02.02. What Is It?

What Is It?

We might say at the very beginning that the word translated "church" in our Bible is "ecclesia" in the original Greek Scriptures and means "an assembly of called out ones." It is more properly translated "Assembly" as more correct versions render it. Neither this word nor its Hebrew equivalent are found in the Old Testament, which shows us at once that the Church or Assembly did not exist then. No Church Before Pentecost In the Old Testament God had a nation of people, Israel, in covenant relationship with Himself, but this is not the Church which has a far more intimate and blessed relationship to Christ than Israel had. The nation of Israel is only once spoken of as "the assembly in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38, New Trans.). There they were, in a sense, a called out assembly from Egypt, but in great contrast with the New Testament Assembly and true Church. In the Old Testament there are types and shadows of the Church, such as the brides of Joseph and Moses and the tabernacle in which God dwelt, but the Assembly of God itself did not exist at that time.

However, in the counsels of God the Church was ever in God’s mind and purposes from before the creation of the world. It was "the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" (Ephesians 3:9). It was "kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest" (Romans 16:25-26). The word "Church" or "ecclesia" is first found in Matthew 16:18 and was spoken of by the Lord when He said to Peter, "thou art Peter (Petros-Greek, "a little rock"), and upon this rock (petra-Greek, meaning Himself) I will build My church."

Here the Church is still future and not yet built, for the Lord said, "I will build," not "have built," or "am building." The Greek text indicates future action as all scholars and translations agree, in spite of some who would teach otherwise. The next reference to the Church is in Matthew 18:17 where instruction is given regarding personal trespasses and discipline. This also is evidently future; otherwise, surely whilst the Lord was with His disciples, the case of an offending brother would have been laid before Himself.

There are no other Scriptures whatever which speak of the Church until we come to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-47. which is the Church’s birthday. While the Lord was on earth He was not forming a Church, but presented Himself to Israel as their true King and Messiah and gathered a remnant of true believers and disciples around Himself, while the leaders of Israel rejected Him more and more.

These faithful believers of the Lord’s time existed as individual followers of Christ and became the nucleus of the Church at its formation on the day of Pentecost. On that day they were baptized by the descended Spirit into the body of Christ and were thereby joined to their glorified Savior on high (1 Corinthians 12:13). Then they no longer existed as individual believers, but as a corporate body, the Body of Christ, and members one of another, linked together by the Spirit of God which now indwelt them. This was the beginning of the Church of the living God. This is what the Church is-a body of true believers in Christ, baptized by the Spirit of God into the body of Christ and joined to the Lord and to one another by that same Spirit. This we shall consider in detail a little later. From what has been before us, it should be clear that the teaching of some that the Church began with John the Baptist is quite erroneous and unscriptural.

It should likewise be apparent that the common practice of calling buildings used for religious services "churches" or "the church" is also unscriptural and misleading. The Church is not a material building, but a body of living believers, living stones forming a holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5). This truth we will consider more fully later. The believers meeting together in any certain place constitute a true Church, the building where they meet being but the meeting place, whether a home, hall, chapel, or formally designated church building.

We have so far been largely considering what the true Church is not. We may now proceed to look more directly at the positive side, at what Scripture presents the Church to be.

Called Out Ones

Returning to the meaning of the word "ecclesia," we may observe that the Church of the living God is, therefore, a company of called out ones called out of the world-those whom God has called unto Himself by the Gospel of His grace and who have accepted that Gospel and the Savior it presents. They are thus separated from the world and are spoken of as "them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:2), which means "set apart" in Christ. In harmony with this we have the words of James in Acts 15:14 : "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name." This is what the Church is-a people taken out of the nations for His name by the sovereign operations of the Holy Spirit. Had the Church only remembered this it would not have settled down in the world and become worldly minded, but would have remained separated from the world and would have been heavenly in character, as those truly called out to the rejected Christ in glory.

