Matt 16:18
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
– English KJV
“κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ἅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς.”
– Greek Text
“kago de su lego hoti su ei Petros kai epi taute te petra oikodomeo hou ten ekklesia kai pulai hades ou katischusousin autes”
– Greek Pronunciation
This verse follows a conversation where Jesus asked His disciples two very important questions.
First Jesus asked them who other people thought He was. The disciples answered that other people believed Him to be either John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. People at the time had many different views on who Jesus was. Some Jewish people believed that Jesus was a prophet, other Jews believed that Jesus was a false prophet that came to deceive the Jewish people. Although the view on Jesus changes slightly throughout the Judaic faith, the most popular view seems to be that Jesus was merely a teacher (a rabbi but not a prophet). The Islam nation, on the other hand, regards Jesus as a great prophet, yet still not as important as Mohammed. From the time that Jesus started His ministry, many people believed that Jesus was merely a prophet, which allowed false beliefs to infiltrate many communities and gave opportunity for false religions such as Islam to rise.
The second question Jesus asked was “But who do you say that I am?”, to which Peter responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus then commends Peter and also states the above Scripture. Peter’s declaration is the cornerstone of this verse.
“That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”
Notice Jesus stating “I will build”, which means that at this time the church was not yet built. The disciples at this point did not yet understand the doctrine of the New Testament (specifically the cross and the opportunity for salvation to all nations and all nations being equal).
In early church history some understood this to mean that Peter is the rock on which the church is built. The Catholic Church believe that Peter was the first pope and some believe that he was more important than the other disciples and therefore the church is built upon him. However, close study reveals this interpretation to be in error. It is not upon the man known as Peter that the church will be built, but upon his confession (mentioned in the previous verses). Nowhere does the Bible state that Peter was more important than the other disciples or had authority over any of them.
When we look at the context of this section in Greek we find that Jesus was actually saying: The church will be built upon the confession and faith that Jesus is the Son of God, which Peter had correctly declared.
The word translated as “rock” is “petra”.
The name translated as Peter is “Petros”, which means rock, but is more accurately translated as “stone”.
The wordplay is very interesting.
Christ is the rock upon which the church must be built. He is the foundation.
Each of us should have the faith that Peter had, making each of us “stones”. We are the stones of the temple that are built on the rock that is Jesus Christ.
Judaism argues that Jesus was not the Messiah and one of the reasons they use is that Jesus did not build the 3rd temple (according to Ezekiel 37:26-28), however, Ezekiel was not talking about a physical temple. No physical structure that humans can build (or even imagine) can ever house the true presence of God. The truth is that Jesus did build the temple. Each of us are part of His church, we are His temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. We are the stones of His temple and we are placed upon the rock that cannot break.
“and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”
The obvious meaning that comes to mind in this statement is that the enemies will never conquer the church of Christ. However, this is not what the passage is saying.
To understand what it is really about we need to look at the words used in this passage: The gates of Hell shall not prevail…
Do gates attack? No, gates defend.
Do gates move with the armies? No, gates are bound to their walls and move only to open or close.
This passage is talking about when the church attacks Satan and his forces. Jesus is stating that when we attack the enemy, their gates will not protect them. We need to plow forward and take the enemy territories one by one…their gates will not stop us.
This passage is often used to say that the enemy will never destroy the church. It may be true that the enemy will never snuff out the entire church, however, that does not mean that the enemy will not have victories when attacking the church. The passage speaks about us attacking the enemy, however, it does not say that Christians will not lose “territories”. When the church leadership loses their way (as have happened often in history), the entire church is affected. If the leaders and congregation are not watchful a church can be destroyed very quickly. The damage may be so extensive that the church must split in order to survive. Some Christian denominations believe that Jesus is promising the preservation of one single church throughout time, however, this is not the case. God will let His truth survive some way or another, but that does not necessarily include any denomination.
How often do Christians abandon territories? How many of us fight back when the government passes a law that goes against God’s law? When we allow things in our lives that are contrary to God’s law, we are abandoning territories and handing them over to the enemy. Far too often Christians abandon territories and even welcome the enemy!
Some might ask ‘when do we supposedly “welcome the enemy”?’
We welcome the enemy when we accept the things that are contrary to God’s Word.
There is a difference between abandoning a territory and welcoming the enemy in. Here is an example:
When we allow people to get drunk in our house, we abandon a territory. (We know something is wrong, but we do nothing about it)
When we allow people to get drunk in our house and we join them, we not only abandon the territory, but welcome Satan in with open arms. (We accept something that is wrong as being right)
When are we welcoming the enemy? We can list hundreds of examples, but here are a few:
Accepting divorce outside biblical laws is welcoming the enemy in.
Believing that abortion is acceptable is welcoming the enemy in.
Those who know me should be expecting the next one: Accepting the theory of evolution is welcoming the enemy in… (And those who disagree are more than welcome to contact me…)
In reality we should be out there, conquering enemy territories, not abandoning the ones we control. The enemy should be so busy trying to defend their own territories that they should have no time to attack ours!
As we enter the new year, think back on how many territories we have conquered… Think about how many we abandoned?
Where did you overcome the enemy gates in your own life?
Have you abandoned any territories to the enemy this year?
Have you welcomed the enemy into any territories?
Any sin in your life is enemy territory. It is a good idea to make a list of the things in your life that you need to conquer. Take the list before God and ask Him for help. Make an effort to conquer these territories in 2009. Remember that with Jesus as your rock the enemy gates will not stop you.
