The Churches of the Bible
(Bible Study Time 3-6-05)
Paul's Acts period epistles are I and II Thessalonians, Galatians, I and II Corinthians, and Romans, and in these epistles we find Paul making reference to the kingdom which had been promised to Israel. In I Corinthians 6, Paul reminded his readers that they would someday rule the world. In verse 2 he said, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?"
In I Corinthians 7, Paul said,
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am . . . Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife . . . What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Paul was obviously anticipating the earthly kingdom, and Paul knew that if the kingdom were to come within the next few months or years, all earthly relationships would change.
However, in the prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul did not refer to Israel's kingdom hope. Instead, he revealed the details concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. Paul said that the Church is seated with Christ in the heavenlies and blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. He said that we, as members of the Church, should set our affections on things above and not on the things of the earth.
Now as we think about the Church which is the Body of Christ, we need to understand what the Bible says in regard to the word church. The Greek word for church is "ekklesia" which literally means "called out." Therefore, a church is composed of those who have been called out or separated out from among a larger group.
There are times in the Bible when the greek word ekklesia is used in a totally secular sense to refer to an assembly of people. For instance, in Acts 19, when Paul was at Ephesus, a silversmith named Demetrius spoke out against Paul and said that Paul was teaching against the goddess Diana. At that point the people turned on Paul and his fellow laborers, and the Bible says that the assembly, or the ekklesia, was in confusion. Some were shouting one thing, some another, and most of the people did not even know why they were there. But the city clerk quieted the crowd and said:
Men of Ephesus, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great goddess Diana and of her image, which fell from Zeus? Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. If then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly (or a legal ekklesia)."
Then the Bible says that the city clerk dismissed the assembly, which again is ekklesia.
Assembly is a more literal translation of the word ekklesia than is the word church, and there are Christian groups today who call their organization an assembly rather than a church. The word church actually comes from a word which was used by the pagans of Germany and England before they were converted to Christianity. They used the word kirk or chirche to refer to the mission buildings which were erected by the Catholic missionaries. Even today we often use the word church to refer to the church building. After these people were converted to Christianity, the word church was used for ekklesia when they were translating the scriptures, and that would be an incorrect translation because the word ekklesia was never used in the scriptures to refer to a building. Today, however, it is just fine to use the word church for ekklesia as long as we know what it really means. Ekklesia refers to those whom God has called out from among the rest of the world.
Because ekklesia is a greek word, it is found only in the New Testament, but it is used to refer to several different groups of people. In Acts Chapter 7, Stephen referred to the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai and called them the church in the wilderness because they had been called out from among the Egyptians. At Mt. Sinai, God revealed in the Mosaic Law the very purpose for which they had been called out. Therefore, in a very real sense, they were the Old Covenant Church. Now we are all aware of the fact that not all of these Jews were saved in the sense of having a personal relationship with God. In Romans 4, Paul proved that there can be no relationship with God apart from faith such as the faith of Abraham, and the vast majority of the church in the wilderness did not have that kind of faith, as was made obvious when they refused to enter into the promised land.
However, they did provide a picture of the New Covenant Church which God was planning for Israel's future. Jeremiah spoke of the day when God would make a New Covenant with the house of Israel. Jeremiah said,
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
God obviously has great things planned for Israel. Someday, God will establish a New Covenant with Israel, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the nation of Israel will be brought out of the bondage of sin just as the nation of Israel was brought out of the bondage of Egypt under the Old Covenant. And just as the nation of Israel had to pass through the Red Sea to get to the Old Covenant Kingdom, the nation of Israel will have to pass through the blood of Jesus Christ before they will be able to receive the New Covenant Kingdom.
Paul said that when Israel's New Covenant is established, there will be no unsaved Jews as there were under the Old Covenant. Romans 11:26 says,
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.
The Lord Jesus called the New Covenant Jews a church just as Stephen called the Old Covenant Jews a church. In Matthew 16, when Peter confessed that Jesus was indeed the Christ, Jesus said:
Blessed are you, Simon Bar_Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Clearly the Lord Jesus was referring to the Jewish church which will enter into the earthly kingdom under the New Covenant. It is a kingdom in which the apostles will have supreme authority over the affairs of the earth.
In Matthew 19, when Peter reminded the Lord of the sacrifices the disciples had made in order to follow Him, the Lord said,
Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
At the last supper, the Lord Jesus gave a cup of wine to the disciples and said,
Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.
The fruit of the vine is still waiting for the day when the Lord Jesus will drink of it with his disciples in the earthly kingdom. It is still waiting because the Jewish nation as a whole rejected the New Covenant Kingdom just as the unbelieving Jews of the Old Covenant had rejected the Old Covenant Kingdom. After Mt. Sinai, the nation of Israel traveled to Kadesh Barnea, but when they heard that there were giants in the promised land, they refused to go in.
In a similar fashion, after the Lord Jesus shed the blood of the New Covenant on Mt Calvary, the nation of Israel refused to enter into the New Covenant Kingdom. The giants which they could not overcome were the giants of self righteousness, pride, and a lust for power. When the Jews of the Old Covenant refused to enter the kingdom, God sent them into the wilderness for forty years, but then He brought back a new generation who did have the faith to enter the kingdom. When the New Covenant Kingdom was offered to Israel during the Acts period, they refused to enter in, but someday God will bring back a new generation of Jews who will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ, and they will enter into the New Covenant Kingdom.
The Church of the New Covenant was started on the day of Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2, and it was set aside at the end of the book of Acts. It was made manifest by many miracles, wonders and signs as the people spoke in tongues and the sick were healed. These signs were given to confirm that Christ was the promised Messiah and to demonstrate the spiritual healing which comes to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. The New Covenant Church had water baptism which symbolized the spiritual cleansing that comes to those who put their faith in Christ.
It was to the New Covenant Church that Paul said:
Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.
At the end of the Acts period, Israel's New Covenant program was set aside as Paul revealed the church of our present age, the Church which is the Body of Christ. The miracles, wonders and signs as well as the rituals of the New Covenant are not a part of the program for the Church, the Body of Christ.
However, there is no closer relationship to Christ than to be a member of the Church which is His Body, for we are members of His flesh and of His bones(Eph 5:30). Paul said in Colossians 2:
You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
No comments:
Post a Comment