Ekklesia Series / Introduction

When my son was about four years old he loved a salami sandwich. He couldn’t pronounce it properly so he called it “sarmie”. To those who are reading this who are not South African, the word “sarmie” is also slang for “sandwich”. I can’t recall the exact circumstances but Jacqui and I were out one day and my in-laws were babysitting Daniel and Kayleigh. We returned to mayhem! Daniel was crying (if anyone knows Daniel, he could cry!) and my father-in-law was exasperated with my son!

As we walked through the door the first thing my father-in-law said was “I don’t understand. He keeps asking for a sarmie and we keep asking “what kind of sandwich do you want!” It has been two hours and he is still crying for his sarmie, even though we have tried giving him a chicken sarmie and a peanut butter sarmie and a ham sarmie.” Needless to say, my father-in-law was relieved when Daniel’s eyes lit up and he stopped crying as Jacqui made him a salami sarmie!

The potential or power of a word to impact or change our lives significantly lays not in our ability to say the word but rather in our ability to connect or to align to the meaning of the word when we speak it. And when I say meaning, I am not referring to what we think the meaning is based on our perceptions or based on what we have done historically with our understanding of that word or even the way our culture explains the word. I mean the original intent of the word when it was first fashioned. And when it comes to the word “church” we have a whole history of understanding that needs to be undone in our minds in order for us to connect to the power and potential of the word to see its impact in our lives.

Many of you will know that the word “church” is translated from the word “Ekklesia” in the bible. Over the last couple of years the word “Ekklesia” has gained prominence and has started to be used by preachers and Christians alike in conference conversations. It has become the go-to word for those who want to appear in the know. The one usage that I particularly enjoy (the reason will become apparent as we go through this journey, specifically for any one-world order conspiracy theorists amongst us) is the liberal use of the term “Global Ekklesia”. As previously mentioned, we can speak words; even deep words, but if we don’t align our understanding to their meaning then the potential that the words have to fashion our world or our present reality, remains exactly that, just potential.

And so it is with the word Ekklesia. What did Jesus really have in mind when He said He would build His Church (Ekklesia)? Paraphrasing Matthew 16:13-20 Jesus asks His disciples who did men say He was. Some said John the Baptist, others Elijah and others Jeremiah. Jesus then gets real and asks them “But who do you say I am?”. Simon Peter blurts out, “you are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Good old Simon Peter! Jesus then responds with some words which I believe have the power to revolutionize our lives.

Jesus says in verse 17 “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And upon this Rock, I will build my Ekklesia and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus expresses His desire in this moment to build something, and this something is going to be how Christ is revealed, how the gates of hell are to be conquered and how the doors of the kingdom of heaven are to be opened so that there is a synchronization and alignment between heaven and earth!

We call this something church and much of our lives as Christ-followers has been dominated by this concept we call Church. When Jesus said He would build His Ekklesia, He was borrowing a secular word that was not part of any Jewish, Roman, Greek or any other nationalities religious customs or understanding. In fact the word had nothing to do with worship, religious ritual or even God, and when I say God I mean the Hebrew God! Nothing, nada, niks!

The Ekklesia was actually a system of government where men would be called out to participate in the governing of their cities. It was instituted by the Greeks, originally setup in Athens and then extended to other Greek cities. This way of governing was then adopted by the Romans which is why Jesus saw it in operation. The Ekklesia was not tied to worship or religion in any way, although by the definition of being in government definitely did have a say in the religion and worship of the day! The Ekklesia was responsible for the social, economic and cultural compact of a city. They were responsible for legislation that governed the city, for the appointment of magistrates as well as for holding to account these elected magistrates. They truly did have a say in the government of their city.

Knowing this one has to ask the question “why did Jesus not say I will build my temple or I will build my synagogues or even my religion?” Why did He specifically use a term that was directly related to governing? It is a question that I don’t think one can deal with in a couple of sentences but I do want to present some thoughts on it.

There is a verse in in Isaiah that gives us insight into this question. In Isaiah 9:6 it states that “…the government will be upon His shoulders.” While I am sure there is much more to this scripture the fact is that there is a direct connection between Jesus and government. He not only carries governing authority but His purpose in building His church is to release this governing authority that is upon His shoulders to it.

Jesus is wanting to build you and me into people who carry authority, power and influence not simply with churches, church activities, apostolic streams or ministries, however nice that may be, but with spheres and functions of society that relate to every aspect of our lives. Jesus’ intention when He said he would build His church was to form a body of people to whom He would give His spiritual authority to govern so that His government would come to the nations of the world.

We are called to govern in our spheres through the Spirit of Christ empowering us from within.

The Ekklesia is so much more than just enjoying good times of worship together, or hearing a good word preached or prophesying to one another. Don’t get me wrong, these times are good to build us up together.

But for us to really connect to the word Ekklesia and see its potential unleashed means we need to allow the Holy Spirit to shift our understanding of church and connect us to the government upon Jesus’s shoulders.

God bless, have a good week!

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