Matthew 16: 18
The Rock on which the Church is Built 

Our verse is significant historically but it is also significant in our own Christian lives and in terms of the use of the communion.

Let us consider just what is the rock on which the church is built by Jesus Christ and what is the definition of "church" here.

I. THERE ARE NUMEROUS ANSWERS THAT HAVE BEEN GIVEN THAT I BELIEVE, UPON EXAMINATION, ARE INCORRECT.

1. Most well-known among them is the claim that the church was built on Peter and his supposed successor, the pope. The idea is that the name Peter means "rock" and Jesus supposedly tapped Peter on his chest and said "Thou art a rock and on this rock I will build my church." The interpretation goes back at least to St. Jerome in the late 300's. I have noticed his appeal to it in a letter to the pope, the bishop of Rome of his time.

But it is significant here that Jesus uses the feminine form of the word petra (as it is reported by Matthew in Greek) which speaks not of a free standing-rock, a stone, as petros -- Peter's name -- does but of a mass of rock what we would call bed-rock. Not to say also that there is no evidence in the N.T. or very early church history for the primacy of Peter or his supposed successors. There is a verse in Ephesians 2: 20 that says that the intangible church, the company of all the redeemed is metaphorically a structure built upon the apostles and prophets and with Jesus Christ as the chief corner-stone. This does not mean that the organized church is headed up by Peter or all the apostles together but that historically they were the channels through which the inspired revelation of God came, through which they (and we) believed.

Surely the Lord was making a play on the meaning of Peter's name -- what we would call a pun -- and he was saying that Peter was a stone and the thing he just said was a mighty rock; a piece of bed-rock. It was a very nice compliment and encouragement to Peter as a theologian and a Christian! It helps to make up for some of the dumb things he said later on. (Such as presuming to tell the Lord he shouldn't go to Jerusalem to be crucified and denying the Lord at the time before his crucifixion.)

2. The Eastern Orthodox, in order to wrest the primacy of Peter from the Roman church insisted that it applied to all the apostles that they claim were the predecessors of the high clergy in that church. That is even more implausible and, besides, has this same medieval idea of organizational structure as if the church were a medieval kingship -- an ecclesiastical bureaucracy. Jesus is not talking about organizational authority -- the primacy of Peter -- or anybody else, but the primacy of truth.

Much more could be said about this with a study of verses and passages in Acts, Galatians and the Petrine letters. But I am not so much concerned with convincing you what Jesus did not mean as what he did mean when he said "Upon this rock I will build my church."

1. It is of course Jesus Christ. Peter himself says this many years later when, in I Peter 2: 4 he asserts that Jesus Christ is a "living stone" and we are little stones built into a spiritual house. He changed the metaphor somewhat and used the different word in Greek ( the Greek word lithos instead of the word petra that is used in Matthew) perhaps because of the evolution of usage of Greek words in the thirty years since the Lord had said these words that are reported in our text.

2. But I propose to you that the church is not just based upon Jesus Christ as a historical figure as if to say there should be on the cornerstone of every church "Founded by Jesus Christ, A.D. 27." This is, of course, true. But the point of the Lord's memorable saying and pun on Peter's name is that the person of Jesus Christ and the theological truth about him is absolutely central to the mature religion of the Bible -- which we call Christianity.

Christianity is Jesus Christ. Even in all that long period of revelation in the O.T. he should be seen as the unmentioned center of things. The creation in Genesis is his handiwork as the creative agent in the Godhead. That mysterious character who makes his appearance in various places of the O.T. as the "Angel of Jehovah" is thought to be a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God. The religion of the O.T. was a culturally commodious system that was an effective approach to God only because he, late in time, would come to earth and work the ultimate and final redemption that stood behind it. The historical lineage of the Hebrew history was a preparation for his earthly coming and incarnation. All the arrows of O.T. history point to Christ!

3. But even more, the Lord was presumably talking about something more specific than his person that was the rock on which the church is built -- upon which personal faith is constructed and people are regenerated, and justified and sanctified and eventually taken to heaven to live with him forever. The reason I say this is that the whole balance of N.T. theology testifies to the meaning that this truth about Jesus Christ is the rock on which our faith is built.

I speak of the incarnation of the Second Person of the Godhead in human flesh, his consequent two natures (God and man) in the one person (Jesus of Nazareth), his learning the trade of a carpenter, his living a perfect, sinless life in the village of Nazareth, his teaching his countrymen (and us, through the 4 gospels) the way of life. But it also, and absolutely essentially, includes his death for our sins as Isaiah predicted.

"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes we are healed."

This is the rock on which our faith rests and by which we were redeemed and so upon which the church was built insofar as it includes us.

III. NOW THIS IS ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO COMMUNION.

1. It is about what is called communion "in both kinds." In medieval Christianity they eventually had the priest chug down the wine and only the bread was given to the common people while the people often worshipped the miraculous elements rather than the Lord Jesus Christ himself to which they were a testimony.

2. The reason that communion "in both kinds" is important is because each one speaks about and is a separate confession of an important aspect of this "rockness" about the Lord Jesus Christ who is the bed-rock upon which our saving faith is built and consequently upon which the church is built.

The cup signifies the atoning death of the Lord -- spoken of in the ancient O.T. and Near Eastern metaphor as his blood: "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood." It is the confession by the person communing that Jesus is that person's atonement for every sin he has ever committed. His sins were imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father at the very moment he first believed and now in the communion, once again, he confesses that he believes and rejoices that it is still so.

But the bread, that is so often ignored as to its meaning, is, too, a significant part of the "rockness" of this rock upon which the church is built, upon which true Christian faith is built so that "the gates of hell cannot prevail against it." It stands for the perfect, God-satisfying righteousness of Jesus' life during the 33 years of his earthly life that credited him with a perfection that was also imputed to our account by God the Father the moment that we believed. It also no doubt includes that he having a divine nature as well as a human, was worth infinitely more than all the people he would ever provide his righteousness for.

As a result you, as a true Christian, not only are merely forgiven before the justice bar of God for every sin you have ever committed or ever will commit but you are credited with absolute perfection -- the personal , perfect behavior of the Lord Jesus during the days of his flesh.

The words that he used are "This is my body which is for you." That body was the visible manifestation of his humanity as he walked among the people of Nazareth for 29 1/2 years and among the general public all over Judaea and Galilee for the other 3 1/2 years of his earthly life.

This morning I urge you to joyfully consider the rock upon which your faith (if it is true faith) is built and, consequently, upon which the church is built (inasmuch as you are part of the church) and neither against that church nor your faith can the gates of hell prevail. If there is anyone here this morning who has not really entered through the gate of faith, take this key to the kingdom of heaven and walk through that gate before which you have been merely standing up till now.

I urge you to rejoice in this as you celebrate that rock upon which you stand as you use the communion this morning, renewing the faith you have had since you first trusted in the Savior.