Transcript HOLY SPIRIT - Erskine College

THE CHURCH
DEFINITION: Hebrew
• qahal, “an assembly, gathering,” used as
noun 123x; translated by ekklesia in LXX
– In 36 instances, translated by sunagoge
– Verb used 39x
– Used to refer to groups in general, such as
those gathered for military purposes, judicial
purposes
• ‘eda, “assembly, congregation, multitude”
practically synonymous with qahal
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DEFINITION: Greek
• ekklesia, “gathering or assembly,
church”;
– Prior to NT used almost exclusively for
secular assemblies
– From ek (out of) and kaleo (call)
– Focus is on the gathered body, not the act
of coming out
– The calling out of citizens to attend to the
discussion of public business
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DEFINITION: Greek
• In a local sense nearly 40 times; e.g.,
– Acts 5:11, “And great fear came upon the whole
church and upon all who heard of these things.”
• In a generic sense, i.e., of an institution:
– Matt. 18:17, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the
church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church,
let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
– I Cor. 12:28, “And God has appointed in the church
first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating,
and various kinds of tongues.”
– I Tim. 3:15, “if I delay, you may know how one ought
to behave in the household of God, which is the church
of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ”
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DEFINITION: Greek
– James 5:14, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call
for the elders of the church, and let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
• In a collective sense, i.e., an organized mass of
believers (later theologians, the Visible Church);
– Acts 8:3, “But Saul was ravaging the church, and
entering house after house, he dragged off men and
women and committed them to prison.”
– I Cor. 15:9, “ For I am the least of the apostles,
unworthy to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God.”
– Gal. 1:13, “For you have heard of my former life in
Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently
and tried to destroy it.”
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DEFINITION: Greek
– Phil. 3:6, “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness, under the law blameless.”
• To the Church extended abroad, Acts 9:31, “So
the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and
Samaria had peace and was being built up.”
• “Church” is used in the broadest sense: all
believers (later theologians, the Invisible Church)
– Eph. 1:22, “And he put all things under his feet and
gave him as head over all things to the church, 23
which is his body . . . ”
– Col. 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church.”
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DEFINITION: Greek
•
Miscellaneous uses:
– An assembly in the desert (O.T.), Acts 7:38, “This is
the one who was in the congregation in the
wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount
Sinai . . . ”
– An unruly “mob” gathering, Acts 19:32, “Now some
cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly
was in confusion, and most of them did not know why
they had come together.” See also vss. 39,41
– To refer to kingly gathering for liturgical praise,
Hebrews 2:12, “saying, ‘I will tell of your name to my
brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing
your praise.’”
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DEFINITION: Greek
• Some difficult usages:
– Matt. 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and
on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ”
Perhaps the Church Militant
– Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to
yourselves and to all the flock, in which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care
for the church of God, which he obtained with
his own blood. ” (the assembly in Ephesus)
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DEFINITION:
• Three basic meanings:
–Local gathering of believers and
their children, The Visible Church
–Collective number of professing
Christians and their children, The
Visible Church
–Sum total of all in union with
Christ, The Invisible Church
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DEFINITION: Other Words
• circe, Saxon
• kirk, Scottish
• kirche, German
• All of these are most likely
derived from kuriakos, “of the
Lord, the Lord’s”
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DEFINITION: Confessional
• L.C. # 62, “The visible church is a
society made up of all such as in all ages
and places of the world do profess the
true religion and of their children.” WCF,
25:2
• L.C. # 64, “The invisible church is the
whole number of the elect, that have
been, are, or shall be gathered into one
under Christ the head.” WCF, 25:1
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THE CHURCH IN SCRIPTURE
• The Church is a mystery of faith in
history
– The Church and the mission of God:
redemptive work
– The Church as a reality of faith
• The Apostles’ Creed (in its structure) relates the mission of
Church to the mission of God
• The Church cannot be understood as a self-contained
reality, but only from the perspective of belief in God and as
a result of the Trinitarian life in history
– The Church does not have a mission of its
own
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CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
• As victorious Lord of the Covenant, Christ
assembles his people
– Calling the disciples, Mark 1:17,20; Matt. 4:19
– The building of the New Israel, Matt. 16:16-8
• The Church is united with Christ as his body
– This Union is not first and foremost mystical
– This Union is primarily covenantal
– Each individual is united directly to Christ
– There is no salvation without union in Body of
Christ, hence the importance of koinonia
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CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
• Christ is the builder of the Church
– As Priest, he offers the perfect sacrifice of
himself and meets the demands of the
covenant
– As Prophet, he calls his own and teaches
them how to live
– As King, he establishes order in the Church
• He has the authority to give it the keys to the Kingdom
• He gives offices to the Church and institutes its government
• He established its sacraments and grounds of worship.
