Shout It Aloud, Do Not Hold Back
While in college, searching for what I believed about faith and God, Isaiah chapter 58 helped me repeal some old theology prescribed by pastors to just get people saved, get them to heaven and hang on until Jesus comes back - because there is no hope for this sorry, old world.
I grew up with this theology and it still guides much of the evangelical world. Sure, the church dabbles with charity, but we have not taken seriously enough the true kind of worship God explains in Isaiah 58. We forget Jesus’ prayer for His Kingdom to come, right now, on earth as it is in Heaven. We forget he commissioned and enabled the church, the Body of Christ, you and me, to storm the gates of hell and rescue the poor, the blind, the lost, the addicted, the judged and the hungry.
Envision some kind of hell someone is living in, and Jesus has empowered us to go there and rescue them.
During Jesus’ ministry here on earth, he looked at Peter and told him, “I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.” Matthew 16:18
In my opinion, Jesus never intended for the church to look like it does today. We have plenty of talk, a lot of meetings, discussion and debate, judging, hiding and inward focus. We spend resources on the “already convinced”.
Most programs placate the converted. This programming leaves empty buildings and wasted space except for a few hours on Sundays.
Jesus always intended the church to lead in rescuing people away from hopelessness, darkness and despair. However, this is not for the faint of heart.
I respect the church I grew up in. It taught me that God loves me and sent His only Son to save me. I do appreciate their commitment to share this amazing truth with me.
But my church was benign. We sang songs, heard truths from the Bible, talked about how evil the world was and sent money to missionaries doing heroic things in very dark, desperate places. These missionaries were “storming the gates of hell.”
While they were “storming,” we learned to stay as far away from hell as possible in safety behind the walls of our church.
My church set up camp on a Christian cul-de-sac so we could distance ourselves and be safe from the evils of poverty and injustice.
Once a year we would go on a church controlled, organized mission trip where we would do a “fly-by” of hell, quickly returning home to our safe cul-de-sac. We felt good about ourselves for going on the trip but quickly reverted back to our safety zone thinking that darkness was more powerful than light. We hunkered down and waited for Jesus’ return.
We missed so many opportunities to help people and missed so many miracles because our church was not willing to storm the gates of hell and rescue the hurting and the broken.
Sadly, the church I grew up in is closed. Not because they were bad people, but because their mission was to play it safe. It was a mission to stay far away from where God was.
The power of God is waiting at the gates of hell. The power of God is waiting for men and women to proclaim, “We are the Church and we are expansive with so much energy that the gates of hell will not be able to keep it out.” We need courageous men and women to tap into His power to overcome the significant needs of hurting people in this world living in poverty and oppression.
One of the turning points in the early 2000’s at my church happened when I stood in front of my congregation and told them to “Go to hell!” After their initial shock, I told them that this was not my opinion, but it comes straight from the Holy Scriptures.
This is the GOOD NEWS Jesus preached about.
Brennan Manning writes in his book “The Relentless Tenderness of Christ”, that “For many in the church, Christianity is not Good News. The Gospel is not glad tidings of freedom and salvation proclaimed by Christ but a rigid code of do’s and don’ts, a tedious moralizing, a list of minimum requirements for avoiding the pains of hell.”
Jesus invites us to come and join him on this amazing adventure where we storm the gates of hopelessness, loneliness, addictions, injustice, prejudice and poverty and enter into His Kingdom where His will is being done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Storming the gates of hell is not just for the radical Jesus followers who have sweet beards and wear open-toed sandals.
Storming the gates of hell is what every one of us; every student of grace was created for. God calls every follower of Jesus to join the “storming.”
The American Church has an epidemic of people who know a lot of rules but are they storming the gates of hell with Jesus?
Now is the time. This is our legacy. This is not an obligation but an opportunity! This is not a burden but a blessing!