The Church in Its Essence

Leaders make decisions; that is one of our primary functions. To do so well it is important to engage the historical understanding of a church from Jesus. Matthew records Jesus’ original use of the term, church, or ecclesia in the Greek language. In Greek society, ecclesia referred to governmental leaders (literally, called-out ones) who assembled to make civil decisions—inclusive of any leaders, not only synagogue leaders. So what did Jesus mean when He used a civic term to say, “On this rock I will build My ecclesia [a body of decision-making leadership], and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”?

In western-world history, around the time of Alexander the Great (356 to 323 BC), people began to develop a gap in their understanding of sacred and secular. Somehow things that we considered “sacred” or “religion related” fell on one side of a divide, while things “secular” or “outside of religion” fell to the other side. Our culture makes sure the divide remains deep and wide, between religion and government, religion and marketplace, religion and entertainment, etc. Even in our congregations, some categorize our church work separately from our secular work. Before that time, people had no paradigm for separating the two. Life was simply religious. Religion was life. Everyday life saturated God or gods, and worshipping God or gods saturated everyday life.

By New Testament times, the sacred/secular paradigm was still in transition. Many “common” people still lived in the inherent mindset of their religion. Remember this cultural context as we explore what Jesus meant by using the word ecclesia. He did not intend to build a thing that was separated from everyday life and work. 

Scripture records only two situations where Christ used the term “church” both narrated by Matthew. The first occurred in Caesarea Philippi (Matt 16:18), and the second occurred two chapters later and a few miles south in Capernaum (Matthew 18:17). In context and word choice, Jesus reiterates the function of the church as a body of people who make governmental decisions. 

First let’s review the conversation at Caesarea Philippi. To set the context, carefully read the full passage:

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,

for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church,

and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,

and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,

and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

– Matthew 16:15-19

Caesarea Philippi sits in the shadow of a towering precipice that ascends from the edge of the town. The gaping mouth of a cave yawns from the side of the cliff. In Jesus’ day, before an earthquake altered the tectonic plates beneath, a spring of water surged from the mouth of the cave that fed the head of the Jordan River. As Josephus described:

… within which there is a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when anybody lets down anything to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it.¹

Throughout millennia, pagans dedicated the site to a smorgasbord of gods, even offering human sacrifices which they tossed into the water. If no blood rose from the spring, it meant their god had accepted the sacrifice. They carved thrones for their deities into the cliff and built temples to keep their “divine” statues from crumbling in the weather. By the time Jesus brought His disciples to the shrine, Herod the Great had erected a monumental white marble temple that straddled the mouth of the cave to worship and appease Caesar.

By what name did the Israelites dub the cave? The Gates of Hades. Jesus brought His disciples to this infamous place (Matthew 16:13-19). He had reasons. It was in the vicinity of The Gates of Hades² that Jesus asked His followers, “Who do you say that I am?”

Always the first to answer, Simon said, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God!”

Peter “got it”! 

What is it he “got”?

As if in bold defiance against the Caesarea Philippi cliff that housed so many false gods, Peter understood that the rightful Son of God stood before him, whom the Jewish Scriptures declared would restore God’s government to earth.

I’m sure Jesus’ response caused a stir among the disciples, so important that He marked it by changing Simon’s name to “Peter.” The Greek word for Peter is Petros, which means a stone, or piece of rock. While Petros referred to a fragment of rock, Jesus next declared He would build His ecclesia on the “rock,” using a slightly different Greek word: petra: that means a cliff or mass of rock. In essence, the Scripture could be interpreted as:

I also say to you that you are Petros, a fragment of a large-cliff, and on this large-cliff I will build My church (Matthew 16:18).

What was this “mass of rock” upon which Jesus builds His church? Christ builds His church on Peter’s revelation of Himself. Not on Peter, not on a belief system, or a worship ritual, or knowledge of Scripture, or a building, or a governmental hierarchy, but on a Person: the Person of Truth, the Son of the Living God.

