The Killergate Scandal

Title: “The Killergate Scandal”

Text: Matthew 16:18b

Have you ever stop to consider how dangerous a gate can be? I mean think about it. You can smash your finger in a gate. If the gate is big enough and heavy enough, it could even chop your finger or even your whole hand, entirely off. Are gates really deadly though? Does anybody know how many people are killed by gates every year? I did a little research and as far as I can tell, I don’t think anybody was killed by a gate last year. I can’t be a hundred percent sure of that, but after scouring the internet I couldn’t find any reports of killer gates. I could find numbers for how many people were killed by: cancer, strokes, heart attacks, drowning, car accidents & abortion. But I couldn’t find a single statistic reporting how many people are killed or maimed by gates. I’m not saying that nobody has ever been killed by a gate, but there is little evidence to support the “killergate” theory.

Now maybe you know someone who was killed by a gate and if they were, I am truly sorry for your loss. I will go out on a limb and say that if anyone HAS actually been killed by a gate, it probably wasn’t because the gate ATTACKED them. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of anyone even using a gate as a weapon to attack someone. Again, I’m not saying it’s never happened but when was the last time you heard someone yell, “OH NO! HE’S GOT A GATE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

You are looking at me as if to say, “Where are you going with this?” “We send the pastor on vacation and he comes back talking crazy. I’m not Crazy! My mother had me tested.

I just want to know ... What are we so afraid of? Seriously! Why is the church afraid? Why are we afraid of the world and more importantly, why are we afraid of Hell? Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.” Did you catch that? Jesus said “...the gates of hell will not overcome [the church].” We talk about Hell waging war against the church. We talk about Satan attacking us and trying to destroy us. Then you read these words of Jesus and you say to yourself, “OH NO! SATAN’S GOT GATE!” It just doesn’t sound all that scary does it.

In his sermon titled, “When is the Last Time You Were Attacked by a Gate” Dan Betzer explains that “a gate is not an offensive weapon; it is [a] defensive object”. As I read the word of Jesus in Matthew 16:18, it seems to me that Satan is not the one who is on the offensive. It is God, and His church, who is on the offensive. Everything about Jesus statement of building HIS church shows the church being on the march against hell. In fact no where in scripture do you find God on the defensive. You never find God losing a battle. You never find God backed into a corner and trying to fight his way out. God is always on the offensive and we, too, should be, on the march to storm the gates of hell, because Satan always has been and always will be on the defensive.

Satan knows that in the end he will be defeated, but here’s the problem. Most Christians have been duped into taking a defensive posture. I’ll admit that I’ve even done it. We get to thinking that we just have to hold off the onslaught of the enemy, but then you read this passage and you realize that’s not the case at all. Satan is the one who is worrying about how he is going to hold off God and the church and