Pulling Together

From Matthew chapter 16 verse 13 and following. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, 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, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter the rock, and on this rock, this confession you made, I will build my church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

Meaning that the church is going to be aggressive. Here are the gates of death, and it's going to press through those gates of death. It's going to push, it's going to fight, it's going to be militant.

It's an army that goes through those gates of death, even into the region of the dead, and sets the captives free. Now the weapons of its warfare are not carnal. No guns, spears, knives, swords, but they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.

I mean, and this is a war. It's not little games. It's not a nursery, daycare center for spiritual people who want to remain relatively secure and safe.

But this thing, when people come into the body of Christ and become his followers, they, whether they like it or not, are caught up in a war. And this battle goes on, and it's a joyful thing. These saints go through the region of the dead, through the city of Babylon, and wherever they find people in chains, they break those chains, set the captives free, and bring them back to the banquet table of God.

They go down into the dungeons and set the captives free. They move with great joy through places of great difficulty and conflict and darkness and danger, and bring living souls out of darkness into light and from the power of Satan to God. But from its beginning, there has also been at work in the very middle of the body of Christ what the apostolic believers call the Antichrist.

Antichrist. The spirit that works against the Christ and that will one day, perhaps even in our lifetime, perhaps it's already going on somewhere, who knows, incarnate itself in human flesh and become the evil counterpart of the Son of God. But this spirit has been at work in the body of Christ since its beginning, and its purpose is to neutralize this army, to paralyze it, so that instead of being an army that moves out and does the job, it becomes just another institution in downtown Babylon, a religious institution, an institution of gathering of people that's primarily concerned about its own survival, and it loses all vision of reaching those captives and setting them free and being involved in any kind of conflict.

Now the outworking of this on the congregational level, on the level of any individual gathering of believers, is this, that instead of these people who come together week by week seeing themselves as being sent out into that world to free the captives and engage in this battle, they become more and more taken up with meeting their own needs. And the more concerned they become with meeting their own needs, the more needs they have, and pretty soon problems arise, solutions are devised, and now the whole thing is structured about saints taking care of themselves. Now the gates of death are unchallenged, and the captives remain in chains.

Now this principle has been at work, this principle of evil, since the beginning of the Church. And we can see in the book of Revelation, chapter 2 and 3, seven churches are addressed by the Spirit of Jesus. And often all seven of them began as armies, as militant assemblies of men and women who know what they're about and who are willing to be engaged in this battle at whatever disruption and cost it may be for them.

But as time passed, five of the seven began to lose this concern and this vision, and they began to be more concerned about their own safety and comfort. Yes, we want to be religious, but we don't want our lives disrupted. Yes, we want to follow Jesus, but we also want our bread buttered with thick butter.

We want everything going, we want it both ways. And so, the Spirit of the Lord had to deal with it. So the Lord had to deal with these five churches and He began, had to speak to them as He did in these two chapters of Revelation.

And basically He's saying, this is not a Christian daycare center, this is a war zone, and either you conquer or you will be conquered. And so we see this emphasis in those seven letters to the seven churches. Every one of those letters ends, and I'm not going to read them all, to Him who conquers, I will grant the eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death. To Him who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give Him a white stone with a new name written on the stone, which no one knows except Him who receives it. He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give Him power over the nations, even as I myself have received power from my Father.

Now, the things that have been going on in this fellowship, really since the beginning of the year, particularly, especially during the last six months, ever since we started hearing the word, are evidence that the same Spirit of the Lord, speaking to these seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, has been speaking to us and dealing with us over the same issue. The Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to us and shaking us and sifting us and all the while wonderfully blessing us over the question, will you be my church? Will you go in there and break through the gates of death with my gospel? Will you set those captives free into my kingdom? And we've been saying, yes, Lord, we will. And then He says, good, you will be my church and you will set the captives free and you will accomplish things beyond anything you've seen so far.

But, you're not quite ready. And then, of all things, what He does, He reaches out with His hand and He shakes us. And we say, Lord, wait a minute, we lost five more members.

And He says, don't panic, shakes us some more, ten more, Lord, now what are we going to do? How can we do the job? Reading from Judges, chapter seven. Then, Jeroboam, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early and encamped beside the spring of Haran. And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Mora in the valley.

Okay, the Midianites had swept into Israel and were just like a, like a, like a, an army of grasshoppers. They were everywhere. Their camels had covered the valley.

And where were they parked? They were parked right under the mountain, the hill of Mora, where Abraham had first been told, this land is going to belong to your children. The Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, my own hand delivered me. Now, therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.

And Gideon tested them. Twenty-two thousand returned and ten thousand remained. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many.

Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say, this man shall go with you, shall go with you. And any of whom I say, this man shall not go with you, shall not go.

So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone that laps water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink.

