Here is a church that is not represented by any man-made building but is made of people of God who hail from different nations and who follow diverse cultures and speak diverse languages. This is called the universal Body of Christ Jesus.
The word 'church' in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word 'ekklesia' which comes from two words 'ek' meaning 'out' and 'kaleo' meaning to 'call.' An ekklesia or 'calling out' was not just an assembly. The words agora and paneguris as well as heorte, koinon, thiasos, sunagoge and sunago can all mean an assembly. The word ekklesia was a political term, not a religious term. Jesus was the King and the Bible used the term ekklesia for a good reason. In classical Greek "ekklesia" meant "an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly."
Spiritually speaking, the church is an assembly of citizens of the Kingdom of God taken out of this world.
Job Anbalagan
Glory of His Cross Prophetic Ministries
It's not about how we can improve or restore things back to the way they were in the first century. It's about how can we emulate God's life and love so that He can live His life and heart's desire through us to touch others as He chooses. I think *THAT* is the church Christ is building. It’s NOT a physical building but a building not made with human hands, a building of “living stones” who are being fitted together as we interrelate with one another in our normal day to day lives.
It's not based on whether it matches verses we can pull out of the Bible. It’s about whether it matches God's heart! If it matches God's heart, it will not go against the Bible, but it may go against OUR concept of what the Bible is saying or we may misinterpret the application. That's why we need His Spirit, so we can discern spiritual things by spiritual means (I Cor. 2:12-14).
Jesus came to show us the Father (Jn 14:9-11). He came to not just show, but to live out as an example the Father's love by His life and works. It went right "flap" against all that the religious folks of that day thought, preached, and practiced. Can you imagine? To the religious Jew, what could be more pure and direct - straight from God, than the Jewish religion and Law? How dare this "yayhoo" low-life carpenter's son, whose very birth is somewhat "shady," (and from Nazareth to boot - "...can ANY good thing come from Nazareth?") – This upstart Rabbi character dare try to tell us scholarly teachers, rabbis, priests, lawyers and political/ religious leaders that God has now changed "the rules" right in the middle of the ball game!!? Yet that is exactly what He did. And it costs His Son's life!
Charlie Lafferty
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