How Jesus Builds His Church — Zac Poonen

Building the Church Through Every Believer

So today I want to share concerning how every one of us can have a part in building this church. So I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. So if you understand this all right, you'll be able to understand how each one of us can have a part in building the church because in most churches it's just the preachers and the song leaders who almost do all the work and it looks as if they are the only ones who are building the church.

But that's where you need to understand the difference between a congregation and a church. The Old Testament Israelites were a congregation. If you called it a church, then that would be the biggest megachurch in the world with two million people and Moses as their pastor.

But it was not a church, it was a congregation. They were not connected together as a body. The Holy Spirit did not dwell in all of them, so they could not be a body. And most so-called megachurches today in the world are megacongregations.

The Old Testament Israelites were all drawn to one leader, Moses, and Aaron, his assistant. And so today in many so-called megachurches, it's one big man up there and his assistant pastor. And that's what they call a church, but it's not a church according to the New Testament.

And then a lot of people are drawn to small groups then. You know, they like to meet in house churches because in house churches, they care for one another, they help one another. That also is not necessarily a church, it could be a club.

In a club, people care for one another and help one another. And particularly people who are very insecure and lonely, they don't like to be in a big church. They like to go to a small place where people make much of them because there may be only 10, 15 people there and one person is very important.

So people who want a sense of importance go to a small group because then everybody will make much of them, help them when they're in trouble and so many things. That's a club, that's also not a church.

Because if you're looking for a place where we help one another, you can join a club. There are many good clubs that do that type of thing. But a church is something very different. So in Matthew 16, it's the very first place in the Bible where we read the word church, Matthew 16 and verse 18.

This is where Jesus spoke the word church for the very first time. And whenever a word occurs for the first time in scripture, it's good to see where it occurs because we learn something there. I'll give you a couple of examples.

The first time the word worship occurs in the Bible is in Genesis 22 when Abraham goes up to offer his son Isaac, give up what is most precious to him to the Lord. That is worship. What we do singing and praising here is not worship.

This is praise and thanksgiving. It's got nothing to do with worship. I know the entire Christian world calls it praise and worship, that's because they don't have a clue what worship is. It's because they don't study the Bible.

In the first place where worship comes, it's where a man has offered the very best of his life to God. And if you do that, even if you can't sing, you're worshiping God. And another place where it occurs, which is in the first book of the Bible, the book of Job.

Job, it says he fell down and worshiped God. When? When he had lost all his children and his business. And he said, fine, Lord, you can take it away. He did the same thing which Abraham did. They both lived around the same time.

And he also gave up everything he had to God and said, fine, I don't have any complaint, Lord. You take it away and he worshiped God. When you can do that, that God takes away something which is precious to you and you bow down and say, Lord, no complaints.

You're welcome to do it. You can do it again. That's a worshiper. I want to tell you something. Less than 1 of born again believers know how to worship. I've met very few worshipers in my life. I've met a lot of good singers.

But worshipers are in a completely different category. And it's only those who worship who can serve God. Jesus said that very clearly in Matthew 4, verse 10. Thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve.

That doesn't mean you first sing and then serve, no. It means worship. So I hope we get these wrong ideas that we've acquired in our previous Christian connections with dead churches that have taught us things which are not at all in the Bible.

And just like you got rid of your idea of infant baptism and got baptized properly, in the same way, you've got to get rid of your ideas of what worship is and just learn to worship properly. Otherwise, you'll miss out on a very important part of the Christian life.

And I really believe, I really believe with all my heart, the reason why many, many Christians, their service is not effective for God is because they don't follow this order, thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve.

So that's the advantage of seeing in the first place the word comes. So here's the first place the word church comes. So it's very interesting to see where it comes. So there are a number of things. I want to speak to you today from verse 18 to 27 to try and understand this concept of the true church of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Alone Builds the True Church

It's not a building, it's not a denomination. We saw it's not a congregation, it's not a club. It's not a place where we join just because there are helpful people around who'll help me when I'm in trouble.

