Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Matthew 16:18)
Note first to whom the church belongs—Jesus. “I will build MY church.” It is not pressing the issue out of bounds to emphasise that the church is not the work of some pastor or priest or body of elders or some other governing hierarchy. It is Jesus who builds it. The church is solely His. He doesn’t have to clear His decisions with Rome or London or Wheaton or New York or Minneapolis. The church is not owned by some denomination. Or group of clergymen. Or some official religious organisation. Or the Pope himself.
To use today’s terms, Christ is our Boss, our final authority. If I used a first-century term, Christ is our Lord, Kurios, and we are His servants. We are His subjects.
That has never changed, though in the passing of centuries all sorts of philosophies and governments have dictated a different plan than that. The church was and is His genius. He originated it. He alone is its Master.
Let’s zero in even closer. “I will BUILD.” The dictionary says to build means “to form by uniting materials by gradual means into a composite whole, to construct.” Another definition, “to develop by a definite process.” That is going on right now in Christ’s Body. Always has been since the first century. His Bodybuilding programme will never stop until Christ comes for His own. He’s the Groom and He will come for His bride.
Sounds a little humorous to say it this way, but the bride is getting heavier every year, waiting for the Groom to come. She’s enlarging in her size. Every day she’s getting bigger and bigger, waiting for His arrival. And the Groom will someday come and say to the bride, “You’re mine. Come on home with Me.”
Until then He remains in the building process. And the building is made up of all nations, all cultures, all creeds, all languages, all colours. In fact, the church in the First World is fast becoming the minority as His Body is being built up to an even greater degree in the Second and Third World countries. Christ is building His church.
