Spring Cleaning With Jesus
In Jesus’ day, dignitaries would go on procession through a city in an act of triumph or celebration. Processions generally were reserved for religious festivals or kings returning from battle. Kings occasionally went on procession through cities after conquering them. City officials would welcome the dignitary outside the gates, and the group would parade victoriously to the city’s temple. The people would offer a sacrifice to honor the dignitary and acclaim his gods, and a feast would be held.
It seems to some people almost humorous that in the New Testament, Paul frequently addressed believers as “saints.” For example, he addressed his epistles to the saints who are in Corinth or the saints who are in Ephesus. The word that is translated saints is the word hagioi, which means holy ones. The Holy Spirit is called holy with this same Greek word.
In what sense are members of the body of Christ to be called saints or holy ones—the hagioi? We have to look at the various ways in which people may legitimately be called holy. It begins by understanding the church’s vocation. A vocation, of course, is a calling. This word has almost disappeared from our common vocabulary. People today speak of their jobs and of their careers, but it used to be that we all understood that we had a vocation. A vocation meant a call from God to be engaged in a particular enterprise. One would consider their calling to be a surgeon or a farmer or a housewife as a responsibility that has been given to them according to their gifts by God.
The whole idea of vocation is built into the biblical word for church. In the New Testament, the Greek word that is used to translate the word church is ekklesia. We get the word ecclesiastical from that Greek term. If we look at this word and break it down, we see that ekklesia contains a prefix and a root. You don’t have to be a student of Greek to be able to understand this, because the prefix, ek, comes from ex, which means “from” or “out of.” In addition, the primary root of this word comes from the Greek word kaleō, which means “to call.” It’s very close to our own English word call. If we look at the root meaning of the term ekklesia in the Scriptures, we see that etymologically, it means something that is called out of something else.
The reason the church is called the ekklesia is that the church is the company of people who have been called out of the world by God. After Jesus was born, there was an attempt by Herod to kill the infants and to destroy this newborn king. The angel of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to flee the land, and they went down to Egypt. After Herod died, it was revealed to Joseph that it was safe to return to Palestine and thus we are told that the Scriptures were fulfilled: “Out of Egypt, have I called my son” (Matt. 2:15), referring to a latter day, ultimate fulfillment of what God did originally with the Exodus. There He called Israel out of bondage in Egypt and adopted the nation of Israel as His son. In a real sense, this vocation of the church begins with this call of God, where He redeemed a nation out of slavery in Egypt. But it goes even deeper than that. The Christian and the church, both Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament, were not merely called by God out of Egypt but they were called out of the world. Not that they were to leave the planet, but this calling was a calling to holiness. We remember that when God formed Israel, He said to them: “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44). Long before Paul wrote epistles to the saints—the holy ones—at Ephesus, Corinth, or Thessalonica, the idea that the church was a people that had been called out into holiness by God was already deeply and firmly established in the Old Testament.
The very word holy means to be different or to be set apart. When one is set apart, the person is set apart from that which is ordinary or common and directed to something extraordinary, something uncommon. Of course, in biblical categories, that meant that the people of Israel who were called to holiness were called to live according to a different pattern, standard, or manner of living from that which was commonplace in the world. In other words, this was a call to godliness, to a different way of living.
The first thing that we have to understand when we look at the statement the church is holy is that the church has a holy vocation, a holy calling. The church has been set apart from every other institution and the people of God have been set apart from the world for a specific mission. They are to mirror and reflect the character of God. This means that if we are part of the invisible church, we are called to be a pilgrim people. That’s why the Bible emphasizes that we are sojourners, pilgrims, and aliens in this world.
In addition to this, there’s another sense in which the church is called holy. The church is called holy because its members are to be people who have been indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit is considered holy or set apart in the eyes of God. The church is the institution that God has created visibly wherein He has been pleased to have His Spirit dwell. Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit that we find in the midst of the visible church. We find evil spirits and we have to test the spirits. But the church is holy insofar as the Holy Spirit is present and functioning in the lives of the people who are there. That’s why Paul can look at sinners and address them as saints. In and of themselves they’re still sinners but if they have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, born of the Spirit, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they are now the hagioi, the “holy ones,” those who are in the process of being sanctified.
The English word church comes from the Greek word kuriakē, which is a form of the noun kuriakos and means, that which is owned or possessed by the kurios.
So then, what does kurios mean? This is an important word in the New Testament because it is the Greek word for “Lord” and it is the New Testament word that translates the Old Testament covenant name for God—Yahweh—and the Hebrew title adonai. When the psalmist says, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Ps. 8:1), he is saying, “Oh Yahweh, our adonai, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.” When the Greek translation of the Old Testament rendered the term adonai, which means “the sovereign one,” it rendered it by the word kurios.
kurios is used in three different ways in the New Testament. In a simple way, the term kurios is the polite form of address corresponding somewhat to our word sir or mister. But the highest and most exalted use of the term kurios is what we call the imperial usage of it, and that is the title that ascribes absolute sovereignty to the one who is kurios. Paul used this form of the word in Philippians 2:10–11 when he writes “that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is kurios,” that is, “Lord.”
As important as that title is for Christ in the New Testament, I want to look at how it relates to our understanding of the church. Another meaning of the word kurios refers to a man in ancient Greek culture who was wealthy enough to own slaves. The slave owner was called a kurios and those who were slaves of a kurios were purchased by the kurios.
I stress that for this reason: kuriakē is the etymological foundation of the word church. In its original meaning, the church referred to people who were owned by a kurios, who were owned and possessed by a lord. In the New Testament, we find this imagery frequently used with respect to the relationship between believers—individually and corporately—and Christ. Paul, for example, calls himself a doulos, or slave. He uses this metaphor of one who has been purchased. He applies it not only to himself but also to all of the people of God when he says, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). We are God’s possession because He has redeemed us.
Not too long ago, I spoke at a small church in Florida. There were about a hundred and fifty people in the congregation that morning. I made the comment before I began to preach that I hoped they would excuse me for being nervous about speaking there but that I always got nervous when I preached in front of millions of people. They laughed and looked around to see if there was a radio program being done or a television camera to beam this out beyond the confines of this small church. I assured them that I was serious and turned their attention to a passage from the book of Hebrews. The author writes this:
“For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’ 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, 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, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12:18–24).
The author of Hebrews is speaking here of the church and the experience of the church universal. He reminds us of the new situation that has come to pass with the triumph of Christ and that things have changed since the days of the Old Testament. He says that you don’t come to that mountain that was covered with darkness and with thunder and lightning, that was a place of abject terror. (This describes the occasion when God came from heaven to Mount Sinai and gave the tablets of stone, the law, to Moses.) The author says that’s not what we’re doing when we go to church. Now when we attend church, we’re entering into heaven itself, where Christ has gone in His ascension. As our high priest, He has entered into the heavenly sanctuary once for all and has ripped apart this veil of separation that prohibited access for us into the immediate presence of God. According to this text, we have now been given access to heaven itself.
God is everywhere, He’s not just inside a church building. We know we can’t restrict His presence, but there is an important symbolic significance at the door of a church. When we walk into that building, spiritually speaking, we are coming to the place where God’s people are assembled together to offer worship and the sacrifice of praise to Him. The church is holy ground. It’s the sacred place where the people of God are gathered together for the sacred task of worship.
The New Testament says that when we enter into worship together, we’re not just worshiping in an assembly of a hundred and fifty people, but our worship is taking place in heaven. Paul warns us of our behavior during the assembly because the angels are watching and participating. Also, the author of Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses—the saints who have gone before us.