Thanksgiving Day

Reformation Day (Observed)
October 29, 2023

“Christ Will Build His Church” (Matthew 16:13-20)

“Will we have to shut the doors?” I’m guessing some of you at least have had that thought cross your mind recently. “Will we have to shut the doors of our church? Will our little congregation make it? Do we have enough people, do we have enough money, to keep the doors open?” And I can understand how you might think like that. Yes, our church is small. And on top of that, your pastor came down with cancer and moved out of state. And the guy filling in for him, the man we wanted to call to be our next pastor–well, just last week he decided to take a call to a different congregation. And where does that leave us? Back to square one and a big unknown.

But, dear friends, today on this Reformation Sunday, I want to tell you, do not lose hope. Do not despair. As we read in Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” And we have Christ’s own promise: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And so our message this morning: “Christ Will Build His Church.”

As a little congregation, we are not alone. There are many smaller congregations struggling to keep their doors open. And it’s not just here in small-town Missouri. And it’s not just in Lutheran churches. No, it’s all across the country. According to one study, the median number of people in a congregation in America in 2023 is 60. That’s less than half of what it was 20 years ago, when the number was 137. This steep decline has been called the “Great Dechurching” of America.

I did a search on this the other day. I typed in the words “churches” and “decline,” and these are some of the top results I got, just from the past year, articles with headlines like these: “Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline”; “Churchgoing and belief in God stand at historic lows”; “Why So Many Americans Have Stopped Going to Church”; and “America is experiencing a historic decline in church attendance.”

But this matter of churches wondering if they’re gonna make it–this is nothing new. Back in Luther’s day, the churches of the Reformation were often under pressure and persecution. First of all, would Luther’s reforms even “take” at the local level? There was so much work to do! Then there was the threat of persecution, even military action, coming from Rome. When will the Empire strike back? And what about those other groups, like the Zwinglians and later the Calvinists? Will our Lutherans stay true to their own confession, or will they compromise the truth for the sake of “getting along”?

The church throughout the ages has always gone through tough times, when it looked like the church wasn’t going to make it. But throughout all those times, the church has been fortified by knowing that, as he promises, Christ will build his church.

The late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn’t always get everything right, but there was a lot that he did get right. And one thing he got right was in recognizing, right away in 1933, that Hitler’s rise would pose a threat to the church. And so Bonhoeffer reassures the faithful, in a sermon preached on our same text today, that Christ was still in charge of his church. He says: “It is not we who build. He builds the church. No human being builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever intends to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess–he builds. We must proclaim–he builds. We must pray to him–that he may build. We do not know his plan. We cannot see whether he is building or pulling down. It may be that the times which by human standards are times of collapse are for him the great times of construction. It may be that from a human point of view great times for the church are actually times of demolition. It is a great comfort which Christ gives to his church: you confess, preach, bear witness to me, and I alone will build where it pleases me.” So far Bonhoeffer.

You see, we can’t always tell by observation whether what’s going on is ultimately for the good and the strengthening of the church or not. To us, it may look like decline and demise and disaster for the church. But we have our Lord’s promise that he will build his church.

Note, it is his church, not ours. That means Christ will build it his way. And so the church will not be built on our clever plans and programs for growing the church. “Oh, if only we had screens in the sanctuary and a praise band up front, that would draw in the young people!” “Oh, if only we had a 30-year-old pastor with 15 years of experience, who smiles a lot and can tell funny stories, that will grow the church!” “Oh, and we need to downplay that ‘Christ crucified’ stuff. People don’t want to hear that.” Well, go that route and you might gain some numbers for a while–maybe–but that’s not Christ’s church you’re building.

Christ will build his church his way. And which way is that? He tells us: “On this rock I will build my church.” This rock on which he builds–what is it? It is the apostolic confession of Jesus as the Christ. Remember, Peter had just said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And that’s what Jesus commended. “On this rock I will build my church.” And so the church confesses Jesus to be the Christ, the God-man incarnate, the heaven-sent deliverer, sent to rescue mankind from our sin and death, sent to bring in the messianic age of life and salvation and blessing. When the church sticks with what the apostles preached and taught in the New Testament, when the person and work of Christ is at the center of everything we do, that then is the solid rock on which our Lord will build his church. It may not look all that glamorous or glorious in the eyes of the world–the megachurches that water down the message may have bigger numbers–but we will stick with what Christ has given us to say and to do. “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Brothers and sisters, we can trust our Savior’s words.

Why? How so? Because Jesus Christ himself–the gates of hell did not prevail against him! Our Lord Jesus, our divine champion, took on Satan in head-to-head mortal combat. The devil did his worst, threw everything at Jesus, even succeeded in seeing him nailed to a cross. Nails pierced our Lord’s hands and feet; a spear was thrust into his side. It looked like Satan had won. But no, as God had told the serpent in the garden: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Dear friends, Jesus Christ is that seed of the woman, who has stomped the old serpent on the head, delivering a death blow to his power! It looked like Jesus had lost, but in losing, he actually won! What looked like defeat was really victory! In victory, Christ crashed through the gates of hell and proclaimed his triumph even there! And so when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he could declare to the persecuted church of the first century: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Friends, Jesus has defeated our enemies for us! Death has been stripped of its power and its sting. Hades, hell, the domain of the devil–Christ has triumphed over the old evil foe; he holds the field forever! We have nothing to fear!

And we have everything to celebrate as a result! Your sins are forgiven by Christ’s holy blood! Your eternal life is guaranteed by Christ’s own resurrection! You have a sure hope to hold on to in the tough times. You have a joy that cannot be taken away from you, no matter what.

And you have a church where you can hear the Word of God preached in its truth and purity. You have a church where the Sacraments are administered rightly, according to Christ’s institution. Be glad for that! Be grateful for that! Not everyone has such a church that gets it right. Be willing to sacrifice your time and your treasure to keep the doors open in this particular place. Over the last century or so, here in eastern Missouri, there have been many changes in the number and arrangement of our LCMS congregations. There have been daughter churches, split churches, merged churches, dual-parish churches–those things come and go.

But one thing has remained constant: Christ has always provided a church for his people to go and receive his life-giving Word and Sacrament. And Christ will continue to do so. Brothers and sisters, today be reassured. Today rejoice and remain firm in the faith. For we have our Lord’s sure promise: Christ will build his church.