What Is A Church? Scripture: Matthew 16: 17-20 To many people the word “church” describes any number of buildings they pass by daily. Some are brick, some are wooden structures, some are very large with elaborate designs, and some are very small and simple. They usually have some common architectural features, a steeple or a cross on top of the building, stained glass windows, and other distinctives such that they are recognized as church buildings even before the ever present sign identifying them as such is even seen. To others, “church”is a place they go on Sunday mornings and other times. But is the same way the New Testament uses the term church? Paul in his epistles frequently makes reference to the church that meets in the homes of believers such as Aquilla and Priscilla. So it is clear that he does not identify the church as a building, but rather as the people who meet there. George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, claimed this same idea as an “opening” or an insight from God. This is the reason Quakers refer to their gathering places as meeting houses instead of churches. They are nothing more than vacant buildings until the Spirit of Christ is brought in by those who come there to worship. So in New Testament terms, a church is not a building, or even a place you can go, it’s a fellowship of believers. How many churches are there? Some would say thousands, maybe even millions. Yet in the Scripture from Matthew we are looking at, which is the only time Jesus actually even uses the word “church”, he uses it in the singular, saying “upon this rock I will build my church.” He doesn’t say I will build my churches in the plural. The church is referred to throughout the New Testament as the body of Christ or the bride of Christ, reinforcing the idea that the church is one entity, not many. For that reason there are some followers of Christ who are convinced that the word church should never be used in the plural form. Those who recite the Apostles’ Creed as a part of their worship express their belief in “one holy catholic (universal) church. Most people would agree with this in theory, but what about in practice? There are literally hundreds of different Christian denominations all with at least some distinctive beliefs or practices that separate them from the others. Some of them have particular doctrines and beliefs (like predestination or free will) or rituals and practices (like how baptism and communion are done) that they consider essentials and will not accept into membership those who have a different understanding. This leads to a question: if membership in a local congregation is actually the same as membership in the church that Jesus talked about, then how can someone whom Christ brings into his church be excluded from the local fellowship?
The answer to the question of how many churches there are is only one. Martin Luther faced the same question from the Catholic church after the Reformation. How can there be more than one true church they asked? There isn’t, Luther replied, there is only one, and only God knows who is really a part of it. There is only one church, and it’s not Baptist or Quaker, or Lutheran or Catholic, in fact it’s not even American. When Peter was sent by God to preach to a Gentile named Cornelius, he reached a conclusion that is recorded in Acts 10: 34 Then Peter began to speak, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” The true church of Christ is made up of people from all over the world who have come to know him and align themselves with what he called “the kingdom of God.” To many of us, kingdom is a somewhat archaic word that calls to mind images of knights and castles and princesses and dragons. A kingdom was simply a place that was ruled by a particular king or government. The word we would probably use today is nation, so we might speak of the church as the nation of God. Many Americans, however, would instantly relate this to our own country as “one nation under God” and are deeply concerned about the possibility of this phrase being removed from our pledge of allegiance. In reality, it probably should be, simply because it somehow suggests that God does show favoritism and that America enjoys some kind of most favored nation status like Israel once did in Old Testament times. Like Peter, we too need to understand that God does not show that kind of favoritism. There is indeed one nation under God, but it isn’t America, or any other nation defined by political or geographical boundaries. Jesus told Pilate, “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). So this one nation under God is not a physical place. Paul told the Galatians that “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek” (Galatians 3;29) so the kingdom of God is not made up of a particular race or nationality. What does this nation look like? In his apocalyptic vision recorded in the Book of Revelation, John saw this nation and described it: After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands (Revelation 7:9) This great crowd from all over the earth, from America and Africa, and Europe and Asia, and the Middle East are the citizens of the kingdom of God. They are the body of Christ. They are our brothers and sisters. They belong to the one true church, the one that Jesus is building that knows no political, geographic, or racial boundaries, that recognizes the love of God in any and every language, and that prays with him, not for blessing or good fortune, but “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What church do you belong to?
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