I Will Build My Church
Matthew 16:18-20
What do you think about when you hear the word “church”? There are certainly a large variety of groups that are called churches today. Are all of them valid churches according to scripture? How is a church built?
Church is a major theme in the New Testament. The Greek word translated “church” is ekklēsia, literally meaning “the called-out ones”. The word can refer to any kind of official gathering or assembly of people called-out for a particular purpose. In the Bible, this word is never used to refer to a building. The church is not a building, it is an assembly of people. Ekklesia is found some 118 times in the New Testament. About 90 of those refer to an assembly of Christ followers those who have believed the gospel of the kingdom, who have been called out of the world of sin into the kingdom of God. It is this “church” that the Son of God promised to build in Matthew 16:18 when He said, “I will build my church.”
Matthew 16 marks a major transition in the Lord’s ministry. At this point, Jesus is about two and a half years into His three-year ministry. The religious leaders in Israel have openly opposed and rejected Jesus and His message. The rest of the nation is largely vacillating, not sure what to think about this miracle-working preacher from Nazareth.
So at this point, Jesus took His disciples away from the Jewish crowds in Galilee and Judea to a mostly Gentile area around Caesarea Philippi. There, He gave His disciples their midterm exam. First He asked them, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matt. 16:13). They answered that the people generally thought that Jesus was one of the prophets who was risen from the dead.
Then Jesus asked the most important question. He specifically addressed the disciples themselves, and asked, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Peter, speaking for the group, confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16).
Peter confessed that Jesus is the promised coming King and Savior as prophesied in the Old Testament. The title “Christ” means Jesus is the anointed one, the promised Messiah-King who would save His people and reign over them forever. Even more, Peter confessed that Jesus is “the Son of the living God,” meaning He was of the very nature and essence of God.
Jesus then responded to this confession by telling Peter he was blessed because he did not come up with this on his own. Rather, Jesus said, “for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). It was not something in Peter or something he learned from others. He confessed the truth about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because the Father revealed that truth.
And that brings us to our study today. Our study today flows out of the truth that God revealed about His Son and that Peter confessed. The key phrase in this passage is when Jesus states, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Everything Jesus says in these verses relates to Jesus building His church.
We will see four major points about the church that Jesus builds.
1. The Church’s Foundation
How do you build a church? You need to start with the right foundation. Jesus had asked all of the twelve, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). And Simon Peter had stepped forward and gave the answer for the group, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). The rest of what Jesus says in this passage he speaks directly to Simon Peter. In Matthew 16:17 Jesus says that Simon is blessed because he confessed the God-revealed truth about Jesus. He was singled out in Jesus’ attention for blessing, because it was he who confessed the apostolic testimony on behalf of the others.
Then Jesus went on to say, “And I also say to you that you are Peter …” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus gave Simon the nickname Petros, that is, “the rock”. It’s not the first time that Jesus gave him this name. The Gospel of John tells us that very early in Jesus’ earthly ministry, a disciple of John the Baptist named Andrew met Jesus and then ran off to introduce his brother Simon to Him. And when Jesus met Simon, He looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas (which is translated, [Petros] A Stone)” (John 1:42). Cephas is the Aramaic word for rock, just as Petros is the Greek word for rock. Now that Simon has stood on the bedrock of the revealed truth about Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, Jesus officially declared, “You are Petros”. You are the rock.
Then, making a play on the name Peter, the rock, Jesus then says, “… and on this rock I will build My church…” (Matt. 16:18). When Jesus said, “this rock,” the word for “rock,” petra, is similar to the name Petros. The name is the masculine form of the word and petra is the feminine form. It refers to a large stone or rocky cliff. It’s the word Jesus used in Matthew 7:24-25 when He used the image of a house “founded on the rock.” It is used in Matthew 27:60 for the rocky cliffside out of which the tomb for Jesus was hewn. It is a large foundation rock.
So, what rock was Jesus referring to when He said, “… and on this rock I will build My church…” (Matt. 16:18). Is “this rock” on which Christ promised to build His church Peter? Is it Peter’s faith? Is it the truth of Peter’s confession? Or is the rock Jesus Himself? Let’s think about those four views.
