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1 Cor. 1:2; Matt. 18:20; Gen. 28:12, 16-17; John 1:51; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 4:17; 19, Eph. 2:22; Rom. 14:17
I. The assembly of the called out ones — ekklesia
II. The house of God
III. The dwelling place of God
IV. The kingdom of God
А. Being the living of the Church
B. The entrance into the kingdom of God
In this lesson we come to the status of the church. [As we consider the status of the church, we shall see the reality concerning the church and the real definition of the church. Therefore, we need to get into the depth of each aspect of the status of the church.] We will use four lessons to see the main aspects of the status of the church.
[We all have to admit that since the time of the apostles until at least the sixteenth century the church was going downward. By the sixteenth century the church had fallen to the bottom, into the dark ages. It could not go any lower. At this time the Lord came in to start His recovery. He started the recovery from the very base of the biblical truth, justification by faith. Luther did see something concerning the church as well, but he did not have much time to care for this matter. He saw something of the church, yet he did not see enough.
A little more than two centuries later Count Zinzendorf, with so many other brothers, the so-called Moravian brothers, saw something more concerning the church. In Bohemia, on the land owned by Zinzendorf, they started to have the practice of the church. That was the first step of the Lord’s recovery of the church practice. By reading church history, you could realize that before Zinzendorf, no one was so clear concerning the church practice. Their practice was good, yet it was not complete.
One century later, in the early 1800’s, the Lord went on from Bohemia to England, raising up a group of seekers, including John Nelson Darby and other brothers. They began to practice the church life. Their practice was a great improvement over that which was practiced under the leadership of Zinzendorf at Bohemia. These brothers began to see that the church is the assembly of God’s called out ones (Eph. 1:22; 1 Cor. 1:2). The church is the gathering of all the dear saints who have been called in Christ out of this world. Thus, they began to drop the English term church, because they realized that it had been damaged through wrong usage. At that time fallen Christianity considered the church to be a physical building, perhaps with a “high tower’’ and a bell. Even today, many parents say to their children on Sunday morning, “Let us go to church,’’ referring to the wood, the stone, the brick, and the glass. How pitiful that was, and how pitiful it still is today. The Brethren dropped this wrong concept, and they even dropped the term church. They began to use the word “assembly.’’ After this the Assembly of God followed them to use the word assembly.]
[Because the church has the status of the assembly, the ekklesia, we need to gather together. We must assemble and meet in order to have a congregation for God to work and move among us. When God’s called out ones meet together, this is the church. Without such a gathering together of the believers in a locality, there is no practical church life. The practical church life consists in the gathering of the saints in a certain locality. If believers live in a particular city but do not assemble, then in a practical way there is no church in that city. The basic concept of the church as the assembly is that the church is a gathering of the called out ones.]
[We need to be impressed with the fact that, as used in the New Testament with respect to the church, the Greek word ekklesia indicates that the church is a congregation called out of the world so that God may carry out His purpose. According to Genesis 1:26, man was created by God to bear His image and to carry His authority. However, man fell again and again. Eventually, in the last stage of his fall, man fell into the world, the system of Satan. In the eyes of God, as a result of the fall the entire human race has actually become the world. In John 3:16, human beings as a totality are called “the world.’’ Since fallen man is in the world and has even become the world, how can God fulfill His purpose with man and through man? The only way is for God to call out a part of the human race. God has done this very thing. In applying His salvation to us, the first thing God does is to call us. Therefore, the first status of the church is that of the assembly of those who have been called out of the world by God to Himself for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Because the church as the assembly is separated from the world, we may say that the church is composed of the real Hebrews. The root of the word Hebrew (Gen. 14:13) means “to pass over’’; it especially means to pass over a river from one region to another and from one side to another. Hence, the word Hebrew denotes a river crosser, one who crosses a river. The church is composed of the believers who, as real Hebrews, have been called by God out of the world and have “crossed the river’’ from one realm to another. Now as believers in Christ we are the called out ones, the assembly, the congregation called out by God, the ekklesia in opposition to the world, which is on the other side of the river we have crossed. Just as our forefather Abraham was called out of the land of Chaldea, so we have been called out of the world by God to be His assembly.
Whenever we speak of the church as the assembly, the ekklesia, we need to realize that this means that the church has been separated from the world. The first status of the church indicates a thorough separation of God’s called out ones from the world. There must be a great and thorough separation between the church as the ekklesia and the world as the system, the cosmos, of Satan. As the assembly, the church is separated entirely for God so that He may have a means to carry out His eternal purpose.]