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CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
• WCF, 25:6, “There is no other
head of the Church but the
Lord Jesus Christ; nor can
mere man in any sense be the
head thereof.”
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REALITY OF THE CHURCH
• The Church is simultaneously visible and
invisible (2 aspects, not 2 churches)
– The visible church should not be interpreted
as a reflection of some more real, invisible
Church (shades of Plato!)
– The Holy Spirit always works on some
material- in this regard, he works on the
visible Church
– The visible Church which we see points us
to the invisible Church which we cannot see
but know to be real
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TRINITARIAN IMAGES OF CHURCH
• It is called The People of God- II Cor. 6:16, “What
agreement has the temple of God with idols? For
we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk
among them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.’”
• It is The Body of Christ– Eph. 1:22-23, “And he put all things under his feet and
gave him as head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
– I Cor. 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it. ”
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TRINITARIAN IMAGES OF CHURCH
• The Body of Christ, cont.
– Col. 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
everything he might be preeminent. ”
• It is the Temple of the Holy Spirit– I Cor. 3:16-17, “Do you not know that you are God's
temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone
destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's
temple is holy, and you are that temple. ”
– I Cor. 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have
from God? You are not your own,”
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TRINITARIAN IMAGES OF CHURCH
• Temple of the Holy Spirit, cont.
– I Cor. 12:13, “For in one Spirit we were all
baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free- and all were made to drink of
one Spirit. ”
– I Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones
are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a
holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
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ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL IMAGES
• The Bride of Christ
– II Cor. 11:2, “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to
one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. ”
– Eph. 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is
the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ”
• God’s Building
– I Cor. 3:9-15, “For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field,
God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a
skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is
building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no
one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, straw- each one's work will become
manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by
fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the
work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive
a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he
himself will be saved, but only as through fire. ”
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ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL IMAGES
• God’s Building, cont.
– Eph. 2:19-22, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the
whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in
the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit. ”
• The Fellowship of the Spirit, Eph. 2:22, “In him you also
are being built together into a dwelling place for God by
the Spirit.”
• Branches on a Vine, John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are
the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is
that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing.”
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ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL IMAGES
• An Olive Tree, Rom. 11:17-24, “But if some of the branches were
broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in
among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive
tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember
it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be
grafted in." That is true. They were broken off because of their
unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud,
but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches,
neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of
God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to
you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will
be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will
be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if
you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted,
contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will
these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive
tree.”
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ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL IMAGES
• God’s Field, I Cor. 3:6-9, “I planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he
who waters is anything, but only God who gives the
growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and
each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we
are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's
building.”
• A Harvest, Matt. 13:1-30, (vs. 17,18), “And then he will
send out the angels and gather his elect from the four
winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch
becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that
summer is near.’”
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ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL IMAGES
• The Pillar and Ground of Truth, I Tim. 3:15, “if I
delay, you may know how one ought to behave in
the household of God, which is the church of the
living God, a pillar and buttress of truth. ”
• A Royal Priesthood,
– I Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones are being
built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.”
– I Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of
him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. ”
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CHURCH AND KINGDOM
• The Church is not the Kingdom, per se
– The kingdom is, at its most basic, the rule and
reign of God’s saving grace with its promise of
blessing and glory)
• The Kingdom creates the Church
• The Church witnesses to the Kingdom
• The Church is the instrument of the
Kingdom
• The Church is the custodian of the
Kingdom
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AFFIRMATIONS OF THE CHURCH
• The Church is not God: We are the face of God
• The Church comes from God’s grace as it is
made present in individual and communal acts of
faith
• From the perspective of faith and theology, the
exact limits and boundaries of the Church cannot
always be identified
• As a faith reality, the Church eludes definition in
a rigorous sense and is grasped more
satisfactorily by the use of images, models, or
perspectives
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THE CHURCH