The church, originating from Christ's declaration in Matthew 16, is fundamentally a 'called-out company' of believers, not a building or denomination. This 'ecclesia' was conceived by Christ, built on the foundation of His identity as the Son of God, and is divinely constructed with guaranteed protection against any opposition. The sermon illustrates the church through four key metaphors: the body, emphasizing Christ's headship and the interdependence of members; the bride; the building; and the flock. Recognizing these aspects helps believers appreciate their vital role and interconnectedness within the body of Christ.
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Matthew chapter sixteen. And it was very appropriate that we should have had a builder who is proving his worth as a builder to open with prayer for us this morning. And also to introduce him, one who knows a little bit about it too. Because I can remember going into the cease home there when he had his wife working hard and he was working hard and they were proving that at least they should be able to judge what a good builder is because their construction, certainly I felt, was second to none. We're going to talk about a building and we're going to talk about the process of construction and so on because Jesus said, as we read in this chapter, I will build my church.
Matthew chapter sixteen and verse fifteen, the middle of the verse. Whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said, Under him, Blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, or rather, this is how it would better read, and I also say unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now I'm going to give to you my outline for what it is worth. Four things I hope in these forty minutes, and I'm going to finish promptly at twelve o'clock, whether or not I'm through. I'm going to finish at twelve o'clock. But I hope we can cover these four things. First of all, and we are talking about the church, and our study this morning has to do with the origin of the church. Maybe we'll talk about some other things on some other occasion, but remember this morning the topic is the origin of the church. And these are the four things I'd like to discuss. Number one, it's description in the language of man.
The word church is not the best translation of the Greek word that is used. And so we are going to look at the original word and see the description of the church in the language of man, for the very word itself describes to us what the church is. The second thing, after its description in the language of man, we're going to look at its conception in the mind of Christ. Nobody thought up this remarkable building but the Lord Jesus himself. It was conceived in his mind.
And that's the reason why there can be no construction and certainly no building like it. There never was a plan like it before, and there never will be again. So its conception in the mind of Christ is the second thing we want to talk about. The third thing is its picture or its illustration in the word of God. So we have it. described, we have it conceived, and now we have it illustrated. And I have a fourfold illustration for you. And not a single thing I say to you this morning is going to be new.
It's all of it going to be review because you know it and you know it well, but I just want to remind you about it. So the third thing is it's illustration of in the Word of God. And then finally, it's initiation or commencement on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said, speaking of the future, I will build my church. And Paul writing to the Corinthians said, For we have all been, that's past tense, we have all been baptized into one body. And that happened on the day of Pentecost when the church began, and a hundred and twenty individual believers were built into one organism, the Church of Jesus Christ.
Shall I go over those four again? Here they are. First of all, its description in the language of man. Secondly, its conception in the mind of Christ. Thirdly, its illustration in the Word of God. and fourthly its initiation on the day of Pentecost. Now I wonder how far we can go. First of all concerning its description or the description of the church in the language of man. I want you to look at the word that is used in the original language. I want you secondly to look at the meaning of the word and then thirdly I want you to see the usage of that word. I want you to see how it's used in the Bible.
Now, first of all, the word itself. Now, what is that word? I know you know. It's a Greek word, and you don't know Greek anymore than I know Greek. It's all Greek to me. But we know enough about it to realize that this word is very familiar. The Ecclesia. Now, that's the word. And it's used no less than one hundred and fifteen times in the New Testament And the best translation of it is simply the word assembly. Did you wonder why we call ourselves an assembly? Simply and solely because that's the best English word that we can find to approximate the Greek word ecclesia.
Now, mark you. The word ecclesia is not the only Greek word that can be translated assembly. but this particular one is best translated with that English word. So that's the word. Now what's the meaning of the word? Well, it's really a combination of two words, the word ek and the word places. The word ek means out of, and the word places means a calling. So when you have an ecclesia, you have a calling out of. or if you will, a called-out company. Now that's the meaning of the word ecclesia.
