Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew?
And when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is?
And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established.
And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we do want to thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We ask that Thy Holy Spirit will bring these words into our hearts and bring us into Thy truth. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
By the grace of God, we have been considering together this important matter of the church.
We find that the church is not a product of human history. The church was conceived in the heart of God even before the foundation of the world.
The church is the greatest gift of God the Father to His beloved Son. For that church, the Son had to come down upon this earth, and He had to give Himself for His church.
Out of His side came blood and water, and with this blood and water He built His own church.
It was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came down upon the one hundred and twenty believers. In one Spirit, they were baptized into one body.
Since the birth of the church on earth in Jerusalem, it began to grow and grow and grow. In the Book of Acts, we find that it spread from Jerusalem to Rome. Wherever the gospel is preached, there is the church.
It continues to grow until this day, and it will grow until it is fully grown. Today the church is the body of Christ, and when the body is fully mature, Christ as the Bridegroom will come to receive the body as His bride.
This morning, we would like to share together on this matter of the expression of the church. That is, how is the church presented to us today?
We know that our Lord Jesus came to this world to seek for His bride. Even though individually He came to seek and to save the lost, properly He came to seek for His church.
But strangely, you find that in the records of the Gospels, which record the work and teaching of our Lord Jesus, the word church is very rarely mentioned.
He came for His church. He was going to give His life for His church. Yet you find that He very rarely mentioned even the name of the church. Why?
Because before He gave His life and accomplished the work of salvation, the church could not be a reality.
We find in the four Gospels that the church is only mentioned by our Lord Jesus twice. Not because He mentioned the church only twice, therefore the church was not important to Him. On the contrary, the church was so precious to Him that He could hardly mention it.
He did not want people to misunderstand it. He wanted people to enter into the reality of what the church is.
The first time He mentioned the church is in Matthew 16. It was at the time when our Lord Jesus began to be rejected by His people.
When the Lord first appeared to His people, they seemed to welcome Him because they were waiting for the Messiah to come. But as they listened to the Lord Jesus and watched the Lord Jesus, they began to change their minds.
They discovered that the Lord Jesus did not fit their concept of the Messiah. Their concept of the Messiah was a political messiah.
At that time, the Jews were under the rule of the Romans. They were waiting for their Messiah to come, lead them to overthrow the Roman yoke, and make them the first nation of the world. That was their expectation of the Messiah.
But when our Lord Jesus came, He did not come to overthrow the Roman Empire. He did not come to make the Jewish nation the first nation of the world.
He preached to them repentance. He called them to enter into His heavenly kingdom. He told them that they must be born again.
In other words, He came as the Lamb of God. He came to save their souls. He came to offer them a spiritual kingdom and to make them a spiritual people.
Unless they became a spiritual people, God could not fulfil His promises to them and to their fathers. Spirituality precedes all the physical fulfilment of God’s promises.
Our Lord Jesus was concerned with their souls, but they were concerned with physical greatness.
Therefore, after a while, they began to despise Him. They were going to reject Him. At the time of His rejection, He retreated to the border of Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi was a Gentile city. It was as if He had been driven out from His own land.
During that time, He began to ask His disciples a question. The twelve were still with Him, and He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?”
Remember, it was at the time of His rejection that He asked this question. Of course, His disciples did not give Him all the evil reports. In a sense, they tried to comfort Him, so they gave Him all the good reports.
Some said, “You are Elijah, the great prophet.” Others said, “You are Jeremiah.” Another said, “You are John the Baptist come to life.” Some said, “You are one of the prophets.”
In other words, the disciples reported to Him all the good reports. Then the Lord turned to the disciples again and said, “But who say ye that I am?”
That is what the world says. They do not know Me. But you who have been with Me, who do you say that I am?
With ordinary people, if people said, “You are John the Baptist. You are Elijah. You are Jeremiah,” I think you would be honoured. But with our Lord Jesus, when they gave Him the highest honour—Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, or one of the prophets—the Lord was not at all satisfied.
He said, “They do not know Me. But you, do you know Me? What do you say that I am?”
Then Simon Peter, as the spokesman of the disciples, blurted out immediately, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
You are the Christ. You are the Anointed of God. You are sent by God to accomplish a work—the work of redemption. You are the Messiah.
