A New Message in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Week 2)
“Be the Church of Jesus Christ!”
Once again, I have put aside the message the message for this Sunday, to bring you a special word. This is a pastoral word, that both informs and encourages the people of God to stop seeing church as a building they are to attend a meeting in once or twice per week and to be the Church of Jesus Christ. I am blending a pastoral update on the state of FBC, as we enter week #2 of “The Siege”. That is my name for what is happening and I am actually calling my daily devotions, “Siege Devotions”, but I am getting ahead of myself. More on that in a minute. Today’s message, once again, is not my normal preaching style as I am not walking you through a scripture and teaching it to you verse by verse. This is a pastoral message for a time such as this.
Please lean in and don’t get distracted. I understand that it is easy to get distracted at home, too. Trust me; I get it! If you do, then this will be ready for you to go back to and listen or read as many times as you need on our media page and possibly through social media platforms. We are even considering a YouTube Channel because I have a group of brothers (a congregation I preach to at GEO, one of our state prisons in New Castle) who are missing my preaching, or at least that is what I’ve been asked to consider providing so the prisoners can get God’s Word into their hearts from trustworthy teachers. All Glory to God and for His grace to empower us all!
Here is the Scripture for today. From Matthew 16:13-20,
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.
PRAYER. Let us pray for people as they are being drawn to God for answers at this time.
Last week’s message is a must listen-to. If you did not listen, then please go to our webpage and click on it. There are other key communications and resources listed, right there on our homepage. Here is the link: www.newcastlefbc.org and you can scroll down on our homepage where we are putting COVID-19 resources & food resources. You can go to the media page to watch/listen. You can also go to our blog page where you can find my daily devotions, which I am writing and then calling you with every day and we are posting them as blogs so people who missed a call can go back and see what they missed. If you haven’t noticed, that 10 AM phone call is a not-so-subtle hint that every one of us needs to be reading God’s Word, every day, in unity as the one body of Christ—your leadership and I will do everything WE can during this siege to keep us united to Christ and to one another. As pastors and elders, WE will not let the enemy win! If you have not been getting those calls, contact us through the webpage or get us your phone number, today so that you can start with us tomorrow in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount & the Beatitudes. This is a TEAM effort because no one of us can do it alone!
As Pastor Ken announced earlier in this broadcast, WE are investing the financial resources of our church to connect you—the Spirit-filled people of God, our church’s most precious resource—with everything WE can to help you during “The Siege” of 2020. As I said, last week: There is an enemy at our gate and one of the enemy’s tactics is to cut us off from one another so that he can divide and conquer. Remember, my first vocation was as a professional military officer—I am professionally trained as a Battle Captain by Fort Leavenworth’s CAS3 course—the Combined Arms and Service Staff School. The best defense is a strong offense! That is why we are all doing the intense cleaning at home—by the way, thank you to Jamie Forrest, our amazing custodian, who is cleaning champ and working super hard for you and the safety of the Henry County Health Department and any other civil authorities who have been given use of our church building to do blood drives, mass testing, whatever is needed to bring thriving to our communities! FBC desires to lock arms with the community and be 100% in to defeat the enemy at the gate. We are all in this together!
Beyond cleaning the building and practicing CDC-recommended and government-mandated “social distancing policies” until further notice, your church is going on the offensive in new and creative ways! The CHURCH of Jesus Christ is NOT CLOSED, even if our building is not available for our traditional usage. Even if we can’t gather again for a while, we can still take steps towards growing our church in depth and breadth. God is with us!!! By the way, please pray for your elders who are gathering tomorrow (Monday, March 23) night to discern and determine how long we will be closed and doing on-line services beyond our current March 28, 2020 date. As we all must agree to at this time, that date is no longer responsible or right, though at the time of setting that 2-week date, I couldn’t have imagined what I am seeing happen before my very eyes throughout our community and country. This is truly unprecedented! It’s an impossible task we have been given, but, honestly, any and all community organization leadership feels next to impossible right now. Please pray for all the leaders: your church, and leaders of all sectors throughout the community, state, nation, and the nations. We need you!
Pastor Ken and the Family Ministries leading this initiative and paying the $200/month bill for you are putting RightNow Media (https://www.rightnowmedia.org) in your homes. If you don’t use this, then you are making a strategic error in your personal & family practices to seize this moment for good and God’s glory. Additionally, your church, with Scott Underwood (elders) and Tiffany Lee (staff) are ensuring 572 people (as of Saturday) get a phone call every day from me personally by paying $110/month for Call Multiplier (https://www.callmultiplier.com). Delora Hartsock (with many volunteers helping her, especially to stay informed about prayer requests) is working hard to ensure you are getting updated via emails for information and prayer requests. In fact, we willingly doubled our monthly bill for our Constant Contact email platform to increase how many people can get email updates from the church. Utilizing Remind App and other technologies, Kevin King (youth ministries director) and Jody Maddy (children’s ministry director) are working hard using our text (Remind App) and Realm systems to keep families connected and equipped. If you haven’t been hearing from us, get us your info. Please, don’t add to your “social distancing” by not trusting your church with your contact information. Get that to us right now by clicking on “contact us” at the bottom of your screen.
