The Potency of Humble Glories

I want you to understand the glory and power of what it is that we’re doing right now.

As we gather this morning to sing in worship to God, to pray to God and ask for his Kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven; as we gather in the name of Jesus and open his Word and feast on it together; as we each come and proclaim the Lord’s death for us at his table—as we do these things, we are assaulting the very gates of Hell.

Jesus said that he would build his church and that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. That’s a vision of the church as an offensive force, invading, and overthrowing Satan’s dominions and colonizing earth with the better Kingdom of Heaven.

One pastor explained it like this, to paraphrase: As we gather in the name of the Lord and heed the call to worship, we pick up the battering ram at the gates of Hell and give it a few more blows; we splinter a few more timbers of those gates.

Our corporate worship, our corporate prayer, our life together in obedience to and shaped by the rhythms of the Scriptures—these things that seem humble and insignificant are the very means that the Lord Jesus is using to advance his great Kingdom.

This morning in 1 Peter 3:8–12, our brother Peter unfolds God’s vision for what the Lord is making us together—things that seem small and maybe even trivial to you. But it is these humble things that God is making mighty by his grace. Look there with me.

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For,

“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

-1 Peter 3:8–12