Read Matthew 16:15-18 NIV
15“But what about you?”he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Read Matthew 16:15-18 CJB (Complete Jewish Bible)
15“But you,” he said to them, “who do you say I am?” 16Shim‘on Kefa answered, “You are the Mashiach, the Son of the living God.” 17“Shim‘on Bar-Yochanan,” Yeshua said to him, “how blessed you are! For no human being revealed this to you, no, it was my Father in heaven. 18I also tell you this: you are Kefa,” [which means ‘Rock,’] “and on this rock I will build my Community, and the gates of Sh’ol will not overcome it.
As we begin this week with the question of “Why do we need the church?” I thought maybe we would start with what the church really is…or at least what it is supposed to be. And just maybe we can lay the foundation for why we actually do need the church.
The word “church” actually is an English word translated from the Greek word Ekklesia. Which was actually a political term that literally translates as a community, an assembly, or a gathering of people deputized to introduce and implement the culture and laws of the empire. But over the years translators began to use the word church in its place and some of its meaning was lost. The word church began to be synonymous with a building where people gathered for religious reasons. And if we aren’t careful we can miss what the original intent of Scripture was.
The Ekklesia/Church was intended to be people…not a building. In fact, the early Church didn’t even really meet in specific buildings – they met in each others’ homes for the most part. It was supposed to be a movement. People gathered together around a single event; that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God – who died on the cross and then rose from the dead. A people gathered for a single purpose; to introduce the love of Jesus to a world that so desperately needed Him and to implement a culture; a way of living that was different from anything they had ever heard or seen before. That is what the Ekklesia is all about.
People took to the streets of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, in the city where those things took place, to spread the good news about the hope that Jesus provides. This “gathering” of people is why we know anything about Jesus in the first place. The New Testament is filled with stories about how their lives were changed by God, how they went about living the way God had called them to live in light of the love and sacrifice of Jesus, and then how they shared that love with others.
Now that we know what the Church is supposed to be – let’s take that with us and ask God to speak to us and reveal His plan for the church…. His gathering… for us and through us.
