Church: What is it?
by Mikey Walter
Church.
It might be the most common religious word in our Christian vocabulary. We talk with others about where we go to church, speak of those who are a part of our church family, and complain about our kids making us late to church again.
We often use it to refer to the building we gather in, but if you’ve been “in church” for any amount of time, you’ve likely already learned that in the Bible, church refers to the people and not the building. Our use of it in this way does cause some confusion, particularly to outsiders, but old habits are hard to break.
So, yes, it’s a term the Bible uses to refer to the people of God. So does this mean that I am the church and you are the church? And that this place where we gather has nothing to do with us being the church? And that I can worship God in the quiet and beauty of nature and be “having church”?
Well, by definition of the word, the answer to all of these questions is “no”.
Unlike most words we read in the pages of scripture, church is not a word with any real meaning to us outside of the Bible. We can understand what it means to be the “body of Christ” because we have an understanding of the word “body” outside of the scriptures. Reading how we are “brothers in Christ” reveals a lot about how we should relate to each other in this community because we know what a brother is. But try to use “church” in a sentence outside of a religious context. You can’t do it.
Now, church was not a word that the Biblical writers pulled out of thin air to name the people of God. Ekklesia (church) was a common Greek word in the culture of their day. In New Testament times the word referred to a group of people assembled for a particular cause or purpose 1. In Greek culture, it was often used to describe special meetings of city leaders, or legislators. In the Septuagint (LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament) we find numerous references to the “ekklesia of the LORD” or the “ekklesia of Israel.” This is usually simply translated as “assembly” in our modern English Bibles.
Assembly as an Identity
There are so many aspects of our new identity in Christ and there are many terms that the Bible uses to emphasize those identities. Consider these that the Scriptures use to describe who we are. Each one points to unique aspects of what God has done through Christ and who he has made us to be:
The Saints (We are holy and righteous)
The Believers (Our position before God is based on our faith not our works)
The Brothers (We live and love as family)
Christians (We are to be like Christ Jesus)
The Church (We are a people who gather together)
The Disciples (We are to follow and learn from Jesus)
The Elect/Chosen (We live grateful and humble lives because of what God did)
The Children of God (God is our Father, and we can come to Him as such)
The Body of Christ (We are each a small part of the greater whole of God’s people)
If you asked me to put these terms in order from most to least important regarding who we are in Christ, I would have to admit that being a people that assembles or gathers together (church) would not be very high on my list. In fact, I might just drop it off the list of core identities entirely if it wasn’t for the fact that the Bible used it so much! The Biblical writers use this term to describe God’s people more than any other, except for “Brother(s)”. But why such an emphasis on our being gathered together?!?!
Because Jesus did not come only to bring individuals to Himself. He came for a people. A collective bride. A family. This can be difficult for us in our highly individualistic society to truly grasp. Most of us live as if our religious experiences, our beliefs, and our lives in God are our own and have little to do with the community around us. But God intended that his church be a people who live life together, and a people who gather.
A Better Assembly
The writer of Hebrews writes in the 12th chapter about the “great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us. The imagery is that of us (the church) in assembly with the great men and women of faith who have gone before us.
He goes on in that chapter to describe the most notable gathering together of God’s people that we have recorded in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 9:10 titles that event simply as “the day of the assembly [ekklesia, LXX]” when God commanded Moses to “Assemble the people before me”. This is the gathering where God gave the law to his people. It was a holy and solemn gathering, and as the writer of Hebrews drives home, a terrifying one. In the Old Covenant, the people met that day with each other and with God in dread. They feared the promise of punishment that accompanied the commands given by their God for those who trespassed. They feared the voice of God that “made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.” (Heb. 12:19).
As holy and important as that assembly was, Hebrews encourages us that the church (assembly) of those in Christ is insurmountably better, a gathering not of fear but of celebration…
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb. 12:22-24)
Our gathering is not on Mt. Horeb where death was declared through disobedience to the law, but our gathering is on Mount Zion in heaven. In Christ we are a gathered people, assembled in the spiritual realm with “innumerable angels in festal gathering”, with those who have gone on before us, with God our Father, and with Jesus.
Being a Christian means that we have been washed clean; we have become sons and daughters; we are being made like Jesus; AND we have joined a “festal gathering”! The spiritual realities that exist right now are true realities, but we do not fully experience them yet. At this moment, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). When Jesus returns those realities will become fully manifest. We get a glimpse of what that will look like in Revelation 7:9-12, where John “saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” We will all gather together with the angels, the elders, and the four living creatures to worship the Lamb (Rev 7:11).
Living in This Reality Now
There is an “already” and a “not yet” aspect to many of the realities that have been inaugurated through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It’s easy for us to not acknowledge these spiritual realities while we are living on this side of eternity. But our gathering together as the people of God is unlike any other gatherings on the Earth. It is an enactment and a foreshadowing of the spiritual reality that will be for eternity. When we assemble in our local churches, it is an expression of the spiritual reality that the entire body of Christ — our brothers and sisters from around the world, those who have gone on before us, and those who have not yet come into the family — have been gathered together in Christ to the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
Remember Jesus’ promise: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." When we assemble, God promises to draw near to us in a special way. When we assemble, we make a prophetic declaration of what God has done and what will be for eternity. We are the church (assembly). When we assemble, let’s remember these true present realities.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)