When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered 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 tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:13–18).

That’s what I want to talk about. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

I Will Build My Church

My understanding is that when Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,” he meant, “Peter, you have just articulated, on behalf of the foundational apostles, the foundational truth of my messiahship, and on that truth, and on your speaking of it as my authoritative apostles, I will build my church.” I think that’s what you get in Ephesians 2:20, where it says the apostles and the prophets are the foundation of the church. The church is being built on this glorious truth as it’s expressed in the authoritative witness of the apostles. And then Jesus says, “On that, I will build my church.” You’re all church planters, or related to church planting, and so to hear the Lord Jesus say, “I will build my church,” should make a huge difference regarding what he means.

The Lion and the Lamb

Consider these four things with the statement I will build my church. Let’s just say a word about each of those. Who is this I who says, “I will build my church?” One of the clearest and most amazing glimpses into who the risen Lord is, is in Revelation 5, where John is granted to see the throne where God and Christ are, and there’s weeping in John’s eyes because there’s no one found who can open the scroll that’s in the hands of God on the throne. The scroll represents the seven seals and the history that’s going to be unfolded when the right person is found to unfold history. And then one of the elders says, “Don’t weep because the lion of the tribe of Judah has been slain and is worthy.” And then there’s this singing:

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God … (Revelation 5:9).

So, he is the one who is infinitely worthy to unfold the end time history. And after that, you get this amazing statement that John heard in heaven myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands of angels — so at least two million. That’s what I take thousands of thousands to be. And they in one voice say:

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
   to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and might
   and honor and glory and blessing! (Revelation 5:12).

And then there is an amazing statement that I had never seen before recently. It says:

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
   be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13).

Now I take that to mean birds and butterflies in heaven; camels, horses, tigers, and rabbits on the earth; squid, whales, and fish in the sea; and moles and worms under the ground. They all began to talk. They became talking animals and it says that they said, “Worthy are you to receive blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

So there’s the glimpse of the risen Christ, who is infinitely worthy to unfold the scroll of history, and who is acclaimed as blessed and powerful and honorable, not only by 2 million angels, but by every creature that is given a voice to speak. That’s the one who says, “I will build my church,” and you men and women should take heart that engagement in the cause of planting this church is engagement with an infinitely powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely glorious Christ, who makes that promise.

The Builder of the Church

I will build my church. The church is not a building, and it’s not a plant. So you’re involved in planting and building, but the church isn’t a plant and it isn’t a building. The church is a people. So how does Christ authoritatively and omnipotently build a people?

I think one of the best pictures of that is Acts 16, where Paul comes into Philippi and there are three people he meets. One is Lydia, a business woman. What happens to her? It says, “The Lord opened her heart” (Acts 16:14). He builds the church by ripping the gates of hell off of the hearts of human beings that have held them in hell-bent sin and unbelief. He rips this inattention and disinterest off of Lydia, and she believes.

And then Paul meets a slave girl who is prophesying, declaring things, and making lots of money for her owners, and Paul gets so aggravated he says, “In the name of Jesus come out of her” (Acts 16:18). And again, the risen Christ rips off the gates of hell that have held her heart in lifelong bondage, and now she’s in the church. And then they go to jail for all of these good deeds, and then God rips the gates of hell right off the prison there, and one more person, the jailer, says, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). And God rips the gates of hell off of his heart that had held him in lifelong bondage, and lo and behold, what do you have? A church. You have a businesswoman, a slave girl, and employee of the local jail.

That’s the way God builds his church. He says, “I will build my church.” The reason Christ rips the gates of hell off of the human heart and opens their eyes is to see the one that they had been held back from all their lives.

The Owner of the Church

I will build my church. You’re involved in church planting, but the church belongs to Jesus Christ. We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

When Paul got to Ephesus, do you remember what it says? It says he was afraid and he was discouraged, and one night in a dream, the Lord Jesus came to him and said, “Don’t be afraid. Continue to speak for I have many people in this city that are mine” (Acts 18:10). He has them there, just like Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also” (John 10:16). They are chosen before the foundation of the world, and there are some in Ephesus, some in Milwaukee, some in Chicago, some in Minneapolis, some in Atlanta, and some in Bangkok. They’re all over the world, and we church builders, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, through the word of God, announce the gospel, and God takes his own for himself.

He laid down his life for them, as he said, “I lay down my life for my sheep” (John 10:15). No one lays down his life for his friends, except the one who loves his friends (John 15:13). He died for his bride. They are his, not only by virtue of election, they are his by virtue of blood-bought purchase. So the church grows by virtue of the my coming to reality.

The People of God

I will build my church. Jesus never said, “I will build my social service agency.” He never said, “I will build my parachurch ministry.” He never said, “I will build my university, or my Christian College, or my Christian School.” He said, “I will build my church.” One institution in all the universe is given this promise: “I will build my church.”

So brothers, be encouraged that you are about something extraordinarily important.

You Know Not How the Kingdom Grows

Let me just give you one last piece of advice. This comes right off of my devotions from this morning. I was reading in Mark 4:26–27, where it says:

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

My closing exhortation, negatively, is that you don’t know how to grow the kingdom of God. Beware of conferences, beware of books, and beware of seminars that tell you how to plant the church. You don’t know how to plant the church. The Bible says you cannot know this. This is God’s doing. It is mysterious. It is deep. It is awesome. You go to bed at night, you get up in the morning, you sow your seed, and it sprouts. You know not how. Watch out for know-it-alls. They don’t know how to grow the church. If they think they know, it isn’t the church they’re growing.

This is the work of the sovereign God. It is a profound and supernatural mystery to open the heart of Lydia, to liberate the servant girl, and to shatter the prison and the heart of the jailer. So, my counsel is brothers, give your life to sowing. Take this glorious word of God and preach it. Preach Christ, preach the Scriptures, and preach the cross. Most of the people in the world don’t know what’s in this book. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

“I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, and I will do the decisive building,” says the Lord. Conferences and seminars and books that tell you that you can do this should not be listened to. They should direct you to Christ and to his word and to the fact that we don’t know anything about how God saves sinners at the depth of their being. This is a mystery. This is a glory, and amazingly, he uses us. He won’t do it without the faithful proclamation of the word of God. Be faithful to the word, and God will use you to build his church. God bless you. I love what you’re doing. I love you. May he make his name great in this conference.