MY SEARCH FOR THE CHURCH ON THE ROCK
INTRODUCTION
"UPON THIS ROCK"
No man has had a more profound effect on the history of the world than Jesus of Nazareth. But how could a man who was born in a barn, unknown until he was 30 years old and was executed 3 1/2 years later be the most influential man who ever lived? Who was this man named Jesus? He was without a doubt the greatest teacher who ever lived. Even his enemies said, "We know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are."(1) His miracles also made people ask: Who is this man? He healed the sick, made the blind to see, made the lame to walk and even raised the dead. Thousands followed him day after day to see for themselves the great miracles he performed. A member of the ruling Jewish council said, "We know you are a teacher come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."(2) So, who was this Jesus of Nazareth?
One
day Jesus asked the question himself: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"(3) His
followers responded: "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and
still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Then he asked them, "But what about you? Who do
you say I am?" It was Peter that
spoke the eternal truth: "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Think for a moment about this confession of the
Apostle Peter. First, Peter said that Jesus was The Christ. "Christ" is from the Greek and means the same as "Messiah" in the Hebrew
language. Peter believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament
prophecies that a savior would come and forgive the world of sin. Second,
Peter said that Jesus was the Son of God. Jews will admit that Jesus was
a great teacher and Moslems believe that he was a prophet from God but neither
believes the truth that is fundamental to our faith: Jesus is the Son of God!
This
truth is the basis of everything we are, every hope that we have and the solid
foundation upon which we stand. "I tell you that you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church."(4) No one who can read the original Greek Bible would
ever believe that Jesus was promising to build his church on Peter. Peter's name
in Greek does mean, "rock" but it is "petros" which means, "A stone easily moved." However, the rock upon which the church would be
built is the Greek word "petra"
and means "a mass of rock."(5) When we understand the difference between Petros and Petra
this passage becomes clear. "You are Peter, a small stone easily moved, but
this rock, a mass of rock that I am the Son of God, will be the foundation of
my church." His church was not to be built on a mere man who would deny Jesus
when he was confronted by the enemy and would even curse and swear and say "I
don't know the man."(6) Peter was just a small rock easily moved but it was
on the solid rock that Jesus was "The Christ the son of the living God" that he would build his church.
It's
interesting that skeptics have used the crucifixion of Jesus to deny his
divinity but Jesus said even before his death that, "The gates of Hades will
not overcome it."(7) (Hades is the place where the spirits go after the
death of the body to await the judgment.)(8)
Jesus knew that only his death could
redeem man from sin but he wanted his followers to understand that even his
death would not stop the establishment of his church. They remembered this on
that glorious Sunday morning when they went to the tomb and found it empty! Now
they understood that the prophecy of the great king David was about the
resurrection of Christ, "you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you
let your Holy One see decay."(9) Now they had proof that this Jesus was the Messiah
and the Son of God.
What
can we learn from Matthew 16 about the "Church On The Rock"? 1) It did not yet
exist, "I will build my church", 2) It would be His church (we will see shortly that the Bible teaches
that men would start their own churches), 3) Its foundation would be His own
divinity, and 4) It would come
sometime after His resurrection. Jesus made this clear when he said to his
disciples, "The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem."(10)
So after his resurrection Jesus told the
apostles to wait in Jerusalem till they received the power that would enable
them to "be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the
earth."(11) And this they did. Fifty days after his resurrection,
on Sunday morning, the day of Pentecost in A.D. 33, they were together as their
Lord had commanded. Suddenly there was a sound like the blowing of a violent
wind that filled the whole house. These simple men, some like Peter, James and
John who were just fishermen, began to speak in foreign languages they had
never studied. This miracle not only proved that their preaching came from God
but it also allowed them to communicate with the multitude of Jews, in their
own tongues, that had come from all over the world for the Passover Feast. The
Apostles left the house and went out to where the thousands were assembled for
worship and preached for the first time the Gospel, the story of the
resurrected Savior. The sermon ended with these words, "God has made this
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."(12)
Imagine,
less than two months ago you were part of the mob that had demanded that Jesus
be crucified. Now you learn that you are responsible for the death of an
innocent man, but even worse he was the Messiah that you were waiting for. How
guilty would you feel? Well these people were "cut to the heart" and cried, "what shall we do?"(13) But the
story of Jesus is a story of love. It is not of hopelessness but of hope, not
of despair but of deliverance, not of sin but of salvation. Peter was able to
preach "repentance and forgiveness of sins" for the first time so that even
these who had killed the Son of God could be forgiven! More than that they were
the first members of the church! (14) Now the church Jesus promised to build has been
established and God added the saved to it. I want to be a member of that church
too, don't you?
But
Jesus warned that false teachers would come into his church: "Watch out for
false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ferocious wolves."(15) In the Apostle Paul's first letter to the young
preacher Timothy he predicted that there would be an apostasy. "The Spirit
clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow
deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through
hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They
forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God
created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth."(16) In his second letter to Timothy he repeated the
warning in these words: "For the time will come when men will not put up
with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather
around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to
hear."(17) It must have been upsetting for these new Christians
to hear these warnings but even more so when Paul told the leaders of the
church in Ephesus that some of these false teachers would come from among
themselves: "I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you
and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and
distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them."(18) This
scripture clearly teaches that men, some who were shepherds of the flock of
God, would leave the truth and start their own churches!
We have all heard "It doesn't matter what you
believe as long as you are honest and sincere" but is this what the Bible teaches? We have heard "We
are all going to the same place anyway"
but is this what the Bible teaches? We have all heard "One church is as good
as another" but could a church
started by men and based on the teachings of men be as good as the church Jesus
built and which follows the teachings of the Apostles? (19) Could it be
that what we have heard are the words of the false teachers Jesus and the
Apostles warned us about? Could it be that these slogans are what the Devil
wants us to believe so the followers of Jesus will stay divided? The Bible predicted an
apostasy; a departure from the true faith and it has divided the followers of
Christ for 2000 years. I certainly don't want trust my eternal destiny on a
doctrine not taught in the Bible or in a church that was not built by Jesus.
So
I set out to find the Church of the New Testament. You are invited to come with
me on my journey. A journey to find the church Jesus said he would build. A
journey to find the church into which God adds the saved. A journey to find the
church as it was before being tainted by the teachings of men. A journey to
find "The Church On The Rock."
FOOTNOTES
1. Matthew 22:16
2. John 3:2
3. Matthew 16:13-16
4. Matthew 16:18
5. "Petra denotes a mass of rock, as distinct from petros, a detached stone or boulder, or a stone that might be thrown or easily moved."
6. Matthew 26:69-75
7. Matthew 16:18
8. "The region of departed spirits."
Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 187
9. Psalms 16:8-11; Acts 2:25-31
10. Luke 24:46-47
11. Acts 1:8
12. Acts 2:36
13. Acts 2:37
14. Acts 2:47
15. Matthew 7:15
16. 1 Timothy 4:1-3
17. 2 Timothy 4: 3-4
18. Acts 20:29-30
19. Ephesians 3:4-5
"The Parson"