What did Jesus mean by "upon this rock I will build my church" in Matthew 16:18?

As to "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church," Peter had by grace confessed what none ever had, that Christ was the Son of the living God. As entitled to be called Son of God according to promises to Messiah, He had been owned, but Son of the living God He had never been called. This the Father revealed to Peter. The Lord owns the grace conferred on him, and declares that his name should be called Peter (a stone), partaking by grace through his confession of that which he confessed, for it was upon that truth so confessed (that is, on Christ's being the Son of the living God) that He would build His church. Hence it is said that the gates of hades, of the power of death (Satan as having the power of death), should not prevail against the church. For Christ by resurrection was declared to be Son of God with power, above all the power of Satan; and, the church being built on this rock, of His being the Son of the living God, Satan's power, that of death, could not overthrow it. So Chrysostom repeatedly uses it. As James has said, to suppose any real foundation but Christ is denying the Lord. And it is in this character of a divine person having the power of life over death that He can build the church.

So here, upon Peter's confession, the Lord says, "Upon this rock I will build My Church." You understand the glory of My Person; I will show you the work I am going to accomplish. Mark the expression. It is not, I have been building; but I will build My Church. He had not built it yet, nor begun to build it: it was altogether new. I do not mean there had not been souls believing in Him before, and regenerate of the Spirit; but the aggregate of saints from the beginning to the end of time it is an error to call "the Church." It is a common notion which has not one shred of Scripture for it. The expression in Acts 7:38, "The church in the wilderness," means the whole congregation — the mass of Israel — the greater part of whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Can you call that "the Church of God?" There were but few believers among them. People are deceived in this by the sound. The word, "church in the wilderness," merely means the congregation there. The very same word is applied to the confused assembly in Acts 19, which would have torn Paul to pieces. If it were translated like Acts 7, it would be the "church in the theatre," and the blunder is obvious. The word that is translated "church" simply means assembly. To find out what is the nature of the assembly, we must examine the scriptural usage and the object of the Holy Ghost. For you might have a good or bad assembly: an assembly of Jews, of Gentiles, or of God's assembly distinct from either and contrasted with both, as can be readily and undeniably seen in 1 Cor. 10:32. Now it is this last which we mean, i.e., God's assembly, when we speak of "the Church."

What then, to return, does our Lord intimate when He says, "Upon this rock I will build My Church"? Clearly something that He was going to erect upon the confession that He was the Son of the living God, whom death could not conquer, but only give occasion to the shining forth of His glory by resurrection. "Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hades" — the power of death — "shall not prevail against it." This last does not mean the place of the lost, but the condition of separate spirits. "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven."

Then came Peter’s memorable confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That confession—not poor Peter, who so soon denied his Lord and Master—was the rock upon which Christ would build His Church. Peter was a stone—a living stone—built into the rock, but the foundation is the confession of Christ Himself. Against that Church the gates of hell shall not prevail—the hellish machinations of Satan shall come to naught.

After saying that the Father had revealed this truth to Peter, the Lord goes on, "And I also say" — not "And I say also," invert those two words, the Father had spoken, and now He Himself has somewhat of grave moment to say to Peter — "I also say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." What did the Lord mean by this? He confirms Peter in his new name, a stone. But where was this shone to be built? On the rock. "Upon this rock will I build my church." Rome has tried to make out that Peter was the rock. A poor rock would Peter have been! Peter was far too much like you and me. No, no, Peter was a stone, but Christ was the rock, Christ, according to the confession of Peter here, the Son of the living God.

First, the Father is revealing; and the moment Christ hears Himself confessed as the Son of the living God, He also sets His own seal and honours the confessor. It is the assertion of one who at once rises up to His own intrinsic dignity: "And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He gives Simon a new name. As God had given to Abraham, Sarah, etc., because of some fresh manifestation of Himself, so does the Son of God. It had been prophetically announced before; but now comes out for the first time the reason why it was affixed to him. "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." What rock? The confession Peter had made that Jesus was the Son of the living God. On this the Church is built. Israel was governed by a law; the Church is raised on a solid and imperishable and divine foundation — on the person of the Son of the living God. And when this fuller confession breaks from the lips of Peter, the answer comes, Thou art Peter — thou art a stone: a man that derivest thy name from this Rock on which the Church is built.

Here we have the two main things connected with the proposed building — the Rock-foundation, and the divine Builder. "Upon this rock I will build My church." But who is, or what is, "this rock"? some may inquire. Clearly, we answer, the confession of Peter; not Peter himself, as the apostasy teaches. True, he was a stone — a living stone in the new temple, "Thou art Peter" — thou art a stone. But the Father's revelation, by Peter, of the glory of the Person of His Son, is the foundation on which the church is built — "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." But the glory of the Person of the Son in resurrection is the unveiled truth here. "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." Immediately on the confession by Peter, the Lord intimates His intention to build His church, and asserts its eternal security. "Upon this Rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Nay, further, the Lord now addresses Peter, by the name He had conferred upon him. “And I say also to thee, That thou art Peter (petros, the stone), and upon this rock (petra, the great rock foundation), I will build My church; and the gates of hell (the machinations and plottings of Hades, in this case of the underworld) shall not prevail against it.”

