How do the Apostles refer to the church?

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to do a series on the church. I thought that I ought to go through the New Testament first and see how the apostles referred to the church. This was such a large undertaking and so exciting that I forgot my original idea! What I learned was eye-opening, primarily because today our description or metaphor for the church is (almost exclusively) “the body of Christ”. I noticed right off that this monotone metaphor is not only not apostolic, it is also not universal among the apostles. Truth is, Paul is the only apostle who uses “body” for the church. And he only uses it in four of his thirteen epistles (fourteen if you include Hebrews). To top it all off, we don’t use it quite the same way he does. Well, well.

Here was my plan: Go through the New Testament looking for references to the church. After going through my print Bible, I used the Bible program on my laptop (BibleWorks) to see if my count was accurate. It almost never was. Oops!! (I routinely under counted.) Then I went back over my results to evaluate and explain what I found. This is one of my favorite types of Bible study and the one I have used the longest.

I was so excited by this that I wanted to share it. Ah, but how do I share it without writing a book? I mean, I have enough for a bonafide pamphlet! I will try to condense and compress what I found, and concentrate on the highlights.

Let me begin with the Gospels and what Jesus said. 

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it 

This followed Christ’s question to his disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 18:15-17  
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.  
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

These are the only three times the word church occurs in the gospels. The Greek word for church is ἐκκλησία or, as we would write it in English, ekklēsia. What does this Greek word ἐκκλησία mean? I offer two reliable sources:

The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible or Strong’s Concordance
“1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly 1a) an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating 1b) the assembly of the Israelites 1c) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously 1d) in a Christian sense 1d1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting…”

Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
“properly, a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly; so used  1. among the Greeks, an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberating.  2. in the Septuagint, the assembly of the Israelites, especially when gathered for sacred purposes.  3. any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance or tumultuously.  4. in the Christian sense, an assembly of Christians gathered for worship.”

Ekklēsia, translated church, is an assembly; Christians meeting together, gathered together, assembled. The word ekklēsia is composed of two words: ἐκ (out of) + καλέω (call), or called out. However, as you can see from both Strong and Thayer, the proper meaning and usage of ekklēsia is a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly. A crier would go through the town announcing a meeting at a set time, and calling out the names of the citizens who were invited to come and participate; but the word meant they were called or invited to this assembly. This is how it is used in the New Testament: the ekklēsia is the gathering of those who were called by the gospel; the assembly of believers.

On the other hand, the dictionary says it is ‘a building used for public Christian worship.’ How is this even possible? Our word ‘church’ comes from Old English: circe (Old Saxon: kirka). This refers to the place of worship. The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular (compare Anglo-Saxon 'circe', a small church, with 'circol', a circle). In Scotland it is called "Kirk" and in Germany it is "Kirche."

So, the English word “church” really does refer to the building! But ekklēsia refers to the assembled people. The ekklēsia is not the building; you can have an ekklēsia without a building. A church building is not even mentioned in the New Testament. The ekklēsia gathered on a porch in the temple, in people’s houses, or in a hall. It wasn’t until the last half of the 200s that the first building was built. So we have to steadfastly resist the temptation to equate the building with the church – the church is the people who are assembled together in the name of Christ.

Now back to Jesus and the church. He said in And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Why does he say, I will build my church? Because ekklēsia occurs many times in the Greek Old Testament. There it is the “assembly of Israel”, “the assembly of the Lord”, “assembly of the people of God” etc. This is what Stephen called “the church in the wilderness.” Jesus is building a new thing, his church; I will build my Church, my assembly, or congregation, made up of people who have the same faith Peter confessed. As can be expected, this is taken up and used often by the apostles.

John 10:14-16
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.  
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.  
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Through the first 15 verses of John 10, sheep refers to Jewish disciples. Gentiles are the other sheep of v 16. One fold refers to the church, which is made up of Jewish and Gentile disciples. One shepherd refers to Christ. This is rarely used by the apostles (Peter uses the sheep and shepherd imagery in 1 Peter 5).

This next one however is used a lot!
Matthew 12:50 for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother

Matthew 25.40 inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me

“Jesus calls everyone who is devoted to him ‘brother’. Hence used by Christians in their relations with each other” (Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament). We are going to see that “brethren” is the most frequently used description for believers!


Next: The Church in the Book of Acts