Ekklesia 02: The Universal Assembly 01

INTRODUCTION

EKKLESIA 02 - THE UNIVERSAL ASSEMBLY 01

INTRODUCTION

Last week, we began a series of lessons titled Understanding Ekklesia. These lessons are designed to be more informational in nature, showing us what the Bible teaches about the church of God.

In our lesson last week, we began by defining what the Bible means when it uses the Greek word that is most often translated as “church” in our Bibles, ‘Ekklesia.’

As we saw, the word ekklesia is not inherently a religious word. The word was used in the Greek speaking world to describe a group of people. The word is a collective noun that is nondescript. The word itself does not give any information about the group — whether the group of people were religious or not.

EKKLESIA IN THE “1ST CENTURY BIBLE”

Whenever we see the word ekklesia in the Bible, we see that this word is not just used to refer to the people who belong to Jesus, it is used to talk about other groups of people also.

In the New Testament, ekklesia is used to talk about a riotous mob and a town council where people went for judgment in court cases. In both of these passages in , these groups are called assemblies.

We see the word also used to refer to the nation of Israel in , where Stephen calls Israel the “congregation [ekklesia] in the wilderness.”

We also talked about the use of the word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament — the Septuagint. The word is most often used to talk about the congregation of Israel, but it is also used to talk about the armies who were present for David and Goliath’s fight and also for a group that David describes as an ekklesia of evildoers.

Through the use of the word in the Bible, we see that it is used to talk about both secular and religious groups, and it is always talking about a group of people. Nothing more and nothing less. Literal translations of the word would be words like “assembly, community, congregation, group, bunch, and words like this that describe a group of people, but the words themselves do not tell you anything about the group of people, whether they are religious or not. Context will further define the what kind of group is being spoken of.

THE EKKLESIA OF JESUS

It is important to see the use of ekklesia throughout the Bible and in the Greek speaking world because this helps us to understand what is being spoken of when the word is translated as “church” in the New Testament. As I said last Lord’s Day, church is really not a good translation of the word. It is not a literal translation like the other uses, but it was the word adopted over time to distinguish the people of Jesus from other uses of ekklesia in the Bible.

We see in the usage of the word before and during the first century that the word is always talking about a group of people, so whenever we think of the church, we should not think of buildings or clergy or church leaders or organizations or institutions. We need to think of a group of people. The ekklesia of Jesus is the assembly or congregation or community of Christ’s people.

As we discussed last week, in talking about the people belonging to Jesus, we see the word ekklesia talked about in three contexts. We see it used:

To describe all of the saved of all time, including all those who are Christians on earth now. This is often described as the universal church.

To describe a group of Christians living in a specific geographical area - or a local church. As people became Christians, they would find others who adopted this new faith in their city, and they would associate with one another and work together.

To describe the local group assembled together, and in the context of , we see the word used to talk about Christians in Corinth coming together for worship.

This catches us up with what we looked at last week.

For our lessons today, I would like us to consider some misconceptions about the universal church and look more in depth at what the New Testament teaches us about this group of people.

A MISCONCEPTION

I would like to begin by putting on the screen a misconception of the universal church that stems from a misunderstanding of what an ekklesia is.

This is a common belief in the denominational world. Here is a picture representing this belief. It is believed that the universal church consists of those who are members of all denominational groups. This belief is usually justified based on where Jesus says, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Many believe that the branches that Jesus refers to in that are part of the vine are the different denominations. One branch is the Catholic Church. One branch is the Lutheran church. One branch is the Methodist church, and so forth.

But there are many problems with this view.

First, an examination of the passage used to justify this belief is not talking about groups of people that are part of the vine, and thus abide with Christ. Jesus is talking to individuals in the passage. It is individuals who abide in Christ and bear fruit to God’s glory in this passage in .

Second, we need to remember our study of the word ekklesia. The church is a group of individuals, not a group of groups. It is the group of all individuals are saved.

And third, to say that the universal church consists of all of these groups would mean that everyone who is a member of these groups is right with God. And I think it is safe to say that pretty much no one in any of these groups believes that everyone who is a member of their denomination, let alone in every denomination is in fellowship with God.

AMONG “CHURCHES OF CHRIST”

There are brethren who hold to this misconception also. Of course, they would not say that the universal church is made up of all of the denominations, but what they may say is, “The universal church is made up of all of the local churches of Christ.” Or another way it is put at times is, “You need to be a member of a local church of Christ to be connected to Christ and to be saved.” And these views end up making it so that “changing churches” at times becomes the emphasis when talking to people instead of the Gospel.

