5 Powerful Words From One Who Keeps His Promises
Matthew 16:18
I will build my church. (Ongoing work of Jesus personally from his first to second coming.)
I will build my church. (Jesus is resolute about this, and unquenchable passion and intention.)
I will build my church. (Jesus directly constructs and edifies His Bride and Body so we grow.)
I will build my church. (The true church of Jesus grows when we stay connected to Christ alone.)
I will build my church. (An ekklesia of Jesus has supernatural purpose and power on the earth.)
Built upon the good confession that Jesus is the true Messiah, the Savior of the world, the church is God’s agent of redemption on the earth. The powers of the kingdom of darkness can only resist to their ultimate failure. Since Jesus is eternally Lord of lords and King of kings, by his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, the church that Jesus is building will eternally prevail. We live in that confidence in these disruptive days.
So let’s talk about church for a moment. I grew up in Luverne, Minnesota, and went to church as a child, yet I had to learn the church was not a building, but rather, a people. As a teen I learned the church was not a charitable organization to be funded by people’s gifts. Instead, the church is a supernatural reality birthed from above. The church is the born-again followers of Jesus Christ, filled with his Spirit, living on earth as a vast supernatural network called the Body of Christ.
Do you know that the gospels record Jesus using the word church, only twice? He speaks of the Kingdom of heaven over 80 times; disciples 31 times; demons 64 times; but church only twice. One of those times is in Matthew 16:18, so we, who are the church today, may want to really lean in and pay attention. (I know some of you are saying…what is the other time? Look it up in Matthew 18:17, where Jesus speaks of accountability to keep sin from ruining the church. Another day we can talk about this “waste management system” of Jesus.)
The word Jesus uses for church, “ekklesia” in the Greek, similar to “Iglesia” in Spanish, means an assembly of people. But what kind of people and for what purpose are they gathering? In a Greek city-state like Athens, an ekklesia was the gathering of the free-born citizens to shape the direction and welfare of the whole city. A minority would come together and become a change agent for all.
I like that picture as we gather on Sundays – or any other day for that matter. The born-again citizens of heaven meet at the throne of Jesus: to gain clarity of direction from Him; to get edified and healed and equipped; so that the direction and welfare of the world around us gets shaped by Jesus all week and all year. That is the description of a prevailing church! A church that is an agent of the eternal gospel of the Kingdom of heaven bringing restoration and revival to a decaying corpse of the world.
So, in the Alliance of Reformed Churches, the allies or partners have a biblical calling to be the ekklesia of Jesus in four ways: (46 more references to church in the New Testament)
Local ekklesia: (13x) Front-line congregation where disciples are made and multiplied.
Ekklesia of the city/town: (11x). At a “network” level, 5-9 churches in mission partnership.
Ekklesia in a regional movement: (8x) At a “collaborative” or full Alliance level.
Global or universal ekklesia: (14x). With all the saints of God, on earth and in heaven.