Gabe landed the ‘We the Church’ series with a final reminder of who the Church is. In Matthew 16:13- 18, we go back to the start of Jesus’s heart, the launching pad of the Church. Gabe invited us to come to the edge, where Church is not about a denomination or a white-picket church of Christian living. In this passage, Jesus reveals these 3 things that His Church should be built on:
1) Jesus’s Passion
Jesus had a passion for the people. His chosen disciples were unqualified, uneducated and disregarded. They weren’t elite or special, yet Jesus chose them to build His Church. Jesus went out of His way to spend time with people, always looking for the one. He kept company with notorious sinners and didn’t care what others thought. We need to have a passion in our hearts for people.
A CHURCH WITHOUT THE BROKEN IS A BROKEN CHURCH
The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do and the Church is where we come for healing. We need to leave our comfort zones to come to the edge of hell to reach people who are at their end, to help them; to pull them out of their chains and pits to rescue them. The Church is God’s tool to point people to Him. It should be a safe haven where people can feel safe to reveal their darkest and most hidden secrets – where we can be real about the things we are struggling with, and where we will find a compassionate response.
2) Jesus’s Power
God is calling us to stop hiding and recoiling and to respond to His mission. We need to take risks into the enemy’s territories to break open the gates of Hades to set people free. Jesus’s power is not based on our ability to convert or change people but on His power. No matter what comes against the Church, it will always prevail because of who has built it. Acts 1:8 tells us that we receive the gift of power WHEN the Holy Spirit comes upon ALL of us, and not IF. This power is to be used in the battle to win souls which is a spiritual warfare. Signs and wonders are to be expected when the Gospel is preached. Let us not be people who have a form of godliness, but deny God’s power. God still does His best work in the darkness, where miracles are in progress of every ‘BUT Jesus’ story. We are not in the business of explaining the power of God, but to demonstrate it. The power of the Gospel is what changes lives and brings sons and daughters home to their Fathers.
3) Jesus’s Pre-eminence
Jesus is above all, was before all and is still to come. He is supreme in creation and our salvation and is sovereign. Jesus is at the centre of every person’s story. Peter was referred to the Rock on which Jesus would build His Church and that rock is the revelation of who Jesus is! We have no message or mandate except to magnify Jesus alone. Without Jesus, we have no mission and no Church. God’s Church is to be built only on the foundation of Jesus, where He is the centre, our cornerstone from which all things flow from and where every solution is found. It is not about our passions or interests or preferred style, but on preaching the right Jesus to the gathering of His people, where we all get to encounter a life-changing touch from the King.
God invites His Church to lean into the edge of His Glory, for that is where His power is. He is calling us to be followers of His Son so His power can be worked through His Church. Yes, we will be inconvenienced, offended and the demands will be many, but it is at the very edge of the mountaintop where we will get to taste Jesus and receive His revelation and power.
God is waiting to show His power through the body of His Church. He is asking you today, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Take a leap of faith today to come to the edge and be expectant of what God wants to do through His manifold wisdom.