Summary: To understand the church we see around us, we need some church history; Where did the model for the church come from? In 457 BC the Persian king Artaxerxes allowed a Hebrew priest Ezra to return to Jerusalem to teach the Law to the Jews who lived there. When Ezra arrived he found a total abandonment of the Laws and traditions of Moses... Synagogue established during the Babylonian captivity - Neh 8:2 Synagogue's were established to re-educate the nation about their religious heritage... Christ called us to something more than what He found in Israel 2,000 years ago; 1. Called to be a Family; Rom 9:25& 26 2. Called to One Body; Col 3:15, 1Cor 12:12-17 3. Called to love; Rom 8:28, 1Jn 4:19-21, Jn 15:12 4. Called as Saints; Rom 1:7 5. Called to Freedom; Gal 5:13 6. Called to Peace; 1Cor 7:15 7. Called to Worship; Rev 22:9, Jn 4:23-24, Ps 100:1-5 "A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully (shout) to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness (happy); Come before Him with joyful (exuberant triumph) singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving (adoration) And His courts with praise (boasting). Give thanks to Him, bless (how can we bless God? How is any father blessed?) His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations. Can you hear God calling? Encouraging us to His family... Encouraging us to be in a relationship as a unified body... Encouraging us to love one another... Encouraging us to remember that we're all cleansed... Encouraging us to be independent... Encouraging us to live peacefully with each other... Encouraging us to express our joy through worship... Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." These are the People God Seeks... those who hear His call... My Way to Define the Church The church is as indefinable as God Himself. The Church is an expression of God in His creation through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Jesus Christ. The Church is like God, always expanding and yet remaining unchanged. The Church is a characteristic of God and therefore inexpressible. What we define as the church is our way of trying to understand and explain an unknowable and indescribable God. Using terms like Scripture, repentance, faith, believer, baptism, born again, salvation, congregation, bride of Christ, body of Christ, or family of God, only attempts to define our scope of understanding as those who have been sanctified by Christ, and brought into the Church of God by His grace. The Church is what God wants it to be, when He wants it to be, for as long as He wants it to be. As God said when Moses asked for His name, "I Am Who I Am." The Church Is what God Is!
