Restoring the Judicial Function of the Entire Church or "Ekklesia"

Illustration by Judith Clingan

Another major function of the first century church that has not been restored is the judicial function of the entire church. We all have heard that the entire church is to be presented with situations between brethren that could not be resolved by a one on one meeting nor a meeting between brethren with two or three witnesses:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The biggest reason we are prevented as a church from carrying out the Lord's will is because we inherited the Catholic-Protestant hierarchy and pastoral system and modified them into local oligarchies and a position of gospel preacher who make the decisions for us. As a result, we are told what "the Bible says" such as in Matt. 18:15, but we never actually do it. We give away our God-given responsibility as local "one body-one spirit" ekklesias to a few among us in whom we vest our "authority."

Where does Jesus say to take your and my problems to the elders? Or to the "gospel preacher?"

Nowhere.

Where does Jesus say that a few are to be expedient lawmakers for the rest?

He doesn't.

And when a few Christians are vested with and/or seize the authority that all Christians have, then I believe the Lord's will is being hindered.

I, for one, do not want to be a partaker in that! 

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Steve Atkerson called "Elder-Led Congregational Consensus."

The full article may be found here:

http://www.ntrf.org/articles/article_detail.php?PRKey=13

Atkerson gives some details about the first century word ekklesia or "church." It is my belief that the system of church we have is hindering us from obeying Matt. 18:5ff above and that restoring the judicial function of the entire church will go a long way in helping us be the "called out" people we are to be in the world.

I do not mean a "legislative" function. Jesus has given us His law as above-but it appears we are not keeping it. And in fact, the type of "elderships" we have are really legislative in the compartmental realm of expediency-efficiency and heavily influenced by the man made position of "gospel preacher." That is something for all of us to think about!

Jesus is the only Lawmaker in the churches (Jas. 4:12), and if our system is clearly hindering obedience to Him, then we need to get rid of it.

I agree with Frank Viola:

“It is the clergy system and the institutional structure that inhibits the rediscovery of face-to-face community, supplants the functional Headship of Christ, and stifles the full ministry of every believer. Consequently, all attempts at renewal will always be shortsighted until the clergy system and institutional structure is dismantled in a local fellowship.”— Frank Viola, ReImagining Church, p. 268.

ELDER-LED CONGREGATIONAL CONSENSUS

by Steve Atkerson

"Why do you suppose that Jesus chose the word church to describe His followers? "Church" is the English translation of the original Greek term ekklesia. Outside the context of the New Testament, ekklesia was a secular word that carried strong political connotations. There were other Greek words Jesus could have used to describe His followers and their gatherings, words that carried religious and nonpolitical connotations."

"As we will see, one of the reasons He chose the word ekklesia to describe His followers is because He wanted them to make corporate decisions that affected all of them as a group. How did Jesus intend for the church to be governed? Let’s begin by looking more closely at how the true meaning of the modern word church has been all but lost."

"Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary states that the English word church can be used to refer to either a meeting of God’s people or to the special building in which they meet. In contrast, the Greek word ekklesia never refers to a building or place of worship, and it can refer to much more than just a meeting, assembly, or gathering.  Our understanding of God’s church will be much impoverished if we fail to factor in the dynamics of the original Greek word used by Jesus.  With so much emphasis today on the separation of church and state, the last thing people associate church with is government.  Yet, this was exactly the original meaning of ekklesia." 

"During the time of Jesus, the word ekklesia was used almost without exception to refer to a political assembly that was regularly convened for the purpose of making decisions.  According to Thayer’s lexicon it was “an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberation.”2  Bauer’s lexicon defines ekklesia as an “assembly of a regularly summoned political body.”3 Dr. Lothan Coenen, writing for The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, noted that ekklesia was “clearly characterized as a political phenomenon, repeated according to certain rules and within a certain framework.  It was the assembly of full citizens, functionally rooted in the constitution of the democracy, an assembly in which fundamental political and judicial decisions were taken . . . the word ekklesia, throughout the Greek and Hellenistic areas, always retained its reference to the assembly of the polis.”  In the secular ekklesia, every citizen had “the right to speak and to propose matters for discussion.”4  (Women were not allowed to speak at all in the secular Greek ekklesia).5

