The Church
The renewed “inner (uchi) fellowship” with God isn’t just between God and each individual. Anyone who believes in Jesus joins a new family and is welcomed into a new circle. This is called the church.
Have you ever visited a church? Perhaps you experienced a kind of warm relationship there that no other circle can offer. That may be because the people there were loving and forgiving one another just as they have been loved and forgiven by God. That’s what the blessing of “inner (uchi) fellowship” is really like!
Believers (Christians) are called to take this blessing and share it “outward” (soto). It’s as though the commission given in the Garden of Eden to take the blessing of relationship with God to the whole world is now being undertaken by the church. One day, that invitation to “inner (uchi) fellowship” will reach the ends of the earth. What kind of future awaits us then?
The Church
Opening Questions
- What kind of people do you think are part of a church? Why do you think that?
In the last study, we learned that the resurrected Son of God – Jesus Christ – has given the gift of his Holy Spirit to live inside (uchi) each person who believes in him as Saviour and Lord. Jesus lives today and his life fills believers too. Forgiven all their sin on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice outside (soto) the holy city, believers in Jesus now live a new life as the temple/house (uchi) of God’s Spirit. They aim to live like Jesus did in this world, and are delivered from the fear of death and eternal separation from God in the world to come.
This new relationship of uchi fellowship with God that believers are welcomed into is not just a personal (“me and God”) relationship. Instead, believers are welcomed into a new family, which the Bible calls the “church”. The biblical word for “church” refers not to a building but to a people, called out of the world by God, and gathered together to worship and serve him.
Here’s one description of the church in the Bible, addressed to believers in Jesus:
Ephesians 2:19-22
[Y]ou 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 prophets1, 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.
- What do these verses say about the relationship between believers and Jesus?
- What do these verses say about the relationship established between believers?
Remember that last time we saw how each believer is now a temple of God’s Holy Spirit? In the verses above, there’s something additional to that: believers are gathered together to make a temple/dwelling-place (uchi) for God. The church is therefore a living, tangible expression of uchi fellowship in the midst of a world that has, for now, mostly rejected God.
Believers in Jesus were soon called “Christians”. At first, this was a term of abuse, used by the enemies of the church. But in time, Jesus’ people adopted the word to describe themselves. The word refers to people who are “in Christ”, which is the way the Bible often talks about believers, to express the special, close relationship they have with Jesus. The Bible has lots to say about how Christians should relate to one another in the church. For example:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:12-15
- What reasons or motivations are given for holy living in these verses?
- Some people think that the Bible contains rules or conditions for holy living, which we must obey or fulfil in order for God to accept us into uchi fellowship. Why is this a misunderstanding of the good news (gospel) message?
- If you have experience of church, is it like this description? Why, or why not?
Christians enjoy a new kind of fellowship with one another, as brothers and sisters in God’s household (uchi). They come together to worship God and to love one another. But that’s not all. Christians are also sent out (soto) from their gatherings to share the good news (gospel) message about Jesus with the world around them. In this calling, we hear an echo of the command given in Genesis to Adam and Eve, to fill the earth and extend the boundaries of the holy temple that was the Garden of Eden.
Jesus himself gave this commission to his apostles after his resurrection. By extension, the same commission is received by the whole church today:
”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
- How do you understand the command to “make disciples of all nations”?
- How is the church doing this today?
Concluding question:
- Jesus is calling you to belong to his church and be baptized. How will you respond?
Footnotes
[1] The apostles were particular messengers commissioned directly by Jesus to teach with his own authority. The prophets spoke the word of God to God’s people. The words of the apostles and the prophets are written in the Bible. Their words carry the authority of God, so much that we can say the Bible is the written word of God. What the Bible says, God says.
