Foundations of Discipline (4)

“I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”  Matthew 16.18

The centrality of the church
It’s clear that, during His lifetime, Jesus was not going to accomplish the agenda He declared before His disciples outside of Caesarea-Philippi that day. In fact, He was on His way to Jerusalem, where His all-too-brief earthly sojourn would be cut short, He would rise from the dead, and, after forty days, He would return to heaven, to take His seat at the Father’s right hand.

So just when was Jesus planning to “build My church”, if not during the time of His incarnation? The answer is obvious: Throughout all the rest of time.

This is why Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples. Disciples make up the members of Christ’s Body, the Church. This is why Jesus and the Father poured out the Spirit, so that He might cobble disciples together into a holy temple unto the Lord (Eph. 2.19-22). This is why the Lord gave His Word to His Apostles, so that we might know how to do the work of making disciples and building local churches (1 Tim. 3.15). And this is why churches have pastors and teachers – for the equipping of the saints for works of ministry, unto the building-up of the local church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 4.11-16).

Kingdom signs and outposts
Local churches are signs and outposts of the Kingdom of God, the reign of King Jesus in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 2.9, 10; Rom. 14.17, 18). In local churches the disciples of Christ gather to worship, become equipped, and serve one another and the world with the Good News of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom comes to expression in local congregations, where believers, growing in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Lord, refract the reality of His resurrection life to a world of darkness and uncertainty. And from the church believers go into their personal arenas of influence and ministry to fill the world with Jesus through their words and deeds (2 Cor. 10.13-18; Eph. 4.8-10).

Thus Jesus intends the local church to sign the Kingdom to the world – like a billboard, to advertise its reality, like a road sign to point the way into the Kingdom, and like a translator of mysteries to the deaf, explaining and illustrating and reaching the imaginations of the lost with the promise of forgiveness, life, hope, purpose, and glory.

And the church is an outpost of the Kingdom because Kingdom citizens draw from their churches the resources and perspective they will need to fulfill their callings as ambassadors of the Kingdom to and in the lost world.

No wonder Jesus made building His Church the center-piece of His agenda! Enthroned at the Father’s right hand, Jesus is building His Church like a great prism of hope. He shines the light of His truth in all its clarity and brilliance into the Church, there to be separated into polychromatic expressions as varied as the members of the Body and the spheres and niches in which they live, move, and have their being.

Jesus died for the Church; will we live for it?
These days we must seriously consider whether our view of the Church is the same as that of our King. Are we thinking with the mind of Christ about the Church – about our church – what it should be, how we should build it, and what its impact should be in our community? Or are we just perpetuating received models of “church” or imitating “successful” churches in the community and around the country? Are we building our churches the way Scripture teaches we should, or are we following our own schemes and great ideas about how to worship, make disciples, and pursue the mission appointed to us?

The increasing fecklessness of contemporary churches in the face of surging secularism, mammoth materialism, and tsunamic sensuality should lead us to question whether we’re following the Lord Jesus in pursuit of His agenda or standing in His way. How much longer will we continue to do the things which are steadily moving the Body of Christ to the margins of culture and society until we raise our heads, smell the malodorous air, and begin to ask what’s wrong with this picture?

Jesus said the gates of Hades would not stand against His Church. The “gates” here represent the counsels, schemes, plans, and decisions of the courts of Hell. It’s not too difficult to see that, rather than confronting, exposing, negating, and replacing such counsels, many churches have simply given into them, going with the flow of narcissism, materialism, entertainment, and individualism which is pushing our culture and society toward the abyss. As Columbanus observed of the churches in early 7^th-century France, our churches today are taking on water, and we’re being washed clean of everything distinctly Kingdom-like as the flotsam and jetsam of our age in flight from God settles into our pews, programs, and projects.

Jesus is building His Church. Are we? Have we devoted the time of our lives, and the disciplines that fill that time, to the Lord’s agenda? Or are we content simply to pursue our own?

Next steps: How confident are you that your church’s leaders are building the Lord’s church according to His agenda? Talk with some of them. Ask them to help you understand the Biblical basis for how they’re working to build Christ’s Church in your church.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Foundations of Discipline, is part 2 of a 7-part series on The Disciplined Life, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We have prepared a special worksheet to help you begin getting your disciplines in proper shape for seeking the Kingdom. Write to T. M. at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for you free PDF of the “Disciplined Life Worksheet.”

A rightly-disciplined life requires a Kingdom vision, and that vision is centered on Jesus Christ exalted. T. M. has prepared a series of meditations on the glorious vision of Christ, based on Scripture and insights from the Celtic Christian tradition. Order your copy of Be Thou My Vision by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.