 great okay well you welcome everybody good to see you good to see you all in class once again what's up Francis good to see you all everybody online cheetah missing you here man what's up what happened my hell is not too good so I joined this year so online okay okay cool all right where you take him up hope to see you soon hi Nina good to see you and everybody else good to see you all still once we're joining in I see Ravali is joining online okay so well welcome to this course the local church we will be using a PC publication called the house of God cheer as like the ghost suddenly yeah I hope you all got the publication a PC publication the house of God we will be using that and I hope everybody online was able to download the PDF that I was shared in the stream section if you haven't been able to download it please let me know I'll I'll share the file again okay let's pray and we before we get started father we we thank you for this new day we thank you for this opportunity that we have the privilege that we have Lord to learn from your word Lord I pray that we will never take this opportunity this privilege that we have for granted to learn from your word I'm so Holy Spirit right now we open up our hearts Lord we open up our hearts to you so that you would open up our eyes to the wonder of who you are and so Holy Spirit I pray that you will come and and just reveal the wonder-working power of Jesus I pray that you will reveal and pour out in touches with your wisdom with your knowledge and your understanding as the words is a you are our teacher our counselor I pray that we would be sensitive to the leading of your voice I submit and surrender everything every word that I have to share speak to me speak through me I pray in Jesus name amen okay so we learn a little bit about the local church this semester and this subject about the importance of it what is God's plan for the local church why is it important what happens if it is not important and whose idea it is etc etc right so in a way we are all kind of part of a local church isn't it wherever you come from you know maybe in the city for now some of your help in APC and whatnot but we are kind of part of a local church isn't it and and there's some just in this locality or the locality that I come from it's called a Hormau Agra and so yeah Hormau Agra yeah Babusapalya so from Kamanahali around Kamanahali to my area locality of where I come from itself has a approximately at least 3000 churches yeah I'm not kidding okay yeah so we did the survey long back when we did this power to change campaign mid 2015 or 16 or something now we might have increased but just to say that okay yeah there are a lot of churches and for many that can be the local church for that area for you know that they are tend to that they are member of and even if there are 10 churches all if all 10 churches will have different methods in the way they function isn't it like they won't be identical and that's why some of us are part of a certain church because we like certain methods and things that happens in a church and whatever right it comes down to a personal preference isn't it but when we talk about the church or the global church it has anybody asked you this question hey are you a protestant yeah been asked this so I kind of get a little confused when someone asked me that question like are you a protestant I'm like I'm not really protesting anything right now something happened like 500 years ago are you a Catholic or Catholic simply means global church so I'm part of a global church in a sense so that means yeah okay I'm a Catholic so you know that's what it means when it comes down to the doctrine that's when Roman Catholics comes into it different that's the difference between Roman Catholic and Catholic Catholic simply means global church or the universal church so in a sense we are all part of a universal church isn't it and and so this you know we've we've made this thing of church you know some so vast and so it can be very confusing isn't it but God has given us a blueprint in his word isn't it and he's always done that we look at a verse very soon but then he Jesus said in the inverse he says I will build my church isn't it we look at the verse in just a second but I will build my church okay now anytime God tells someone to build something he just doesn't say go build you son of Noah go build an arc Noah however you want it whichever color you want pain binda's in a whatever shape you want go but no he gives the dimensions right the meters every inch matters isn't it so what he's giving is in his own way he's giving Noah a blueprint yeah and same thing with the tabernacle of Moses isn't it so he tells Moses okay now he goes into the details of interiors and all interior designing out of the right of which color how we should look what skin you're supposed to be using all of that and then Moses comes down with the blueprint and he gives it to the people of Israel saying okay here's the blueprint now let's go build it then he goes and finds the craftsman the skill man you know people who are skilled who are who can build and design all of these things so let me just share I'm sure we've all seen an image of a blueprint if not I'll try and share it so we can all just kind of look at it okay does anybody's house look like that okay can you see the screen okay so floor plan right so that's an example of a blueprint okay and architect would explain this very better but I have a couple of friends so I asked them because you know we use the word blueprint a lot in this publication at least in the initial stages so my friend said that before they