The ADVANCE of the Gospel to the Nations - God's Plan In His Story

In the US and in most of the western world, it seems like the church is in retreat. So, what does Jesus mean when He says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it"? Matthew 16:38. This is my effort to answer that question. It requires looking back to Genesis and then moving forward to Revelation and seeking to understand the advance of the church before Jesus returns.

In Genesis 11, God confused the language of the sinful people so that people of similar speech developed their own nations and the world became divided into ethnic language groups instead of being united. Moses then refers to those other nations, in contrast to Israel, in Deuteronomy 32:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

when he divided mankind,

he fixed the borders of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.

But the LORD's portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

(Deuteronomy 32:8-9 ESV)

Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32 includes some peculiar language. One probable interpretation of verses 8-9 is that the world of Moses' time had nation after nation ruled by "sons of God" - Hebrew language for fallen angels. This is consistent with Daniel 10:13, where we see that the "prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me (the angel Gabriel)." In other words, Persia was dominated by a fallen angel with dominion over that kingdom.

In contrast to the other nations, God chose the people of Israel to be His portion - a people in a land who represented His character and His dominion. He sought to "redeem" a people who would represent Him to a lost, dark world. 

“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? 

Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

....

“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;

you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

The peoples have heard; they tremble;

pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;

trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;

all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

Terror and dread fall upon them;

because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,

till your people, O LORD, pass by,

till the people pass by whom you have purchased.

You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,

the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,

the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

(Exodus 15:11-18 ESV)

"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

(Exodus 19:5-6 ESV)

The presence of the LORD made the people of God distinct from every other people on the face of the earth. (Exodus 33:14-16.) God's holiness made Him unique in character and distinct from the god's of the nations. (Lev. 19:2, 20:26, 21:6.) God chose these people to become a holy people, consistent with His character. (Deut. 7:6.) 

All of the commandments and rules were intended to direct the people toward His holiness and their need for His redemption and cleansing so that they would become the people who represented Him in a world controlled by demon gods. The foreign gods and idols of the nations are really "demons" and cannot compare to the true God of gods and LORD of lords. (Deut. 32:16-17; Psalm 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20-21; Rev. 9:20.) 

The history of the Hebrew Scriptures is that the people of Israel did a poor job representing God's holiness. They failed to be a kingdom that accurately represented God's character and call to the world of darkness. 

Jesus entered into that world of darkness. In the world that Jesus entered even the kingdom of Israel was dominated and controlled by foreign powers and foreign gods. He cast demons out of people right and left in a land that was supposed to represent His holiness. The land was polluted by the gods and demons of the nations. 

In that context, Jesus goes to the furthest northern city of Israel - then called Caesarea Philippi. That was the ancient city of Dan. The Hebrew Scriptures frequently describe the north to south geography of Israel as Dan to Beersheba (furthest north city to the furthest south city). Dan was an apostate tribe of Israel, which created its own false religious system early on in Israel's history. (See Judges chapter 18.) 

Dan was blessed with abundant water from the snows of Mount Hermon. It was a rich, fertile area where drought, famine and scarcity were unlikely. The headwaters of the Jordan River were there, flowing from underground caverns at the base of Mt. Hermon. By the time of Jesus, the area had been under the control of Greek and Roman influence for hundreds of years. The Greek god Pan was a fertility god, and the tradition at Caesarea Philippi was that Pan (half-man, half-goat) came from the caverns there along with river nymphs. Pan and the nymphs would have extensive sexual relations there, which would bring fertility to the land. In order to encourage fertility in the land, the people would engage in orgies of sexual activity in that location. The word, "pandemonium," literally refers to the chaos of demonic activity, and it was used to describe the human, animal and demonic sexual activity that occurred at Caesarea Philippi. 

The caverns out of which the water flowed and the demons were thought to emerge was referred to as the "Gates of Hades." Elaborate stone work was erected around the caverns to create visual "gates." Caesarea Philippi was believed by the Jews to be a place of great evil. Some rabbis taught that when the Messiah came, he would destroy that place, because Messiah and the Gates of Hades could not coexist on the earth. 

Caesarea Philippi was far away from any place where Jesus ministered or would have had cause to visit, other than to make the point that He makes to His disciples there. It was in that place, in that context, that Jesus emphatically affirms Who He is and what His purpose is for the church. 

        Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon 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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

(Matthew 16:13-20 ESV)

I want to only focus on the words, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it." Note that gates only serve a defensive purpose, they are not offensive weapons. In Jesus' words, the church is the aggressor and will prevail against the Gates of Hades. 

