A Growing Church

The Growing Church

By Apostle Felix

16  Simon Peter spoke up and said, “You are the Anointed One, the Son of the living God!” 

17  Jesus replied, “You are favored and privileged Simeon, son of Jonah! For you didn’t discover this on your own, but my Father in heaven has supernaturally revealed it to you. 

18  I give you the name Peter, a stone. And this truth of who I am will be the bedrock foundation on which I will build my church—my legislative assembly, and the power of death will not be able to overpower it! 

Matthew 16: 16 – 18

In ancient Athens and other Greek city-states, the ekklesia was the official political assembly of adult male citizens who gathered regularly to vote on laws, debate public policy, and conduct state business. The word Ekklesia was not used as a religious word, but as a political word to refer to a group of people with a common vision and purpose for political reasons. Political movements, especially during the Roman dominion over other nations, came to be known for the power to colonise. Unlike the previous empires, the Roman Empire grew by colonising other nations, not necessarily taking them captive. The Romans did not take the conquered out of their territory but simply Romanised the conquered nation in their territory. In every conquered territory, the Romans appointed a governor over it.

The word Ekkesia is a compound of two segments: ek, a preposition meaning “out of,” and a verb, kaleo, signifying “to call” — hence, “to call out.” The Romans borrowed the Greek concept of governance by a body, rather than an autocratic ruler. It is a concept of governance that rules over a territory, extending the values and character of its government.  Jesus was born in a Roman-controlled territory and grew up under Roman colonisation.  So, when He said that upon this Rock He shall build His church, He was referring to building an Ekklesia upon His Person and it will be given the power through the Holy Spirit to colonise the kingdoms of this world. This was the reason why Jesus prayed to the Father in the manner He prayer in John chapter seventeen. The idea was not to take the church out of the world but the church to exert the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of this world. The growth of the church in the earth is predicated on the church manifesting the kingdom of God in the earth. Apostle Paul said that believers are Christ’s ambassadors.

15  I am not asking that you remove them from the world, but I ask that you guard their hearts from evil,
16  For they no longer belong to this world any more than I do. 

John 17: 15, 16

20  We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.”

2 Corinthians 5: 20

Part two…