Micah 2:13 The one who breaks open will come up before them; They will break out, Pass through the gate, And go out by it; Their king will pass before them, With the Lord at their head." NKJV
The Breaker
Our text for tonight ascribes to Jesus, a name which we are not overly familiar with, “Jesus the Breaker.”
This text makes reference to the deliverance of the Jews and their re-gathering to their God. This text is full of hope and that hope and that deliverance, that hope and that reclaiming, that hope and that victory, is built upon nothing less but the arrival of the Messiah within the shrieking mess and His name at that point is called, “The Breaker.”
Have you ever imagined the style of the gates of hell, those very gates that are prophesied never to prevail against the church of the living God? Have you ever wondered maybe at their shape? Some imagine them to be linear in their presentation, like some vast movable rampart, sometimes retreating from the advancing Christian, but mostly and menacingly, ever edging themselves, slowly and determinedly towards the defeated sons of His love, whilst demons are screaming insults and firing fiery darts, all falling from their walls upon our blood-bought heads. I suggest that we mostly imagine ourselves then, as poor beleaguered Christians, retreating, back, back and ever backwards into some safer areas of our souls and lives.
Unfortunately, my experience has taught me that there is no space for such a safe retreat. You see, the gates of hell are in fact circular. In other words, the gates of hell surround me, as if I were the center of some ever decreasing, nasty and all-confining, light-consuming, ever-collapsing circle. There is no retreat to safety here then! When the gates of hell come in upon us like this, they surround us, they constrict us, they limit our movement, they bind us, they break us, they place us into the servitude of a constrictive condemnation. Yes, when the gates of hell advance dear friends, there is no retreat for the Christian, there is only bondage.
This ever tightening manacle of monstrous restraint, whether it is an addiction, whether it is a state of mind or even a state of heart, becomes to us, a surrounding stronghold, a geographical territory even, and like a torturous tyranny it imposes its overlaying, all-labouring will upon us! This ever tightening manacle of monstrous restraint, may be a financial sinkhole sucking us dry, or a fear-infested moat of alligators waiting to tear us apart should we ever dare to cross it and friends, we rarely dare to cross it, for as that circle minimizes itself to a most strangling contraction, the bondage and the life-sucking darkness has then become so severe, that we lose all our strength and most importantly, we lose all our hope. As I write, there are millions who are being eaten alive by such a circle of consummate despondency. The circular gates of hell have for now, prevailed against them.
Those of us in this cannibalizing condition, need nothing short of Christ “The Breaker” to appear among us! We need Him, the Holy Hammer of the Lord God Almighty, to appear within our shrunken circles of death, and burst like a broken Aswan Dam upon the gates of the enemy, or to explode like a mighty bomb against his pressing spikes, or throw Himself like some giant battering ram against the hot and horny, metal doors of hell, head- butting down the fiery walls and making a broad breach for us to safely travel through, and then, King Harry-like, stand in the gap astride His neighing charger, His silver and glistening sword raised high, tattooed name upon His thigh, the now golden sky above, raining down angelic troopers, all to make a way, I say again, all to make a way for us, to leave these concentrated and concentric, strangling rings of terror! Let us then this evening, together invoke this forgotten name of Jesus our Saviour, so that as ‘Christ The Breaker,’ He would appear among us on the morrow and smash and splinter these gates of hell, that so bear down upon our sorry souls tonight.
Listen:- What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the Lord. “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29 NKJV
Pray:- O Lord of War, Commander of all the Angel Armies, O Captain, O my Captain, please come and rescue me from these all-restricting walls. Lord, take Your great Hammer and break in pieces these rocks of evil imposition, that rise before me like mountains of malevolence ready to drive me to distraction, ready to move me to destruction! All my strength has gone, all my courage and all my hope. I have no plans of escape my Lord, no method and no bargaining ransom. My only hope, is that You, as “Christ the Breaker,” appears amongst my mess and makes a way of redemption through all this charging host. Father then, send your Son, and with Him, send the Holy Ghost, and let me hear the ring of His crashing hammer within my listening ears, and see the glisten of His spears, protruding from all the bellies of all my now dead and vanquished foes. Christ My Maker, Christ “My Breaker,” come an end this encirclement of death today. Amen.
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