Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew?
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.
Will you please turn to Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1? We will read verses 22 and 23.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
And finally, 1 Peter, chapter 2. We will begin with verse 4.
Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, here together in Thy presence, we do want to praise and thank Thee for Thy precious promise: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Dear Lord, we treasure nothing more than Thy very presence.
We thank Thee for Thy presence with us, and we come before Thee with humble hearts, opening ourselves to Thee and to Thy Spirit. Open Thy Word to us, and draw us into the reality of Thy Word.
We praise and thank Thee because Thy words are living words. They operate in our lives and bring us to Thyself. Lord, Thou art worthy.
We commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thee to do Thy work, to the glory of God. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We thank the Lord for bringing us together again this afternoon.
Some of you who were here last night know that, this time when we are together, we are just reviewing something—something that we have already known, and something with which we are probably quite familiar.
These things are very basic and fundamental to our faith, and important to our spiritual life. But thank God, because these things are related to the eternal purpose of God.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, anything that is related to God’s eternal purpose is the most important thing in this world. Whatever is important to our God, that is something to which we should really give ourselves.
Matthew 16 is a most familiar chapter in the Bible, but in this chapter we find great revelations. Every one of these revelations is related to the eternal purpose of God.
To put it another way, these three revelations in Matthew 16 form the center of God’s eternal purpose. If we are not self-centered, not need-oriented, but purpose-oriented—that is, if our lives are governed by the purpose of God—then we will find that these are the most important, essential, and central matters in God’s eternal purpose.
These are three: Christ, the church, and the cross. All three are revealed to us in Matthew 16.
Of course, first of all, it is Christ. Christ, our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is the center of God’s heart.
Even before time began, in eternity past, God purposed in His heart according to His good pleasure. As we find in Ephesians 1:9-10, at the fulness of times, all things will be summed up, gathered together, and headed up by Christ—things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
So, dear brothers and sisters, in Matthew 16 the first revelation was: “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” Thank God, Simon Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Our Lord Jesus immediately said, “Thou art blessed, because this is not something that flesh and blood can tell thee. This is something that My Father Who is in heaven has revealed unto thee.”
No one can really know Christ Jesus—not by searching, not by reading, not by hearing—only through revelation from above. This is not true merely in the beginning of our knowing Christ; it is true throughout our whole life of knowing Christ.
May I say that, even in eternity to come, we will continue to know Christ by revelation. God wants us to know His Son as He knows Him, so He will reveal His Son continuously and increasingly to us, that we may know Him more and more. There is no limit, no end.
Some people say, “Well, eternity is good, but what are we going to do in eternity? Play the harp and sing?” Well, that is good, but praise God, it is much more than that. I believe that our knowing Christ will be accelerated and increased many times over in eternity beyond what it is today.
He is still the Unknown to us. That is the infinity of God. How thrilling that will be.
But we need to remember one thing: we can never know Christ by any other means. The only way to know Christ in a real, living way is through revelation.
We depend upon the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to us. We depend upon the Word of God to reveal Christ to us. The more we receive revelation of Christ, brothers and sisters, the natural result is that we will be transformed and conformed to His image. That is the eternal purpose of God concerning Christ.
This we reviewed last night. This afternoon, we would like to consider the second revelation in Matthew 16.
After Simon Peter confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord Jesus said:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
In other words, to those who have received the first revelation of Christ, Christ Himself gives the second revelation. The second revelation is that He reveals to us the church that He is building.
Now, brothers and sisters, we have all heard the name church. For two centuries, people have been playing church. But have we received revelation from our Lord Jesus concerning the church?
Especially in this Western world, you are surrounded, as it were, by churches. You grew up there. You know it, you have heard it, and you have visited it. Maybe you are active in it.
But the question is: Do you really know what the church is? If you really know the church by revelation, you will live a church life instead of an individual life.
You know, brothers and sisters, when God created man, the Bible says that He created man according to His image, after His likeness. He created male and female.
In other words, when God created man, man was meant to be a corporate person. It is the union of man and woman, and that is man. They were meant to live a united, corporate life.
But what happened? When sin entered into this world, one thing that sin did was to divide and make man and woman individuals.
Instead of living a united, one life, they began to be individualistic, thinking only of themselves. When God questioned Adam, Adam said, “It is the woman that Thou gavest me.” When God asked the woman, the woman said, “The serpent.”
That is sin. In other words, everyone is for himself. We become very individualistic, very self-centered. The whole world surrounds us; we are the center, and everything is for us.
