What Does It Mean to Be the Church?
Most people have a mental image of "church" built around Sunday services, music, lights, and programs. But what if the foundation of the Church has nothing to do with any of that? In a powerful message from Matthew 16 and 1 Samuel 3, Pastor Benjamin Robinson strips away the surface-level assumptions and takes us back to the bedrock of what the Church of Jesus Christ actually is — and why nothing can destroy it.
A Moment of Divine Calling: Samuel Hears His Name
The sermon opens in 1 Samuel 3, where the young boy Samuel hears his name called in the night. Three times he runs to Eli, and three times Eli sends him back. The Hebrew phrase Samuel uses — hineni, often translated "here I am" — carries a weight that gets lost in translation. It literally means something closer to he named me. Samuel wasn't just answering a voice. He was responding to the fact that God knew his name.
This moment sets the tone for everything that follows. The God of the Bible is not a distant, impersonal force. He is a God who calls people by name — out of darkness, out of confusion, out of obscurity — and into something greater. That same calling is at the heart of what the Church is.
The Question That Changes Everything
In Matthew 16, Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi — a city saturated with Greco-Roman idol worship, a kind of open-air pantheon of competing gods. In the middle of all that religious noise, Jesus asks a pointed question: "Who do men say that I am?"
The disciples offer the popular answers. Some say Elijah. Some say Jeremiah. Some say one of the prophets. Then Jesus makes it personal: "But who do YOU say that I am?"
Simon — still going by his birth name at this point — speaks up. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The Greek word Christos is the translation of the Hebrew Mashiach — Messiah. This wasn't a theological opinion. It was a revelation.
Jesus responds with striking words: "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." In other words, Simon didn't figure this out through clever study or personal insight. God revealed it to him. And that revelation immediately changed Simon's identity — from Simon son of John to Peter, meaning rock.
Built on the Rock: What Is the Foundation?
Then comes the declaration that has echoed through two thousand years of Christian history: "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
So what is the rock? Pastor Robinson makes this clear: the rock is not a person, a personality, a program, or a platform. The rock is the proclaimed revelation of who Jesus is. Peter received a God-given revelation of Christ's identity and then proclaimed it publicly. That proclamation — the bold, Spirit-empowered declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God — is the foundation upon which the Church is built.
This matters enormously in an age when churches are often evaluated by production quality, attendance numbers, or cultural relevance. The Church was never meant to be built on hype, aesthetics, or attractional ministry models. It is built on Christ — specifically, on the spoken, proclaimed, witnessed revelation of who He is. As the old hymn puts it: *"On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."
Ecclesia: The Called-Out People
The word Jesus uses for "church" is the Greek word ecclesia — and it appears here for the very first time in the New Testament. The Church hadn't existed yet. This was its birth announcement.
Ecclesia is a compound word. The root klesia means "to call," and the prefix ek means "out." The Church of Jesus Christ is literally the called-out people. We are here because He called us out — out of darkness, out of ignorance, out of spiritual blindness — and into the light of the revelation of who He is.
As 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. That calling is personal, by name, just like God calling Samuel in the night. If you have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, it is because He called you out. And if you haven't yet, the message is simple: He is calling you now.
Deeper Roots: The Septuagint and the Scattered People
To fully understand the weight of the word ecclesia, Pastor Robinson takes the congregation on a brief historical journey. Long before Jesus used this word, it appeared in the Greek translation of the Old Testament — the Septuagint — where it described the assembly or congregation of Israel called together by God.
The Septuagint was produced in the 3rd century BC because of the Diaspora — the centuries-long dispersion of Jewish people from their homeland beginning in 722 BC when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Later, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, scattering the southern tribes. Over generations, displaced Jewish communities lost their language and with it, their access to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The translation of the Bible into Greek wasn't just a linguistic project — it was an act of mercy and preservation, ensuring that scattered, assimilated communities could still hear the Word of God in a language they understood. Language carries culture, and culture carries identity. When a people lose their language, they begin to lose themselves.
This historical backdrop adds depth to what Jesus was doing in Matthew 16. He wasn't just forming a religious organization. He was reconstituting a people — a called-out assembly — rooted not in ethnicity or geography, but in the revealed identity of the Messiah.
The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail
One of the most emboldening promises in all of Scripture is tucked into Jesus' declaration: the gates of Hades — death and the grave — will not prevail against His Church. Throughout history, voices have declared Christianity finished. Empires have tried to eradicate it. Cultural movements have announced the post-Christian era. And yet the Church endures.
This is not an accident or a sociological phenomenon. It is the fulfillment of a promise made by Jesus himself. The Church cannot be killed because it is built on the indestructible rock of the proclaimed revelation of Jesus Christ.
What This Means for You Today
The takeaways from this message are both simple and profound:
- God calls you by name. Like Samuel, you are not anonymous to God. He knows who you are and He is calling you.
- Revelation precedes proclamation. Before Peter could speak, he had to receive. Encountering Jesus personally is the starting point of everything.
- The Church is not a building or a brand. It is a people called out by God, built on the bold declaration that Jesus is Lord.
- Nothing can stop what God is building. If you are part of His Church, you are part of something eternal — something the gates of hell itself cannot overcome.
Whether you have followed Jesus for decades or are hearing His name for the first time, the invitation is the same as it was for Samuel, and for Simon: respond to the One who is calling you out, and find your place in what He is building.