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Satan tries to bring physical and spiritual death
to people of Christ. In V.18 Jesus said that the gates of Hell
cannot stand against the true Church. "The gates of hell" is an OT metaphor
for death. We can see this in several passages. (1) Isa. 38:10
tells the story of God adding 15 years to the life of King Hezekiah
when he prayed to God with tears for healing from an unnamed disease.
Hezekiah described his own plight this way: "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. 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." (2) When
God was putting Job in his place of humility, He said
to Job: "Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you
seen the gates of deep darkness? Job 38:17 Do you understand
death, Job? (3) David prayed in Ps. 9:13 "O LORD, see how my
enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death."
Hades/Sheol/ Hell was the realm of the dead and represents death. Jesus is
saying that death will not conquer the community of God. Satan wants
to bring physical and spiritual death to believers, but he is unable
to defeat those who are protected and redeemed by the
Living God. In His incarnation, Jesus submitted himself
to the gates of Hades and by death He conquered death
and Satan! John Owen's famous book title captures this great truth: The Death of
Death in the Death of Christ. Heb. 2:14 "Since the children have
flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he
might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their
fear of death." Knowing Jesus Christ frees us from Satan's most powerful
weapon! We are no longer afraid to die physically and we
will never spiritually! Rev. 12:10-11 tells us about
Christian martyrs who defeated the gates of Hades: "And I heard
a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom
of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers
has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the
word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."
Peter's confession in V.16 proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of the Living
God. The Living God produces a living church
through the Resurrection of the Living Son. Jesus came
to destroy the weapons of the devil. 1 John 3:8 "The reason the Son of God
appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Lying and death are Satan's
weapons. The Church of Christ has the weapons to destroy
those works: the Truth of the Word and the Promise of Eternal Life!
That's why we study the Bible so intensely!
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The second point of attack by Satan is to attempt to destroy the
leadership structure of the church. He knows that if you destroy
the Shepherd, the sheep will be scattered. Mt. 26:31 "Then Jesus said
to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I
will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
(Zech. 13:7) The devil tried to destroy the church by killing Jesus on the
Cross. Now, the devil wants to destroy the faith of the elders of
every local church. We can see this clearly when Paul called the elders of the
church at Ephesus to meet him for the last time in the town of Miletus.
Turn with me to Acts 20:28-30 "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to
all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the
church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure
fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from
among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the
disciples after them." They were to pay careful attention
to their own spirituality as they care for the life of God's blood-bought
flock. Fierce wolves would surely arise from among even the elders
of certain churches, men who had been taken captive by Satan to hurt
the people of God.
Satan wants to destroy the elders of the local church by leading them
into some kind of destructive sin or moral scandal. He tries to
destroy the unity of the elder team and turn it into a battle ground of
arguments and confusion. He tries to confuse them
and lead them into destructive decisions and dominating leadership
styles. He tries to influence them to embrace a version of evangelical
feminism and allow the roles of men and women in the
church to be confused. He knows that if he can strike the elders,
he'll scatter the flock. This is why you should be in constant prayer
for your elders, that they will be godly men who are not
unaware of the schemes of the devil. Pray that God will make us holy in our motives,
hearts and actions.
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The third point of attack by Satan is to corrupt the doctrine of the church.
Look at Mt. 16:21ff. Jesus began to explicitly explain to the
disciples the doctrine of salvation through the death and resurrection
of the Messiah (V.21). There is only one way salvation will
come to men, that is through the Cross, through subsitutionary atonement.
This is the heart of the Church's doctrine. Satan attempts to corrupt
the doctrine of Salvation through Peter! Satan doesn't want a crucified
Messiah; he wants a blood-less religion. He's not afraid
of a Cross-less Christianity.
Peter goes WAY, WAY out of bounds when he takes Jesus aside and began
to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be if from you, Lord! This shall never
happen to you!" V.22 In the Jewish world, a disciple would
never do this to his master, it would be audacious!
It was Satan who implanted this evil thought into Peter's mind. Peter
is trying to change the eternal plan of the Father to punish His Son
on behalf of sinners. Satan is using Peter to strike at the very
heart of God's eternal decree of redemption. Listen to
John 12:27, Jesus praying in the garden: "Now My soul has become
troubled; and what shall I say, "Father, save me from this hour?" But for this very
reason I came to this hour." Jesus knew the cross was necessary, essential
to our eternal joy in heaven. Jesus embraced the doctrine of
the Cross, He knew he would be the penalty-bearer for His people.
He would never let Satan corrupt that doctrine. This is the doctrine
that gets so corrupted or ignored in our day! Just listen to any
preacher and you will shortly see if he exalts the Cross
or if he corrupts the doctrine of the Cross.
If a man doesn't exalt the Cross of Christ as our only hope of forgiveness and
salvation, then he is speaking for the devil as much as
Peter was that day. We must speak about the meaning
and significance of the Cross at all times! Never neglect the centrality
of the Cross in all of your conversations about God! This is how we
protect the Church.
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The fourth point of attack by Satan is to destroy relationships in the church.
How many hundreds of churches have been destroyed by infighting:
holding grudges, gossip, arguments, hurt spirits, unwillingness to forgive, bitterness,
selfishness, lack of sacrificial love?! Any time we do that, we become
influenced like Peter was to destroy the Body of Christ. Paul says in Galatians 5:13-15
"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity
for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled
in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour
one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
1 Cor. 1:10-11 "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to
me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers."
Ephes. 4:30-5:2 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were
sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Overcome Satan by living out these passages with your brothers and
sisters in Christ!
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The fifth point of attack by Satan is to divert the focus of the church.
Let's finish back in Matthew 16. V.23 "But he turned and said to Peter, "Get
behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on
the things of God, but on the things of man." Peter had lost focus on
God's mission. He wanted to have a Messiah that wasn't going to the Cross
to die, but one that world just rule the world
and make things work the way Peter wanted. It would be more comfortable
that way, no persecution that way, no hardship that
way. Get rid of the Romans and we are on easy-street! Restore the
glory days of King David!
This is always our challenge. Satan tries to destroy us by making
us fall in love with comfort, safety and ease. We must keep
our focus on the Kingdom of God, not on what will make our lives
comfortable and easy. We have a wonderful plan for our lives
and it doesn't include persecution, pain, poverty, sickness, or ridicule for being
a Christ-follower. It includes luxurious vacations, opulent lifestyles,
popularity, comforts of every kind, popularity and ease that never ends.
But that is not the pathway of the Cross. The Church is destroyed
by thinking that everything ought to be comfortable. Paul told Timothy
to "Endure hardship as a good soldier of the Cross." (2 Tim. 2:3)
We must keep focused on the Kingdom, not on the comforts of life.
We have a mission. Jesus alludes to it in V. 19 of our text.
It is a hard passage to interpret but the overall meaning is very clear.
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven." In a nutshell, this speaks of preaching the gospel
which is the doorway into heaven. Peter and the other disciples were
to preach the gospel of Jesus, the key to heaven. That would open
the kingdom to all who believer. The Pharisees preached
a false message of works righteousness that locked people out
of heaven. Look at Mt. 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter
yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in."
When we give people false hope of getting to heaven by anything
else other than complete trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross,
we are slamming the door of the kingdom in their faces.
But if we tell them forgiveness is found through the blood of a crucified Messiah,
then we binding what is already bound in heaven and opening the doors
of the kingdom as faithful soldiers of the Cross. This is to be our
passion and preoccupation in life.
H.