{"id":3670,"date":"2020-05-26T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3670"},"modified":"2020-05-26T07:36:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T12:36:17","slug":"church-the-called-out-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/church-the-called-out-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Church – The Called Out Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"
Matthew 16:13\u201318 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
13<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, \u201cWho do people say that the Son of Man is?\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>14<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0And they said, \u201cSome say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>15<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0He said to them, \u201cBut who do you say that I am?\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>16<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0Simon Peter replied, \u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>17<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0And Jesus answered him, \u201cBlessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.\u00a0<\/i><\/span>18<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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As I have already stated, this was the first time Jesus ever used the word <\/span>\u201cchurch.\u201d<\/div>\n
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But, the word \u201cchurch\u201d was a very familiar term in Jesus\u2019 day.\u00a0 It is the word ekkl\u0113s\u00eda. The verb of this word means, \u201cto call out.\u201d\u00a0 The noun, ekkl\u0113s\u00eda, describes those who have been called out. So It literally means, \u201cthe called people.\u201d\u00a0 As I said, it was a very common word. For example, it was used to describe a body of citizens of a town who had been called together to discuss public affairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Literally, a herald would go up and down the streets and call the people out of their homes to come to the meeting.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Jesus took this very common term and \u201cbaptized\u201d it into the rich meaning of what He was about to do.\u00a0<\/span>For Jesus was speaking in the future tense, since as of yet He had not begun to build His church, which would begin on the Day of Pentecost.<\/div>\n
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The word \u201cchurch\u201d carries two meaning.\u00a0 First, it refers to all who are called by Christ in the fellowship of His salvation.\u00a0 This is the church worldwide of all times. This is how Jesus used it in Matthew 16:18. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here are some other verses referring to the church throughout the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Acts 9:31 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cSo the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Galatians 1:13 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cFor you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Ephesians 3:21 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201c<\/sup><\/i><\/span>to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
As you can see, these verses are not referring to the church in a specific location, which leads us to the other meaning of the word church.\u00a0 It refers to the \u201ccalled out people of God,\u201d expressing life in a specific location.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Here are some examples:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Acts 8:1 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201c\u2026And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
In some of his letters, Paul addressed local churches in a specific location:<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
1 Corinthians 1:2 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cTo the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
1 Thessalonians 1:1 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cPaul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Paul also wrote letters that were meant to be passed around to local churches that were in a specific region:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Galatians 1:2\u20133 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
2<\/sup><\/span>\u2026\u201dTo the churches of Galatia:\u00a0<\/span>3<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Now, here is the point. As we begin to offer church gatherings again, it is important to know that we are called out to assemble together.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure some of us have enjoyed the leisure of getting up on Sunday morning and turning on the internet in our pajamas. But, that\u2019s not how church is supposed to be. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
We are called out to salvation and we are called out to assemble.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Read this passage closely:<\/span><\/div>\n
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Hebrews 10:24\u201325 (NIV)<\/span><\/div>\n
24<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.\u00a0<\/i><\/span>25<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Did you catch that?\u00a0 Some had gotten into the habit of not meeting together. We need to meet in order to encourage one another and to motivate each other toward love and good deeds.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
There are many other reasons why we should meet, some of which we will discuss in the coming days.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
If your health permits, make every effort to be a part of the called out to assemble ones this Sunday.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 16:13\u201318 (ESV) 13\u00a0Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, \u201cWho do people say that the Son of Man is?\u201d\u00a014\u00a0And they said, \u201cSome say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\u201d\u00a015\u00a0He said to them, \u201cBut who do you say that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3670"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3674,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3670\/revisions\/3674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}