This is our fallen nature. So, when you talk about the church to the natural man, this is something unthinkable. It really takes the life of our Lord Jesus for us to enter into the reality of what the church is.
This matter of the church is the second greatest revelation you can find in the Bible.
The Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Peter.” Formerly, he was Simon, son of Jonah. But as he confessed the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, something happened in his life. There was a transformation.
He became a stone—from dust to stone. A different nature, a new nature, entered into his life. With that different nature, that new life, the Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.”
The Lord Jesus Himself is the foundation. Now, even though in Christianity there is teaching that Peter is the foundation and that the church is built upon Peter, if that is the case, that foundation is very shaky.
Before the church was built, that foundation was already shaken. You remember, as you read on, how Peter completely misunderstood our Lord Jesus and tried to prevent Him from going to the cross.
Our Lord Jesus had to turn to him and say, “Get thee behind Me, Satan, because thou art not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men.”
No, Peter is just a little rock, a piece out of that massive Rock, which is our Lord Jesus Himself. The Lord said, “It is on the confession of Me that I will build My church.”
The gates of Hades shall be opened against it, but thank God, they shall not prevail against it. That is what the church is.
I was brought up in Christianity. My father was a pastor; he loved the Lord. We knew the Bible from childhood.
I joined the church when I was sixteen, participating in Holy Communion. But to me, the church was just a religious organization. It was the place where I would go and worship God, as if outside of that building I could not worship.
You know, when I was young, we kept Sunday very strictly. I dared not even read my lessons if there was an examination on Monday. That was the thing I felt most, because I could not study on Sunday.
But even though I could not study on Sunday, I could play ball on Sunday. I dared not go to the cinema on Sunday, but I would go to the cinema on Saturday. This was the way I felt about the church.
It was a big building around the corner that you went to on Sunday. I was in a mission school, and on Sunday we were all required to go to church. So one-third of the people in the church were from the school.
We marched into the church and listened to the sermon—but we were not listening. Even though I was the pastor’s son, I always brought a novel with me and covered it with the hymnbook. That was the church.
But thank God, one day the Lord opened my eyes and really showed me what the church is. I do not profess that I know it all, but I had a taste of it, and that revolutionized my whole life.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to have a real understanding of what the church is.
The word church actually is a wrong translation. The word church that we use today carries the sense of an organization. But the real word is ekklesia: called-out ones gathered together.
Those who are called out of the world by our Lord Jesus, called unto Him, and gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus—that is what the church is.
“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” That is the basic meaning of the church: the assembly.
Even though we are all saved individually, the life that we receive is one and the same. That life unites us together into one. We are the called-out ones.
He has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So we are the called-out ones, out from the world into the church, and we gather together.
Gathering together is very important. Some people say, “I believe in the Lord, but I do not want to gather with other Christians. When I gathered with other Christians, I thought it was paradise, but I found out it was a most difficult place.” Many have been hurt.
They say, “It is much better if it is just the Lord and me.” But, brothers and sisters, this is not the purpose of God. The purpose of God is that we should gather together.
Especially in these last days, we should never forsake the assembling of the saints. We should use every opportunity to encourage one another, exhort one another, and build up one another.
In this world there are many fraternities, many social gatherings, and many clubs. Some are very exclusive. You have to have certain qualifications in order to join such a club and enjoy its privileges.
But, brothers and sisters, there is no way to join the church. You have to be born into the church. Everyone who is born from above is a member of the church.
I often think that the church is the most exclusive fellowship in the whole universe. Why? Because, if you read 1 Corinthians 1:9, God has called us into the fellowship of His Son.
Even before time eternal, there was a fellowship going on among the Godhead. The Father and the Son were in perfect fellowship together in the Spirit—such a harmony.
They gave one another, each to the other, wholly and completely, without any holding back. When you think of the fellowship between the Father and the Son in the Spirit, it is so glorious and wonderful. It is the most exclusive fellowship in the whole universe.
Who are we that we are called into this fellowship? This fellowship is none other than the church.
Thank God, in His love, through His Son, and by the Holy Spirit, He has opened up this eternal fellowship to include us. We are brought into His most exclusive fellowship.
He will share His Son with us, and His Son will share His Father with us—no holding back.
Now think of that. You are born into that fellowship. If you are not qualified to enter any fraternity or exclusive club, do not feel sorrow about it, because you are already in the highest and most glorious fellowship mankind can ever enter into.
This is what the church is.
