When most people think about church they think religious institution, fanaticism, boring, hypocrites, irrelevant they may even think about scandals. What do you think? Let me ask you an even more important question, who do you think the church is for?

Matthew 16:13-18

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Did you know that local church is the fulfillment of a prophecy that’s more than two thousand years old? Did you know that no political system, government, scandal, bad administration, bad representation or death … even the death of Jesus on the cross have been able to stop the growth of the church? Every time you and I attend the local church we are part of the fulfillment this prophesy.

When we hear the word ‘church’ we tend to think of a building, but in the first century the word actually meant assembly or gathering. Therefore, what makes the church of Jesus Christ a church is not the building but rather the people who have gathered in Jesus’ name.
The building is not the church; the people gathered in His name, they are the church.

Let me go back to my question, who do you think the church is for? Who are the people that make up this gathering? Well, if we look at the beginnings of the church it was a gathering of sinners. The first attendees of the church of Jesus Christ were not religious people but rather sinners. In the gospel of Luke (19:10) Jesus says of himself that he had come into this world to seek and save the lost. The church was never intended for religious people but rather for the lost.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be part of a religious institution. I don’t want to merely show up at a building. I want to be part of a church where people can be connected and reconnected to God. I want to be part of the church that Jesus prophesied about, a church that could not be stopped by anything not even death.
I want to be a part of the church that Jesus Christ himself is building.

Heavenly Father, I’m excited to be a part of the church in these days. Show me how I can contribute to making my church a place where sinners can encounter the transforming power of the Savior Jesus.