On this rock I will build my church

Jesus is the Rock

    The heart of the ministry of Jesus is the confession that Peter made in Matthew 16:13ff. The theme of that whole context is the Messiahship of Jesus. That’s the question Jesus put to the apostles and that’s the response Peter gave Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

    As Everett Ferguson comments, “The rock is the faith confessed by Peter, not Peter confessing the faith” (The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today, 49).

    The imagery of the “stone” or “rock” comes from, among other passages, Isaiah 8:14: “Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” 

    Isaiah utilizes the stone imagery as well in 28:16: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.”

    Finally, the psalmist writes: “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone” (118:22).

    Jesus uses these passages to portray His own life and work in Matthew 21:42-44. Peter does as well in Acts 4:11.

    The apostle Paul also combines these Isaiah passages and refers them to Jesus in Romans 9:33. The “stumbling block” for the Jews, according to the Romans 9 context, is the resurrection of Christ, which is also the issue in Matthew 16. The resurrection also seems to be in the context of Isaiah 28:18: “Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you become its trampling place.”

    Peter combines this catena of “stone passages” in 1 Peter 2:4, 6, 7, and 8: “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture [Isaiah 28:16]: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve [Psalm 118:22], “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,” and [Isaiah 8:14], “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.”

    In Matthew 16, Jesus, as the rock, will build His church and He will be its cornerstone. But the process of building that church will also include His own suffering, death, and resurrection (16:21).

    We cannot expect our occupation or existence of this church to require anything less from us.

--Paul Holland