First view: “this rock.” is Peter. Since Jesus is speaking directly to Peter, whose name means “rock,” and Jesus is going to build His church on a rock, it appears that Christ means to link Peter with the founding of the church. Therefore some think that Peter himself is the rock on which Jesus builds His church. This has been the official position of the Roman Catholic Church and to this they add the extra-biblical doctrines that Peter is the first Pope and the idea of Papal succession.
Certainly, God used Peter greatly in the founding of the church. It was Peter who preached Jesus on the day of Pentecost to the Jews and three thousand were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Peter and John were also instrumental in adding the Samaritans to the church in Acts 8. God used Peter to first bring the gospel message to the Gentiles in Acts 10. But Peter’s prominence ends after these early years of the church. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find that Peter is held up as an authority over the other apostles. Peter is held accountable for his actions by the Jerusalem church (Acts 11:1-18) and later rebuked by Paul for his hypocrisy in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14). James, Peter, and John are all referred to as those “who seemed to be pillars” (Gal. 2:9). At the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, Peter has a role, but it is James who seems to take the lead and declare the decision of the group. When Peter refers to himself he simply says he is “an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1), “a fellow elder” (1 Pet. 5:1), and “a bondservant…of Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1).
Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the church “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” The apostles, in cluding Peter, were foundational but only in a secondary sense. Peter was one of those apostles and prophets Christ used in founding His church.
From our text in Matthew 16:18, if the Lord had wanted to clearly designate Peter as the rock, He could have simply said “on you” but He didn’t say that. The use of the third person “this” to speak to Peter is awkward. Why would Jesus have spoken so ambiguously if Peter was what He meant?
Second view: “this rock” is Peter’s confession or his faith. Matthew’s Gospel has been emphasizing faith, but faith is not mentioned in this text at all. Certainly, Peter’s confession poured forth from him as a heartfelt declaration of personal faith. We know from the rest of the New Testament that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and that those who believe in Christ, as Peter did, are the church. But the emphasis here is not the faith of Peter, but the revelation of the Father about the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The church is not built on the confession of faith her members make. That would change the effect into the cause.[1]
Third view: “this rock” is the reveal truth about Jesus. God revealed to Peter the truth that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” In this view, the “rock” is the reality or truth of that statement—the church is built on the rock-solid truth that Jesus is God’s Chosen Anointed One and the eternal Son of God. This fits well with the third person pronoun (this). In confessing Jesus as the Christ, Peter, the “rock,” was demonstrating his own stability as he stood on “this” rock-solid truth. Anyone who is a part of Christ’s church must build on the rock of that truth.
Fourth view: “this rock” is Jesus Himself. This view takes into account the difference between the name Petros and the term petra. The difference in the two terms may suggest that Jesus was contrasting Peter with Himself. That is, Jesus was saying, “You are the small rock, but I am the foundation of the church.” This view finds support in other passages that present Christ, not Peter, as the foundation of the church. Jesus Himself is often spoken of in the Bible under the figure of a “rock”. The Bible tells us that Christ is “that spiritual Rock that followed” Israel and from whom they drank in the days of Moses (1 Cor. 10:4). Speaking of building the church, Paul affirmed, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11). The church is built on Jesus, not Peter.
We don’t have to wonder about what Peter thought Jesus meant by “this rock” because he wrote about it in 1 Peter 2. He wrote, “4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.” In other words, Jesus is the rock, the living stone, the One chosen by God just as Peter had confessed. Then Peter goes on to write about his role and ours: “5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter, and all who believe in Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, we are like living stones who come to the “living Stone” Jesus Christ. He then builds His church with stones like us. Peter then quotes the prophesies of the Old Testament to confirm that Jesus is the Rock:
“6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” 7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” (1 Pet. 2:4-8).
Jesus is the chief cornerstone that was rejected. He died a terrible death on the cross as a substitute for our sins. To those who believe, He is precious. To those who do not, He is “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (Isa. 8:14; 28:16; Jer. 6:21; Psa. 118:22; Matt. 21:42-44; Rom. 9:32-33; Acts 4:11 Peter 2:7-8).
