I Will Build My Church Part 2
Matthew 16:18-20
In our verse-by-verse study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have come to a passage at the very heart of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 16 is the hinge on which the Gospel turns. Everything that comes before in the first part of Matthew leads up to it and what comes after has its basis in it.
In Matthew 16:13, Jesus took His disciples away from the Jewish crowds in Galilee and Judea to a mostly Gentile area around Caesarea Philippi. There, He gave His disciples their midterm exam. First, He asked them, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matt. 16:13). They answered that the people generally thought that Jesus was one of the prophets who was possibly come back from the dead.
Then Jesus asked the most important question. He specifically addressed the disciples themselves, and asked, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Simon Peter, speaking for the group, confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16). First, he affirmed that Jesus is the “Christ,” the promised Anointed One, the prophesied Messiah-King who would save His people and reign over them forever. Even more, he confessed that Jesus is “the Son of the living God,” meaning Jesus Christ is of the very nature and essence of God.
Jesus then responded to this confession by telling Simon Peter that he was blessed, “for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16:17). Simon did not figure this out on his own or learn it from others. He confessed the truth about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because the Father revealed that truth to him.
Then Jesus went on to say to Simon, “And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build My church …” (Matt. 16:18). We said that the key phrase in this passage is when Jesus states, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Everything Jesus says in these verses relates to Jesus building His church.
Last time we looked at the first of four major points about the church that Jesus builds …
1. The Church’s Foundation
Jesus said He would build His church on “this rock” and I explained four primary views about what Jesus meant. If you missed that teaching, my sermon notes are posted on our website and the videos on our YouTube channel. Is Peter “this rock” on which Christ promised to build His church? Is it Peter’s confession or his faith? Is it the truth revealed by the Father? Or is “this rock” Jesus Himself? And as I showed last time, there is a sense in which all of those—Peter and the other apostles, his confession of faith, God’s revealed truth, and Christ Himself—all of them are foundational for the church. But I concluded that Jesus Himself is ultimately the rock on which His church is built. All the other views are derived from the truth that Jesus is the foundation stone. Peter is only the rock when he builds on Jesus Christ. His confession of faith is only the rock when it is faith in Jesus. The God-revealed truth of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, is only the rock because of who Jesus is.
That is the church’s foundation. The apostle Paul affirmed, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11).
Next, look at …
2. The Church’s Builder
Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Every word is important here. When Jesus says “I” He indicates that He Himself is the builder. The church is Christ’s doing. One of the great mistakes we make as believers is to think that the building of the church on earth is up to us. It is not! Christ may use us however He chooses to do His work, but the work is ultimately His, not ours. In Acts 2:47, the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” That statement is as true today as it was on the day of Pentecost. The Lord builds His church. It is His most important work on this earth. Bishop J.C. Ryle wrote this about the significance of Christ’ work:
For the preserving of the true church, the laws of nature have oftentimes been suspended. For the good of that church, all the providential dealings of God in this world are ordered and arranged. For the elect’s sake, wars are brought to an end, and peace is given to a nation. Statesmen, rulers, emperors, kings, presidents, heads of governments, have their schemes and plans, and think them of vast importance. But there is another work going on of infinitely greater moment, for which they are only the ‘axes and saws’ in God’s hands (Isa. 10:15). That work is the erection of Christ’s spiritual temple, the gathering in of living stones into the one true church.[1]
Think about that! The most eternally significant thing that happens today, this week, this year, is what Christ is doing in building His church. It’s when the Lord adds believers to His church and matures them as disciples and sends them as missionaries. It’s not what happens in the November election or in the war in the Middle East. It’s not what happens in corporate board rooms or in the United Nations. It’s what Christ is doing by His Holy Spirit and His word in the hearts and lives of the people of God, His church. The most significant things that will happen today will take place in the church of Jesus Christ.
Can there be any greater basis for confidence in the building of Christ’s church on earth than the fact that He Himself—the almighty Son of God, who has “all authority”—testifies, “I will build My church”?
Notice also that Jesus says that He “will build” His church. This verb is in the future tense. As Jesus spoke, His church was not yet a reality, He “will build” it. Now we know that the church is not a building. It’s a people, with or without a building. So when and how will Jesus build it? Through His death and resurrection. Jesus will build His church, but first He must go to the cross, suffer and die, be raise the third day, ascend into heaven, and send the Holy Spirit to give birth to and empower His church. In fact, that is what Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples in Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” (Matt. 16:21). Although Jesus’ disciples believed Him to be the Christ, they did not yet understand all that meant.
Jesus will build His church after He provides redemption through His death and resurrection. He will build His church after He explains His kingdom more fully to His disciples. He will build His church after He send the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower believers. We are living in a time when all those things have already taken place. Jesus is currently building His church.
