Ecclesiology : The Nature of the Church

B. What the Church is. ( positively )

What is the Church? Three positions:

1. The Ekklesia of the New Testament refers only to those geographical groups of baptised believers who regularly assemble, led by Pastors and deacons, for the purpose of worship, instruction, fellowship and evangelism. This position would categorically deny the existence of a universal and invisible church.

2. The Ekklesia of the New Testament refers primarily to the that invisible body of Christ, composed of all believers, saved from the Day of Pentecost til the rapture of the church..

The extreme of this view is to downplay the worth of the local church assemblies, substituting instead swimming pool baptismal parties, coffee-house evangelism, and ecumenical dialogues.

3. The true Biblical Meaning of Ekklesia.

We will look at the following uses of ‘Ekklesia’:

1Co 15:9  For I am the least of the Apostles, and am not fit to be called an Apostle--because I persecuted the Church of God.

Church ἐκκλησία ekklēsia Thayer Definition:

1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly

1a) an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating

1b) the assembly of the Israelites

1c) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously

1d) in a Christian sense

1d1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting

1d2) a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order’s sake

1d3) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body

1d4) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth

1d5) the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

Ekklesia: In the New Testament it seems to be used in Three senses:

1. An assembly of Believers, saved by the Blood of Jesus, gathered for Christian Worship. This is the ‘local church’ sense. This is the assembly of believers in a certain locality.  We read of the Church in Jerusalem. Acts 8:1; the church in Antioch Acts 13:1. The local Church should be a true replica of the Church Universal.
The failure to be the True replicas is dealt with in the Parables of Matthew 13 by Jesus.

2. The Church in a Universal sense. It consists of those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, and have been baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His great mercy has begotten us anew to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1Pe 1:22  Now that, through your obedience to the truth, you have purified your souls for cherishing sincere brotherly love, you must love another heartily and fervently.

1Pe 1:23  For you have been begotten again by God's ever-living and enduring word from a germ not of perishable, but of imperishable life.

1Pe 1:24  "ALL MANKIND RESEMBLE THE HERBAGE, AND ALL THEIR BEAUTY IS LIKE ITS FLOWERS. THE HERBAGE DRIES UP, AND ITS FLOWERS DROP OFF;

1Pe 1:25  BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD REMAINS FOR EVER." And that means the Message which has been proclaimed among you in the Good News.

1Co 12:13  For, in fact, in one Spirit all of us--whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men--were baptized to form but one body; and we were all nourished by that one Spirit.

3. The assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven.

Heb 12:22  On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels,

Heb 12:23  to the great festal gathering and Church of the First-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven, and to a Judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,

Rev 21:27  And no unclean thing shall ever enter it, nor any one who is guilty of base conduct or tells lies, but only they whose names stand recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life.

John Gill on the Heb 12:23

and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven; by the "church", is not meant any particular, or congregational church, nor any national one; but the church catholic, or universal, which consists only of God's elect, and of all of them, in all times and places; and reaches even to the saints in heaven: this church is invisible at present, and will never fail; of which Christ is the head, and for which he has given himself: now the persons, that belong to this church, are styled the "firstborn"; who are not the apostles only, who received the first fruits of the Spirit; nor the first converts among the Jews, who first trusted in Christ; but also the chosen of God, who are equally the sons of God, and born of him; are equally loved by him, and equally united to Christ, and interested in him: they have the same privileges, honours, and dignity, and shall enjoy the same inheritance; they are all firstborn, and are so called, with respect to the angels, the sons of God, as Christ is with respect to the saints, the many brethren of his: and these are said to be "written in heaven"; not in the earth, Jer_17:13, such writing abides not; nor in the book of the Scriptures, for the names of all are not written there; nor in the general book of God's decrees,