The Ekklesia

It was a raucous, angry, confused meeting, with many people shouting, many people in stunned silence, and no order at all. It could have been a local church business meeting, but it wasn’t. It was the ekklesia, the assembly of the citizens of Ephesus come together in the city’s outdoor theater.

^{Acts 19:32} The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there…³⁵ The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today.

This was, to be sure, not a formally called assembly or ekklesia, but Luke nonetheless calls it an assembly, an ekklesia. And this is the same term he uses for the meeting of the Christian church:

Acts 5:11, And great fear came upon the whole ekklesia and upon all who heard these things.

Acts 8:1, And Saul was in agreement with his killing. He began that day a great persecution of the ekklesia in Jerusalem.

Acts 9:31, Then the ekklesia throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace, being built up and pursuing the fear of the Lord.

It is also the word Luke uses for the congregation of Jews who were traveling through the wilderness on the way to Canaan:

Luke 7:38, This [Moses] was with the ekklesia in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, and who received living words to give to us.

It is the word Jesus used in Matthew 16:18 and in 18:17,

Matthew 16:18, And I say to you, you are Peter [Petros], and upon this petra [rock] I will build my ekklesia, and the gates of hades will not overcome it.

Matthew 18:17, But if he [the one who has sinned against you] refuses to listen to them [the two or three witnesses], take it to the ekklesia. And if he refuses to listen to the ekklesia, let him be to you like the Gentile and the tax collector.

What is Jesus building? What is the church, or what is it meant to be? How does Scripture define and describe it? What should our ecclesiology be? How do we avoid not knowing why we are here, like that assembly in Ephesus? That is what we want to explain. This is not church history we are doing, this is a theology of church, an understanding that is meant to shape the way we do church.