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THE CHURCH “Its Eternal Dimensions” |
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“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” Ephesians 1:4 Most people when they start considering the matter of the Church, they will always begin at Pentecost, which is OK, if all one is interested in is obtaining one aspect of the truth about the Church ending up with at best a somewhat twisted view. There is no doubt that the day of Pentecost was a major watershed in the life of the Church, and in one sense it was the birth of the Church as we know it today, or do we? I have read some most remarkable descriptions by people who dispute the concept of a much older Church. I will not go into the details, but it involves a headless entity and all that such gruesome thinking entails. I will hasten to add that such thinking has its origins in the very questionable some questionable theology of some American churches, if churches they may be called. Today most people look upon the church as being the building in which worship takes place, we all say “we are just of to church” indicating that they are going to a specific building. This is not actually incorrect, as there is a term used by ancient writers for this purpose, the Greek word is “Kuriakon” and means the “Lord’s House”, so when we say we are going to church, strictly speaking we ought to say, we are going to “The Church” indicating a specific building. However we are not concerned about church buildings. In this series, we will nail many of the false ideas, people have, and begin to grasp something of the wonder, majesty and glory of the Church and its preciousness to Christ. Now whilst we will not be able to get the rest of the Church back on track, we will at least here at St Paul’s be able to obtain a better understanding of what the Church is and act accordingly. As I said last week by way of transition to this phase of meditations, the Church has by and large not only lost its way, but has lost its identity, it no longer knows what it is, this has resulted in lost blessing. Now even if the world had even a glimmer of what the Church is, what it sees it dislikes, it hates and despises. THE PROBLEM: About two years ago at a Wednesday Evening Bible Study, I had reason to use the term Church in reference to the Old Testament, because of this I was asked “Why did I use the term church in such away?” The implication being that there was no such thing as the church in the Old Testament. For a moment the question threw me, as I had assumed, obviously wrongly, that most people had some elementary understanding of the true nature and longevity of the Church, that question proved just how wrong a person can be when making assumptions. Now the fact is one can and must expect such a thing from the world, because the Church as such is unknown to it. The world will speak about the Church, the beauty of a church, but has no perception of what the church is. So for such a question to come from a Christian of many years standing, and who apparently subscribed to the Protestant and therefore true Christian faith, was quite a shock. It was probably the shock and the way the question indelibly impressed itself on my mind, along with a number of other factors that has given rise to this series of Sunday Morning messages on the Glory of the Church. That initial question two years ago, or thereabouts highlighted a serious problem, namely a terrible ignorance as to what the Church is, what its purposes are and its glory. I have since that time two years ago, found out that this problem was not limited to one person, but that it is widespread, a virtual epidemic of ignorance among the Lords people of every group and denomination. This ignorance is the result of an ever increasing flood of false doctrine being infiltrated into the churches by self appointed teachers, many of who rely on the emotive qualities of gullible Christians to further their very questionable objectives. One fundamental thing we should never forget, and that is when it comes to the study of Scripture, that is it is one cohesive revelation from beginning to end. It is not a series of disjointed era’s during which God was unable to make up His mind how to deal with man. THE TITLE “CHURCH”: This title is a common epitaph used to describe a number of things, and it is probably not the best name to describe what God has planned and purposed. The name church is used in the New Testament in its singular form 80 times and in its plural form 37 a total of 117 times, however it is not to be found in the Old Testament. Now it is because of this many have missed the mark, and in so doing are missing out on the blessing God has poured out on His people. The name “church” has an interesting background. What we are initially interested in is how this title was used before the advent of the New Testament, because in so doing we find a direct and unbreakable bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. The word translated as “church” in the New Testament is the word ekklesia, from which we get the word ecclesiastical. This word is made up from ek, meaning “out of” or “away from”, and kaleo meaning “to call”; so it means literally the “called out people” or the called out “congregation”. It is not a mistake that ekklesia is not only translated as “church” in the New Testament, but also as “assembly” and “congregation”, this is why I said the term Church is probably not the best description. The Church comprises of those from all generations, whom God has called out of the clutches of the world, those whom He called to be His witnesses, who He has saved, and all of this to His Praise and Glory. THE LONGLEVITY OF THE CHURCH: Now this is where it gets very interesting as the word “ecclesia” is identical to the Old Testament Hebrew word “kahal.” Both words mean an assembly of people, now the nature of these assemblies can only be defined from the context in which the words are used. The word ekklesia is used many times throughout Old Testament in its Hebrew form of the word “kahal”. In fact in the Greek version of the Old Testament uses the exact same Greek as used for the New Testament. What we end up with is an entire Bible speaking of the Church, as multitude, company, congregation and assembly, so to those people who question what I said about the Church being in the Old Testament, I suggest they start reading their Bible properly, as in over half the cases it applies to those whom God has “called out” those whom He calls His people. If we had time it would be a very valuable time spent just looking at these example, however one or two will have to suffice. The first thing then is to see how the definitions of Kahal are identical