What is the Church?
People will give you many different answers when asked what the church is. One church leader I know defined his church as a place that didn’t have all the negatives the church he grew up in carried. It is important to begin with the idea that we do not base a church on what we don’t want, but rather we base it on the word of God. However, let’s begin with a parable:
The Parable of the Orange Trees
I dreamed I drove on a Florida road, still and straight and empty. On either side were groves of orange trees, so that as I turned to look at them from time to time, line after line of trees stretched back endlessly from the road – their boughs heavy with round yellow fruit. This was harvest time. My wonder grew as the miles slipped by. How could the harvest be gathered? Suddenly I realized that for all the hours I had driven (and this was how I knew I must be dreaming) I had seen no other person. The groves were empty of people. No other car had passed me. No houses were to be seen beside the highway. I was alone in a forest of orange trees.
But at last I saw some orange pickers. Far from the highway, almost on the horizon, lost in the vast wilderness of unpicked fruit, I could discern a tiny group of them working steadily. And many miles later I saw another group. I could not be sure, but I suspected that the earth beneath me was shaking with silent laughter at the hopelessness of their task, yet the pickers went on picking. The sun had long passed its zenith, and the shadows were lengthening when, without any warning, I turned a corner of the road to see a notice "Leaving NEGLECTED COUNTY - Entering HOME COUNTY." The contrast was so startling that I scarcely had time to take in the notice. I had to slow down, for all at once the traffic was heavy. People by the thousands swarmed the road and crowded the sidewalks. Even more startling was the transformation in the orange groves. Orange groves were still there, and orange trees in abundance, but now, far from being silent and empty, they were filled with the laughter and singing of multitudes of people. Indeed it was the people we noticed rather than the trees. People and houses. I parked the car at the roadside and mingled with the crowd. Smart gowns, neat shoes, showy hats, expensive suits and starched shirts made me a little conscious of my work clothes. Everyone seemed so fresh, and poised, and happy.
"Is it a holiday?" I asked a well-dressed woman with whom I fell in step. She looked a little startled for a moment, and then her face relaxed with a smile of gracious condescension. "You're a stranger, aren't you?" she said, and before I could reply, "This is Orange Day." She must have seen a puzzled look on my face, for she went on, "It is so good to turn aside from one's labors and pick oranges one day of the week." “But don't you pick oranges every day?" I asked her."One may pick oranges at any time," she said. "We should always be ready to pick oranges, but Orange Day is the day that we devote especially to orange picking." I left her and made my way further into the trees. Most of the people were carrying a book. Bound beautifully in leather, and edged and lettered in gold, I was able to discern on the edge of one of them the words, "Orange Picker's Manual." By and by I noticed around one of the orange trees seats had been arranged, rising upward in tiers from the ground. The seats were almost full - but, as I approached the group, a smiling well-dressed gentleman shook my hand and conducted me to a seat.
There, around the foot of the orange tree, I could see a number of people. One of them was addressing all the people on the seats and, just as I got to my seat, everyone rose to his feet and began to sing. The man next to me shared with me his songbook. It was called "Songs of the Orange Groves." They sang for some time, and the song leader waved his arms with a strange and frenzied abandon, exhorting the people in the intervals between the songs to sing more loudly.
I grew steadily more puzzled. "When do we start to pick oranges?" I asked the man who had loaned me his book. "It's not long now," he told me. "We like to get everyone warmed up first. Besides, we want to make the oranges feel at home." I thought he was joking, but his face was serious.After a while a rather fat man took over from the song leader and, after reading two sentences from his well-thumbed copy of the Orange Picker's Manual, began to make a speech. It wasn't clear whether he was addressing the people or the oranges. I glanced behind me and saw a number of groups of people similar to our own group gathering around an occasional tree and being addressed by other fat men. Some of the trees had no one around them.
"Which trees do we pick from?" I asked the man beside me. He did not seem to understand, so I pointed to the trees round about. "This is our tree," he said, pointing to the one we were gathered around. "But there are too many of us to pick from just one tree." I protested. "Why, there are more people than oranges!""But we don't pick oranges," the man explained. "We haven't been called. That's the Pastor Orange Picker's job. We're here to support him. Besides we haven't been to college. You need to know how an orange thinks before you can pick it successfully - orange psychology, you know. Most of these folks here," he went on, pointing to the congregation, "have never been to Manual School."
"Manual School," I whispered. "What's that?" "It's where they go to study the Orange Picker's Manual," my informant went on. "It's very hard to understand. You need years of study before it makes sense." "I see," I murmured. "I had no idea that picking oranges was so difficult."The fat man at the front was still making his speech. His face was red, and he appeared to be indignant about something. So far as I could see there was rivalry with some of the other "orange picking" groups, but a moment later a glow came on his face.