All the other views are derived from this truth that Jesus is the Rock. Peter is only the rock when he builds on Jesus. His confession of faith is only the rock when it is faith in Jesus. The God-revealed truth of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is only the rock because Jesus is the Rock.
That is the church’s foundation. An English pastor named Samuel Stone appropriately said it well in his famous hymn:
The church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
she is His new creation,
by water and the word.
From heav’n He came and sought her
to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her,
and for her life He died.
So we see the Church’s foundation. Next, look at …
2. The Church’s Builder
Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Every word is important here. When Jesus says “I” He indicates that He Himself is the builder. The church is Christ’s doing. One of the great mistakes we make as believers is to think that the building of the church on earth is up to us. It is not! Christ may use us however He chooses to do His work, but the work is ultimately His, not ours. But what the Scriptures tell us of the Church in its early days, in Acts 2:47, is still as true today as it ever was: “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Bishop J.C. Ryle once wrote;
For the preserving of the true church, the laws of nature have oftentimes been suspended. For the good of that church, all the providential dealings of God in this world are ordered and arranged. For the elect’s sake, wars are brought to an end, and peace is given to a nation. Statesmen, rulers, emperors, kings, presidents, heads of governments, have their schemes and plans, and think them of vast importance. But there is another work going on of infinitely greater moment, for which they are only the ‘axes and saws’ in God’s hands (Isa. 10:15). That work is the erection of Christ’s spiritual temple, the gathering in of living stones into the one true church.[2]
Can there be any greater basis for confidence in the building of Christ’s church on earth than the fact that He Himself—the almighty Son of God, who has “all authority”—testifies, “I will build My church”?
Notice also that Jesus says that He “will build” His church. This verb is future tense. The church was not yet a reality it must be built. Now we know that the church is not a building. It’s a people, with or without a building. So how will Jesus build it? By His death and resurrection. Jesus will build His church, but first He must go to the cross, suffer and die, be raise the third day, ascend into heaven, and send the Holy Spirit to give birth to and empower His church. In fact, that is what Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples in Matthew 16:21-23.
Then notice that Jesus says He will build “My church.” The church belongs to Christ. The church does not belong to the pastor, or the deacons, or the members, or those who have the most money, or even the people who have been at the church the longest. No, the church belongs to Jesus. It is His church. Every true born-again believer belongs to Christ no matter what local church they attend. His church spans all languages, cultures, and ethnicities and includes all believers of all ages.
Now, of course, we call New Covenant Baptist “our” church in the sense that it is the local church to which we belong, the church that we attend and that we support. And it’s good for us take “ownership” of the church in the sense that we are committed to the church and that we take responsibility for our part in the church. But we should never take ownership in the sense that we act like we own the church, that we get to make all the decisions for the church, that what we want takes precedence over what others in the church may want.[3]
Colossians 1:18 says, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” The church belongs to Jesus. He is the head of the church. He alone is supreme and worthy worship.
We will have to stop here today. Next time, we will consider…
- The Church’s Victory
and …
- The Church’s Authority
As we close today, I want you to think about this statement, “I will build My church.” Mark this well: Jesus does not promise that He will build His school, or that He will build His government, or build His medical clinic, or build His university, or build His business, or build His service organization. He promises with absolute authority: “I will build my church.” The church is the one thing on earth that Jesus is building.
We are not a social club. We are not a religious association. We are not a group of volunteers. We are His church. We are body of believers in Jesus Christ who are redeemed by His blood, forgiven of our sins, adopted into God’s family, united together by the Holy Spirit and growing in faith. We are His church.
Maybe today, God has spoken to you from His word about your need to belong to Christ’s church. How do you become a member? The same way Peter did. You believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. You believe that He died in your place for the forgiveness of your sins. You believe that God raised Him from the dead and that He is the living Savior and Lord who gives eternal life. Repent and believe. Jesus will save you and add you to His church. I invite you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, come to Him, believe on Him, become a part of His church.
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[1] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 626.
[2] J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Welwyn, Hertfordshire: Evangelical Press, 1979), p. 214.
[3] Ray Fowler, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/how-to-build-a-church/
