The Church on the Rock

The Church on the Rock

“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ So they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.’” Matt. 16:13-18.

There was an enormous difference between Peter’s answer and the opinions of the people. Peter had received a divine revelation about who Jesus was, and on that basis he could reply with absolute certainty and joy, whereas the people had only some uncertain answers. It was on this rock—what the Father had revealed—that Jesus would build His church. Peter became a rock because he steadfastly held on to the Father’s revelation and rejected all influences from flesh and blood. Those who do the same today will also become rocks on which Christ can build His church.

The church is not a group of people who gather around some correct doctrinal statements. The church consists of living stones. There is life in each one of them. They are made alive by the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit is the Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God. He takes from the Father and gives to us. He is our teacher of righteousness. This is the Spirit that exposes the mind of the flesh and hates and overcomes its power. Only by walking in obedience to this Spirit can we maintain unity with the body of Christ, which is the church. God’s kingdom becomes our life and joy, and we lose interest in and are dead to sin and the world. By walking in the Spirit, we learn to put aside our poor, human understanding and experience the safety and joy of the Spirit’s revelations.

We can think of so many things and have our opinions about them, but when God through His Spirit ignites a light in the depths of our heart and gives clarity, we are filled with an inner joy and peace, and we receive a divine conviction that no one can move, not even the gates of Hades.

In this Spirit we also grow together with the others into a habitation of God in the Spirit. There are various gifts, but the Spirit is the same. When someone gets up in the church with what the Spirit has revealed and made living to him, the others are united with him with a heartfelt joy. It is the same Spirit. However, when somebody gets up with what flesh and blood has revealed to him, everyone who is in the Spirit knows that it is nothing to build on, and the result is not joy.

When people attend schools to learn to preach what flesh and blood has revealed, and they have their own opinions about it we know what the result will be. The gates of Hades will move all of it. All kinds of evil spirits will prevail. The result will be strife and division, bitterness and backbiting, vanity and anxiety, etc. They have their opinions about God’s Word and perhaps they even have their assembly organized according to a “Biblical pattern,” but they do not have fellowship based on an inner revelation of light and joy.

Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,” and even today everyone who is built up on the foundation of this rock and not on what people think and imagine, will also be blessed.

In these last days, one calamity worse than the other will pass over the earth, and everyone’s work will be tested. We can deceive ourselves by walking among living stones and comfort ourselves with having the right doctrine, without being a living stone ourselves. Let us test ourselves. Are we a living stone with God’s revelation in our hearts? Do we hold on to this light and walk in it and reject all influences from flesh and blood, in the home and outside the home? If we are such living stones, we are also a part of God’s house on the rock. If the storms rage and the floods beat against this house, it will remain standing. Everything else is built on sand.

Imagine the promises we have by being in the church of the living God! Jesus Himself guarantees that not even the gates of Hades shall prevail against it. There God has commanded the blessing, life and peace for evermore.