THE CHURCH
THE CHURCH
'CP' denotes 'compare passage'
Most Christians' definition of church needs to be redefined. They refer to it as the place they go to for fellowship with other Christians and to worship God, but it is the congregation of Christians themselves who are the church, not the building where they meet. The church is a New Testament term designating the Christian community, whether it be a local congregation of Christians or congregations of Christians collectively throughout the earth (CP Mt 18:17; Ac 11:22-26; 1Cor 3:1-2). Those scriptures refer to local congregations (CP Mt 16:13-18; Ac 20:28; 1Cor 10:32; Ga 1:13; Eph 1:19-23; 5:25-27; He 12:23). Those scriptures refer to congregations of Christians collectively throughout the earth - the universal church.
The church is not a building made with hands, but a spiritual building embodied in the Christian community, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, or foundation (CP Isa 28:16; Mt 21:42-44; Ac 4:11-12; 1Cor 3:11; Eph 2:19-20; 1Pe 2:6-8). As the embodiment of the church Christians in scripture are called God's Building (CP 1Cor 3:9); the Temple of God (CP 1Cor 3:16-17; 2Cor 6:16); the Household of Faith (CP GA 6:10); the Household of God, an Holy Temple of the Lord, and an Habitation of God through the Spirit (Cp Eph 2:19-22); the House of Christ (CP He 3:1-6); a Spiritual House, an Holy Priesthood (CP 1Pe 2:5); a Chosen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation, a Peculiar People (CP 1Pe 2:9).
The church was decreed in God's eternal purpose before the beginning of time, but it was not revealed to the angels in heaven even until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (CP Mt 13:17; Ac 15:18; Ro 16:25-26; 1Cor 2:7-8; Eph 1:4,9,11; 2:10; 3:1-12; Col 1:25-27; Tit 1:1-3; 1Pe 1:3-12, 18-20). The church is founded upon the great spiritual truth Peter confessed to Jesus in Mt 16 - that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God (CP Mt 16:13-18). Jesus is the rock upon which His church is being built (CP Mt 7:21-27; 1Cor 3:11). It is the same confession of faith in Christ as Peter's, from the heart of every repentant sinner that brings about and confirms their new birth in Christ and sets them in the church (CP Ro 6:3-5; 10:8-10; 12:4-5; 1Cor 12:12-20, 27; Eph 2:1-8; 4:1-6). These scriptures show us how the church is constituted. The baptism referred to in Rom 6:3-5, 1Cor 12:13 and Eph 4:5 is spiritual - the baptism by the Holy Spirit of repentant sinners into Christ and into His body, the church. The Holy Spirit unites them with Jesus as members of His church upon their conversion to Christ. The church is compared to a human body with its many members. Christ is the head of the body (CP Eph 1:22-23; 4:15-16; 5:23-24). Every born again believer is a member set in the body with a function to perform.
Scriptures stress the importance of church membership - of belonging to a local church. They teach us that it is not possible to be a Christian independent of the rest of the body of Christ because God has foreordained that each Christian has a place, a purpose and a function in the body that no other Christian can fulfil (CP Ro 12:4-8; 1Cor 12:14-18, 25; Eph 4:15-16). God has set us in the body to suit His purpose not ours, and if we refuse to join ourselves to a church we are refusing to join ourselves to Christ, because He is the church (CP 1Cor 12:12). It is folly for anyone to assume that they can be intentionally separated from the body of Christ and still be a member of His body. A body is an organised whole made up of parts and members, and nothing can function as a member if it is not attached or joined to the body. This applies in both the physical and spiritual realms. No member of a physical body can function if it is dismembered from the body, and neither can members of the spiritual body, the church, function if they become dismembered from it (CP He 10:24-25).
Here Christians are admonished to remain in fellowship with one another in the church as the day of Christ - His coming again - draws nearer, in order to stir each other up to love and to exhort one another to fulfil their ministries and functions in the church. The word "forsaking" here means abandoning or deserting. We are being warned not to abandon or desert the church like some are doing to their peril. The church is self-propagating. It is a living organism reproducing itself as its members preach the gospel of salvation (CP Ac 2:36-47; 4:4; 5:12-14; 6:7; 11:19-26; 13:48; Ro 1:16; Col 1:3-6). We see in Ac 11:26 that the term "Christians" was first used to describe the followers of Christ in Antioch. To be called a Christian is the highest honour any human being can receive (CP Ac 26:28; 1Pe 4:14-16).