People do not know You as the Messiah, but I know You are the Messiah, the Christ of God. That is Your office. That is Your work.
Furthermore, You are the Son of the living God. You are not just a man; You are more than a man. You are the beloved Son of the living God.
In other words, so far as Your person is concerned, You are the Son of the living God. So far as Your work is concerned, You are the Christ, the Messiah.
Immediately our Lord Jesus said to him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah.” Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed by God. Why? Because this is not something that flesh and blood can teach you.
Flesh and blood can only teach you that I am Jeremiah, Elijah, or John the Baptist. That is the best that flesh and blood can do, because that is what flesh and blood can see.
But to see that I am the Christ, the Son of the living God, requires revelation. It is My Father who is in heaven who reveals it to you.
Brothers and sisters, to know the Lord Jesus requires revelation from above.
In English there are two different words: profession and confession.
You can profess Jesus as Christ, as the Son of the living God, and yet you are not taught from above. Why? Because what you profess comes from what you have heard and what you have read. Profession comes out of your mind.
If you are brought up in a Christian family, you have heard about Jesus and read about Jesus. You may profess that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, but that does not mean anything to you. It is only a mental concept.
There is no revelation there. It comes by gathering information from outside. That can make you a professional Christian—or, to use another word, a nominal Christian. Christianity is filled with professional or nominal Christians.
Confession comes from revelation, because God has revealed His Son in you. It is not taught by man; it is the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus to you.
You see in your heart that Jesus is the Anointed of God. He is the Son of the living God, and you cannot but confess.
In confession, you worship Him. You accept Him as your Saviour and as your Lord. This is confession.
You may profess Jesus among your friends, but confession is to acknowledge the Lord Jesus among your enemies.
This confession of Peter came from revelation. I have said a few times already: when you touch spiritual things—anything that is spiritual, anything that is of God, anything that is of the Lord Jesus—you need revelation.
Without revelation, you cannot penetrate into the mystery of God. But thank God, it pleases Him to reveal His Son in us.
Because the Father revealed Christ to Peter, Peter saw that this Jesus before him was different. He was not ordinary, not even extraordinary. He is the Son of the living God, and He is the Christ, the Anointed of God.
After Peter confessed the Lord Jesus in this way, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
First, the Father revealed the Son to Peter. That is a great revelation. Then, following this great revelation, the Son revealed the church to Peter.
Brothers and sisters, without revelation you will not be able to know Jesus Christ, and you would not be able to make that confession: “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” You need revelation from God the Father.
Without the Son revealing the church to you, you will never know what the church is.
Here you find that this was the first time in the life of our Lord Jesus that He revealed the church to His disciples. It was something in His heart all the time. He came for that purpose, but He never said it until that moment.
After Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord Jesus revealed the church to Peter. He said, “Thou art Peter, and I will build My church upon this rock.”
You are a little stone, but I will build you with other small stones upon this massive rock. That is the church.
Who is the rock? The rock is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.
You remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 3. He said, “I have laid the foundation,” and there is no other foundation than the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus is the massive rock. He is the foundation of the church.
Upon Him—that is, upon the confession of our Lord Jesus—Peter confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
That confession is a rock. The confession of the Lord Jesus is the rock because it is Jesus revealed and confessed. That becomes the foundation of the church.
Wherever people receive revelation from God and confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, they are built upon that foundation. They become Peters, stones.
Later on, when Peter wrote 1 Peter 2:5, he said that when we come to the Lord, we all become living stones.
Peter is not the only living stone. All who come to the Lord become living stones. When you confess Jesus as Christ, as the Son of the living God, something happens within you: you become a living stone.
These living stones are being built up together into a spiritual house.
What is the church? The church has Christ as its foundation. The church is built with living stones—those who have received revelation and have confessed that Jesus is Christ and the Son of the living God.
They are being built up together on that massive rock. Now that is the church.
The church has only one foundation: our Lord Jesus. The church is built with many living stones, from the first ones who received revelation and confessed Jesus to the very last ones who receive revelation and believe in the Lord Jesus.
From the first century to the twentieth century, from Jerusalem to the end of the world, wherever there are people who receive revelation from God the Father concerning Jesus and confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, they are all living stones built together into one church.
