ASSEMBLY TESTIMONY
Introduction to Kehillah (Church) Truths
Goal: To show the importance and necessity of observing church truths in worshipping and serving the Lord acceptably and for His glory.
Objectives: - To understand the importance of church truths
- To see the relevance of such truths in today’s context of Christendom
- To highlight the distinctives of assemblies practising such truths
Text: Matt 16:13-19, 18:20
Memory Verse: "For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them." ?Matt 18:20
Lesson
This term refers to all that the New Covenant has to say regarding the Assembly of Yahweh, both in its universal and local aspects. These truths include: the true nature of the Kehillah, the position of the believer in Messiah, the priesthood of all believers, the unity of the body of Messiah Yeshua, the sufficiency of the Name of Yeshua, the ministry of the Ruah HaKodesh in relation to the individual and to the corporate body, the rapture of the Believers, the second coming of the Messiah, and His millennial reign on earth.
There is need to study these important truths because they occupy a large part of the New Covenant. In addition, the practice of these truths has been much neglected over the ages because of the confusion that exists in Christendom.
By "Christendom" is meant the sum total of all the organised systems of religion in the world that name the Name of Messiah, whether they are good, bad or indifferent.
"Christianity", on the other hand, refers to all that was made possible by the perfect work of Messiah on earth, and His present ministry. Christianity finds its source, centre and circumference in Him. Christianity is Christ; apart from His Person, authority, presence and power, Christianity could not exist for a moment.
The confusion of Christendom is made evident by the following:
God’s Word is far from silent about the subject of the Church. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. The Church is His present dwelling place on earth. It encompasses every true born-again believer from the Day of Pentecost until the Rapture. The numerous figures of speech in the NT relative to the Church are significant and instructive:
Just as God gave minute details regarding the building, maintaining and functioning of the Tabernacle and the Temple in Old Testament times, He has left us many instructions about the Church today. These can be traced throughout the NT, from the Lord’s prophecy, promise and programme for the Church in Matt 16:18 up to Revelation. All this has been written so that we may know how to behave "in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim 3:15)
The Greek word which is translated "Church" in the NT is ekklesia, meaning "a calling-out". The Church is composed of believers who have been called out of the world unto the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
The English word "Church" and the Scottish variety "kirk" derive from the Greek word kuriakos ?"of the Lord" - in 1 Cor 11:20 and Rev 1:10. It is used commonly today to connote either a denomination or a building dedicated to religious purposes. For this reason, it would seem that "assembly" is the preferable translation of ekklesia, as more nearly approximating the meaning of that Greek word, when referring to the gathering together of believers in Christ.
A distinctive is some characteristic that distinguishes an object from all the rest. ASSEMBLY DISTINCTIVES, then, are characteristic practices that distinguish assemblies from other gatherings of Christians.
Assembly Distinctives are not:
Assembly Distinctives then, are those important truths which are preached and practised only in the assemblies of those who gather according to the New Testament pattern.
These include the following:
command. (Mt 26:26-30, Mk 14:22-26, Lk 22:19-20, 1 Cor 11:23-25). It is carried out now on earth in remembrance of Him ?His Person, sacrificial death, resurrection, ascension and His imminent return. The early disciples valued highly this remembrance feast, continuing steadfastly in the breaking of bread each first day of the week. (Acts 2:42,46, 20:7)
Appendices
The following articles are appended to provide personal insight to experiences among "the Brethren" (so-called), or those who seek to follow New Testament Church principles.
(1) "SEEN FROM THE OUTSIDE"
(This article was written by Dr. J. K. Unsworth, an observer at a Lord's Supper in an assembly in Victoria, BC and appeared in the Victoria, BC, Daily Colonist, June 7, 1936. Thereafter, it was published in the April 1998 issue of UPLOOK magazine.)
"There is a group of Christians in this city - indeed there are several groups whose Sunday morning service follows no "order of service," is conducted by no minister, parson, or priest, at which no one knows, as the hour of worship draws near, who will begin the service or open the meeting.
