Now I'm probably not gonna say
these words right, and hopefully I can write dark enough that
it overcomes the unerasable stuff here. But there is a term called,
nope, I'm gonna have to look at this so I don't misspell or
miss it. P-A-N-E-E-R, no, I'm sorry, G. P-A-N-N-E-E-G-U. R-E-U-S. Okay, there's that. The second one is S-U-L-L-O-G-O-S. I'm not going to write it down,
it's just too hard to read it. The fourth one is synagogue,
s-u-n-a-g-o-g-u-e, s-u-n-a-g-o-g-u-e. And then lastly there is ekklesia,
which we looked at. Those are four words in the Greek
language that can mean assembly or congregation. All right? And this is why I'm saying that
this universal invisible that we are looking at, okay? The
people there will say, well, I believe in the local church.
Yeah, I believe in local churches. We all ought to be in the local
church somewhere, okay? But they will say that the church
that Christ died for, the church that Christ loves, the church
that Christ built, the church that will not prevail from the
gates of hell, all these places in the Bible that talks about
The church is talking about this universal invisible thing, not
a local visible thing. However, Jesus, and they will
say, yes, the word ekklesia means a called out assembly or a gathered
assembly, and they will also maybe even agree to the fact
that the term is congregation. If you remember, I mentioned
at the very beginning of this study that all the English Bibles
before the King James Version, except for the... I just left my mind. I see it go
as it went. Somebody help me? It wasn't one preceding King
James. It was... 1610. The Geneva Bible. The Geneva
Bible, all the English versions of the Bible preceding the Geneva
Bible and the King James Bible, everywhere the term ecclesia
was, translated that as congregation. Okay? Translated that as congregation.
They recognized that the term ecclesia meant a gathered assembly,
not a universal body. A gathered, a universal body
is actually an axi-moron. Can't have a universal body.
Okay, so they recognize that as that. Now, let's just, just
for kicks and giggles here, let's use that term whenever we look
at some of the verses that a lot of people so wholeheartedly say
is universal and visible. Christ loved the congregation
and gave himself for it. The term's congregation, not
church, it's congregation. For Christ loved the congregation
and gave himself for it. How about right here where we
just read? And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and
upon this rock I will build my congregation and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. It lends a little different sound
whenever we use the term, right? Congregation versus church, why? because the word church has been
so misaligned to the wrong meaning that people think it means everybody
everywhere. And it don't. It means congregation. And so if we apply the meaning
or the, what Ekklesia actually is a fuller than even congregation,
but if we apply the English translation congregation as all the previous
English translators translated it except for Geneva and except
for the King James. And if you remember, I give you
those papers and told you that the King James translators was
specifically told by King James not to translate Ecclesia as
congregation, but to translate it as church. So whenever we
see that the term church was specifically said to be used
instead of congregation, And we see that all the previous
versions of the English Bible had congregation. And we looked
at history and we've seen that everybody in history understood
ecclesia to mean more than just called out. And as we see that
the church itself, from the time of Christ until that time period,
all believed that they were individual, autonomous, independent, local
congregations. Whenever we look at that, we
need to find, you know, is that just coincidence? Well, here
we have four words that Jesus, whenever he spoke here in Matthew
16, 18, he could have used. He could have said, upon this
rock, I will build my Panagurus, or upon this rock, I could build
my Sologos, or upon this rock, I could build my Sunagogi, Sunagogue,
or however you say it. But he didn't say that. He said,
upon this rock, I will build Let's see it. Now, is there, what are the differences
between these words? Well, the term Panagurus means
a general or universal assembly. Now, if any, there was a time
that Christ wanted to convey a universal, invisible assembly,
that would have been a great time to have used the word Panagurus,
but he didn't use Panagurus. Panagurus was known to mean a
general assembly or a universal assembly. Liddell and Scott stated this,
an assembly of a whole nation for a public festival such as
the Olympic Games, a high festival, a solemn assembly, any assembly,
that word was used to just talk about any general assembly, just
any gathering of people, but again, it did mean gathering. So even if Jesus would have used
the word Panagurus, it still would have meant a gathered assembly. Universal and invisible does
not fit that. To be honest, in all these definitions,
the Catholics actually have a more close understanding of the word
ecclesia than the Protestants did. I hate saying that, That's true. They at least believe that the
church was something that is a visible thing. Gathered at a locale, but all
locales make up the one. Where we believe that it's all
local, but each local makes up the whole. Not the whole makes
up all the local. We believe that every local assembly
is the whole body in that location, that it doesn't need anybody
outside of itself. Other churches around the area,
we don't need parachurch organizations. That's why the Baptist was so
vehement against the missionary societies, against the tract
societies, against all these extra biblical things, the Sunday
schools and all that kind of stuff that were being done outside
of the church to say to come alongside because the church
wasn't getting the work done itself. Well, shame on the church
for not doing that, okay? But the fact remains is Christ
has given everything that is needed for this church right
here. And you say, well, wait a minute,
you don't have your own building? Wait a minute, you don't have
a lot of people? Wait a minute, you don't have a lot of money
in the bank to do all, you know, you don't have missionaries that
you're sending out? That doesn't, just because you're a church
doesn't mean you have to have all those things. See, everybody
thinks that to be a successful church is to be a huge church,
a thriving economic center, you know, whatever, you know. That
isn't necessary. Matter of fact, a lot of churches,
they get themselves into trouble by having a wider view of what
they need to do than what Christ has for them to do. Why don't we have missionaries
over there? Well, because Christ hasn't got our congregation here
to the point where we can send a missionary. Are we wrong for not doing that?