start a day constructing right okay they come in and they start okay and we're gonna build they look at the blueprint at the beginning of the day before their hands touch any tools you know a hammer or whatever they look at the blueprint and they'll plan and after they finish the entire day's work they'll come again and look at the blueprint at the end of the day after they finish their work so they look at the blueprint before they start the work and after they've done for that day's work they'll come back and look at the blueprint and just to see if everything is alright if everything is according to the blueprint that was mentioned right the measurements and all of that is in place and so God's word is filled with you know reference points for us and so this manual the house of God is is just going to help us enhance and look at what you know the Bible has to say God's word has to say as a blueprint are you guys with me yeah so we're not going to look at the exact methods I'm you know this course is not about okay if you follow these 10 methods you will have a successful church it's not about that we're not going to give any methods or specific techniques to run a local church but we're going to constantly look at God's word as a blueprint and what he has said about how a local church should function okay so what Jesus has said how a local church should function and so that's what we will be looking at everybody okay yeah so I'll stop sharing this everybody online doing all right just let me know as most of us are here okay let's continue to go to the chapter one but okay before we go to the chapter one if you can just quickly go to the table of contents in the publication we'll just have a quick glance at it awesome okay so we have a few sections section one will focus on its origins and its purpose what is the or you know where does this idea of a church originate from what is its purpose and under that we have a few topics that we will look at and we will look in depth in detail about what you know the God's blueprint God's word has to say about the local church and section three talks about divine order and section four talks about ministry organization and development okay and and section five talks about reaching out so we have five different sections towards the very end we will not be we will not be covering all the chapters and tell you why but let's go to section one chapter one to start things off section one origins and purpose so the main what is what do you understand by the word origin where it started yeah beginning yeah origin that's what the word origin is isn't it we've seen that title in so many movies also like the origins of Superman origins of spider-man you know that means it's the beginning story isn't it and so when we look at the section one and chapter one chapter one title the church it's spiritual and natural dimensions so just by the title name we can understand or we need to understand that the church has a spiritual dimension dimension to it and a natural dimension to it okay so there are two different aspects to the local church okay so let's start off look at the bus chapter math Matthew chapter 16 was 15 to 19 Matthew chapter 16 was 15 to 19 let's look at that and I want you to pay very close attention to it because I want you to tell me later what you understand of it okay Matthew 16 15 and 19 he that is Jesus said to them but who do you say that I am question mark Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the son of the living God Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and I also say to you that you are Peter comma and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven okay cool so very quickly just share a few things what you can take off or you understood from that yeah anything he did like he's asking like his disciples like who does who do they think that he is because he's been with them like for these many years or months and like Peter is the only one who truly saw who Jesus was so he said that you are Christ and I say and all that and and then Jesus and I mean Jesus blesses Simon and he tells him that like no one has told you this or it's not by your own thinking it's God who has told you this or revealed it to you and he also says that Peter that he's gonna be the one who's gonna start the church yeah okay all right so that's if you have your Bibles does any any of your Bibles say where this thing happens thank you okay yeah Caesarea Philippi Philippi if it's a pronoun so it doesn't really matter tomato tomato potato potato whatever so okay so now I see here's a thing about so there's a difference between reading the I've mentioned this so many times right reading the Bible and studying the Bible isn't it Bible was written for us that means when you read the Word of God you are blessed you are edified you're encouraged your everything right your empowered isn't it the Bible was written for us but the Bible was not written to us okay it was written to a different audience a different people thousands of years right so that's why you know when we meet someone for the first time we ask okay hey what's your name and where are you from someone says from Hyderabad immediately what do we say oh I love Hyderabad the biryani you see we as soon as they say where they are from geographically we associate the culture of that land and then we can go on isn't it yes or no okay so now let me just quickly show us the map of where this place is now you can see that awesome okay so that is the map of the ancient Israel and what now you can see the region of Nazareth and Galilee and all other names that is mentioned there okay