The Crucial Differences Between Secular and Kingdom Churches JOSEPH MATTERA for Charisma News
The objective I have in this article is to illustrate the role and function of the two ekklessias mentioned in Scripture as highlighted in the narrative of the church of Ephesus in Acts 19.
The True Ekklesia
As many of you already know and understand, the word ekklesia is used by Jesus, as seen in Matthew 16:16, to describe His followers when He launched the kingdom of God. The biblical meaning of ekklesia has to do with the community of Jesus’s disciples who permeate every aspect of culture with the gospel.
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Jesus borrowed this word (that we translate “church” in English versions of Scripture) from a secular version of the ekklesia in ancient Greece, which depicted an official assembly of its citizens who come together to vote, make important decisions for their city and to enact public policy. (Consequently, the kingdom ekklesia is the called-out community of God that officially represents His kingdom on earth. Hence, the true ekklesia is the only entity that can overcome the gates of hell, because it is made up of those called to represent God to the invisible powers in heaven and its concomitant visible earthly rulers on earth.)
Jesus launched His movement in front of the gates of hell! Jesus is confrontational toward the powers of darkness and thrusts His church into the midst of the battle, as we see in His initial functional use of the term “church” (ekklesia). In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
The gates of hell were in Caesarea Philippi, which had the gate of hell at the bottom of Mount Hermon, where there was a cave where people offered sacrifices to the goat god, Pan. The residents of that region during the time of Jesus believed that the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed their city was literally at the gates of the underworld, which was the genesis of the term “the gates of hell.”
The people of Caesarea Philippi engaged in horrible deeds, including prostitution and sexual interaction between humans and goats, in order to entice their god, Pan, to return every year. Consequently, Matthew 16 illustrates the kind of church ready and able to do battle was the ekklesia, not the typical synagogue. (The “synagogue” was the other word used in the New Testament to depict when the community of Jesus gathered together, as in Heb. 10:25.)