The church is made up of all the believers throughout the centuries. It is universal, and it includes all who are the Lord’s. No one is excluded.
Only those who have received revelation and confess are built into the church. Those who have no revelation, those who have only profession, are not built into that church.
Who is the builder? The Lord says, “I will build My church.” He is the Builder.
This church is not built by anybody else. The church is built by the Lord Himself. As a matter of fact, He is the only One who can build His church.
Later on, we will see that He can use people in that building. But for the time being, let us remember one thing: the church of which we are speaking has only one Builder. It is the Lord Himself.
He said, “I will build My church.” He is the only One who can build His church. Nobody else can do this work. Paul cannot do it. Peter cannot do it. You cannot do it. I cannot do it.
If you read Hebrews 11, Abraham wandered in the promised land. What was he looking for? He was looking forward to a city with foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
He was not waiting to see the promised land fully possessed by him. Yes, his descendants would possess the land one day, but he lived his life without possessing even one piece of it, except the burial ground that he bought.
What was he looking for? Hebrews tells us that he was looking for a city with foundations. Immediately you remember the New Jerusalem, because the New Jerusalem is a city with foundations, and God is its Builder.
Brothers and sisters, let us remember this: the church, with Christ as its foundation and you and me as the living stones, can only be built by one Person. That is our Lord Jesus.
If we try to build it, we only spoil it and corrupt it. Instead of building the church of Christ, we build the tower of people.
Today you find lots of God’s people trying to build God’s church. What comes out is not the church. You see the tower of Babel. It is confusion upon confusion.
Christ is the only One who can build His church. He says, “I will build My church.”
Notice the word My. He says, “It is My church. I am building My church.”
Today, we often hear pastors saying, “This is my church.” We even find believers saying, “Well, this is my church.” Brothers and sisters, it is not yours. It is not mine. The Lord said, “It is My church.”
You also discover that church is in the singular number. “I will build My church.” He does not say, “I will build My churches.” The Lord only builds one church.
Today, if you are rich, you may build several houses, but our Lord Jesus builds only one church—not many churches.
He has been building ever since. He is still building His church. You may not see it because you are blinded by what you see otherwise, but He is building His church.
He said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
The church that He is building is of such tremendous value that Satan, God’s enemy, knows the value of that church. He knows that if that church is built, that will be his end.
Therefore, he tries everything to corrupt and destroy the church. All the gates of Hades will be opened. In other words, all the evil forces will try to destroy that church.
But the Lord said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Why? Because He has overcome. Jesus has overcome, and He is building His church.
All that is built into His church is none other than Himself. We mentioned last time that it is the Christ in you and me. The church is called the Christ because it is Christ in His corporate expression.
There is nothing in the church but Christ Himself. No wonder the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
If a church can be corrupted and destroyed by the gates of Hades, then it is not the church. The church is Christ. It never knows defeat; it is always overcoming, because Christ is the Overcomer.
The church He builds is an overcoming church.
Furthermore, the Lord says to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Keys are used to open doors or close doors. These are the keys of the kingdom, and Christ gave the keys to Peter.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter used the keys of the kingdom to open the door to the Jews, and three thousand came in.
Then, in the house of Cornelius, he used the key of the kingdom to open the door to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles came in.
It is by opening the door of the kingdom that the church is built.
This is the church universal. Even though the term universal church is not in the Bible, we know that this refers to the universal church: covering the whole world, covering all generations, and including all those who have received revelation and believed in the Lord Jesus.
The Lord is building us together upon Himself. The church is the extension of Christ. He is building His one church, universal, including all God’s people, on the foundation of Christ.
It is a glorious church. It knows no defeat. It is always victorious. It always overcomes the gates of Hades.
Brothers and sisters, do you get a vision of this church? Do you know that you are in that church because you have confessed the Lord Jesus?
Do you know that it is the Lord who is building you now? He is building you with other living stones. Do you know that even though the enemy is out to get you, he is already defeated? Because the church is Christ.
We need to have a vision of the universal church.
That is the first time our Lord Jesus mentioned the church. Then, in Matthew 18, our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church for the second time.