you see the sea of Galilee and then the Dead Sea up in the north you know and then you see right on top of the where the Aramaic points says Caesarea Philippi okay and it's actually in the place where it says Banias B-A-N-I-A-S okay it's up in the north now Caesarea Philippi now that during this time King Herod was the king King Herod okay it's the son of the other King Herod he had three of three sons okay so each of them had he built a temple for them he had given them in charge of three different regions all three is not mentioned but it's there one of the sons name was Philippi and so he this son Philippi was in charge of that region and Caesarea was given to in honor of Caesar okay like because Roman Emperor Roman Roman what Empire Roman Empire was still in charge of that region isn't it so that's where Caesarea Philippi is and then if you just look above is slightly in the top right hand corner it says Mount Hermon I know most of the scholars claim that's where and because if you follow that's where they are going next if you read in the next chapter is that's where the Mount of Transfiguration kind of happens okay and now that Mount Hermon is in Israel is the highest peak in the region of its entire nation of Israel that mountain is about 9,000 odd feet or something and so as you keep climbing up that hill the weather changes and it's filled with snow capped so if you later Google or YouTube Mount Hermon there are a lot of ski resorts ski where do you have ski resorts when there's snow isn't it so that region is filled with snow now every time there's a snow when the climate changes there will be the snow will melt down and then just like the Himalayas you know water there will be abundance of fresh water right filled with rich and where ever there is abundance of water the land is fertile okay so there's a lot of things happening here in the region for us to understand that so that is where they're at secondly that region was strictly prohibited for the Jews why okay so now take a quick glance at it if you want to take a photocopy of it you can take as in some photocopy screenshot let's I'll stop sharing but now I'll show you let me share another okay now I'll show you I'll share that images okay now can you all see that region that image screen yes no maybe yeah yeah okay cool okay so now that is the region a part of the region of Caesarea of Philippi now this place was prohibited for the Jews to go there why because think of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the evil they did and multiplied by a hundred multiplied by a hundred so this place made Sodom and Gomorrah looked like a holy people the kind of evil that happened in this place you can think of everything nasty from idol worship was the basic thing from idol worship to sexual immorality to bestiality and and and children sacrifice you know all of that everything that God absolutely hates would happen in this place now now you can imagine when Jesus is taking all these disciples to the region where this it's prohibited for the Jews to go everybody's wondering where are you taking us why are we here we're not supposed to be here you know that right I hope you know that Jesus we're not supposed to be here now the place is called Banias because that it was a Greek and a Roman God called Banias later which was renamed as Pan that's why it says the grotto of Pan there in the image okay now and now you see like a cave over there with water abundance of water okay so here's the thing I said that the land would be fertile and and everything nasty that would happen in the place isn't it so what people of that region would do is they would offer up a lot of sacrifices for example okay we'll just so what people would they would do is they say for example they would take a lamb okay and and you know cut it kill it and then they'll throw it into that cave of which is filled with water there that you see now if the lamb drowns that means their offering is accepted so they will have a bountiful fertile harvest if the lamb floats that means the sacrifice is not accepted okay all these cultural things I'm just sharing with you because it was pretty nasty isn't it and there would be a lot of idols of all these and Pan is one of those gods if you look for those Google images you'll be a half man like with the body of a man and with the head of a goat that's I'm not making it up okay it's okay don't look at me okay and then there'll be a lot of graven images of all these idols over there and what another idol that would be present over there I mean that they carved was a Greek god by the name of echo so this according to their mystical whatever thing understanding this particular God always used to live in caves and so now you understand the phenomenon that happens in a cave when you say when an echo thing happens now you know where the word echo comes from because of this God used to live in one cave that they're understanding you know so all these different graven images of you know Greek and Roman thing would be present in that and the disciples are seeing all of this the disciples are seeing all this graven images idolatry and all the evil that has happened and then Jesus turns to them who do you say I am you see the weight of the question is he's not just asking he's making everybody see what you're see you know what is happening there the most evil place there and then what follows also is this is brilliant now there's something called biblical allusions allusions is Jesus youth that all the time is if he quoted a verse he was not from the Old Testament he was not just pointing them at that particular verse he's