After you do that, consider clicking on the “give” button on the top right of our webpage because during “The Siege” all that we are doing takes your prayerful commitment to keep us going. Don’t let the enemy win! The Church must remain healthy through this time for our culture to come out better than before on the other side. Please contact Lisa Abrams, our bookkeeper, if you have questions about how to get your gifts to the church at this time, especially if giving on-line or through texting is not an option for you. Thank you!
Our webpage and social media presence, combined with all the additional resources I mentioned above, are essential to your local church’s response. Please take time to thank Mr. Dick Kinnaird, who is an unsung and invisible hero, before and during all this. He is working with staff, elders, and people from our congregation to keep our webpage up to date. Him, with our Worship Planning Team (Kevin Stonerock, Winnie Logan, David Maddy, Emily Hurst, Brandon Atwood, Christy Ragle, Curt Ferrell, and Pastor Ken Durham) are working so hard to put these on-line services together.
Finally, brothers and sisters in Christ, let me tell you the final and critical aspect to our plan to be on journey together during “The Siege”: IT’S ALL OF US, YOU AND ME BEING THE CHURCH!
Listen to Matthew 16:13-20 again:
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.
Allow me to read from a fellow Bible teacher who provides material for Logos Bible Software,
The rock which Jesus referred to in this passage was neither Peter nor Himself; it was the rock on which they were standing—the foot of Mount Hermon, the demonic headquarters of the Old Testament and the Greek world. We often presume that the phrase “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” describes a Church taking on the onslaught of evil. But the word “against” is not present in the Greek. Translating the phrase without it gives it a completely different connotation: “the gates of hell will not withstand it.” It is the Church that Jesus sees as the aggressor. He was declaring war on evil and death. Jesus would build His Church atop the gates of hell—He would bury them.[1]
“Blessed are you, enter your name here! 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 enter your name here. 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.”
I believe, with the full weight of God’s Word behind me, that you are just as important to this generation as Peter was to his generation. YOU ARE THE CHURCH!
Pray and then start doing whatever God tells you to do! I won’t limit you. Let the Holy Spirit lead you because the gates of hell will not prevail. Use common sense principles to stay healthy in this time and get focused on doing the work of God. DON’T GET SUCKED INTO THE PATTERNS OF THIS WORLD! Which is self-medicating with Netflix or Marijuana. Now, is not a time to numb yourself and lose yourself in entertainment. Don’t put your head in the sand! That is not faithfulness!!! ENGAGE! WIN THE BATTLE! SEIZE THE MOMENT CHURCH! Make phone calls, send cards, text message, use Social Media like a champion for God, take care of your neighbors and love them as yourself, share what you have!! YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING! Let God lead you to be the Church! Let God break you of the lie that being a Christian is about going to a building once per week. It is not! It is about living for Jesus according to faith God has given you and saved you with. You are the Church of Jesus Christ! WE ARE THE CHURCH!
There is an enemy at the gate and the Church must arise because only we have the promise of Jesus Christ: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This is a promise to and for the Church of Jesus Christ.
None of this is flippant—this is the strategy of God to defeat the enemy at our gate—your pastors and elders and leaders at FBC are connecting you to God and to one another and resourcing you to be in the Word of God to grow in what you know, how you feel, and how you live with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Why? Why spend more money at a time when money is not coming in due to us not meeting in person? BECAUSE YOU ARE THE HOPE OF THE NATIONS—YOU ARE THE CHURCH!! And God will always provide for HIS CHURCH, when HIS CHURCH IS DOING HIS WILL!!!! The gates of hell shall not prevail!
As a pastor and fellow elders, I can say with confidence: We, the pastors, elders and leaders of First Baptist Church, are confident that we will not only survive in this time, but that on this Journey that God is inviting us all to be on together—as ONE PEOPLE CALLED THE CHURCH, that we will each be transformed more and more through a deeper more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but we will also be experiencing thriving happening in our community that could not have happened any other way. Because we believe God will take what the enemy intended for evil and use it for good!
Here is OUR leadership call to you: Press into Jesus and pull together so that we can defeat the enemy at our gate! People pull together when we KNOW that we have a common enemy. I pray that all people in all places will realize that we always have had a common enemy–the devil, the enemy of all our souls! We are not one another’s enemy—we all need Jesus and we all need one another!
Join me again real soon because in my next message, I want to teach you about this Jesus and how knowing Him can help you live your life in a victorious way that helps you be part of the solution to bring about VICTORY!
You can listen to this message here:
Footnote:
[1] Michael Heiser, “What did Jesus mean by ‘Gates of Hell’?” https://blog.logos.com/2018/04/jesus-mean-gates-hell/ [accessed March 22, 2020].