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What is Church?

This is a question we should ask ourselves each time we trek off to a worship service on Sunday mornings.  What is church or what is church supposed to look like?  Is church a building?  Or is it something more?  Is it something we do or something we become?  And if church is something we do, how do we do it?  How do we “do” church?  But if church is something we become, then how do we become the church and what takes place in us to become His church?  Whew.  See the problem with simple words and changing definitions?

From a doctrinal standpoint, the church is defined as “the community of all true believers for all time.”  So, the term “church” is used to apply to all those (people) whom Christ died to redeem, all those (people) saved by the death of Christ, past, present, and future.  It encompasses both the local church and the universal church (which is a topic we will address at a later time).

But note, there is no mention of a building, denomination, or tax-exempt entity.

In Scripture, the Greek word for “church” is ekklēsía and means “a called-out people, an assembly of those called by Christ into the fellowship of His salvation, a gathering or assembly of the redeemed.”

And once again, it has nothing to do with a building or a plot of real estate, a denomination or group of religious congregations, or a 501c3 organization.  It is a specific, called, and redeemed group of, get this, people.  Church is people.

In the New Testament, the word ekklēsía is used 118 times, and translates as “church” 115 of those times and “assembly” 3 other times.  The Scriptures are very clear about how the “church” (assembly of redeemed people) are to worship the Lord when they come together collectively on the Lord’s Day.  And it looks nothing like what we do today.

Ouch.  So why the disconnect between the church we see in the book of Acts and what we observe every Sunday?  Who dropped the ball or who changed the rules in the middle of the game?   I think you’ll be shocked when you find the answers to these questions.

And Why Do We Do the Things We Do on Sunday?

Let me present just a few truths about church, both Biblically and how we understand them today.  First, Christ is the one who grants membership into His church through salvation and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).  We don’t grant anything.

Holy Spirit = Salvation
No Holy Spirit = No Salvation

It is really just that simple.

And two, Christ is the One, the only One, who is charged with building His church (Matt. 16:18).  Our job is to make disciples of those He redeems (Matt. 28:18-20).  But sometimes we get the two mixed up.  We think it’s our duty to build His church with our slick marketing schemes, flashing lights and smoke machines, mini-rock concerts passed off as worship, and sanitized TED Talks taking the place of sermons.  But it’s not.  Our job is to mature those He brings to Himself by helping them become more like Christ.

Finally, since Christ builds His church and not us, then He is the one who makes all the rules about how His church is to function, including worship, prayer, ministry, songs, and just about everything else you can think of.  Remember, He is God and we are not.

Which raises an intriguing question:

Question: So, if Christ redeems His church and then commands us to meet together in community as the called-out ones to worship Him, does He give us any guidelines as to what that is supposed to look like?

Answer:  Absolutely.  But it looks very little like what we have been doing as believers since… forever.  And much of that has to do with our reluctance to be His church rather than attend His church.  One is active, the other passive.

But what happens when a group of believers understands their place in His grand plan and becomes the church as an active participant and not as a casual observer?   And what happens when these believers fully accept the truth of the priesthood of all believers?  What would church look like then?

If you are intrigued or are not familiar with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, then join us as we unpack this glorious truth together.

Our Latest Posts:

554: Solomon’s Life: “Stupid Is as Stupid Does”
553: Don’t be Like King Solomon, Choose Wisely
552: The Importance of Finishing Life Well
551: Trying to Serve God Without Even Knowing Him
550: There is Nothing New Under the Sun… Really?

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Don’t Fall in the Same Hole Twice

In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, once the wisest man who ever lived, tells us how he really feels about life.  He says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2).  Or, all of life is meaningless, useless, pointless, of no real value, and a colossal waste of time.  And so is everything a man does or builds while he lives his life on earth.  Solomon continues, “What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” (Eccl. 2:3).  Really?  Sounds a bit selfish and narcissistic to me.  How about you?

But it gets worse for Solomon by the time we get to chapter two.

In chapter two, Solomon tries to find his purpose, not in serving the Lord as he did when he was a young man, but in gratifying his flesh in every way imaginable, making all of life about him.  And he knew his plan of trying to find the meaning of life in fleshly pleasure would lead to nothing, yet he continued anyway.  Why?  Maybe, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity (meaningless, pointless, futile, of no lasting value).  I said of laughter—”Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” – Ecclesiastes 2:1-2.

But Solomon continued on this road to destruction anyway.  Why?  Especially when he was once the wisest man who ever lived.  My, how the mighty have fallen.

Whatever (kōl) my eyes desired (strong desire, lust) I did not keep from them.  I did not withhold my heart from any (kōl) pleasure (sensory, fleshly, the experience of pleasure), for my heart rejoiced in all my labor (trouble, toil, sorrow, painful work, the hardships of life); and this (the experience of sensory, fleshly pleasure) was my reward from all my labor (trouble, toil, sorrow, painful work, the hardships of life) – Ecclesiastes 2:10.

