Christ's Church (Ekklesia)
The picture of a Kingdom get to grow and prosper only on earth, it is strengthens by these words. Jesus chose to refer to his church. After three years of teaching his Kingdom or teaching the Kingdom. He used a political, judicial, and governmental words to introduce His church into the earth. That astonishes a lot of people, but remember, God wants his sons and his daughters reigning with him. We are made in his image, and he is a ruler, a governor, a king, so the nature to govern is planted into our beings the day that we are born-again. It’s a part of our spiritual DNA.
The words Jesus used for church in emphatically reflects that the word Ekklesia, and it is translated church 113 times in the New Testament. (Strong, G1577.) Jesus, the disciples, and the apostle use Ekklesia to describe the church. It is not a religious word. It is not even a sacred word, and in the Bible, it is never denoted as a building or a special place of worship of course, it has come to mean that today. We say, “I am going to church today,” or someone may ask where do you go to church? Technically, that is not possible because you are the church. The word church originally meant an assembly of those called out for a purpose. Yes, a part of that purpose is worship, a part of it is teaching, and a part of it is discipline, but those are not the whole purpose, and the place is never a factor. You can worship any place. If Christ meant to speak of a place, He would have used the word synagogue or temple.
The English word church does not appear in the New Testament translation until 1557. In the Geneva New Testament that is the first time the word church is ever used. Some 1,500 years after Christ until then, Ekklesia was translated as assembly, congregation, or an assembly of called out ones or specially assembled ones.
The Geneva New Testament was translated in Geneva, Switzerland. The translators were greatly influenced by Theodore Beza and John Calvin, the Protestant leaders in Geneva. Beza essentially invented the word church, specifically to refer to a certain religious order governed by a hierarchy (such as the Catholic Church or the Puritans). These orders had individual churches all over the world, but one central government that controlled them all through many levels of religious authority. To describe this, Beza used the Greek word Kyridakon to come up with the English word church, but it is never found in the New Testament.
The King of England at the time was King James, a very religious man. He liked the word church and was fond of the hierocracy (not surprising as He was a king himself), and in 1611, he ordained that the King James Authorized version be written with fifteen rules the translators were to be bound to use the word church. One of those rules was that the New Testament Greek word Ekklesia always be translated with the English word church and that rule stuck in other translations from then on.
Once the word church was in place in the English Bible, anyone who read it would read “church” every time the original author use “Ekklesia.” Over time the word church gained a broader meaning, evolving to mean a location, a hierarchal religious order, a place of worship, a holy place, or a building. None of these ideas are ever close to anything Jesus meant when He, spoke of Ekklesia.
Notice the distinction between Ekklesia, an assembly or group of people and church a location with the building (a probably some people in it). This is subtle, but it is a dangerous confusion that has caused most people today to hear church and think place, not Kingdom. hell’s definition confines the most powerful governing body on the earth, the Ekklesia within the walls of a building on Sunday morning.
Christ never said I will build my synagogue or temple, and the gates of hell will not prevail against its walls, He said. I will build my Ekklesia, and the gates of hell will not prevail against them. Knowing who Jesus is and His brilliance, we have to conclude that he did not use this word Ekklesia accidentally to describe His church. It was stated on purpose, It was Godhead planned, and no other word is ever used. It’s Ekklesia in all four Gospels, in Acts, in Romans, in the Epistles, in Timothy, in Titus, Hebrews, and Revelation. It is never use another word, we must understand the meaning of Ekklesia if we are going to understand what Jesus intended His church to be.
By the way, just so you know, I do love the word church. I can't think of another word, and I am not on a campaign to change it. We need a good English word and church fits, but we've got you understand what it originally meant when Jesus used it. What we called church today He called Ekklesia. Make no mistake about it Jesus knew exactly what He was saying and what He meant. The true meaning of Ekklesia is so radical that many people are scared even to go there.
