This is Saint David’s Cathedral in Hobart, the city where we lived for twelve years. I used to rile up John, a very good old Hobartian friend of mine, by pointing to this and saying, “What a beautiful church!”
He would reply, crossly, every time: “That’s not a church! That’s a building! The church is the people!”
I liked provoking John in this way. I liked how vehement he was about this. We cannot be reminded too often that churches are not buildings, but groups of people.
In the New Testament the word for church is the Greek ekklēsia, from which we get the word “ecclesiastical”, something that relates to the life of the church.
In the Bible, ekklēsia, “church”, never refers to a building. It only ever refers to a group of people who assemble to worship Jesus together, and who love and care for one another as Jesus loves and cares for us.
In fact, a church can meet anywhere. Hundreds of churches in Australia meet in school or community halls. Thousands of churches in China meet secretly in people’s homes. In the 1700s French Protestants met at night in the bush, because it was illegal to attend Protestant church services.
My friend John is exactly right: churches are groups of people who gather together for worship.
Two questions: Who are these people who make up the church? And, what do they do when they gather?
A church is made up of believers, of those who have repented of their sin and who trust in Jesus Christ as their only God and Saviour. They have been baptised in Jesus’ name and so have received the outward sign that Jesus has washed away their sins. Jesus is their Shepherd, they are the flock that he cares for (John 10). Jesus is their King, they are his loving subjects and servants (Revelation 17:14). They are a building of living stones, and Jesus is the cornerstone of that building (Ephesians 2:19-22). They are joined together like a body, and Jesus is the head of the body (1 Corinthians 12).
A church is not a club, a business, or social group. A church is a family, united by the Spirit of Jesus. Christians are brothers and sisters; God is our Father.
What does a church do when it gathers together? We have this beautiful description from Acts 2:42-47:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need…. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.
So, the church gathers to learn from God’s Word, to encourage one another, to care sacrificially for each other’s needs, to share the bread and wine of Communion in memory of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, and to pray.
Though belonging to a church does not make a person a Christian, every Christian will belong to a church. That’s because, having saved us, Jesus gathers us together with other believers into a flock, a living body. He cares for us by the loving hands and gifts of our church, and by the teaching of his Word. We gather with Him, and with other believers to praise Him, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20).
In the Creed Christians say, “I believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.” Catholic means universal. Saint means “someone set aside and cleansed by Jesus for salvation.” Every true local church, devoted to Jesus and His Word, is a part of the One church that he is building. Every Christian is a “saint”, set apart by him.
Though churches are far from perfect places, every Christian belongs to some local manifestation of Jesus’ great and universal church, which he purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28).