And that is true of every New Testament church, it is a called-out company. Now I turned to a modern American dictionary to see if I could find out the meaning of the word we use more often, that word church. Now because I'm going to be using that word from time to time, I thought we ought to get it straight in our thinking. Now here's what the modern American dictionary said. I didn't have an English dictionary, so I looked at the American dictionary. And it said, number one, there were four things. An edifice for public Christian worship.
That's a church. Now I didn't agree with that particular definition in a Bible connection. but that's only one of four definitions. We have to reject that. The second thing in this modern American dictionary was this. Number two, a Christian denomination. Now I've heard about the Baptist Church and the Methodist Church and the Brethren Church and the Anglican Church, but in the Bible connection I have to reject that also because that's not the Bible meaning. But there's a third one. number three in that modern american dictionary was this an ecclesiastical organization or power now i've heard of the protestant church and i've heard of the roman catholic church never call it the catholic church it's not the catholic church we're the catholic church it is the roman catholic church And you take that name and it's a contradiction in terms.
You can't have a Roman Catholic. Roman means constricted and Catholic means universal. So I always give to the Roman Catholic his full title because it's a contradiction in terms. There is no such thing as a Roman Catholic. You can't have it. I don't know whether that offends anybody here, but anyhow, that's really and truly how it is. Never refer to the Roman Catholic Church as the Catholic Church. You belong to the Catholic Church. And I belong to the Catholic Church, but not the Roman Catholic Church, or the Greek Catholic Church. These are misnomers, these titles, and I think it's probably a good thing to remind ourselves of that. I found a fourth definition, and I really relished this one.
The first one, an edifice for public Christian worship, I rejected. The second one, a Christian denomination, I also rejected. The third one, an ecclesiastical organizational power, I rejected that too. But the fourth one said this, simply, Christian believers. Now, I don't think the English dictionary could have done any better. The modern American dictionary hit the jackpot when the fourth definition was simply, Christian believers. I didn't really expect to find that in the dictionary, but there it was. And that is what the church is in the Bible sense. Remember, it is not organized religion, such as church and state.
It is not a branch of Christendom, such as the Protestant Church or the Roman Catholic Church. It is not a denomination, such as the Anglican or Methodist or Baptist churches. It is not a building, such as the church just over the hill. It is an organism, and it's composed of Christian believers. Now that then is the meaning of the word, a called out company of Christian believers. Now we've seen the word Ecclesia, and the meaning of the word X places a called out company. Now let's think about the usage of that word.
And you might be surprised. In fact, turn to your New Testament, will you? And look at Acts chapter nineteen. Will you turn to that? My, you're all very quiet. Those pages of yours don't seem to be. Very noisy. So I'll make a noise with mine. Acts chapter nineteen. Now turn to it, because I don't want you just to believe something because I said it. It's right here. Acts chapter nineteen, and there are two verses that are significant here. Look at verse thirty-two. Now here is Paul. And there is an uproar among the Ephesians there at Ephesus. And verse twenty-nine says, The whole city was filled with confusion.
And verse thirty-two says, Some therefore cried out one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused. Now do you know what that word assembly is? It's the word ecclesia. Now you say, what's it doing in this verse? Well, this was a called out company. Do you know what the crowd was called out for? It was called out for the purpose of rioting. It was a riotous mob called out. And that's the significance of the word ecclesia here. It was, now this is the secular use of the word, it was a company called out to riot.
It was a called out company. Now go a little further down, verse thirty-nine, will you? If he inquire anything, now the authorities are cooling down the riotous mob, the crowd that has been called out to riot, and they are saying this to them. If he inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful what? Assembly. Do you know what the word is there? It's the same word. It's the word ecclesia. Now what about this company? Well, a lawful assembly is a group called out for the purpose of judging lawful matters. It's a called out company. So when you find this word ecclesia, which means a called out company, used in a secular sense, It just means precisely that.
Whether it's a mob that's called out to riot, or whether it's a company of judges called out to judge the law, or the matters of the law, it is a called out company. You get the force of the word? Its usage, in a secular sense, means a called out company. Now turn back to Acts chapter seven, will you? Acts chapter seven. And I want you to notice, this is the reason why I didn't say this word was never translated church. It is a number of times. And here in Acts chapter seven, toward the end of the chapter, let me see, well maybe the middle of the chapter, verse thirty eight.