Should we do everything we can? Do we need to start selling pies
and stuff out here on the parking lot to raise money and have car
washes and auctions and do all this stuff to raise money from
the world so that we can do the gospel? Now, have you ever thought,
and I even said this to one missionary in one church, have you ever
thought that maybe God doesn't want you going there? Whoa, you
mean Jesus would not want me to go somewhere and preach the
gospel? Yeah, have you ever thought of that? He didn't want Paul
to go to a certain place one time. Paul wanted to go there
bad. The Holy Spirit said, nah, not
going there. So, We see, pantagyrus is a word
that could have mean universal assembly. So if Jesus thought
that his ekklesia, or his church, let's use the word church, his
church was a universal assembly, pantagyrus was the word to use,
not ekklesia, because it had a totally different meaning than
pantagyrus. But Jesus didn't use that. Trent
stated this, the pantagyrus differs from the ekklesia in this, that
in the ecclesia, as has been noted already, there lay ever
the sense of an assembly coming together for the transaction
of business. Okay? So what makes the ecclesia different
than these other things is not only are they called out, not
only are they only assembled or gathered, but they are called
out and assembled for the purpose of conducting business. Okay? Can't say that about a universal
assembly. Can't say that about an invisible assembly. Okay? It don't work that way. According
to Trent, the Panagurus was not a governing assembly. It was
merely a general assembly. Liddell and Scott show that the
Greeks spoke of their Olympic gatherings as a Panagurus and
not an ecclesia. George R. Berry lists ecclesia
Synagogue and Panagurus in his dictionary of a New Testament
Greek synonyms and defines them this way. Okay, hang with me
on this. According to their derivation,
synagogue is simply an assembly, a mass of people gathered together. Ekklesia is a narrower word,
also an assembly, but including only those especially called
together out of a larger multitude for the transaction of business.
Ekklesia usually denotes a somewhat more select company than synagogue. Synagogue had been, before New
Testament times, appropriated to designate a synagogue or a
Jewish assembly for worship, distinct from the temple, in
which sense it is used in the New Testament. They were summoned
out of the whole population, a select portion of it, including
neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited
their civic rights. Synagogue had been, before New
Testament times, appropriated to designate its, oh, I'm sorry,
I copied that twice. I copied that like three times
right in a row. Let me find the end of it. Probably
for that reason and also for its greater inheritance etymological
fitness, Ekklesia is the word taken to designate a Christian
church, a company of believers who meet for worship. Both these
words, however, are sometimes used in the New Testament in
a non-technical sense. Panagurus, occurring only in
Hebrews 12, 23, differs from both, denoting a solemn assembly
for festival rejoicing. Okay, so this guy here, George
Berry, in his Dictionary of New Testament Greek Synonyms, shows
that while these four Greek words are somewhat synonymous, they
do have their differences. Okay, the Panagurus meant just
a general assembly or a universal assembly. The synagogue was a Jewish assembly
or would be considered group of people who have just come
to worship in a specific location, but the Ekklesia was a called-out
gathered assembly who met in a specific place for the conducting
of business and the worship of God. Well, in the classical sense,
the conducting of business. Synagogi had been, before New
Testament times, appropriate to designate a synagogue, a Jewish
assembly, distinct from the temple, in which sense it is used. That's
how he quoted that. Now, there's another term, it's
called sylogos, and this speaks of a common congregation or assembly. Now, the word sylogos is not
found anywhere in the Bible. That Greek word is not found
anywhere in Scripture. So that's not much of our concern. But just so that you'll know
what it means, it means a gathering, especially an assembly, concourse,
meeting of persons, of any special public meeting or assembly opposed
to the common ecclesia. So even in this, the definition
of sologos differed from ecclesia, and everybody in these definitions
have made clear that these are not the same as the ecclesia.
