Who is the Church?

In the Old Testament, Israel was God’s people. But in the New Testament, God’s people are most commonly called “the church.” Our modern term for church translates the Greek word ekklesia in Matthew. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, ekklesia is a translation of the Hebrew word qahal, which the Hebrew Old Testament typically used to refer to the assembly or congregation of the people of Israel. This shift in vocabulary — from the “assembly” of Israel to the Christian “church” — demonstrates that both Jesus and Matthew saw the Christian church as the continuation of the assembly of Israel.

Consider the use of the Hebrew word qahal or “assembly” in the Old Testament. The people of Israel are identified as the “assembly” in Leviticus 16:33, Numbers 16:47, Judges 20:2, and Psalm 22:22. In fact, the assembly of God’s people was so important in the Old Testament that it was one of the names the prophet Joel used to identify Israel when he foretold that God’s people would be restored in the last days. In Joel 2:16 he proclaimed:

Gather the people, consecrate the assembly.

In the Hebrew original of this verse, the word translated “assembly” is qahal. But in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, the word is ekklesia — the word commonly translated “church” in the New Testament. Matthew used this same language when he reported these words from Jesus in Matthew 16:18:

I will build my church.

Here Jesus echoed Joel’s prophecy when he said that he would build his church, meaning his qahal or his messianic assembly of the last days. Jesus’ words also made it clear that the church belonged to him. It didn’t belong to Peter. It didn’t belong to Israel. It wasn’t a democratic institution owned by its members. It was the Messiah’s church.

This same church that Jesus put forth into action is the same church that is working today. Look how much it has sustained and how much it has gone through, yet it is still there. And let me go a little step further. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word that became flesh — they couldn’t kill him then, they can’t kill him now. So we are part of, we are the church. It is his church, and he will not allow anything, not even the very gates of hell to prevail and stop his mission. This church has a mission, and it is to go into all the world to bring and make disciples of those that are lost. And what a joy that is, and you and I can have a great security and have a really resurrected moment even now, knowing that the church will be sustained. [Dr. Willie Wells]