People are gathered together under many different names, but we, by the grace of God, gather together unto one name: His name.
As you find in Revelation, God said, “Thou hast kept My name.” His name is the name above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
If you are gathering unto that name, what does it mean? It means that you are under His authority. You are His. You are under His sovereignty.
By the grace of God, you obey and you submit. When you go into the church, whom do you find?
Many people today go to church to find their friends. The church is like a social gathering now, like a fraternity. By knowing people in the church, you may gain some influence and some help.
But what is the church? You come into the name of the Lord Jesus. You come to His authority. So we come to the church with a spirit of humility and a spirit of submission.
Today, you will find people in the so-called church who come seeking authority. But the right spirit in coming to the church is to come with a spirit of submission and obedience to the Lord Jesus.
By doing so, you will find all your fulness in Him.
When you read 1 Corinthians 12:13, you find that in one Spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
There is one body, but many members; many members, but one body. So also is the Christ. What is the church? The church is the Christ.
In other words, when you go to church, you do not see anybody; you only see Christ—Christ in you, Christ in me, Christ in every one of us. That makes up the church.
I often like to use a formula because it is simple. Once I was ministering with Brother Sparks. Before I used the formula, I told the people, “I know Brother Sparks. He is so spiritual that he is against all formulas.”
“But I am sorry; I have to use a formula in order to illustrate a point.” I said, “What is the church?”
Suppose in this world there were only three believers, and these three believers were the best I could think of: Peter, John, and James. When these three come together, do they constitute the church?
Of course, people say, “No.” Then what is the church? The Christ in Peter, plus the Christ in John, plus the Christ in James, equals the church. Everybody says, “Yes.”
But I say, “No.” Even though you have Christ in Peter, John, and James, you will find Peter, John, and James there too—and that causes the problem.
Peter wants to be the leader, and John and James try to outmaneuver him. That is the problem. It is not Christ.
So I say, “What is the church? The church is the Christ in Peter minus Peter, plus the Christ in John minus John, plus the Christ in James minus James, equal to Christ.” Now, amen.
This is what the church is. We need revelation from above to really see what the church is.
Brothers and sisters, I do believe we need revelation, because if we have revelation, it really solves all the problems. It will bring us into the reality of the eternal purpose of God.
Our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
You know what the church is? We often think of the church in a manward way. That is to say, we think of the church in terms of, “What can I get if I join the church?”
But when you really see the church in the light of God’s eternal purpose, you have to think Godward. In other words, why does God want His church? What does the church mean to God?
The first question should not be what the church means to me, but what the church means to God. Why is it that He wants the church so terribly?
If you search the Word of God, you will find, first of all, that God is looking for a dwelling place. God is looking for a house, for a home.
God created the heavens and the earth, but heaven to Him is where His throne is, and the earth is His footstool. I often say that the whole creation is His office. He does not have a home.
He is looking for a home. He wants a home in which He can dwell and rest, be appreciated, and be glorified. This thought is found throughout the Bible.
He wants to make man His home, His house. He wants to dwell with man. But man is not fit to be His dwelling place.
So He has to save us, transform us, and bring us to a place where He can rest among us.
The first thought about the church is really not ourselves. The first thought about the church is Godward: Will God find His home among His people?
I often think of Psalm 132 and David’s prayer. He prayed, “Lord, remember David, and all his affliction.” What was his affliction? What was hurting him?
He was not referring to all the suffering and persecution through which he went. He was referring to how he longed in his heart to find a resting place for the ark of God.
He said, “I will not go to my couch; I will not close my eyes until God finds His resting place.” That was David’s heart. First of all, it was for God’s rest.
God should feel comfortable, pleased, and welcome. He can be Himself, as it were, among His people. Brothers and sisters, this is what the church is.
If the Lord should come into our midst now, will He find rest among us? Or would He find restlessness because of our situation? That should be the first thought in our heart.
If we really know what the church is, it is the home of God, where God and man dwell in unity. Then probably our whole concept of the church will be different.
Psalm 133 follows Psalm 132. First, God finds a place of rest; then the brethren dwell together in unity and enjoy the blessing forevermore.
Number two: What is the church, and why is there a church? The church is the body of Christ.
Over two thousand years ago, God the Son emptied Himself of all the glory and honor that were His due. He came into this world to take the form of a servant, in the fashion of a man.
In that incarnate body, He declared the Father to us. In that incarnate body, He completed the work of redemption for us.