And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men. But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the Lord said to Gideon, with the three hundred men that lapped, I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand.

And let all the others go, every man to his home. So he took the jars of the people from their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. So the picture we have here is the army of Israel suddenly cut down from thirty-two thousand to three hundred.

Anybody who's fearful and trembling, you can go on home. Twenty-two thousand, take off. All right.

Now, anybody who likes to get comfortable when he drinks water, you can go too. Go on home and be comfortable. Another nine thousand seven hundred, take off.

We've got three hundred left. The Lord says, okay, now I can do something. With these, I will deliver the Midianites into your hand.

That same night, the Lord said to him, Araj, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you're afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah, your servant, and you shall hear what they say. And afterwards, your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.

Then he went down with Purah, his servant, to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley like locusts for multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand upon the seashore for multitude. When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade.

And he said, behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered, This is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has given Midian and all his hosts.

When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. First, the Lord cuts down the army to a much smaller size.

Then, he gives a vision of hope to Gideon and to the army and encourages them. And then, he sends them out to do the job. Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.

And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars with torches inside the jars. And he sent to them, Look at me and do likewise when I come to the outskirts of the camp. Do as I do.

When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. So, Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch when they had just set the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow.

And they cried, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon. They stood every man in his place round about the camp and all the army of the Amidianites ran. And they cried out, Now, if, if we are satisfied that our calling as a church is not to be a religious institution or a middle class culture club or a club for nice people but that is to be in fact the army of the living God made up of people from every walk of life and from all places to go in there and break through those gates of death and set those captives free and if we are agreed that the location of this place of worship where we come together like this here on the corner of West Grand Boulevard in Toledo in Detroit is not a disadvantage but an asset as we are surrounded by a gorgeous mission field part you might say right at the very gates of death then we can rejoice in what the Lord is doing among us the shaking and the shifting and the things he is saying to us knowing that he is drawing us together to be Gideon's army and we can rejoice that that is what is going to happen that we are to be that army and that in the coming days we can expect to see through deliverance of the captives sight to the blind freedom for the oppressed vision for people who are looking for God to a degree we have never seen all we have to do is be Gideon's army now trust that that's what God is doing and pull together under God if we will do that we will conquer we will conquer first of all well if we would do three things but first of all we will conquer if we pull together around our call reading from that 15th verse when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation he worshipped and he returned to the camp of Israel and said arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand let's go go make disciples go into the streets and lanes of the city and bring the poor the lame the lame and the blind go preach good news to the poor deliver the captives give sight to the blind set free the oppressed go out and do this and he calls us to do it but not as isolated individuals no but as a body as members one of another as brothers and sisters in Gideon's army this is not going to be done by individual lone rangers or individual hotshots it's going to be done by brothers and sisters working together fitting together moving in unity with each other the call of the Lord to arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into our hand has to be answered by us as we come together fit together and you know whatever course this is to us and it will be in some way a course to us it will disrupt us in some way it will make it will involve some changes okay so the first thing we have to pull together around our call second we have to pull together and blow our trumpets in unison reading from the 18th verse when I blow the trumpet I and all who are with me then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon what we talk about here and what he's telling us here is a unified message a word going out as one it begins as a word of praise as a shout of victory together in unity with each other and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance the ones who heard them speaking heard many languages but they heard one message and they knew it was coming from one body and that it was originating in the heart of one Lord they knew that the impressive thing about those apostolic Christians as we see them depicted in the book of Acts is that they all blew their trumpets you know it wasn't a talent show it was everybody together blowing their trumpets in unison they were all speaking that word together and now it's our turn to go out there and proclaim to the world that Jesus is Lord and manifest His Lordship as one as a body as brothers and sisters members one of another finally we will conquer as we break our jars together and let the light shine out and the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars holding in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow and they cried a sword for the Lord and for Gideon and they stood every man in his place round about the camp and all the army of the Midianites ran and they cried out nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel but on a stand and He gives light to all in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven and He speaks those words to His disciples and so now the Sermon on the Mount is the life we are to live together together we are to live in mercy together we are to live in purity in truth in justice in righteousness in holiness in love and as we do the gates of death will yield and the armies of Satan will draw back and those who have been in chains for so long will see light through us we broke our jars and the light is shining and now they're drawn to Jesus they're drawn to Him because we broke our jars and let the light shine out Simon Peter replied you are the Christ the Son of the living God and Jesus answered him blessed are you Simon son of John for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven and I tell you you are Peter the rock and on this rock of your confession I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it and that church is still being built and that church is also being built here and that church is an army it may not be the largest army in the world but it is the most powerful and it is the most enduring and we are part of it as we together respond to our call arise for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand and as we blow our trumpets together and as we break our jars and let that light come out on this rock I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it we will build and the gates we build