If you look at the context in Matthew 18, the disciples were arguing among themselves as to who was the greatest. Everybody wanted to be the greatest. That is what our flesh desires.
When they were struggling among themselves, the Lord brought in a little child and used the little child to teach His disciples.
He said, “Unless ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
“He that is like this little child shall be the greatest in the kingdom.”
He was teaching His disciples humility. We need to be converted as little children. Then we will receive revelation from above.
Then He continued to tell us the preciousness of a soul. He will not allow one soul to be lost. He would rather leave the ninety-nine and go after that one.
How precious to Him is a little child. A child of God is precious to our Lord.
With that background, the Lord began to say, “If thy brother sin against thee, go, reprove him between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”
Here you find the Lord says, “Thy brother.” It is a continuation of what goes before.
Here is a little child. You are that little child. You have been converted to be a little child, you have received revelation, and you are now very precious to our Lord Jesus.
There is not only you, but also me and all of us. We are all brothers. Whether you are male or female, you are brothers, because the life in us is the life of the Son.
Do you see thy brother? Thy brother is precious to our Lord, and you are precious to Him. He wants you to love your brother as He loves that brother.
Your brother happens to live in the same place where you live. We are brothers and sisters all over the world. We have brothers and sisters who have gone before us, and we have brothers and sisters who will come after us.
But today you have your brother living at the same time with you. Because your brother is with you, unfortunately you may find one day that your brother sins against you.
If you are a hundred years apart or a thousand miles apart, you can love your brother a thousand miles away. But if your brother lives with you, you see him every day, worship together, serve together, and assemble together.
Unfortunately, sometimes there is rubbing; there are clashes, because we are still human beings. There is still the flesh in us that needs to be dealt with.
When we live according to the flesh, then we sin against our brother. This is not pleasant, and we hope it will not happen, but unfortunately it does happen.
When your brother sins against you, what should you do?
If you are not a believer, you may say, “An eye for an eye.” But you are a believer, and he is a believer, and you are brothers.
You may say, “All right, I want to forgive you, but I will try to keep a distance from you.” Is that the way of the Lord? No, of course not.
If your brother sins against you, go. Reprove him alone. Hopefully, you can restore and gain your brother.
What is that? That is the love of God. This is not human love. Human love cannot do this.
When your brother sins against you, probably you will sit there and wait for your brother to come and confess to you. You may think that he has the obligation to come, repent, confess, and ask your forgiveness.
If he does that, you say, “All right, I forgive you.” If he does not do that, you say, “Well, I have to forgive him, but I will not forget him.”
“I will not treat him as my brother. I will treat him as a publican and a tax collector.”
But, brothers and sisters, if your brother sins against you, what do you do? You do not wait for him to come. He is in darkness; he cannot come. But you are in the light, so you can go.
You go not to defend yourself. You do not go to scold him. To reprove is to point out, to reveal his fault.
You have already forgiven him. You do not go to defend yourself or vindicate yourself. You go because you love your brother.
You know your brother is in darkness. Therefore, you want to restore him, bring him back to light, and bring him back to that brotherly relationship.
You speak the truth in love, hoping that his eyes may be opened. If he does, then you gain your brother.
If he does not listen to you, do not say, “I have already done this,” and wash your hands of him. No. The Lord says, “Go and get one or two witnesses.”
With one or two witnesses, you go to your brother and try to convince him of his fault, that he may repent and be restored.
If he does not listen, you still have to go and tell the church.
Of course, the church here cannot be the church of which we are speaking in Matthew 16, because in Matthew 16 the church is universal. It is too big for you to tell the universal church.
Are you going to tell the universal church? It has to be the church in another aspect.
The Lord, the second time, is telling us another aspect of the church. It is the local church. The term may not be in the Bible, but this is what it is.
It is the place where you gather with your brothers and sisters. Tell it to the church, and the church will try to restore that brother.
If he refuses to be restored, then to you he is like a sinner and a publican. In other words, you still have to pity him and try to recover him.
Here you find the church in altogether another expression.
“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Two or three is plurality, because one person does not make up a church. A body must have at least two members. One member does not become the body.
Of course, within the context you find there are more than two or three people. Your brother sins against you; you get one or two more; and then you tell the church. But anyway, you find plurality there.
