The Church, not a church

When you use the word church in the twenty-first century western world, you conjure up a lot of different meanings. To some they mentally see a cathedral with stained glass windows such as the beautiful Notre Dame of Paris, France. To others a country church that is located at the cross- roads of county lanes, a simple frame structure which is much like all the farm houses in the neighborhood. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated church means the called out ones. It refers to the people that are a part of the family of God, not the building. Western usage in Europe and then transferred to the United States began to call the meeting house a church. We are kind of stuck with that culturally here in the west.
The Church as a New Testament concept that was first mentioned in Matthew 16:17-19. Here Jesus is talking to his disciples and asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” Then, “Simon Peter answered, ‘you are the Christ (Messiah in Hebrew), the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man (you did not learn this on the street), but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock “I will build my church.” ( Notice three things here, the word Peter is the masculine Greek word, “petros”, for rock. The word “on this rock” used for rock was “petras” the feminine form or the word, referring back to the testimony that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God not to Peter. Then notice the tense of the “I will” build my church. It is to come in the future; it was not during the life time of Christ in existence, except in the mind of Jesus Christ and the Father.) Jesus continues, “and the gates of hades will not overcome it (NKJV, will not prevail against it). The word hades is the grave or death. The idea here is that Christ’s death will not keep it from happening. I have a problem with those that say that Hell can not prevent the church or overcome the church. The word hades is not interchangeable with Hell, and not a lady-like cuss word to replace the stronger word Hell. If you mean by Hell, what the Bible means about Hell, that is a burning lake of fire described in Revelation chapter twenty, it will not be in place until the thousand year reign of Christ on the throne of David will be over. Jesus continues, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Jesus the Christ needed several things to happen at this time before the church could be born. One, the purpose of Jesus’ visit to earth as Emmanuel, God with us, was to be the final blood sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. “For without the shedding of blood, there is not forgiveness”(most likely Paul in Hebrews 9:22). The blood sacrifice of Jesus the Christ was for atonement (see Isaiah 53), and He was raised for our salvation: “and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him” (1st Peter 3:21, 22). Our salvation is one hundred percent in Jesus Christ and him alone. It is all wrapped up in his incarnation where He was 100% God and 100% man. Jesus had told his disciples that He must leave so that the comforter would come to lead them in all truth about Him (John 14:23-31).
Jesus ascended into heaven, and the disciples were given the promise that if they tarried in Jerusalem until they received power from on high, then they would be Christ’s witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, all of Samaria, and to the utter most parts of the earth (Acts 1). Ten days later, we hear for the first time that the church is now spoken of in the present tense.
Acts two is the account of the day of Pentecost. The invitations had been sent out nearly sixteen hundred years earlier (Leviticus 23:16). You count the seven Sabbaths, and the next day you come to Sunday. The Greek name Pentecost refers to it being 50 days after the Passover. At the temple courtyard, Jewish men from the 127 and more nations, where the Jews had been scattered by the Persian Empire, came by law to worship at the temple (Acts 2:5: God-fearing men from every nation under heaven). To attract their attention, there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind and tongues like as of fire sat upon the heads of God’s chosen disciples. They spoke so that everyone understood in their native (mother) tongue. The language they learned at mother’s feet. These, in this temple courtyard, were all God-fearing and believing Jews, or they would not have been at the temple courtyard on this feast day. They each heard in their mother tongue, no matter how many languages they spoke. They did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah at the beginning of the day. They heard Peter speak the gospel for the very first time, the keys of the kingdom. The men were in the audience that had cried just a little over seven weeks ago, “crucify him, crucify him” when in the crowd at Jesus’ trial. Now they were hearing Peter speak and boldly accusing them of the crucifixion. The God-believers became Jesus-believers and cried out, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter answered with the balance of the keys to the kingdom. “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is to you and your children and for all who are afar off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:37-39).
That day, as the 3,000 that responded to the invitation were baptized, they began to meet together, and in verse 42 of Acts 2 it is recorded: “They devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer…and the Lord added daily to the church those that were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47 NKJV). The NIV uses the expression “added to their number, those being saved” The called out ones are “their number or the church”.
