Storm the Gates of Hell: Matthew 16:13-18, Mark 6:6-13
Today in America 29 percent of the population never attends worship, while 24 percent of the population attends weekly. Those statistics include all religious affiliations. I wonder how many people in the United States are what I would call a Christ-follower?
That’s a tricky question whose answer is probably not knowable. Why? Going to church no more makes you a Christ-follower than going into the Ford Garage makes you a mustang.
I doubt if 10 percent of the U.S. population are Christ-followers. What’s the solution to the lack of Christian commitment in the United States of America?
In Matthew 16:13-18 Jesus give us the answer we’re looking for.
Having arrived in the area of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questioned His disciples about who He was. He asked about who the people said He was. The disciples said the people said he was John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Next Jesus wanted to know who His disciples said He was.
Peter jumped on the right answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16B NIV) Jesus made it clear Simon the Son of Jonah was right, then renamed him, Peter, which means “Rock,” and made it clear He would build His church on this rock.
He named Peter the Rock because he confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the Person
of Christ as the Messiah and God’s Son is the Rock, He would build His church on.
Notice who the church belongs to. It’s Jesus’ church. He bought it with blood, and it’s His personal possession. Notice who will build it. Jesus will build it!
Why isn’t the church doing what Jesus said it would do? It’s not taking the American Culture! Why? Most people involved in church in America think it’s their church!
The real trick is to turn ownership of the church over to Jesus and allow Him to own it! He bought it with blood at the cross. It’s His!
I’ve seen two churches get “OWNED” by Jesus for a short time. When they were owned by Jesus, they stormed the gates of Hell, and a bunch of people came to the Lord and the church expanded.
What happens is the congregation or the board of elders, or the board of elders and deacons or the church council outvotes Jesus and takes over. Sometimes a pastor will outvote Jesus and take over. Wrong! It’s not their church! It’s Jesus’ church! He paid the price for it and no one else did!
It’s the nature of the human condition to take control of things and not let God own what He owns. Faith surrenders ownership to Jesus! When Jesus owns what’s His He will use people to storm the gates of Hell and take people for Christ, and that of their own free will!
In Mark 6:6-13 we will find out what Jesus did when He was here.
First, Jesus had been teaching in the Synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. The people in His hometown rejected Jesus and downgraded Him to just another guy from Nazareth and He was astonished at their lack of faith! Bottom line: They would not listen to Jesus!
What did Jesus do? He left and went around teaching from village to village.
The first thing Jesus did is He found people who would listen to Him. If someone won’t listen to your message, go find someone who will listen!
How do you find people who will listen? Ask God for people who will listen and keep talking to people until someone will listen.
I started selling Fords in March of 2005 after being in full time ministry for 30 years. How do you find customers? I talked to people until I found someone who would listen.
I spent almost all my time on the lot. Sometimes you wait for people to drive in. Sometimes you wait for phone calls from customers. The receptionist would announce, “available sales, call the operator.” Whoever called the operator first got the sales call. I learned how to call the operator before anyone else and got sales calls. I found people who would listen.
In 2006 I sold 75 cars off of sales calls.
Sometimes I would walk the lot for hours until I found someone to talk too. I found them. 2006 was my first complete year in auto sales. The average auto salesman in the country sells about 8 vehicles a month. In 2006 I sold 12.16, selling 146 vehicles for the year.
I earned twice the income I had ever earned in ministry. I found people to talk too.
Like Jesus, when we decide to find people to talk to about Him, we can find them. Ask Him for them and keep talking to people.
Notice in verse 7 Jesus sent the 12 out and gave them authority over evil spirits. Notice He sent them out in groups of two.
Remember what Jesus called them too. In Mark 1:17 Jesus called the two fishermen brothers, Simon and Andrew with these words, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” (NIV)
From the beginning Jesus called these 12 men to be fishers of men, to be those who reached out to lost people with good news about Jesus Christ the Lord.
Remember Jesus prepared them to do this work by observing Him do it and by Him teaching them how to do it, then having debriefing times to learn.
In 1976 I was in youth ministry in Southern California. In those days we had events for the youth to bring non-christian friends to, then I would call on those kids with some of our youth.
I trained the youth how to do the calls. One night, I sent 3 guys on three calls by themselves. They were gone for almost three hours. When they got back, they told me tone kid wasn’t home, but they had studied with the other two and they were scheduled to be baptized on Sunday morning.
Do what Jesus did and get others involved in reaching out to people who need Jesus!
Jesus sent them out with a sense of urgency. He told them to take nothing for the journey, no bread, no money, don’t take an extra tunic, stay with someone in town who will offer hospitality and stay with them until it’s time to leave.
If someone won’t listen to your message, shake the dust off your feet and find someone who will listen to you.
They were to treat this mission with urgency and passion. Additionally, they were to approach it with absolute trust in God.
Compare this urgency and passion with today’s “lets have church next Sunday mentality.”
The call of Jesus is the same for us today. How do we reach a lost and dying world? Not with the complacency of just having church services next week! We need passion and urgency to reach the lost at any cost.
Remember what Jesus paid for this! His blood and life! We need to find His passion and His urgency to reach lost people.
Jesus sent them out to preach people should repent! Jesus gave them authority to do miracles to confirm the message. They cast out demons and anointed the sick with oil to confirm message of Christ with miracles, wonders and signs.
Those miracles still confirm the message today, as they’re part of the historical account we have in Scripture. And God can choose to do miracles today if He wants.
The core of the message they were called to proclaim is to repent. To repent is to change your mind and change the direction of your life. You were running the show and now your surrender to Jesus and let Him run your show as Lord of your life!
Jesus defined repentance in Mark 1:15, “’The time has come,’ he said, ‘The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’”
The message is always about repenting and believing the good news! Change your mind and direction by surrendering to Jesus as Lord and believe He died to pay for your sin on the cross and was raised from the dead to defeat sin and death in your life once and for all.
Jesus stormed the gates of Hell! He found someone to listen, got others involved in taking that message to people, the mission was urgent, and it was about preaching repentance.
Back to Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (NIV)
A better way to say, “the gates of hades will not overcome it,” might be, “and the gates of hades will not prove stronger than it.” The picture here is not the church sitting behind the gates and the assault of Hell not being able to get to the church.
The picture is of the church assaulting the gates of hell with the gospel and the gates of hell can’t stand against the assault of the church!
Turn the church over to Jesus who bought it with His blood, and He will lead the assault the gates of Hell can’t withstand…. Only then will this country and our world come to Jesus!
Turn the church over to Jesus and storm to gates of Hell!