They are a gathered assembly, they are assembly, they are congregation,
they are called out, okay? All these things mean those terms,
but they say the ecclesia is a more narrow definition of not
only are they called out, but they're gathered, and not only
are they gathered, they are organized, and not only are they organized,
they are there to conduct specific business out of the whole group,
okay? And as I made mention earlier,
just like in the Old Testament, you had the nation of Israel
was called out of all the other nations of the world to be God's
specific people. But in the, congregation of the
Israelites, he gathered together the Levites to conduct the worship
and the sacrificial systems of the tabernacle, the temple, okay? And so the Levites had a different
privilege even though they were Israelites. They had a different
privilege and purpose and use of service to God than the other
Israelites had. And so in the New Testament,
we find that the church is a called out group of people that is called
out of the called out ones. The ones who have been called
out of darkness into light, then out of those people, God calls
his church together, okay? And so those who are in the New
Testament church are the called out of the called out. Just like
the Levites were the ones who were called out of the Israelites
who were called out of the world. Okay, all Christians everywhere
who have ever been born again have been called out of the world.
But not all Christians who have been called out of the world
have been called into the gathered assembly. And at that point,
that's whenever the New Testament church differs from everywhere
else. It's not just a gathering, it's just not a congregation.
It's just not a called out. It is a gathered assembly. Yes,
that requires a location, right? To be gathered. We're gathered
here today. Yesterday, we couldn't say that we were gathered because
we weren't. We were all in our home somewhere.
But today, we are gathered. So we are not only local in this
area, general area, and gathered, but we are visible. Here we are. So these other terms, universal,
invisible, and universal visible, can't meet the historical, classical
use that everybody understood ekklesia to mean whenever Christ
said this. Whenever Christ said in Matthew
16, 18, I will build my ekklesia. And that's what he did say, by
the way. It was written in Greek whenever the inspired Spirit
of God had Matthew write this down. He wrote this down in Greek. He didn't write it in Hebrew.
He didn't write it in English. He didn't write it in Latin or
German. He didn't write it in Eskimo, okay? He wrote it in
Greek. And so if we take the word that
the Holy Spirit penned down, ekklesia, and find that's what
it means historically, classically, to all these people, then we
find in the holy scriptures that that's how it's used everywhere,
then we have to submit to that. Ekklesia does not mean just called
out. It doesn't mean just congregation.
It means a called out, gathered assembly who is there to conduct
the business of the kingdom, just as the ekklesia in Greek
understanding was. Now, the word ekklesia, usually
denotes somewhat a more select company than the others. The significant use of ekklesia
in strict harmony with its derivation was common among the Greeks.
It was their common word for the lawful assembly in a free
Greek city of all those possessing the rights of citizenship for
the transaction of public affairs. So there was a membership among
this. There was a numbered amount. They knew who was the ekklesia. Those of the city knew who were
the ones who were the part of the ekklesia. You say, well,
that ain't biblical. If you remember in Acts, on the
day of Pentecost, there were 3,000 names who were added. Who were they added to? They
were added to the church, the ekklesia. And what did it say? Whose names
and numbers were about 120. He didn't mean everybody everywhere.
He said whose names and number was about, there was 120 in the
church that those 3,000 were added to. So that tells me a
lot of things, and we're gonna talk about this in depth when
we get there. That tells me a lot of things. Number one, it tells
me that the church existed before the day of Pentecost. Number
two, it tells me that they knew who were a member of that church
because the names and number were about 120. And we know that
it wasn't everyone who was believers because, if you remember, Christ
showed himself to over 500 disciples. Christ had many disciples besides
the 12 and besides the others that were gathered in that upper
room. But in that upper room, there was 120 people that were
gathered together. Also on the day of Pentecost,
whenever they came together and they were deciding who was gonna
take Judas's place, what was the thing that they stood up
and said was the requirement for the apostle to replace Judas? This has to be a man who has
accompanied with us, the 120, from the baptism of John. until Jesus ascension. So there is some strict, it's
a gathered assembly. They knew who was a part of it.