always pointing at the verse before and the verse after and that's why most of the time they wanted to stone Jesus as in he also made them think right and so that's why it's kind of important of what happens before this verse where it's happening and what's happening after this chapter you know what's what's going on so okay you'll want to take a screenshot of this or because it's available on Google but okay that's also available on Google okay so I'll just stop sharing the screen for now and so now we look at that verse again let's go to the scriptures Matthew 16 15 19 then it says to them he said to them but who do you say I am in the in the midst of everything that you see of all these man-made gods and idols and whatnot okay the Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the son of the living God that's a very powerful declaration isn't it now despite the fact that everything that is going on then then Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and I also say to you say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it now oh man I wanted to make one more the point gates of peace sorry sorry sorry sorry where is that yeah just one more time just a very quick glance I because I missed out at a very important point I mentioned about that cave right that water that was supposed that was known as the gate into the underworld that was known as the gate into the underworld according to the people of that region gate and so now you can also understand why Jesus is using the word gates you see these gods you see this gates of hell and all this evil thing that's happening you know people throwing sacrifices their child sacrifices used to happen and all of that you see that evil thing the gates of hell that's being worshiped as that was not going to be successful okay as you advance so and I say to you I will build my church and the gates of Hades like in a way he's pointing it you know metaphorically and literally say shall not prevail against it so the church that I'm going to build and the culture that I want to establish and the kingdom that I want to establish see on this earth will you know will succeed and this gates of hell will not prevail against it right and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven okay are you all with me so far yeah 30 minutes has gone by so fast okay so awake and on this rock another important point that we need to remember is on this rock what is the rock most of them say it's okay it's Peter and all of that but when you study the text and its consistency with every other scripture you see what Jesus is pointing out and saying this revelation that you had that is the rock the revelation what that I am the son of the living God I'm the Christ the anointed one on that revelation on the revelation that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God the anointed one on that revelation I will build my church okay so then Jesus says that goes on to say that I will build my church that means the church is his idea anytime you come and say that okay I want to build this hey let's build a computer let's build a new instrument or whatever it's it's obvious that it's your idea isn't it like in Bangalore Bangalore is another thing is known for is what startups okay everybody wants okay let's start the startup that's supposed to be funny but okay let's start a startup because everybody has an idea and so here Jesus is saying I will build my church and that means it's clearly that is his idea okay and denominations are man-made and so one of my friend is studying he's studying a lot of things but you know everything related to theology but then it's very astonishing he said there are at least at least 40,000 denominations oh sure what I can think of is say okay Methodist Lutherans, Pentecostals, Marthoma Catholics, Syrian Marthomas, Syrian Orthodox, what else? Baptists, Brethren, so I can hardly touch 10 okay but the study that he was doing he was suggesting that you know in every region every country again you know we go to Russia they have they have their own bunch of denominations and whatnot right so all the denominations are man-made but the church the global church you know the origin of it is God's idea it's his idea when he says that I will build my church okay and so another truth that statement can claim is that when Jesus says I will build my church that means the church is his the global church is his no man can claim the church is my idea I made it let's spread it okay see okay all of this is fundamental truth for us to understand the importance and the significance of the church globally and then locally right you're with me right okay so any questions so far any thoughts that you want to share yeah I will give you the keys of the kingdom yeah so he's talking to Peter but then and he's addressing everybody everybody understands that right okay so okay okay so followed by when Jesus says I will build my church the following statements he says and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it okay so another thing that he's implying there is historically ancient cities had gates okay and it's like at the gates you know we have Panchayat systems here where the Panchayat leaders will sit under the tree and banyan tree and you know talk about the welfare of the city of the town of the village and what not right so all of that used to happen at the gates of the city everything important everything political to discuss about the welfare of the town or the city or the village used to happen at the gate okay so that's and and so if you can break through the gate that means you have access to their political system to