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The Builder and Foundation of the Church
With so many matters confronting us in life, if we are not careful, we can lose sight of our eventual goal, slip loose from the declarations of God's truth that anchor the soul, and lose sight of what really matters. We need to refresh our minds and keep informing ourselves and those not yet in Christ of the basic, fundamental, first principle and elementary points of the doctrine of Christ
I Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." We have a hope which we expect to realize. We need to know and be able to teach why we all must be Christians. Our material in this lesson, although familiar to some, is not know to all. Even to those that know it we would remind ourselves of the words of Peter in II Peter 1:12, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth."
It is important that we be in the Lord's church, that body He has promised to save. One church is not as good as another, nor are we allowed the right to choose the church of our choice as if it did not matter. We are urged to choose the church of God's choice.
The Builder
Psalm 127:1, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." No church is the right church unless it was built by the right builder. The very existence of a religious body is evidence that it was founded by someone and upon some foundation. There are hundreds of churches and all of them had a beginning and started by someone. The right builder of the church that God approves is Jesus Christ. Christ did not build hundreds of churches, each contradicting the other, different one from another, teaching things that He never taught nor authorized to be taught. It is important to be in the church that Christ built.
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus promised to build His church. The church belongs to Him and He is the founder of it. If a church was founded by Henry the Eighth, John Wesley, Joseph Smith, Martin Luther, or any other person, it is not the church Jesus built. This fact eliminates all denominations from being the Lord's church because Jesus never built a denomination. Most of them acknowledge someone else as their founder anyway.
In Matthew 16:19 Jesus gave authority to Peter and later to all of the apostles, giving them the "keys" to the kingdom. Nobody else could ever assume such authority to say what Jesus said or speak in His name as did the apostles and other inspired men. Nobody else has the right to instruct regarding the Lord's church except they teach what those authorized to teach had taught. Those who would preach truth have no right to teach anything other than what Jesus authorized the apostles to preach and teach. Christ alone possesses all authority as was given Him by the Father. He alone had the right to build the church. Only that which He built is approved of God.
Not by John
The church was not established by John the Baptist. The term "Baptist" is a term denoting what John did, not the name of the Lord's church. It is not an authorized religious name to be worn by anybody. While some say the church was established during the life of John, Matthew 14:10 tells how John was beheaded by Herod and it was two chapters later in Matthew sixteen that Jesus was still talking about building the church in the future. John was dead before the church became a reality.
In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." How could that be? His complimentary words of John the Baptist also shows us that John was never in the kingdom because John was dead before the kingdom, the church, was established on Pentecost.
An illustration can help us here. One might say that there is none greater in elementary school than John, but he that is least in high school is greater than he. This can be said only because John is not in high school. The church Jesus built was not built in John's lifetime.
Nothing Could Prevent It
Even the gates of Hades could not prevent the establishment of the Lord's church (Matthew 16:18). Nor shall Satan be victorious over the Lord's church. His church, the kingdom, is an everlasting kingdom. Those who are faithful citizens therein shall never be destroyed but shall live eternally with God. Even the death of Christ did not prevent its coming (Acts 2:31). Nor can all the power of Satan drive it from existence.
But notice what Jesus said when speaking of religions founded upon the traditions of men. Matthew 15:9,13, "But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men... But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." Churches built by someone other than Christ have not the hope of eternal life founded on truth. This is a blessing that belongs only to those in the church that Christ built
Regardless of our prejudices, previous learning or misunderstanding, this is the truth. We must live and shall be judged according to this truth. But does not this truth motivate us and provoke us to want to be sure we are in the church that Christ built? How do you consider the matter?
The Foundation
Not only is Jesus the builder of the church, He is also the foundation upon which it is built. No building or institution can be stronger than its foundation. The church that claims to be the church of the Bible must also have the foundation the Bible declares it must have. Matthew 16:16-18 tells us the church is built upon that great truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Christ promised to build it and He identified the foundation Rock upon which it stands.
There are varying views among men as to what is the Rock upon which the church is founded. Some have said the church was built on Peter. But you can take away Peter and the church remains. But take away Christ, and what is left? The truth is, the Rock is the truth Peter confessed concerning the identity of Christ as God's Son. Needless to say, you remove that fact and nothing about the church or Christianity can stand Nothing remains, because authority is destroyed.
There are several reasons why we can be sure the Rock is Peter's confession. The word translated "Peter" is a different word from that which is translated "rock." Peter is from "petros," while rock is from "petra." The first is masculine gender and the second is feminine. The first means a mere pebble or stone while the second means a solid, massive ledge of rock. One was small enough to be tossed about while the other was a mountain. Surely, words of such difference would not refer to the same thing in the same sentence.
The Lord had given Simon the name Peter or Cephas. It means a stone (John 1:42). Rather than declaring Peter as the Rock on which the church is built, Christ drew a sharp contrast between Peter and the Rock upon which the church is built.
One Foundation
Such a conclusion is inescapable also in the light of I Corinthians 3:11, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the foundation of the apostles but only with reference to what the apostles preached; namely, Christ. Isaiah 28:16, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of sure foundation." In Matthew twenty-one Jesus applied that prophecy to Himself, not Peter. Peter did not apply that prophecy to himself, but Christ (Acts 4:10,11). Peter knew what the foundation of the church is (I Peter 2.7). We wonder why people cannot grasp it today.
We are not made to wonder why enemies of the church will constantly strike against the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. When one does not wish to be subject to Christ he must do something to destroy the authority of Christ. Christ as the Son of God means authority. When one does not want to serve God but live his own way and "do his own thing," he must satisfy himself someway with some excuse for not doing so. When one seeks to destroy the church and that for which it stands he must uproot, if he can, the foundation of the church because if he can do that the entire structure of Christianity collapses.
Many have this desire and this explains the reason for atheism, skepticism, modernism, humanism, existentialism, and other "isms," even that which has been called a "new hermeneutics," and other "isms" that are vicious and venomous enemies of Christ, His Word and His church. This is why such liberal organizations as the National Council of Churches and the liberal seminaries and colleges seek to undermine His Deity. They are not content to be guided by the Word of God, seeking their own subjective way in preference to God's way.
But the truth regarding Christ, the foundation and builder of the church, remains. Like the legendary anvil that has withstood the battering of many hammers, so the truth stands against all its foes. And so shall it ever be.