The Birth of the Church

This Sunday is Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Praise God for calling us out of this dark world and into His glorious light by grace through faith in Jesus Christ! Praise Him for the exceeding riches of His grace to the Church! The Lord is leading me to write much about how He has blessed His Church in a series of upcoming articles. Today, though, is just a bit of background information that should be helpful to those who don’t know it already.

The Greek word for Church is ekklesia, from ek, meaning “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”), hence “called-out ones.” (The word ekklesia was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens assembled to discuss the affairs of state.) We see that Jesus has called us out of our sin nature inherited from the first Adam (“adam” is Hebrew for man) into our new self united with the second Man, fully restoring us to His intent for us: the image of God Himself.

Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49: So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being” [Gen. 2:7]; the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Hallelujah! Like Jesus, we who believe in Him are of heaven! Link this with Jesus’ word to Nicodemus (I suggest you read it slowly and meditate on this until the Holy Spirit opens His meaning up to you): No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man, who is in heaven. (John 3:13).

Do you see it?

Only the one who came from heaven can go back into heaven. That is Jesus Christ, the Way! We, the Church, His called-out ones, are one with Him, and so we are of heaven just as He is of heaven!

Oh, the glorious riches of our salvation in Christ Jesus are immense! Join me in praying that our Father enable us to APPREHEND these riches of His grace and walk them out in accordance with His Spirit like never before – NOW – for His glory and the salvation of all those for whom we intercede daily in Jesus’ blessed name. Amen!

If you are in agreement with this prayer, please press the “like” button, that all in heaven and on earth may know!

So very much love in Christ the heavenly Man, your sister deanna