The Kingdom of God, Mentor Guide, MG02

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T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

The primary aim in this segment and the one to come is to help our students come to grips with the Church’s association to the Kingdom as God’s rule in the world. The term “church” is probably derived from the Greek word kuriakon meaning “the Lord’s house.” In the New Testament the term rendered “church” most frequently is the translation of the Greek word ekklesia , “assembly” or “called out ones” (probably synonymous with the Hebrew qahal of the Old Testament). Both ekklesia and qahal were used to designate, in simple usage, an assembly, or gathering. The term as used in the New Testament was not identified with a place of meeting or a building (“the church on the corner”), nor in the common way the term is associated with denominations (“The Evangelical Free Church”) or with people of a country committed to the same profession (“Church of Scotland”). Rather, the term was used for: 1) a gathering or assembly [Acts 19.32, 39, 41]; 2) for the entire body of all believers who have come to God in Christ by repentance and faith [e.g. Eph. 5.23-29; Heb. 12.23]; 3) as a small gathering of disciples meeting together for fellowship and mission [Rom. 16.5; Col. 4.15]; 4) for the believers in a particular city and locale, as the “Church of God at Corinth” [1 Cor. 1.2, the “Church at Jerusalem,” Acts 18.1, or the “Church of Ephesus,” Rev. 2.1]; 5) the entire body of living and professing Christians holding to Christ in the world today [1 Cor. 15.9; Gal. 1.13; Matt. 16.18]. This refers to the “Church visible,” that is, those believers who publicly hold to the person and hope of Jesus Christ in the world today. What is critical for you as Mentor is to try to emphasize in the student discussions and interaction that the Church is integral to God’s kingdom purposes, that while the Kingdom is not the Church per se , it is, in fact the locus and context of the Kingdom; the place where the rule of God is enjoyed, displayed, and given witness to in life, word, worship and service. The goal is to banish all thoughts that the Kingdom can be authentically understood divorced from a critical and biblical comprehension of the Church of Jesus Christ in the world today.

4 Page 72 Summary of Segment 1

One of the wonderful realities about the Word of God in connection to the Church is the remarkable multiplicity of images, metaphors, ideas, and concepts associated with the nature of the Church of Jesus Christ. In Paul Minear’s remarkable little book on the Church, Images of the Church in the New Testament , its appendix lists

5 Page 72 Outline Point I