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness. with the angel which spoke to him in Mount Sinai. Now this is a reference to Moses. And he is spoken of as being in the church in the wilderness. Now that word church there again is the word assembly. But it is now being used not in a secular sense, but in a religious sense. And who is in mind here is Israel. And Israel of course was a called out company. They had been called out of Egypt, have I called my son. And so God called his people out of Israel, and here they called the church or the assembly or the ecclesia in the wilderness.
So when the word is used in a secular sense, it means a called out company. When it's used in the religious sense, it means a called out company. Now let's take a look at it when it's used in a Christian sense. Matthew chapter sixteen and verse eighteen we've already read, upon this rock I will build my church, my ecclesia. Again the Lord Jesus is speaking of a called out company of Christian believers this time, so the word is not now being used in a secular sense, it's not now being used in just a religious sense, It is being used in a Christian sense, and it is being used of the Ecclesia universal.
My church, says the Lord Jesus, composed of believers who have lived and died, believers who do live, and believers who may yet live. They're all put together in one called out company, and they're called the Ecclesia. My Ecclesia. Now that's what you get in Ephesians one when we read about the Lord Jesus being head over the church or the ecclesia. That is the universal church. That's what we get again in Ephesians five is the head of the church. It talks about the whole universal ecclesia. But there's a second sense in which it is used in a Christian way and that is when Paul says in Acts twenty to the Ephesian elders the Church of God or the Ecclesia of God over which he hath made you overseer.
Now that is not referring to the Universal Church. The elders at Ephesus were not called to oversight over the Universal Church. They were called to oversight over the Local Church. And so here you have this same word, meaning a called out company used not only of the Universal Church, but used of the Local Church. So what we have here gathering in this building week by week is an ecclesia, a called-out company. Now, if I go on like this, we won't get through these four, but we've still got tonight. So we have, first of all, the description of the church in the language of man.
The original language that he's used describes the church as a called-out company. And we know that because of the word and the meaning of the word and the usage of the word. Whether it is a secular usage or a religious usage or a Christian usage, it always means a called-out company. All right? Let's leave then its description in the language of man, and let's look for a few moments at its conception in the mind of Christ. Jesus answered and said unto Peter, verse seventeen, Blessed art thou Simon barred Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven, and I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter.
Now that disposes of that conversation. Thou art Peter. You've said, I'm the Christ. I say to you, Thou art Peter. Now the Lord Jesus goes back to what Peter has said and says, Upon this rock I will build my church. Now the church was not built upon Peter. If you want any proof of that, you read Peter's writings. He was under no illusion as to what rock the church was built on, and it certainly wasn't him. He's the one who refers to the Lord Jesus as the chief cornerstone and the foundation stone, and so on. Peter knew the church wasn't built on him. The church was built upon the Christ, and it was that statement that the Lord Jesus is focusing upon when he says, upon this rock.
You're a little stone, that's what Peter means, but upon this rock, this foundation stone, I'm going to build my church. And he says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now we saw three things under the first heading, the word, the meaning, and the usage. Now I want you to look at three things under this second heading, its conception in the mind of Christ. I want you to think first of all about a sound foundation, then I want you to think about a divine construction, and then I want you to think about a decreed protection. And they're all found in this very short verse.
This rock. Now you know there is some controversy And I think it's not without foundation about this statement, Thou art Peter. In fact, it's very, very interesting to me to discover that St. Augustine, in his Latin version of the Bible, going back to early manuscripts as a scholar, does not say here, Thou art Peter. And it's also interesting that Jerome, another of the ancient fathers there, the ancient scholars who translated the Bible from the Latin, Jerome also does not say in one of his translations, Thou art Peter.
Now why the confusion? If you will go back to every other statement in the New Testament, Thou art the Christ, and you can look this up at your leisure, you will find there is one response from the Lord Jesus and it's simply this. Thou sayest. Thou sayest. Thou sayest. Do you remember that? Does that strike a bell with you? No. If you take the Greek letters that make up the statement thou sayest and take up the Greek letters that make up the statement thou art Peter, you will find that they are exactly the same letters. And all you have to do to make thou art Peter into thou sayest is pushed two letters together instead of having thou art Peter, you get the classic reply of the Lord Jesus, thou sayest.
