On this rock I will build my Church

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on April 17, 2009 at 7:56pm

Near the end of Mark's gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, "Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to the whole human race." (Mark 16:15). A similar instruction is given at the end of Matthew's gospel (28:19-20). Jesus' instruction is again mentioned at the beginning of Acts (1:8).
The gospels were written specifically to pass on the good news about Jesus' resurrection and the reason for it; the objective being to teach others to believe in Jesus' redeeming power. The disciples' preaching in the Jerusalem temple and further afield was done for the same purpose and soon thousands of people believed in Jesus.
Believers are what form a church community.
In that sense, I think Jesus intended to found a church.
In the sense of setting up a Christian church separate from Judaism, Jesus was shrewd enough to know it would happen. The disciples and many of their followers were Christian Jews or, as they would be called now, Messianic Jews. There are still Messianic Jews today.
But a split was inevitable for two reasons.
Firstly, the Jewish establishment were obviously not going to accept that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah so Jewish believers in Jesus would end up outside the established Jewish religious organisation.
Secondly, Jesus told his disciples to preach to "the whole world" not only to Jews. He must have known that Gentile believers would not be accepted into the Jewish establishment even if the Jewish establishment ever accepted that he was the Messiah after all.
In the sense of setting up a Christian church organisation with a hierarchy, that kind of church seems to me very much man-made. I doubt if that was ever His intention as He consistently taught that even the highest should take the lowest place.
The signs that a church along those lines could develop are in the gospels themselves, which show some of the disciples misunderstanding Jesus' mission and hoping for powerful positions in His kingdom. There was a leadership gap after Jesus' death, which perhaps they leapt to fill. Jesus' brother James was the first bishop of Jerusalem; Lazarus became bishop of Cyprus.
From there, it's a short step to an international organisation with outlying regions establishing independence from the centre, differences over dogma, power games being played, schisms resulting and the church splitting into different "churches" or "denominations".
I don't think Jesus intended to found any of that.
It's one reason I love this idea of an internet church, which gives believers the chance to reclaim the church as a community of believers.

Permalink Reply by Melvyn on May 3, 2009 at 1:47pm

I agree with Lynda. The "church" which Christ founded was not an organisation, but the community of believers in Him. It is that community which Peter understood he was dedicated to serve, as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles and his two Epistles.

Three of the Gospels record that when Jesus first encountered Simon he was following his occupation of fisherman [Matthew 4 v18, Mark 1 v16, Luke 5 vv1`-3]. Matthew refers to this fisherman as "Simon called Peter", Mark simply refers to him as the brother of Andrew, and Luke calls him simply Simon until the fourth mention of his name, when he calls him Simon Peter. Remembering that these accounts were written long after the event, the use of the full name Simon Peter in each case is likely to be post hoc identification to distinguish him from other Simons, rather than an indication that he was already called Peter. In St John's Gospel it is said that Simon's brother Andrew heard St John the Baptist preach, and subsequently collected his brother Simon to go and find Jesus: a very different course of events. It goes on to say that when Jesus saw Simon he addressed him as Simon son of Jona, and said that henceforth he should be called Cephas, "which is by interpretation, a stone" [John 1 v42].

When Simon by inspired insight declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus responded "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona [son of Jona].....And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church...." [Matthew 16 vv16-18]. Thereafter we find references to Simon Peter and sometimes just Peter.

Jesus' comment recorded in Matthew 16 v18 is a play on the word Cephas/Peter/stone/rock. In his later appearance by the Sea of Tiberius after the Resurrection Jesus gave the famous triple charge to Simon Peter (whom he addressed as "Simon, son of Jonas"); "Feed my lambs", "Feed my sheep", "Feed my sheep". [John 21 vv 15-17]. Peter interpreted that as meaning he should lead the apostles in bringing the Gospel to the Jews and Gentiles alike - a community of believers.