Solomon practiced zero self restraint.  He had no discernment of good or evil desires.  Solomon did not refuse himself anything.  He embraced unhindered lusts.  And what resulted from Solomon’s plunge into self-absorbed sin?

Then I looked (contemplated, considered) on all the works that my hands had done (what I had created, built, composed, produced, accomplished through effort) and on the labor (trouble, toil, sorrow, painful work, the hardships of life) in which I had toiled (to exert oneself, to work hard); and indeed all (work, toil, labor, pleasure, fulfilling lusts, etc.) was vanity (emptiness, meaningless, pointless, weariness, having no value or significance, futile, transitory, breath or vapor) and grasping for the wind.  There was no profit (benefit, advantage, gain) under the sun (living life on the earth) – Ecclesiastes 2:11.

Uh, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

It’s Not Too Late to Turn Around, Solomon

When you read the rest of this chapter, you will begin to experience the depth of Solomon’s despair.  He is running, as fast and far as his legs will carry him, away from the God of his youth, towards something that crumbles over time.  He is exchanging the glory of the Lord for a mirage, an image of happiness that is only a vapor.  And Solomon knows this, yet he continues to run anyway.

Let’s see what we can learn from watching Solomon implode.

Note, it has been a long time since Solomon has had an intimate relationship with His Lord.  He, like many of us, has tried to fill the void in his life with sensual pleasure, wealth, entertainment, and becoming a workaholic, hoping to once again feel what he did when God was close.  So, it is not surprising he comes to a carnal, fleshly conclusion about the meaning of life and then tries to justify it by saying God ordained it for him.

Sin has an amazing ability to make armchair prophets and theologians of those who are trying to justify their carnality, just like Solomon.  This is not the wisdom of God, but the wisdom of man.  It is nothing more than justifying the lusts of the flesh.

And the lessons from Solomon’s life?  Simply this: Don’t be like Solomon.  Be like Christ.  And leave, as fast as you can, the lukewarm spiritual life of Laodicea far behind.

Our Latest Posts:

553: Don’t be Like King Solomon, Choose Wisely
552: The Importance of Finishing Life Well
551: Trying to Serve God Without Even Knowing Him
550: There is Nothing New Under the Sun… Really?
549: The Problem is We Make Our God Too Small

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The Higher Christian Life
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Everyone Has to Choose Between Right and Wrong

In the Christian life, God makes it pretty simple for His children to follow Him by offering them only two choices, and two outcomes.  These two choices, however, are portrayed in several different ways in Scripture.  For example, there is the choice between light and darkness, life and death, good fruit or bad fruit, the wide road or the narrow path, walking by the Spirit or by the flesh, having faith or doubt, the blessings or curses, boldness or fear, embracing truth or deception, and many other mutually exclusive examples of God’s way or the ways of man.

But essentially, they all boil down to the choice of obedience or disobedience.  And there is never a third option, no middle ground.  You are either all in or all out.  Right or wrong, with nothing in between.  Yet we all must make a similar choice in our lives.

Solomon is a chilling example of someone who chose wisely in his youth and then made disastrous choices as he got older.  He did not grow wiser with age.  When he was young, Solomon chose the wisdom of God and His intimacy over wealth, popularity, and the fleeting pleasures of sin.  But when he got older, he forgot God and followed his own heart and the wisdom of this fallen age and lost the most important things in his life… faith, purpose, and meaning.

So by the time we get to the second chapter of Ecclesiastes, we see Solomon frantically striving to find what he had forsaken, namely happiness, purpose, and meaning in his life outside of his broken relationship with the Lord, which he knew couldn’t be done.  You cannot satisfy a spiritual longing by indulging the flesh.  But, as a stubborn man like many of us, Solomon tried anyway, repeatedly.  He gave it his best shot, and each time came up empty.

Don’t Be Like Solomon, Choose Wisely

We can see the fallacy in his logic from the start.  He knows what he is about to do will lead to nothing (vanity), yet he does it just the same.

And I (his action) set my heart (lēḇ) to know (yāḏaʿ) wisdom and to know (yāḏaʿ) madness (delusion, to try anything and everything just to know the outcome, being rash and foolish to an extreme degree) and folly (foolishness, a life devoid of wisdom, understanding, prudence, self restraint).  I perceived (yāḏaʿ) that this also (among other things) is grasping for the wind – Ecclesiastes 1:17.

After determining the pursuit of wisdom was also meaningless and provided no lasting satisfaction, Solomon now goes in the opposite direction and embarks on a course of sensual pleasure to find happiness and contentment.  It was as if Solomon put his hands over his ears and filled his life with such fleshly pleasure, hoping it could drown the inner cry of his soul.  Guess how that journey turned out?

I said in my heart (lēḇ), “Come now, I will (my action) test (try, prove, to determine the true nature of something) you with mirth (the experience and manifestation of joy and gladness); therefore (conclusion) enjoy pleasure”; but surely (behold), this also was vanity (meaningless, having no value, futile, pointless, empty, like a vapor) – Ecclesiastes 2:1.