It should be noted here in the light of so many scriptures referring to the church as the body of Christ, and that as Christ the head of the body is a man, it is incongruous that a teaching persists in Christendom that the church is a woman - the Bride of Christ. Apart from the fact that the real Bride of Christ is clearly identified in scripture requiring no ingenious interpretation, nowhere in scripture is the church ever referred to by a feminine pronoun to support this teaching. In fact the church is only ever referred to as a man in scripture (CP Eph 2:15-16; 4:11-13). (Some modern translations and paraphrased versions of the Bible refer to the church by feminine pronouns in Eph 5:25-27, but this is a contradiction in terms because they refer to the church as a man in Eph 2:15 and 4:13. How can the church be a "man" in one teaching in scripture, and a "woman" in another? God's word does not contradict itself - it is the translators and interpreters of those versions who are responsible for this contradiction.). In Eph 2:15 man is from the Greek word anthropos which designates a human being, a person without reference to sex, and in 4:13 it is from aner which refers specifically to a male. Aner is used here metaphorically of the church being brought to maturity - a man of mature understanding - in Christ (CP Ro 7:4; 2Cor 11:2; Eph 5:22-33). These scriptures are used to teach that the church is the Bride of Christ but it is soon apparent on examining them that they do not teach that at all. In Ro 7:4 Paul simply illustrates the Christian's freedom from the law with the analogy of marriage showing how the death of one partner frees the other from life-long obligations. He compares it to Christians, who having died to the law are now free to follow Christ - to become one with Him (CP Ro 7:1-6).
2Cor 11:2 is used by some to teach that the virgin referred to Symbolizes the church, but that is not what Paul is teaching. He is simply addressing his converts in Corinth and he tells them that he is anxious for them with the deep concern of God Himself - anxious that their love should be for Christ alone, just as a virgin saves her love for one man only: for the one who will be her husband. But Paul feared that in some way they would be led astray from their simple love and devotion for Christ, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden (CP V2-4). When kept in its proper perspective it soon becomes clear that V2 does not teach that the church is the Bride of Christ. Furthermore, Paul is only addressing his own converts in Corinth, not the whole church which extends far beyond Corinth in the earth. It is not Paul's job to present the whole church to Christ, only his own converts. Every Christian will have rejoicing in their own converts (CP Dan 12:3; 1Cor 3:11-14; 2Cor 1:14; Php 4:1; 1Th 2:19-20). In Eph 5:22-33 Paul is teaching us of Christ's infinite love for the church. He compares the relationship of Christ and the church to that of a man and his wife. He is not teaching that the wife Symbolizes the church or that the husband Symbolizes Christ. He simply teaches that the relationship of Christ and the church is more easily understood through the dynamics of the marriage relationship between a husband and wife (CP Eph 5:22-33). The great mystery Paul refers to in V 32 is that marriage is a sacred reflection of the magnificent and beautiful mystery of union between Christ and the church which was completely unknown until revealed in the New Testament.
Now we will look at the true Bride of Christ (CP Rev 19:7-9 with 21:2, 9-10, 18-27). This is the Bride of Christ: the Holy City, New Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is the Lamb's wife that "made herself ready" in 19:7, and was "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" in 21:2. She will be adorned with the jewels of 21:18-21. It was granted to her to be arrayed in fine linen, pure and white, which is the righteousness of saints, because she will be the eternal home of all the saints of God - Old Testament and New Testament alike - from Abel to the very last soul saved in the Great Tribulation (CP 19:8 with 21:24-27). New Jerusalem is the City of God which God promised to all the Old Testament saints and Jesus promised to all the New Testament saints. They will all go to live in New Jerusalem together (CP Isa 2:1-4 (also Mic 4:1-3); Jn 14:1-3; He 11:1-2, 13-16; 12:22-23; 13:14; Rev 3:12; with 14:1-5; 15:2-4; 20:4-6; 22:1-5). Finally, the church is also referred to as a man in 2Th 2:7. The he who is presently restraining Antichrist from revealing himself is the church (CP 2Th 2:1-9). This refers to the rapture of the church - when the church will be "caught up" in the air with Jesus when He comes to take all the saints of God back to heaven with Him at the first resurrection (CP Jn 14:1-3; 1Cor 15:12-23, 32, 42-44, 50-58; 1Th 4:13-18; Rev 20:4-6). Many Christians believe that the he of 2Th 2:7 is the Holy Spirit, but that is not correct as the preceding scriptures clearly show. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit will still be on earth after the first resurrection to convict the multitudes of their sins who get saved during Antichrist's reign, because nobody can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit (CP 1Cor 12:3).
There is one more issue concerning the church that needs to be raised here before concluding this segment of our study. There is a conception of the Christian calling in the church that divides Christians into two classes - the clergy and the laity. The clergy designates paid, professional, full-time ministers or priests as opposed to the rest of the church - the laity. This implies a system with grades of status or authority ranking one above another in the New Testament church which is hierarchical, and totally unscriptural. In scripture the terms "clergy" and "laity" refer to the same thing - the church. Clergy does not designate a paid, professional priesthood in scripture as man has designated it (CP 1Pe 5:2-3). The word "heritage" in V3 here is from the Greek word kleros which means "clergy", and it is clearly referring to the church - the so-called "laity". Laity is from the Greek word laos, meaning people, which almost totally refers to the church in scripture, but when used by men to distinguish it from the clergy it designates those who do not hold a ministry office in the church. Yet God designates the laity a "Royal Priesthood" (CP 1Pe 2:9; Rev 5:1-6). It is patently obvious that if scripture designates Christians as being both God's clergy and priesthood then there are no distinctions in the church. Any distinctions are strictly functional and do not determine the superiority of one group of Christians in the church over another (CP 1Cor 12:4-25). This very clearly teaches that no member of the church is insignificant or inferior, and that every member has a ministry to fulfil (CP Ro 12:1-8; 1Cor 12:4-11, 28; 2Cor 5:17-20). The laity are not merely passive spectators in the New Testament church - it was the laity who first took the gospel into the world from the Jerusalem church, doing the work of evangelists and leading many people to Christ (CP Ac 8:1-4; 11:19-21).