There's a possibility the Lord Jesus never said thou art Peter, but that he responded this time as he responded on every other occasion, thou sayest. Oh, what you're saying is absolutely true. I'm not going to enter into that controversy. I have refused to give the final deciding word. I'm just going to leave it right there. But I just commend it to you, because I do think that it is worth thinking about. But there can be no doubt about the fact that when Jesus spoke about this rock, he was not referring to Peter. He was referring to the statement Peter has made. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And there's no doubt at all about it.
The rest of the New Testament agrees with this. The church is built upon one rock, and only one rock, and that is the rock Christ Jesus. And the Irishman said, Christ is a rock. All our other rocks are what? Shamrock. That's right. And so that's the reason why the chorus tells us to build on the rock, the rock that ever stands, build on the rock and not upon the sands. The church is built upon the rock. All right, that's the sound foundation. Now what about the divine construction? The Lord Jesus said, I'm going to get Gabriel to build my church. No, he didn't.
I'm going to get Michael the Archangel to build my church. He certainly did not. He said, I will build my church. Now I pointed out to you before. The reason why I must categorically and absolutely reject the idea that a person can be saved and then lost again lies in this. Jesus said, I will build my church. And if the Lord Jesus is, what the Bible calls him, a master builder, When a building takes a stone and puts it into the building, that stone is there to stay. What kind of builder would the Lord Jesus be if he built a living stone into the living building, turned his back and it fell out?
Certainly not a master builder. And when the Lord Jesus does a job, he does it perfectly and he does it permanently. And the moment you were saved, you were taken by the master builder as a living stone and built into the living building, and there is no demon in hell, no power on the earth, serving the angelic being that can ever remove you as a stone from that building. Jesus said, I give unto my sheep eternal life. and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. I and the Father are one, no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. So every believer is held in a double class, the hand of the slaver is closed around him, and in turn placed in the hand of the Father, and every believer is securely and eternally held in this double class.
The construction of this building is a divine construction. Jesus said, I will build my church. He was going to give this responsibility to nobody else because he wanted the job done perfectly and he wanted it to withstand all of the onslaught down through the ages. So he himself did the building stone by stone. Then comes the decreed protection. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The thought is that hell, from its center to its circumference, shall be utterly incapable of disturbing, let alone destroying, the Church of God.
Do you realize as a Christian that you're not on the winning side? You're on the side that has already won. That's what it means when it says we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. The conqueror takes the weapon in his hand, he goes out and he fights the battle and he wins the battle. The more than conqueror doesn't have to wield a weapon. He just follows in the train of the victor and shares all the fruits of his victory. We are more than conquerors. through him that loved us. And the Lord Jesus, who himself has built this church, has decreed its protection, he says that gates of hell, hell from its center to its circumference, shall not prevail against this church.
So there is its conception in the mind of Christ. Now what about its illustration in the Word of God? Now there are four things that we usually think about. There are probably more than four illustrations of the church in the Bible. But I'm going to take up the four classic ones. And I haven't said anything to you yet that you didn't know, have I? I've just reminded you about things that you learned years ago, but that you need to be stimulated with regard to. Now these four illustrations are just as familiar to you as the rest. The first is the body. The second is the bride, the third is the building, and what's the fourth?
It's the flock. Other sheep I have which are not of this flock. All right. Now then, what are the lessons that are to be learned from these illustrations? When the Lord Jesus uses the body to illustrate the church, he has some specific lessons in mind to teach us. When he uses the bride as an illustration of the church, again he has some specific and wonderful lessons to teach us. When he takes the building it's the same again, and when he takes the flock, once more there are specific lessons that are peculiar to that particular illustration. Now what about the body? Now there are two things about the body that are immediately significant to me.
The first is the fact that the body is controlled by the head. I have heard it said a little facetiously when some of the sisters are reminded that the Bible says the head of the woman is the man. Then the lady says very coyly, yes, but the woman's the neck. And the neck turns the head whichever way it chooses. Now I have news for you. Do you realize the muscles in the neck cannot operate unless the brain says work? So we can't get away from it. One of the lessons of the body is control by the head.
