The Universal Church (1)

Prayer for David Burse and the Need to Relearn Church Doctrine

Hebrews chapter 12. We are in contact in recent months with our friend David Burse. He's no longer a member of this church, but he has been able to arrange to return to the Philippines. And so he's leaving tomorrow evening, tomorrow night actually, and going to the northern Philippines to serve in a church there, a very rural area, right on the ocean I understand.

And so pray for David's safety, if you would, and the Lord's blessing upon him. We want God's best for him. Why don't we pray first, ask God to help us. Our Father, we come to you asking that you would have your way in our souls.

We pray Lord that you would illuminate our mind to the truth of your word. We pray our God that you would help us to dispel any errant understanding that we may have, and that that would be displaced with truth.

We pray our God that you would help us in this study which we are embarking upon today, that you would guide us and help us, and help us to be a stronger and better church before you as a result of what we give attention to.

And so may your will be done. May you bless us, help us, illuminate us, move us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There are some aspects of the Christian faith that we might assume are understood by most Christians, but this would not necessarily be the case.

In fact, I guess I'm never really amazed at what people don't know, or what they think they know but don't know. For error and ignorance exists among Christians with regard to many doctrines of the scriptures.

It's a learning process, isn't it? And there's much to learn as a Christian. This Bible is, you know, we'll never exhaust it. We can give our entire lives to it. Some of us have been in it for many decades now, but it's always a fresh book, isn't it?

And we're always learning things new because it reflects the will and ways of an infinite God, and we can be thankful for that. It's a rich book. But many of us have perhaps wrong understandings that need to be corrected, and they're the hardest ones to deal with, aren't they?

I've always said it's harder to unlearn than it is to learn. Because once we have certain beliefs ingrained in our thinking, and we presume that this is what the Bible teaches, and we tend to defend those things tenaciously, what we really need to be is, in a good sense, thoroughly critically minded, and allow the Word of God to confront us and challenge us in order to understand what it teaches.

And this matter, this doctrine that we want to address now in our study, beginning today, is one of those areas, one of those aspects of study that is very important. For there are many unbiblical views of the Church that many people hold, many Christians hold.

They perhaps have acquired unbiblical views regarding the Church through their own Church experience in the past, assuming that what they've been a part of in the past was scriptural. They assumed it was so.

And they've never known anything different, perhaps. They've never been in a setting, perhaps, where they've been taught and challenged rightly regarding the matter, what the Holy Scriptures reveal. And I think that because of error and confusion that many churches of Jesus Christ suffer, they're not all that they can be or should be.

And I just pray that that will not be the case with us. Some might believe a discussion of the doctrine of the Church is not an important matter. You know, it may seem to have little relevance or application, and they might not view this subject as something of real interest.

I hope that's not the case with us. You know, the Lord loved the Church and gave Himself for it. We ought to love the Church and give ourselves for her as well. Some might perceive a detailed discussion about this as needless and fruitless.

But the understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ has broad implications for faith and practice on how we are to view ourselves and how we are to live in the world. God saved each of us as individuals as we came to Christ.

But He didn't save us to be individuals. He saved us to be a part of His people, a part of His Church. And we really aren't living as Christians until we see ourselves in God's purposes in this way. And I would argue a reason that great harm has come to God's people and even entire nations through history because of error respecting the nature and identity of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And I would assert that even in today's world of postmodernism and multiculturalism, there is greater need than ever to be precise about these matters, about what we believe and why we believe what we do about the Church.

Because the world has influenced Christendom to blur the lines between the Church and the world. Ecumenicism of the broadest kind is promoted, and so most today who would argue they're Christian think that all distinctions between churches and denominations are artificial, unnecessary, and even sinful.

You hear that commonly. They believe to keep separate from others who claim to be Christian is sinful, unspiritual. But in addition, there are those, say in the last generation, who have attempted to reinvent the Church in order to reach the people in the present day culture.

They have developed new models of ministry, and many of these touch on the nature and function of the Church. Their desires are noble, perhaps, their motives, pure, let's reach the world for Christ. But we would question their models.

They advocate new, unscriptural ways in which the Church functions. But in addition, non-denominationalism is quite popular now. The Church of Jesus all across this land, of course, are changing their name.