the welfare and now you have control because you've just gone through the gate isn't it are you with me gets are important isn't it it's like spiritually speaking for example like the altar used to be is that is a gate into the kingdom of heaven like it's a bridge where heaven meets earth like altar is a gate so I will enter his gates his gates with thanksgiving right so that means you're entering into the realm of something supernatural something beyond something powerful okay so God is saying that one of the only function of the gate is it can open and close yes or no I see only thing that can happen can the gate move front and back it really can't right it is stationary yes or no so when Jesus is saying that the gates of hell shall not prevail that means what he is saying is that he's saying the church you advance because the gate is a stationary it can't move front and back you advance to the gate you take the fight to the gate and when you take the fight to the gate don't worry it will not prevail against it that means you will come victorious I guess with me yeah they all okay no okay so the gates do not come to us sorry oh yeah this is pretty deep yeah that the entire that the portion of scripture is pretty deep yeah so we advance to the gates the gates do not come to us okay we can't say as a church okay I'm comfortable now I'm a Christian I will go every Sunday I will sing a few songs come back chill on a Sunday afternoon and I'm happy with that life and whatnot but as a church collectively individually this is the truth God has told us to advance take the fight to the king to the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of darkness will not prevail because I am going to win and I have won yes right and because I have won the next statement follows now in present tense is that I have the keys right what was lost in the Garden of Eden like this is a very famous saying what was lost in the Garden of Eden Jesus wanted in the Garden of Gethsemane right when he said not my will but yours be done yeah and so that's how he won against the enemy and then in Revelation 118 the yours notes will say he says that all authority has been given to me so the keys represent authority in a way isn't it like I mean anything like basic you can think of a security guard also you come no matter how early you come the dude will come like a boss it's like I have the keys right so that kind of represents authority and that's what Jesus has given to us it's like okay what I have won is not just for me what I did is for you and I'm giving this to you right I'm giving you the key so that now the authority that I have you have okay and that verse Matthew 16 towards the end it concludes by saying whatever so it says I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and you notice the language there is I will give you the keys he's not saying I have given you the keys no Jesus is saying I will give you the keys that means he's prophesying in a way saying that I'm gonna rise from the dead I'm gonna die on the cross I'm gonna I'm gonna come up victorious with the keys that's when I will be giving you the keys isn't it and that's when you see Matthew chapter 28 all authority in heaven has been heaven and earth and has been given in to me therefore go that means I'm sending you with authority isn't it and then he says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in in heaven okay so the right interpretation of that is whatever is loosed in heaven we have the authority to release it in on earth and whatever is bound in heaven we have the authority to bind it on earth okay so if sickness and disease and all of that is bound in heaven the authority has been given to us to release it in this realm I bind the sickness I bind this disease right in the name of Jesus are you following and what has been loosed in heaven all the joy a piece that passes all understanding etc etc and all of that healing and deliverance the keys of that has been given to us so that now we have the authority to release it on earth isn't it and so that is it's almost a Paul a Paul is what is that apostolic in nature that prayer that all those scriptures that we say is everybody okay are you all doing all right online yeah okay Francis okay okay actually thought I'd go a little fast but then I'm still in stuck in page one all cool right okay cool alright let's move on then guys and so the meaning of the work church so we understood the origins of it the you know the idea behind it is it is God's idea it is a God's will and and what not it belongs to him and so the word church comes from the Greek word as it says ecclesia what do you say in Hindi Kalisa Kalisha you see the connection you see it's very similar isn't it so yeah so ecclesia it's a Greek word it simply means egg means out of places means a calling to call so when you put it together that means you've been called out of it's interesting isn't it the church yeah it's been you've been called out okay you were in darkness okay called out of okay like the people of Israel coming been taken out of Egypt so you've been called out you've been redeemed okay so the church is redeemed and that kind of points to the salvation that we have in Jesus isn't it so we've been called out we are in this world but not of this world we've been called out we in other words it simply means set apart isn't it right let's look at a few points there mentioned so this was used among the Greeks for a body of citizens for a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of the state so a bunch of people were gathered together to discuss the affairs of the state and so they were known