The Ekklesia

Assemble

Deuteronomy 4:1–10 ESV

1 “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. 5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

Ekklesia - “assembly.”

The church meeting is for the purpose of reassembling Jesus Christ on the earth.

The first recorded use of the word ekklesia to refer to a Christian meeting place was penned around AD 190 by Clement of Alexandria (150–215).

Clement was also the first person to use the phrase “go to church.”

The phrase “go to church”—which would have been a foreign thought to the first-century believers.

You cannot go to something you are!

The English word church is derived from the Greek word kuriakon, which means “belonging to the Lord.” In time, it took on the meaning of “God’s house” and referred to a building.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV) - For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Look At These Striking Statistics...

Ligonier Ministries alongside life way Research conducted an up-to-date survey about the state of the church back in September of 2020. This is what they found...

26 percent think that church ministries cannot be effective to the world unless their worship services are “entertaining.”

39 percent agree that “materiel blessings” are a guaranteed reward of faith.

46 percent take a relaxed position on sin, agreeing that people are generally good by nature.

65 percent believe that Jesus is a being whom God created (as opposed to the belief in the incarnation of God, the Word made flesh, the only way that salvation is possible… The Gospel!

30 percent agree with the statement that “Jesus was a great teacher, but was not God. Can you believe this!? This is the church!

18 percent believe that the Holy Spirit can lead a Christian into sin.

Lastly, 42 percent of all evangelicals embrace the blatantly idolatrous heresy that “God accepts the worship of all Religions.”

What Did the Ekklesia Look Like in the Early Church?

The meetings of the early church were marked by every-member functioning, spontaneity, freedom, vibrancy, and open participation.

Hebrews 10:25 ESV

25 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.

7 The first-century church meeting was a fluid gathering.

It was not a ritual. And it was often unpredictable, unlike the contemporary church service.

Colossians 3:16 ESV

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

How Can We Do Something that We Already Are?

“We are better than ever at “doing” church but have long forgotten how to “be” the church. Meanwhile, while we entertain ourselves with the latest church-growth strategy and rave about how great each other are, the world is going to hell in the proverbial handbag. Read the tweets from us pastors on Twitter. We are too busy trying to sound wise and philosophical with our little 140-character quotes. We are undoubtedly impressing each other, but I do not think God is impressed. The truth is, we keep speaking and doing what we know in order to distract the conversation from what we do not know. I was watching a documentary by Erwin McManus, and one of the gentlemen he interviewed said something to this effect, “We don’t want to be found out that we actually don’t know as much as people think we do.” - Frank Viola

What Are Things the Church is Not?

A Place to Come and Spectate.

A Video Game (Craig Grocell)

An Online Event (There is no such thing as having online church)

A Seminar

A Small Group

A Building

Ekklesia in the New Testament

Throughout the New Testament, ekklesia always refers to an assembly of people, not a place.

Ekklesia, in every one of its 114 appearances in the New Testament, refers to an assembly of people.

For example, the term occurs in Matt 16:18 as part of Jesus’ promise to build His “church” (tēn ekklēsian) on “this rock.”

Matthew 16:18(ESV) - And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Ekklesia in Acts

The book of Acts, which narrates the growth and expansion of the early Christian community, contains some 23 occurrences of the term.

Acts 9:31 (ESV) - So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Acts 11:26 (ESV) - and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 12:5 (ESV) - So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

Acts 14:27 (ESV) - And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

Acts 15:4 (ESV) - When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

Acts 15:22 (ESV) - Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,

Acts 20:28 (ESV) - Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

The Ekklesia and the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul uses the word frequently in his letters to refer to local assemblies of Christians in a particular place a house church, or in a metaphorical sense, to an eschatological group whose head is Christ.

Paul uses ekklēsia four times in his two letters to the Thessalonians; each time, the term denotes a local gathering of believers.

It is significant that Paul uses the word ekklēsia, which refers to a “gathering” or assembly of people, is used specifically to refer to the community of Jesus’ followers.

The related term synagōgē was used mostly in reference to Jewish gatherings

The Temple

It can be rightly said that Christianity was the first non-temple-based religion ever to emerge.

In the minds of the early Christians, the people—not the architecture—constituted a sacred space.

The early Christians understood that they themselves—corporately—were the temple of God and the house of God.

1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Ephesians 2:20-22 ESV Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We Are Ekklesia!

Romans 12:5 ESV So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

We will become the ekklesia of God, a governing force that gathers to change time and season over nations, those whose decrees and desires become law. There is a cry for the real church to stand up!