Building His Church

“On this rock I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18).

As the disciples walked along the dusty roads of Caesarea Philippi, they were in a kind of exile. The leaders, as well as the people of Israel, had rejected them. The Jews had also rejected the disciples’ message and their leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it was apparent by now that some of the Jews wanted Jesus dead.

The disciples knew that He was the Messiah and the confession of Peter in Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” really summed up what they had all come to know by the revelation of God. They were convinced that this was God in human flesh, God the Son and indeed the Messiah, the anointed King, the promised one. But they seemed to be alone in that conviction. Few people identified with it and affirmed it. Things looked very bleak and very discouraging.

They were struggling with the fact that they had made a major investment of their life in something that looked like it wasn’t going to be what they wanted it to be. And so He says to them, “I will build My church,” as if to say, “I know it doesn’t look very hopeful, I know the plan isn’t unfolding the way you thought it would, but I will build My church and nothing is going to stand in its way.”

All of this means that we’re not building the church. We are certainly endeavoring to be holy and faithful and obedient so that God can do His work and we may have the privilege of being instruments in it. But against all the opposition of worldly wisdom and all the assistance of our own “wisdom,” against all ineptitude and indifference and apathy and apostasy, the true church will be built. If God’s going to do it, it can’t be stopped.

Christ builds His church, His redeemed assembly, through all of redemptive history on one premise: the articulation of the truth of divine revelation. Ephesians 2:20 says the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.”

The church is not built on clever technique. It’s not built on manipulation. It’s not built on a strategic marketing plan. The church will be built on those who proclaim God’s truth, those who teach the apostles’ doctrine found in the word of God. The Lord will build His church on those who unashamedly proclaim Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.

All God wants out of us is the recognition of what we’ve been called to do: to preach the unadulterated crystal-clear gospel of Christ and then to tell people their consequence in believing and not believing. We are here to tell them there is a Kingdom and it has a door and here’s how you enter it. We have a tremendous responsibility. The Lord will build His church; it will be what He wants it to be. It’s going to be complete. No one is going to slip through the cracks. And He’s asked us to participate in it and to be partners with Him in opening the door and letting His own in.

—John MacArthur, condensed