The Church

TEXT: Matt. 16:18-19, 

MORE LESSONS: Acts 5:12-20

There is more reference to church building today as the Church than to the people of the God. When Jesus said He will build His church, He was not referring to a building, cathedral or a hut; rather, He was referring to a people. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them: Matt 18:20. That is the definition of church, the gathering together of God's people and in His name. Church buildings are important; they make positive statements. They tell our location; they describe our architecture, denomination and set up, but the Church is beyond all these. It is the most powerful institution on the earth with the capability to affect even the heavens from the earth: ...Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven: Matt. 18:18. It is so powerful that Jesus said it cannot be defeated (Matt. 16:18).

Many church buildings have been burnt, demolished, stopped and relocated, yet the Church remains standing. The Church of Jesus, being a gathering of God's people can never die! From the early Church in the book of Acts of the Apostles, to this present day, the Church remains the most persecuted institution on the earth, yet the fastest growing and strongest. There are few things that believers must know and take advantage of.

1. Jesus is the founder and builder of the church universal. No man has the certificate of occupancy of the Church on the earth and no man should lay claim to her ownership. There is, therefore, nothing like “my church”.

2. Whatever anybody does for or against the Church is done to Jesus.

3. The foundation of the Church is laid on the “Rock”, therefore the Church cannot collapse.

4. There is a prophecy ahead of the Church on why the Church cannot fail no matter what happens to it (Matt. 16:18c).

5. The Church holds the key of the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore takes the final decision over all things pertaining to the Kingdom.

The people of the Church may be weak through their ignorance of what the Church, which they are, ought to be. But the Church is an empowered institution of God on the earth, it cannot fail, and by implication you cannot fail. Are you persecuted, denied or tormented on the account of being a child of God? Cheer up and take up your God-ordained authority.

PRAYER / ACTION

* Pray that the people of God will begin to discover the enormous power at our disposal and use it.

* Pray that the prophecy of prevailing, which has gone ahead of the Church will continue to be active.

* Pray that wherever the Church is being persecuted today, God will avail for them.

Like and share