to those of ekklesia,we do not have time to look at many, but sufficient to give you some idea. Go right back to Genesis 48:4 “Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession” To read that in toady language would be something like this “I will make thee church of people.” Then again in Exodus 16:3 “And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” In today’s terms it would read “To kill this whole church with hunger” Look at Numbers 14:5 “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.” The church and the congregation of Israel. Finally, Deuteronomy 31:30 “And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.” For “congregation of Israel” read the church of Israel.” These are but four examples of the numerous times we find the word “Church” or the Hebrew equivalent in the Old Testament. Remember, ekklesia is the same word that is translated as “church” in the New Testament. It is this same word that is used to translate the Hebrew word kahal, whose What we see is the same title given to believers throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. If one has anu doubts on this look at Acts 7:38 “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” Stephen knew the truth, that from beginning to end there is only one church, one called out assembly, they are known commonly as the church and to God as Israel. Listen to the Word Galatians 6:14-16 “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God,” here in this verse the phrase “Israel of God” is a synonym for “Church” What does all of this mean? The answer is very simple, there is only and has ever and will ever be only one body of believers. There is only one redemption for sinful man no matter who or of what nationality that man may be, he may be Jew or Gentile, it does not matter, there is only one redemption for all on this earth, as the Bible says “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 and the name of the redeemer is Jesus Christ. There is no room for division and there is no distinction by God among His people. God is not partial with men, as Peter said in Acts 10:34-36 “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.” There is therefore no salvation in any shape or form outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to underline this great unchangeable yet neglected truth, it will be time well spent if we look as one or two of the Old and New Testament parallels. Peter had a clear understanding of this and shows it in his first letter, clearly showing that there is no differentiation in the Word between Old and New Testament saints, and furthermore, God only ever has had One People, never two as some people teach. By addressing the scattered congregation with the same titles as used in the Old Testament Peter demonstrates that they share the same blessings and designations as the church on Mount Sinai. 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Deuteronomy 7:6 “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” Again these are just a couple of the many examples we could draw on, all of which show the OT and NT parallels but these are sufficient to show that Peter had a clear understanding of the relationship between followers of Christ and God's people in the Old testament, they are one and the same. It is also worth noting that in Hosea 1:10 it is said that “the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered”, this is nowhere near any estimate of the number residing in the physical Nation of Israel Nor is it near even the highest estimates at the peak of Ancient Israel. It must therefore be referring to a larger body of believers. Again let me repeat what is aid last time, there is not such thing, as a Jewish Church and a Gentile Church, any more than there is an Old Testament and New Testament Church, there has only ever been one Church. The entire Church is based on built on and dependent on the Eternal Covenant of God made with man in the very beginning and fulfilled in Christ Those who divide the Church into two sections, have little if any idea of God’s Plan of Redemption, and not only do a great disservice to it, but believe and promote heresy. There is only one covenant, only one plan of redemption that God has given to humanity since the fall of Adam and Eve, and only one Church, albeit seen under two different administrations, let it be said know and let it be said clearly, at no time has God ever replaced His Church with another, why because His Church is of eternal dimensions. 2: THE ETERNAL DIMENSION: As if that is not enough the church goes back even further, beyond the reaches of time and into eternity listen again to the Word of God which bring us to our text “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” Ephesians 1:4-7. To whom are these words addressed? The saints! To the church in Ephesus, we know this because throughout the letter Paul refers to the Church. It does not take a great mind to see that those who comprise the Church, were chosen by God before the foundation of the world, this is not rocket science. This therefore means that the Church, is not just and Old and New Testament idea, but has a far deeper and eternal dimension. As we said last week, the atonement or salvation of the Church was not an after-thought on Gods part, it was part of His purposes from eternity. Now the thing we are to grasp is that “Christ loved this His church and gave Himself for it. It was not something God had to cobble together in order to rectify a defective system, it was not something He was forced to adopt because His original plan failed, or because God was disappointed with the outcome. It was arranged before man was created, “before the foundation of the world” all of God’s decrees and appointments, relating either to Christ, or His people the church, are eternal, there have been no new thoughts, no new resolutions, no changes. This takes us out and beyond our comfort zone, out of the reaches of time and into the unknown realms of eternity. It was here in these eternal places that the Church was conceived, designed, planned and purposes. The great business of the redemption of the Church by Christ is not a new thing; it was drawn in eternity; the souls that were to be redeemed that is, the Church, were fixed before time was. The Redeemer was appointed in the eternal councils of God. A Saviour was provided before sin was committed, and the method of man’s salvation was settled before his ruin took place. Notice in verse four of Ephesians 1 the little word “us” this speaks of individuals, initially the believers who comprised the Church at Ephesus, and Paul includes in this and is referring to those who made up the Church in this city. Peter J Gadsden .
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