On
this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail
against it. — Matthew 16:18
Martie
and I are back in Alabama getting our house ready to sell. I saw a neighbor and he was asking me how our
ministry in Texas was going. He is a
Christian so our conversation had a spiritual tone. I am always alert to
indications that someone is born again because it allows me to speak in a
different context with an expectation that they will have spiritual
understanding. I told him that we were
selling our house and would be in Texas for the foreseeable future. Meaning until the Lord moved us on. After a several minutes of sharing what God
has been doing through us and to us, he commented about “going to church”
alluding to the fact that we both sensed the presence of God’s Spirit during our
conversation. I told him that we are not
saved to got to church but are saved to be the church. That caused me to remember
Jesus words about establishing His church.
To
elaborate on that point I need to share the context of Matthew 16:18
He said to them, “But who
do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered
him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and
on this rock [the truth that I am
the Christ] I will build my church, and
the powers of death shall not prevail against it. [Because I am the Christ]
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the
disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. – Matthew 16:15-20
[The
brackets indicate that I have inserted clarification to the verse]
The
Church and the Body of Christ are synonymous with those who have been born
again by the Spirit. The church that you attend on Sunday morning is not the Church
– big “C”. It is a place where the Church
gathers for corporate worship and equipping of the Saints.
And
his gifts were that some should be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip
the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness
in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from
whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is
supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds
itself in love.–
Ephesians 4:11-16
The
Church is the Church not because of Peter but because of Jesus, Who is the Christ. Peter and the other disciples were gifted to
do what they did by the Spirit of God in the same what that your pastor is gifted. The same way that Billy Graham was gifted for
his role in the Church as an evangelist and the same way that you have been gifted
for your place in the Body of Christ. The
Christian singer and song writer, Keith Green, said “Going to church doesn’t make you a
Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger!”
And
when you do go to church, and you should not forsake that Biblical mandate of assembling
with other Christians, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus to whom the Church belongs
and not on the people around you or the music that is used to facilitate worship.
Be
the Church wherever you go and you will discover another truth.
For where two or three
gather in my [Jesus] name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:20
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