Storming Hell's Gates - Dr David Busic
I think my favourite talk from the General Assembly was this one by David Busic. How he explained Jesus’ words on the gates of hell was a revelation to me. Have a listen, and may God bless you today.
A False View of the Church
“‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ For many, many years, I had a certain image in my mind of what Jesus was talking about here. And I know this wasn't the right image, but it was what in my imagination was going on. I had this image that here we were, we're this little tiny, powerless church. We're anaemic. We're powerless. We don't have any initiative. But we're just kind of weak and we're huddled together and we're waiting for Jesus to come back.
And here comes the big bully on the block - hell, the devil comes walking our way - and we say, “Oh, no, save us, Jesus!” And the power of hell begins to just beat on the church and batter the church and try to destroy the church. And we're crying out for Jesus. But then here comes Jesus; this week church and yet this strong Jesus comes and He rescues us.
The Church On The Attack
But then one day I got to thinking about exactly what Jesus was saying here about the gates. And it dawned on me that gates are not weapons. Gates are for protection. Gates are for attacking. Nobody attacks you with a gate! Gates are not for attacking, gates or for protecting. Gates are a defensive measure, they're not an offensive measure. Who is Jesus saying is on the defensive? Who has the gates according to Jesus? Hell has the gates! And so who's playing defence and who's playing offense?
The Church of Jesus Christ is not waiting to be attacked. The Church of Jesus Christ is advancing forward. And Jesus is giving us an image here that the church is on offense. The church is attacking hell. It's driving back its gates and hell will not survive the assault.
And I missed this point for so long. I admit to you, I missed it. But the ecclesia, the ones who've been called out and set apart and filled with the Spirit, we have now been sent back to be on offense. We're not playing defense! And the powers of death and hell and the grave and the things that break people down and bind people up, they will eventually crumble at the forward advance of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Dangerous Places
I love the words of another daring missionary. He was a British missionary named C.T. Studd. He said “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things? God wants to send us to dangerous places, to do difficult things, because that's where the power of the Spirit is.
You want to see the power of the Spirit unleashed in your life? You get out of your comfort zone. You start pushing back the gates of hell, and all of a sudden you're going to see Heaven's power being unleashed on you.”
So powerful. Are you going to play defense friends? Or are you going to go for Jesus and go and take the good news into the darkest places? That's where He's calling us and that's where the power of the Spirit is. Go there and He will go with you and do great things through you.
Full talk: https://www.youtube.com/live/3b-cK4g_FLk?feature=share&t=2296
