DATE:  3 November 2002
SPEAKER:  Pastor Tayo Adeyemi
TITLE:  The house of God - The gate of heaven
TEXT:  Matthew 16:18; Genesis 28:10-22

We are living in a society that has become increasingly hostile to the things of God. The world is not prepared to embrace the rule and power of God's kingdom.
Even Jesus had predicted that God's kingdom would not gather high popularity ratings in today's society. John 1:10-11. He already said, 'if they reject me they will reject you'.
However in the same vein, He taught us to pray 'your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven' - Matthew 6:10
How will this come to pass?
If the church can rise up and take her place, if her children can grow and be strong, if they can take authority and exercise dominion in their individual spheres of influence. If they can multiply everywhere - become rampant and prolific, if the salt of the church can somehow flavour the world.
If their light can truly pierce the darkness and change the spiritual colour of this planet, then the world will have no choice but to stop and listen. They will have no choice but to reckon with the church of the Lord………….and the Lord of the church.
In Exodus 1:6-9, Joseph here was a type of the Christ, the messiah - the one who came to save both the church (the Jews) and the world (the Egyptians). But a system arose which did not recognize the rule and power of that saviour However, because his descendants proliferated across the land, they could not be ignored.
Genesis 28:10 - Jacob was forced to embark on a journey in an attempt to remove himself from an ugly scandalous family situation. He came from a dysfunctional family where distrust, deceit and manipulation were the order of the day.
His parents were not in agreement. They practiced favouritism with their children. There was deception, connivance, manipulation and distrust between the two brothers
Things had become so bad between them that Esau was determined to kill his brother Jacob, as his was of exacting revenge. So Jacob was forced to step out of his comfort zone, to have familiar territory and embark on a journey he did not really want to embark on - just to save his skin. Little did anyone know that however, that behind all this mess, God was working out his own purpose.
It is very easy to miss God because we are too focused on the imperfections of the human vessels involved. Vs 11: "So he came to a certain place……." For Jacob, this was just a convenient place to stop and pass the night. It was an "ordinary, nothing-special, no-biological, nothing-spectacular place. It was just the place he happened to come to on his journey. He wasn't particularly looking for this place.
I wonder how many people just happened to come to this church - almost stumbled across it by mistake.
But this incidental, accidental place to Jacob, was to God "a certain place" It was a specific place - an ordained place. Jacob thought he had arrived here by chance, but God had directed his steps here and made sure he would be tired enough; and it would be dark enough for him to decide to spend the night there. Everyday all over the world, people happen upon the place of their destiny. There may be someone here like that today.
Now the last thing on Jacob's mind was an encounter with God. He had no expectation of anything extra-ordinary - just a good nights sleep. He was tired, lonely, confused, hurting, he was afraid, uncertain about the future, maybe he was even feeling guilty and disappointed with himself. Whatever he was feeling, he was not feeling like seeking the face of God.
You may feel like a Jacob today, all wrapped up in the issues you are going through - well guess what? You have come to "A CERTAIN PLACE" Vs 116: When he slept he had a dream - received a vision, a panorama. He was given a picture of his future. He became privy to intense spiritual activity. Jacob had inadvertently stumbled upon an opening into another realm - he had just happened upon a vista into the supernatural. He had accidentally discovered a point of interaction between and earth.
Jacob woke up from his dream and suddenly realized that he had stumbled upon something that was way, way beyond him - something much bigger than him. He had just encountered a phenomenon that was thousands of years ahead of time.
Jacob had just bumped into the church. He said, "God was in this place and I did not know it!" He was saying "I was not sensitive enough to recognize an opening into heaven. Vs 17: Then he went on to make a declaration - as if by revelation. "How awesome is this place" - I have just discovered a very unusual place - this is none other than the house of God"
Up till this time, the concept of the house of God had not been introduced in the earth - and would in fact not be for several centuries. But Jacob picked it up. He called this place of intense spiritual activity, The House of God. This place on earth that opened into another realm. But he went on to say "I have found the church, and the CHURCH IS A GATE"
The church is not a building, not an event, not a service, not a programme. The church is not good music or great preaching………………THE CHURCH IS A GATE! The house of God is not our destination, it is not a terminus. It's not the end point - it is merely a pathway to something else; something greater. It leads into a realm called Heaven. It ushers you into something new, something powerful, something life-changing.
This is the pathway - the gateway, a joyful, uplifting, hope-filled, mind-changing bad-habit-breaking, yoke-destroying encounter. People in our world today are searching for the gates of heaven - even though they do not call it by that name. They are looking for an entry point into the unknown - a doorway into the supernatural.
They are looking for a mystical experience, spiritual anchor. They're searching for the spelling of the word M-E-A-N-I-N-G. In their quest, they have turned to New Age and various expressions of Eastern Mysticism.
The church is the gateway into that experience. Jesus said, "I am the Way……….." John 14:6 Now, the church is the bride of Christ, the body of Christ.
Jesus is the Bridegroom, the Head. Jesus and His church are one, so the church is also the way. Matthew 16:18
There are other gates, other pathways that lead people into a life of bondage, misery, despair, darkness and confusion. Jesus called those openings the gates of hell. And there will be conflict between both gates.
Our purpose as the church is to dismantle the openings into hell and make it difficult for the people to go to hell in our community. In the original Hebrew, "gate" speaks of a large opening through a wall that allows people to pass into a new area - a different area.
A gate opens the way into something. It is a passage way, a channel, an avenue. In the old testament, a gate had four main functions, and these four functions relate to the purpose of the church today:
•A place of decision making:
The governmental, political and legal leaders would sit at the gates to make decisions that affected the entire city. Deuteronomy 25:5-10; 2 Samuel 19:8, Lamentations 5.
•A place of business:
Business and social functions were conducted at the gate. Contracts were sealed and witnessed at the gate. Anything agreed at the gate was legally binding. Ruth 4:1-12 (vs 1-4, 6, 11); 2 Samuel 15:2
•A place of giving and receiving important messages:
Prophetic messages were delivered to the elders of the city at the gate. Jeremiah 17: 19,20.
•A place of access:
Traffic in and out of the city was regulated at the gate
If you want to get in you need to find the gate. The first step to taking a city was taking its gate. Joshua 6:1, 2: 1-7
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