The Church

“Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ... But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ... And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly”[Acts 19:32, 39, 41].

The word translated “assembly” in these verses  is rendered “church”,  most everywhere else in the New Testament..  This helps us to understand “church”.

The Greek word which gives us “assembly” or “church” is a compound of ek, meaning “out of”, and kaleo, meaning “called”.So the word speaks of people “called out”.  It does not anticipate BY what, nor TO what, they are called out.  The Ephesian craftsmen  in Acts 19 were called out “by” mutual concern for material prosperity; they were called out ”to” take violent, even lawless steps to protect their wealth.  There was nothing spiritual involved in that “ecclesia”.  The nature of the “ecclesia” is going to be determined by the context in which it is found.

So when the Saviour said, “I will build my church” ( Matthew 16:18), and the church of the Thessalonians is said to have been “called ... through our gospel” (II Thessalonians 2:14), we understand this assembly to be of a religious or spiritual nature.

“Church” is used in the New Testament with reference to that which Jesus built ( Matthew 16:18) and purchased with His blood ( Acts 20:28).  As far as its composition is concerned, we can go again to Acts 19 and observe that the “assembly” there was composed of  people.  Called out people.  So it is with that which Jesus saves (Ephesians 5:23) – it is made up of people, members of His body ( I Corinthians 12:12-27).  They are people who were called by the gospel: they heard it and, being convicted of sin and righteousness and judgment, obeyed the gospel.  As the result of their obedience, the Lord added to the number “those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47)..

“Church” is used with spiritual implications in basically two ways in the New Testament.  In Matthew 16:18, and in passages such as Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:23 and  Colossians 1:18, 24, the term is used to include all the saved everywhere: Jesus’ church, in the universal sense,  is composed of all the saved.

The other way the word “church” is used is in a local sense.  When the apostle Paul wrote the church of God in Corinth (I Corinthians 1:2), or the churches of Galatia (Galatians 1:2), or the church of the Thessalonians (I Thessalonians 1:1), and when Jesus addressed each of the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 2, 3), they were speaking to called-out people in these places, people who had obeyed the gospel.  These were all local churches, groups of Christians in different localities who had come together in harmony with the instruction of Jesus to provide a functional unit for work and worship in the Kingdom.   And they were properly styled, “churches of Christ”, Romans 16:16.   It is easy to see that these local churches of Christ were composed simply of “Christians”.

We said earlier that Jesus’ church, in the universal sense, is composed simply of all the saved; but some dispute that concept.  They conceive of the universal church as being composed of all the local churches of Christ; so that in their jargon there is such a thing as a “congregation of the church of Christ”.  This is wrong: church, in whatever sense, is composed of people.  From the riotous mob in Ephesus to the “church in your house” of Philemon ( verse 2) to the “assembly of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), it is still made up of members, saved ones, Christians.

The church universal is all the people who have obeyed the gospel and been added by God to the number of the saved.  It is without organization.  Without organization it has no collective ability; thus no responsibility.   There is no collective duty for the church in the universal, or brotherhood, sense.

Local churches of Christ have collective responsibility, therefore organization is  provided.   The letter to the church at Philippi is addressed to “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons”, Philippians 1:1.  By virtue of this organization local churches of Christ, are able to function collectively in doing the things Jesus has instructed His church to accomplish. 

When men and women obey the gospel of Christ, they are added by God to the church; then they must join themselves to a local church, as Paul sought to do, Acts 9:26.  When the man of Ethiopia obeyed the gospel, Acts 8:26-39, he came up out of the water, added by God to the church; but a member of no local church as he went on his way rejoicing.    Assuming there was no local church in his hometown, his task would not be to establish a church there, but to bring others to Christ.  The establishment of a local church of Christ would follow.