Church and Hades

Read Matthew 16:13-20 first. Now, we have Jesus inquiring of his apostles (amateur pollsters) about the opinions of the crowd, the conclusions of the apostles themselves, the confession of Peter for the twelve, and Jesus' corresponding confession of Peter (and any other who confesses Him). Remember that this mutual confession is essential in the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. They confess Him before men, and He confesses them before the Father. It will be on this foundation that the church will be built or established. Those called out of the world, which is the meaning of the word church, who assembly together, do so as confessors of Christ. This could also be called a mutual blessing. Jesus blesses us and we bless Him. In order for Jesus to be able to bless us He had to die and be raised for us. The ability to confess and be blessed was won in victory at Calvary and at the Garden tomb. Now for the idea of "church and Hades."

Hades is the unseen world and is sometimes translated "hell" (though there is another word for hell, gehenna) or "grave." It is closely associated with death. In Acts 2, Peter, who is holding the keys of the kingdom, keys that will unlock people from the hold of hades, proclaims that death and the grave could not hold Jesus. Jesus escaped my means of the resurrection. Paul proclaims that death is the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor.15). The people of Korazin and Capernaum were destined for Hades because they would not confess Jesus before men (Matt.11:20ff). The rich man of Luke 16 ended up in Hades trapped without a key to get out because he did not confess Jesus while on earth. We are told again in Rev.1:18 that Jesus has the keys to death and Hades. Rev.20:13-14 tells us that Hades will give up her dead to be judged, and that death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. All of this is pertinent to understanding Jesus' exchange with Peter and the rest of the apostles.

Jesus says the gates of hades will not prevail against the church. He is saying that those in Christ will not be overcome by these gates. These gates will not hold you. He is not describing the church as storming the gates of Hades. He is saying that those who are destined to spend some time there, even as He did, will get out because He has a key, and he will give that key to His people. In the book of Acts we see many times that God's people were saved from imprisonment and death, while others went down into the grave. But just as easily as Paul and Silas were set free from a Philippian cell at midnight so all of God's people, the church, will be set free from Hades and her gates at the resurrection. This picture fits perfectly with the theme of Revelation where God's people need hope in the midst of persecution that they will not be overcome by Rome's power. In order not to be overcome but to be overcomers they must hold on to their good confession that Jesus is the Christ, and be assured that Jesus will hold on to His confession of us that we are His children. You want to get our of Hades then be the church, a called out one.