07-21-13 How’s your ecclesia?

How’s your ecclesia?

Scripture:                                      Colossians 1:15-20
          He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

CHURCH =  Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., "the Lord's house"), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship.

In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia, which is synonymous with the Hebrew kahal of the Old Testament, both words meaning simply an assembly, the character of which can only be known from the connection in which the word is found. There is no clear instance of its being used for a place of meeting or of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning.

We find the word ecclesia used in the following senses in the New Testament:

(1.) It is translated "assembly" in the ordinary classical sense (Acts 19:32 / 41) The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. / After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

(2.) It denotes the whole body of the redeemed, all those whom the Father has given to Christ, the invisible catholic church (Eph 5:23, 25, 27, 29; Heb 12:22, 23) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. / Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her / and to present her to himself as a radiant church / After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— / But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

(3.) A few Christians associated together in observing the ordinances of the gospel are an ecclesia (Rom 16:5; Col 4:15)  Greet also the church that meets at their house. / Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

(4.) All the Christians in a particular city, whether they assembled together in one place or in several places for religious worship, were an ecclesia. Thus all the disciples in Antioch, forming several congregations, were one church (Acts 13:1 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul); so also we read of the "church of God at Corinth" (1 Cor 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth), "the church at Jerusalem" (Acts 8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem), "the church of Ephesus" (Rev 2:1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:)

(5.) The whole body of professing Christians throughout the world are the church of Christ.  1 Cor 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Gal 1:13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.

Matt 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

The church visible "consists of all those throughout the world that profess Jesus!  It is called "visible" because its members are known and its assemblies are public. There is a mixture of "wheat and chaff," of saints and sinners. "God has commanded his people to organize themselves into distinct visible ecclesiastical communities, for the great purpose of giving visibility to his kingdom, of making known the gospel of that kingdom, and of gathering in all its elect subjects. Each one of these distinct organized communities is an integral part of the visible church.  This is "the kingdom of heaven," whose character and progress are set forth in the parables recorded in Matt 13.

The church invisible "consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or will be gathered into one under Christ, the head." It is the body of Christ. it is called "invisible" because the greater part of those who constitute it are already in heaven or are yet unborn, and also because its members still on earth are living imperfect.

The church to which the attributes, prerogatives, and promises appertaining to Christ's kingdom belong, is a spiritual body consisting of all true believers, i.e., the church invisible.