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When Christ established the church…

Matthew 16:18

October 14, 2024

Christ claimed ownership by saying I will build my church.

Matthew 16:18 – 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 Christ established the church, He claimed ownership by saying I will build my church. Since the church belonged to Him, He alone determines the direction of His divine community. If this is so then we must go back to where it first started. That is, God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:27). Hence, in the church we all equally share the same divine resemblance.

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. (Mt 16:18)

However, in reality every time we get together corporately, we quickly detect our differences rather than see the similarities. And this has led to much negativity. Yet from the beginning our Scripture had already set right our perspective by helping us to see the common created divine image and the potential connection that we have in Christ.
As if to serve as a reminder, there is yet another beautiful image of our oneness in Christ at the end of our Scripture. Revelation 7 envision the heavenly choir of every nation, tribe, people, and language. Scripture is careful to point out that those in heaven are distinguished by their race, culture, ethnicity and language. Yet they all sing in harmony a unifying song.
I see this image being played out every Sunday in our church, where we have members worshiping in in all the different languages – Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Yet, together we worship the one true God and we are all striving to be true disciples of Jesus.

By Rev Philip Lim

Pastor-in-charge