Scriptures plainly teach that any conception of the Christian calling that divides Christians into two classes is totally unscriptural. It in no way reflects God's purpose for the church. God wants every believer to be able to minister His word to others, and to fulfil God's purpose, Christ has given certain ministry gifts to the church. These ministry gifts were all embodied in Christ Himself and He gave them to the church as an extension of His own earthly ministry to prepare and equip the church for God's service (CP Eph 4:11-12). We need to study these ministry gifts very carefully in order to understand them, because there is a great deal of confusion surrounding them in the contemporary church. Most Christians in the contemporary church believe that Eph 4:11 refers to five orders of ministers in the church appointed to discharge five different kinds of duties - generally known in the church as the "five fold ministry". But that is not what scriptures teach, as we shall soon see. These gifts can overlap each other in one man. There are a number of men in the New Testament who functioned in them all, and the same applies in the contemporary church. Let us now study them.
APOSTLES: from the Greek word apostoloi, means ones sent, messengers. In the New Testament church it designates the office instituted by Christ to witness of Him before the world (Jn 17:18). Apostles are placed first in the divine order of ministry gifts Christ gave to the church to prepare and equip it for God's service (CP Eph 4:11; 1Cor 12:28). Yet there is much teaching in the contemporary church that apostles and prophets ceased with the first century church, but that is not what scriptures teach (CP Mt 24:14; Jn 17:18-21; Eph 3:1-12; 4:7-16; 5:25-27). It is plainly evident from these scriptures that Christ has ordained the ministry gifts He gave to the church to remain there while ever the church exists. They are all essential to God's purpose for the church - "for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry" (CP Eph 4:11-12). Perfecting means "to make fully ready", which defines the completed process outlined in V13-16 (CP Eph 4:13-16). This confirms that all the ministry gifts Christ gave to the church will remain there until God's purpose for the church is accomplished, which can only ever be when it has fulfilled its mission on earth and is taken up to heaven by Jesus (CP Eph 2:19-20). This further emphasises the continuing importance of apostles and prophets in God's purpose for the church and underlines the reason why they are placed first and second in the divine order of ministry gifts for the church. God includes them with Jesus as the foundation of the church. Foundation in this context is used metaphorically of the ministry of the gospel and the doctrines of faith - the church is built upon the teachings of the apostles and prophets. It is their responsibility to bring clarification and illumination concerning God's word to those they are establishing in the faith.
In the primary sense Eph 2:20 applies to the original twelve apostles Christ called before Pentecost and in the secondary sense to all those God has called since Pentecost (CP Ac 2:42; Eph 3:1-12). Apostles have two main tasks to perform in the ministry: to bring into being properly ordered churches and to set, and maintain in order, and continue to build churches that already exist. Apostles not only pioneer new works, but continue building on foundations others have laid (CP Ac 8:14-17, 25; 1Cor 3:10). Apostles can function in either an itinerant ministry or be domiciled in a local church. There is nothing in scripture to indicate that the apostle James, the Lord's brother ever left the church at Jerusalem and the same thing happens in the contemporary church. There are many men who either pioneer a church or continue building on foundations others have laid and stay there. Sadly however, in the contemporary church these men are not designated apostles as they should be but "pastors", although nowhere in scripture is the term "pastor" ever used to define rank, authority or title of anyone - man or woman - in the New Testament church. There are men designated apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers in scripture but there is no man (or woman) designated a pastor. We will examine the scriptures proving that statement in our study on pastors. (Designated means described as, given a name or title, specified). There are at least 28 men named as apostles in scripture. Apart from the thirteen - including Matthias - before Pentecost, at least fifteen others have been designated apostles since then: Paul and Barnabas (CP Ac 13:1-5, 50 - 14:4, 14; 15:22-25, 35-39); Silas and Timothy (CP 1Th 1:1; 2:6); Apollos (CP 1Cor 4:6-9); Titus (CP 2Cor 8:23); James, Joses, Simon and Jude, the brothers of Jesus (CP Mt 13:55; 1Cor 9:5); Andronicus and Junias (CP Ro 16:7); Epaphroditus (CP Php 2:25), and there were at least two others with Titus (CP 2Cor 8:23). Scriptures do not tell us how all these men were commissioned, but in the case of Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Apollos and Titus, we see how God promoted them after they proved their faithfulness in other areas of ministry first. This is the biblical pattern for promotion in the New Testament church (CP Mt 25:14-23).