The headwaters of the Jordan flowing from the Gates of Hell.

Part of the pagan temple where pandemonium would occur.

An artistic recreation of what the site would have looked like at the time of Jesus. 

As Jesus was standing in front of the "Gates of Hades," He is standing in a place that represents the domain of demonic activity in the world. As Deuteronomy 32:8 suggests, that demonic domain has been going on since the advent of sin in the world. That demonic domain has entered the land of promise, the land where both the people and land were called to be holy and to represent the character of God. Jesus' statement that, "I will build my church the gates of Hades will not prevail against it," is a statement that the church that He builds will overwhelm the demonic powers of the world. They will not prevail against His church. Those demonic powers are often represented in cultural spectacles and influence that distorts the character that God intends for His people. Sexual misconduct has always been at the forefront of that attack. 

While there is much more that can be said about Matthew 16, Jesus ends the chapter by calling his disciples to be willing to follow Him by taking up their cross instead of trying to save their lives. When Jesus comes with His angels to make all things right and remove the power of the curse and the demons who thrive under the curse, He will reward those who have followed Him. See Matthew 16:24-28. 

Deuteronomy 32:8 has suggested that the whole world is living in darkness under the curse of sin, and under the control of Satan and his demons. Paul repeatedly makes a similar point. In Ephesians 2:2, he refers to the "prince of the power of the air" as having evil domain over the world. In Ephesians 6:12, Paul says that our battle is not against "flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." In Romans 8:38, Paul refers to those opposed to us as, "angels [and] (spiritual) rulers." In 2 Cor. 10:4, Paul says that, "the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds...." In Revelation 12:7-12, we are given a picture of Satan and his angels being thrown down from their place of power with very little time left before they are eternally punished and removed from affliction the earth and God's people. See also Matt. 25:41 and Rev. 20:10. Satan, his demons and the Gates of Hades will eventually be destroyed and the people of God will reign with Him in a new heaven and new earth free from his evil influence. 

Into this dark, demonic world, Jesus Christ staked himself on a cross. That cross of torture and death became the symbol of the love of God. Jesus' death and resurrection conquered death for all who place their faith in Him in order to be forgiven of sin and granted His righteousness. They have been removed from the power of the darkness of demons and transferred into the kingdom of light. All those who have placed their faith in Him have received the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of their new position in the kingdom of light. All those people of faith become part of the living body of the church, which is called to continue to go into all the world with the great news that Jesus brings all people everywhere the opportunity for freedom from demonic bondage. 

Now, instead of just being in one place (Israel), the kingdom of God - through the church - is going out into the far reaches of the dark and demonic world with the light of the Gospel. The light is expanding and continues to expand to those peoples who remain under the domain of demonic fear and darkness. In other words, "the borders of the peoples" who are controlled by the "sons of God" have been penetrated by the Gospel so that God is creating for Himself a holy people from every language group on the earth. This is especially true today in Asia, South America and Africa, where people are keenly aware of their slavery to demon gods and are grateful that they can be forever free through what Jesus accomplished for them. 

The nations that were created out of the confusion of Babel and darkened by demonic domain, are liberated by the Gospel. The handful of disciples who faced the "Gates of Hades" with Jesus turned into a billion or more people around the world whose primary identification is the cross of Jesus. The cross is their reminder of God's love for them and that they have been redeemed out of darkness in order to be a people against whom the Gates of Hades will not prevail.

I heard armless and legless Nick Vujicic tell a story of encountering a demon-possessed trafficker of girls sold into sexual slavery. He courageously prayed for the demons to leave and for the woman to be spiritually and physically healed. God worked in power. The woman was freed, repented of her egregious sin and the girls were freed. That is a story of spiritual, not physical battle. 

In our culture, it is easy to be discouraged and defensive about this good news. The culture purports to disbelieve in the supernatural anyway. Yet, that same culture is preoccupied with video games, television and movies that depict the supernatural and that entice people with the same promises that demons have been using for millennia. God never intended us to be defensive, but to be aggressive in going after those in darkness in order to see them redeemed and part of the kingdom of light. Genesis 11, Deuteronomy 32 and the Gospel are all working together to accomplish God's purposes of creating a holy people from every nation for His own possession. The Gates of Hades have not stopped that global advance, as the world-wide church continues to grow. Jesus is going to return as conquering King. He will complete the conquest that He began through His church. He is faithful to His promises.