One of his boasts was that he would wipe out the church in Russia. He used to say, “I will see that there is no church and no Christian left on the Soviet soil.” And he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Christians and the destruction of countless churches.

In 1990 Lazar Kaganovich died. But the church that he sought to eradicate and destroy is more alive than ever. The communist party that he espoused so wholeheartedly died that same year. But the church - the church is more alive than ever.

And I wonder why people continue to make that mistake of seeking to bury the church, of pronouncing the church as dead. They consider it irrelevant and passé, never to be revived. But it is a constant mistake that people make, for they do not realize the power of the church. They do not realize the place the church has in God’s kingdom.

This morning as we conclude our series on the Kingdom of God. I want us to think about the role of the church in the kingdom of God. What is the place of the church in the Kingdom of God?

You need to know that the church is not the kingdom of God. The church does not equal the kingdom of God. The Church is in the Kingdom of God. And it is an instrument through which God seeks to bring His kingdom but it is not synonymous with his Kingdom. It is the church that seeks to reflect the Kingdom, but it is not the Kingdom.

So what is the role of the Kingdom of God? As we open our Bibles to Matthew 16 we discover the roll of the church in the Kingdom of God:

"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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ." (Matthew 16:13-20)

So what do we learn about the church in the Kingdom of God here?

Well, first Jesus teaches us some truths about the nature of the church, and then He outlines the role of the church.

First under the idea of the nature of the church we learn that the Church in the kingdom of God is built upon the Rock who is Jesus Christ.

The setting of this scene is Jesus with His disciples and he asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” And the disciples repeat the rumors that were circulating at that time. "Some say that you are John the Baptist, others say that you are Elijah, others say that you are Jeremiah."

And Jesus narrows the question – "But you who do you say that I am?"

And Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus responds with more than a hint of joy in His voice, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven. And I tell you that on this rock I will build My church."

On this rock I will build My church. I believe that Jesus is referring to Himself when He speaks of the rock. It is the rock – Jesus Christ – upon which the church is built. I believe this because this is consistent with the rest of Scripture. In I Corinthians 3:11 we read, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ”. Then again in Ephesians 2:20 Paul writes that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

And Peter himself in his first letter calls Jesus Christ the “Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” and we are like “living stones being built into a spiritual house”.

The foundation of the church is the Rock who is Jesus Christ. What does that mean?

Practically it means that we as a church seek to follow Jesus Christ and not some charismatic leader. It means that we seek to honor and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and not any other message. It means that when people come here for worship we will endeavour to put Christ at the centre, that He will be praised as Lord of our lives.

There are some churches in North America who build their churches upon finances. Their big worry is reaching the budget, their constant concern is always having the right amount of finances coming in. Yes, we need to be good stewards. Yes, we need to practice generosity in our giving and it is a sign of a healthy church when the finances are in order. Don’t misunderstand. But we need to beware that our budget does not drive the church. We should not be asking the question, "How much have we saved?" but "Who has been saved?"

We get our marching orders through Jesus Christ - He is the one who gives the church its direction, it’s not any program or personality or budget. It is Jesus Christ who directs the church.

Alfred Luccock tells of a man who lived in the early wild days of Texas. His name was Shanghi Peirce. He was a rancher and he had a ranch of two hundred thousand acres. He was a profane man but he decided to introduce religion to his workers. So he built a little church on the ranch. And one day a visitor say the church and he said to him, “Shangi, do you belong to the church?” “Heck, no” said Shangi, “the church belongs to me.”

Here’s the second idea. Notice what Jesus says next – it really is wonderful – "Upon this Rock I will build my church."

Jesus gives us a promise here. He says that He will build His Church. The Church is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, and the Church is built under the direction of Christ Himself. You see Jesus takes responsibility. He says, "This new people of God, I’m guaranteeing it, I’m at the beginning of it and I’m going to see it through." And right from the very beginning he says this is going to come into being, and I’m going to make it work and Jesus gives it power.

The truth is that when the Lord tells us that He is going to build His church and He calls us to be His people He says, “I’m going to take responsibility, I’m going to make the claims work.”

"Tom, you can preach the good news and you can tell people about my love and grace and how they can live again through faith in me, but I’ll make it happen, you don’t make it happen."

"You can talk about people so belonging that they are like brothers and sisters and they will experience a deep caring and fellowship – I will make it happen. I will join the whole thing together and raise it from the ground up, I will make it happen."

My friends we do not own the church. It belongs to Christ. It is born out of His desire, it is sustained by His grace and it is at work in the world to do His service.

And that can be a great relief to us who think that we have to do this to have more people sit in the pews, or we have to do this to have more people attend our programs. To be sure we are called to be faithful and each one of us is called to use our gifts for the building up of the body – but listen, I can’t command success, or claim credit. If people come to worship and attend our programs then to God be the glory. If no one shows up then to God be the glory. We keep on being faithful in our witness to the truth of Jesus Christ and we leave the results to him.

He says, “I will build My church.”

