The Father’s House Church

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December 12, 2021

  • Hall dilemma
    • to increase the outreach
    • to preach the Gospel.
  • John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
  • Hebrews 10:24–25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
  • The location really doesn’t matter, but the condition of our hearts do.
  • Amos 5:21–24 21 “I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. 24 But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.
  • Isaiah 1: 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of
  • Isaiah 5:12 The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts; But they do not regard the work of the LORD, Nor consider the operation of His hands.
    • The Old Testament
    • 1 Kings 8:38–40 38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: 39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), 40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
    • The New Testament
    • Matthew 18:20 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
  • Don’t imitate the world

A church is not a building.

A biblical understanding, the root meaning of “church” is not that of a building, but of people.

The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.”

The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head.

  • Ephesians 1:22–23 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

The body of Christ is made up of believers in Jesus Christ.

The First Church Location

Meeting in homes

  • 1 Corinthians 16:19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
  • Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
  • Colossians 4:15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house.
  • Philemon 2 to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:

Occasional Large Group Meetings

  • Acts 20:20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,
  • Could be that he taught publicly first
  • Then followed up teaching house to house.
  • The location really doesn’t matter.
  • Where two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name-Matthew 18:20
  • The people were hungry for the truth
    • Not caught up with the busyness the world offers
    • Increase in the lure of the world
  • The condition of your heart does make a difference.
  • Hosea 4:12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.
  • Amos 5:4–6 4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live; 5 But do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba; For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nothing. 6 Seek the Lord and live, Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, And devour it, With no one to quench it in Bethel—
  • Proverbs 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand all.
  • Matthew 6:33 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
  • Those who are hungry will come.

Jesus’ ministry was largely home based

Jesus loved homes and loved eating with people. Going through Mark’s Gospel we find Jesus:

  1. Healing a paralytic via a hole in the roof.
  • Mark 2:10 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic,
  1. Dining at Levi’s house.
  • Mark 2:15 Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.
  1. Telling the disciples to do home—based evangelism.
  • Mark 6:10 Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.
  1. Speaking to the Syro-Phonecian woman from a home in Tyre.
  • Mark 7:24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
  1. Giving revolutionary teaching on marriage in a home.
  • Mark 10:10 In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.
  1. Being anointed by a woman at Simons dwelling.
  • Mark 14:3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.
  1. Enjoying a post resurrection meal at a disciple’s place.
  • Mark 16:12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.

Lifestyle

  • Acts 2:4 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
  • Fellowship
  • Community
  • Bond

Jesus’ ministry seems to be about 40% in homes, 40% in informal gatherings in the open country or city courtyards, and maybe 20% in synagogues.

Remember that according to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ — all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Churches need to become “an assembly” of “called-out ones” one that is not that of a building, but of people.

  • Every believer is called to be an evangelist,
    • in a sense, in a personal one-on-one context with neighbours and friends and co-workers,
    • We are evangelising when we simply become available in the course of conversations as the Holy Spirit prompts and gives opportunity to talk about the good news of Jesus,
    • that Jesus Christ is the son of God,
    • who was sent by the father to live a perfect life in our place,
    • to die on a cross for our sins, and
    • by his resurrection, give us eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, and the power to change.
  • The power to change, renew your mind.
  • Increasingly the world is anti-gospel because the devil doesn’t want
    • You as a believer in Jesus Christ to be successful in life
    • People who are headed for hell to know about Jesus Christ.
  • Learning to stand, Overcoming,
    • John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
  • Evangelise, no substitute for that, not even a bigger hall.
  • Promote your faith, salt, light.
  • Every one of you is here because of personal contact.
  • Two fold purpose.
    • Matthew 28:19–20 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
    • 2 Peter 3:11-13 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, [12] looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? [13] Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
    • Hebrews 10:24–25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Where we (The Cochin Lampstand) gather does not matter to the Lord.

How we gather, the condition of our hearts, make all the difference.

  • The hall will not make you seek the Lord more.
  • This house church does not make us more holy.
  • When necessary, the Lord is able to guide us, to open doors.

What we need to do, what matters more to the Lord,

  • is to change our hearts.
  • that we seek the Lord.

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