Matthew 16:18
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Within our focal verse today, we find some very interesting things going on; things that some denominations haven’t seemed to get right in over a thousand years or so. Concerning the notion about whom the church is built upon, we find no other answer than Jesus Christ Our Lord!
— First of all, it was upon the great confession that Jesus is the anointed One, the only Begotten Son of God, and the Savior of the World that the church is built. We see this even today…
Hebrews 11:6
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Romans 10:9-12
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”
Acts 4:10-12
“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
— Secondly, we see Christ made it absolutely clear to all who were gathered around Him that day that He could not have been speaking of Peter or anyone else being the foundation. For in the Greek, the original language of the gospels, Christ told Peter – “thou art Petros” being translated, “a piece of a rock…” Then obviously mentioning a much larger rock, speaking of Himself, Jesus said “upon this rock (Petra – a mass of rock) will I build my church…”
Now there are only three possibilities of who or what Jesus was speaking of in this exchange. It could have been Peter but Christ makes it very clear that’s not the case when He called Him the little rock. The only other two options are one and the same: either He meant Himself which is true, or He meant Peter’s confession of Him which is the same thing. Suffice it to say, it is upon Jesus that the church is built today.
I want us to take a moment and study out exactly what the Lord shared concerning His building of the church.
- We find Jesus sharing that He will build the church: “I will build my church…”
Matthew 16:18
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
— If Jesus is building the church, then we know it will grow and flourish.
— There’s so much effort placed today by well meaning pastors on doing and saying the right things, recruiting correctly, programs, checklists and to-do lists.
— It’s as if today, the church feels it needs to be ran like a secular business.
— But the church cannot be ran at all, much less ran like a business. As soon as you say the word run, you take Christ out of the equation.
— In fact if you ever hear leadership in a church speak of how they run the church, your best bet is to run the other way!
— No, we must depend on Jesus to add to His church and to build it up in the most holy faith.
— This is not to excuse us of working for our Savior and to be His hands and feet, but it is to remind us of our proper place. Christ is called the head for a reason.
2) We find Jesus sharing that He will build it upon Himself. “Upon this rock I will build”
— While you may get into a church without proclaiming Jesus as your Lord in personal faith and trust, you cannot get into the church without doing so.
— One important truth we see here is just how little value God places on a building and how much more value He places on the souls of mankind.
— A building is not nor can ever be a church. The church is that body of people comprised of all those who have personally placed their trust in Jesus Christ.
— The church is not an organization, but rather an organism. We are a living, breathing, earthly extension of Christ Jesus the Lord.
— It is only once we realize and accept this that we can begin to walk around in the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus.
— We are not just arbitrarily milling around like those in the world today. No, we are on specific and direct orders of the King.
John 15:4-5
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
3) We find Jesus openly declaring that His church will never be stopped or destroyed. “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
— What a comfort to know that no matter what devices Satan prescribes, or traps that he sets, or schemes that he implements, the church shall stand victorious through them all and after them all.
— That’s not to say that Satan may win a skirmish here or there. Certainly he does this as we try to go forth in our own power and strength.
— But as we already know, there is going to come a day when Satan will have no more freedom for he will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. There will never be a day that the church is no more for she is founded upon the eternal Son of God.
— I am reminded of this with even the use of the Greek word translated “prevail” here in our verse. It is the word “katischuo” meaning “to overpower, prevail against”. It is used in only one other verse in the Bible, Luke 23:23 where the voices of the mob including the chief priests prevailed against Pilate in their desire to crucify Jesus.
— Though they may have prevailed in sending Him to the cross, Christ ultimately prevailed over them all by overcoming sin, death, hell, and the grave – arising victorious as the Living Savior.
— There may be some trials in the path of Christ’s church as those of this world would love to silence God in this dark hour! Yet, we are assured of this: the church, God’s Church, shall ultimately prevail over them all!
— This is why it sometimes looks like Satan has won, only to find out God worked it out for a greater, more glorious victory down the road.
Our Lord has prevailed over death, hell, sin, the grave, evil, and Satan! The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ! We shall overcome because He has overcome! In those moments of life where you look at the conditions surrounding you or even perhaps the current condition of our nation, you would be tempted to think there’s no hope. May I share with you, as long as Christ is alive (and He is forevermore!), there will always be hope. Why? Because He tells us because He has overcome, He will grant to us the power to do the same.
It may be hard to see now but there is coming a day when all born-again Christians will reach those Heavenly shores in complete victory. On that day, while in our eternal blessed rest, we will look back on all our struggles we experienced down here and find there was a purpose and ultimately a victory because our Savior lives!