He spoke and He acted. In those three and a half years, what He spoke and what He did were so abundant that the apostle John said that, if everything were written out, even the world could not contain it.
In that body He had done so marvelously and so greatly. Then He resurrected and ascended on high.
But then He is still here, because on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down, and in one Spirit the one hundred and twenty believers were baptized into one body.
They were no longer a congregation of one hundred and twenty members. They were a body with one hundred and twenty living members.
Then three thousand were added. They all continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
In that body, our Lord Jesus continued to speak and to act, even during these two thousand years.
So what is the church? The church is the body of Christ, the fulness of Him Who filleth all in all. That is to say, all His fulness is in that body, and through that body He is to act and He is to speak, that the work of God may be completed.
That is what the church is, and why there is a church. Brothers and sisters, we are not here just to enjoy ourselves.
Thank God, when the brethren dwell together in unity, there is such enjoyment. As the Bible says, “Your joy shall be full.” That is very true—but it is much more than that.
We are here to testify Christ, His excellencies, and to proclaim His excellencies. That is why we have the church.
Then, brothers and sisters, we want to ask: Who builds the church?
When we look at the so-called churches today, it seems as if the gates of Hades have prevailed against them. Why? Because the so-called churches today are built by men.
If the church is built by Christ, as He says, “I will build My church,” then it will be totally different. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Who builds the church? Christ said, “I will build My church.” But when you read 1 Corinthians 3, you find that we are those who labor and work in that building.
If we build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or if we build with wood, hay, and stubble, one day the fire will appear. What is of wood, hay, and stubble will be burned, while what is of gold, silver, and precious stones will stand.
We ourselves will be saved, yet so as through fire—barely saved.
So it seems as if we are working. It is very true, brothers and sisters: in the building of the church, primarily it is Christ Who is building, but secondarily we are building.
In what way? Is there any contradiction? No. It is a continuation.
We must let Him build us individually and corporately first. Out of what He has built in us, we build the church.
The Lord said, “Thou art Peter. Thou art a stone, a living stone, and I will build My church upon this massive Rock, which I am.”
But do you know what happened? Immediately after that confession, Peter did something completely contradictory to the will of God, and the Lord even had to say, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.”
How can you build with a living stone like that? Peter was a living stone, but that living stone had all kinds of dirt and mixtures: flesh, self-confidence, and human ideas mixed in.
How can you build a church? If you leave Peter to build a church, what will happen? He will build the Catholic Church.
But thank God, our Lord Jesus worked in Peter to make him not only a living stone, but a precious stone.
How patiently the Lord worked with Peter. In spite of all his failures, even denying the Lord, the Lord worked in him to deliver him out of the flesh and to purify him.
What was left was the precious material—something of Christ. That is the material for the building of the house.
But more than that, the Lord has to do something much more, because He is going to put Peter together with James and John and all the rest. So there are many corners that have to be cut.
Even the gold has to be cut and chiseled. Lots of work.
By His work in us, we are called to work out for Him in the building of the church. Lots of work.
Thank God, we are not only living stones put together into the house of God. It is not just a pile of stones all together.
God is not looking for one stone standing up as a pillar. God is not looking for a pile of stones; you cannot live in it. God is looking for an organic building of all these living, precious stones.
Each is according to order, each according to the place that God has ordained for it, and each has to go through chiseling and smoothing in order to fit in with one another. Finally, the house will be built.
So, brothers and sisters, wonderful, marvelous! Today we are still in that process.
We find dust and dirt, pieces and bits, everywhere. But do not flee away. Stay put. Allow the Lord to complete His work, and by the grace of God the glorious church will appear.
Thank God, He is working.
Sometimes, when I look at the church in general, I am so disappointed. When I look at myself, I am so discouraged. Learn and never learn.
But with my eyes of faith, I believe that, in spite of what we may see, the Lord is doing a hidden work.
One day that glorious church will appear, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It is all His work. Thank God for that. May the Lord help us.
Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, our hearts do bow before Thee. We marvel at Thy eternal purpose. How wonderful, how glorious, it is.
We thank Thee for calling us, for saving us, and for bringing us into Thy family.
We thank Thee for revealing Thy Son continuously to us. We thank Thee for transforming us and conforming us to His glorious image.
O eternity, for showing us what the church is—Thy expectation, Thy working unceasingly and patiently, with longsuffering toward us—that Thou mayest have that glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, for the glory of God.
O Lord, may it come quickly. We offer ourselves once again to Thee, Lord, for Thy purpose. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.