They have been for a generation now. So that you can no longer identify them with a specific group or even a specific doctrine. Generalizations. The Christian Life Center, for example, which tells you nothing.

And many churches are changing their labels and whatnot because they see this is going to be somehow more conducive to reaching a broader culture. And they advocate denominations do not matter. And so really, in their advocacy of non-denominationalism, they really are becoming interdenominational.

All groups and churches that claim to be Christian are presumed to be part of the universal Church. And so everything is accepted. Everything is given legitimacy. You know, we're Christian, but we're against everybody else.

You know, yeah, there's some cults out here, there's Islam out there, but we're Christians. And so there's this general acceptance that anybody and everybody who claims to be Christian is so, and is regarded as so, and treated so.

And so because of this spirit permeating Christendom, anything believed about God is presumed to be legitimate for the most part. Sincerity is the big test today. If people are sincere, who are you to criticize, you know, before the Lord?

But again, this only underscores the importance that we understand with precision what the Scriptures affirm to be true regarding these matters. And so today I'd like us to begin to examine what the Bible says, what the Bible teaches about the Church, and I hope as a result we will see more clearly what we are as a Church of Jesus Christ and how our Lord would have us minister to the world about us.

The Universal Church in Hebrews 12 and the Pilgrimage of the Saints

Now, first let us acknowledge that when the Holy Scripture speaks about the Church of Jesus Christ, it does so in two senses. Just about everybody acknowledges this. One is a church that is commonly described as a universal church, and the other is a local church, universal and local.

Sometimes these two forms of the church are described as a church triumphant, that would be the universal church, and then the church militant, that would be the local church. Another common designation is the invisible church.

I don't necessarily like that term, but we're against the visible church. The invisible church would be comprised of all people in history who are truly born again, and you really can't see into their hearts, that's why it's invisible, and then you have the visible church, would be the local church congregations.

Now again, this might seem to be so elementary to be needless and fruitless to spend time delineating about this, but please believe me, although most agree in these two expressions of the Church of Jesus Christ, there's much difference of opinion and sharp disagreement as to the nature of these two entities, and we're going to explore these and get into some detail about it, and today we'll only have time to address the identity and nature of the universal church, but we're going to show that there's not a lot of agreement about this, and we would argue that we, from a reformed perspective, actually have a minority view about the identity of the universal church, as we'll demonstrate today, Lord willing, and so even though it might seem like this is a rather simple matter, and maybe a matter that's not all that controversial, in reality it is.

Even what we say today would not be readily accepted by a whole lot of evangelicals in churches around, and so we want to do so in the time we have by examining two passages in the New Testament, Lord willing, see how we do, one in Hebrews 12 and the other in Matthew 16, two passages that speak very directly about the church, and particularly in the form of being a universal church, and so let's begin by reading Hebrews 12, 22 -24.

Here we have the universal church described for us, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church, there it is, church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Let me provide some context for this passage. The writer was in various ways exhorting the Jewish Christians, to whom he was writing, to persevere in their faith in Jesus Christ. Due to the threat that was upon them for being Christian, they were tempted to forsake Jesus Christ, to return to worship and serve God according to the old covenant system of Judaism of the day.

The religion that was given by God through Moses to Israel, they knew that was legitimate, and they were catching heat for being a Christian, for believing on Jesus. Let's just walk away from Jesus, go back to what we knew was of God, and we'll be okay, we'll be safe, and we'll avoid persecution.

And the writer in various ways throughout his epistle is saying, you can't go there, there's no salvation for you if you abandon Jesus. The writer did not set forth an argument that many well-meaning evangelicals might assume about God's dealings in history.

In other words, the writer did not argue that though God had formal dealings with the nation of Israel, now his concern in this age was concern for the church. That's not how the writer argued. In other words, he wasn't saying that God, through history, was working two different programs, one with Israel and one with the church.

That's not what the writer argued. Rather, the writer showed his readers that God throughout history had been leading all people of faith, one large body, one church, through history, on to their heavenly destination.

