Matthew 16:13-20
There are people out there, and even some who profess to be Christians but hold a hostile position towards Corporate Worship. They argue you can be a Christian and not attend a church service or belong to a church. You are the church. Some even argue the church is our biggest problem in this country. These sentiments obviously are built on false ideas about what the church is. We also cannot pretend there are no problems associated with churches today. Of course the church is made up of sinful human beings and we must expect some of these things. Also, during the peak of the coronavirus, when churches couldn’t meet physically for worship due to the government’s ban on public gatherings, churches resorted to streaming their services online. While this is not new because before the ban, many churches were online with their congregation in attendance, the covid restriction was unique. Pastors’ were online without a congregation. They preach to empty seats so to speak.
So the supposed Christians who think corporate worship or meeting together as a church felt vindicated. Their position appears to have been cemented because there were online churches while people were home.
When you speak about the church, there are a whole lot of misconceptions. People hold different views about what the church is. Some Pastors and church leaders may not openly admit it, but they run the church like a business or personal property. Some people also view the church as just a social gathering to belong to. All these contribute to the misconceptions people have about the church.
The Church Is Not A Human Idea
From Matthew 16:18a, it is clear the Church is not a human idea “I will build my church…” Human beings didn’t plan to put something together and call it the church. The church is a divine idea. The founder of the church is the Lord himself. “I will build my church.” The church belongs to Christ. The church is Christ’s and no human being has the right to consider the church as his. Of course, God works through human beings to plant churches, and more appropriately, those can be considered as under shepherds or caretakers or stewards.
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Christ establishes his church through the agency of human beings and appoints them to lead his people. You will notice that in Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus gives authority to the disciples. The Church therefore is not a human idea.
The Church Is The People
When discussing the church, one issue that consistently comes up is whether the church is a building or human beings. And one of the reasons some claim they are Christians but will not attend a church is that they claim they are the church. Since they are the church, they need not attend a service to be in church. Scripture indeed teaches God doesn’t “live in temples made by man.” (Acts 17:24) but rather indwells believers by his Holy Spirit; either individually or corporately (1 Corinthians 3:16-17;6:15-20; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5). The word church in Matthew 16:18 is Ekklessia which basically means “an assembly, congregation, the whole body of Christ.” This definition presents us with two views of the church that has been held historically:
The Universal Church (Invisible Church)
The Local Church (Visible church).
The Universal church is simply all of Christians worldwide, including those who once lived and are dead now. The universal church is made up of all individual local churches which are termed as the visible church
The New Testament usage of the word church in its original koine Greek is predominantly a description of a people and not a building. There are two words under consideration here. Kyriakon and Ekklesia. Of the two words, ekklesia points us to God’s people as those referenced as Church in the New Testament. Ekklesia simply refers to “called out ones”, that is all of God’s people who have been “ delivered… from the domain of darkness and transferred…to the kingdom of his beloved son” (Colossians 1:13). “In all 114 instances that the New Testament uses this word[ekklesia], it designates a people or an assembly of people …[and] never the place where they meet.” 1. So clearly, what we see here is that, the church is made up of people—all born again believers. Pauls says we are all individual members of the church.
Why Are Buildings Then Called Churches?
Though it has been established that church refers strictly to the people of God, it isn’t wrong to call buildings where corporate worship occurs as a church. It is okay for someone to say “I am going to church” and in this statement, a destination of a particular place is in mind. Obviously, it is always a building or these days, some churches hold meetings in tents specially made for the purpose.
Of course, when people meet for worship, it is expected they meet under a roof. And if that meeting is going to be permanent and recurring, we expect a permanent structure. Such buildings housing God’s people have come to be called churches.
There is another Greek word that will explain this
Here the use of the second Greek word for church kyriakos (OF THE LORD) will be examined. The word means “belonging to the Lord” and its usage in the whole of the New Testament is at only two places; 1 Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to the Lord’s Supper and Revelation 1:10 referencing the Lord’s Day.² In the course of its usage, the word kyriakon “came to be used to refer to other things such as the place or people or denomination or country related to the group that belong to the Lord.”³ So though the word church is in its strictest sense for the people of God, its present usage to describe both God’s people and the building where they meet is “OK, so long as we understand that every time we encounter “church” in the New Testament, it designates the people (ekklesia).⁴
Notes
1 Matthew Miller, “Is the Church a People or a Place?”, https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/is-the-church-a-people-or-a-place-2020-04/, accessed 19th April, 2020.
2. Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Systematic Guide To Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago, Moody Publishers, 1999), 455.
3. Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Systematic Guide To Understanding Biblical Truth, 455
4. Miller, “Is the Church a People or a Place?”, https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/is-the-church-a-people-or-a-place-2020-04/, accessed 19th April, 2020.)
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