The Spiritual Nature of the Ekklesia
by Chip Brogden
This article is taken from our four-part audio series called, "The Ekklesia: A Revelation of the Mystery Concerning the Church That Jesus Is Building." The spoken form has been retained throughout. For more information on how to get the complete teaching series on compact disc, please click here.




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“I will build My Church (Greek: ekklesia); and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

When Jesus says “I will build My Ekklesia,” He gave that word a spiritual significance and meaning. “I will build My Ekklesia.” Now if we take what we know about that word “ekklesia”, Jesus is saying, “I am building, and I will build, a gathering; an assembly; or, a congregation; a company; a body of people that have been called out. I will build MY Ekklesia – a gathering, an assembly of called out ones.”

Now Jesus said that He would build His Church. But let me ask – has anyone ever seen this building? Has anyone ever seen this Church that Jesus said He would build? What is it made out of? How much money did it take to build it? Did they pay cash for it, or did they raise money for it, or did they borrow money to build it? Where is this Church that Jesus said He would build? Is it located in Jerusalem, or Bethlehem, or Antioch, or Rome?

Well, I challenge you to search the world over and you will never find this Church that Jesus said He would build as a “thing” constructed out of something that can be seen in the natural realm. Why is that? Because the Ekklesia is essentially spiritual in nature. The Ekklesia, the Church that Jesus is building, is essentially spiritual in nature. It is of the Spirit. And because it is of the Spirit, it is spiritual; and because it is spiritual, it is heavenly. It is not earthly, it is not natural. It is not worldly, it is not secular. The Ekklesia of Jesus Christ is essentially spiritual in nature. And because it is spiritual, it is eternal. It is heavenly. It is above. It is beyond.

Now, if you can understand this it will answer a lot of the questions and settle a lot of the confusion concerning the Church that Jesus is building. The Ekklesia is spiritual. Now you say, “Brother, don't spiritualize the church!” Well, I'm not spiritualizing it, I'm saying the Ekklesia, the Church that Jesus is building is essentially spiritual. And because it is spiritual it is heavenly. And because it is spiritual and heavenly, "the gates of Hell will not prevail against it," Jesus said.

The real problem is not spiritualizing the Ekklesia, it's naturalizing it. Don’t worry about spiritualizing it; worry about naturalizing it - making it into something earthly, something to be seen and heard and felt. You begin thinking in terms of buildings and programs, numbers and dollars. And this is the fatal mistake.

Jesus told Peter, "I will build My Ekklesia, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Now I'm not sure how Peter interpreted this statement of Jesus. He probably didn't understood it right away, because the disciples didn't understand much of anything that Jesus said right away. But later on, after Peter has received the Holy Spirit and has been rendered spiritual, able to discern things by the Spirit and understand the spiritual truths that Jesus imparted to them, he has this to say in First Peter, chapter two, verse four. He says,

“Coming to Him (coming to Jesus) as to a Living Stone, rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and precious, (5) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So he says you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house – not an earthly house, not a natural house; but the intention and the purpose of God is for a spiritual house of living stones. And Peter says you are being built up as a spiritual house. That word “built up” there is the same Greek word that Jesus is using in Matthew 16:18. It’s translated the same way. “I will build My Church” - and Peter says, “You also are being built up.” As what? A spiritual house of living stones.

So Peter says that the Church, the Ekklesia is a spiritual house, not an earthly house; not a natural house, and not a place of meeting; not a conference hall, not a home church fellowship, not a Bible study; but a spiritual house of living stones. So we don’t need to worry that we can spiritualize the Church, but we do need to be concerned about naturalizing the Church.

Just about every thing Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of God is intended to be received on a spiritual basis by spiritually enlightened men and women; and if you try to understand it in terms of the natural, in terms of the earthly, you’ll not be able to understand it. You’ll not be able to appreciate it or discern it. I’ve heard people say before that, “You can become so heavenly-minded that you’re no earthly good.” And I always chuckle at that, because I’ve never met anyone who was truly so heavenly-minded that they were no earthly good. But I have met many people who were so earthly-minded that they were no heavenly good!

The church that Jesus is building is spiritual and therefore it is heavenly. But you will not understand that if you are trying to define the Church in terms of the natural, carnal, fleshly, realm of this earth.

Everything Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of God is essentially spiritual. To Nicodemus, He says, "You must be born again." Nicodemus immediately naturalizes this, and says, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?" Now we all know that Jesus means a spiritual birth, and so we think, poor Nicodemus, he really wasn't too bright, was he? Of course we know Jesus meant a spiritual birth, not a natural birth. But you see how Nicodemus tried to naturalize that spiritual truth.

Another time, Jesus says, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." And so what happened? The Jews naturalized that statement, and said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" And it says that many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. But you see Jesus was talking about spiritual life, eternal life. He certainly did not mean for us to naturalize this teaching, but that is what human beings are very prone to do.

The disciples were always trying to naturalize the Kingdom of God. They heard Jesus speak of this Kingdom, and they began to reason it all out: they argued over who would be the greatest; "Lord, when you come into your Kingdom, let us sit on your right hand and on your left." "Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?" See, they’re trying to naturalize this Kingdom. But Jesus spiritualized the Kingdom. So Pilate asked Him, "Are you a king?" And Jesus says, "You are correct in saying that I am king... but my Kingdom is not of this world." This Kingdom is spiritual, it is heavenly, it is not earthly, it is not of this world.

