"Church" Three

In Matthew 16:13-20, we have the first mention of the word “ecclesia,” which is the word we translate as “church.” In a world of many wrong and unsure opinions about who Jesus was, Peter got it right. On hearing Peter’s words, Jesus said that it is on that right declaration of Jesus identity that he would build His church. Everything else is built upon that knowing.

 What is this “ecclesia” that Jesus refers to? It is generally understood to mean simply, a gathering of people. So we could say the any gathering of people that know and rightly proclaim who Jesus is the church. While this is true,it is not the whole of it.  

     

The Greek word “ecclesia,” was also a word that was also used to refer to city or village leaders that would meet and collectively share ideas and strategy to better their community. If this is true, it helps to shed light on the function of the church in this world.

From the beginning of God’s covenant with humanity, we see this idea that His people are to be a blessing to the world around them (Genesis 26:4). We even see that when His people have blown it and are taken into captivity into strange cities, God tells them to be a community of God within the larger community, working and praying for its peace and prosperity (Jeremiah 29:5-9).

 Jesus was one who reached out to those that much of society rejected. He healed the deep emotional scars and reinstated the fringe people into the family of God. He walked as light and life. As His church, founded on the correct proclamation of who He is, we are called to be about what He was about.

Reading City Church founded on the person of Jesus, seeks to be a city within a city; a community that works and prays to transform the community around us with that same light and life.