“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it’” (Matthew 16:13-18).
In the passage above, Jesus asked His disciples what others said about Him and what they would say. Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. This was the basis for Jesus’ promise to build His church. His identity would be the foundation.
Immediately after making this promise, He said that not even “the gates of Hades” would “overpower it” or “prevail against it” (KJV). Hades is described in the Bible as the realm of departed spirits where they will experience either comfort or torment (Luke 16:19-31). Jesus’ point was this: Death would not stop His plan for His church. Let us notice four ways in which this is true.
Death Would Not Stop the Establishment of His Church
When Jesus promised to build His church, He said that not even death would prevent Him from doing it (Matthew 16:18). We know He had this in mind when He made the promise because just a few verses later, He “began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matthew 16:21). At the time, Peter did not understand how this could be possible, so he rebuked Jesus for suggesting that this would happen (Matthew 16:22-23). Yet Jesus knew He would be killed when He promised to build His church.
Jesus was crucified just as He said He would be. However, He also was raised from the dead. When the women came to the tomb of Jesus, an angel said to them, “I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said” (Matthew 28:5-6). However, the empty tomb was not the only evidence of His resurrection. “He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days” (Acts 1:3). When Peter preached the first gospel sermon on the day of Pentecost and announced that Jesus had been raised from the dead, he said, “It was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:24). Then after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, His church was established on the day of Pentecost when three thousand believed and obeyed the gospel and were added by God to the church (Acts 2:37-38, 41, 47).
Death Would Not Stop the Growth of His Church
Not long after the church was established, it faced opposition. First, Peter and John were arrested (Acts 4:1-3). When they kept preaching, all of the apostles were arrested, threatened, and beaten (Acts 5:17-18, 40). Not long after this, Stephen was killed (Acts 7:57-60).
Despite all of this, the church continued to grow. It began with three thousand on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41), and God continually added people to the church as they were being saved (Acts 2:47). When Peter and John were arrested the first time, the number of men in the church had grown to about five thousand (Acts 4:4). After their release, this growth continues: “All the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number” (Acts 5:14). Before Stephen was arrested, there were “a great many of the priests who were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). When persecution started after Stephen’s death, the disciples were “scattered” and “went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).
Why would the disciples continue to spread the gospel after realizing they could be put to death for doing so? It was because they knew that Jesus was raised from the dead. In Peter’s first sermon on the day of Pentecost, he said, “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32). When the apostles were threatened and told not to preach anymore, Peter said, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things…” (Acts 5:30-32). In addition to appearing to the apostles, Paul said that He had “appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:33). His resurrection gives hope for our resurrection. Paul explained, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Therefore, the early disciples did not fear death, so they continued to spread the gospel, and the church continued to grow.
Death Would Not Stop the Continuity of His Church
The apostles were commissioned to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). As they went out and preached, they performed miracles to confirm that their message was from God (Mark 16:19-20). They also imparted miraculous spiritual gifts to others (Acts 8:14-17). This was done in order to help establish the brethren in various locations (cf. Romans 1:11) so that they could continue the Lord’s work.
However, there are no living apostles today. We also cannot establish an unbroken line of faithful Christians that we can trace all the way back to the apostles in the first century. Yet we do not need to do that. Even though we do not have the apostles in the flesh, their words are recorded for us in the Scriptures. Jesus told His apostles that the Holy Spirit would “guide [them] into all the truth” (John 16:13). Knowing he was not going to live much longer (2 Peter 1:14), the apostle Peter wrote, “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you” (2 Peter 1:12). He reminded the brethren of what he had previously taught by writing this letter to them – which we also have as part of the New Testament today.
This was the Lord’s plan to allow His church to continue even after the death of the apostles. Jesus described the word of God as the seed of the kingdom (Luke 8:8). Peter told the Christians to whom he wrote his first epistle, “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The preaching of the gospel enabled men and women to become part of the Lord’s church in the first century. Preaching the same message found in the written word of God enables people today to become part of His church as well. And this word “endures forever” (1 Peter 1:25), which means that even if every living Christian died, the church would still not have been destroyed because the seed that can produce Christians (members of the Lord’s church) remains.
Death Would Not Stop the Glorification of His Church
In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul described the church as the bride of Christ. He wrote, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:22-26). In that passage, Paul explained that the church is made up of those who are saved (Ephesians 5:23; cf. Acts 2:47). They have been sanctified and cleansed (Ephesians 5:26) – set apart and forgiven of sins.
Yet a time is coming in which Christ will “present…the church in all her glory” (Ephesians 5:27). One day, the Lord will return and receive us – those who have been added to His church and continue in faithful service to Him – to the home He has prepared. He told His apostles, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3). This promise was not just for the apostles. Paul said that all Christians have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
It is easy to focus on the trials, suffering, and even death we must experience. Yet despite all of these things, we will be glorified with Him on the final day. Peter explained: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:6-9). No matter what we endure in this life – even if we face death – we will be glorified with Him and all the saved who make up His church.
Conclusion
Jesus promised His disciples that He would build His church. Even though He died, He fulfilled His promise. Even though the apostles in the first century have passed on long ago and disciples of every generation face death, the church would not be defeated. It will continue to grow, continue to stand, and be glorified in the end. Knowing this, we need to be sure we are part of His church and are faithfully serving Him in it.
