Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning we are going to be starting a new series, I am pretty excited about it.

The name of the new series is “UR the ChURch” And today we are going to talk about "Who founded the Church".

So if you would take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Matthew 16:13.

Jesus is with His disciples at Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi was a place of great beauty located in the northern part of Israel.

In that place the Canaanites had established a place of worship for their gods.

They had erected great idols and great statues in this place.

This place was backed up by a magnificent cliff, solid rock.

And Jesus is standing before that solid rock, that towering structure of rock and when He asks a question to the disciples.

Now this is a most important part of Scripture where Jesus said here, "upon this rock I will build my church."

Satan knows that a church filled with the Spirit of God is a mighty instrument in the hand of God.

And Satan will do everything he can to try to minimize the importance and the relevance of the church in your eyes and in the eyes of the world.

Now we need to understand that the church is not a building but it is a people.

Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.

He literally poured out His blood on Calvary's cross for the church.

The church of Jesus Christ is not some organization of men, but the church is a living organism of called out believers who are organized and energized by the Holy Spirit to be sent out to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now I want us to see several things about the church this morning.

I. THE CORNERSTONE OF THE CHURCH - BUILT ON WORSHIP

First of all, the cornerstone of the church relates to worship.

As you look at this passage, Jesus is talking about the cornerstone.

He gives Simon Peter a test and Peter passes the test.

"Whom do you say that I am?" Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

And Jesus said that is right Peter but you can't take any credit for the answer because it was revealed to you by My Father, but that is the right answer.

And He said, "you are Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church."

What is the cornerstone upon which the church is to be built?

Well, when Jesus said to Peter, thou art Peter, we know that the word he used – petros means a little rock.

It means a fragment of rock that came from a huge rock.

He said, "thou art Peter" – petros.

But upon this rock – Petra a different word for rock that means not a little rock but a huge rock, a foundation rock, a giant rock, I will build my church.

There are some people who say that Jesus was going to build the church on Simon Peter himself.

But that is an incorrect translation and interpretation of this verse.

Jesus said Peter you are a little fragment of rock from the much larger rock.

Peter was an unstable follower of Christ.

He was hot and then he was cold.

He was a malaria kind of Christian, you know, fever – chill – fever – chill.

He was a roller coaster Christian – up, down, up, down, up and down.

He was always putting his mouth in gear before his mind was engaged.

Jesus constantly corrected him.

This is one of the only times he ever got the answer right and God the Father through the Holy Spirit had to give him the answer to the test question otherwise he wouldn't have gotten it right.

So Jesus was saying to him you are a fragment of rock Peter.

But upon this rock I will build my church.

Now some say that Jesus was saying upon Peter's confession of faith, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus would build His church.

And that is a good idea.

That is a good interpretation.

Jesus may have been saying that.

He may have been saying, upon people who confess faith in Me, upon people who will acknowledge and confess that I am the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my church.

But when you examine it more carefully, it seems that Jesus is saying more than just that.

It is as though Jesus is there at Caesarea Philippi and He always used whatever was around for an illustration.

If He was in a field He used the seed and the sower of the seed.

If He was on the Sea of Galilee, He used fishing.

And here He is at a great cliff, a giant cliff of stone, solid stone.

And I believe that Jesus that day said to Peter, as He picked up maybe a little stone there, a little fragment that had flaked off of that giant cliff, you are a little rock like this.

And then motioning back to Himself, Jesus said, but upon THIS rock, I will build my church.

Jesus was saying I will build my church with my self as the chief cornerstone.

Now if you look in the Book of I Peter you will find that this is exactly what the apostle Peter was led to say later by the Holy Spirit.

In I Peter 2:5 speaking of the church he said,

You see one of the chief functions of the church and purposes of our lives is to worship Him.

It is what this passage calls, “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Why through Jesus, because He is the cornerstone.

He is the founder.

It is all about Him.

Jesus was saying I am the rock upon which the church is built.

The rock upon which the church is built is an unmovable rock.

It is a Gibraltar rock.

It is the rock of ages.

Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church.

Tradition tells us that when Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, that as you know from Scripture, they brought the stones in from the quarry and put the temple together.

So they received one day as they were constructing the temple, a very unusual stone.

And they didn't know where to put it.

It didn't seem to fit in with the plans for the temple.

They tried it here, they tried it there.

They said there must be some mistake.

So they just pushed it to the side.

Later on someone said this rock is getting in the way.

As the workers would work on the temple they would stumble on this big rock.

Finally someone said let's get it out of the way.

So they rolled it off of the temple mount and it went down into the Valley of Kedron below.

And then when it came the day to lay the cornerstone of the temple, they sent out to the quarry and they said, send us the cornerstone.

We are ready for the cornerstone.

And they said we have already sent it.

And the builders said, we don't have it.

Send us the cornerstone.

And they said again, we have already sent you the cornerstone some time ago.

So they began to search and they began to look.

And somebody remembered that odd shaped stone they had stumbled over and pushed down in to the valley.

They went down and brought that stone up and it fit perfectly into the place of the cornerstone of the temple.

now that is exactly what happened with Jesus Christ.

He was the stone the builders rejected.

He was the stone over which people stumbled because they would not believe on Him because He didn't fit their plans and vision for the world.

He came into His own.

His own received Him not.

But that one has become the head of the corner.

And the construction of the church begins and ends with Him.

Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.

II.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH - BUILT ON FELLOWSHIP

Now let's look at the construction of the church.

And that corresponds to the second purpose, which is fellowship.

He talks about the construction of the church, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church..."