Search
We have seen that the church is the hidden mystery in God’s eternal economy. Now in this message we shall begin to consider the revelation of the mystery of Christ (the church).
The revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ is completed in two steps that involve the Triune God. In the Godhead the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the reaching of the divine Trinity to us. As the source, the Father has all the revelation, but He Himself does not give this revelation directly. Rather, the divine revelation is first given through the Son and then through the Spirit. Therefore, the first step in giving the revelation of the church, which is the mystery of Christ, is by Christ.
The revelation of the church is given by Christ in the Gospels. However, many readers of the New Testament have not seen in the Gospels the revelation of Christ as the embodiment of God. Neither have they seen the revelation of the church.
The revelation of the church by Christ in the Gospels was given to the first group of the apostles.
The first time the church was revealed by Christ was in Matthew 16:15-20. As we shall see the second time was in Matthew 18:15-20.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus says, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” Here in the Lord’s first mentioning of the church, what is revealed is the universal church for the unique testimony of the Lord in the universe. In the universal aspect the church is uniquely one. The end of Ephesians 1 speaks of the church as the Body of Christ. Christ has only one Body, which is unique in the universe. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ created the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers in Himself into one new man, which is the church. Hence, the church as the new man is universal and one.
The words “My church” in Matthew 16:18 indicate that the church is of the Lord, not of any person or thing. The church is not like the denominations, which are denominated after some person’s name or according to some thing. The church Christ is building is the universal church, not the church in a nation or the church in a city. The church in Matthew 16:18 is the universal church, the one church in the entire universe.
The revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ is based upon the revelation of Christ, the Son of the living God. One day the Lord Jesus asked His disciples a question: “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt. 16:13). They said, “Some, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (v. 14). This indicates that, at most, people can only realize that Christ is the greatest among the prophets. Without heavenly revelation, no one can know that He is the Christ and the Son of the living God (v. 16).
After the Lord asked His disciples to say who they thought He was (v. 15), Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). The Christ, as the anointed One of God, refers to the Lord’s commission, whereas the Son of the living God, as the second of the Triune God, refers to His person. His commission is to accomplish God’s eternal purpose through His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second advent, whereas His person embodies the Father and issues in the Spirit for a full expression of the Triune God.
Receiving the divine revelation, Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The definite article before the word Christ is very important. Christ is the anglicized form of the Greek word Christos, which is equivalent to the Hebrew word Messiah. Both Messiah in Hebrew and Christos in Greek mean the anointed One. The term Messiah, the anointed One, is used in Daniel 9:26. “After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” This refers to Jesus Christ, who is the anointed One.
According to the Old Testament principle, anyone used by God to carry out His administration had to be anointed. For this reason, the kings, the priests, and the prophets were all anointed when they came into function. This indicates that the anointing is for the carrying out of God’s administration. Whatever God wants us to do or accomplish is related to His anointing.
Christ is the anointed One, the One upon whom God has poured Himself out as the ointment to accomplish His administration. Therefore, in Matthew 16 we have Christ with God poured upon Him as the ointment. On the day Christ was baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon Him (Matt. 3:16), anointing Him for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose.
We need to be impressed with the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the particular One, the unique One, who carries out God’s commission. He has been commissioned by God with a great purpose to produce many sons of God. In order to accomplish this purpose, He must be both the Christ and the Son of the living God, for this purpose requires both His commission and His being, His person. In His being, in His person, the Lord Jesus is the Son of the living God.
Christ has not been commissioned by God merely to redeem fallen sinners. Redemption is simply the initial aspect of God’s commission. The ultimate issue is to produce, to bring forth, the many sons of God. Christ’s bringing forth the believers as the many sons of God involves the imparting of His being, of His element and essence, into us. God commissioned Christ not only to redeem us as fallen sinners but also to produce, to bring forth, the believers as sons of God.
This great commission needs Christ’s person, His being, as the Son of the living God. Who can bring forth the many sons of God? Only the Son of the living God can produce the many sons of God. Jesus is the Christ for God’s commission. The carrying out of this commission needs His being, with His essence, element, life, and nature. If the Lord were only the Christ and not the Son of the living God, He would have God’s commission, but He would not have the ability to produce the many sons to fulfill God’s commission. Therefore, for God’s commission He needs to be both the Christ and the Son of the living God. Therefore, the Lord has both the commission and the ability to bring forth the many sons of God. His ability is of His essence, element, life, and nature. He is altogether sufficient to bring forth many sons of God.
After Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said to Him, “You are blessed, Simon Bar-jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matt. 16:17). “Flesh and blood” here refer to man, who is composed of flesh and blood. Only the Father knows the Son (Matt. 11:27); hence, only He can reveal the Son to us. The source of the revelation of Christ, which is the basis upon which the revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ is given, is the Father.
Matthew 16:18a says, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” The Father’s revelation concerning Christ is just the first half of the great mystery, which is Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). Hence, the Lord needed “also” to reveal to Peter the second half, which is concerning the church.