That's a club. It's not a place where we just come to listen to some great preacher. Because nowadays, I'll tell you, you don't have to come to church to listen to a great preacher. Just go to the internet and you get a variety of great preachers and you can sit at home and listen to them every day.

And the advantage of the internet is you can turn it off when you get bored, which you can't walk out of a church like that. So there's a big advantage. If your aim in life is just to listen to good preaching, you don't have to go to a Sunday service nowadays.

Just get an internet connection and go to YouTube. There are even, my message is there are about a thousand of them on YouTube. That's not, that's just a congregation. The people are just admiring that.

A church is something completely different. The church is called a body of God. Of Jesus Christ. And Jesus knew that when he said for the first time, I will build my church. So the first thing we learn from here is that the last part of verse 18, I will build my church and the gates of Hades or the powers of spiritual darkness, the powers of hell will not be able to overpower it.

So there are a couple of things we learn right there about the true church. One, it's only Jesus Christ who can build it. Any person who gets the idea of saying that I planted a church here and I planted a church there and I built a church there, a lot of people who speak like that, they're pretty arrogant.

It's only Jesus who can build his church. If somebody has gone and planted a church somewhere, I can tell you that church will collapse. Because if you turn to the previous chapter, chapter 15, Jesus had already said in verse 13, chapter 15 and verse 13, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant will be rooted up.

Every church which Jesus did not plant will be pulled out. Same principle. God, listen to the sentence, God is the only legitimate originator of anything that's gonna be eternal. A lot of things that man can originate and start and plant and build, it will only last as long as this world is there.

But the only legitimate originator of what is eternal is God. Turn with me to 1 John, chapter two. It's important to understand this. Very, very important because we live in a day when man is arrogant and the pride of man is becoming greater and greater and greater.

It says here in 1 John, chapter two and verse 17, the world is passing away in all its lusts. Lusts means strong desires. That's the meaning of lust. Lust, unfortunately, we always associate lust with sexual lust.

But that's not the way the word lust is used in scripture. Because it says in Galatians chapter five, I think it's verse 17, the Holy Spirit lusts against the flesh. That's not a dirty desire. It just means strong desire.

The spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh lusts against the spirit. It means a strong desire. So the world and all its strong desires, good or bad, it's gonna pass away. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

In other words, when we get to the judgment seat of Christ and move into eternity, we will discover that the only things that remain for eternity are those which were done in the will of God. There's a very common saying, only one life, it will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. Many people quote it. And it sounds very good. Only one life, it will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. But strictly speaking, it's not true.

Because there are a lot of people who are doing things for Christ today, which will not last. So the way I say it is, only one life, it will soon be passed. Only what Christ does through us will last.

Not what we do for Christ. A lot of things we do for Christ won't last. Because it's done with wrong motives. It's done without God originating it. It's just an idea that came from our fertile brain. It won't last.

But what's done, what Christ does through us will last. In other words, where we have sought the will of God and the Lord did something through us, he prompted us and we acted on that prompting. That is how God does his work.

Even this church, many of you do not know how this church began. But those of us who are here right in the beginning, and it's only about a couple of us there right now, who know it had nothing to do with any man.

It had to do with God sovereignly bringing, suddenly getting us thrown out somewhere else and we didn't know where to go. And we started meeting together. And lo and behold, a few years later, it was a church.

And lo and behold, a few years later, it was many other churches. Man had nothing to do with it. I'm so thankful that man had nothing to do with it. It's not that we planned and said, okay, we got to start a church and we must have a good church and let's start here on such and such a date.

Nonsense. We had no opening date, no cutting of a ribbon, nothing. It was God who just originated it. And that's the way every true church is planted. So that takes away the glory of man. You know, we cannot, no man can take glory for anything that's done.

Only the will of God will remain. So that's the first thing we need to learn when we come to Matthew chapter 16. I will build my church. And I want to be in a church where Jesus is building, not which man is building.

Man is building a lot of so-called churches, which are not the one Jesus is building. I want to be in a church that Jesus is building. And he says, I will build my church. And where does he build it?