Now how does that square with what Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians about Spiritual gifts? He says there that the Spiritual gifts have been given for the building up of the church (Ephesians 4:9-16). So who builds the church? Do we build the church? Or does Jesus Christ build the church?

Jesus Christ builds the church and He does that through you and through me. My friends, Jesus Christ WILL build the church and you and I can either participate in that or we can hinder it. You have each been given a spiritual gift and you have each been called to build the church by participating in the life of the church – to pick up the hammer and the saw and participate in the building of the church. And if you are not picking up the spiritual gift that you have been given, then the church is that much weaker. WE need you to participate and exercise that gift that you have been given for that is how Jesus builds His church through you and through me. But the ultimate result is up to Him. He will build His church.

Now we need to take note that Jesus is not speaking of gray-bricked buildings with blue carpets and stained glass windows when He speaks of the church. He uses the word "ekklesia" for the word church – in Greek it refers to an assembly of citizens. It means the “called-out ones.” You see the church is group of people called out of the world to be holy in the world, called out to be salt and light. It has nothing to do with institutions or budgets, or buildings or structures or pews, - nothing to do with what so many people associate with church. It has rather, everything to do with people. It has everything to do with God working with people and in people and through people to bring about His kingdom for His glory.

How often the church has been guilty of forgetting about people and its mission to people. Sadly Christians have often been blinded and they have thought of church as buildings and programs and all sorts of other paraphernalia! It’s not. The church is built with living stones, says Peter in his first letter, with people.

You know it is our vision at Markham Baptist to plant a church. Don’t misunderstand that – it is not to build a new structure. That is not the vision – the vision is to plant a group of people committed to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord to bring His grace and love to light in the community in which they are planted. Our vision is for people, not buildings.

You know people often ask me what I do. I say, “I’m pastor of Markham Baptist Church” and they often say, “Ah, that’s that gray bricked building on Church Street, that’s your church is it? The one across from the High School playing fields? Is that the church?”

And I long to say to them, “No - my church is a group of people influencing the world for Christ, working day after day for Christ in their community because they are called out for the Kingdom of the most High. They are Christ’s people who happen, on a Sunday to worship in a gray bricked building on Church Street across from the high school playing fields.”

Then we have this wonderful news “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

So that is the nature of the church – it is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. It is built under the direction of Jesus Christ, it is not a physical structure, but a group of people who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and who seek to live for Him.

Now what is the role of this group? Jesus says, “Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

Hades refers to a place of departed spirits. So it is saying the gates of death will not prevail against it. Some may say that this means that the church will be able to stand any attack that evil and death can throw at it. And this would be true, but the text suggests something different. It says that the gates of Hades will not be able to stand against it. Let me ask you - are gates used as attacking weapons?

No. What are gates used for? They are used for the defensive, not the offensive. This is the picture that Jesus gives us of the church in the Kingdom of God. The church of Jesus Christ is to be on the offensive, driving back the gates of Hades, which are unable to resist.

That raises the question – How is the church to be on the attack? The following verse answers the question. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (verse 19)

Jesus speaks of His church then gives the keys of the Kingdom over to Peter and all those like him who confess Christ as Lord. Keys are symbol of authority. So Jesus is giving authority to His church – He is giving the authority to bind and to loose. Those are terms we may not be familiar with but in the times of Jesus Jewish rabbis interpreted the Scriptures and they would issue a binding decree that forbid such and such an action.

Jesus uses this term to describe the assertive nature of His church and to declare and enact the will of God. God has given the church the power to bind and to loose – not to determine the will of God but to assert and implement it on earth.

Think of it as being an ambassador going to another country and you are able to make trade deals, financial deals for the country of your origin. But you do those things according to the financial plan of your country of origin. You do not make up new policies, you simply are following the ones already set.

And so you and I have the power to bind and to loose what heaven has already bound and loosed. This is what Peter did. He proclaimed the gospel on the day of Pentecost and three thousand people were loosed from sin and selfishness and were enabled to come into the kingdom of God. He proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ again a couple of days latter and this time five thousand people were loosed from the chains of sin.

So you and I have that power, as we proclaim the good news of Jesus, the power to bind evil and to loose people from sin as we tell of his grace and love.

I would also suggest that we have the power to bind and to loose through prayer. (See Matthew 18:18) The church is not only to proclaim the good news, but He calls us to be a people of prayer. It is a great mystery but He promises that when we ask, whatever we bound in earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose in earth will be loosed in heaven.

We have the great privilege of praying and responsibility of praying that lives would be loosed from the power of sin. That is the key that you have been given. That is the role that the church has been called to fulfill in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus tells His disciples not to tell everyone that He is the Messiah. The disciples have made the confession, but Jesus says in effect, not everyone is ready to understand what that means. And Jesus has to explain to the disciples that He will be a Messiah who does not claim a castle, crown and throne through power but will be crowned king by dying on a cross. The disciples had to keep that quiet.

But not any more. We have the responsibility to tell the world – we have the authority to tell the world with the assurance that as we look to Jesus, He will build His church and the gates of death will not be able to stand against us.