I will build my church
Our current Saturday blasts from the past are about the subject of church planting. This week, Phillip Jensen discusses the significance of Jesus' promise to build his church.
Perhaps it is because whenever we read the verse, we think of claims to papal power and the need to prove that Peter was not the first pope. Whatever the reason, we often forget the other more positive side of Matthew 16:18: “I will build my church.”
This is a momentous statement, for it describes Jesus' program for the future. At this point in Matthew's Gospel, the storm clouds are gathering. In the very next paragraph Jesus tells his disciples for the first time about the violent death that awaits him. But Jesus' vision for the future goes beyond his death. The big plan is to build his church—to gather his people from all over the world to himself.
In the rest of the New Testament, we see this grand purpose begin to be realized. As the disciples scatter throughout the Roman Empire, they take the gospel of Jesus with them. They preach it, and churches are planted (to which the apostles return in due course to appoint elders, as in Acts 14).
We aren't told about any special program of church planting. It just seems to happen as the gospel is preached and people respond to the message in each place. The believers gather together and a church is born. And each of these gatherings (or ‘churches’) is part of the one great gathering of all Christ's people.
Evangelism will always lead to church, and church is Jesus' program. It must be our program too. In particular, given the situation that we find ourselves in, the challenge before us is to plant new churches.
Any discussion of church planting must assume three things.
Firstly, true Christian churches are planted only where the pure gospel of Christ is preached. We must not vary from the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified, with its accompanying call to faith and repentance. This is the foundation for building Christ's church. This is the seed for planting. And we must not think that the church of Christ can be planted by any other method. If we are not preaching the gospel and seeing people come to faith through the power of the Spirit, then we are not planting churches. We may simply be transferring existing believers from one place to another. (This may be a good thing in some cases—especially if they are being ‘transferred’ from churches which are not teaching the Bible. But it is not planting so much as transplanting.)
Secondly, we cannot preach this gospel of Christ without carrying the cross, as he did. This is not optional. We cannot preach Christ and expect to avoid suffering. We cannot preach Christ and be popular. We cannot preach Christ without being willing to lay down our lives for the salvation of others.
Very often, the suffering will come in the form of persecution. And most painful of all, it will often be from other Christians. Just as for Christ it was his co-religionists who persecuted him most, so for us it will be members of other Christian churches and denominations who are most hostile towards church planting. Most Christians are all for evangelism and church planting, so long as it doesn't affect them—the NIMBY syndrome (Not In My BackYard). But in a country like Australia, it is almost impossible to plant a church without affecting someone else. And when it does, tension and disagreement inevitably occurs. We cannot discuss church planting, and get involved in it, without being prepared to suffer for it.
Thirdly, any discussion of church planting assumes a passion for the lost. Millions of Australians will be born, grow old and die without ever hearing, in a meaningful way, about what Christ has done for them. The Bible may still be a top seller, but there is little evidence of it being high on the list of what people actually read. The lost are all around us. There are many areas, communities and sub-groups in our society which have little or no Christian witness within them. How can we reach them? We cannot expect them to come to us. We must go to them, and plant churches in their midst.
Your comment concerning the cross is central, as much as it distresses me and makes me flinch. The heavenly city is always founded on blood, on a rough cut altar stone like Jacob’s pillow. It is a rock anointed with oil and blood and fire, a miniature Sinai. It smashed the political kingdoms of the Gentiles to pieces and is now filling the earth. The Land is always purified with blood. The kingdom is always bought with blood. That is how we fill up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
I think that is what the writer of Hebrews meant when he said the first century Jews should enter the Holy Place boldly. The Ark and its two angels were the tomb of Jesus. The rest of Canaan is always entered by death, over blood, no less now that it is a heavenly country.
The High Priest entered with blood for Himself and the priests. Then he entered again with blood for the people. The suffering of those bold first century saints, including Peter, as this second entry, completed the foundation of a New Jerusalem, and brought down God’s vengeance and an end to the rebels continuing the Old Covenant rites. Christians are never taught this history, so much of the New Testament is read out of context.
The same is required today. We are to enter the Tomb boldly with our own blood for the next generation, not atoning, but demonstrating. We do this liturgically as we pass the cup to each other. We enter into death together, and leave church each week as resurrected saints to conquer the world as living sacrifices. When the blood is displayed (as at the Ascension), the Spirit descends (as at Pentecost) and the city is built—on blood.
Aussies won’t be manipulated, but they will be bought. Not with money but with love. The foundation of any church is a blood covered rock, an altar stone with our heads on it.
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