EKKLESIA

1 Peter 2:9
“9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” NASB95

Core to the church's identity is that we are a people that have been "called out" of darkness, and slavery to sin. Not only that, but the Lord Jesus calls us out of the world's systems and rhythms regularly to assemble together as citizens of heaven to glorify Him and to experience a foretaste of eternity. The church must be set apart. Different. Trying to blend in to the world and persuade people to join is unbiblical. Be set apart as He is set apart, let your light shine before men.

This mid-week enrichment expounds on some of the concepts we touched on in week one of Ekklesia Class, specifically how the concept of "seeker-sensitive" church is at odds with the true idea of biblical ekklesia.

The last 6 minutes of the video feature clips from real churches that are not meant to stir up anger, but to show that this trend is not exaggerated. This is really happening, and it has very little to do with biblical Christianity.

"The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing—than hinting to the Church that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them into her ranks. The evil nature which lies in every heart, has risen to catch the bait. Here, now, is an opportunity of gratifying the flesh—and yet retaining a comfortable conscience. We can now please ourselves, in order to do good to others. The rough old cross can be exchanged for a “costume,” and the exchange can be made with the benevolent purpose of elevating the people. All this is terribly sad, and the more so because truly gracious souls are being led away by the specious pretext, that amusements are a form of Christian work."  - Archibald G. Brown

“14 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15 but [k]in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how [l]one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church [G1577 - ἐκκλησία ekklēsía] of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” - 1 Timothy 3:14-15
The Church is not the creator or source or determiner, but what props up and holds firm TRUTH in the world. The church is built on the Foundation of who the WORD says Jesus is! So the church HOLDS UP that truth in a world filled with turmoil and shaking, and continually reinforces these truths at every turn. Church was more than just a support group, social club, but key in the purpose of God on the earth! 26 of 27 NT letters address in some way, false doctrine/teaching, false prophets, or deception. That ought to clue us in to part of our role in being a pillar and buttress of the truth.

OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE TRUTH

• Proclaim it
• Protect it
• Progress in it
• Propagate it  - more on family/household
• Persist in it
• Prevail with it

We are the Fortress, the pillar and support of the Truth as a part of God’s plan and wisdom - let’s act like it!

"12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart [c]that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." - Hebrews 3:12-13

If we were to ask any group of Christians for the ways to safeguard themselves from deception, we'd get a myriad of answers. One of the most underused and underappreciated safeguards from deception is the encouragement of other believers. We are charged to take personal responsibility that no one among us would be deceived, hard-hearted, and fall away from the living God. Part of our identity as a pillar and buttress of the truth is for every one of us to take responsibility to sure each other up and infuse one another with courage to continue in the truth. 

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

2 Corinthians 6:15-16
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

The temple motif fills the scripture, even from the story of creation. God is continually designing spaces for man to draw near to Him, where heaven and earth can overlap. Yet man continually fails in his responsibility to steward those spaces. Jesus steps in on the timeline and "tabernacles" among us, pointing to the reality that a new temple is on the way. Upon reading the epistles, we see the language switch to the church itself being called the temple of God. It's not "like" or "similar to" the Temple, it IS the Temple. Temples were designed to be filled with glory and to expand throughout the land. So it is with us.

John 4
"21 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is [e]spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

He is deeply interested in His worshippers being in 2 realities when they worship Him - Spirit and Truth

We try to find out who's seeking God; what if we figure out who God's seeking?
I believe we absolutely should be seeking God, but here I can say with absolute biblical confidence that those that are continuously longing to see Him rightly to see Him in truth and to drink deeply and experience His Spirit, God is seeking them. Some churches are all “truth” and very little Spirit, some are all “Spirit” and very little truth. Let us seek to be the kind of worshipers He seeks. 

1 Timothy 3 - "14 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15 but [k]in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how [l]one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church [EKKLESIA] of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth."

Eph 2:19 - "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household."  

PART OF BEING THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD IS RADICALLY ACCEPTING AND CELEBRATING THAT WE ARE LOVED CHILDREN.

There is a value, the church, is the ones accepted in the Beloved who have the Spirit of Adoption, who can rightfully cry out together, “OUR FATHER!”

The Church is a Trinitarian Community - When we don’t truly understand the nature of God, especially this, the concept of the Church unravels 

Hebrews 3:12-14
"12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart [c]that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,"

Value in the Church is placed on both the individual and the corporate identity, but never at the expense of the other. Healthy churches do both: not a machine that rolls over faceless people, and not a consumeristic salad bar “have it your way” place that tries to make everyone happy.

Healthy families have a collective identity and sense of the whole while actively caring for each individual. May we do the same.

The church is not the Kingdom, it is an embassy for the Kingdom
We live as foreigners and strangers on the earth, as our citizenship is in heaven. But we're not just citizens, we're ambassadors. Ambassadors who make up the church, the embassy of the Kingdom of God on the earth. We represent our home country to the world we live in.

The only way the kingdom of God is going to be manifest in this world before Christ comes is if we manifest it by the way we live as citizens of heaven and subjects of the King.” - RC Sproul