\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jesus replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 16:17-18)<\/p>\n
Purpose Weekly<\/strong><\/span> June 8, 2008, <\/strong><\/span> Well \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 this is week four on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d subject. As far as I know, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the last one. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been telling you what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. This week I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve promised to tell you what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c according to the Bible.<\/p>\n From what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been through we know that Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s may have been right in his definitions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 as far as how we define \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his job, right? Define the words in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meaningful to us? So, Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is off the hook. Regardless of what the Bible says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrote down what we think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is. He upheld his part of the bargain.<\/p>\n According to Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (and those he serves) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is: We discussed that the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used when Jesus told Peter, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 upon this rock I will build my church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jesus, of course, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say this to Peter in King James or any other sort of English. He said it in Aramaic, and Matthew wrote it down in Greek. And the Greek word Matthew wrote down was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d About the closest we can come to a literal translation of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The term was used to denote an assembly of citizens being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for a special purpose or event.<\/p>\n Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back up a day before the conversation between Jesus and Peter when the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was first used.<\/p>\n The day before Jesus talked to Peter about His \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jesus was wrapping up three days of ministry to a group of about four thousand, not including women and children. So maybe twelve thousand people? Maybe more?<\/p>\n At the end of the three days He knew these folks didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any food with them and He knew they were hungry. So He took the food the disciples had left; seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He gave thanks to His Father in Heaven for what He had and then He broke up the loaves and fishes and fed the crowd \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 all twelve thousand. Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you know it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was enough to go around; and with seven baskets of left-overs. How\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d He do that?<\/p>\n The next morning, along come the Pharisees and Sadducees; the RGIC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (religious guys in charge). By the way, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like each other. But they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like Jesus more, so they were allies. Kinda like the Russians and Americans in WWII.<\/p>\n The Pharisees and Sadducees said to Jesus, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the real deal, show us a sign from heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n What? The Guy just fed twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and few fish! \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Show us a sign from heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Right.<\/p>\n Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a piece of advice. Anybody who says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153show me a sign from heaven,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe if God came down and sat in his lap. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a front; a smoke screen. These guys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 minds were already made up. They just wanted Jesus out of the way.<\/p>\n Jesus saw through the hypocrisy of the RGIC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and He needed to bring His disciples up to speed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c get them ready to do what they had to do when the time came. He said to them, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The disciples thought He was talking about bread. Knuckleheads.<\/p>\n Jesus brought His disciples through three days of teaching and miracles, feeding twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, blowing off the RGIC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and then warning His disciples against their hypocrisy. He had them prepped when He asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who do people say I am?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They had lots of answers. Then Jesus asked the million dollar question. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who do you think I am?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Peter, a guy who always shot from the gut (definitely not the head) said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peter was usually either a total idiot or absolutely brilliant. Today he was brilliant.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jesus replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 16:17-18)<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first time \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) is mentioned in the New Testament.<\/p>\n What do you think Jesus meant? He gave Simon a new name, which means \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and said that on this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rock\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He will build his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c those whom He has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n At this point I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to confess something. When I said that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a building, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being completely forthcoming. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians again, that figures) is a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbuilding\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but not one made of bricks and mortar.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people and members of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Ephesians 2:19-22)<\/p>\n Wow.<\/p>\n We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the bricks and mortar. Starting with Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of the OT building materials, along with Peter (the rock), John Baptist and John Revelator, and the disciples who walked and ate with Jesus and Paul himself, and those Ephesians who believed and the Roman and Jewish and Corinthian believers, and those from every tribe and nation who heard and understood and believed the message that God had come in the flesh, down to you and me; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re those who Jesus \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a building, a temple, that God lives in. All of us. Together.<\/p>\n The word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has packed a lot of baggage over the last two thousand years. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s come to mean a lot of things to those it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s touched. Say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d today and people hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153building,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clergy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153organization,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153profession.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sometimes they hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hypocrisy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prejudice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sometimes they hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153family,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153charity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153safety.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has a lot of definitions.<\/p>\n Jesus only had one; \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My called out ones.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably a little late to think about repainting all the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d signs in the world to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure a lot of people have already tried that in their own way. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Call it something else: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fellowship,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gathering,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153congregation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153meeting place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like how things are done? Switch it up a little. Throw out the organ and get a guitar; serve doughnuts and coffee; wear cut-offs and t-shirts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting real.<\/p>\n Uh-huh.<\/p>\n If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who you are, what you are, all the change-ups in the world aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to do you any good. Unless you change your eyes and your heart and understand that you are the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ekklesia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the building where God lives – along with every other person that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever believed in Him – then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just part of another man-made \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; a little louder, with a bad wardrobe and running on a caffeine\/sugar high, but really no different than the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you left.<\/p>\n How do we do \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I know that one. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still blown away by the realization that we are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Like my buddy Roger said, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only His \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s us.<\/p>\n Yeah, but Steve; how do we do \u00e2\u20ac\u0153church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know.<\/p>\n But I do know this. Jesus promised something to His disciples, the ones He \u00e2\u20ac\u0153called out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 18:20)<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start there.<\/p>\n In Him,<\/p>\n Steve Spillman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jesus replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 16:17-18) Purpose Weekly Vol. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[634,438,134,6,43,11,16,334,276,7],"tags":[672,668,637,674,882,670,653,636,205,492,676,130,669,677,866,151,120,678,514,675,673,417,671,667],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-community","category-faith","category-gods-purpose","category-heaven","category-joy","category-love","category-obedience","category-prayer","category-purpose","tag-americans","tag-aramiac","tag-assembly","tag-building","tag-church","tag-citizens","tag-divine-worship","tag-ekklesia","tag-ephesians","tag-fellowship","tag-gathering","tag-god","tag-greed","tag-heart","tag-heaven","tag-jesus","tag-matthew","tag-matthew-1820","tag-new-testament","tag-organization","tag-peter","tag-pharisees","tag-russians","tag-sadducees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/span>
\nVol. 2, Issue 23<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcChurch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 a Dirty Word?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Part IV<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n1. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a building\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n2. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a clergy or officialdom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n3. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an organization of religious believers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n4. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a public divine worship\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n5. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a profession\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n