Matthew 16:18
I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
What of Today’s Verse…
“The” promise of all promises that God has made concerns the gift of everlasting life. “And this is the promise that He has promised us— eternal life” (1Jo_2:25). All who respond to this promise in faith become those addressed by Jesus in the promise to build His church. “I will build My church.”
The Lord gave this promise after Peter’s accurate confession of Jesus being the Messiah. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat_16:16). As Jesus confirmed this confession, He let Peter know that he did not come up with that insight on his own. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mat_16:17). Then, Jesus contrasted the meaning of Peter’s name with the kind of foundation He would lay for His church. “You are Peter (in Greek, “Petros,” a stone), and on this rock (in Greek, “petra,” a bedrock) I will build My church. ” Peter’s name signified a stone, that which could be easily moved or held within one’s hand. Jesus would not build His church on mere men, which at best are like movable stones. Rather, he would build upon a bedrock foundation that could not be moved. He would build upon the rock-solid truth contained in Peter’s confession. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat_16:16). Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would be the actual foundation for the church. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Co_3:11).
This picture of Jesus Christ as the foundation of His church is a fulfilment of one of the great prophetic promises the Lord made long ago. “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'” (Isa_28:16). Also, it is in perfect harmony with the Old Testament revelation of God as our Rock. “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation” (Psa_95:1).
This rock-solid, anointed King (Jesus, the Messiah) would be fully effective in His mission. Even Satan and his demons, the authorities (“gates”) of death and darkness (“Hades”), would be unable to prevent the fulfilment of His promise to build His church: “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, I also confess You as the Christ, the Son of the living God. I praise You as the rock-solid foundation of Your church collectively—and of my life individually. Please use me as You fulfil Your promise to build Your church. In Your mighty name I pray, Amen.
Words of Wisdom
Have Faith In God
Christ makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for spiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it.
Why? Simply because it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters, we can fool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we cannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must come or our faith fails.
It is easy to say that we trust Him in things that are a long way off, but there can be no trifling about it in things where the faith must bring practical answers. It is easy to have faith for our needs, and to trust Him when the sun is shining.
But let some things arise which irritate and rasp and fret us, and we soon find whether we have real trust or not. And so the things of everyday life are tests of our real faith in God, and He often puts us where we have to trust for tangible matters—for money and rent, and food and clothes.
If you are not trusting here wholly, when you are placed in such tests you will break down. Do you trust God for everything through the six ordinary days of the week?
Only people who do not know God are always worrying about such things. “Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.” Matthew 6:32
