Today we are going to analyze something that all of us know. Today we are going to examine the church. With this I am not saying that we will be talking about this church or congregation, but we will be analyzing the foundation of Christ's church. We will be analyzing not only the base but also the power that it has. Before we go on to the scriptures that we will be reading today I want us all to do something. I want all of us here to use our imagination. Let’s all imagine that the world is nothing more than a great city of antiquity. A city not built by man, but built by the demon himself. A city completely fortified by impenetrable walls just like the ones in Jericho. A city that has been built through time with the cement of religion, jealousy and envy. With walls that have been fortified with the steel of vain glory, pride and violence. In other words, walls and doors that are meant to detain or stop the penetration of the Gospel. Are you using your imagination? Can you see that great city? An impenetrable city. With this in mind let’s now turn to the word of God and let’s analyze the role of the church and it’s infinite power.
Matthew 16:13-20 - When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
The first thing that we see here is that Jesus asked His disciples what the people were saying about Him. He asked them this because at this point in His life He had performed miracles and had obtained the interest of many. His works and teachings had reached the eras of not only the people, but also the eras of the leaders. Looking at the answers that they gave Him we see that the opinion of the people was one of confusion. Many of the people saw Him as one of the prophets that God had sent back to the world. I ask you, aren’t we seeing the same thing happening today? I tell you that we are seeing this same thing happen today and that we are not only seeing it in the world or in all of those that the demon has deceived, the ones that the demon has trapped behind the fortified walls of religion, but we are also seeing it in the people of God. Yes brethren we are seeing it in the people of God. I say that we are seeing this in the people of God because there is a great number of people that have not yet received a revelation of the true identity of Christ.
I am sure that if we start asking the believers "who is Christ," all would say that He was the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins, everyone would say that He died for us on the cross that we may have eternal life. We would all say that He is the son of the living God. In other words we all have the basic knowledge of who He is, but in reality we have not had a revelation from God of His true identity and power. Look carefully at what Jesus answered them once they recognized Him as Christ.
Jesus said: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." He answered them in this fashion because they did not believe that He was the son of God because of something they had seeing. They did not believe in Him because they had been present when He performed a miracle, but they believed in Him because God himself had revealed it to them. I tell you that here is where things begin to get complicated for some believers. I say this because all that profess to be believers know the basic principles of Jesus, but the reality of it all is that a great majority has not received a revelation from the Father, in all reality what has happened is that they have not had a personal encounter with Jesus. I say this because once we have a personal encounter with Jesus, once the Father reveals to us His power and glory, our lives change completely. Our lives change so rapidly and in such a way that many people that knew us when we lived in the world no longer recognize us.
When we talk about a Christian that has had an encounter with Jesus, when we talk about a Christian that God has revealed His power and glory, we are talking about a person that has been changed completely, a person that has been made new. The Lord said to them: " for flesh and blood hath not revealed it," in other words just, like I said before, He was saying to them that it was not because of what they had seen, it was not because they had witnessed, but because God the Father had revealed it to them. This is something that as Christian we must all do. We have to ask our celestial Father to reveal to us His power and glory, we have to ask our celestial Father to have a personal encounter with us. Why do I say this? I say this because when we have a personal encounter with Him marvelous things begin occurring in our lives, when we have a personal encounter with Him we can be used as one of His tools. Look carefully at how Jesus answered them: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Can you see what I mean?
In this answer there are two very important things that we must understand. First we see that He answered them in a way that is misinterpreted by a vast majority of people. This is especially true in the popular religion. But, today we are going to know the truth of all of this. Now, we see that Jesus said: "upon this rock I will build my church," the way many people interpret this is that they say that Peter founded the Christian church, but I say to you that this is not the case. Here Jesus is not saying that He will build His church upon Peter, what He is saying is that He will build His church in the believe that they manifested, in the believe that He is the son of the living God. Brethren, Peter did not build the Christian church; the Christian church was built by Christ! The Christian church was founded in the rudiments of recognizing Him for who He is, of recognizing Him as the son of God. There is nothing else here, there is no other truth. Therefore, here we begin to realize that when we recognize Him and all of His power and glory, when we have a personal encounter with Him, God uses us just like He used the apostles. Because that is exactly what happened here, all of the disciples obtained a revelation from God the Father about Jesus. They were all used to expand the kingdom of God here on earth because they all recognized Him for who He was.