[The first mention of the house of God in the Bible is in Genesis 28. One night, when Jacob was escaping from his brother, he had a dream. In his dream he saw “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it’’ (v. 12). When he awoke from sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven’’ (vv. 16-17), which means the house of God.
This first mention of the house of God in the Bible is a seed that grows and develops elsewhere in the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus refers to Jacob’s dream in His word to Nathanael in John 1:51. “He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’’ This is the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream, for Christ as the Son of Man with His humanity is the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God — Bethel.]
[Three verses which reveal that the church is the house of God are 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6; and 1 Peter 4:17. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul says, “If I delay, that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.’’ As God’s dwelling place, the church is both God’s house and His household, His family. In the Old Testament the temple and God’s people were two separate things, but in the fulfillment in the New Testament the dwelling place and the family are one. According to God’s New Testament economy, God’s house is His family.
Another verse that speaks of the church as the house of God is Hebrews 3:6. This verse refers to “Christ, as a Son over His house, whose house we are.’’ In Old Testament times, the house of God was the house of Israel (Lev. 22:18; Num. 12:7), symbolized by the tabernacle or the temple among them (Exo. 25:8; Ezek. 37:26-27). Today the house of God is the church. The children of Israel, as people of God, are a type of us, the New Testament believers (1 Cor. 9:24—10:11). Their history is a prefigure of the church.
The church has a twofold function. To Christ, the church is the Body; to God, the church is the house. Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body of the head. This is one function of the church. God is the Father, and the church is His house. This is another function of the church. Just as Christ is the Head and the church is His Body, so God is the Father and the church is His house. The church as the Body of Christ is an organism. In like manner, the church as the house of God is a living entity, a living house.
First Peter 4:17, another verse that refers to the church as the house of God, says, “Because it is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God.’’ Here we see that disciplinary judgment begins from God’s own house. God’s house, or household, is the church composed of the believers. From this house, as His own house, God begins His governmental administration by His disciplinary judgment over His own children, that He may have strong ground to judge, in His universal kingdom, those who are disobedient to His gospel and rebellious to His government.
In speaking of the church as the house of God, Paul specifically refers to God as the living God. The living God who lives in the church must be subjective to the church and not merely objective. The God who not only lives but also acts, moves, and works in His house, the church, is living. Because God is living, the church is also living in Him, by Him, and with Him. A living God and a living church live, move, and work together. The living church is the house of the living God. Therefore, in our meetings, service, and ministry we should give people the impression that the living God is living, moving, speaking, and acting among us.]
[The first characteristic of the status of the church is that it is an assembly called out of the world. The second characteristic is that the church is God’s house composed of those who have been born of God. This second characteristic is a matter not merely of separation but of a spiritual, divine birth. In order to be the assembly, we need to be sanctified, that is, separated from the world. But to be a component of the house of God, we need to be born of God. Anyone who has not been born of God cannot be part of His house, part of His family.]
[As the house of God, the church is the dwelling place of God. Ephesians 2:22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.’’ The word “you’’ here refers to the local saints. Paul is saying that the local saints, the saints in Ephesus, were being built together in Christ into a dwelling place of God.
The church, the dwelling place of God on earth, is the place in which God can have His rest and put His trust. In this dwelling place God lives and moves to accomplish His will and satisfy the desire of His heart.
Because the church is God’s dwelling place, the church is where God expresses Himself. A house is always the best place for a person to express himself. The kind of person you are is expressed by your house. Hence, if you look at a person’s house, you will be able to tell what kind of person he is, because a person’s house is his expression. The principle is the same with the church as the dwelling place of God. In His house, His dwelling place, God expresses Himself on earth. This is the reason 1 Timothy 3:16 reveals that the church is God’s manifestation in the flesh. God not only desires to make home in the church and to have a resting place there; He also wants to express Himself in the church. He wants to practice His New Testament economy, speak forth His desire, and manifest His glory in the church. All that He is, all that He is doing, and all that He wants to obtain are to be manifested, expressed, in the church as His dwelling place.]
[Ephesians 2:19 says, “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.’’ The term “fellow citizens’’ indicates the kingdom of God. All the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, are citizens of God’s kingdom, which is a sphere wherein God exercises His authority. As long as anyone is a believer, he is a citizen of the kingdom of God. This citizenship involves rights and responsibilities, two things that always go together. We enjoy the rights of the kingdom, and we bear the responsibilities of the kingdom.]
