Printer Friendly VersionJesus said that when we joined Him in building His Church, “the
gates of Hades would not overcome it.” That has become an intriguing
phrase for me over the years. I did a little research on gated communities.
I never realized how much animosity there is toward gated communities. One
article, Fortress America, reports that the whole idea of “community”
is in decline in the United States. In 1998 8.5 million of us were living
in three million residences, inside some 20,000 gated communities, complete
with 24-hour guards and private security patrols. Though 8.5 million is only
3 percent of the total population, we can still see that a trend is occurring.
One 1990 real estate report revealed that 54% of homebuyers,
in a Southern California study, desired to purchase only in private gated
communities. And since these articles were published, gated-community living
has increased dramatically!
What does a gated community provide? Why has it become something
that so many of us desire? It provides homogeneity of living. It “keeps
out” those with whom you do not wish to associate. It gives a sense of
security. But, as designer Peter Calthorpe writes, “Socially the ‘house
fortress’ represents a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more isolated people
become and the less they share with others unlike themselves, the more they
do have to fear.” It creates an “us-against-them” situation.
It’s not just the rich who want to isolate themselves off
in gated communities, either. It’s our main societal breech . . . isolation
from those not like us. Ghettos, at least in this country, were developed
around those who spoke a common language and shared a common lifestyle upon
immigration. Boston flourished with Irish immigrants; New York City, with
immigrants from all over the world, left us with Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Queens,
and other areas which were originally ethnically homogenous. It’s why
every major city has a Chinatown, a Little Italy, and the like. People cluster
in safe, homogeneous groups. But Jesus is building a community of people from
every race, every class; a people called out from every religion of humanity.
Colossians 3:11 tells us: “Here there is no Greek or Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ
is all, and is in all” (NIV). Jesus is not building a gated community;
quite to the contrary, He’s breaking down the gates! He’s building
a Kingdom against which no gate is strong enough to keep anyone out!
Gates are designed in a two-fold manner. They are designed to
keep others “out,” while at the same time keep some “in.”
In a gated community, gates might be more designed to keep society at large
out, while in a prison setting the gates are not designed to keep society
out, but to keep the prisoners in. Either way, gates control people. But Jesus
said “No more! The gates of Hades will not overcome my Church!”
To the Jew, Hades was the place of the dead. In a society that
did not embrace the idea of life after death, all of the dead went to Hades.
It’s as though, in going there, death wins. But in Christ that’s
no longer true! Listen to the Word of the Lord to Hosea: "I will ransom
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O
death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” (Hosea
13:14, NIV)
You see, since the Garden, death has gotten the last word. But
no more!
Paul writes: “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in
a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal
with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable,
and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come
true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death,
is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is
sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:50-57, NIV)
Death no longer gets to be the last word!
To Timothy, Paul writes: “So do not be ashamed to testify
about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering
for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy
life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose
and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of
time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ
Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel” (I Timothy 1:8-10, NIV).
Before Jesus, they couldn’t even grasp the veracity of
life after death. Death just always got to be the last word, but Jesus has
brought life and immortality to light and destroyed death. Hades has been
destroyed and can no longer hold humanity in fear!
Secondly, those gates are holding back those who are dying .
. . which is everyone ever born in the entire world—all those who continue
to live apart from Christ. Hebrews 9:27: “Just as man is destined to
die once, and after that to face judgment” (NIV).
Those who have no hope, those who have no confidence in what
lies beyond the grave, Satan has them just where he wants them, for he has
been allowed to reign in that place of death. But no more! Hebrews 2:14: “Since
the children have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so
that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that
is, the devil” (NIV).
Since the devil knows we’re all fearful of dying, and since
death represents the ultimate price for all of our sins, Satan has held the
power of death over our heads for all these years but no more! Listen to these
great words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!
And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18, NIV).
Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades. Satan no longer gets
to hold anyone back from hearing the Word of the hope of Jesus from His Church.
Death no longer gets to be the final word on the subject, and all the power
of evil cannot overcome the Church Jesus is building! The gates cannot hold
back the power of the goodness and righteousness of Jesus!
Yes, there will always be obstacles to overcome. Men and women
will fall victim to the snares of sin, and frequently those sins will cast
a shadow over the Church. But even that cannot stop Jesus from building His
Church! We will not be overcome, we will overcome! I John 5:3-5: “for
everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome
the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (NIV). John 16:33: “In this
world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”
(NIV).
Jesus has broken down those gates. He has set the captives free. He is building
the community for which all of our hearts desire! This is the Church!
Are you beginning to see the “big picture?” Can you
see what we’re called to be? I pondered those words of Helmut Thielicke
about whether the Church is allowing those who have no idea of its mission
to define our authority, and I’ve come away from that realizing that
too often we do let that happen.
Our churches have almost become the ultimate gated community.
WE are keeping people out! WE are derelict in our responsibility to go into
the world with this message of hope. WE have allowed the Church to become
what to some seems like a fortress, impenetrable, exclusive, a gated community
to which they were not invited or could not afford. The shocking thing is
not that there’s some worldliness in our churches; it’s that there’s
so little of our Church in the world! Especially since Jesus said, “GO
INTO THE WORLD!”