These ideas are another form of the belief that an ekklesia is a group composed of groups instead of a group composed of individuals, which is what we have seen an ekklesia is. It is a group of individuals. Not a group of groups. This view assumes that every person that is a member of local churches of Christ is saved, but this is not the case. We will talk about this more next week, but there are people in local churches that think that all they need to do for Jesus is attend services, but they can live however they want the rest of the week. There are people who are members of local churches who are lukewarm and worldly and materialistic and don’t have much time for Jesus. Just going to church or being on the membership roster of a church does not make you a Christian any more than laying down in a garage makes you a car. Being a member of the right type of local church or a local church w/ a specific name on the sign out front does not make you a Christian.

These are denominational concepts of the universal church. They are not taught in the New Testament. We need to be careful in how we think or talk about the church. Just because we may claim to not be part of a denomination does not mean our thinking cannot at times be affected by denominational type of thinking.

WHAT THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH IS

So, once again, here is how the Bible describes the universal church: it is a group of all saved individuals.

“22 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, 23 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,” (, ESV)

As we saw last week, this passage shows us that the “ekklesia of the firstborn” is a group of individuals whose names are recorded in Heaven. Jesus’ universal assembly is composed of all individual Christians that are right with God.

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS ABOUT THE UNIVERSAL EKKLESIA

In the rest of our time for this lesson and in our lesson during the third hour, I would like to go through a list of ideas that are taught in the New Testament about the universal assembly of God’s people.

There is only one

We considered last week, Jesus says, “I will build my church.” Church/ekklesia is singular here. He did not say “churches.” There is only one group of saved people.

Let’s also consider two passages in Ephesians. Let’s first consider :

“22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (, ESV)

The church is described here as a body in which Jesus is the head. There is one head and one body described here. Once again, church is singular and body is singular. This is seen clearly in :

“4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—” (, ESV)

In this passage, Paul gives a long list of truths that unite God’s people. The first one he mentions is that there is one body. Paul says in that in one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.

BEGAN NEAR THE DAY OF PENTECOST

It is difficult to pinpoint a specific day when the universal assembly of the LORD began. Many say that the universal church began on Pentecost around 33AD, when the Spirit came upon the disciples and we are told that people were being added to the number of the saved. It is possible that there were saved people before this, and it is definitely the case that Jesus’ sacrifice brought perfect forgiveness even to those who died faithful to the LORD under the Old Covenant. So it is difficult to pinpoint an exact time.

But Acts chapter 2 is, of course, an important time in the history of the scheme of redemption because it is the time in which all of the promises that God gave in the New Testament about a New Covenant people began to be fulfilled. On the day of Pentecost there was a great harvest of souls when the seed of the Gospel was planted.

This is the time in which the gates of the kingdom were opened to the Jews so they could become Christians, submit to Jesus as the Son of God, and be part of His ekklesia — His church. Then in , the Gentiles are given the same opportunity. It is interesting that in , as Peter gives an account of what he does in ch10, he refers back to , when they received the Spirit and began preaching the Gospel, as “the beginning,” pinpointing this time period as the start of it all…

ENTER BY BEING ADDED BY THE LORD

The last point we will look at in our first lesson today is how one is added to the universal ekklesia — the universal assembly of the Lord.

In , we see how people were added to the universal ekklesia:

“47 And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (, ESV)

ON a daily, basis, we are told that men and women were being added to the number of the saved. Who was doing this? Who was adding these people to the number of the saved? God was! It wasn’t men who decided who was and was not a Christian and a member of the body of Christ - the universal church. It is God who decides and it is God who adds people to this number.

But when did this happen? Once again, those who are baptized are added to this group of people. We see the answer to this question in

In , those who were listening to the preaching of Peter asked what they needed to do to be saved — to be forgiven of their sin of putting the Messiah to death and become His people. Peter answers them by saying:

“38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (, ESV)

Whenever people believe the Gospel, repent of their sins, and are baptized for the remission of their sins, they are given God’s Spirit and are added to Jesus new covenant people — to His great assembly — His ekklesia.

“41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (, ESV)

Luke connects here the ideas of being baptized in response to the preaching of the Gospel and being added to the number of the saved. As we see elsewhere in scripture, we are baptized into Christ, baptized into His body. We are united with Him in His death and His resurrection at the point of baptism and we are forgiven of our sins and added to the universal assembly of Jesus Christ by God.

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We will stop here for now. Lord willing, we will continue to look at some more things that are taught about the universal church during our third hour.

Let’s close with a prayer.