The Church

Author

Glen Osburn

In Matthew 16, Jesus said to Peter, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (v. 18). Here the Lord promises to build His church. Furthermore, this church was to become the greatest institution on the face of the earth.

The church of Christ was not limited to one nation of people, but it was for all people of every nation who would rightfully call upon the name of the Lord. Many years before the Lord came and established His church, Isaiah the prophet recorded these words:
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say,'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.'For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem (2:2-3).

Another prophecy about the Lord's church is in Daniel:
You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and brokethem in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (2:34-35).

From these two prophecies, we see the Lord's church was to become a great body of people from all nations of the earth. These people would be those who would love and respect God, and obey His word of truth.

The Lord's church was to be a God-created church, not a man-made church. This church was to follow the truths and commands of God's word, not human doctrines and philosophies. Ephesians 3: 10-11 reads: "... that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the Heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." The plans for the church of Christ were of eternal origin-planned by God and executed by Christ, His Son.

Our salvation is the reason Christ came to this world. If mankind had notbeen hopelessly lost in sin, Jesus would not have come; He came to seek and save that which was lost (Matthew 1:2 1; Luke 19: 10; 1 Timothy 1:15). Because Jesus was put to death on the cross, He arose from the dead for our justification (Romans 4:25) and returned to God the Father. He had prepared the apostles for the great work of converting the world, but this work was to be done through His church. Paul writes in I Timothy 3:15, "...1 write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." It is the duty of the church to uphold the Lord's truth to the lost. Those who obey the truth, according to Acts 2:47, are added to the church. While the church does not save by itself-it is Christ who saves-salvation is in the Lord's body or church. To the Ephesians Paul writes, "Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body" (5:23; cf. Ephesians 1:22-23). To be "in Christ" (I Timothy 2:10; Galatians 3:26-27) is to be in His church. If any of us are saved, we must be in the Lord's church.

Jesus said, "I will build My church" (Matthew 16:18). The church belongs to Christ. If the church belongs to Christ, why do we have so many different religious bodies in the world? The answer is simple: Somebody has been building churches when they had no right to do so! Many religious organizations owe their existence to common men and women, not to the Son of God. Many religious organizations teach doctrines that are foreign and contradictory to the gospel of Christ. These religious organizations are not honoring Jesus as the builder of the church.

Some have mistakenly taught that John the Baptist built the church. This assertion cannot be true for several reasons. First of all, John the Baptist referred to Jesus Christ as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Matthew 14:10 records that John the Baptist was beheaded. Later, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus declared His intention to build His church. If John the Baptist was dead when Jesus made this statement, clearly John the Baptist could not have built the church. Also, John the Baptist said of Jesus Christ, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:29-30). Jesus, the bridegroom, is married to the church, and He must increase. John, the friend of the bridegroom, was to decrease. John the Baptist did not build the church, and so it should not wear his name. Please note that the phrase "the Baptist" given to John is a description applied to John because he baptized, or immersed, people in water. The angel said to Zacharias, his father, "you shall call his name John" (Luke 1: 13).

No less important than the building is the foundation of the church. No building is stronger than its foundation. What then is the foundation of the church? I Corinthians 3:11 tells us: "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, "on this rock I will build My church." What is the "rock"? Whatever it is, upon it the church was built by Christ. In order to get the complete picture of the text, notice verse 16: "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."' Then in verse 17, the Lord blesses Peter for the confession which he had made, and in verse 18, the Lord promises to build His church. It is clear from the text that Christ planned to build His church upon the truth of Peter's confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

Some have mistakenly interpreted this passage to mean that Christ built His church on Peter's authority. However, a closer look at the wording will show this meaning is not, and cannot be, true. When Jesus said "I also say to you, That you are Peter...," He used the Greek word for Peter which is petros, meaning a stone, a rock, or a small pebble. But when Jesus said "upon this rock...," He used the Greek word petra meaning a huge mass or ]edge of rock. The two words are different in meaning and are used to show a contrast. The church is therefore founded upon the fact that Jesus is the Christ, God's infallible Son, and not upon Peter, a fallible, erring human being.

Isaiah makes a prophecy which reads: "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily"' (28:16). In Matthew 21:42, Jesus applies this prophecy to Himself. "Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?` Later, in Acts 4:11 the apostle Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, applies this same prophecy to Jesus: "This is the ,stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone."' Jesus, and not Peter, is the head of the church, as well as its foundation. The apostle Paul also writes in Ephesians 2:20: "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." The "chief corner stone" is the basic, essential, and most important part of a building-it is the foundation.

It is important to note that the church Christ built is based upon a divine rather than a human foundation. Christ is deity: eternal and immortal. In John 1: 1, the apostle tells us of Christ: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." The apostle Paul says of Christ: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God" (Philippians 2:6).

Therefore, as the foundation of the Church, Christ will endure forever. Death anddecay cannot harm the church, for Christ who is its builder, head, and foundation shall live forever!