I am aware that Reform Theology, nearly sixteen hundred years later, attempted to rewrite the answer of what must be done. That will be the subject of a future edition of Herb’s Hitchin’ Post. Have patience with me. I will respond to baptism “because of the forgiveness of sin”, as well as restating that I believe that salvation is by grace through faith, and that faith is in Jesus Christ alone, and that is so much more than just a non-scriptural sinner’s prayer.
After nearly two thousand years of writing and rewriting things of the Bible, resorting and remixing things to suit our own purpose, and redesigning the church to suit our own view of what we think that God should have done, and to be honest, just plan ignoring the church in the Bible and the simple teaching of Jesus and the apostles, we have a mess.
To be honest there are about 3,500 different denominations of Evangelicals, Mainliners, Orthodox, Catholics, and mixed breeds available today. There are hundreds of different churches within an hour drive from downtown Las Cruces. The question becomes, “Which one is THE church that is most like what Jesus said, “I will build,” and which one is just a church that reflects the best of what a man, a woman or a group of believers felt would best fit the modern needs of the area? And does it really matter?
I am a car nut; in my family it has something to do with the name Herbert. I have always dreamed of owning (and it is way out of my class), a 1934 (my birth year) Packard twin six, (V-12) Packard 160 sedan. If I were to find one hidden in a barn somewhere (and isn’t that where all such dreams begin), and at that point, if my rich uncle would get out of the poor house, and donate to me the money to make the vehicle road ready, I would have two choices to consider. One, would I restore it to the design and purity of the Packard Motor Car company of Warren, Ohio, or would I yank out the old V-12, replace it with a hopped up hemi V8. Replace the three speed close ration manual gear box with an automatic transmission, air conditioning, 12 volt electrical and CD stereo with AM-FM or perhaps satellite radio. Both would be very expensive. One would guarantee the future value of a classic, the other would most likely be a blast to drive. Both would no doubt get me from point A to point B. I would have to choose.
The same with the church today. Do we want to be faithful to the church that Jesus said He would build, or would we design one to meet the culture, tastes, and likes and dislikes of our society today? Here at Agape Christian, we have chosen to restore the church as close to what it was in the mind of Christ, the builder and designer, in the first century. That does not mean to go about in long robes, let our hair and beard grow, or to forsake modern means of transportation and communication. It does not mean forsaking the building of buildings or using modern methods of communication and evangelization. It does mean to seek the mind of God and see what He had in mind for the church. Realizing that the first century church fell very short in many cases of what God had in mind and a lot of apostolic letters had to be written (that is how we got much of our New Testament Bible) to correct total first century misunderstanding of Christ’s church. But by analyzing Christ’s teachings and the apostles writing, we can get a very good idea of what the church should be. We want to be what the church should be, THE Church that Jesus built, and no congregation is the only church that He built, but it can strive to be one of THE local congregations that He built.
That church must be a church for all people. If you understand interracial that is what I mean. The church is to be made up of every race, tribe, language, culture, economic status, educational status. At the foot of the cross, all seekers are just sinners needing to be saved by grace, and all those that respond are babes in Christ that need to grow up and learn to “grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:1-16). The Church has as its main job fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. This must start in your next bedroom over, or your bedroom, and extend to the whole world (Matthew 28, Acts 1, Mark 16, and so much more). This church must be an Emergency room for the sin-wounded of the world, where all sinners are welcome, and where the ER is staffed with evangelists that are sin blood spattered. The church by design is a messy place, where many come and fall down, bring addictions, habits, soul wounds, and many past failures to find mercy, healing, a second or one-hundredth chance, to start over. Here the church knows how to forgive the fallen as God in Christ has forgiven us.
Many are a lot more comfortable in a “hotrod” church that is restrictive by nature, and protects those in the pews from sitting next to “sinners”. But for me, I want to be in the Church that Jesus built, even if it takes me a life time to get it right. Yes, It is very important to me.
This is the first blog at the ol’hitchen’ post. You are invited to “ride” on up and tie up your old “paint” and give me your ideas and thoughts. Know this, only a garbage can is designed to take everything thrown into it, and you are not a garbage can. So if you do not agree with me, your thoughts are welcome. In the exchange we might both learn something. Love to each and every one of You. Herb Pinney