God Will Build His Church

From Tim Chester's book, Exodus for You:

We live at a time in the West when the church is under increasing pressure. It is not just that Christian truth has move from the mainstream to the margins— on many issues what we believe is now seen as immoral and offensive. Many, both inside and outside the church , wonder whether Christianity has a future. 

How can we live well, optimistically and positively in the face of hostility? This is the question faced by God’s people in Exodus 1 – 2, and that we need to grapple with today.

[The] repeated threat to the people of God—and therefore to the promise of God—is part of Satan’s on-going rebellion against God. Satan is trying to destroy God’s people in order that he might defeat God’s promise. And the whole Old Testament is dominated by the promise of God that the One who will crush Satan will come from Abraham’s family (see Genesis 3: 15; 22: 18). So if Satan can destroy Abraham’s family, then he can prevent the Saviour being born and prevent his own defeat. 

That Saviour was born, and Satan is defeated—yet still today, he tries to wipe out the church. And what is at stake is the promise of that Saviour, who said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”(Matthew 16: 18). Under Soviet communism, under Mao in China, and today in the Middle East, Satan has tried to destroy the church and prevent the preaching of the gospel. But each time God has demonstrated his sovereign power....

In the 1970s, President Mengistu in Ethiopia implemented what was called the Red Terror. 1.5 million people died and church buildings were closed down. When Mengistu fell, no one was sure what would remain of the church. But Christians had been meeting secretly in homes, and the church had not only survived but grown. God has purposed to keep his promises, and he will not allow anyone—not Pharaoh, not Satan—to thwart them. 

This confidence in the purposes of God enables us to be courageous in obeying God.

William Gurnall put it well when he wrote, “We fear men so much because we fear God so little”.

How can the church today survive in the face of increasing hostility? How can you survive in your workplace or your home? How can you be fruitful in the service of Christ when your colleagues and friends despise your faith? How can your church multiply in the face of hostility? 

Because God has promised to fill the earth with the glory of Christ. Christ has promised to build his church. God is still on the throne. And he is the One we should fear. No one else.

I found this really encouraging to read- on the bigger scale especially in the light of UK politics and the strong anti-Christian sentiment there is now (witnessed in the latest General Election). But also personally as I look at the work here which looks so very weak and pathetic and I have been having thoughts recently about giving up. Chester's question at the end of this section,

In what ways are you being called to act in courageous obedience by trusting the promises of God?

helped me see I'm not necessarily at the moment being called to act in some courageous, spectacular way but to just keep plodding on trusting God's promise that God WILL build his church and he WILL fill the earth with the glory of Christ.