It says in verse 18, on this rock, I will build my church. And that's another thing many people are confused by. You know that the Roman Catholic church takes that verse and said that, well, Jesus said to Peter, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church.

And that's one of the results of reading scripture carelessly. You must never take a verse and try and get a doctrine out of it. See the context. It begins with verse 15. Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter said, look what he said. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. That's not because he was clever, because there were cleverer people than him in the synagogue who thought Jesus was the prince of devils, Beelzebul.

Here was a guy who was not even educated, who got understood the truth. How is that? And so Jesus tells him, you are blessed Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. That means you did not discover this by your human cleverness.

Now that's not unimportant. It's very, very important to understand what I'm just saying. You did not understand this by your human cleverness or ability. That's the meaning of flesh and blood did not reveal it to you.

But my father in heaven revealed it to you, gave you revelation. My father gave you revelation on whom I am. And on this rock, I will build my church. You got it? The rock of the revealed Christ. That's the rock.

And if you go to the original languages in, which is written in Greek, what Jesus is saying, Peter, you're a small stone. That's what Peter means. But upon this massive rock, which you just confessed, the revealed Christ, the son of the living God, I'll build my church.

So actually Jesus was saying the opposite of what the Roman Catholic Church say. You're a small stone, Peter. You got nothing to be built on you. But on this massive rock, which you just confessed, the Christ, the son of the living God revealed to you by the father.

On this rock, I'll build my church. And Peter recognized that because you go to Peter's epistle. He says, we are living stones built up in the house of God. And he claims himself also to be just a stone.

He's not the rock. So revelation, that is the important word that comes through here. A revealed Christ. Now there's a lot of difference between the Christ of history. You can read the gospels and you know the Christ of history.

He did miracles. He died on the cross. But there's a lot of difference between seeing Jesus in your heart. Revealed. Look what Paul said in Galatians chapter one. We know that when the apostle Paul, he was not the apostle then.

He was Saul of Tarsus going out to persecute Christians on the road to Damascus. And he suddenly had a vision seeing Jesus up in the heavens. And he said, who are you? And Jesus said, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting.

But it was not just that. He saw Jesus externally, but that would not have solved the problem because many people saw Jesus externally on earth who were not converted. But in Galatians one, it says here in verse 15 and 16.

But when he who had set me apart from my mother's womb, that means God, as soon as Paul was born, had set him apart. This man is going to be my apostle. I know he's going to go 30 years in the wrong direction, do a lot of wrong things, even persecute my people.

But I'll turn him around. So it's a great encouragement for us to know even if we wandered from the day we were born to the day we were converted, maybe 15, in my case nearly 20 years, wandered in the world and all that, yet to know that God set me apart from my mother's womb to be his servant.

And I don't know at what age you were converted. And you probably have a history of a lot of worldliness before that. And I've had people come to CFC and say, Brother Zach, I thought I was born again before I came here.

But I feel after listening to the gospel that is preached in this church, I feel I've really been born again only after coming here. And I can understand that. And they say because, first of all, I never knew what sin was till I came here, the seriousness of sin.

And how could I turn from sin if I don't know what it is? And until I turn from sin, that is repent, I can't really receive Christ as my savior and Lord. So it's really, I was really being converted only after I come here.

I mean, in my own case, I would say, though I was converted when I was 20, I mean, I really understood the new covenant only after we started CFC. Well, that's the truth. But 41 years ago, 40 years ago, a little over 40.

So there's a difference between seeing something externally and seeing something inwardly. Now here he says, God set me apart from his mother's womb and called me through his grace. And he was pleased, Galatians 1 .16, to reveal his son inside me.

Now that's not seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus, no. This is the same revelation that Peter got. You know what Jesus said? Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood is not revealed.

It's a very important New Testament word, revelation, revealed, not understood. In the Old Testament, it was understanding. That's why you had scribes in the Old Testament who went to the Bible schools in those days and studied and studied all the laws of Moses, and they could quote this and that, and people came to them like you go to a doctor for a prescription or a consultation.