In 16:18a the Lord says that He will build His church on “this rock.” The words “this rock” refer not only to Christ but also to the revelation of Christ, which Peter received from the Father. The church is built on this revelation concerning Christ. First, the rock refers to the wonderful person of Christ, the Son of the living God. Second, it refers to the revelation of this person as seen by Peter. When we see this revelation, the revelation becomes the rock. Thus, the church is built not only on the person of Christ but also on the revelation of His person.
Roman Catholicism claims that the rock in verse 18 refers to Peter, whereas most fundamental Christians say that it refers to Christ. Although it is correct to say that the rock denotes Christ, not even this understanding is adequate. The rock here refers not only to Christ but even the more to the revelation concerning Christ. In this chapter the Father reveals something from the heavens to Peter. This heavenly revelation from the Father is the rock.
It is not an insignificant matter that the church is built both upon Christ and upon the revelation concerning Christ. The denominations are not built upon this rock. For example, the Southern Baptist denomination is built upon the revelation of baptism by immersion, not upon the revelation of Christ. In the same principle, the Presbyterian denomination is built upon the doctrine of presbytery. Likewise, the charismatic churches or groups are not built upon this revelation concerning Christ; they are built upon their knowledge of the charismatic things and on their experience of them.
The church that is built upon the revelation concerning Christ is the genuine church, and it is not sectarian. The problem today is that Christians like to form groups or so-called churches according to their concept and viewpoint. But their concept is not the revelation concerning Christ. The church must be built upon “this rock,” that is, upon the revelation of Christ. If we see this, we shall be saved from division. Only one thing is built upon the revelation of Christ, and that is the church. Any group that is built upon doctrines, views, practices, or concepts is not the church built upon the revelation concerning Christ. The revelation concerning Christ is the rock upon which the Lord Jesus is building His church.
In order to have a complete view of God’s way to bring forth the church and to build up the church, we need to realize that the rock in Matthew 16:18 is not merely Christ but also the revelation concerning the Christ, the Son of the living God. The church is built upon the revelation of Christ. This is the reason the apostles and prophets who have received this revelation and who have passed it on in their teaching to the believers have become the foundation of the building of the church (Eph. 2:20). This means that the church is built upon the teaching of the apostles and this teaching is the revelation concerning the Lord Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of the living God.
If we see that the revelation of Christ is the rock upon which the church is built, we shall understand why Paul told Timothy to “charge certain ones not to teach differently” (1 Tim. 1:3). We should teach only what the apostles taught, because the apostles’ teaching was the revelation of Christ and the Son of the living God, the revelation which became the unique rock upon which the church is built. Today we should not minister anything other than the revelation of the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Teachings that are different from this revelation eventually become the “rocks” upon which the various denominations and independent groups are built. Whatever a person teaches becomes a “rock” upon which a so-called church may be built. The situation is different with the teaching of the apostles. The apostles taught the revelation concerning the Christ and the Son of the living God, and this revelation is the unique rock upon which we should build the church.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus also says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church. The gates of Hades refer to Satan’s authority or power of darkness (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18). The authority of darkness denotes the authority of Satan. God is light, and Satan is darkness. Satan’s authority of darkness is the authority of evil in the heavenlies, in the air (Eph. 6:12). This evil refers to something that is in rebellion against God. The authority of evil, of rebellion, in the heavenlies is the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26), the authority of darkness. The authority of Satan is Satan’s kingdom, which belongs to darkness. Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and the ruler of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). He has his authority and his angels (Matt. 25:41), who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). Hence, Satan has his kingdom, the authority of darkness, the gates of Hades. However, the gates of Hades cannot prevail against the genuine church built by Christ upon the revelation concerning Him as the rock, with stones such as Peter and all the believers as transformed human beings.
The Lord’s word in Matthew 16:18 indicates that Satan’s power of darkness will attack the church. For this reason, there is spiritual warfare between Satan’s power, which is his kingdom, and the church, which is God’s kingdom.
The church has the kingdom of the heavens as its reality. This is indicated by the Lord’s word in Matthew 16:19. “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall be what has been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall be what has been loosed in the heavens.” The words “the kingdom of the heavens” here are interchangeably used for the word “church” in the previous verse. This is a strong proof that the genuine church is the kingdom of the heavens in this age. This is confirmed by Romans 14:17, which refers to the proper church life.
The keys of the kingdom are given to the apostles. This is indicated by the Lord’s word to Peter in 16:19 concerning giving him the keys of the kingdom of the heavens for binding and loosing. The Gospel of Matthew is concerned with the kingdom of the heavens, which is a matter of authority. The church revealed in this book represents the kingdom to reign. Hence, the authority to bind and to loose is given not only to Peter, the apostle for the church here, but also to the church itself (Matt. 18:17-18).
The keys of the kingdom have been given to the apostles to bind on earth what has been bound in the heavens and to loose on earth what has been loosed in the heavens. Whatever the church people bind or loose on earth should be what has been bound or loosed in the heavens already. We can only bind or loose what has already been bound or loosed in the heavens.
