Special Messages and Editorials

Thursday, October 04, 2001

Matthew 16:13-18 says, "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.'"

When Jesus spoke those words to His disciples on that day, he made them an incredible promise. He indicated that He would be building His church and that no earthly or demonic force would ever be able to overcome it. To say the least, His words were very profound. But almost two thousand years later, the church is still standing, even though it has endured numerous trials and tribulations.

The first opportunity for the church to die was when Jesus was crucified. No one could have blamed the disciples if they had retreated to their former occupations and tried to forget all that Jesus had said and done. In John 21:1-17, the disciples were about to do that very thing by returning to their craft of fishing, but Jesus met them on the shore and encouraged them to continue in their work for Him. The church had not even been fully conceived at that time. Yet, it was nearly extinguished before it ever got out of the starting blocks.

The second opportunity for the church to die was when Saul of Tarsus (later to be called the Apostle Paul) started his one-man campaign to destroy all Christians. In Acts, Chapter Seven, he had participated in the stoning of Stephen, a man who was one of the first deacons of the newly formed New Testament church. But in Acts, Chapter Nine, while traveling to Damascus to kill even more Christians, Saul encountered Jesus in a spectacular fashion and surrendered his heart and life to Him. When that happened, one of the early church's greatest enemies became one of the church's greatest men, and the man, who had once tried to kill all who professed Christ, was himself eventually put to death for professing Jesus as his own Savior and Lord.

The third opportunity for the church to die was when a band of Jews decided to go after Christians and especially after the Apostle Paul. The Jewish people had learned about worshipping the one, true God while in Babylonian captivity, so they rejected Christianity and its triune-God teaching. Acts 23:11-13 says, "The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, 'Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.' The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in this plot." Had their plot succeeded, one of the church's greatest missionaries would have been lost, but of course, their plot did not succeed.

The fourth opportunity for the church to die was when the Roman Empire declared Christianity an illegal religion. The Romans would allow an individual to worship Caesar, the Roman mythological gods, or even the gods of other nations, but they would not allow Christians to worship Christ because their faith did not qualify under any of those conditions. As a result, emperor after emperor, for a period of about two hundred and fifty years, persecuted Christians by the thousands in order to shut down the church. However, despite the determined efforts of Rome, the church continued to stand. Between two and three million Christians were killed during that time period because they professed their faith in Christ, but the church did not fall. Their numbers grew, and the power and might of the Roman Empire deteriorated. Today, the Roman Empire is nowhere to be found, but the church continues to stand.