Now, this is one of the reasons why we, gathering as we do, repudiate the idea of human headship. People say to you and you shrink a little, oh yes, you're the church that doesn't have a pastor. I hope you don't shrink into your collar when people say that to you. I hope instead you just raise your eyebrows and say, my, you have been misinformed. We are fortunate to have a number of pastors. Because this is what the Bible teaches, a plurality of pastors. Pastor simply means shepherds. A plurality of elders.
And the recognized thing in Christendom today, and mark you, I'm going to say this, right before I say the other. Some of my finest friends today are pastors of churches, and I cherish their friendship. And would to God we could learn something about fire and fervor and energy and activity and ideas from some of the churches that we are very, very quick to try to put in their places? But we do repudiate the idea of human headship. And many a church, a denominational church, and I say again, please don't go away with the idea I'm knocking any denominational church.
I go to the Friendship Bible church from time to time, and I'm happy to go, and I'll continue to go, and some of you criticize me for going. But I appreciate the work they're doing, and I believe I can learn things from them. And I'm very happy to fellowship with those believers. In fact, when I'm home from now on, I shall be taking part in their, I call them crazy sixties. I always forget what it's supposed to be. Oh, jolly sixties, that's right, which is a twice a month business. I appreciate, I appreciate Godly ministers. I appreciate the work that they're You know, I was once invited by Jack Woodson to preach at a preachers' conference.
We had a hundred and twenty preachers in for a long weekend, and along with Charles Anderson from New Jersey, I was a speaker. And you know, the question of reverend came up. Someone asked the question around the fireside, and there were about thirty-five of us that had been singing, then we decided to have a little informal chat. And somebody asked me, Mr. Woodhouse, why don't you use the term reverend? I looked at him and smiled, and I never had to answer him. One of my friends with a pastor standing right beside me said, because there is no Bible warrant for that. And then these men gathered around must have been thirty-five of them.
They admitted that this was a title that many of them also repudiated. It was a title that they used for convenience, and they felt that it was helpful, and it gave them an ear with the people, and I respect their views. But I certainly would not accept that position, nor that title. But again, I'm not criticizing those who do, because... There have been times when I have found that people referring to me as Reverend has been very helpful to me. But I don't accept the title, only because it bespeaks a human headship. And that, of course, I cannot accept.
Now make no mistake about it, there are thousands of these godly ministers who don't accept it either. They acknowledge the headship of Christ. and they seek not to limit the priesthood of the believers. You know, some of us have some very strange ideas about some of these other churches. We really do. There are pastors who develop, make sure that local gift is developed in their churches, and there are pastors who accept the title, but they still don't believe in it, and there are pastors who don't accept it. And so please don't be critical of these other believers. You just thank God for them and the work that they are doing. I wish we had five hundred in here on a Sunday morning as they have a friendship Bible church in the course of their morning services.
I really do. And I don't think it would be impossible if we got down on our faces before God and thought to find out why it isn't happening to us. But again we come back to the Scripture and we have to see that the local church and the church universal, these are to own one headship. And that is the headship of Christ. And the reason why the body is used as an illustration is in order that we might recognize our own local assembly must be controlled not by one brother, not by two brothers, but by Jesus Christ. He is the head of the church.
And controlled by the head is one of the important lessons brought before us as the church is illustrated with a body. Now, you take a body. and you add anything to it, and what do you get? You get a monstrosity. Now you take a body, and you remove anything from it, what do you get? You get a mutilation. Now the body is an illustration of wholeness. Because after control by the head comes the second thing, the interdependence of members. I've reminded you before, if I got out of bed the wrong side this morning, and I was irritable and unhappy and everything caused me to blow my top, what a foolish man I would be to try to get some, to wreak my vengeance on something.
If I took my pinky, put it on the floor and stamped on it. If I did that, just because I had to vent my spite somewhere, my whole body would vibrate with pain, because although it's my smallest member, well, my little toe, I think, is a little smaller, but that pinky is not very big, but it's firmly attached to me. It's part of me. And if anything hurts that finger, then my body knows it. Isn't that what the Bible teaches? How interdependent we are upon one another? We are members of his body, the Bible says. It says we are members one of another. And then it says we are members in particular.