Christ established His ecclesia on the petra of this revelation of Himself, “the Head of the body, the church [ecclesia], “the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”³ This revelation confirmed the plan of the Trinity, that through Christ, God would restore His people to His original purpose for them—to subdue and rule on earth as partners in leadership with Him.⁴

As mentioned above, in New Testament times ecclesia described civil assemblies. When a community needed to decide, the people of influence (called-out ones) would assemble, much like a city council, to represent the public. These respected persons would apply their wisdom to the matter, make decisions for the benefit of the whole, and then declare their decisions publicly. When translating Old Testament Scripture into Greek, Hebrew scholars also used the word ecclesia in instances where the elders of Israel assembled to make decisions for the Hebrew people. In other words, Jesus used ecclesia to declare that He would build a decision-making body of believers.Please note that Jesus did not exclude any believer from participating in His decision-making body. All believers are “called out ones.” Over the centuries, we’ve become so accustomed to differentiating “clergy” and “laity” that we often think Christ calls only certain ones into divine leadership. On the contrary, Jesus calls every believer as leaders—decision-makers—in their own circles of influence.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have positional leaders in our contemporary organizations. God designs different people to fulfill different roles in His body according to the gifts, talents, and personalities He gives them. When I refer to the ecclesia, I’m not referring to the governmental hierarchy of congregational leadership. I’m referring to all believers in all walks of life, with no division between sacred and secular. As Creator, God calls all, men and women, to lead on earth—to fill, subdue and rule by establishing Christ’s government in their respective circumstances.

Also note that when Jesus first used the term, He wasn’t referring to meetings where we praise God and preach His word (though, again, these have become wonderful and necessary practices). Jesus referred to our responsibility to gather as a governmental, decision-making body. On the rock of Peter’s revelation of Christ the Messiah, Jesus would build His body of believers who would partner with Him in ruling—making decisions that influence people—on earth. 

Gates

As previously mentioned, Jesus led His disciples to a towering rock called “The Gates of Hades” where He introduced to them His intensions for building His ecclesia on the Rock. He continued His object lesson by declaring that “the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against you.” Imagine how this struck the disciples as they probably gazed upon the “Gates of Hades,” the intimidating, majestic shrine devoted to false gods and to the Roman emperor who oppressed their people into servitude. Jesus declares that these gates and their gods were no match for His followers. In the face of Christ, the Rock Himself, the enemy’s power is no power at all.

The word “gates” ties into our “governmental decision-making body” theme. The Old Testament records instances where the elders assembled at the city gates to make leadership decisions.⁵ Governmental leaders (the ecclesia) held court, discerned wisdom, resolved issues and made decisions at the city gates. With the object lesson of the Gates of Hades, Jesus illustrated His point: When the followers of Christ gather to discern His will, the decisions they discern will rise superior to any strategies Satan might devise at the Gates of Hades. “…whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake… No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn.”⁶

Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven

That day in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus gave this kingdom-building authority to His ecclesia, but He didn’t stop there. He continued to explain His plan for His church:

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven … ⁷

Keys symbolized authority to open doors. Authority to open what doors? Jesus explained what authority He meant: 

… whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”⁸

Jesus charged His disciples with authority to “bind and loose.”

This isn’t the only time Scripture records Jesus’ instructions to bind and loose. Matthew narrates Jesus’ instruction concerning the keys in both ecclesia passages, introducing the concept in Caesarea Philippi, and reiterating it in Capernaum. ⁹

Over the years I’ve heard inaccurate teachings on “binding and loosing” based on our contemporary English understanding of the terms. But the disciples themselves were familiar with the terms as used in Jewish law. From Rabbinical writings we learn that:

• “To bind” meant to forbid someone from doing something, or to withhold fellowship from them. 
• “To loose” meant to permit someone to do something, or to forgive them.¹⁰

Both terms concerned the authority rabbis had to make leadership decisions that dealt with issues in the synagogue. The “keys of the kingdom,” then, symbolized the authority Jesus gave his followers to make governmental decisions that either forbid or permit.

In Matthew’s record of Jesus’ Capernaum discourse,¹¹ we also find that the context of “binding and loosing” concerns governmental authority.¹² Jesus discussed the appropriate way leaders should respond to a believer who falls into sin: …and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church [ecclesia]. But if he refuses even to hear the church [ecclesia], let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.¹³

In other words, the church should withhold fellowship because the person is refusing to honor the discernment of the group.

