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Every truth in the Bible has two sides. This is also true with respect to the church. The church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect. Universally, the church is uniquely one. Locally, however, the church is expressed in many localities. Therefore, the one universal church becomes the many local churches. God is expressed in Christ, Christ is expressed in the church, and the church is expressed in the local churches. In the foregoing message we covered the universal aspect of the church. In this message we shall go on to consider the local aspect.
In the local aspect the church is expressed in many localities as many local churches. The one universal church expressed in many places on earth becomes the many local churches. The expression of the church in a locality is the local church in that particular locality.
The universal church as the Body of Christ is expressed through the local churches. The local churches, as the expressions of the one Body of Christ, are locally one. Without the local churches there would be no practicality and actuality of the universal church. The universal church is realized in the local churches. Knowing the church universally must be consummated in knowing the church locally. It is a great advance for us to know and practice the local churches.
Only in the local church can the church be practical. Only in the local church and by the local church can we have the practice of the church. If we do not have the local church, we do not have anything practical as far as the church is concerned. Eventually, the Bible ends with seven local churches (Rev. 1:10-13).
As believers, we are living today in the local churches. Actually, we cannot live directly in the universal church. It is impossible for us to live in the universal church without living in a local church. The Lord is building up the universal church, and each one of us is living practically in a local church.
The universal church as the Body of Christ needs to have its expression. If we talk about the church without having the expression of the church, our talk is entirely theoretical; it is not practical. For the church to be real and practical, there is the need of the local churches. If you do not have the local churches, you do not have the church. If you do not have the local church, you cannot have the universal church, for the universal church is composed of all the local churches.
The universal church was revealed by the Lord in Matthew 16:18, but the local church was revealed by Him in Matthew 18:17. The church mentioned in this verse must be a local church because it is a place where we can go. The Lord said that if you have a problem with a brother, you should go to him first. If he listens to you, the problem is solved. But if he does not listen, you should bring one or two with you to witness to him, expecting him to listen to them. If he still does not listen, then you should bring the problem to the church. This, of course, must be the local church. It cannot be the universal church, for we cannot bring a problem to the universal church, only to the local church.
What the Lord revealed in His second mentioning in Matthew 18:17 is the local church for the administration of the church in its locality. In a local church there is the need of administration. If we do not have the local churches, we do not have this administration.
In Matthew 18:18 the Lord says, “Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall be what has been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall be what has been loosed in heaven.” This indicates that the church’s administration is exercised in binding and loosing with the authority of the heavens. This is not mainly to deal with man but to deal with the authority of darkness.
The church revealed in Matthew 16:18 is the universal church, the unique Body of Christ, whereas the church revealed in Matthew 18:17 is the local church, the expression of the unique Body of Christ in a certain locality. Matthew 16 concerns the universal building of the church, but Matthew 18 concerns the local practice of the church. Both chapters indicate that the church represents the kingdom of the heavens, having the authority to bind and to loose.
The local church is revealed also by the apostles in Acts and the Epistles. In Acts the church was practiced in the way of local churches. The practice of the local churches is also seen in the Epistles. Except for a few Epistles written to individuals, all the Epistles in the New Testament were written to local churches. Not one was written to the universal church.
Whereas the universal church has been formed by Christ once for all, the local churches are established locally in separate cities. Therefore, the believers live in churches that are in their localities respectively. Acts 8:1, for example, speaks of “the church in Jerusalem.” This was the first church established in a locality within the jurisdiction of a city, in this case the city of Jerusalem. It was a local church in its locality, as indicated by the Lord in Matthew 18:17. As such a local church, it was part of the universal church, which is the Body of Christ. The record of the New Testament consistently reveals the establishing of local churches in different cities.
The second mention of a particular local church in the New Testament is in Acts 13:1a. This verse says, “Now there were in Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers.” In Antioch there was another local church, another expression of the church. Hence, in Acts 8 and 13 we can see one church with two expressions: one at Jerusalem, the other at Antioch. All local churches (Acts 14:21, 23) are the expression of the one universal church.
The first mention of a local church in the Epistles is in Romans 16:1. In this verse Paul says, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deaconess of the church which is at Cenchrea.”
In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul addresses “the church of God which is in Corinth.” This reveals that the church is not the church of any person, practice, or doctrine; rather, the church is of God. The church is the church of God because it is constituted of the universal God. Such a church existed in Corinth, a definite locality. In nature the church is universal in God, but in practice the church is local in a definite place. This means that the church has both the universal aspect and the local aspect. Without the universal aspect, the church has no content; without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression and practice. For this reason, the New Testament emphasizes the local aspect of the church.
The description of the church in 1 Corinthians 1:2 is marvelous. The church is of God, for it is constituted of the element of God. But the church which is of God is also local. Hence, in this one verse we see both the universal aspect and the local aspect of the church. The universal aspect refers to the constitution, nature, and content of the church; the local aspect refers to the expression and practicality of the church. If we have only the local aspect but not the aspect of the church being of God, we shall have only an outward formality. We shall be lacking the inward reality. But if we have only the universal aspect but not the local aspect of the church in a particular locality, we shall have the reality but not the practicality. On the one hand, the church is constituted of God; on the other hand, the church is expressed in a particular locality. The universal church is expressed and practiced in particular localities.
