Make the Church Great Again

Matthew 16:15–19 ESV

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.”

Matthew 28:19 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

There is no doubt that we are living in a time of crisis. Mayhem seems to be on every side and it appears as if we are stuck on repeat like a broken record. Every day is seems like 2020 brings something new, so much so that many people joke about looking outside to see what chapter of Revelation we are living that day. COVID-19, systemic racism, a lost and confused government, poverty stricken communities, an ever increasing homeless population, and the list just goes on and on. It seems as if no matter what, we can’t catch a break. Many of us have spent time on our faces interceding for the church and for the world wondering when is this going to let up? When is all of this going to be over? When are we going to experience the redemption for the world that can only come through the power of Jesus? Today, I have been tasked by the Lord with deliver a state of the church address to the capitol C church and giving a word of what God is saying to us in this season. For too long, the church has given up its rightful place as the lead, the head in society. If you look at history, the government/the world used to consult the church before making a decision but yet we have given up that space. We have stopped pushing the kingdom agenda in all arenas of life and instead have simply relegated the presence and power of God to Sunday within the 4 walls of the church. No longer are we missional minded people seeking to understand how we can advance the kingdom but we have settled for our own personal salvation being the only thing we are concerned about. We have settled, we have settled for black church and white churches rather than the intentionally multicultural, multiethnic, and multigenerational community of believers that Jesus envisioned and spoke of. How do we get refocus? What comes next for the church? And how do we fix our own lives so that in everything we do, we make Him known? I was going to call this message back to basics, then I was going to call it the big reset, but then the Lord gave me our topic for today which is going to be Make the Church Great Again.

Black Church vs. White Church

The first point I want to address and bring to our attention this morning is the division within the body of Christ. We have long settled for Sunday being the most segregated day of the week while complaining and rallying against the segregation and blatant racism that exist within the world. There is a struggle between black church culture and white church culture where you see this social grouping and then one church can’t associate with the other church because they look a certain way, or they sound a certain way, or I will be the only (Blank) person there. This is not simply between the black church and the white church but also between traditional church culture and contemporary church culture. The problem with this ideology, this way of thinking is that it deviates from the kingdom idea of what church is supposed to look like. We must return to a basic model of what a true kingdom missional

In the interaction that we see here in Matthew 16, we see that Jesus is going around asking the disciples who people say that He is. What is interesting is the answers that some of them give. However, in Jesus’ dialogue with Peter, He asks Peter “Who do you say I am?” Peter responds by saying “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God” it is necessary before moving forward to point out that prior to this Jesus had never confirmed that He was the Christ. However, in His response to Peter Jesus utilizes the meaning of peters name and says upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell won’t prevail against it.