"Blessed art thou Simon Barjona," said the Lord, "for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but My Father, which is in heaven," and we all have come to this same blessedness if ye know our Lord, as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," for it is the Father's work thus to reveal Him to us. How wonderful it is! We have not only tasted that the Lord is gracious, equal to all our deep need, but the Father in His grace has opened our hearts to a new position, a new calling, a new place of favour, in revealing to us who His Son is. The revelation is from heaven, and God has made it not as the Almighty or as Jehovah, but as Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Upon what He is as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," the church is built. And Peter is the name that He gives to all who come to Him, for they are built up on Him, living stones in living and everlasting union with Himself, the living Stone.

Here it is not Christ who sows, but the faith of another, faith given to Peter, which discerns in Jesus the Son of the living God. The Jews had only the sign of a risen Saviour; the generation was then rejected, and nothing built upon the first mission of Jesus (the Messiah should " be cut off and shall have nothing");* but the Son of the living God - here is a power and a strength which the energy of the prince of this world could not overturn, against which evidently the gates of hades should not prevail; for in His resurrection, on the contrary, they should be broken by Christ. The resurrection of the Son of God, according to the power of life which was in Him, the foundation and measure of the life and security of the church, was sheltered, and the church by it, from all the attacks of him who had the power of death. In vain the tomb shrouded itself in darkness, out of the midst of which came forth the life more powerful than ever. Simon makes this confession by the revelation of the Father, and it is upon that the church is founded. Indeed Peter is the only one who adds this word "living" to the expression "Son of God." Nathaniel just owns Him as the Son of God and King of Israel; but Peter has the secret of the immovable security of the church of God. It will be found in his epistles that this idea of "living," associated with the resurrection of Christ, forms their basis and ruling thought.

35 Moreover, not only the church, more powerful than death, like its divine Founder, should be based on the confession of Peter; but the administration of the kingdom here below should be entrusted to him. Not he, but Christ builds the church upon the foundations which the Father Himself had laid in the revelation of His life in the Son; but the keys of the kingdom are entrusted to Peter. This administration was to begin among the Jews, and Peter was specially their apostle.

Observe, too, it is "upon this rock I will build my church." It is not "upon this rock I have built," or "upon this rock I am building" — but, "upon this rock I will build my church." The work was still a future one when our Lord spake. He was presented to Israel as their Messiah; but they knew him not. There were those, indeed, whose hearts, like Peter's, grace had touched; but they discerned him in a better glory, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." In this character, and as known in this character, he was to be the foundation of the church. But ere he could build it, he must pass through death; and of this he immediately goes on to speak in the passage we are considering. "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Peter having confessed him as the Son of the living God, he declares that upon this rock he will build his church. When? is the question which here seems to be supposed; and the answer is, "I must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." All this must be accomplished ere the building of the church can commence. There is a passage of deepest interest as to this in John 11 Caiaphas had said, "It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." "This," we are told, "spake he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." It was for the nation of Israel he died; and so all the blessing of the earth, when the nation is the centre of rule and of blessing in the millennial kingdom, will flow from the efficacy of his death. But it was not for that nation only. It was also to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. There were children of God, but they were scattered abroad; to gather them together in one was the immediate object of the death of Christ. And what was this gathering together in one of the children of God? It was the formation of the church. It was the joining together of the till then separate, isolated stones, by building them upon the foundation, — the Son of the living God. But in order to do this, he must die. Sin must be put away by his one sacrifice, ere saved sinners can be builded together for an habitation of God. The foundation indeed is the Son of the living God: but it was not as incarnate merely, but as having died and risen again, that he was actually to become the foundation of the church. He must be declared to be the Son of God, and that was by resurrection. He "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God, with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Rom. 1:3-4.) It is not only on Christ as the Son of the living God that the church is built as a foundation; but ere he actually became the foundation of the church, he had passed through death atoningly; in his resurrection he had set it aside, "abolished" it (see 2 Tim. 1:10); and having ascended into heaven, the Holy Ghost having come down by virtue of his work and in answer to his prayer (see John 14:16), the church was formed by his uniting into one body, with Christ in glory, all who believed in his name. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." (1 Cor. 12:13.) If, then, we are thus one with him who is the Son of the living God, and who has passed through death and set it aside, how can the gates of hades prevail against the church.