Managing the Work .........................................................107

and keep invaders from overpowering or overtaking those residing behind the gates. is is the common use for us today, and it was the common understanding in Jesus’s day as well. However, remember the setting and the unique characteristics of Caesarea Philippi. At the back of the city near a display of paganism representing lies, destruction, and religious hopelessness sat a cave known as the “Gates of Hades.” I believe that Jesus was using this backdrop as an image—a metaphor—to represent all the satanic schemes in the world that will attempt to overpower the church, and her “calling” to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ is clear. And these gates will not win! is is the context, then, that in verse 21 Jesus began to explain what it means for him to be “the Christ” and how it is that the gates of Hades will not overpower the church. Essentially, what he described is his death, the gospel of the Lord Jesus. “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and su er many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” And we remember Peter’s response. He rebuked Jesus and made a bold declaration that he would not allow this action. What we must understand here is that Peter’s rebuke was against what it meant for Jesus’s statement to be true and what was necessary for even Peter’s salvation. Jesus’s answer and the position he espoused is striking: “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s’” (v. 23). According to Jesus, Peter was being the agent of Satan to prevent the ministry of Christ. To say it another way, he was working with the very gates that would not prevail against the church and thus the ministry to which Peter was called.

Why does this matter for us? In Peter’s position and Jesus’s counter, we see the rst truth concerning an authentic call to ministry leadership. In order to answer the call, at a