My Assembly

" He (Jesus) says to them (his disciples), But ye, who do ye say that I am ? And Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed [it] to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. And I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades' gates shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of the heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be bound in the heavens; and whatsoever thou mayest loose on the earth shall be loosed in the heavens. " (Matthew 16:15-19)

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The words underlined - this rock - have been the subject of much controversy. The Roman Catholic Church asserts that they refer to Peter, claiming that the Assembly is built upon him. Effectively they are making the passage read: "Thou art Peter and on thee I will build my assembly. " Christ did not say this, and neither did he mean it. Rome would claim that Peter was its first bishop (that is, Pope). However, there is no scriptural evidence for this at all, and in fact the idea of a single bishop (overseer) presiding over an assembly is not found in Scripture; bishops (overseers) of an assembly are spoken of in the plural (Philippians 1:1). Where the Bishop is spoken of it is Christ (1 Peter 2:25). To make Peter the foundation of the Assembly is going much too far. There was a work of God in Peter, but he himself was a failing man as we see from verses 22 and 23 of the chapter we are dealing with. Christ had to say to Peter; " Get away behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me, for thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men. " Peter had gone so far as to rebuke Christ ! Again, the lesson of chapter 17:1-13 (the transfiguration) is that we should not make too much of great men, in that case Moses and Elias. The voice from heaven in verse 5 was heard drawing attention to Christ, not to Moses and Elias: " This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him. " Peter, indeed, had the keys of the kingdom of the heavens given to him. He was the one that opened the door to the Jews (Acts 2) and to the Gentiles (Acts 10), but he did not lay down the teaching as to the Assembly; Paul did this, as can be seen from his Epistles. In Revelation 21:14 the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Note: twelve apostles, not just Peter.

Another interpretation of the passage is that this rock is Christ. This effectively makes the passage read: "Thou art Peter and on myself I will build my assembly". This sounds strange and it is in any case not what the scripture says. The point of the passage is that Christ had found in Peter something solid outside of himself on which he could build. There are, of course passages that speak of Christ as a rock or stone such as 1 Corinthians 10:4; Luke 20:18; Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:8. However, these passages do not speak of the building of the assembly, but of the quenching of thirst and judgement ! We do have the stone which the builders rejected becoming the head of the corner in Matthew 21:42; Mark 12;10/11; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:4-7, but although these passages certainly show the prime place that Christ has in the scheme of things and, incidentally, show that Peter does not have it, it is not exactly the idea of what Christ's assembly is built on that the passages speak of, but rather the corner stone from which all measurements are taken. The distinction is made clear in Ephesians 2:19-22 where we have:" being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (that is, the New Testament ones), Jesus Christ himself being the corner stone ". The foundation is what is built upon and Christ is the chief stone in it. Put another way, Christ is the foundation of the foundation. In Isaiah 28:16, the passage from which the New Testament writers quote the corner stone is called the foundation stone. It is clear that without Christ and the apostles whose teaching we have, there would never have been any Christian assembly. Christ himself did not leave any writings. What He taught when here and what He gave to Paul from heaven has come to us through the New Testament writers: the apostles and prophets that Paul speaks of. So far as the assembly as a public body is concerned Paul laid the foundation, but warns others as to what materials they use to build upon it (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). All that we have as to assembly organisation we have in Paul's epistles and without them we would have no assemblies, unless some based upon our own ideas ! The foundation Paul says is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11) - his person, his word and his work. Without these it is evident there would be no Christian assembly or assemblies at all ! Paul's teaching was obtained from Christ (e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3) and he worked under him.