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7-7-2019 Weekly Message

Meditation of the week: Psalm 2:1-12

Text: Matthew 16:13-20

The title of the Word: The church of God that the gates of hell cannot prevail against

          Simon Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The Christ he confessed was the Christ. That means that Jesus is predestinated to appear as the Christ from the beginning.  Even before the Holy Spirit came into the world, he made a profound confession of faith. Upon hearing from Simon Peter, Jesus said, ”  Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17).

          About the Son of God, the Christ, God spoke to the serpent in the Garden of Eden:

” And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel..” (Genesis 3:15)

          What is the meaning of this word is that any person with blood and flesh cannot understand Jesus as the Christ. However, only heavenly Father can give understanding of the Christ. In other words, God the Father who spoke to the serpent spoke unto Simon Peter. How blessed he is?  Jesus, who appears in the form of man in the world in the future, will become the Christ, and his heel shall be bruised first on the cross to take away  the sin of the world. Then he will rise again to destroy the head of the serpent and take over his lost earth.  to build up his kingdom finally. When Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, all the disciples, including Peter, asked Jesus saying, ” Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel??” (Acts 1: 6).

          Immediately after Jesus gave Simon Peter the new name Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

         Apostle Paul testified about this rock through the Holy Spirit:

” And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

” (1 Corinthians 10: 3-4)

         Apostle Paul testified that in the wilderness the Israelites had drunk water flowing out  the rock, saying that the rock was the Christ. In other words, Christ appeared as a rock.

          The prophet Moses testified about Christ who appeared as a rock:

” Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. “(Exodus 17: 6).

The Holy Spirit has said that living water shall flow out of His body of Christ Jesus, who is in the forthcoming rock, stricken on the cross once.

        Apostle John testified that Christ appeared in the image of a lamb that was slain in heaven. But at the time of the judgment of the last day, Jesus will appear as the king of  kings.  :

” And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain,  (Revelation 5: 6)

           Jesus said he will build his church on this rock. It is clear that he will build his church on himself, not on Peter’s confession of faith. No one can build his church, but only the Christ   can build his own church. No matter how many people are gathered together, it is not the church that God established unless the Christ build it. Even though two or three people are gathered together, the church that Christ Himself builds is the Church of God. The Roman Catholic Church, which reigns all over the world, is not the church on the rock, but a false church on Peter’s confession of faith.

          Finally, the Lord spoke of the authority he gave to the church he builds:

” I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

          The Church of God has been built around the whole world, starting with the Church of Jerusalem built by the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. But the old serpent, Satan, has opened the doors of hell on the earth so that people could  not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and enter the kingdom of God. It is as opened as a black hole in outer space.

           Satan, the old serpent, the devil built the Roman Catholic church on earth in 325 AD to be the first gate of hell. Since then, over the past two thousand years, it has been sending  people into the gate of hell. In addition, Satan has created many religions and has been deceiving people into being sucked into hell. The cunning Satan is letting Jehovah’s witnesses, Seventh Adventist church, the Mormon, the Unification Church, and the Sinchonji into the Hell’s Gates through the heretical churches.

          Among the gates of hell that Satan has made, there is a gate of hell deceiving people . This gate is the gates of hell that are made invisible in the all nations. These gates of hell are  philosophy and science based on humanism, so called as the  world education system that tricks young children into the gates of hell. In addition, the gates of hell that Satan created are countless. Satan, like his roaring lion, is still swallowing people and throwing them into the gates of hell, knowing that his time is short.

       We live in the world filled with the gates of hell created by Satan. Sometimes it is impossible not to get into the gates of hell. But the only thing that can overcome the gates of hell in this world is the Church of God. In other words,  man who is born of the Holy Spirit, who comes out of a world governed by the law of sin and death, and enters into the kingdom of God under the law of the Spirit of life caan prevail against the gates of hell however the devil drives them into it.

      Sometimes we enetr into the gates of hell and draw out those who are suffering in the gates of hell, leading them into the kingdom of God. God’s children are capable of rescuing souls from the gates of hell  winning souls. The Bible tells us about the wisdom of winning souls:

” The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth soulsis wise.” (Prov 11:30)

Amen! Hallelujah!