Have you ever started to post something on Facebook that you just really needed to get off your chest but then stopped right before you published it? Like me, you probably wish you had an anonymous account where you could post whatever you wanted without people knowing who you are. (I see you, @fakejdgreear.)
That never felt more true than during the presidential debates a few weeks ago. So many times during the debates I typed something out on Twitter and then thought, “I can’t say that. I’m a pastor!”
Anonymity sometimes has its perks. It certainly releases you from a lot of accountability. But for Christians, remaining anonymous isn’t an option. Jesus doesn’t want us to stay in the shadows. Instead, he calls us to boldly confess who he is and follow him without shame.
Jesus gave his disciples an opportunity to do just that in Matthew 16, when he asked them who they thought he was. Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’” (Matthew 16:16-18 ESV).
In these verses, Jesus shows us one of the most important results of publicly professing what we believe, just like Peter did:
If we confess faithfully, we are unstoppable.
When it says, “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the Church, people usually think it means that Jesus will protect us from all of Satan’s vicious attacks on us. How many times has a well-meaning believer said, “Don’t worry when the church is attacked, because the gates of hell will not overcome you!”
But this verse is about Satan’s inability to keep us from plundering his kingdom, not his inability to plunder ours.
Are “gates” an offensive weapon? Do you attack someone with a gate? Beat them over the head with it?
No. Gates are a defensive weapon. Gates are designed to keep people out. Jesus is saying that when we confess faithfully, not only will he protect our church, but he’ll also enable us to advance God’s Kingdom into Satan’s most well-fortified strongholds.
God has grown The Summit Church tremendously. We’ve baptized almost 5,424 people in the last 14 years. Are we satisfied? Are we going to huddle up and say, “OK, God, now protect us and our families” or “God, the candidates for president this year are terrible and America’s going to hell and how are we going to survive?”
Jesus didn’t promise that he would enable us to survive a slow retreat in our culture. He promised us that if we’d be faithful in our confession, he’d let us advance deeper and deeper into enemy territory.
It reminds me of a story about Abraham Lincoln. When the Union army pushed the Confederates back into Richmond, one of Lincoln’s generals burst into his office and said, “President Lincoln, I am pleased to tell you we have finally pushed the enemy out of our territory and back into his own.”
Lincoln said to the other generals in the room, “When will my generals learn that the whole country is our territory?”
Jesus is not content to be Lord of the Church. He died to be Lord of the whole earth.
There are still 6,400 unreached people groups with no witness. There are communities of refugees displaced around the globe and populations of prisoners that need a gospel witness and foster kids that need to be taken care of.
So I want to say it clearly: I confess that …
Jesus is the Lord of the whole earth, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the one way of salvation for all people, the one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
There is no difference in the Jew and the Greek, the black and the white, the rich and the poor, the Democrat and Republican. Since the beginning of time, there’s only been one race of human—sinner—and one Savior, Jesus.
The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on whoever calls upon him, and he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
I confess this because the Bible Jesus authorized teaches it, and I believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Whether or not that confession is unpopular, it comes with the power of God — and that’s the last thing I want to lose.
And, because of Jesus’ promise that he puts on this confession, we will never be satisfied when there is such lostness in our community and our world. The whole country is his territory!
People ask me, “Isn’t the Summit big enough already? When are you going to stop trying to grow?”
This is my answer: When Jesus comes back or the last person in Raleigh-Durham gets saved.
Hell doesn’t rest, and so neither will we.
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.