By Greg J Daley

First let’s define Church.   The first time the word church is used in the Bible is in Matthew 16:18: And I also 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.

The word church is derived from the Greek word ekklesia (ek-klay-see′-ah) meaning, a calling out, i.e. a popular meeting, an assembly, Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both.[1] 

So the Church is not a building but a people:  a living organism.  All Born Again Believers everywhere make up the Church universal regardless of gender or ethnicity or denomination.

Everything Jesus did, He did for the Church.  John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world the He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever…. Jesus came to purchase those “whosoever’s” and then He sent the Holy Spirit to gather them together into one Body of believers called the Church. The ultimate purpose of the Church is to be a companion for His Son.  We are the Bride of Christ; most of the time, the words Church and Bride are interchangeable.[2] Jesus said that, upon the revelation Peter had received from the Father, Christ would build His Church.  The revelation was that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. 

In John 15:26-27, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit:  But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me . And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

The Holy Spirit comes to testify of Jesus, the Christ and the Lord says that the Spirit will empower us to do the same. So, as His Church or Bride, His Body or Companion in the earth we are empowered to demonstrate who God is and to reveal the Father’s love to all mankind; to proclaim Jesus who is the Truth, the Life and the Way, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

Note that, right after Jesus tells Peter that upon this revelation He would build His Church, He goes on to give us Keys to accomplish this task.  Matt 16:19: 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 loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 

In my studies, I have found that this mode of expression was frequent among the Jews: they considered that everything that was done upon earth, according to the order of God, was at the same time done in heaven. Hence, they were accustomed to say that when the priest, on the Day of Atonement, offered the two goats upon earth, the same were offered in heaven.[3] Jesus taught us to pray in Matt 6:10: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is allowed in Heaven is to be allowed on earth.

The keys symbolize:

1) The AUTHORITY we have in the name of JESUS.

John 14:12-14: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do: because I go unto my father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If yea shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

2) The POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT in us.

Acts 1:8: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

3) The DOMINION over all the earth and everything in it.

Gen 1:26-28:  Then God said,” Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them,” Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."