, He did no such thing, and He used no such word. There was no word 'church' in existence at that time, or for centuries afterward, and Jesus chose from among several potential Greek words (including 'synagogue' – a rather obvious choice – and the Greek word for a generic 'assembly'), but instead He chose a very specific word with a very specific meaning: ekklesia. By way of contrast, 'church' is a very non-specific word with a very uncertain meaning.

Many of you are no doubt already aware that the Greek behind the word "church" is ekklesia (ek•kle•SEE•uh). More of you probably know that the literal meaning of the word 'ekklesia' is "The Called Out", or "Called Out Ones", which, of course, His people are: we are "called out" from the world. And most Christians stop right there: We're called the "Called Out Ones" because we're 'called out' of the world to a life in Christ, right? Great! When is the Worship Service?

I have no doubt that Jesus was fully aware of the root meaning of 'ekklesia'; it would likely have been as obvious in that day as the roots of 'outdoors', 'hardware', or 'billboard' are to us. However, this word was in existence well before Jesus walked the earth. The ekklesia was actually a Greek political body, similar to the 'town meeting'. In fact, it was called 'ekklesia' because the members were "called out" specifically to make decisions and render judgments. An 'assembly' is simply any gathering of people who have come together for any old non-specific purpose, and that is often a good example of church gatherings today! But not an ekklesia; an ekklesia was a specific gathering for a specific purpose: to discuss issues, and make binding judgments about them. That was the format that Jesus chose to be His body on the earth!

In fact, that is why in the Bible you have ekklesias (Acts 19:32, 39, and 41) and you also have The Ekklesia of God, or The Ekklesias of Christ.

If you will plug this little fact in and go re-read your entire New Testament, you will get a very different and much clearer picture of what was going on; like throwing out your old half-dead 60's TV that you've been watching worn out home-recorded VHS tapes on, and getting a new blue-ray disc player and HDTV. Or maybe going to the IMAX theater. After I learned the truth of this little bait-and-switch that we've been handed, I literally marked through every single usage of the words 'church' or 'churches' in my Bible and wrote in 'ekklesia' or ekklesias' instead, because there is a world of difference between the unbiblical, linguistically unjustifiable, non-specific, blob-like word 'church', and the very specific, very powerful, and meaningful word 'ekklesia'.

Try this on to see the difference:

"But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My un-specified gathering of people who have come together for no clear or particular purpose, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

vs.

"But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My authorized, legal assembly of those who are 'called out' to weigh important matters and render binding, meaningful decisions, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

It's all the difference between 'here' and 'there'.