https://odb.org/MY/2022/09/08/building-the-house
There is debate as to Matthew 16:18 on what the Lord meant when He said that He will build His church on this rock and the gates of Hades shall not overcome it – is the rock referring to Simon Peter and if not, what does it refer to? There is an interpretation that the rock refers to Simon Peter as Christ was speaking to Peter when He made that statement. Christ said, “You are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church”. Coincidently Simon Peter’s name “Peter” also meant the rock and it was Jesus who changed his name from Simon to Peter.
However, Scripture must always be read in context and the context was Jesus asked Peter who does Peter think He is? Peter’s answer was that Jesus is the Son of the living God. Jesus in fact said to Peter that he was blessed because the fact that he could answer that Jesus is the Son of the living God was not revealed to him by flesh and blood but by Jesus’s Father in Heaven. Thus the more accepted and also more theologically logical interpretation is that “the rock” is the revelation that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. That revelation is the rock or foundation that Jesus will use to build His church.
As much as the church is large and spans the whole world fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham that his generations shall be like the sand at the seashore and the stars in the sky, the larger house in my view is the house that Jesus had gone ahead to prepare for us, His brothers and sisters in Christ. In John 14:2, Jesus said that in His Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you so? You see Jesus is God and God do not and cannot lie. Surely that’s the biggest house ever as there are millions and millions of believers not only worldwide but over generations since the time of Abraham to the time of Christ, the time of Acts, across the ages from the Old to the New Covenant and in time to come until the end of age.
I am thankful and grateful that Christ called me to be a part of His church and that He had gone before me to prepare a room for me in our Heavenly Father’s mansion of many rooms. Thank you Lord Jesus for Your grace and mercy and for dying on the cross for me and my sins that I now have eternal life! Amen! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! God is good indeed! He is the only one and true living God!
Ronnie's Thoughts 