Then notice that Jesus says He will build “My church.” The church belongs to Christ. The church does not belong to the pastor, or the deacons, or the members, or those who have the most money, or even the people who have been at the church the longest. No, the church belongs to Jesus. It is His church. Every true born-again believer belongs to Christ no matter what local church they attend. His church spans all languages, cultures, and ethnicities and includes all believers of all the ages. We belong to Christ. The church is His body (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:12) “purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).
Now, of course, we call New Covenant Baptist “our” church in the sense that it is the local church to which we belong, where we attend and serve, and that we support. And it’s good for us take “ownership” of the church in the sense that we are committed to this particular body of believers and that we take responsibility for our role in the church. But we should never take ownership in the sense that we act like we own the church, that we get to make all the decisions for the church, or that what we want takes precedence over what others in the church may want.[2]
Colossians 1:18 says about Jesus Christ, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” The church belongs to Jesus. He is the head of the church. He alone is supreme and worthy worship.
We have seen the church’s foundation and the church’s builder. Next, we see …
3. The Church’s Victory
Jesus says that He will build His church, “…and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The phrase, “gates of Hades”, symbolizes death. In the Old Testament Hades is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word sheol meaning the grave, the pit, or the place of the dead. Job speaks about death using this metaphor, saying, “Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?” (Job 17:16). Isaiah 38:10 also uses this phrase as a symbol of death. After King Hezekiah had been sick unto death, he wrote, “In the prime of my life I shall go to the gates of Sheol; I am deprived of the remainder of my years.”
In the New Testament, Hades still refers to the place of death, but increasingly it refers especially to a place of punishment for dead unbelievers. It can mean the opposite of heaven. Rebuking the unrepentant unbelievers of Galilee, Jesus said in Matthew 11:23, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.” In Luke 16:23, Jesus described the dead rich man “being in torments in Hades.” The “gates of Hades” refers to the entry to the grave or the power of hell, in other words, death.
Death is the ultimate weapon of Satan. But it has no power over Christ and His church. Hebrews 2:14-15 says,
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb 2:14-15).
When Jesus promised, “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” Jesus was telling His disciples that death would not prevent His work of building His church. Death will not stop Jesus. He was anticipating His victory over death through His resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul proves that since Christ has been raised from the dead, we who believe in Him will also be raised from the dead when He returns. He writes, “…then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:55-57). In Revelation 1:18, Jesus says, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
The gates of Hades will never prevail against the church because the risen Christ has conquered death. Death itself cannot stop the mission, progress, and victory of the church. This is the sure hope we have in Christ. I have been the pastor of this church for fifteen years. In those few years, I have done funerals for 38 people, many of whom were members of this church. Over the last few years, physical death has claimed our brothers and sisters, moms and dads, sons and daughters, friends and fellow servants of the Lord. But Jesus says that death is not the final word. The gates of Hades will not prevail against His church. Those who belong to Jesus Christ are safe in His presence. And on that great day of resurrection, we will join them and be with the Lord forever in the kingdom of heaven. Countless generations of faithful believers have passed from this earth, but the church of Jesus Christ is still being built. Souls are being saved from sin and hell.
The gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. In this life, the powers of hell will array themselves against Christ and His church. Christians will suffer persecution for their witness for Christ. It may cost some of them their lives. But the gates of Hades will not prevail. For the believer, death is not final. Jesus said, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). His kingdom is forever. In Christ, we have a hope that transcends sin, death, and the devil. Adrian Rogers says it better than I can:
When Samson was armed with strength, he carried away the city gates of Gaza. But when Jesus went into the tomb, He carried the gates of hell. My dear friend, through the Lord Jesus Christ we have an answer. Thank God hell has no dominion, sin has no power, death has no hold, that Jesus, through the gospel, cannot break. The gospel of Jesus Christ goes through the dominion of hell like a white-hot cannonball through a crate of eggs.[3]
The gates of Hades shall not prevail against His church. This is the church’s victory.
Finally, we see …
4. The Church’s Authority
Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” What are the keys of the kingdom? Keys are used to lock or unlock, to open what is closed or close what is open.
In the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, for example, God promises to remove an evil high priest named Shebna from service to the Jewish temple and to replace him with a good, godly, faithful priest named Eliakim. God speaks to that wicked high priest concerning his replacement—and of the authority and responsibility God would entrust to him—when He says,
“I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
The key of the house of David
I will lay on his shoulder;
So he shall open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open” (Isaiah 22:21-22).
One who has the keys controls access. Keys indicate the authority to open and close. Christ builds His church with kingdom authority.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus, our great High Priest of the new covenant, claimed that same kind of authority regarding the kingdom of heaven. Jesus wrote to the church at Philadelphia, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”” (Rev. 3:7). When Jesus says He has the key of David, He claims all authority in the kingdom of God. After His resurrection Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). The keys are His to give.
In Matthew 16:18, the keys that Jesus gives are the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord tells Peter, who is the church’s representative ‘confessor’ and ‘testifier’ of Christ, that He entrusts to him the keys. Jesus gives to His church the authority of opening and closing the kingdom of heaven.
