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Adult Class: September-November 2006

The Church

Lesson 4

Images of the Church: Temple and Vine

            Our English word “church” comes from a Greek word, kuriokos, which means “the Lord’s.” It was originally probably used to describe the Lord’s house, the place where the church met. It came through German, kirche, to English. The Scots still refer to “the kirk” as a building. So, it is proper in English to call a building a church, but that is certainly not true for the Greek word for “church,” which is ecclesia, “the assembly.”

            The word was used more than 500 years before Jesus to describe the gathering of a Greek army. The emphasis is on the act of assembling, not an act of separation, as we often think of being “called out” to be away from the contaminating aspects of the world. That is certainly a valid activity of the church, but it is not what is comprehended in the word that is translated, “church.” The early church used this word to describe itself, meaning an assembly of the Lord’s people.

            It is surprising that the early church never called itself a “synagogue.” This word would have been very natural to the earliest Christians since they were almost entirely Jews. Also, the word “synagogue” meant both the building and the people, just as the English word is used. But the early Christians always referred to themselves as ecclesia, an assembly. When the church is likened to a building, it is the tabernacle or, especially, the Temple.

The Temple

            The word “temple” in the New Testament usually means “God’s Temple that was located in Jerusalem,” unless it is specifically qualified as dedicated to an idol like Zeus or Artemis. It is important to realize what the imagery of the Temple conveyed to the mind of first-century Christians. Among pagans, the temple was the place where the god lived. Among the Jews, the Temple was the place where God dwelled among His people. First, the Tabernacle had been the symbol of the presence of God. It was where Israel worshipped, where God met with His people. Later, the Temple took on the same functions for the forgiveness and blessing of the people of God. The idea of God dwelling among His people in His Temple is precisely the imagery involved in styling the church as the Temple of God.

            1 Peter 2:4-5 has a collection of words that deliberately recalls the Temple, with all the surrounding ideas about God’s presence with His people. To describe the church as a “spiritual house” is to say that the church is the house of the Spirit. Paul uses the identical idea to discuss the people of God in 1 Corinthians 6:16-17. This is an extremely important passage for our present discussion because of the moral and behavioral implications involved in being the temple of God’s Spirit. A Christian’s immorality actually fouls the true temple of God—and there were few offenses in the ancient world that were considered more heinous than the desecration of a temple, among Jews and Gentiles alike.

            When John reveals Jesus’ words in John 2:19-22, he gives us a passage with a dual meaning. First, Jesus is, in truth, “God with us,” so He serves as the actuality of the Temple, fulfilling its function as the place where God meets man. Second, though, Jesus’ body is the church (as we mentioned in the previous lesson) and the church is given the imagery of the Temple. So, in both senses, Jesus told the truth when He referred to His body as the Temple.

            The most obvious passage linking the church with the Temple is Paul’s discussion in Ephesians 2:19-22. Here, he makes it very clear that the church is all the people of God, knit together into a single, unified whole, taking its shape and dimensions from the Lord Jesus, Himself, and serving as the dwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. Since God dwells in His Temple, that fact has immediate and powerful moral implications concerning unity and righteousness in the church. We are the Temple of God, but that is not the only imagery of the church in the New Testament.

The Vine

            When Jesus discussed His relationship to His followers, He chose the metaphor of a vine and its respective branches (or, perhaps better, twigs). He developed this well in John 15:1-8 and revealed powerful truths about the church’s connection to Him:

• Jesus is the source of all our life and health.
• We must bear fruit in His service and remain connected to Him in order to do anything good. It is important to recognize that “fruit” is the product of maturity and health. It is not reproduction, but is the necessary foundation for reproduction to take place.
• Without continual investment in Jesus, we have no fruit and no life in us.

            The reason this image is so powerful and so strongly developed by Jesus is that the vine is an image used by God in the Old Testament to describe His people, Israel.

            Psalm 80:8-11 is a description of God’s people as His vine, brought up from Egypt and cultivated until it filled the land. Isaiah 5:1-7 is “the song of the vineyard” that is carefully tended and maintained, yet it brings forth bad fruit. The vine is specifically identified as “the house of Israel and the men of Judah” (Isaiah 5:7), and God determined to end its special care.

            This song furnishes the background needed to understand three of Jesus’ parables:

1. Matthew 20:1-6 is the parable about the laborers in the vineyard. The point of the parable is that the reward given to laborers is all by the generosity and grace of the Lord.
2. Matthew 21:28-32 is the parable about the two sons being called to work in the vineyard. The point of the parable deals with the importance of doing the Father’s will.
3. Matthew 21:33-46 is the parable about the rejected tenants, and this parable draws heavily on the Isaiah 5 passage. Jesus’ point here is that the vineyard will be taken away from the unproductive tenants and given into the hands of people who will produce the proper fruit (verse 43). His point was well taken by the hearers, especially the Jewish leaders!

            All three of these parables point to the church, and especially to the inclusion of Gentiles among God’s specially chosen people. We are special planting of the Lord, a cultivated life form intended to produce the proper fruit. So long as we remain closely bonded to Christ, we cannot fail to succeed. If we separate ourselves from Him, we cannot hope to succeed. The church is the Lord’s personal property, as well as His person!