The Bible never speaks of the churches in one city but always of the church at a particular place — for example, the church at Jerusalem, the church at Antioch, the church at Cenchrea, and the church at Corinth. Every local church is an expression of the one church. The church is one, but the expressions of the church are many; and these many expressions of the church are the local churches. “The churches of Macedonia” (2 Cor. 8:1), “the churches of Galatia” (Gal. 1:2), “the churches of Judea” (Gal. 1:22; 1 Thes. 2:14), “the churches of the nations” (Rom. 16:4), the churches of Syria and Cilicia (Acts 15:41), “everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17), “in every church” (Acts 14:23), “the churches of God” (1 Cor. 11:16), “the churches of Christ” (Rom. 16:16), “all the churches of the saints” (1 Cor. 14:33), and “all the churches” (1 Cor. 7:17) mentioned in the New Testament all refer to the local churches, which were the many local expressions of the one universal church in the first century on earth, both in the Jewish world and in the Gentile world.
Revelation 1:4a says, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia.” Asia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire in which were the seven cities mentioned in verse 11. The seven churches were in those seven cities respectively.
The churches are established in different cities by taking a city as the boundary and ground of each local church. Revelation 1:11 indicates this very clearly. In this verse the voice said to John, “What you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” This verse is composed in a very important way. Here we see that the sending of this book to the seven churches equals the sending of it to the seven cities. This shows clearly that the practice of the church life in the early days was that of one church for one city, one city with one church, with the city as the boundary and ground of each local church. In no city was there more than one church. This is the local church, local with respect to city, not with respect to street or area.
If we read Revelation 1:11 carefully, we shall realize that the church in a place must be equal to the city in which the church is located. When something was written and sent to the church in Ephesus, for example, it was sent to the city of Ephesus, because the church in Ephesus represented that city in the eyes of the Lord.
Revelation 1:11 corresponds to Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5. In these two verses we see that to ordain elders in every church is to ordain elders in every city, and to ordain elders in every city is to ordain elders in every church. This makes it abundantly clear that the sphere and limit of a church must be exactly the same as that of the city in which it is located. In other words, the boundary, the jurisdiction, of the church is identical to that of the city in which it is established. In Revelation 1:11 the Lord Jesus makes it extremely clear that a local church is equal to the city in which it is located.
A local church should not be greater nor smaller than its city. This means that the jurisdiction of a local church should cover the whole city in which the church is; it should not be greater or lesser than the boundary of the city. All the believers within that boundary should constitute the one unique local church within that city. Hence, one church equals one city, and one city equals one church. This is what we call the local churches.
In every place there can be only one expression of the church. The expression of the church cannot be greater than a locality, nor can it be smaller than a locality. Furthermore, the churches in a number of places cannot be combined to form an alliance of churches, and the church in one place cannot be divided into a number of churches on certain streets, roads, or lanes, or in certain neighborhoods. There can only be one church in one locality.
Local churches as lampstands bear the testimony of Jesus Christ in separate cities (Rev. 1:20b, 9b). The churches, signified by the golden lampstands, are the testimony of Jesus in the divine nature, shining in the dark night locally yet collectively. Every local church is a golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus Christ, having the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God as the lamps and shining the testimony of Jesus from its locality. Lampstands are for shining in the night. The present age is a spiritual dark night. The seven lamps of the lampstand are the seven Spirits before the throne (Rev. 4:5); they are for the church to be the lamps of Christ shining out the light in the dark age of today. Furthermore, the lampstands are made of pure gold, which signifies the divine nature. Thus, the golden lampstands indicate that the churches are shining out with God’s nature in this dark age.
The golden substance of the lampstand signifies God the Father; the specific shape of the lampstand signifies Christ, since Christ is the embodiment of God; and the seven lamps of the lampstand signify the seven Spirits of God as the expression of God. Hence, the golden lampstands signify the churches as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God shining forth, with the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God as the lamps, the testimony of Jesus in the dark age of today.
All the local churches are the one unique Body of Christ in the universe (Eph. 4:4). Every local church is a part of this universal Body, a local expression of this unique Body. This one universal church, the one Body, comprises all the local churches. There may be thousands of local churches, but together they constitute one universal church. The universal church is the unique Body of Christ, and all the local churches are simply the local expressions of this one Body.
We need to be impressed with the fact that the local churches are the local expressions of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 2:22). There is only one Body, but there are many expressions. Universally, all the churches are one Body, and locally, every local church is a local expression of that universal Body. Therefore, a local church is not the Body but only a part of the Body, an expression of the Body.
In the New Testament we see many local churches, and together these local churches are considered one universal church, for they constitute the one Body of Christ. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord said, “I will build My church.” Here the church is in the singular number, indicating that it must be the universal church. But in Acts and the Epistles there are many references to “the churches” — the churches in Syria, the churches in Asia, the churches in Macedonia, the churches in Galatia. The Bible first refers to one church and then to many churches because the one church, the universal church, is the totality of all the churches, and all the churches are local constituents of the one universal church, the unique Body of Christ.