Uh, just a few questions, if I may.  If it was vanity, why did you continue in it?  Why not cut your losses and move on to something else?  Why did you continue in something you knew wouldn’t work?  Why did you not run back to your relationship with God and forget the meaningless lust of your flesh?  Why did you have to learn the same lesson over and over again?  That doesn’t seem to make much sense to me.  Does it to you?

But this is only the beginning of Solomon’s woes.  And I believe you will find, unfortunately, that you will relate to many of the ways Solomon tried to find satisfaction in life by gratifying the flesh, only to come up dry, empty, and depressed.  I know I sure have.  But his life can be a prime example of what not to do, or how to choose wisely (and not like Solomon).

So let me invite you to join us as we learn what to do, by not doing what the once wisest man who ever lived did.  Let’s learn from his mistakes so we won’t have to make them ourselves, shall we?

Our Latest Posts:

552: The Importance of Finishing Life Well
551: Trying to Serve God Without Even Knowing Him
550: There is Nothing New Under the Sun… Really?
549: The Problem is We Make Our God Too Small
548: Keeping First Things First… Always

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The Higher Christian Life
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Making the Most of the Time You Have Left

Solomon, it would seem, was in the middle of a spiritual mid-life crisis.  When he was young, he ran after God with reckless abandon and God blessed him with wealth and wisdom beyond compare.  And what did Solomon do with all God had given him?  He took it for granted, made unbelievably bad decisions about the things God clearly talked about in Scripture, and followed his own heart and forsook the wisdom of God.  He began to believe his own press releases and followed the ways of the world and not of God.  He did not finish his race (life) well.

And we know how that turned out.  Disaster, with a capital D.

So now he is older, set in his ways, and longing for the intimacy he once had with God, but refusing to repent and return to Him.  He wanted the blessings on his terms, but not the obedience, which is always God’s terms.  He longed for God’s hand of blessing, but not His face.  Solomon was in an awful place spiritually, one of his own making.   And because he refused the cure for his spiritual illness, he sank into depression.

You can see the tragic fall of this great man in the opening chapters of Ecclesiastes.  Solomon views all of life as meaningless, or “vanity” (Eccles. 1:2).  He doesn’t see any value in anything he has done, or is doing (Eccles. 1:3).   And what he longed for the most in life, permanence, purpose, and meaning, seemed just out of reach.  How sad.

What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? – Ecclesiastes 1:3.

It was like he was saying, “What is the purpose of life?  Why am I doing what I am doing?  Is this all there is?  Does life have any meaning other than survival?  Is there more to life than food, clothing, shelter, money and the stuff money can buy?  And if so, what is it?  Is the world better because I was born?  Or am I just taking up space, meaning nothing?  Is it true that everything is vanity, pure meaningless?  Is all that I know and love and have experienced in this life really worth nothing?  And if so (and I hope not), what does it profit me, or anyone for that matter, from all the weariness of life that we toil with while we are still alive?”

Can you feel his pain?  I sure can.  But he brought it all upon himself and he refuses to make it better.

Talk about stubbornness.

Move Forward, Not Backwards

Solomon, at any time, could have confessed his sins to the Lord and experienced, once again, the wisdom of God that defined his life as a young man.  He could have, like the Lord said to the church at Ephesus, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Rev. 2:5).  Or, “Go back and do the things you did when life was good, when We spoke, and when others praised you for how you imitated Me.”

But of course, like many believers today, Solomon didn’t.  His pride wouldn’t let him.  The cost was too high.  After all, he was now living independently of God and was proud of what he had accomplished, or so he kept telling himself.  But truthfully, his life left him dry and unfulfilled, and he felt like he was just biding time and taking up space.

You can see all of this in the questions and reflections Solomon asks in the first chapter of this book.  Some of what he says is quite telling of what kind of man he had become.

That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun – Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Geez, if I felt like that, I would have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.  So Solomon decides to fill his life with everything his heart could ever want.  He is trying to find happiness and contentment without God.  Notice how that turns out.  And notice how many times he talks about what he (“I”) have done.

I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.  I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.  I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.  I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.  I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces.  I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.  So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.  Also my wisdom (human, not God’s) remained with me.  Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.  I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor – Ecclesiastes 2:4-10.

So what did you discover, Solomon?  How did that work out for you?

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.  There was no profit under the sun – Ecclesiastes 2:11.

Do you want to end up like Solomon?  I didn’t think so.  So keep listening and let’s learn how to not be like Him.

Our Latest Posts:

551: Trying to Serve God Without Even Knowing Him
550: There is Nothing New Under the Sun… Really?
549: The Problem is We Make Our God Too Small
548: Keeping First Things First… Always
547: Regeneration – The Greatest Deception in the Church

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Other Resources:

The Higher Christian Life
Small Time Pastor
Faith Prepper