He that touches you touches the apple of his eye. I used to think, isn't that lovely? Here I am, one of God's favorites. The apple of his eye. But you know, I wonder whether that doesn't mean, speaking to the people of God, he that touches you, that is to harm you, pokes his finger in his own eye. Now think about that. Because if you're going to hurt another believer, you are going to hurt yourself. Now that's the way it works. That is the way it works. You can't hurt anybody else by criticizing them, talking about them behind their back, or actually harming them without harming yourself, because you're firmly attached to the same body.
So here we are, dependent upon the Lord and interdependent in the sense we are part and partial of one another. Now here's another thought as we think about the interdependence of members. The Bible says, one member cannot say to another, because we have no need of you. And another, one member cannot say to another, because I'm not you, then I'm no good in the body. Why the Lord says, the feet are necessary to walk with, and the hands are necessary to work with, and the tongue is necessary to talk with, and the eyes are necessary to see with. Wouldn't you look funny with an eye where your ear is? You know, it wouldn't do nearly as good a job if it was here, because it only looked that way when you go that way.
The Lord has put members in the body in there each in his own particular place to do his own particular work. And you know, there isn't anyone here. You may feel insignificant, and you may feel unimportant, and you may feel that you don't matter very much, and if you weren't here, you wouldn't be missed. But you know why the Lord puts you here? You know why He made you the kind of member that you are? Because nobody could fulfill your function just like you. And you're every bit as important, a member of the body as anybody else that you might look at in the local church. Now please get that because that's important. Now some of you ladies who live alone, you say, well, we don't preach and we don't do this and we don't do that.
And you know, oftentimes we feel kind of forgotten. And that's a tragedy, and I speak to my heart when I say that, because no lady who lives alone should have to feel lonesome. But, you know, the rest of us, we get sort of taken up with our own affairs, and we kind of neglect you. But remember, the Lord doesn't neglect you. And remember, even though that slot may seem to be a small slot, it's a very, very important slot. When you get down on your knees to pray, do you know what happens? All heaven goes silent. Just waiting for your word in prayer because it's so vital and it's so important. Don't you ever get the idea that you don't matter.
If you don't do your job, that job's not going to be done as well as you could do it. Whether it's praying or witnessing or whatever it may be, you be encouraged. God has given to us a picture of the church in the body, so that we might realize how much part of each other we are, how concerned about each other we ought to be, how protective of each other we ought to be, and how much we matter as members in that body. So here we are, controlled by the head, if we are meeting the ideal, the Lord Jesus having the say and controlling the ecclesia, as the head controls the body.
Did you ever see a spastic child, did you? Sitting there and one arm limb is going in, the legs are going, the head is twitching at a very, very tragic sight, a spastic child. Do you know what's caused that condition? The head is not controlling. The brain is not in control. And do you know if the local church ever hands its control over to one man, two man, or anybody else and does not acknowledge the control of the Lord Jesus Christ, then that church is going to become like a spastic child and its limbs are going to fly everywhere and it's going to get nowhere. So I think we better finish with that, and we'll come back to the bride.
Now that should be a good study for tonight. We'll continue the illustrations of the church then tonight, and we'll start out with the bride. I'll do a little reviewing, because I think this is an important study, not because it's new, it isn't, but only because it's a reminder. We ought to be here because we have a conviction. We ought to be here because we know what the local church stands for. And we ought to appreciate why we are here and thank God for the opportunity that we have since we put us here. So that's my, that's just how I feel about it this morning and I'm through.
Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we are so human and we take so many things for granted. We find ourselves in a local church like this. We find ourselves rubbing shoulders with other believers. We find fellowship so readily available to us that we commit the sin of taking these precious things for granted. We pray, Lord, that you will just enable us to become a little more appreciative. of the place where we find ourselves, the position in which we find ourselves, and the people with whom we are associated.
Lord, ours is a great privilege. We pray that thou wilt enable us to try this. Dismiss us with thy blessing. For the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen.