Welcome to the Come to Jesus Daily Devotional. Today, as begin a vision series about the church, we reflect on the truth that God’s church is loved by God, hated by Satan, so will we join with God in resisting the evil one by loving and building His Church?
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‘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.’ (Matthew 16:18)
There is much strife and fighting in this world. Whether it’s around elections, immigration, race, gender, sex, approaches to tax… we are assaulted with a barrage of strife and doom mongering. However, do we realise, that at the heart of all of this chaos, the enemy is endeavouring to distract us from the real battle! The devil is content for us to fight on any front as long as we don’t fight to build the church. Building the church is at the heart of God’s mission and how He blesses the world most effectively. Whilst we can, of course, play our part in politics, the environment and other causes, our most important mission is to build the church.
A big problem we have is that many do not have clarity on what it means to be involved in building Jesus’ church. God challenged His people who had stopped building His temple with these challenging words:
‘Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”’… This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,” says the Lord. (Haggai 1:3-4, 7-8)
These prophetic words are true of many of us. Many are happy to invest in their own home and are distracted from investing in God’s house. However, do we even know how to apply these words in our day and in this New Covenant era? What is the ‘house’ that God wants us to build and what is it that Satan is against us building?
In essence, God is building His church, which is all who are called to belong to Him, and who are united to Him by the Spirit. There’s a lot more that we’ll say about the nature of the church, but here, we simply want to see that Jesus has a plan, a plan that is opposed by Satan, to bring multitudes out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of God and also into His church.
Response
In our text, Peter is told that:
‘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.’ (Matthew 16:18)
Peter, I’m sure, had many other important things in his life, but his role in building the church was central to his role and identity. You and I are not The Apostle Peter who had a unique role to play in founding the church, but each of us, like Peter are a ‘small rock’ and have an important part to play in building the church. So let’s believe the promises. Let’s pray. Let’s get involved in building.
'Together' meeting notes
Over the next two 'Together' evenings, we will briefly reflect on our 'God's vision for the church' vision series. This week, we reflect on the promise of God to build His church and the temple metaphor.
1. God has promised and the enemy is opposing
We need to have faith in God’s vision for the church because God has promised to build His church and this is under demonic assault:
‘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.’ (Matthew 16:18)
Pray together: Pray for one another regarding our involvement in building His church. Pray for the church to be built and protected. Specifically, pray for our Community Groups.
2. The church is God’s Chosen people and His temple
The word ‘church’ (ekklēsía) in our text, means to be ‘called out from’, and ‘called to’. The church is all the people ‘called out from the world’ in order to belong to God - we are those chosen by God to be holy for Him and serve Him in this world.
One of the metaphors that’s used for the church is of her being God’s holy temple:
‘Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.(Ephesians 2:20-22)
Discuss:
What is our ‘foundation’ and ‘cornerstone’ and what does this mean?
What is meant by ‘joined together and rises’ and ‘built together’?
What does it mean to be a ‘holy temple in the Lord’?
What does it mean to be ‘a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit'?
How should God’s vision of us being His holy temple be reflected in our various meetings for worship and prayer?
How does is this metaphor to be applied in our individual lives?
Specifically, how should God’s vision for the church as a holy temple affect our vision for our Community Group meetings?
Pray together: Pray for the church and your Community Group to better reflect her identity as God’s holy temple and dwelling place.
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