The Gospel & The Church Part 2 | Matthew

Introduction:
Peter, by the grace of God, has confessed the truth regarding Jesus.
He is the Messiah, and He is the Son of God.
Jesus then announces something regarding Peter, and the role Peter will have in the ongoing formation of the people of God, including a new and unique phase in the formation of that people.
Jesus also announced something regarding Himself.
Review:
• THE BUILDER OF THE CHURCH
Jesus is the owner and the builder of the community of God’s people. He came into the world to save His people from their sins. God is both just and the justifier of ungodly people. So that Jesus came into the world to offer Himself on behalf of all who will be saved by Him OT and New.
• THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH
And yet, there is something unique that Jesus is referring to at the same time.
This is why the building that Jesus talks about is in the future.
This is why Christ makes reference to Peter in the context of a FOUNDATION.
If there is nothing new that Jesus is referring to here, then a foundation makes no sense. You don’t lay a foundation in the middle of something.
And what Jesus makes clear as He talks about the future forming of that assembly, is that it will be by the proclamation of His TRUE IDENTITY AND WORK - beginning with the apostles as the leading voices of the good news of the King and His Kingdom - it is through their work - that the church will begin being formed.
These men (Peter addressed as the leader of the twelve) will serve as the foundation of the church that Jesus builds.
In that sense, Peter is the rock. He is the representative disciple. He stands as the leading voice for the body of apostles who will serve, along with the prophets, as the foundation for the church - Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.
ESV Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
These are the first two glorious truths regarding the gospel and the church that we hear from our Lord in these verses.
Lesson:
Tonight, we begin with the 3rd glorious truth about the gospel and the church.
• THE INVINCIBILITY OF THE CHURCH (vs.18)
The gates of Hades will not overpower the church.
Hades is the New Testament (Greek) term used to refer to Sheol in the Old Testament.
The gates of Sheol or Hades, refer to the entry place of the abode of the dead.
HOW ONE REFERRED TO A GATE DEPENDED UPON WHAT THE GATE BELONGED TO.
A GATE COULD SERVE TO PROTECT THOSE WITHIN THE WALLS OF A CITY, OR A GATE COULD CONFINE THOSE WITHIN THE WALLS OF A PRISON.
In this case, the gates of Hades would refer to the confinement of the dead outside the land of the living.
THE GATES OF SHEOL OR HADES SPEAKS OF DEATH.
You see this in Old Testament passages.
• HEZEKIAH
ESV Isaiah 38:9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness: 10 I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. 11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
Hezekiah thought he was on “death’s doorstep” as we might say.
• JOB AND THE PSALMS
THE OLD TESTAMENT USES SIMILAR TERMINOLOGY AND DESCRIBES THE GATES OF DEATH.
God answers Job: ESV Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
ESV Psalm 9:13 Be gracious to me, O LORD! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
ESV Psalm 107:13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. 15 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. 17 Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; 18 they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. 19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 20 He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. 21 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
SO, WHAT IS JESUS PROMISING?
Jesus is promising that His church will not be overcome by the power of death.
To put it simply, HIS CHURCH WILL NOT BE CONQUERED BY THE POWER OF DEATH.
THE CHURCH WILL NOT BE EXTINGUISHED, SNUFFED OUT, OVERCOME, PUT OUT OF BUSINESS (or any other way one wants to describe it) by the power of death.