AUGUST 11
I am Church: week 2
Caleb kicked us off last week with THIS GREAT BRIEFING on “I am that I am”, the name that God gave for himself to Moses out of the burning bush.
In the Bible there are over 900 names and titles for God (handy link:) so clearly we have a Biblical platform for creativity with names, nicknames and titles! In fact, there is a pretty impressive precedent for great intentionality with what we name God, what we name ourselves and what we name others. All throughout the Bible we are told stories of people, special mention of their names and the reason for many of those same names is included. We see books FULL of lists of names and genealogies, we see people in captivity given new names and we see God give people new names.
Names are clearly important to God, they can be prophetic, but as we see with Caleb (LINK) sometimes meanings can change. The name originally meant “dog”, but because of his great faith and boldness in taking the land God had promised, it has come to mean “bold and impetuous”. Indeed, our own Caleb grew into this name!
So today our topic is:
CHURCH BY ANY OTHER NAME
THE RELATIONAL ELEMENT OF NAMES
Names are important, helpful and powerful - Proverbs 18 tells us death and life is in the power of the tongue and whoever loves it shall eat it’s fruit. It’s really simple, but a huge relational reality is that names are primarily given to be spoken. This is 100% in line with the first mentions of speech in Genesis.
God created the world for us in order to relate with His creation - He spoke that creativity into being, and when He gave Adam his part to play, one of his first role was to use language to create and name everything
NOTE: God was interested in His choices - he’s interested in how we use our creativity!
Gen 2:19-20 ”Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.”
Jesus himself, provided the first mention for the concept of church when he re-named Simon, Peter and said “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
Interesting to think about the concept of gates not prevailing against something and what that means…but more on that another time.
WHAT IS CHURCH?
Church https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G1577
Ekklēsia
a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly
an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating
the assembly of the Israelites
any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously
in a Christian sense
an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake
those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven
IT IS US
Just like God has many names, the church is called by many names, titles and characteristics throughout scriptures, including prophetically in the OT and it gives us HUGE insight into who we are;
Adopted (Romans 8:15, 8:23, 9:4, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:5)
Assembly of the Saints / Saint/s (Ps 89:7, Philippians 4:21, Acts 9:32, 26:10, Rom 8:27)
Assembly of the Upright (Psalm 111:1)
Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27
Bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20, 7:23)
Brethren (Matt 23:8, Acts 7:26, Acts)
Building (1 Corinthians 3:9) - what Jesus is building
The Branch/Branches/God’s husbandry/Grafted (Is 60:21, John 15:5, Romans 11, 1 Cor 3:9)
The Bride (Ephesians 5:26, Rev 21:2, 9)
Called (Ephesians 4:1, 4:4, James 2:7, 1 Peter 3:9) - In one body (Colossians 3:15)
Children of the Living God/Sons/Daughters (Romans 9:26, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:6)
Chosen People/Generation (1 Peter 2:9)
Citizens of Heaven (Ephesians 2:19)
The Circumcision (Philippians 3:3) - Note, this is also a term for Christians in NT times who were circumcised / held to circumcision: we are not that
Clean through the word (John 15:3)
Coheirs with Christ (Romans 8:17, 1 Peter 3:9)
Co-Laborers (1 Corinthians 3:9)
Complete - in Jesus (Colossians 2:10)
The Congregation (Psalm 111:1)
Disciples (John 8:31, 13:35)
Epistles (letters), known and read by everyone (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)
Enriched by God in all utterance and knowledge (1 Corinthians 1:5)
Family in heaven and earth (Eph 3:15)
Flock/Sheep (Is 40:11, John 10:11-18)
Friends (John 15:14)
General Assembly (Hebrews 12:23)
Ground of the Truth (1 Tim 3:15)
God’s special possession (1 Corinthians 3:23, 1 Peter 2:9)
Habitation of God (Ephesians 2:22)
Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22)
Holy City (Rev 21:2)
Holy Nation
Holy Priesthood (1 Peter 2:5)
Household of Faith (Gal 6:10
Household of God (Eph 2:19)
Justified (1 Corinthians 6:11)
Light of the World (Matt 5:14) Children of light/the day (1 Thessalonians 5:5)
Lively Stones (1 Peter 2:5)
More valued than many sparrows (Matt 10:31, Luke 12:7)
New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2)
Not in the flesh but in the spirit (Rom 8:9)
Not of the world (John 15:19)
Not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Not under law but under grace (Rom 6:14)
One in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28)
Overcomers/have overcome (1 John 2:14, 1 John 4:4) because greater is he that is in you
Partakers of Christs sufferings (1 Peter 4:13) (so we can be glad with exceeding joy when Jesus’ glory is revealed
Peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9)
Pillar (1 Timothy 3:15)
Judges (1 Corinthians 6:1-2 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?) - NOTE: Working through issues with one another as church is practice for this!
Risen - with Christ in faith (Colossians 2:12)
Royal Priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)
Salt of the Earth (Matt 5:13)
Sanctified (1 Corinthians 6:!1)
Saved - by grace (1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:5)
Sealed - by Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)
Spiritual House (1 Peter 2:5)
Temple (1 Corinthains 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 12:27, 2 Corinthians 6:16)
The glory and joy of the Apostles (1 Thessalonians 2:20)
Washed (1 Corinthians 6:11, Ephesians 5:26)
Witnesses (Luke 24:48, 1 Thessalonians 2:10)
BY ANY OTHER NAME
“'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” - Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet)
Basically the old English version of “it’s what’s on the inside that counts”.
In the context of our topic today, we see clearly that names ARE important to God and that we are called Church for a reason, however our name has most affect when we live up to it, when we imbibe it. In other words, we’re not Church unless we’re actually being it! And here at Megamorphic through our vision we all understand that it is by being church in the power of God’s spirit that we are transformed.
B.I.D.
No lone rangers. We’re members of the big C Church worldwide when we get saved - it’s part of the gift of eternal life! We’re also part of Megamorphic Church. So let’s get informed on what that means for us in terms of BEING. Dig into all God says we are according to His word and get informed on the vision and our keynote scriptures here at Mega!