as ecclesia and there's so much to take off from that as a citizen as heavenly citizens that's what the Bible calls us isn't it as heavenly citizens we are to gather and discuss about the affairs of the kingdom of God so that it can be established here on earth as a gathering of Israel summoned for a definite purpose in its literal sense the word church simply refers to the gathering together of those who have been called out and it's simply a simple reference terms that simply means that it's a bunch of people coming together who've been called out right so and there's this so much depth to that kind of understanding is what is okay to a normal person is not okay to a church right so for example like Nazarites from the Bible Nazarites for numbers chapter 6 it talks about the Nazarite vow and what not right and the Nazarite vow for a period of person when they say okay I'm going to make this vow for a month or two months for that period you're not supposed to drink wine or cut hair or go and close to attack you know to a dead body and touch it and all of that right so basically in that sense the Nazarite vow is what is known as a holy vow and so what was okay for a normal Jew a Hebrew was not okay for a Nazarite what was okay you know if it was okay for a person I mean it was absolutely necessary to help a person who is dead to have been burial and what not yes isn't it so what was okay for a normal person was not okay for a Nazarite wine represented legal pleasure of those days drinking wine was a legal pleasure like in this day it's like saying eating chocolate that's why they had wine and weddings and what not okay so it was a legal pleasure that means nobody would say it's illegal no it was a legal pleasure and so what was okay for a normal person was not okay for the Nazarite it's the same thing with the church is what is okay for the world what is chalta here for the world is not okay it's not chalta right is sorry a little bit of Hindi came here but okay so yeah I mean all of that is is very significant the church is we all know this church is more than a building and I think we all felt the importance of a church during the lockdown right some of us met after like nine months is like oh bro hi-fi everybody's hi-fying for the first time it's like haven't seen you such a long time it's been like forever and all of that all the worship recordings used to happen in that hall and then you know and then we would live stream it and we need once in two months or something just to record like for five Sundays we'll record in that you know that hall there and so I think we kind of felt the importance of the community of us coming together the people of God who are called by his name meeting to you know in his name you know that's the significance of it and and the beauty of is like you know you and I we make a church isn't it and when we say that the church is his idea and the church belongs to him we belong to him right and we are all gathered like I know this you know this Bible college and all of us have a background all of us are from a place of our own but we are all coming together a one name visa and we have the one purpose we want to go back and establish the kingdom of God wherever we come from and that's why you and I are here isn't it and that's the beauty and the power of this idea of the church which belongs to God yeah I think we should I continue okay let's just make let's make one point and okay so in this chapter one it's titled as the spiritual and the natural dimension isn't it so one of the points of this we look at the spiritual dimensions and then later we look at the natural dimension and we'll see how far we can go okay the one of the spiritual dimension of the church is the but the word of God says no every time I mentioned the word of God one of the things that you can remember is blueprint was blueprint okay but we look up more into that a little later so Colossians chapter one was 18 and 24 it says he is the head of the body who's the he Jesus right Jesus Christ is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he may have the preeminence verse 24 says I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his book which is the church okay so there it is conclusive proof that you know the church is the body of Christ so the church is the body of Christ and in the body Jesus is the head okay so Jesus is the head and the church is the body of Christ Ephesians 1 20 to 23 it says and he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is the his body okay the fullness of him who fills all in all okay so in a sense spiritually every believer is joined to the Lord once again if you can look at 1 Corinthians 6 17 it just kind of emphasizes that meaning okay so he's the head we are the body the church is his body so in other words like Matthew 1040 it says when someone receives us they receive Jesus when someone rejects us they reject Jesus okay when Paul who was also known as Saul when he was persecuting the church what did Jesus say why are you persecuting me right so he took it very personally isn't it in a sense so we see that Jesus is the head church is the body of Christ and he's the head of the church and now because Jesus is the head of the church and because Jesus is eternal that means the church is also eternal it's not like okay it's only the body you know the head is alive is looking here and there and this you know what I'm saying right okay because the church is eternal and Jesus is eternal the church is also eternal okay all right you know what little pause here I'll stop here we'll come back after a minute break and we'll resume okay thanks guys