The regular gatherings of these believers is devoid of anything ecclesiastical. The meeting place is not called a church, because that term, as found in the New Testament, has a spiritual significance and reflects to the spiritual body of Christ. The setting and procedure here is rigidly non-ecclesiastical. There is neither pulpit or altar, no choir nor organ, nor orchestra; there is no chairman or precentor, and the hymns end without an 'Amen.' Ritual and liturgy are absent. There are no gowns or surplices, no processional, no cross, no ushers, no presiding officer, and at the evening service no collections are taken. There is no Book of Common Prayer, nor Missal, nor Book of Common Order. There is just the Bible and a hymn book.
These people disclaim any name, as implying denominationalism. The early believers in Christ were 'first called Christians at Antioch.' Therefore the signboard reads 'Christians meet here.' Enrolled of necessity under the Societies' Act, they are legally known as 'Christian Brethren'...A continuation of New Testament Christianity is the ideal aimed at.
Arranged in a hollow square are plain chairs and in the center is a plain table, on which are a loaf of bread and two goblets of wine. There is silence. No person is in charge. No minister is in the pulpit, no priest at the altar. The pulpit desk stands outside the square of fellowship. There never is an altar. All are in a waiting attitude. Again, let it be said, there is no leader. There is no visible president and an entire absence of organization. Christ is recognized as the Head of His Body, and the Holy Spirit the director of worship. Now, one speaks a few words of exhortation and prays. A hymn is announced and sung unaccompanied. There is a Bible reading with brief comments, a hymn. Later, one rises and breaks the loaf in two. On two plates it is passed from hand to hand, all sitting, each taking off a piece of bread. The goblets of wine are passed. The elements are covered with a white cloth.
Plates are passed again from hand to hand for an offering. After a hymn, one of the younger men gives a well-spoken homily. An announcement is made. Soon the hour is past. All has been deliberate, reverent, prayerful. Each carries a Bible and the Scripture passages referred to are turned up by the listeners. Indeed, the Bible is textbook, manual, guidebook of rules, articles of constitution, and all. The brethren settle all matters by the Word of God."
(2) "THE MISTAKEN TERM ‘THE BRETHREN?quot;
(The following is an excerpt from an article by W.E. Vine)
"The appellation ‘The Brethren? as applied to companies of believers who seek to be guided by the Scriptures alone in the principles of their gatherings, is an utter misnomer. It is, or should be, repudiated by those who are so called. No doubt the term "Plymouth Brethren" had an innocent enough beginning, and arose from the fact that in their evangelistic labors and the testimony they gave they were spoken of as "brethren from Plymouth." The mistake arose in generalizing the circumstances of a particular locality and in applying to other believers besides those at Plymouth a term which was meaningless and applied without the consent or agreement of the believers there themselves.
The appellation is false in more respects than one. It is contrary to the teaching of Scripture, which, in the spiritual sense of the word, includes all believers and gives no justification for any such denominational terminology. Further, it suggests, what is quite unfounded, that the assemblies of those to whom the term is applied are amalgamated into a denominational union, an ecclesiastical system, whereas the New Testament teaches, as a foundation principle relating to assemblies, that each one stands on its own separate basis in dependence on the Lord alone and in subjection to the guidance and ministry, not of some union or organization, but of the Holy Spirit, who indwells each company as His local temple. That principle is maintained by the various assemblies of those who are simply seeking to adhere to the Scriptures of truth as the all-sufficient guide concerning the will of God, and as "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3, R.V.) - "once for all," that is to say, as the final revelation of the mind of God for His people. The very adherence of such assemblies to the teaching of the New Testament causes them (or should do so) to repudiate the imputation that they constitute a sect miscalled "The Brethren." It is significant that no such denominational notice board is ever used outside the buildings where such assemblies meet."
Questions
Bibliography
AP Gibbs, Introduction to a Study of Church Truth
HG MacKay Assembly Distinctives
Arthur Clarke, New Testament Church Principles
Heading J and Hocking C (editors) Church Doctrine and Practice
Assembly Testimony: The Body of the Messiah
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