I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Matthew 16:18

According to scholars, the first reference Jesus makes to building a “church” or even mentioning the word is this word that He gave to Peter.  As far as I can tell, this is one of the only “nuts” and “bolts” that Jesus ever gives concerning building a church.

Many make a case for either large church or small church based on various scriptures and reasonings.  It is good to point out, however, that the Word actually says they did both.

 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:46-47

This scripture makes it clear they met BOTH in the temple as a large congregation, and house to house, which seems to indicate smaller groups as well.  But, what is interesting, is that no where is the character of these gatherings described by what we understand as a ‘meeting’ today.  They met, sure, and they shared.  There certainly would have been some format, but they weren’t doing “Sunday Morning” back then.  They were glad, genuine, and thankful, because they had the Truth.

Whether they met in the temple or in the house, in believing synagogues or any other place, one thing marked them as different.  They had the presence of God in their midst, a demonstration of God’s power and favor in their midst.

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

Mark 16:20 (emphasis added)

What they had was a spiritual house.  They had the cornerstone of Christ, the foundation of the Apostles Jesus had raised up, the prophets, and the various other ministries Jesus ordained (Ephesians 4:11-13).  They walked in the faith Jesus had trained His disciples in as they discipled others into it that as well, in the right heart and the right Spirit.

But the Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom, ruling now in the heavens, which exerts its dominion against the powers of this age.  Christ’s church is not just a mere Bible study, although it is that.  It is not a social club, although man has tried to make it one at times.  It is not just a hospital, although it is that too.

If we do not meet with Jesus in our churches, while it is still good to meet to seek Him, we have little more than what was in Jesus’ day before His death.  The Jews met regularily and studies the scriptures.  They had people to teach the body.  They had a governmental structure.  But, the difference is in the Spirit!

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,  and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.  For they could not bear the command, “IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.”  And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:18-24

See, we have come to Mount Zion.  We have come to the holy city, filled with angels, with Jesus as mediator over us all.  Church isn’t a dead place, but living!

Church is the ruling governmental body of the Kingdom of Heaven.  In the Spirit, it is a legal, governmentally recognized agency for the exacting of Heaven’s domain.  While we might not recognize this all the time, this is what the local body is.  It is God’s only Biblical model in the New Covenant for the saints to rule in the midst of this Earth.

It is not a haphazard construction, nor is it headed up by anyone but Christ.  It actually uses the Roman terminology of the day meaning “called out ruling body”, or ekklessia.  The church holds that position that in the heavens.

Church works by men appointed by God, willing to serve and give themselves to His service.  It exists to fulfill the call and mandate of Heaven, to both bring Heaven to Earth (Matthew 6:10) and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

Church isn’t a place for meaningless tradition and endless pratting about doctrines that may matter on some level, but distract from the central core issues of the business of the the Church in the Spirit.

The church isn’t a place for teaching anything other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:1-2

If we teach them into anything other than the true faith of the Gospel, such as church tradition and church manuals, even holidays and service times, we teach unbelief.  Faith sees the Eternal, and while church government must function, and the daily routines of life must be carried out (just as with a person), if the true life of the Gospel is absent, it is like Adam after eating of the fruit, living yet dead.  Faith is into the invisible Kingdom, and it is upon this rock that the church must be built.

That what trains us to see, rely, and respond to the visible, natural, and temporal, must give way to seeing by the Spirit, judging using spiritual discernment, and functioning by revelation.  While there are always guidelines, and certain boundaries that are clear indications of things going wrong, namely, the Law and the Prophets, if we truly desire to be a church led by the Spirit, if our primary teaching, emphasis, and instruction is more about bylaws, creeds, and dogmas than it is of the spiritual realm and category where they exist as true realities, we have not taught men the faith, but rather traditions handed down by men.  When we fail to bring them to the place where they might receive the flow and understanding of heaven, we have brought them merely to their own flesh, and not to God.

What church isn’t, it really isn’t, is men teaching other men, “Know ye the Lord”, for we must be taught of Him.  While there are teachers in place to bring us to the maturity of the faith, it is to bring us to real faith, real substance of the invisible unknowable, to know that which cannot be known (Ephesians 3:18-19, to comprehend that which surpasses knowledge).

Salvation is a supernatural encounter with a Man.  Doctrine is His personality.  The Law and the Prophets and the Commandments are His feet, hands, and voice.  The moment we espouse a rule more than this Person, we chewing on dead-men’s bones looking for meat.  Or, if you’d prefer how Paul puts it, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2).  Religion, in the bad sense of the word, is when we try to bring people into the light we’ve seen and not into the one who gave it.  It is trying to recreate the faith we have, rather than letting the true seed fall afresh on a new heart to bring fresh faith to their ears.  Whenever our efforts point more to this Earth than they do the heavens (Colossians 3:1-2), we have become carnal.

The church is built upon this great Rock, Jesus Christ.  Whoever falls upon this rock will be broken to pieces, and whomever it falls upon will be ground to powder.  Matthew 21:44.

It is a living relationship, a place of the assembly of the righteous, and of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end (Isaiah 9:7).