This episode unpacks the appropriate response of believers to Christ’s triumphant resurrection. “All authority has been given to Me [Christ] in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18-19) Based on Christ’s universal authority, Christians are commanded to make disciples of all the nations, and their primary mission is to proclaim the gospel, calling people out of darkness into the marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9) The universal body of Christ is composed of those who have been called out of the kingdom of the darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ. (Colossians 1:13) The word “church” literally means “those who are called out of,” and believers are given the veritable keys to the kingdom, as they proclaim access to God’s kingdom through repentance and faith in Christ. This then is the mission of the church and the mandated response to Christ’s universal authority. It is NOT the setting up of an abominable church-state mixture where all are compelled to submit to Christian rule, in the same way that mosque and state are intertwined in predominantly Islamic countries. The episode finally concludes that the principal enemy of the church (those who are called out of) is demonic forces (“gates of hell”), not the world, whose hostages we are called to liberate.
