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People of God - Pentecost Cycle - The Church

The Body of Christ

Please make sure you have read the main "People of God" page first.

Please also consult these two pages from our sister site "Orthodox Christianity for Absolute Beginners."

Orthodox Churches

Church History

Setting the Scene

The People of God are an identifiable community, but not one drawn by race, culture, gender or age.  They are a gathering-of-the-called-out-ones as "ecclesia" means from ancient Greek.  The People of God have been called out of darkness into the light of Christ.

"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:13-14  (New King James Version)

This kingdom of the Light that is Christ is the life of the Church.  We enter it sacramentally by holy baptism which in the early church was called "the bath of enlightenment."  Here we find and develop our humanity in communion, that is in the unity of God's love which binds together all the believers into one body, the Body of Christ.  Such is the nature of the Church ... not an institution but rather a communion of the Holy Spirit.

Practical

Read Acts 2:37-47 (The Church at Pentecost)

1. Those who are "far off" God calls.  Why do you think did God wait until Pentecost to expand the People of God beyond the confines of Israel?

2. What are the characteristic marks of genuine Church life as described in this passage?

3. Which of these do I find most personally challenging and why?
    

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