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Introduction

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “church”?

Red brick building with cross-topped spire?

A denominational organization?

A hierarchy of clergymen?

Standard dictionary would contain all these as definitions.

But what really matters is how New Testament uses the word “church.”

Part 2: What Is the Church?Matthew 16:13-20

The New Testament

Church

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Definitions: Reference Works

Recall: Greek word for “church” appears 116 times in the Greek NT. Three times in the gospels, 24 times

in Acts, 69 times in the epistles and 20 times in Revelation.

KJV translates it “church” all but three times, where it is rendered “assembly” (Acts 19:32, 39, 41).

First appearance is in Matt. 16:18 and last is Rev. 22:16.

What Is the Church?

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Definitions: Reference Works

The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia. Synonyms of the New Testament

(Trench; pp. 1-2).

What Is the Church?

“ekklesia...was the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs. That they were summoned is expressed in the latter part of the word; that they were summoned out of the whole population, a select portion of it, including neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited their civic rights, this is expressed in the first.”

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Definitions: Reference Works

The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia. Synonyms of the New Testament

(Trench; pp. 1-2).

Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Vol. 1, p. 291).

What Is the Church?

“ekklesia, derived via ek-kaleo, which was used for the summons to the army to assemble, from kaleo, to call...It is attested from Eur. and Hdt. onwards (5th cent. B.C.) and denotes in the usage of antiquity the popular assembly of the competent full citizens of the polis, city.”

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Definitions: Reference Works

The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia. Synonyms of the New Testament

(Trench; pp. 1-2).

Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Vol. 1, p. 291).

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Vol. 3, p. 513).

What Is the Church?

“Ekklesia is the assembly of the demos (i.e., the common people of an ancient Greek state, cvt) in Athens and in most Greek poleis (i.e., an ancient Greek city-state, cvt). The etymology is both simple and significant. The citizens are the ekkletoi, i.e., those who are summoned and called together by the herald. This teaches us something concerning the biblical and Christian usage, namely, that God in Christ calls men out of the world.”

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Definitions: New Testament

NT is its own best commentary.NT employs ekklesia 109 times

to denote a group of disciples (Acts 11:26).

Ekklesia is used four times in NT in a purely secular sense: The unlawful assembly: Acts 19:32,

41 The lawful assembly: Acts 19:39 The “church in the wilderness”: Acts

7:38

What Is the Church?

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Definitions: New Testament

These contexts show the word “church” refers to a group of people who have answered a “call.”

The word for “church,” ekklesia is a compound word:

“ek” means “out of,” and

“klesis” (kaleo) from the word meaning “to call.”

Therefore, ekklesia denotes an assembly of a certain kind of people who are collected or grouped to-gether based upon things they hold in common as a result of responding to a common call.

What Is the Church?

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Definitions: New Testament

Let’s break it down to its component parts; an ekklesia is: An assembly of people,

People grouped together upon the basis of something they hold in common,

They have answered a common call. What Is the Church?

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Definitions: New Testament

In our secular examples from Acts 19, the ekklesia was: An assembly of people: citizens of

Ephesus who “cried out, saying, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians!’”

An assembly grouped together based on their common concern for the goddess Diana.

An assembly of Ephesian citizens responding to a call issued by Demetrius (Acts 19:27).What Is the Church?

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Definitions: New Testament

The other two usages of ekklesia in Acts: Acts 19:39 refers to the civic

assembly that was common among the Greeks.

Acts 7:38 refers to the Jewish assembly in the wilderness led by Moses (Ex. 19:3-6; Deut. 7:6; Psa. 22:22; Heb. 2:12).

What Is the Church?

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Definitions: New Testament

In spiritual contexts (in reference to Christians) there are five different usages: Universal Church: Matt. 16:18;

Acts 2:47

Local Church: 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1

The unassembled ekklesia: Acts 8:3

The assembled ekklesia: 1 Cor. 11:17, etc.

The regional ekklesia: Acts 9:31, etc.

What Is the Church?

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Final Thoughts

Important: the word ekklesia always describes people—a specific group or body of people, locally or universally, who have answered the call of the gospel to leave sin and enter into fellowship with God and Christ to walk in the light: 1 Pet. 2:9

What Is the Church?

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Final Thoughts

Contemporary misuses of “church.” Webster lists several definitions of

“church,” only one is correct (i.e., per NT); in the NT it’s never: “a building for public worship,” “church services; divine worship,” “the organization of Christianity, as in a nation;

esp., ecclesiastical power or government,” “the clerical profession,” “a body of Christian believers having the same

creed, rites, etc.; a denomination; as, the Presbyterian Church,”

“any body of worshipers; a religious society.”What Is the Church?

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Final Thoughts

More on misuses of “church”:

Neither local churches nor religious denominations are part of “the church” in its universal sense.

When we think “church” and envision anything in addition to people we are making a tragic blunder.

Nor is “the church” some nebulous institution that Christ died for or to which people are added by God.

What Is the Church?

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Final Thoughts

The “church” describes a people called into a relationship or fellowship: In the universal church this

relationship/ fellowship is vertical—between God and all people who are saved (1 Jn. 1:3).

In the local church this relationship/ fellowship is horizontal—between individual saints (1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:1).

What Is the Church?

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Conclusion

2 Thess. 2:13-14; Acts 2:47; 1 Pet. 2:9-10

Rom. 10:17; Jn. 8:24; Heb. 11:6; Acts 17:30; Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 8:37; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Gal. 3:27; 1 Jn. 1:2-3; Acts 2:47; Col. 1:18

“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

1 Peter 2:9-10What Is the Church?