They were one people on a journey, on a pilgrimage that would eventually bring them to the heavenly Jerusalem, to Zion. And so in heaven, they all, we all, all believers from all periods of history, not just from the day of Pentecost onward for the church, we'll get into that, but all people of faith, including all of the Old Testament people of faith recorded in Hebrews 11, and all New Testament believers in Jesus Christ, all traveling together in this one mass pilgrimage being led to our heavenly Zion, this pilgrimage, a return from exile, really, if you want to carry that theme further.

And here they are described as the church of the firstborn, and only they will enjoy every blessing forever. The writer had shown in the previous chapter, Hebrews 11, that even the Old Testament patriarchs of Israel were looking forward in faith not to dwell in an earthly city, Jerusalem.

They did not regard Palestine over there as the holy land, although that's a common reference to that land in the Bible. But that's not where they had fixed their hope, their desires. But rather, they, just as New Testament believers, were anticipating a heavenly city, a city whose builder and maker was God, as Hebrews 11, 8 -10 declares.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country.

He did not regard that as homeland. Dwelling in tents, he was a temporary dweller, a sojourner. He didn't settle down and build a city. Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

Why? Verse 10, he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. So he's looking for a heavenly city, a new Jerusalem. And so the earthly Canaan was only a shadow of the heavenly reality which they saw in faith.

Old Testament believers desired what New Testament believers are promised. The Old Testament saints never realized their desires in this world. They were sojourners. They lived in the light of God's promise.

Why? Because God determined they would not receive their full inheritance until we, the believers of this age, complete our journey as we follow them by faith to Mount Zion, the heavenly city of God. And so we read further in Hebrews 11.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things, declare plainly they seek a homeland.

And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. If they were looking for an earthly homeland, they would have stayed in Ur-the-Caldes where home was.

But that's not what they were looking for. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. And therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. And then farther down in Hebrews 11 we read, all these, that is all these Old Testament believers, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise.

Why? There's 40. God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. There's one people before the coming of Christ, after the coming of Christ, but one people, all the same inheritance.

And they hadn't received it yet because we're all going to arrive there together. And so we as they are on this pilgrimage, this journey of faith, one people of God stretching in number since the beginning of time, traveling through this world, a barren wilderness, journeying to our heavenly promised land.

The writer urged these Jewish New Testament believers in Jesus Christ not to go back to their former ways, but rather to journey onward in faith to their heavenly reward that awaits them at the end of their lives of faith.

The Old Covenant characterized that section of road that believers traveled in the past. Oh yeah, Old Covenant believers have passed that stretch of the road. They're moving onward. Jesus Christ has moved onward.

And now that Jesus is come, he died and rose again, the end of their journey is in sight. They're coming to Zion, the promised city of God. And God therefore will have no pleasure in them if they shrink back, that is to return to Judaism.

Just as God rejected and judged the children of Israel who refused to enter and take possession of the promised land, so God would reject these professing Jewish Christian believers if they refused to follow the Lord Jesus on to Zion.

Just as those apostates had forsaken the Lord and wanted to return to Egypt and thereby incurred God's judgment, they died in the wilderness. Even after God had so graciously delivered them, these professing Christians must not commit the same sin of apostasy.

They must continue onward in faith. And so really the writer's argument is as if he were saying this, and these are my words. Besides, look how close you are to the end. It's time to sprint to the end, not go back.

Why, see them, the first of us believers have arrived already. They're there, that great cloud of witnesses. Consider their witness. But most importantly, for ongoing strength in your journey, consider Jesus, who himself endured hardship so as to secure an entrance for us.

Focus on his sufferings and hardship, lest you become weary and discouraged in the way that's leading to glory. Yes, it's difficult, but not only is God bringing you on this road of difficulty to get you to heaven, he's using the difficulty of the road to prepare you for heaven.

You are his sons. You have forgotten that he's preparing you through chastening so that you'll be prepared to receive your inheritance as sons when you finally arrive to the city of which you are a citizen.

God has a purpose in making your way difficult. It's so that we may be partakers of his holiness. Let us press on in faith, encouraging one another and helping one another, lest sin prevent us from finishing this journey.

And so we read in Hebrews 12, 12, Therefore strengthen the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees, that's a description of weary travelers, and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

This is a wonderful book, a wonderful extended metaphor that is so rich. Well, we come now to Hebrews 12, 18 and following, again which would have been very significant to Jewish believers. He tells them, you're not approaching Mount Sinai as great an event as that was, but rather you're approaching heaven itself.

