From Here to Eternity
Pastor Pete reports from the town of Magdala in Israel as he and the missions team from “Ambassadors and Embassies” minister to churches in the Holy Land. This is the region where Jesus taught his followers how to do ministry by serving them the bread of life. In John 6:36 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
This is where Jesus called Peter to tend his flock…the church of God. Jesus delivered God’s message of deliverance when he taught the multitudes the beatitudes at the sermon on the mount. He taught them by example what it means to be his disciplined followers. We know that Jesus walked the streets of Magdala. In Luke 7 Mary of Magdala anointed Jesus’ feet with costly ointment mixed with her tears and wiped his feet with her hair. This is where Jesus taught the Pharisees that the one who is forgiven the biggest debt will love more than the one who was forgiven little. Mary knew she was a sinner and wept in repentance as she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Jesus said to her, “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus set her free and delivered her from the bondage of sin and iniquity.
God has offered us life more abundantly because of the price Jesus Christ paid on our behalf. God conquered death at the garden tomb when He raised his son Jesus Christ from the dead. The believers who made the trip to Israel with Pete and Phil Hanlen are blessed to witness the land and the descendants of the people to whom Jesus came to minister. The greatest blessing is to see how God is working within his believing believers in Israel to show the power of God. The Israeli soldiers know what it means to be vigilant and on guard, ready for the attacks of the enemy. Pete and his missions team are blessed to witness first-hand God’s promise that God will bless those who bless Israel.
Today’s message is from Matthew 16. This passage of scripture reminds us how the church fulfills God’s eternal plan to reconcile God’s people back to God.
According to Matthew 16:15-16: “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17. “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
In verse 18, the word Peter in Greek is “Petros” meaning a small stone or rock. Jesus said, “upon this rock, Greek word “Petra” meaning a cliff, I will build my church.” Jesus Christ himself is the rock of ages, the firm foundation and the chief cornerstone of the Church of the living God.
Jesus called Peter as the first pastor or shepherd of the flock of God. He was ordained as an under shepherd following the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ. Jesus said of the church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Gates prevail by keeping people in or out. However, the church will prevail against the gates of hell.
God’s people have been called as ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is the highest ranking government official sent by his Sovereign Lord to represent his homeland in a foreign land. 2 Corinthians 5 says that we are God’s ambassadors representing the kingdom of heaven here on earth. As ambassadors for Christ, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation and have been committed the Word of reconciliation.
According to Matthew 16:19, “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Grammatically, the verbs “bound” and “loosed” are the perfect passive participle in the Greek text. The perfect tense means that binding and loosing are completed actions in the past. The passive voice means that these actions have been received. Participles are verbs acting as nouns. Jesus said that whatever the church will be binding and loosing now on earth will have already been bound and loosed in heaven. What we as the church, the called of God, do by setting people free from the bondage of sin and iniquity through our Lord Jesus Christ, will already have been done by God in eternity in heaven.
When we act according to the Word of God by reconciling God’s people back to God we are bringing into the present tense what God has already accomplished in eternity. Our job is to reconcile the present tense with the eternal. In God’s eternal perspective, time does not exist. For that which is seen (of this physical world) is temporal (time-bound) but that which is unseen (of God’s holy spirit) is eternal. When we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, buried, resurrected, and seated at God’s right hand, we bring to bear the power of God to intersect the present tense with God’s eternity.
Ephesians says that the church makes known to the powers of darkness the manifold wisdom of God. He has called us as his living epistles, God’s love letters known and read of all men. According to Romans 1, the just shall live by faith and herein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. When we act according to the faith of the spirit of God in Christ in us we activate the power of God’s active believing faith to will and to do of His good pleasure.
In eternity, from God’s perspective, his word and his will has already come to pass. We bring into the present tense loosing from the binding of sin and death when we become a witness of his saving grace to set the captives free. This is our mission and our co-mission: to give ’em Heaven!
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael