FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Matthew 16:13-25

2. The Church’s Effectual Relationship to Christ

After Peter made his great confession regarding his faith in Jesus, our Lord said: “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 ESV). This is a beautiful promise that Jesus gave to His church. The thrust of the statement is that the church is invincible because of its dynamic relationship to Jesus Christ.

First, the church is built on Christ. Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” Here we have a play on words. Jesus said, “You are Peter [petros, a small stone]. On this rock [petra, a gigantic boulder, or foundation stone], I will build My church.” The rock on which the church is built is the person of Christ Himself. The church is built on its Founder, the divine Son of God, not on Peter. The apostle himself told us in 1 Peter 2:4–6 that Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church. The Bible says that no other foundation for the church can be laid except Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). The hymn writer was correct when he wrote, “The church’s one foundation/Is Jesus Christ her Lord.” You and I are placed in the church as living stones so that we can do spiritual services that are acceptable to God (1 Peter 2:5).

Second, the church is built by Christ. Our Lord said, “On this rock I will build My church,” (italics mine). Not only is the church built on Christ, but the church is built by Christ. Nineteen hundred years ago, Jesus walked the shores of Galilee, the towns and cities of Israel, calling forth fishermen like Peter, James, John, and Andrew. He saved a tax collector named Matthew. He found a zealot named Simon. He discovered a woman at the well and gave her the water of life. Jesus was building His church. Dramatically one day, He turned to His disciples and said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16).

It is in the providence of God that you are living in this century and that you are a member of your church. This is not by luck, chance, or accident. The same Christ who chose Peter, Andrew, James, and John chose you, saved you, and placed you in His church that you might serve Him.

Since God has placed you in His church, that means at least two things. First, it means God has a place of service for you. You are to love the church and give yourself to it as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. Second, it means that you and I must not reject those that Christ has chosen. We are to love the people of the church.

A number of years ago, when I was an associate pastor at a Calvary Chapel, a fellow associate pastor came to me asking advice on how to deal with a lady in our church. He felt that she was sometimes more critical than she ought to be. As a matter of fact, she had given this fellow associate pastor (and myself) a rather rough time. I said, “Don’t criticize that lady. She is one of the most valuable members in our church.”

Rather astonished, he responded, “Why do you say that she is a most valuable member in the church?”

I smiled and said, “She is teaching us a great lesson. If we can learn to love her, then we can learn to love anybody.”

There is a great story I like to share of C. H. Spurgeon:

One day a visitor approached the great British pastor Charles Hadden Spurgeon. Spurgeon inquired why the visitor had not united with the church. The man responded, “I started to join the church, but I looked around, and I saw a hypocrite. I decided not to join.”

Spurgeon, who had a quick wit, said to the man: “In the first church the leader, Simon Peter, cursed. One apostle, Thomas, doubted the resurrection. The treasurer, Judas Iscariot, betrayed the Lord. The first church was not perfect! Furthermore, I have never seen a church that is perfect. But, sir, if you ever find the perfect church, please do not join, for when you become a member it will no longer be perfect.”

The church is being built by Jesus, and you and I should accept those whom the Lord has placed in His church. After all, the Lord has graciously, and mercifully, accepted us.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 16:13-25

A London newspaper offered a prize for the best essay on the subject: “What is wrong with the church?” The prize was won by a minister from Wales. He gave this answer: “What is wrong with the church is our failure to realize and wonder at the beauty, the mystery, the glory, and the greatness of the church.”

The church is God’s one redemptive institution placed on this earth. It was to the church that Jesus gave the Great Commission. It is through the church that Jesus brings the message of salvation to the world. It is for the church that Jesus one day will return.

Never forget that the church with all its faults will stand until Jesus comes again. Jesus promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. In essence, the church is invincible!

What causes Christ’s church to prevail and even to be invincible? How has the church been able to stand for nearly two thousand years? Why has Satan with all of his schemes failed to defeat the church? Why have humans been unable to destroy the church? What makes the church invincible?

1. The Transformed Nature of Its Membership

Every member of the church is to be a transformed individual. He or she is to be a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus explained this to His disciples as He was with them at Caesarea Philippi.

Our Lord knew that His days in the flesh were numbered, and He knew some would not understand Him. Was there anyone who recognized Him and who would carry on His work after He ascended to heaven? That was the crucial problem. It involved the very survival of the Christian faith.

In a dramatic scene Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Here was a homeless, penniless Galilean carpenter with twelve ordinary men. At that very moment, Jesus’ death was being plotted.

Notice where Jesus chose to ask the question. The area was scattered with temples of the ancient Syrian Baal worship. By Caesarea Philippi there arose a great hill. In it was a deep cavern said to be the birthplace of Pan, the Greek god of nature. In Caesarea Philippi, there was a tremendous temple of white marble built to the Roman godhead of Caesar. Jesus stood at the center of Syrian, Greek, and Roman worship. There, of all places, he asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter clearly stated the deepest conviction of his soul, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” What a statement! Christ means “the anointed one” and refers to the work Jesus came to do as messianic deliverer. “Son of the living God” has reference to the deity of Jesus. Jesus is God incarnate.

Simon Peter said two glorious things about Jesus: as to His work, he said Jesus is the anointed Messiah. As to His person, Peter stated that Jesus is God come in the flesh.

Even so today, that church is invincible where members have confessed their belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah who is God! This is the essential work of the church. We preach the gospel, “for it is the power of God to salvation for every one who believes” (Romans 1:16).

The single most important prerequisite for being a member of a local New Testament church is the new birth. The invincible church has a regenerated church membership through faith in Jesus Christ.

Rembrandt could take a piece of canvas, dab his paints on it, and create a beautiful painting. We call that art. Shakespeare could write a sonnet or a play on a sheet of paper. We call that genius. John D. Rockefeller could sign his name at the bottom of a check, and it was worth millions of dollars. We call that capital. A skilled workman can take a piece of metal, shape it, twist it, mold it, and it becomes a thing of usefulness and beauty. We call that craftsmanship. But only God in heaven can take a sinner and make a saint! We call that salvation. The prevailing and invincible church has a transformed membership.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Hebrews 1:1-14

Jesus – Superior to the Angels (Hebrews 1:3-14)

It is worth noting the way in which Hebrews is saturated in the teaching of the Hebrew Bible. This is most likely due to the intended readership. The opening chapter is already full of references and allusions, and we note in particular the value given to the Psalms as a treasure house for revelation about the Son of God. The Scriptures of the Jewish people are simply assumed to be centered upon and pointing towards Jesus. Jesus himself gave the lead in this interpretation on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:27).

It was important to Hebrews to establish at the outset that the angels, though a wonderful creation of God’s, were far below Jesus in authority and glory. By Jesus’ time the Jewish people had a sophisticated theology of angels who served as the mediators between the transcendent God in heaven and his people on earth below. There was even the belief in some quarters that angels carried Israel’s prayers to God. Perhaps the believers to whom Hebrews was written came from a background which highlighted the significance of angels, and therefore needed to be given particular help.

There is in fact only one mediator, the Son of God himself (see 1 Timothy 2:5–6).

The Son’s name is superior to that of the angels, and this refers to his status and authority. In Philippians 2:9–11 we learn that God gave Jesus “the name that is above every name,” the very name/title of “Lord.” This was the title reserved by Jewish people for God himself!

We must remember that the angels are part of God’s creation, and therefore cannot be compared with the eternal Son. This contrast is alluded to in Hebrews 1:7–9. The Son’s throne is everlasting, but the angels come and go like winds or flames of fire. Two famous Jewish texts relate angels to wind and fire in this way (4 Ezra; and the other, Yalkut Shim’oni).

The Hebrew term for angel is simply a word which means a “messenger,” and at the end of the day that is what angels are. They are ministering spirits sent to serve. But note the grace of God in that he also sends his angels to serve those who belong to Jesus. The early believers knew about the reality of angels in their lives as we see in the book of Acts (5:19, 8:26, 10:3, 12:23, 27:23–24).

The angels actually live to worship and serve the Son. The reference here in Hebrews 1:6 is to the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (the Jewish Septuagint), and could be from Deuteronomy 32:43 or Psalm 97:7. The Hebrew text doesn’t use the term for angels, but speaks of “gods.” We are taught here that Jesus is worthy of the same worship as God the Father.

Jesus is worthy because he is the radiance of God’s glory. The word for radiance can mean a bright reflection, or as is more likely here, a shining forth. In Israel’s history the glory of God was an almost visible manifestation of the overpowering presence of God. It guided them and assured them of God’s blessing (see Exodus 24:15–17; 33:18–23; Leviticus 9:5–6, 23). This glory is now seen overwhelmingly in the person of Jesus.

Jesus is also worthy because he is the exact representation of God’s being. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Colossians 1:15 Jesus is described as the “image” of God, using a word which gives us the English term, “icon.” However Hebrews uses a word which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and which gives us the English word, “character” It is a word which means the exact detail and expression of the original. If we want to know what our Father is like then we pay attention to Jesus.

After . . . he sat down shows us that, worthy and glorious though the Son is, there is a sense in which the Father honored and glorified him even more when he proved his love for us by dying for our sins on the cross. It was after he purified us that he sat in the place of honor at the right hand of the Father. This staggering truth is developed throughout Hebrews, as elsewhere (see Philippians 2:9).

Right at the opening of the letter the readers are encouraged to remember that Jesus will never change, and that he will be with them in every situation (Hebrews 1:12). This was a word of comfort which Jesus himself gave to his disciples (Matthew 28:20), and it also helps to close Hebrews (13:8). We need to hold on to that same promise.

There is a blessed assurance and extreme confidence and security in knowing that Jesus will always remain the same!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc
Used by permission. All rights reserved.