You're not coming to a physical mountain that may be touched, Mount Sinai, in which the holiness of God was manifested when he gave the law to Moses. Your privilege is much greater. You're coming to Mount Zion, heaven itself, the heavenly Jerusalem, the very dwelling place of the living God.

And so it's as though he were telling this people, you're right there. You are just about to arrive at your final destination. It's just in sight now. Do you see it through the eyes of faith? Just look who's there as we arrive.

We're coming into the presence of the living God. And look, there's an innumerable company of angels. And whom else do you see? You will see the gathered church before him. And so here it is, where we see the universal church described.

We may see that first, the universal church is described as, or called, the General Assembly. Verse 23a. This speaks about the festal gathering. It's a feast. Probably a reference to the great banquet of the Messiah that's spoken about so much in Scripture.

Of course, eating a meal together in Scripture is one of the supreme expressions of fellowship. And here the people of faith are gathered before the living God in this great festive atmosphere. Secondly, the universal church is the church, and the Greek word for church is ekklesia, a called out gathering, of the first born who are registered in heaven.

Now, of course, elsewhere Jesus Christ is described as the first born son. And we have become brothers and sisters by adoption through faith in Jesus Christ. Here, however, the metaphor is given, not that Jesus Christ is the first born son, you have that elsewhere, but here is described as the church of the first born because everyone in the church are his first born sons.

There's great privilege here that's spoken about. In fact, my New Reformation Study Bible note gives a good comment about verse 23. All the first born in Israel were sanctified at the time of the Passover and consecrated to service in God's presence, but the Levites served the sanctuary in the place of the first born.

In the heavenly assembly, all believers redeemed from destruction are first born, consecrated to God, and enrolled as his priests. The church of the first born. And then thirdly, we see the universal church includes the spirits of just men, made perfect, in other words, of course women too, speaks of men generically, mankind.

All who are justified through faith have been made perfect through the work of Christ and they now stand before God. And this includes all the Old Testament saints, who the writer has in particular view, Hebrews 11.

And then also, we're approaching our heavenly Zion, we see Jesus, who's described as the mediator of the covenant. The new covenant is the only covenant that makes sinners into saints and fits them to come to the presence of the living God.

And of course, this covenant is based upon our Lord's sacrificial death for his people, by which he pardons them and cleanses them from sin so as to present them holy before God. The point we want to stress is this, there will be one church in eternity, one people of God, comprised of Jew and Gentile, believers of all ages, who have all been equally brought before God through the mediation of Jesus Christ, the one Savior of all people.

That is the universal church. Here's a good definition taken from our Confession of Faith, the Baptist Confession of 1689. The Catholic, and the old use of the word Catholic just simply meant universal.

The Catholic, that's lower case C, not capital C like in Roman Catholic, but lower C. The Catholic or universal church, which, with respect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Again, from the Baptist Confession of Faith. We'll give emphasis to two aspects of this definition, and then we'll show in some ways where Christians understand this definition of the universal church differently.

And that would be wrong understanding in our opinion. First, the universal church may be called the invisible church. The word invisible is used because the universal church is comprised of those who experienced a spiritual work of salvation in their souls, something that you and I cannot see.

We can see the evidence of it, but we cannot see it itself. The spiritual work of grace is not overtly evident. You cannot see outwardly whether or not a person is truly born again, although you can see evidence that the new birth has taken place.

And then secondly, the universal church is made up of all the chosen people of God throughout all of history, all who were redeemed from their sin by Jesus Christ, comprise the universal church. However, there's a very popular different interpretation of the universal church, and I would probably reason 95 of evangelicals have this other view of the universal church.

Many Christians believe the universal church is to be identified differently than what we have just set forth. They would say the universal church does not include Old Testament believers, but rather it only contains or comprises New Testament believers from the day of Pentecost until the second coming of Christ.

The universal church is only Christians in this church age. And so it's popularly asserted the universal church only contains true believers in Jesus Christ on this side of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This view, of course, distinguishes sharply between the nation of Israel and the church. The spouses of this view assert that Israel is Israel, the church is the church. The two should not be confused or intermingled with one another.