Let’s not kid ourselves; churches have become little enclaves
of homogeneous groups. Martin Luther King said that 11:00 A.M. on Sunday mornings
was the most segregated hour in America. Have we come so short a distance
in thirty-four years? Do we think Jesus is honored when we just will not go
out and invite them in? Let’s kick down some gates!
Tertullian, who lived in the second century, wrote about his
observations of the Christian community. What he saw was a people who welcomed
strangers; a people who went out of their way to care for the sick; a people
who took it upon themselves to provide burial services for the poor and the
outcast. He wrote that he actually overheard the heathens (by which he meant
non-Christians) saying, “See how they love one another . . . see how
they are ready even to die for one another.”
Tertullian saw this love of the Christians as the most compelling
reason for anyone to ever want to be a Christian. How are we known? Are we
known for this same kind of relentless love? Love was tearing down some gates.
The love of Christ was reaching the already dying Roman world. And though
Rome was dying, the Community of Jesus was flourishing, through love.
This was the message of Jesus: No More Gates! Every barrier
that has been erected to separate people from one another must come down in
the community of Jesus!
Taking Down the Gates
The natural question to ask at this point is, “How do we
tear down the gates?” The Church must consciously and unashamedly provide
an environment for a community of believers, where biblical community is openly
accepted and actively lived out. Who we are and what we do must be radically
different from that which is going on around us in the world. Scripture gives
us some glimpses of what that new community looked like:
Acts 2:42-47: “They devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone
was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the
apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling
their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day
they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in
their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and
enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily
those who were being saved” (NIV).
Acts 4:32-35: “All the believers were one in heart and
mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared
everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There
were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands
or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles'
feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (NIV).
Can you hear the sense of community in those verses? Some say
the real miracle of Acts happens right in these verses, where such disparate
peoples from so many cultural backgrounds and languages are able to pull off
koinonia to such a degree that their community was marked by signs, wonders,
and people being drawn to their fellowship daily! The Church Jesus was building
was so fresh and new that it scared those who all their lives had created
a religion designed to keep others shut out! That’s the Church—drawing
others because Jesus is being lifted up as we continue His work!
In his book, Wind and Fire, Bruce Larson gives two examples
of how people in the Church have believed community should be lived out:
(1) St. Francis of Assisi, the medieval monk, is the first example.
He took the gospel to the poorest and most unlikely places in the world of
his day: the slave camps, the pirate ships, and the leper colonies. For Francis,
the gates of Hades were keeping the least and the last from sharing in the
wonders of the Kingdom, so Francis stormed the gates with the love of Christ.
(We name cities after Francis.)
(2) As a contrast, Larson comments on a Grecian monastic movement
of the same era as Francis, called the Meteora. These Meteora monks withdrew
from the world. They built their monasteries on top of natural stone pillars
one thousand feet high. They pulled themselves and their supplies up by means
of ropes and baskets, and they lived there in total isolation from the world.
The question is: Which of the two groups were fulfilling the
Great Commission: “Go change the world!”? Satan loves to build a
gated community which keeps the Church from going to the world; because Hell
is a gated community! We must build a community where love is alive, where
fellowship flourishes, and where all are welcome. Not only must we tear down
the gates and walls around our church; we must also tear down the walls and
gates that keep us isolated from others.
Paul Tournier, Swiss psychologist and theologian wrote: “90%
of peoples’ needs are best cared for by fellow strugglers, not by psychologists,
doctors, or even clergy. Only about 10% need professional help.” Translated,
we need each other. We begin by tearing down the gates and walls which separate
us right here in the community of believers.
In October of 1987, a little girl captivated the hearts of nearly
all of America. Her name was Jessica McClure and she had the misfortune to
step into an abandoned well pipe at her home in Midland, Texas. The ensuing
rescue took fifty-eight hours and four hundred people. Imagine: 400 people
to rescue one 40-pound little girl. During the rescue, little Jessica’s
anguish and crying, which could be heard by those on the surface, spurred
her rescuers on in their many attempts. Because of her cries, a critical decision
was made: The rescue would have to proceed in two phases. Phase one was to
get someone else down there, next to her, as soon as possible. This was the
most critical step because people tend to do and think strange things when
they are trapped alone in a dark, scary place for long periods of time. That’s
what isolation does to us.
We must tear down the gates that keep us isolated from one another.
We are a society that lives in isolation far too often, even in the Church.
Too often Christians want a worship service to be only about the Kingdom community
to which they have been exposed. When that happens we end up with a kind of
corporate monasticism, not that different from the Meteora monks. Oh, we’re
godly, we’re spiritual, but we’re isolated. The Kingdom of God is
built entirely upon relationships. Jesus said, first have a relationship with
God that encompasses every aspect of your being . . . heart, soul, mind, strength.
Second, build relationships with others that are so intimate that you could
be mistaken for brothers and sisters and not just neighbors.
Let’s tear down the walls and gates which keep the Church from going to the lost, the least, and the lonely of society. One of my favorite thoughts about the Church was the day a young girl and her friends came to interview me for their God and Country badge. One of the girls was raised in a Buddhist home and she finally asked me, “What is a Church?” And after I thought about it for a while I said to her, “We’re the body of Jesus. We are who Jesus would be if Jesus lived in our town, what He does through us. It takes all of us to be that, but that’s what we’re supposed to be.” And what I’ve learned over the years is that for us to be that, we have to tear down some walls and gates.
