(Mattt.16:18)
Day-1 : God’s pattern for the Church.
“I will build my church.”
- The misunderstanding.
- The foundation.
- The meaning.
- The rules:
- God’s blue print.
- The uniqueness:
- The Church is the master-piece and Centre-piece of the Kingdom of God.
- The Church is the only thing God ever had to buy.
- The Church is the only thing that cannot be shaken.
- What the Church is not:
- The Church is not a material building.
- The Church is not a denomination.
- The Church is not an after thought or Plan-B in the mind of God.
- Three Principles to how to build:
- Doing and teaching:
- Witness and wait.
- Rise above and go beyond.
The misunderstanding prevailing in the Christendom: (Matt. 16:17-20) Peter’s words brought a word of commendation from the Lord. Peter was blessed because he had come to a correct conclusion about the person of Christ and because of this, great blessing was brought into his life.
- The Lord added, however, this was not a conclusion Peter had determined by his own or others’ ability. God, the Father in heaven, had revealed it to him. Peter was living up to his name (it means “rock”) for he was demonstrating himself to be a rock. When the Lord and Peter first met, Jesus had said Simon would be named Cephas (Aram. for “rock”) or Peter (Gr. for “rock”; Jn.1:41-42).
But his declaration about Messiah’s person led to a declaration of Messiah’s program.
- Peter (Petros, masc.) was strong like a rock, but Jesus added that on this rock (petra, fem.) He would build His church. Because of this change in Greek words, many conservative scholars believe that Jesus is now building His church on Himself.
- Others hold that the church is built on Peter and the other apostles as the building’s foundation stones (Eph. 2:20; Rev. 21:14).
- Still other scholars say that the church is built on Peter’s testimony.
- It seems best to understand that Jesus was praising Peter for his accurate statement about Him, and was introducing His work of building the church on Himself (1 Cor. 3:11).
- It is clear that it is Jesus who was promising to establish a visible Church on earth with Peter, the Rock, as its visible earthly anchor. The Church was not to be established on Peter’s faith, which we know Peter faltered when he denied Jesus 3 times, but upon Peter the individual who was leader of the Apostles and an instrument of the Father’s revelation. As it says in (Eph. 2:20: “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone).
- This means the church is not built on modern ideas, but rather on the spiritual heritage given to us by the early apostles and prophets of the Christian Church.
- The rock on which Jesus would build his church has been identified as:
(1) Jesus himself (His work of salvation by dying for us on the cross);
(2) Like Peter (the first great leader in the church at Jerusalem), who was also pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) the confession of faith that Peter gave and that all subsequent true believers would give.