[Although the church today is God’s kingdom, we are in the kingdom in reality only when we live and walk in spirit. Whenever we behave according to the old man or live in the flesh or the self, we, in a practical way, are out of God’s kingdom. This means that when we are in the flesh, we are in the old realm of the fallen human nature, which has been fully usurped by Satan to form his kingdom. Therefore, a genuine Christian, if he lives in the flesh instead of in the spirit, may live in a practical way not in the kingdom of God but in the kingdom of Satan. Only when we live, walk, behave, and have our being altogether in our spirit, not in our natural man, are we in the kingdom of God and, in reality, are the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God, like the house of God, is a corporate person. The church as the house of God is a corporate person because this house is the family of God, the household of God. The kingdom is likewise a corporate person because it is also a corporate entity. Whether we are living in the church as the house of God or as the kingdom of God depends on whether we are living as members or as citizens. To live as members of the house of God is a matter of enjoyment, but to live in the kingdom of God is a matter of bearing responsibility and of being regulated. We are members of our Father’s household, and we are citizens of our God’s kingdom.]
[The kingdom of God is the living of the church. A verse that strongly proves this is Romans 14:17. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’’ According to some Bible teachers, the kingdom has not yet come. They claim that now is the dispensation of the church, and the next dispensation will be that of the kingdom. But in 14:17 Paul does not say that the kingdom of God shall be; he uses the present tense and says that the kingdom of God is. According to the context of Romans 14, which speaks of receiving the believers, the kingdom is today’s church life. The reality of the church life is the kingdom. Romans 12 speaks of the Body life and Romans 14, of the kingdom life. This indicates that, in Romans, the kingdom life is the reality of the Body life.
In a sense, it is correct to say that the present age is the church age and that the coming age will be the kingdom age. However, in another sense, the kingdom of God is here today, for the kingdom is the reality of the church and the living of the church. Hence, the church is the kingdom. Since the church is the kingdom today, it is not correct to say that the kingdom has been suspended altogether until the coming age. Romans 14:17 proves definitely that the kingdom is the living of the church today.]
[In Romans 14:17 we see that the kingdom of God as the living of the church is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. When the authority of God’s kingdom operates in us, righteousness, peace, and joy will characterize our daily life.
Righteousness, peace, and joy are actually the expression of Christ. When Christ is expressed, He is our righteousness toward ourselves, our peace toward others, and our joy with God.
As the believers live the kingdom life in the church, they will live righteously toward themselves. This means that we must be strict with ourselves and make no excuses for ourselves.
To live the kingdom life in the church also means that we live peacefully toward others. Our relationships with others must be characterized by peace. Toward others we must endeavor to pursue peace, continually seeking to be at peace with them. This peace is Christ Himself lived out from our being.
Living the kingdom life in the church also requires that we live joyfully to God in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of joy. If we are not joyful, this indicates that we are not in the Holy Spirit. If we are truly living the kingdom life, we shall be joyful with God, praising Him. Whenever we live righteously toward ourselves and peacefully toward others, we shall live joyfully to God in the Holy Spirit. Such a living is the kingdom of God as the living of the church.]
[In 2 Peter 1:3-11 we see that those believers who develop and grow in the life of God in the church life shall be richly and bountifully supplied with the entrance into the kingdom of God. After we have entered into the kingdom of God through regeneration, we need to go on to have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On the one hand, we have entered the kingdom; on the other hand, we still need a rich entrance. The initial entry into the kingdom is regeneration, but the rich entrance is through the full growth and development of the divine life revealed in 2 Peter 1:5-11.
Verse 11 says, “For so shall be richly and bountifully supplied to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’’ The bountiful supply we enjoy in the development of the divine life and nature (vv. 3-7) will bountifully supply us a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord, which will be a reward to His faithful believers, who pursue the growth in His life unto maturity and the development of the virtues of His nature, so that they participate, in the millennium, in His kingship in God’s glory (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6).]
[According to Peter’s word in 1:5-11, to grow to maturity is to develop what we have already received. We have been allotted the like precious faith, which is an all-inclusive seed. All the divine riches are in this seed, but we must be diligent to develop them into virtue. Then we need to develop in our virtue, knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, endurance; in endurance, godliness; in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, love. Through such a growth and development we eventually shall reach maturity and shall have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The fact that those who develop and grow in the life of God in the church life will have a rich entrance into the coming kingdom implies that certain believers will not have a share in the coming kingdom, because they have not been living in the proper church life and have not had the adequate growth in the divine life. For this reason, at the time of the manifestation of the kingdom, they will have no participation in the kingdom. But those who grow and develop in the divine life to the full extent will be supplied with a rich and bountiful entry into the coming kingdom.
We have seen three aspects of the status of the church: first, the church as an assembly separated from the world; second, the church as the house of God composed of those who have been born of God; and third, the church as the kingdom of God, which is the reality and living of the church today. We all need to grow in the divine life in the church life so that in the coming age we may have a rich entrance into the kingdom of God.]