What has the power to open the kingdom of heaven? The gospel message. Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” The gospel is the truth that Jesus Christ has died for our sins on the cross, been raised from the dead, and imputes forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who believe in Him. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul also writes to the Corinthians,
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:18-24).
The gospel is the power of God. It is the authority of God, the keys that grant entry into the kingdom of heaven.
How do we use the keys of the kingdom? By proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead, the Holy Spirit of God works through the word of God to bring new life to a dead sinner. When we believe in Christ, we are born again as children of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26) and become citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 2:19; Phl. 3:20). So, faithful gospel proclamation is the key to the kingdom.
In Matthew 16:19, Jesus is specifically addressing Peter, so it is significant that, in the book of Acts, Peter figures prominently in the “opening of doors” to three different groups of people so they can enter the Kingdom. In Acts 2, Peter preaches in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and about three thousand Jewish people believe that day. When Peter preached Jesus Christ, he “unlocked the door” of heaven for the Jews. Later, in Acts 8, the Samaritans believe the gospel and receive the Holy Spirit. Again, Peter was present for this event. Peter confirmed that God had “unlocked the door” for the Samaritans to enter the Kingdom. Then, in Acts 10, Peter brings the gospel to a Roman centurion’s household, and they, too, receive the Holy Spirit. Peter told them that Jesus Christ is Lord of all Who is ordained by God to be the Judge of all (Acts 10:36, 42). And then he proceeded to tell them that “whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43; cf. 15:7,14). Peter’s preaching of the gospel “unlocked the door” for the Gentiles. The “keys” that Jesus gave him worked in each case.[4]
Of course, keys can be used to lock doors as well as open them. Without faith in Christ, the door to heaven is shut and barred. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” As the apostles preached the gospel, those who responded in faith and repentance were granted access to the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet those who continued to harden their hearts and reject the gospel of God’s saving grace were shut out of the Kingdom (Acts 8:23).
Jesus explains this further by saying, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). A more literal rendering of what Jesus said is, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”[5] It’s not that the apostles were given the privilege of changing God’s mind, as if whatever they decided on earth would be duplicated in heaven. Rather, they were encouraged that, as they moved forward in their apostolic duties, they would be fulfilling God’s plan in heaven. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Jesus did not say that God would obey what they did on earth, but that they should do on earth whatever God had already willed. The church does not get man’s will done in heaven; it obeys God’s will on earth.”[6] Jesus said the same thing in other words in John 20:23 after symbolically commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Again, what Jesus is saying is that when the church proclaims forgiveness through the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, it does so based on what God has already declared. Only God can forgive sins. We only declare the forgiveness that God has provided in the death and resurrection of Christ.
How does that work? Like this: If a person rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, we can say with the absolute authority of God’s word that that person is bound in sin and condemned to hell. If on the other hand, a person truly believes on Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we can say with authority that their sins are forgiven, they are loosed—set free from the bondage of sin—and they will enter the kingdom of heaven. When believers are in agreement with God’s word, God is in agreement with them.[7] This is what Jesus meant when He said, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
Here Jesus said it in the context of salvation, of those who enter the kingdom or are kept out of the kingdom. In Matthew 18 Jesus says the same thing to all the apostles in the context of church discipline. We will look at that in more detail when we get to Matthew 18. But this is the authority of the church to bind and loose what has been bound and loosed in heaven.
The church is unlike any other organization in the world. It is not a social club. It is not a religious association. It is not a group of volunteers. The church is the company of believers in Jesus Christ who are redeemed by His blood, forgiven of their sins, adopted into God’s family, united together by the Holy Spirit and growing in their faith. Only Jesus Christ can build something like that. Jesus is both the foundation and builder of His church. The church belongs to Jesus. It is his church, and only He can build it. We have been given the keys of the kingdom, the gospel message to proclaim to a lost world. We enter God’s kingdom through faith in Christ alone.
Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Then He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” It is one of the most important questions you will ever answer. Who do you say Jesus is? Can you say it with me: “Jesus, I believe that You are the Christ. I believe that You are the Son of the living God. I believe that you are the Savior of the world. I believe You died for my sins. I believe You rose from the dead. I believe You are Lord with all authority. I believe you are head of Your church.” That what God has revealed and that is what we confess. That is how Christ builds His church.
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[1] J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Welwyn, Hertfordshire: Evangelical Press, 1979), p. 214.
[2] Ray Fowler, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/how-to-build-a-church/
[3] Adrian Rogers, The Church of Jesus Christ, https://www.lwf.org/pdfs/01_Matthew.pdf
[4] Keys of the Kingdom, article on https://www.gotquestions.org/keys-of-the-kingdom.html
[5] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 373. The verbs “will be bound” and “will be loosed” are periphrastic future perfects indicating a future perfectly completed past action.
[6] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 59.
[7] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Matthew, Moody Publishers , Chicago 1988. p. 34.
