This morning I want to pick up where we left off last week.

Last week we heard from the Bible that one of the main goals of the church is to so live that the wisdom of God is demonstrated to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

I emphasize that we are not only the light of the world, but we are also the light of the cosmos.

It has a cosmic mission, this church of ours, and therefore all its activities, no matter how seemingly insignificant, take

on tremendous proportions when they're viewed in relationship to that mission.

The way, we said, that we demonstrate to the principalities and powers that God

is wise is by simply being the Church that Jesus Christ died to create. And now what I want to do this morning is come down

into the more practical affairs of church life and ask, what is that church like? What does it look like a church that can demonstrate to the principalities and powers and to the world that God is wise and glorious?

Now the first thing we need to do I think is try to get some biblical

information about the definition of the church. So that's item number one on our agenda. The New Testament never uses the word church for a place or a building. It always uses the word church for a people, either the totality of believers or some local group of them.

For example,

Ephsians chapter 1 verse 22

Paul says that God raised Christ from the dead of all rule and authority and put all things under his feet,

made him head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. That's the universal church. The total

number of all believers that have ever lived, all those who orient themselves on Jesus Christ

as their life and their authority.

But the New Testament also uses the word church to refer to little groups of believers,

either in a particular city or in a particular house. For example,

Acts 1132 refers to the church in Jerusalem.

1st Corinthians 1, 2, refers, 1st. 1st thessalonians is addressed as the Church of the Thessalonians.

Or 1st Corinthians 1619 says the churches of Asia send greetings

Aquila and Priscilla together with the church in their house send greetings.

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