If we look at Acts 2:1-47 we find the believers there a truly separated company. The 120 are gathered together in the upper room, away from the world that crucified their Savior, and. continuing with one accord in prayer.. Then the Spirit descended from heaven and filled them all and they began to tell out in other tongues the wonderful works of God. Peter now preached Christ to the multitude urging them to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and save themselves from this perverse generation by thus taking their stand for Christ and separating from the nation that rejected Him.

They that received his word were baptized and about three thousand souls were added to this separated company.Such was the beginning of the Church of God, the called out Assembly.

Ultra-Dispensational Error As there are those today who would tell us that the true Church did not begin at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-47, but at the end of Acts and Paul’s imprisonment, we must say a few words about this teaching. Acts 2:47 says, "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." These words certainly tell us that the Church had now begun and that it was being built as the Lord added saved souls to it day by day. But this was not "the church, Which is his body," which Ephesians 1:22-23 afterward speaks of, say these Ultra-dispensationalists. To this we reply that the Lord has but one Church and that the Church of Acts 2:1-47 is as truly the body of Christ as that spoken of later in Ephesians. There is not a Jewish Church and then a Church of Gentiles, or of Jews and Gentiles. The Church began at Pentecost with Jewish believers and later Gentiles were added to it (Acts 10:1-48), both being reconciled unto God in one body by the cross and the twain made one new man (Ephesians 2:14-16). True, this was not all revealed at once and the distinctive truths of the Church were only brought out later by Paul, the special apostle to the Church, in his prison Epistles, but the Church of the living God began at Pentecost just the same. The book of Acts is a transition period from Judaism into the liberty and fulness of Christianity. These Jewish believers could not be taken all at once from Judaism into the full teaching of the Church, so these great and wonderful truths of the Church were gradually revealed and fully brought out at the proper time during Paul’s imprisonment.

Joined by the Lord

Returning to Acts 2:47, it is well to notice that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Men did not join themselves to it, as people join churches today; the joining was done by the Lord Himself. Those whom He saved He joined to the Church by His Spirit and "of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord" (Acts 5:13-14).

Such was the power and holiness of the early Church that the unsaved would not dare to try to join themselves to it; they felt that they had not what these born-again believers had. But when any were saved, they were added to the Lord, not to men or organizations, and found themselves naturally one with the believers and already joined to the Church of God. The same principles should be true today, for it is as true now as then, that the Lord adds to the Church daily such as are being saved. If one is not saved, he cannot join himself to God’s true Church. He may join a church on earth, but no one belongs to the true Church unless he is born again. It ought to be as true today as then, that no one who is unsaved would dare to join himself to the local Church of believers, but alas, the Church has lost its power and it is no longer thus.

How comforting it should be to every believer in Christ in this day of confusion, disorder, and apostasy in the professing church on earth to know that since his conversion he is joined by the Lord to God’s true Church to which only genuine, saved believers belong! He is part of the "church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven" (Hebrews 12:23), and should rejoice because his name is written in heaven in the book of life from which it will never be blotted out (Luke 10:20; Revelation 3:5). This is the only church that one can Scripturally belong to. For we do not find believers in the Bible belonging to any church but the Church of Jesus Christ. Neither do we read of any church membership rolls, but simply of the believers being joined to the Lord and added to the Church by the Lord. The only membership known in Scripture is membership in Christ’s Body.

We will make a few practical applications of these truths to our day. If one is joined by the Lord to His true Church, why should he join another church since he is already joined to the only Church which God recognizes?

Believers are to have fellowship one with another and to worship and serve the Lord together. They are to edify one another and to pray with each other as those already joined together in the Lord, as "members one of another" (Romans 12:5), but Scripture never tells us to form a church organization or to join one of man’s devising. We are exhorted in Ephesians 4:3 to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, "a unity of believers already made by the Spirit, not a unity of views or doctrines which we are to make. This God-made unity of true believers we are to recognize and act upon and to recognize and act upon no other. These are a few of the practical principles which flow from being joined by the Lord to the Church of the living God. The Church is presented in Scripture under the three figures of a body, a bride, and a building. We have already briefly referred to two of these figures, but shall now consider them a little more in detail. First, we shall consider the Church as a body.