Christ the Foundation
Essential Church: Life Together, Shaped by the Cross Matthew 16:13–20
We’ve started a new series called Essential Church: Life Together, Shaped by the Cross. The question behind this series is simple but urgent: What is essential for a church to be a church?
It’s not buildings. It’s not programs. It’s not even how friendly the people are. At its core, the church is something Jesus Himself creates and shapes by His cross.
In Matthew 16:13–20, Jesus brings His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a place filled with shrines to pagan gods, a temple to Caesar, and even a cave known as “the gates of Hades.” Surrounded by stone, idols, and reminders of earthly power, He asks the disciples the most important question:
“Who do you say that I am?”
Peter replies: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)
That’s the foundation. If we get Jesus wrong, we get everything wrong.
This passage gives us four essential questions that every church must answer.
Who is Jesus?
The first question is the most basic: Who is Jesus?
He isn’t just a wise teacher, a miracle worker, or a good moral example. He is the Christ—the anointed one, the promised Savior—the Son of the living God.
And Peter doesn’t figure this out on his own. Jesus says it was revealed by the Father. Faith isn’t a human invention; it’s a gift of God.
So here’s the test: if a church doesn’t confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, then whatever it is, it isn’t really the church.
What is the church built on?
Jesus goes on: “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
The “rock” is the confession Peter just made: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That’s the foundation.
And notice who does the building: “I will build my church.” It’s Christ’s project, not ours.
This makes sense. Jesus was a tekton—a builder by trade, a craftsman who worked with wood and stone. Now He builds something new, not out of bricks and timber but out of people.
The Bible returns to this image again and again:
- Psalm 118:22 – “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
- Ephesians 2:20 – “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”
- 1 Peter 2:5 – “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house.”
The cornerstone is what holds the whole building together. Everything else is measured against it. The church is built on the cornerstone of Christ—and it is built out of us, His people, as living stones.
How does the church face the world?
Jesus makes a remarkable promise: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Think about that. Gates don’t attack anyone. Have you ever been charged by a gate? Gates are defensive.
So Jesus is picturing His church as advancing, pressing forward, breaking through the defenses of death itself.
The church is not a fortress clinging to survival. It’s not just a place we hide from the world. The church is a people on the move, carrying the love of Christ into a world that desperately needs Him.
Think of a tree root pushing up through a sidewalk. Concrete is cold and hard. But life keeps pressing until the concrete cracks.
That’s the church.
The resurrection is the ultimate picture. The stone sealed the tomb. Death tried to lock Jesus away. But on Easter morning, the angel said: “He is not here, but has risen.” (Luke 24:6)
Because Jesus is the Christ, death doesn’t have the last word. His resurrection life is our future hope—and it’s already our present reality. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)
That’s why we can move forward in love, forgiveness, and mercy. Because the gates of hell cannot hold.
How do we participate?
If Jesus is the cornerstone and He’s building His church, where do we fit in?
Look at the pattern. Jesus Himself was a builder—first of wood and stone, now of people. Peter was a fisherman—first catching fish, now catching people.
Jesus doesn’t erase who we are. He redirects it. He takes our gifts, our skills, our personalities, and reorients them for His kingdom.
That’s what it means to die to ourselves. Jesus said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
Seeds don’t stop being themselves when they die—they become what they were always meant to be. Which is more a flower: the seed, or the blossom? Which is more apple-ish: the seed, or the tree heavy with fruit?
In Christ, dying to self isn’t erasure. It’s fulfillment.
C.S. Lewis put it beautifully in Mere Christianity: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become—because He made us. … It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”
Because Jesus is the Christ, our lives are not wasted when we give them to Him. We become living stones, fitted together in His church.
Four Essential Questions
So, what is essential for a church to be a church? This passage gives us four questions every church must answer:
- Who is Jesus? – He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
- What is the church built on? – The confession of Christ, the cornerstone—and it is built out of us, His people.
- What is the church’s posture toward the world? – On offense, advancing with resurrection life.
- How do we participate? – By offering ourselves as living stones, reoriented in Christ.
Christ is the foundation. He is building His church. And not even the gates of hell will stand against it.