What is the Church?
Recently, an "evangelist" tried to win my soul at work. When he found out I was a professing believer in Jesus, he asked me where I go to church. (Up to this point, his assumption was that he was in control of the conversation.) To that I replied, "I am the church!" I received a flurry of questions:
What?
Don't you go to a building?
Don't you need teaching, to hear the Word of God?
What about accountability, and leaders?
I told him, that if the New Testament allows the church to own a building or operate in one is another matter, but the Bible certainly does not require the church to use one. You see, the word for "church" in the New Testament is 'ekklesia,' which means "the called-out ones." We are God's holy people, separated for his purposes. But no where does the word "church" refer to a building in the Bible. No, church is in the house, as demonstrated by these verses:
Ac 8:3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
Ro 16:5 also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.
1Co 16:19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
Col 4:15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house.
Phm 1:2 and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
Here is a good description of what they were doing, found in Acts 2.47-48 (NASB) :
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
A note on the temple. Those who maintain Christians must worship in a physical building built for that purpose because believers obviously went to the temple are in error. This activity began here in Acts 2, and occurred afterwards also in Jewish synagogues. The apostles of Jesus were seeking converts and to establish churches, not to build the believers into the temple/synagogue system. If Jews were converted to the Way, as it was called, it was natural for them to remain in the societal structures in which they encountered the gospel to minister there, not to leave their place in religious culture and attend a separate worship service in a holy building dedicated to Christianity. I think if they ended up with a synagogue full of believers in Jesus, the apostles showed no interest in dismantling the synagogue, or the building in which they met. It is for this reason I believe God is not against meeting in a building.
However, as these verses and the rest of the New Testament point out, shoe-leather faith begins at home. That is the apex of worship, what we do at home.
In the temple, synagogues, and other public places where there were unbelievers, the focus was on apostolic witness. They went there to tell people about new life in Jesus. Read Acts, nowhere do you find teachings for believers such as Ephesians 4-5. No, this message was for people who never heard. There are no sermons on "how to succeed in marriage." But thats precisely the kind of thing you read in the letters to the churches (ie. Romans through Jude). The apostles weren't telling believers how to live in these large meetings because they weren't speaking to believers. And that means they weren't addressing the church, because the church is believers.
So let me ask a dangerous question. What is church to you? Feel free to comment, I would love to hear your experiences.
What?
Don't you go to a building?
Don't you need teaching, to hear the Word of God?
What about accountability, and leaders?
I told him, that if the New Testament allows the church to own a building or operate in one is another matter, but the Bible certainly does not require the church to use one. You see, the word for "church" in the New Testament is 'ekklesia,' which means "the called-out ones." We are God's holy people, separated for his purposes. But no where does the word "church" refer to a building in the Bible. No, church is in the house, as demonstrated by these verses:
Ac 8:3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
Ro 16:5 also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.
1Co 16:19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
Col 4:15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house.
Phm 1:2 and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
Here is a good description of what they were doing, found in Acts 2.47-48 (NASB) :
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
A note on the temple. Those who maintain Christians must worship in a physical building built for that purpose because believers obviously went to the temple are in error. This activity began here in Acts 2, and occurred afterwards also in Jewish synagogues. The apostles of Jesus were seeking converts and to establish churches, not to build the believers into the temple/synagogue system. If Jews were converted to the Way, as it was called, it was natural for them to remain in the societal structures in which they encountered the gospel to minister there, not to leave their place in religious culture and attend a separate worship service in a holy building dedicated to Christianity. I think if they ended up with a synagogue full of believers in Jesus, the apostles showed no interest in dismantling the synagogue, or the building in which they met. It is for this reason I believe God is not against meeting in a building.
However, as these verses and the rest of the New Testament point out, shoe-leather faith begins at home. That is the apex of worship, what we do at home.
In the temple, synagogues, and other public places where there were unbelievers, the focus was on apostolic witness. They went there to tell people about new life in Jesus. Read Acts, nowhere do you find teachings for believers such as Ephesians 4-5. No, this message was for people who never heard. There are no sermons on "how to succeed in marriage." But thats precisely the kind of thing you read in the letters to the churches (ie. Romans through Jude). The apostles weren't telling believers how to live in these large meetings because they weren't speaking to believers. And that means they weren't addressing the church, because the church is believers.
So let me ask a dangerous question. What is church to you? Feel free to comment, I would love to hear your experiences.
posted by Timothy at 11:29 AM
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