The Calling Out Of The Faithful Disciples Of The Lord

Ekklesia The calling out of the faithful disciples of the lord Jesus Mark Slovensky

Jesus called the church His, saying that He would build it, referring to a singular entity consisting of those who continued in His word, His disciples. The word that is translated as church in our modern bibles comes from the compound of

ex

denoting a point from which action or motion proceeds and kaleo a calling out of a community. As I look at the church of today, I fail to detect any congruity with these originating concepts. Many of today’s references concerning the church are to a building or other structure with the possible exception being a home church, but many of these are more like cell groups for those with an affinity for a more casual atmosphere. .Jesus said that He will build His church and He was not referring to a man or a building but to the confession of a faith in Him as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed one of God sent to be the salvation of man in fulfillment of the promise. His church is comprised of those whom have faith in Him as the anointed one sent from The Father, His disciples. Jesus describes a true disciple in the text of John’s Gospel the eighth chapter verses 31 and 32. Jesus had just finished explaining His mission according to the Holy Scriptures and how they were about to miss it when many of the Jews understood Him to be telling the truth and believed in Him. He then told the new believers that only those who continued in His word would truly be His disciples and know the truth. He continued to state that only the truth that they know would make them free. By this Jesus meant that what we know to be true is reflected in our actions. Jesus was giving a “call to action” to those who truly believed in Him or knew the truth and it was reflected in their lives. So if we, as true disciples of the Lord Jesus and therefore the church, are called out we must be called out from something. And if we are called out of one thing we must be called into another thing. I would suggest that we are called out of a sedentary life of merely following rules and traditions or, worse yet, a life of spiritual penury and called into a life of deliberate action reflecting the truth that we know, the truth of Jesus as the salvation of mankind. Jesus also said that all would know His disciples by their love for one another other (Jn 13:35). That love is exchanged as we gather together in worship, prayer, and study with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, focusing on relationships in which we aid each other in our respective journeys to knowing the Lord. The quality of spiritual life is found far more in the friendships we cultivate and how the Spirit within stimulates us to live more deeply in Christ than anything one can get out of a ritualistic action, done in obedience to the action alone. Real friendships emerge as we recognize and invest time in those Father has asked us to walk with for a season as all these relationships start with

Him. In Genesis chapter 5 we read that Enoch walked with God and Hebrews 11:5 tells us that Enoch pleased God, for having walked with God and having thereby come to recognize sin as sin and to have turned from it, Enoch pleased God in what he did. What could be a better testimony for any human life? Jesus also chose relationships as we read in Luke chapter 2 that Jesus grew in favor with God and men. We should also strive to grow as our Lord but if it comes to a choice, may it never be said that we chose to please men rather than God. Each of the relationships that are formed through the guidance of the Holy Spirit becomes an integral part of the aggregate, the community that is called out. And the action that each of us is called to refers to the good works that God ordained for us to walk in (Eph. 2:10). For each of us was created by God with these preordained works in mind as He gifted each one with the very talents that would be needed to complete ones assigned tasks. God tells us through our brother James that Faith without works is dead and that we are to be doers of His word and not hearers only. He is not referring to just any works, but as Jesus said in John 14, it is the Father who lives within us who does the works. These are the works that were ordained for us to walk in, ordained by the Father and communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. These works are the actions we are called out to walk in as the church of Jesus Christ.