Focus: The Winning Church

Text: Mt.16:18

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

In this world the church is impregnable. The church cannot be conquered by the forces of evil, because she is the body of Christ. She is invincible.

The church is adequately equipped and empowered by God's Spirit to fulfill her role in history and dislodge Satan and his cohorts. Jesus Christ makes it clear that "the gates of hell shall NOT PREVAIL against it." That little word 'not' is 'ou' in the Greet, and it is better translated as 'never.' "The gates of hell shall NEVER prevail against it." The victory of the church is absolutely guaranteed. She fights to win, not to lose. She may lose temporarily, but ultimately she wins. She is built to win ultimately and to last eternally.

The church is God's project and agent on earth. The church has God's backing, and so she is untouchable. The words 'prevail against' found in our text appear in the Greek as 'katischuō,' which is a compound word of 'kata' and 'ischus.' What it means is that the gates of hell cannot overpower the church. They cannot hold the church down and defeated. It means that the gates of hell lack superior power over the church. The church operates with Christ's authority and superior strength. The church will always predominate wherever she is located or domiciled. She has the upper hand. She operates the keys of the kingdom of heaven on earth. She is divinely authorized on earth to bind and loose, and to cast out demons.

Do you know something? The truth is that the winning church is the church that is winning souls. The church has magnetic power; she draws men and women to Christ by the power of the gospel.

The church wins with love. The church wins by faith.

The church wins by rendering service. The church wins by righteousness. The church wins by joy. The church wins by pursuing peace and living a holy life. The church wins by good works.

Let me restate it this way: the church wins over darkness by her light, over hate by her love, over falsehood by the truth of God, over unbelief by her faith in Christ, over fear by her courage, over compromise by her moral convictions, over the trials of this life by the greater one who lives in her, and over the forces of evil by her divine armor.

The church wins by the blood of the Lamb. John writes, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev.12:11).

For your information, the church is you and I. Every believer in Christ is a part of the church. Paul writes, "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph.5:30). We belong to Christ forever. Christ is our head and we are His body. Paul also tells us, "For we are members one of another" (Eph.4:25). We are into Christ and into each other. We just can't lose - no way! We are the winning church with Christ as our head. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter