Encouraged to be in regular attendance while traveling in Australia, my wife and I settled into a relatively small church in suburban Melbourne. Within hours of our first visit, we had lunch plans, tour guides, and rides all over the countryside. These people undoubtedly understood hospitality, but what was most striking to us was the spiritual connection we had to complete strangers on the other side of the world. An immediate fellowship existed as we joined this church for their weekly service, and this fellowship was strengthened further through the familiarity of the elements at work in their service. There was the call to worship that invited us into the presence of God followed by psalms and hymns as a means of worship and adoration. There was confession, assurance of salvation, prayer, and thanksgiving. Most importantly, there was the Lord’s Supper and the proclamation of God’s Word, carrying with it the authority of the Most High and calling believers into greater levels of holiness. Church in Australia seemed to be the same as church in North America.
Church is translated from the Greek word ekklésia and means “assembly”. It occurs over 60 times in the Greek Old Testament, including by Moses in his account of when the people gathered together “on the day of the assembly [ekklésia]” after descending from the mountain with the stone tablets (Deuteronomy 9). Of course, it can be found throughout the New Testament as well, such as most famously in Matthew 16 when Jesus says “I will build my church [ekklésia], and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. The mystery revealed in the New Testament, spoken of by Paul in Ephesians 1:23, is that the church [ekklésia] is the body of Christ, and this is true no matter where you are. This revelation is profound and shapes the way Paul instructs the early churches. Language such as “when you are assembled together” in Corinthians indicates that the church had a way of recognizing who was part of the body. To care for the spiritual and physical needs of the body, Timothy and Titus were to appoint qualified elders and deacons. As for the body of the Galatians, they were called to “bear one another’s burdens.” Commitment from the assembly of believers who make up the body of Christ has always been an essential mark of a healthy church.
No better place is this commitment reflected than in the Lord’s supper. Verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 11 says, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement on himself.” We are commonly reminded to examine ourselves so as not to eat and drink in an unworthy manner, but the Lord’s supper is intended to nourish the body as a whole! This level of discernment involves being in each others lives regularly, asking genuine questions, laughing together, crying together, and celebrating together. Examine yourself, yes, but do so with consideration of others, such that when we come together, we do so unified as one body. Then, as you eat of the bread and drink of the cup, lift your eyes and look around at the body of Christ, knowing that you are joined to Christ’s body with believers all around the world.
~ Ross Hunter
