9: God’s Strategy For Civil Conquest 1 of 7 - EKKLESIA (a)

As we looked at previously in Jesus’s Great Commission, we saw how it was Jesus’s Civil Mandate - to go disciple and teach all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). We have already looked in detail at what that exactly and practically meant - to have godly civil servants who submit to Jesus as King and to God’s Law.

Now, did God ever give a command in the Bible and not instruct us how to do it? NO, never! I know at least 7 strategic instructions that God gives us from the Old and New Testament how Christians can successfully conquer a city and nation for the Kingdom of God - for King Jesus ruling with God’s Law.

Since ALL 7 strategies come from God in His Word, I would say Christians are guaranteed success - IF they obey God’s 7 strategies. Moreover, history has also proven this to always be true.

Ekklesia

What is “ekklesia?” Ekklesia is the Greek word for “church.” But when Jesus said, “I will build My church” in Matthew 16:18, it was NOT what we think of as “church” today! It was not understood to be a building or where you go to just hear a sermon, music, or maybe some other nice Christian activity.

The word “ekklesia” originated in Athens, Greece, around 594 BC. The word was literally “called-out.” The word was used to “call out” citizens for a political assembly in the city to make decisions for city affairs and laws. The church (ekklesia) met regularly to strategize, elect magistrates, and address civil law.

The term was later adopted in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) for the political assembly of Israel, and subsequently by New Testament writers representing the Believer’s assembly. Church (ekklesia) was NOT a religious term! It was the common secular word used in Israel for any church (ekklesia) of disciples schooled by any rabbi for his specific religious / political philosophy and agenda.

Jesus’s disciples understood their church (ekklesia) to be for the same purpose. For that reason, they continued asking Jesus after His resurrection right up to His ascension when was He was going to overthrow Rome (Acts 1:6):

“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking Him, ‘Lord, has the time come for You to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’”

Jesus confirmed that time for Israel would come (Acts 1:7)! But for now they were to go witness to the rest of the world (Acts 1:8)! But for three years Jesus was preaching about the Kingdom of God and commanded to “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). And Jesus kept talking about the Kingdom of God to t