They would go to the scribes and say, this is what's happening in my home, what should I do? And they tell you, well, this verse says this, this verse says that. They were scholars, it was understanding and knowledge.

But in the New Testament, it is revelation. A word that's almost never found in the Old Testament, revelation. The church is built on revelation. If you don't have revelation on Christ, who he is, you can, I mean, you can get into the committed members list but you're not really part of the body of Christ, I'll tell you that.

I might as well tell you the truth. You need to seek God for the Holy Spirit to give you revelation on who Jesus is. I can't give it to you. I can give you knowledge. But when you see the revealed Christ, your life will change.

My life changed when I saw the revealed Christ. So it pleased God to reveal his son in me. It's only God who revealed his son in me. What did Jesus say? The same thing Jesus said to Peter, we saw in Matthew 16.

Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. So I want to ask you, my dear brothers and sisters, you hear a lot of truths from me. I know most of you have a tremendous respect for me and believe that I'm not trying to deceive you.

I speak the truth to you. And you've got a good mind to be able to understand what I explained to you in very simple words. But with all of that, you may not have revelation. And that could be the reason why your life is so up and down and up and down and up and down and so shallow that you don't seem to make much progress in your Christian life because it is not built on a rock.

It's shaky. The rock is revelation. The revealed Christ. On this rock, I will build my church. That's why I earnestly urge you to seek for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. See, Ephesians chapter one.

Ephesus was the finest church in the early days. It became pretty corrupt by the time you read Revelation chapter two. But when Paul was there, Paul stayed there for three years. He never stayed longer in any church other than that.

Ephesians, why do I say Ephesians was the best church? Because all the other letters of Paul, he corrects people for various things. But in Ephesians, he doesn't have any correction to give. It's an amazing church, no correction.

All the other letters, you see, Paul is correcting something or the other. And to the Ephesian church, which is the finest church, where Paul had preached about 2 ,000 sermons in three years, as we read in Acts 20, you know what he tells them?

He says in Ephesians 1 .16, first of all, he says, I've heard of your faith in Jesus, verse 15. Great, I've heard of your love for all the saints. Think of a church that has got faith in Jesus and love for all the saints.

And he says, I always give thanks for you and I pray for you. Now, what is my prayer? My prayer is not that you guys will get health and wealth. Paul is not an old covenant preacher like today's preachers, no.

He's not praying that they'll get health and wealth. He's praying something far more important. He says, I'm praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, should give you something more important than health and wealth.

The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the knowledge of God, in the knowledge of Christ. Have you ever thought of somebody praying like that for you? Do you know this is a much better prayer to pray for people than to pray for their healing and to pray that they'll get a good job and a good house and a lot of money?

All that will come if you seek God's kingdom first. Paul never prays for such things. You see all the prayers of the apostle in the different letters. He never prays for anything material, anything physical.

It's so different from a lot of prayers that people pray today. That shows the shallowness of their life. Most prayers of Christians are for earthly things. And that's because they themselves are so shallow.

You see, a pig is only interested in muck. It's not interested in anything else. Cat is interested in milk and fish, things like that. There's certain things they're interested in. And where a man is only interested in earthly things, there's something wrong with him.

He's a child of Adam, not really a child of God. But a child of God should be interested in heavenly things. And so Paul says, I'm praying that you'll get a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Christ to know him.

And he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. So, because you know, that's what happened to him. And he knew that's what changed his life. And that's what changed Peter's life. When I see so many Christians who say they've accepted Christ, even in our CFC, and I see that, I see what their interests are.

They spend such a lot of time watching movies at home when they don't even know the Bible yet. Now, I'm not against a clean, absolutely clean movie. But they're very rare. But when a person can spend a lot of time watching even that, and not have time for the scripture, I see there's something wrong with this guy's conversion.

He hasn't got revelation. He hasn't seen what is most valuable things in life. When I see the way a lot of Christians, even in CFC, spend their money. I mean, you get a little impression. I don't know exactly how they spend it, but wasting their time going to restaurants here and there all the time when they could very well eat at home.