So when I say the Ekklesia is spiritual, don't look at me as if I have done something wrong by spiritualizing the Church. The Ekklesia is spiritual, and the wrong thing is to naturalize it. You don't naturalize the New Birth – it’s a spiritual reality. You don't naturalize eating and drinking Christ – it’s a spiritual thing, it’s a spiritual concept. You don't naturalize the Kingdom of God – it’s a spiritual kingdom, not of this earth, not of this world. So why would you, and why do you, naturalize the Ekklesia, when the Ekklesia is a spiritual house of living stones?

See, the trouble is that we do not see the Ekklesia as spiritual, we see it as natural. The problem is in our seeing; the problem is our perception; the problem is we are in the same position as Nicodemus trying to figure out a spiritual birth with a natural idea of what birth is. Right now we have in our minds a thousand ideas about "church", and I guarantee that most of those thoughts, most of those ideas you have about “church”, are tradition; they are earthly, they are worldly, they are NATURAL. They are not spiritual.

We all have ideas about buildings and steeples; denominations and congregations; preachers, programs, the worship service; Easter and Christmas; choirs, ushers, deacons, elders, boards; picnics, tithes and offerings; pastors, associate pastors, ministers; seminaries, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Youth Group; Sunday morning services, Sunday night services, Wednesday night services; prayer meeting, Men's Meeting, Women's Meeting, and on and on and on it goes. That is what we think about - all these outward things, quite natural, quite earthly, easily seen and heard and experienced.

But do you think when Jesus said, "I will build My Ekklesia, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" - do you think He’s talking about building some church building someplace in Jerusalem? Or having a place where people could come and hear somebody preach three times a week? Where they could come once or twice or three times a week and do some religious things and hold some ceremonies? Well, if you believe that’s what Jesus meant, then you are just like Nicodemus, trying to naturalize something the Lord intends as a spiritual, heavenly reality.

Now, that’s not to say that there is no such thing as a practical expression of this spiritual, heavenly Ekklesia. We do see a practical expression of the spiritual Ekklesia throughout the Book of Acts. It’s very practical. But this Ekklesia is not natural, or earthly, or worldly; it is spiritual and heavenly. For the time being, please, please lay aside all your concern for the natural, practical expression. That will come in due course. But what we are endeavoring to do now is to get to the heart, to the spiritual side, the spiritual foundation, the spiritual intent, the purpose of God in the Ekklesia. And if we can be clear on that then the rest will come forth in due season.

But we cannot get to the spiritual side of the Ekklesia by trying to decipher or dissect it from the natural side of things. We don’t want to be in the position of Nicodemus, who tried to grasp spiritual birth with a natural understanding, with a carnal mindset, a carnal mentality. Spiritual things never do make sense when we try to understand them naturally. Nicodemus is confused; the Jews were offended; the disciples were disappointed; all because they tried to take the spiritual side of things and turn them into something that they could apprehend naturally. And that’s what we need to avoid...

I think this is a good article, I have been reading a lot concerning this new called out "church" and I must acknowledge that I would have known nothing about it, hadn't I met Jiggyfly.

I would just like to comment on this last part

For the time being, please, please lay aside all your concern for the natural, practical expression. That will come in due course. But what we are endeavoring to do now is to get to the heart, to the spiritual side, the spiritual foundation, the spiritual intent, the purpose of God in the Ekklesia. And if we can be clear on that then the rest will come forth in due season.

For those that know of this spiritual church that's being built, for those that think they are part of it, don't worry about specifics, or what it "really" is. Jesus said He's building it,

“I will build My Church (Greek: ekklesia); and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)

It is in God's hands, yes the Spirit may enlighten us, but we are not building this church, let's tell the world the church is being built, but please don't fret about the specifics about it. Jesus knows!

God bless,
Much love
teraside

Originally Posted by jiggyfly

Well, I challenge you to search the world over and you will never find this Church that Jesus said He would build as a “thing” constructed out of something that can be seen in the natural realm. Why is that? Because the Ekklesia is essentially spiritual in nature. The Ekklesia, the Church that Jesus is building, is essentially spiritual in nature. It is of the Spirit. And because it is of the Spirit, it is spiritual; and because it is spiritual, it is heavenly. It is not earthly, it is not natural. It is not worldly, it is not secular. The Ekklesia of Jesus Christ is essentially spiritual in nature. And because it is spiritual, it is eternal. It is heavenly. It is above. It is beyond.

This is a good challenge for today.

As evangelist Billy Sunday once said, "Going 'to church' doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car." While I firmly believe in the value of organized church bodies and functions, I am learning more and more that the church Jesus is assembling - which, unfortunately many people who call themselves Christians today are not part of - is indeed spiritual.

SLE

Originally Posted by SpiritLedEd

As evangelist Billy Sunday once said, "Going 'to church' doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car." While I firmly believe in the value of organized church bodies and functions, I am learning more and more that the church Jesus is assembling - which, unfortunately many people who call themselves Christians today are not part of - is indeed spiritual.
SLE

Amen SLE, and I think the motive for declaring such is misunderstood by most. It is not for the purpose of seperation and seclusuion but rather for correction and inclusion.