"But we are not forsaken," he said. "We have much to be thankful for. Last week we saw THREE ORANGES BROUGHT INTO OUR BASKETS, and we are now completely debt-free from the money we owed on the new cushion covers that grace the seats you now sit on."
"Isn't it wonderful?" the man next to me murmured. I made no reply. I felt that something must be profoundly wrong somewhere. All this seemed to be a very round-about way of picking oranges. The fat man was reaching a climax in his speech. The atmosphere seemed tense. Then with a very dramatic gesture he reached two of the oranges, plucked them from the branch, and placed them in the basket at his feet. The applause was deafening.
"Do we start on the picking now?" I asked my informant."What in the world do you think we're doing?" he hissed. "What do you suppose this tremendous effort has been made for? There's more orange-picking talent in this group than in the rest of Home County. Thousands of dollars have been spent on the tree you're looking at."
I apologized quickly. "I wasn't being critical," I said. "And I'm sure the fat man must be a very good orange picker – but surely the rest of us could try. After all, there are so many oranges that need picking. We've all got a pair of hands, and we could read the Manual."
"When you've been in the business as long as I have, you'll realize that it's not as simple as that," he replied. "There isn't time, for one thing. We have our work to do, our families to care for, and our homes to look after, we..." But I wasn't listening. Light was beginning to break on me. Whatever these people were, they were not orange pickers. Orange picking was just a form of entertainment for their weekends. I tried one or two more of the groups around the trees; not all of them had such high academic standards for orange pickers. Some held classes on orange picking. I tried to tell them of the trees I had seen in Neglected County, but they seemed to have little interest.
"We haven't picked the oranges here yet," was their usual reply.The sun was almost setting in my dream and, growing tired of the noise and activity all around me, I got in the car and began to drive again along the road I had come. Soon all around me again were the vast and empty orange groves. But there were changes. Something had happened in my absence. Everywhere the ground was littered with fallen fruit, and as I watched, it seemed that before my eyes the trees began to rain oranges. Many of them lay rotting on the ground.
I felt there was something so strange about it all, and my bewilderment grew as I thought of all the people in Home County. Then, booming through the trees there came a voice which said, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers...". Then I awakened - for it was only a dream!
There are, of course, many lessons to be learned from this parable. It lends itself as an introduction to Jesus’ great commission to his disciples (and us as those who are regenerate believers in Christ):Go and Make Apprentices
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 28:16-20)
After they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, the disciples began and continued what Jesus had called them to do. Strangely though, it didn’t look identical to what Jesus modelled for the past 3 years. For that time, He and his disciples travelled around as they learned from Him firsthand, from miracles, parables and their explanations, as well as his direct teaching. Jesus was very patient with his disciples, but since He called them to make more of themselves, they didn’t approach things like Jesus did. I would go as far as to say that they didn’t because they were not the incarnate Son of God in human flesh. However, what they did do was entirely motivated by and empowered by God the Holy Spirt. What they did, in effect was begin what we know as “the church”.
Acts 2 shows the formation of the first actual church. It is interesting to note the progression of church growth which is repeated time and time again in the NT:Indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit (v4) → Public bible preaching (v19-21) → Preaching Christ crucified (v22-36) → True Repentance (v37-41)
By Acts 2:42-47 we have the fruit of this preaching: The church of God.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Now, to be fair, the word church is not actually in the bible, but comes from the old Scottish word “kirk” which in old English and German was pronounced “kirche”. This word mean “of the Lord” The actual word used in the NT is ecclesia (or ἐκκλησία if you like Greek words) which original referred to the meeting of any Greek citizens, regardless of class for democratic discussion and military advancements and tactics. In literal terms, it means “called out ones” (ecc = out, kaleo=call).
This original meaning carries with it the idea that the church are those called out of society to be those of the Lord, as His representatives in a particular area. Of course, this area could be an over-seas mission filed. Often though, you and I are called out to be representatives for Christ exactly where we live, where we interact and socialise and where we come in contact with people who need Jesus.
Looking back at Acts, it is quite clearly understood by Luke that God chose his people. Verses 42-47 show that there are 9 clear results from the work of the Holy Spirit, that begins with repentance:- A community of regenerate believers
- Jesus is Lord
- Obedience to scripture
- People led by qualified leaders
- Gathering regularly for preaching and worship
- Involvement in baptism and communion
- Family of God unified by the Holy Spirit
- People are disciplined for holiness
- The people scattered/spread to fulfil the great commission (although God had to make this happen later on via persecution)