These two or three are gathered together. They are not scattered all over; they gather together in His name.
It is not just any gathering. People can gather in different names. It can be this club or that fraternity. But they gather together under the name of the Lord Jesus.
That is, they gather themselves under the headship of Christ.
When they gather in this way, the presence of the Lord is there. Where His name is, there is His presence. Where His name is honoured, there is His presence.
That is the church.
Brothers and sisters, in Matthew 16 you have the universal church, and in Matthew 18 you find the local church.
The universal church tells us of all the spiritual principles that make up the church. The local church tells us how all these spiritual principles are put into practice.
The universal church includes all God’s people throughout the centuries. The local church includes all God’s people in the same locality.
There is only one universal church. Therefore, there is only one local church in each locality—one expression of the universal church.
The universal church and the local church are one. It is not that you belong to the universal church but do not belong to the local church.
The reason why we have the local church is because we are still in this physical body. We are limited by time and space. Our fellowship is limited by this physical body.
Therefore, the local church is none other than a miniature of the universal church.
In the universal church, the Lord says, “I will build My church.” But in the local church, if you read the Book of Acts and continue through church history, you find that God uses people in the building.
Paul is a master builder. But the word master builder simply means that he is a foreman. The Builder, the Master Builder, is Christ Himself.
In the building of the local church, He uses people. He uses lots of people to build. Every one of us is involved in the building.
The universal church is built by no one but Christ. But the local church is built by you and me under Christ.
Because we are involved, you find blemishes, spots, and wrinkles. In the universal church there is no spot and no wrinkle. It is glorious, holy, and without blemish, because it is Christ who is building.
Can you imagine that Christ would build some wrinkles into His church? He would never allow that.
But in the local church, because we human beings are involved, and if we are not under the authority of the Holy Spirit, very easily we will sin against each other. Very easily we will corrupt the church.
In the universal church, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The church is victorious.
But in the local church, you find how the church is often corrupted by evil forces.
In the universal church, the conflict is spiritual; it is in the spiritual realm. In the local church, you find that the problem is physical: you sin against me, and I sin against you. That is the difference.
In the universal church, there are the keys of the kingdom to open and close, to bring people into the kingdom.
In the local church, we also have the keys, but here you find how the keys are to be used. Sometimes things need to be bound, and sometimes they need to be loosed.
How do you use the keys? “If two of you shall agree on earth touching anything that they ask, it shall be done unto them.”
Ultimately, in the church, we need to give ourselves to prayer. Through prayer, we use the keys to bind and to loose, to restore our brother.
That is the church.
Finally, the universal church is the vision; the local church is the practice.
We need to have the vision of the universal church if we are to build the local church.
If we do not have the universal church as our vision, then when we try to build a local church, we build a different thing. That is the problem today.
Today, God’s people try to build the local church without a vision of the universal church. The result is that they build a tower of Babel.
They bring in confusion. They bring in division. They bring in men’s kingdom instead of the kingdom of God.
What is important today? Brothers and sisters, we need to have a vision of the universal church. All the spiritual principles are there.
This is the heavenly vision that Paul talks about. With that heavenly vision, we build the local church according to the vision that God has given us.
Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” He was building local churches from Asia to Europe.
He built all these churches according to the vision that God had given him. He said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” That is the reason why what he built was the church.
How does Christ build His universal church? He builds through the local church.
That is the reason why, in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, you see seven churches. Then, when you come to Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, you see the universal church: the holy city, the New Jerusalem.
The building process today is with the local church, and the finished product is the universal church.
But you cannot build a local church without a vision of the universal church.
I do not have the time to illustrate or describe it in detail, but I hope, brothers and sisters, that you will remember this.
Without the vision of the universal church, you cannot build the local church. If you dare to do so, you will build the tower of Babel.
May the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Lord, we thank Thee for Thy love for the church. Thou gavest Thy life for her. Thou saidst that Thou wouldst build Thy church upon Thyself.
We thank Thee, Lord, that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Lord, let us see that vision.
Let us bow under Thy authority, that we may be used by Thee to build the local church wherever we are.
Let us be built together, that we may be established in love, that the church which Thou lovest so dearly may be manifested too.
We pray that Thou wilt hear our prayer. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.