It's believed that Israel and the church have different purposes in God's work within redemption history. Some assert different destinies in Israel beyond a renewed earth, where the church will be in heaven with the Lord.

Different destinies, different peoples, different programs. God has two purposes in history, and so they view the universal church much narrowly than we understand. Now we readily admit there is a distinction between believers under the old covenant and believers under the new covenant.

We don't deny that. The true people of God in Old Testament times were believers who were for the most part of national Israel, many of which from Moses onward were living under a national covenant, clearly.

The vast majority of them were from one ethnic nation, Israel. But most of the people of God in this new covenant age are Gentile, which is in accordance with the declared purpose of God to take his gospel to the nations through Israel proclaimed in the prophets of the Old Testament.

And so even though we would acknowledge and affirm there are distinctions between the old and new order, an understanding of the universal church should include all true believers through history. And I have listed a handful of passages that underscore this reality.

For example, in John 10 .26, Jesus taught, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, that would be Jewish believers, them also I must bring, that includes you and me, Gentile believers. They shall hear my voice, they shall be one fold and one shepherd.

See, one universal church, not two. One fold and one shepherd. And so here we have the one fold, his sheep, comprised of Jewish and Gentile believers. Matthew 8 .10 -11, we read of course Jesus encountering a Gentile believer during his earthly ministry.

There I say unto you, I have not found so great no not in Israel, I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west. That's where Gentiles live. Many will come from there, as this Gentile centurion, and sit down, notice, alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There's one people in the kingdom of heaven. And so here the Lord taught that Gentiles would be seated with the patriarchs of Israel. Gentile believers also enjoy the promises that God gave to the Father.

I haven't seen such faith in all Israel. This man and others, there'll be many coming from the east and the west, all over the world, sitting down with, alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and enjoying the blessing of the kingdom.

Matthew 19 .28, Jesus said to them, Verily say to you, that you which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, this is when the kingdom is fully manifested, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

He's talking to his twelve apostles. Here he's declaring that they will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. There's one people of God. The twelve apostles are promised authority to lead the twelve tribes of Israel.

And those people that argue that Israel is the church, and the two shall never be mixed, are going to have troubles with a passage like this, where the apostles are entrusted with authority over Israel.

Fourthly, Romans 4 .9 -18. We won't read the passage, but Abraham, Paul argues, very convincingly, Abraham is the father of all Gentile believers. Israel, the people of God, Paul argues in Romans 4, are spiritual descendants of Abraham, not physical descendants.

He is the father of many nations, as God promised way back in Genesis 12, and 15, and 17, 22. The father of many nations. That means Gentiles. And so how is Abraham a father to them? They have the same faith as Abraham, is what Paul reasons.

One people of God, Romans 9 .6. We have stated by Paul, you know, why isn't he basically setting forth an argument? You know, how can Christianity be true when it seems like so many Jews believe on Jesus, their Messiah?

He says, it is not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Now some argue to even talk about a spiritual Israel is error. But this is what Paul is doing.

He is saying not all of spiritual Israel are of physical Israel. He is saying there are two Israels here described, and one of them are the people of God, and one are not. There is a national Israel, but there is a spiritual Israel also.

And spiritual Israel is comprised of all believers, who Paul argues in Galatians are promised children, just like Isaac was a promised child. Not as Ishmael, who was a physical offspring of Abraham of the flesh, but Isaac who was born because he was promised by God.

And if you are a Christian, it is because God promised you to his son, Jesus Christ. And so you are a promised child of Abraham in the same way Isaac was. Paul reasons this convincingly, with great effect and great implications in Galatians, in the epistle to the Galatians.

And then here we are, Galatians, the sixth passage, Galatians 3 .6 -8. Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.

People argue that Israel, the national Israel, and the Jews, ethnic Jews, are the true people of God. Paul, and you can understand why he got himself into trouble so often when he preached in synagogues, no, the true people of God are not those who are physical descendants of Abraham, but the ones who are the true sons of Abraham with regard to God's promises are the ones that have faith.

And so, Paul said, Scripture foreseeing God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to Abraham of Horehead, saying, and you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. All of these verses can only be understood rightly within context if you have a concept of the universal church as we have described it as set forth in Hebrews chapter 12.

