Matthew 16:15-19
"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."
The Lord said and He still says, "I will build my church". The church is His body. Who can build His body better, if not Him? The important thing is that the church that He builds "the gates of Hades will not overcome it". What is the 'gates of Hades'? In Revelation 1:18, the Lord Jesus Christ said and still says, "I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades". We all know that when the Lord Jesus Christ, died and was buried, He went to the center of the Earth to visit the Hades where the prisoners of Noah's flood times where kept imprisoned.He preached to them, even though they had perished during Noah's time in the great flood that wiped out the whole Earth and everything in it. Multitudes of people must have turned back to the LORD during that three days and three nights in the center of the Earth, for He had said, "the One who is greater than Jonah is here". Jonah preached and the whole Nineveh turned to the LORD in true repentance. What more when the Son of Man preaches. Multitudes of people would have returned to the LORD. The keys He is talking about in Matthew 16, is the key to bind the sinful nature of the Devil in man and loose the divine nature of Christ to be formed in His called, chosen,and faithful people. Those are the keys of the kingdom of heaven. You have to bind and loose over many, many lives on this Earth. After He had preached and led many to the LORD,He resurrected to life. He holds the key to death and Hades now. Anyone, just anyone can turn to the LORD the moment He preaches. There is no one who cannot be convicted of their sins.There is no one who will not be convicted that Jesus Christ is the only Righteousness of God made known to us. There will be no one who will not be convicted that, if they continue in obeying the sinful nature of the Devil in them, they too will suffer the same eternal fate as the Devil and will be thrown into the same Lake of fire with the Devil. Only those with the divine nature of Christ formed in them will escape the Lake of fire. The gates of Hades, which is actually the sinful nature of the Devil cannot overcome these. They would have overcome all the power of the enemy.Their names will be found in the Lamb's book of life. No one knows whose names are written there, except God the Father. It's the Lamb's book of life because, only His blood can wash away our sins and only He truly came to take away our sins. He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He who believes, love and obeys Him till the end will inherit eternal life. No man can steal this glory from the Lord Jesus Christ. The 'rock' He mentioned here is what Peter stood on. Peter is not the rock, What He stood on here, is the 'rock'. That rock is Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no other rock for us. If any other man can become our rock, the Lord Jesus Christ need not have come to this Earth to die for us. So, don't be easily fooled! The whole 'rock' has to be the divine nature of Christ that has to be formed in you fully, or else it would be a shaky foundation! Going to church does not make you a house built on the rock but obeying everything Christ had commanded does. It's the man who puts into practice what the Lord has said that will have his house built on the rock and he will be that church that Christ is building for eternity. So, do not get fooled easily.
Luke 6: 47-49
"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