"This secular usage can be illustrated from within the Bible as well, in Acts 19:23-41.  These Acts 19 occurrences of ekklesia (translated “assembly,” “legal assembly,” and “assembly” in 19:32, 39, 41) referred to a meeting of craftsmen who had been called together by Demetrius into the town theater to decide what to do about Paul, though there was so much confusion the majority did not know why they had been summoned.  This is an example of ekklesia used to refer to a regularly summoned political body (in this case, silver craftsmen and those in related trades).  They convened (as a sort of trade union) to decide what to do about a damaged reputation and lost business.  As it turned out, they overstepped their jurisdiction in wanting to deal with Paul, so the city clerk suggested that the matter be settled by the “legal” ekklesia (rather than by the trade union ekklesia, Ac 19:37-39)."

 

 JESUS' USE OF EKKLESIA

Atkerson continues,

"In light of all this, why did Jesus (in Mt 16:13-20; 18:15-20) choose such a politically “loaded” word as ekklesia to describe His people and their meetings?  Perhaps Jesus intended His people, Christians, to be function together with the a purpose somehow parallel to that of the political government.    Jesus designed that believers propose matters for discussion, decide things together, make joint decisions, and experience the consensus process.  Had Jesus merely wanted to describe a gathering with no such political connotation, he could have used sunagogé, thiasos or eranos.  Significantly, however, He chose ekklesia."

"God’s people have a decision-making mandate. A church is fundamentally a body of Kingdom citizens who are authorized (and expected) to weigh issues, make decisions, and pass judgments.  Though decision making will not occur at most church meetings (there aren’t usually issues to resolve), an understanding that the church corporately has the authority and obligation to settle things is important.  Churches whose meetings focus solely on praise music and teaching, never grappling corporately with problems and resolving issues, may be failing to fulfill their full purpose as an ekklesia."

"There are many examples in the New Testament of God’s people making decisions as a body.  That Jesus expected decision making from the ekklesia is seen in Matthew 16:13-20.  After promising to build His ekklesia on the rock of Peter’s revealed confession, Jesus immediately spoke of the keys of the kingdom of heaven and of binding and loosing.  Keys represent the ability to open and to close something, kingdom is a political term, and binding and loosing involves the authority to make decisions.  Then, in Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus said that the ekklesia (18:17) is obligated to render a verdict regarding a brother’s alleged sin, and once again, binding and loosing authority is conferred upon the ekklesia."

"In Acts 1:15-26, Peter charged the Jerusalem church as a whole with finding a replacement for Judas.  Later, the apostles looked to the church corporately to pick men to administer the church’s welfare system (Ac 6:1-6).  Acts 14:23 (marginal translation) indicates that some churches elected their own elders.  During the circumcision controversy, the church of Antioch decided to send to Jerusalem for arbitration, and then the whole church in Jerusalem was in on the resolution of the conflict (Ac 15:4, 12, 22).  Finally, in 1 Corinthians 14:29-30 it was made clear that judgment was to be passed on prophetic revelation when “the whole ekklesia comes together” (14:23)."

"It is important to note that the church, in its decision making role, should be judicial rather than legislative.  The church’s job is not to create law – only God can rightly do that. This is one point where the ekklesia of God’s people is different in function from the ekklesia of the old Greek city-states.  Our responsibility as believers within Christ’s ekklesia is to correctly apply and enforce the law of Christ as contained in the New Covenant. Church members are to be like citizen-judiciaries who meet together to deliberate and decide issues, or to render judgments (when necessary).  This form of government works tolerably well in a house church where people love each other enough to work through their disagreements.  It is virtually impossible to operate this way in a larger institutional church setting."

---------------------------------

1 Henry Woolf, ed., Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriman, 1973), 200.

2 Joseph Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1977), 196.

3 Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 240.

4 Lothan Coenen, “Church,” The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, Colin Brown, General Editor (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1971), 291.

5 Wayne Grudem & John Piper, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Wheaton, IL:  Crossway Books, 1991), 150.