THE GATES OF HELL Good morning beloved, welcome to ‘Scripture Review’ for today, The Lord said to apostle Peter in Matthew 16:18, ‘’and I say 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. In these words Christ promises to build His church on the truth of Peter’s and the other disciples’ confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus uses a play on words here. He calls His disciple ‘’Peter’ (In Greek word Petros, meaning a small stone), but goes on to say, ‘’upon this rock (Is interpreted in Greek as Petra, meaning a massive rock or a rocky cliff) I will build my church,’’ i.e., He will build His church upon Peter’s solid confession. It is Jesus Christ who is the Rock, the first and great foundation of the church. Peter states in his first letter that Jesus is the ‘’living stone... a chief corner stone... the stone which the builders disallowed’’. At the same time, Peter and all other Christians are living stones who become part of the structure of the spiritual house that God is building. Nowhere in the Scripture is it stated that Peter would be the supreme and infallible authority above all other disciples. Nor is it stated that Peter should have infallible successors who would represent Christ and function as the official heads of the church. We are all kingdom of priest, peculiar people, holy nation, royal priesthood, and we should show forth the glory of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. The ‘’gates of hell’’ represents all the demons and evil strategy that Satan can marshal in an attempt to destroy the church, or denomination will be immune to doctrinal error or otherwise be overcome by sin or Satan’s snares. Jesus warned believers and churches of possible spiritual deception and failure. What this passage does mean is that in spite of Satan doing his worst, the church that Jesus Christ is building cannot, in the end, be overcome by Satan. God’s true church will rise up in faith, authority and the power of the Holy Spirit to righteously assault Satan’s kingdom and domain of darkness by delivering people from sin, disease, bondage and oppression. The church that Jesus is building can never be destroyed nor successfully be resisted by Satan. You are a precious stone in the church, carved out and polished, stand in your authority as Christ’s delegate on earth. Remain strong, Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 06:33:40 +0000
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