The Universal Church Is Not Parachurch, Denominational, or National Church Structures

Let me say one more matter about the nature and identity of the universal church before we move on. We should not assume that Christian institutions such as parachurch organizations, ministries, denominations, or national state churches, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Evangelist Church of Germany, which is the Lutheran, that's how they describe the Lutheran church, they don't call them Lutherans, they call them Evangelisch in German.

National state churches, they are not to be confused with the universal church. The universal church has to do with individuals that are born again by the Spirit of God. And oftentimes there is wrong legitimacy that is rendered to churches and movements because of a faulty view of the universal church.

After all, they are part of the universal church and therefore we ought to regard them and accept them as such. But this is not how the Bible presents the universal church. As we saw in Hebrews 12, the universal church is in the process of being gathered as true believers complete their life of faith as a journey in faith to come into the presence of God.

The universal church has not yet been fully gathered for not all the elect have arrived before the throne of God. But one day we will and there will be one people and this has been God's purpose throughout all of history.

And so we see just in the beginning of this study on the church that what we are advocating is not what is necessarily advocated by everybody but I believe it is biblical and it is reflected very well in our confession.

And this is the historic reformed understanding, by the way, of Protestants until the last hundred and fifty years or so. Well, I know it is running late but let's turn to one other passage and I want to just point out a couple things of importance and that is Matthew 16 where our Lord Jesus spoke about the church.

Peter, the Rock, and the Keys of the Kingdom in Matthew 16

The first time the church, the word church in English is found in our New Testaments and this is on the lips of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 16. The reason I am bringing this up is that we have been recently speaking about the role and importance of the kingdom of God and how it should be understood probably as a very central if not the central, I won't go that far, but a very, very central theme of all of scripture.

How does the church relate to the kingdom of God? There is a lot of different opinions about this and I thought that we could look here at Matthew 16 and see that there is a correlation, a relationship between the church, the universal church and the kingdom of God and it is found in our Lord's words in Matthew 16.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? I went to Caesarea Philippi with my son-in-law Darren when we went to Israel.

I had to drive up in our van, there were only 10 of us in the tour group, drive up through Galilee, actually drive near the border of real close to Lebanon and went up into the mountains in this wonderful, beautiful canyon where there is a beautiful river flowing down.

There was a grotto and from the Roman days it was a pagan place and so there was little alcoves in the cliffs dedicated to the god Pan of the Roman pantheon. But that was Caesarea Philippi and I was struck.

There were class groups there and I remember seeing one Israeli teacher, a woman carrying an AK -47 around her neck as she is guarding her children in their school class there in Caesarea Philippi. But here they were, Jesus took his disciples up there, a very quiet, refreshing place, obscure place and here he speaks to them.

Who do men say that I am, the son of man, am? And they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, there is the word church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Another expression for kingdom of God. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.

And so here we see in our Lord's words that the church is very closely associated with the kingdom of God in his own words. Well, what is being said here? Well, our Lord speaks first about the foundation of the church.

Our Lord said to Peter, I tell you, you are Peter, on this rock I will build my church. And of course we can't get away from this without addressing what Rome has claimed about these words for 1 ,500 years.

The Lord renamed Simon calling him Peter. By the way, the Greek word for Peter is a masculine noun, that's important. Our Lord then said that he would build his church upon this rock. You're Peter. It was Simon, you're now Peter, a rock, and I'm going to build a church on this rock.

However, the Greek word translated as rock in the second occurrence is not the masculine form translated as Peter, but rather it's the feminine form. And so it is not Petras, that's the name of Peter, but Petra, just like the city of Petra down in southern Lebanon.

The masculine form was used in ancient Greek language to describe a small rock or stone. The feminine form, however, was used to depict a rocky ledge or a large boulder. So there is a distinction between them, and this is important.

Of course, the statement of our Lord to the Apostle Peter is one of the most important verses of Scripture to the Roman Catholic Church, and has been for 1 ,500 years. It's used to assert authority for their pope and for the exclusive claim of legitimacy for their church.

It's the only true church, according to them. Their interpretation of the passage may be gleaned from the Catholic Catechism, and here are some key points in that Catechism. The Lord made Simon alone whom he named Peter, the rock of this church.