Because they've got a lot of money to throw around. No wonder they don't get revelation. Because Jesus said, if you're not faithful with unrighteous mammon, I will never give you the true riches. Read that in Luke 16, verse 11.

That section, Luke 16, 10 to 13. It's very important. You are not faithful with the money I give you. I'm not talking about righteous. Righteous means I don't cheat, I don't steal, I haven't not got anybody's money, I've returned everybody, I've repaid my debts.

Faithful means I'm very careful with the money God has given me, my salary. I'm absolutely convinced, as I've seen Christians around the world, that's only those who are 100 faithful with money who get revelation.

All the others who carelessly waste their money and throw it around, you listen to them. There's no revelation. They repeat what they've heard from others. That's not revelation. It's good, it's second best.

But Paul prays that you guys will have the spirit of revelation, the thing that changed my life. And I'll tell you, it's only revelation that can change our life and get us gripped with the truth and make us rejoice always and walk in triumph 24 hours a day.

It's this rock of revelation on which the church is built. I'm talking about the true church. And let's get back to Matthew 16. So Peter, you're a small rock, but on this rock of the revealed Christ, which you just confessed, I will build my church.

So this is why it's so important, that prayer of Paul's, I pray that you'll have the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray, say that to all of you. I pray that you'll have the spirit of revelation in the knowledge with Jesus Christ, where you know Christ in an inward way, in such a way that even if everybody in the church fell away, you will not fall away.

That's what revelation brings. I remember in the early days when God began to show me, it was way back in 1975 and 76, and God began to show me the truths of the new covenant of a life of overcoming. And it came home to my heart and I was gripped by it.

And it was so real. And as I began to experience it, I said, Lord, this is amazing. And even if everybody, only a few of us meeting that time, even if everybody leaves me, it doesn't make a difference to me.

I've seen the truth finally. And I said, even if all of India opposes me, I'm gonna preach it. Because it's changed my life. It's revelation. That's what made these apostles in those early days bold. It didn't matter if the whole world opposed them.

I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, do you have a faith like that? Do you have a faith where if everybody else around you says, no, this Christ is all rubbish and this is all nonsense about new covenant and all, you say, no, you can say what you like.

I've been gripped by the truth. I don't know whether that's true of all of you. I don't know whether you're holding a truth because there are so many others around you holding it. It's like these crowded buses in India, no?

You don't have to move. They're crowded. The people behind you will just push you forward. You just stand still. I feel a lot of people are moving forward like that. It's not on their own steam. It's not through personal devotion to Christ.

So it's very, very important, this matter of having revelation of Christ within because the true church is only built there. I mean, I remember also the Lord asking me this question. If everybody opposes what you say, will you still hold true to it?

I said, sure. I've seen the truth in my heart. It doesn't make a difference if everybody in the world says it's all wrong. See, when you're gripped with the truth like that, it radically changes your life.

Money is no longer important to you. The honor and position of men and all that is just a lot of rubbish. You don't even care whether people appreciate what you say. You don't want their appreciation.

You don't want their gratitude. You don't want anything because you're gripped by God. You know God. You live before his face. So my dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, seek for the revelation of the knowledge of Jesus Christ in your heart.

Peter says, I pray that you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Don't take those words, just read it. What does it mean to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ? It's by revelation.

Overcoming Satan Through Humility, Godliness, and Contentment

Okay, I wanna move on. Matthew chapter 16. We read here that further in Matthew 16, 18, the Lord said, I will build my church and the forces of hell will not be able to overpower it. So that is the mark of the true church.

Very clear. The powers of darkness, the forces of hell will not be able to overcome it. The church will always overcome the forces of darkness. The church goes against the forces of darkness and overcomes it.

The forces of darkness may attack the church and the church cannot be overcome. So when you see a church that's overcome by the forces of darkness, where the pastor falls into adultery and all the time, or some other pastor runs after money and the leaders are always interested in getting your money to make, become richer and richer themselves.