Jesus continues by again using the words “binding” and “loosing”: 

whatever you bind [forbid] on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit] on earth will be loosed in heaven.¹⁴

Jesus explained that in the case of believers falling into sin, the ecclesia—the believers who have the authority in that situation—will make the decision whether to forbid or permit, to forgive or withhold fellowship. 

Though not as evident in English translations as in the original Greek, a central point in Jesus’ instruction to “bind” and “loose” concerns that we first discern God’s will in heaven before establishing it on earth. It doesn’t mean¹⁵ we can use human wisdom to derive a solution and then expect heaven’s blessing. The wisdom we discern can only come from His presence. The original Greek text makes this more evident. We can’t directly translate the grammatical structure of the Greek in this passage into English with a result that makes sense. The syntax simply doesn’t exist in English. Consider this word-for-word translation of the Greek that Matthew records both times Jesus spoke the phrase:

Whatsoever you bind on earth shall have already been being bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall have already been being loosed in heaven.¹⁶

This literal rendering illuminates the kind of discernment Jesus established. The decision to bind or loose is dependent upon sensing what is already happening in heaven. We bind what has already “been being bound” by God, and we loose what has already “been being loosed” by God. We sense what God is already doing, and we follow Him in it—the core principle of Presence-Based Leadership.

How profound! We grow so familiar with Jesus’ words that we often miss the earthquake of new revelation that shook the tectonic plates of Jewish law. Until this time, only official authority figures who underwent rigorous training could serve as governors and make leadership decisions. But Jesus gave the “keys of the Kingdom”—the authority to make leadership decisions—to common, ordinary people! Fishermen, doctors, or accountants could communicate with the government of heaven to discern God’s will on earth and act on it accordingly. No wonder the scribes and Pharisees considered Jesus a threat to their authority!

Remember that the Western-World view of “sacred” and “secular” differs from that in Jesus’ day, with a less-pronounced divide between the two. When Jesus gave the disciples the keys to bind and loose, they didn’t understand this new authority as pertaining only to the synagogue or temple. They understood the keys as power to use in every-day life, authority they carried with them everywhere they went. Likewise, men and women are involved in decision making together as a “church” in all walks of life, not only in the context of a local congregation.  In each of these settings the Lord actively will build the discernment as we acknowledge His presence and authority as is noted in Matthew 18:20. In essence, a church is a gathering of persons responsible for an arena of decision making. In the Acts of the Apostles, we may note several instances where the believers were gathered together, or assembled, to discern (decide) what to do. 

The word, church, as a gathering of believers has taken on many wonderful images and metaphors. Body, temp, and flock begin a list of seventy or more metaphors. As a gathering for worship and teaching it has also required a measure of organization. As such it requires church government. In the midst of all of its activities the local congregation, or associations of such, at the core are a church—a gathering of believers called together to discern and declare the will of Christ whose active presence and authority guides them.

1. Josephus, Wars.Book 1.Chapter XXI.3; translated by William Loughner from William Wiston,  https://sites.google.com/site/josephuspaneas/w1-21-3
2. See Generation Word website: http://www.generationword.com/Israel/caesarea_philippi.htm
3. Colossians 1:18
4.  Genesis 1:27-28
5.  See II Samuel 15:2, for example.
6.  Isaiah 54:15, 17
7.  Matthew 16:19
8.  Matthew 16:19
9. Matthew 18:18
10.  For example, see Rabbi Nedarim 6:5-7, bold face the author’s: “If a person made a vow to abstain from meat, he is loosed to eat broth.” Another example reads, “Rabbi Yehudah bind it . . .  If a person made a vow to abstain from wine, he is loosed to eat a cooked dish which has the taste of wine.” (Nedarim 6:5-7, bold face the author’s).
11.  Matthew 18:18
12.  Matthew 18:15-17
13.  Matthew 18:17. Also note: Though “withhold fellowship” concerns disciplinary measures, remember how Jesus actually treated the “heathen and tax collectors.” He was radical in His love for them by reaching out to them and eating with them when other leaders scorned them (Matthew 9:11). He treated them as unbelievers, but He still loved them.
14.  Matthew 18:18
15.  Matthew 18:18
16.  Matthew 16:19; 18:18