It wasn't just everybody. It was that 120. And those 3000
were added that 120, but how were they added? They were added
whenever they were made disciples. That's what Jesus said in the
commission. They were added after they professed faith and believed. Okay, they were made disciples. They were baptized. That's what
Jesus said in the commission. And then they were added to the
church. That's what Jesus said in the
commission. See, they were following the pattern of Christ. And you'll
find all through Acts, they followed the pattern of Christ. And we
should follow the pattern of Christ. But we also should acknowledge
the fact that whenever Christ said, I will build this church,
he didn't say, I will build this Panagurus, or I will build this
Sologos, or I will build this, what was the other one? I don't
remember. Panagurus, Sologos, Sunagogue.
And he didn't say that. He said, I will build my Ecclesia.
Something completely different. And as everybody has noted, more
narrow than just an assembly or a gathered people, okay? So we'll stop right there for
today, and hopefully that's gonna be for now the end of all the
litany of quotes and etymology and stuff like that. I know it's
hard. I know it was for me as I was studying this. To me, that
kind of stuff is boring. Some people get into words and
their meanings and the roots and all that junk, hey, we need
people to do that, but it's not me. But I felt that I needed
to provide that because whenever we go into God's word and we
see Jesus use that specific word, let's now see how the Holy Spirit
defines it. See, if, and I want to say this,
if what all those men said about Ecclesia and they said that,
all this stuff that I've read, if they said that, But if I went
to this and I read that that term, ekklesia, was used different
in here than what all those men say, I wouldn't care how many,
if it multiplied by 20 times that amount of people that said
that. If this didn't say it, I don't care what they say. So don't get me wrong, just because
those men said it isn't why I believe it. And just because those men
said it isn't why you should believe it. And just because
those men said it didn't make it so. But I said that to show
you that the understanding isn't just this little click of Baptist
in a certain location here that holds to some man's tradition.
This is something that has gone not only outside of our belief
in this church, or a fellowship of churches out here that believe
the same, but this even crosses boundaries. I read quotes from
Lutherans, from Presbyterians, I read quotes from Anglicans,
from Campbellites. I read quotes from Catholics. I read quotes from people who
were not even religious period, who all were saying the same
thing about this word, ecclesia. And so whenever we see that God's
word says that too, you've got not only history, etymology,
But more importantly, God's word saying that, it isn't just a
man's tradition at that point. It isn't just a secluded little
cult in Joplin that's holding to some weirdo idea, okay? This has actually been the foundational
belief of the Baptist for the time that Christ performed in
the church. So, we're gonna stop right there
for today. And next week, we're going to
dive into the Bible portion of this and start looking at the
term everywhere it's found, okay? And again, if you have your questions,
I want your questions. Don't ever think that I'm being
put off by people's questions, because that's how we learn.
That's how I learn. That's how everybody learns. Plus, there
may be something that I'm not thinking about, you know, some
area. Somebody may have a deal, you know, well, if that's true,
then what about this verse that says this or that, you know?
We wanna be able to do that because if it is the truth, it's gonna
coincide with all the scripture. It's not gonna contradict, right?
And so we wanna be sure that what we preach and teach here
is the truth as God enables us to do so and definitely want
the questions. Matter of fact, I like having
questions because It's easier to bounce off of with questions
and to discuss things because that's hidden things. People
know, especially with me, I'm such a bad organizer of notes
and, you know, organizing a plan of how we should go through this
study and everything. I'm just not very good at that.
You know, I'm more of an exegetical. I open up the Bible and I teach
what it says. But to take a study this massive
and this intensive and to make a plan on how to go through that
in a very systematic and coherent way, it's hard for me to do that. So a lot of times, the questions
is my comfort zone, because at that point, then I'm dealing
with specific things that I know people want to know about. And
we can deal with those and go to God's word and see that. So
I love the questions. So don't ever be ashamed or think
that it's put me out causing me to go a different direction
than what I was wanting to go. That's never the case. Wherever
the spirit leads us, that's where we want to go on that. All right,
anybody got any questions before we get out of here? I know I've
kept you a while. All right, well, let's bow and
have a word of prayer. It's good to have Mindy back
from her trip down to Yea Yonder, over the valley and through the
woods. I think she seriously had to go back to check in on
Jack Danna's and see if everything is still clicking down there.
Just a stone's throw from the distillery down there. Just kidding. Everybody listen to that. I'm
just kidding. All right. Anybody got any comments? All
right. Let's find out how it worked for her.