Christ's Church

Matt 16:18-19

(from Names of the Believers © 1997 by John M. Koessler. All rights reserved.)

18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.  19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." NASU

One bright June afternoon, a small crowd of friends sat in lawn chairs in our yard and watched as a team of workers built our new church. A prefabricated building, its walls had actually been made in a factory and then delivered to the building site on a large flatbed truck. Everyone cheered as the first wall swung into place, and in a few hours the entire frame was up.

The finishing process took much longer. Doors were hung and the inside walls were finished off with plaster, paint, and wallpaper. And after the builders completed their job, we turned our attention to the inside furnishings. We took as much care in deciding on the color of the carpet as we did in picking the building's floor plan.

However, before any of the walls went up, before one pane of stained glass was put in place, before an inch of carpet was laid down, or a single drop of paint was splashed on, the building's foundation had to be planted. Steel rods and concrete were used to fix the building's footings in place. Although this wasn't nearly as exciting as the raising of the walls, in many ways it was more important, because a building is only as strong as the foundation upon which it stands.

In Matt 16:13-19, Jesus lays bare the foundation of His church in an exchange with the apostle Peter that took place near the end of His Galilean ministry. As the crucifixion drew nearer, Jesus began to focus less on the crowds and more on His disciples, in order to prepare them for His departure.

While traveling through the region of Caearea Philippi, Jesus asked the disciples to describe the rumors being spread about Him. "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" He asked. The disciples all spoke up at once. "Some say that you are John the Baptist come back to life!" exclaimed one. "Others think you are Elijah," said another. Someone pointed in Jesus' direction, chuckling, "Oh, really? I heard someone say that He was Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Everyone laughed.

In the silence that followed, Jesus probed His disciples further. "And what about you," He asked gently. "Who do you say I am?" The disciples looked nervously from one to another, as if they were afraid of giving the wrong answer. At last, Peter replied, blurting out the words like one who had been bursting to tell a secret that was burning inside him: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" His eyes shown fiercely, daring Jesus to deny it.

But Jesus did not. Instead, He beamed back a smile of approval and said, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Jesus' promise here seems to have been a kind of pun based on Peter's name. Peter's given name at birth was actually Simon, which meant "hearing." When Simon's brother Andrew first brought him to meet Jesus, the Savior renamed him Cephas, an Aramaic term that meant "stone" or "rock." The Greek form was Petros, or Peter. Anyone who knew Peter well could not help but see the irony in Jesus' words. Old impetuous Simon, the well-meaning but unstable fisherman. If his behavior as a disciple is indicative of his previous life, Peter was a man quick to speak and act, but easily swayed by the opinions of others. It was this trait that eventually caused him to deny his Lord and earn a sharp rebuke from the apostle Paul for shunning Gentile Christians when in the presence of Jewish believers.

However, Peter the man was not the rock upon which the church was founded. Rather, it was Peter's confession that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. It is here that we see the true foundation of the church and discover its most glorious name. The church that was about to come into being would not be Peter's church. It would be Christ's church, founded not upon human principles or earthly philosophy, but upon a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. This church is made up of all those who recognize Jesus' true nature and genuinely confess Him as Lord and Savior.

This is an important reminder in an age when so much of the church's thinking and practice seems to be drawn from the secular realm. In the world's view, an organization's first concern is efficiency: What is the bottom line? Are we making a profit? How can we get more for less? While efficiency is certainly important, the church's first concern is fidelity. For us, the bottom line is not the profit margin but the will of our Lord and Savior. Before we consider the methodology of others, before we even consider our own tastes, the church must look first to Christ.

It is in this name that we see the secret to the church's power. Jesus' words to Peter promised victory over the grave, giving a picture of the church storming the gates of Hades. This metaphor is used several times in the Old Testament for death (Job 17:16; 38:17; Ps 9:13; 107:18; Isa 38:10). In the ancient world, a city's gate was its first line of defense. When an army seized the gate, it captured the city. Jesus pictured the church as an invincible army able to meet and overcome death in its own stronghold.

In Matt 16:19 Jesus also granted the church authority to "bind and loose." The rabbis used these terms to speak of forbidding and permitting. Jesus characterized this authority as the "keys of the kingdom of heaven." In the ancient world, keys were a symbol of responsibility. For example, when Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, was made governor of the palace under Hezekiah, the Lord prophesied: "I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open" (Isa 22:22). In Jesus' day, the scribes were given a key at their ordination to symbolize their possession of the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52).

The church, then, has real authority in the spiritual realm. While the prospects of individual congregations or denominations may rise or fall, the future of the church is assured. It will do more than merely survive; it will be victorious because it is built upon the indestructible foundation of Christ Himself.

Father, thank you for this reminder that the church belongs to Christ. Help us to recognize His authority and rely upon His power in all that we do. Amen.

Thanks to John Koessler for allowing us to publish his material.www.johnkosessler.com
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John Koessler serves as chair and professor of pastoral studies at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to Jane and has two sons, Drew and Jarred. John is the author of ten books and numerous articles. He also serves as a contributing editor for the Moody Bible Institute publication Today in the Word, where you can read his monthly “Theology Matters” column. You can contact John via email at John.Koessler@moody.edu or by phone at (312) 329-4077.

Art work above  by William Hallmark