Hey, Church! 

“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Mt. 16:18)

When Jesus makes this stunning statement to Peter, the word “church” is synonymous with “the assembly [of believers].” The correlative Hebrew word was used to refer to the congregation of God’s people gathered at Mount Sinai (Deut. 4:10; 9:10), and later assemblies (2 Chron. 6:3, 12-13; Ps. 22:22; Joel 2:16). One lesson this makes plain is that living a Christian life is never purely an individual, private enterprise. Again, Peter helps us understand this when he described us as “living stones” that are individually shaped into the image of Christ for the ultimate purpose of building up God’s Temple–a house of worship for His name (1 Pet. 2:4-6).

Another simple yet profound truth we can learn from the word “church” (i.e., “assembly”) is that a unique, divine power overshadows the worship-gathering of believers. If all the demonic forces of satan mounted an assault against a Christ-worshiping church, they have no prayer of winning. 

One story that illustrates this well is found in the book of Numbers. In chapter 22, Balak, the king of Moab (a wicked, enemy nation), was fearful of Israel’s growing territory, numbers, and power. So, while Israel was encamped at his doorstep, he took a non-Israelite diviner/prophet, Balaam, up to a high place where they could see only a fraction of the Israelite hoards, and ordered him to pronounce a curse, that Moab might prevail against them in battle.

(Then the story takes a bizarre tangent where Balaam strikes his donkey, the Angel of the Lord threatens to kill him for going along with Balak even though He had just told him to go, and then his donkey starts talking to him…??? I’m afraid that exegesis is above my pay grade, folks. Maybe Pastors Sam and Will will take that on in a future Under the Hood episode). 

Back to a less puzzling part of the story: Balaam, whom King Balak appointed to curse Israel, instead pronounces a blessing, saying,  

“Behold, I received a command to bless: [God] has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.” (Num. 23:20-21)

A chapter later, Balaam prophesies of that King: 

“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” (Num. 24:17)

The assembly of God’s people is protected by the presence of Yahweh among them and the shout of their King, Jesus. No weapon formed against them can prosper; nothing in either the earthly or spiritual realm can curse the church that Jesus has blessed. 

So, “church” is synonymous with “assembly,” but what is the church? How can we describe its essence? The Westminster Confession of Faith gives some helpful categories here. There is the church we can see in our space and time, and there is the eternal church that only He sees.  

1. The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness [sic] of him that filleth all in all. (WCF 25.1)

The Church is comprised of past, present, and future saints who are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Since that Body extends beyond space and time, it is “invisible” to us, but not to God. We see the church that confesses the faith outwardly (a mixed bag of true and false Christians), but God alone can see those who are truly His. 

1. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel, (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. (WCF 25.2)

This is the church from our human perspective—the house and family of God, in which there is salvation, and all the benefits of belonging to Christ.

1. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life, to the end of the world; and doth, by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto. 

Jesus Christ governs the Church and has equipped Her with the means by which the Spirit dispenses His grace. Most fundamentally, these “means of grace” are the proclamation of His Word and the sacraments. Furthermore, He has given to His Church the “keys to the Kingdom,” so that by its authority, whatever is “bound” or “loosed” by Her earthly courts will be bound or loosed in the heavenly realm (Matt. 16:19). He makes the ministry of the Church “effectual” in perfecting the saints “by his own presence and Spirit.” 

The Church is much more than a mere earthly assembly; it is a divine institution and organism.* Even though the earthly church is flawed, at times even so degenerate as to be called “synagogues of Satan” (WCF 25.5), the true Church of Christ, marked by allegiance to the Word of God, will not fail to reign forever and ever (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4; 22:5). Jesus Himself stands in the midst of the congregation, singing to the Father with loud shouts of deliverance over you, “Of those you have given me I have not lost one” (Jn. 18:9; cf. Is. 8:18; Heb. 2:13). 

“When Protestants speak of going to church…they are not thinking of a building but of a congregation. The congregation, not the building is holy… The church is holy because the congregation is the house of God.”**