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Many people think of church as a terribly boring place to spend an otherwise perfectly good Sunday morning… For some of us attending church is a ritual that we couldn’t get out of.
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The picture of the church that we have in our minds is often nothing like the picture which the New Testament drew for the church. It was an exciting place to be – a place of action, a place where people could see God’s Kingdom coming into being.
In anticipation of our church’s AGM this morning I thought I would look at a few of the New Testament’s pictures of the church.
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A Gathering of People
Probably the most prominent picture in the New Testament is the picture of the church as a gathering of people.
The word that we translate as church in the New Testament is the Greek word eklesia – this word means to gather together, it means assembly.
Church is not a building – or a specific location, neither is it a specific denomination – church is a gathering together of people in Jesus’ name…
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In the New Testament these gatherings take on a variety of forms Paul speaks of local churches – for example the ‘Galatian’ churches (1 Cor 16:1), churches isolated in a specific area – he also speaks of larger groups of church’s – for example ‘the church’s of the province of Asia (1 Cor 16:19) and in Romans 16:16 he speaks of an even wider body – ‘all the churches of Christ.’
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These various sizes of groups of people who would gather together made it possible for people to connect on a personal level. To talk, to share their struggles and their dreams – to pray and bring them to God.
The rapid growth of the early church tells us that they didn’t just look in – they also looked out… meeting together to discover how they could most effectively be the body of Christ in the world; they became known for their love of people – and their willingess to serve each other – and feed and care for the poor.
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Too often we let church become one sided – we let the minister do all the talking, the visiting and the praying – in the beginning I imagine church meetings would have been a buzzing event - everybody taking part in the ministry of bringing God’s Kingdom.
In many ways the church we see today is a little boring in comparison to the church which we see beginning in the New Testament… this gathering of people conspiring to make God’s Kingdom real.
The Family of God
Another picture of the Church which we see in the New Testament is the picture of church as God’s family on earth. When someone accepts Christ they are adopted into God’s family.
It’s wonderful – but the saying – you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family applies.
Church as the family of God means that we are lumped together with a funny looking, funny smelling bunch of people… people who think differently, who do things differently who speak differently to us. But that’s how it is in a family – we are all children. It doesn’t mean we all agree all the time, or that we do the same things in the same way – our membership of this family is not dependant on each other’s opinions – rather it is dependent on God’s love for us.
When we pray as Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Our Father” we acknowledge that our brothers and sisters are the people who say this prayer with us.
This family picture of the church reminds us to accept one another, it also reminds us how we need to support one another – in prayer, in loving one another, sometimes through the most difficult and distressing times.
It means we need to love one another and teach one other about God; all of us are the spiritual parents of children in Sunday School and need to take responsibility for their proper education and nurture in the faith.
We also know that when members of our family are suffering for whatever reason – we need to draw close to them. Supporting each other through times when our faith is weak and when we make mistakes – as god’s family we don’t have the luxury of disowning brothers and sisters who we struggle to love.
The Body of Christ
In Acts 9:4, in Paul encounters the risen Christ – Jesus says to him – “Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?”
Paul is persecuting the church – he is killing Christians, yet Jesus asks – why are you persecuting me?
As Christians we truly are the body of Christ in the world – Christ suffers when we suffer. Christ’s action in the world is also often dependant on us - an old hymn goes:
He has no hands but our hands
To do his work today,
He has no feet but our feet,
To lead men in His way;
He has no voice but our voice
To tell men how he died;
He has no help but our help;
To lead them to his side.
In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks of the church as a body… a body with a diversity of parts – but all of them vitally important to the whole.
John Wimber – the founder of the Vineyard Church movement tells a story about how someone took him aside after church. The member complained how he came across a person who had fallen on hard times and needed a place to stay and food to eat – he phoned the church office but no one could help so he eventually had to put him up himself.
He said to John – “I really think the church ought to do something about this!”
And John said to himself – “I think the church already has.”
As church – we are Christ’s living body in the world… there is no church that should do this or should do that – but ourselves.
Maybe you have a part to play in teaching Sunday School, in greeting at the door, in helping to fold notices – perhaps its something more intense – like setting up a job creation project.
All of us have work to do as members of the congregation – and as members of the congregation we have a job to do in supporting one another, some are gifted to do big and amazing tasks, that seem really important, but without others doing the behind the scenes work – the big jobs will fail.
What part are you called to play in the body of Christ? What are you playing now, how can you become more involved? How can the body of Christ get more involved in what you’re doing?
The Temple
In contrast to the vision we so often have in our heads when we speak of church, the only ‘church building’ the New Testament refers to is a building made up of people. In Ephesians 2:21 Paul speaks about the members of the church being built into the temple of God.
In the Old Testament the temple was the holiest place in the world – located in Jerusalem. Some of the most ancient maps we have represent Jerusalem as the centre of the world – the place where God is.
In the temple there were people especially appointed to make sacrifices and to speak to God on behalf of the people.
In the New Testament the temple is destroyed – and suddenly the writers speak of you and me, the church as the temple of God. We as people have the responsibility of being that holy place where people and God meet; there’s a saying that goes – ‘you might be the only Bible your neighbour ever reads.’
As church we need to consider our responsibility as people who can make God present in so many people’s lives – in so many places – just by putting ourselves there.
The Bride of Christ
The fifth and final picture I would like to share is the picture of the church as the bride of Christ…
We are a gathering of people, the family of God, the body of Christ in the world and we are the temple. But as the bride of Christ we anticipate a future event, a day when we will be united with our groom.
As a faithful bride of Christ we constantly work to make ourselves ready for our future hope – we behave faithfully doing what we are called to do in the world in anticipation of a future when we will be together with Christ.
In John 14 Jesus says to the disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them… it was tradition when a man and woman were engaged in Jesus culture for the groom to be to propose. To signify acceptance of this proposal the bride would drink from a cup of wine which the groom offered her…
If the bride accepted the groom would go back to his father’s dwelling and build a new room in which he and the bride would live. The groom’s father would expect it making sure it was adequate for his bride to be – and when it was ready – the groom would go back and fetch his bride.
As a church – we expect to be united with Christ in the future – we expect the world to one day be the way God intended it to be.
Conclusion
Well maybe if we laid out all the people who slept in church on a Sunday morning head to toe they would be a lot more comfortable, but we as a church need to think how we can make this church an exciting place – a gathering of people, the family of god, the body of Christ in the world, the temple and the bride of Christ working to bring the Kingdom of God in the world.
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