You can be pretty sure that the devil's overcome that church. Do you know, I'll tell you why. I'll show you two verses. Luke chapter 16. Luke 16, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. Luke 16 and verse 13.

The two masters are God and money. So there are only two masters. Why didn't he say God and Satan? Because Satan comes as an angel of light. If Satan came with fierce, ugly face and horns and hooves and a forked tail, you would run away from him.

But if you see an angel, wow. You know all these people who sometimes testify in meetings that I saw an angel when I prayed and somebody else says I saw two angels. They're demons. And these people are testifying about the demons they saw, that they saw angels.

Second Corinthians chapter says very clearly, the devil's transformed into an angel of light. So we got to be careful that when Satan, he won't come as Satan. Shall I tell you how he comes? He comes as an angel.

He also comes as money. That's why Jesus said you can't serve God and money. Because behind that pursuit of money is the devil. And so when a person is going after money, he doesn't realize that he's actually going after the devil.

He doesn't even realize that. That's why the Bible says the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. In second Timothy, sorry, one Timothy in chapter six, you see that verse. One Timothy chapter six, verse nine.

Those who want to get rich. I'm not saying those who work hard and make a lot of money. I'm not talking about those people. There are many God-fearing Christians who do business, work hard and make a lot of money.

They become rich. But they're just working to earn their living. But those whose main aim in life is to get rich. And if you fall into that category, please listen to what God's word says. Those who have a great longing to get rich in this world fall into temptation.

It'll happen. You think you're smarter than the devil? You're not. I prophesy you will fall into temptation because the Bible says so. You will fall into a snare. That's the second thing. You'll fall into many foolish desires.

You'll fall into many harmful desires. I'm just reading scripture. It'll plunge you into ruin. It'll plunge you into destruction. Look at a lot of things that are written to a man who is pursuing after money.

He'll fall into temptation. He'll fall into a snare. He'll fall into foolish desires. He'll fall into harmful desires. He'll plunge into ruin and plunge into destruction. And verse 10, it is a root of all sorts of evil.

He says there are 101 other things, he says, which I don't have time to mention. All sorts of evil. They'll wander away from the faith. Verse 10. These are the results. So who's interested in your experiencing all these calamities?

Certainly not God. God's not interested in your falling into temptation and snare and foolish, harmful desires and plunging into ruin and destruction. Who in the world is interested in ruining you like that?

That's the devil. So what will he do? He won't come as a devil. He'll run away. He may come as an angel. If you're a Pentecostal type, he may come to you as an angel. But if you're not that type, he'll come to you as money, the pursuit of money and get you.

It looks so innocent, just like an angel looks so nice. And money looks so nice. To earn money, to support yourself, to get as much as you need, to work hard to get that, even Jesus did it. Jesus had four brothers and two sisters and a widowed mother at home, and he worked hard in the carpenter shop to support them.

And if you're working hard and you're not earning enough and you're working somewhere else and looking for a better job, that's perfectly okay. To find a house to live in or to build a house for your family to live in, all that is okay.

Or to save money for that is okay. The Lord's not talking here about saving money. It's a very good habit. The Bible says, go and learn from the ant who saves up for the future. So it's good to have a savings account.

But he's talking about those who are pursuing after getting rich, that is their aim in life. They have more than enough, but they're not happy. They want more and more and more and more. They're not rich towards God, they're rich towards themselves.

That's the devil's aim and he's led so many Christians that way. He's led so many pastors that way. And so you find many churches where the emphasis is on money, money, money, money. I know that because I get numerous emails from around the world that tell me about what they hear from their pastors in their churches.

And you know, there are so many people who write to us and say, when are you going to start a CFC church here? I got an email a couple of weeks ago from Greenland. You know where Greenland is? It's where the Eskimos live.

Yeah, the internet reaches to the outermost parts of the earth. It's amazing. There are hungry people who are longing for the true church of God. Jesus once said to the Jews who did not appreciate his presence there, he said, the Queen of Sheba, you know how many hundreds of miles she traveled to come and listen to Solomon?