The churches are established in different cities by taking a city as the boundary and ground of each local church. Revelation 1:11 indicates this very clearly. In this verse the voice said to John, “What you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” This verse is composed in a very important way. Here we see that the sending of this book to the seven churches equals the sending of it to the seven cities. This shows clearly that the practice of the church life in the early days was that of one church for one city, one city with one church, with the city as the boundary and ground of each local church. In no city was there more than one church. This is the local church, local with respect to city, not with respect to street or area.
If we read Revelation 1:11 carefully, we shall realize that the church in a place must be equal to the city in which the church is located. When something was written and sent to the church in Ephesus, for example, it was sent to the city of Ephesus, because the church in Ephesus represented that city in the eyes of the Lord.
Revelation 1:11 corresponds to Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5. In these two verses we see that to ordain elders in every church is to ordain elders in every city, and to ordain elders in every city is to ordain elders in every church. This makes it abundantly clear that the sphere and limit of a church must be exactly the same as that of the city in which it is located. In other words, the boundary, the jurisdiction, of the church is identical to that of the city in which it is established. In Revelation 1:11 the Lord Jesus makes it extremely clear that a local church is equal to the city in which it is located.
A local church should not be greater nor smaller than its city. This means that the jurisdiction of a local church should cover the whole city in which the church is; it should not be greater or lesser than the boundary of the city. All the believers within that boundary should constitute the one unique local church within that city. Hence, one church equals one city, and one city equals one church. This is what we call the local churches.
In every place there can be only one expression of the church. The expression of the church cannot be greater than a locality, nor can it be smaller than a locality. Furthermore, the churches in a number of places cannot be combined to form an alliance of churches, and the church in one place cannot be divided into a number of churches on certain streets, roads, or lanes, or in certain neighborhoods. There can only be one church in one locality.
Home | First | Prev | Next