Christians go to church. We practice our faith in community, as the Bible says.[1] We are a global family of faith with local gatherings almost everywhere—“Churches.”
“Church” is used to translate the Greek, Ekklēsia, which is a combination of “call” and “out.” So many quip, we’re called out ones… which is fun and makes us feel special… but it is also misleading. Ekklēsia is used to speak of any public assembly whether political, religious, or even a neighborhood block party. The English word church, however, isn’t directly connected to Ekklesia at all, being in point of fact, a word connected to the Greek kuriakon for “belonging to the Lord,” which is kurios.[2]
In modern days, one group of believers gather on the North side of Main Street and another group on the south side, one mile from yet another set at the corner of Watts and Happening. One group calls themselves Baptists, another Pentecostal, or Lutheran, or Episcopalian, Methodist, Catholic, or Something-Orthodox. Some, usually without higher association, might even call themselves things like, First Church of the Last Chance World on Fire Revival, or Hell is Licking at Your Heels Assembly, or His Church. Believe it or not, this reality is not as ominous as it sounds, having a reasonable history behind the multiplicity, and a healthy pattern of revitalization, which I will discuss in another devotional.
For now, I want to discuss the intended nature of church as revealed in both its establishment on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, and throughout the rest of the New Testament.
Believe it or not, the story of the birth of THE Church in Acts 2 is written to meet the sorrows and hopes of a prophecy in Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59 begins by bemoaning the depth and darkness of human evil in the world. In verse 16, it turns to God’s reaction. Knowing that help and hope is beyond man in themselves, He, poetically, determines to bring salvation Himself. In verse 20, this help is God coming to Jerusalem in a glorious manifestation of Holy Spirit power through the work of a divine redeemer who will make a covenant with the faithful and seal this covenant through the giving of His Holy Spirit. These shall become a multigenerational community of Spirit-filled believers speaking His word to the world.
In Acts 2, God’s Holy Spirit breaks into the ugliness of human history in the wake of Jewish and Roman cooperative evil in the murder of Jesus, humanity’s only innocent man. Upon His resurrection, Jesus commands His followers to make disciples from all the nations of the earth and promises that His Holy Spirit will come to lead and empower them in that work. He does.
In the story, we have the explosive arrival of the Spirit in displays of power and wonders. Once-terrified Peter marches boldly before the Jews gathered in Jerusalem from every place they’d scattered over the centuries; he shuts down hecklers, explains the gospel, opens the Scriptures powerfully for their understanding, establishes the deity of Jesus, confronts their guilt and sin, and calls for their repentance. The reaction is overwhelming and the Disciples-turned-Apostles incorporate thousands of new believers into an instantly formed body called The Church.
The last part, of Acts 2, though often treated like a closing epilogue, a cute wrap up, we find the ultimate answer to Isaiah’s hopes and humanity’s need. All that power and wonder, preaching and conviction, repentance and commitment find their crescendo, their purposed end, in the planting of a community of super-natural love. Here a citizen of a debase and lost world can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, escape his or her own selfishness and the misery it produces. Believers dedicate themselves to the biblical teaching of Jesus’ disciples, to prayer, to sharing their meals together, joyously sacrificing to meet the emergency needs of those who stay in Jerusalem with them rather than returning to their homes in foreign parts. The world had never seen anything like it. The world was never able to produce anything akin… neither Jew nor Gentile… in the history of man.
It is not surprising then, that the Apostle Paul, throughout his writings, routinely speaks of being Christian as being part of a covenant community even tighter than family. Hence the old saw, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”[3] What did you think “Blood is thicker than water” meant? One God the Father, One Jesus, One Holy Spirit, one faith, one body of Christ.[4]
I have met believers in over ten countries and the bond that I have felt with them was instant and strong. They are my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I once watched intrigued as a Hindu shop owner berated an Indian Christian for protecting me and my traveling companion from his malicious designs. As it was translated to me, he yelled, “We two are Indians, we should both take these white men’s money!” That Indian Christian, who had known me mere days, told him, “They are my brothers, and I will not allow you to steal from them.”
If this was true in its founding, and is true now even across nations, how much more should it be reflected in our local congregations. The Church community should be like family, and family works through problems. If I gave you a list of all the things my siblings have done to me over the years, you’d wonder why I still speak to them… but speak to them I do… all the time… getting together as often as we can. We are family… we have worked and continue to work through our issues. We are one.
Pray, therefore, “Lord, you want your people to be one. Help me find a church that shares my commitments to You, to Your Word, to Your Mission, and to Your call for us to be one. Help me find a church family.”
~Andrew D. Sargent, Ph.D.
[1] Hebrews 10:25 in the New Testament says, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
[2] My Greek reading friends are slapping their knees in laughter over that last bit. Kurios means Lord… but also looks like curious… so… well… never mind, sorry I brought it up.
[3] In modern times we’ve flipped this on its head, taking blood as family bond, and water as… well… as water I guess.
[4] 1 Corinthians 8:6; 10:17; 12:1-13:13.