Secondly we see that He said here: "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Let’s examine this for a few moments. I ask you, what is a gate?, let’s think about this. A gate or door is nothing more than a type of protection. Think about what I am saying, think about the doors in our homes, what are these doors good for? The only thing they are good for is to protect our homes, they are only good to stop or detain a person or person from entering our homes and committing a crime against us. I think that we can search all of the history books in all of the world and we will not find one instance where an army took to the battle field armed with doors, wouldn’t you agree? But we do find that on numerous occasions doors or gates to a city or fort were able to stop or impede the enemy from gaining entry. Are you beginning to see what Jesus is telling us here? Like I said in the beginning, let’s imagine that we are in a great city, that the world is nothing more than a great city with very fortified walls. When we do this we realize immediately what Jesus is saying to His church. He is telling us here very clearly that our enemy is on the defensive. Yes that is right, oftentimes we think that the devil is on the offensive, but I say to you that this is not the case. Our enemy is on the defensive, he inhabits this world and he has erected great fortified walls, he has made gates or doors that appear impenetrable. All we have to do is look around us to see that what I am saying is true.
The demon has made walls of violence, walls of religion; he has made doors around these walls that appear impenetrable, gates of skepticism, gates of doubt, gates of apathy. But Jesus is telling His church here that no door that the devil can create, no wall that he can fortify will prevail against His power and glory. Here Jesus is telling us that as His church we must be on the offensive, we can take the offensive confidently because we have trusted in His promises. We can attack confidently the walls of hell because there is nothing that will be able to prevail against the power of our God. The gates of religion can be knocked down, the walls of addiction can be crumbled, the walls of violence can be crumbled. Brethren, Christ has left us the power. He has given us a promise that nothing will prevail against His church. Now, with this I am not saying that it will be easy, I am not saying that it will be a walk in the park It won’t be easy because Satan and his army of demons have erected great walls and powerful gates through time. But I am saying that it does not matter how long he spent building them, it does not matter how long he spent fortifying them, the strength of the door that he may have placed at the entrance is of no concern; what I am saying is, or better said, what Christ is saying to us is that THEY SHALL NOT PREVAIL!
To conclude. Here in the last two verses we see that Jesus said: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." Here we see that Jesus is giving the power to His church to defeat any opposition. Because here He is not just giving this power to only His apostles, but He is giving the power to all of His church. What this is saying to us is that we have the obligation to arduously attack in the name of Jesus until the walls fall down, until the doors of hell burst wide open. Yes brethren we can attack confidently, we have the power to bind and rebuke all the attacks of the enemy. To attack is simply to exercise the authority of the power of God here on earth.
How can we accomplish this? Easy, this is accomplished through prayer, this can be accomplished by congregating, praising and blessing His name. This is accomplished by bringing the light to the darkness, this is accomplished when we have a personal encounter with Him, when we have received a revelation from the Father of His power and glory. God has given us the power to bind and loosen but not to determine His will, but to assert and implemented here on earth. We also see here that Jesus also told them to reveal His true identity to the people, but this was only done because He had not accomplished His mission. But today I tell you that it is our obligation to reveal the world His identity, it is our obligation to bring the light to the darkness. It is time for the church of Christ to mount a rigorous attack against the walls of the enemy. Let’s not wait, we can’t fear, because I tell you that it does not matter impressive they may look, it does not matter how fortified they might be, Christ has told us and is telling us: "THEY SHALL NOT PREVAIL!"
Preached: September 24, 2000
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