In this chapter we will consider the building of the church revealed in the experience and writings of Peter. Although we may already know Peter quite well, I have a burden to help us to know him more, to know him in a deeper way. Among the early apostles who established the churches, Peter was the first. He was not the first who was brought to the Lord, but he surely was the first who was commissioned to establish the churches (Matt. 16:19). He was also the first who spoke to lead many to salvation for the building of the church (Acts 2:14-41). Peter was the first apostle to establish the churches, and Paul was the last one in the New Testament to establish the churches. Some may ask where we would place the apostle John. The New Testament reveals that not long after the churches were established, they became damaged, or broken, like a torn fishing net. Thus, John was needed as a mender. John’s ministry was a mending ministry. After the church “net” was broken, God commissioned John with his ministry of life to mend the tears. Hallelujah for these three wonderful apostles! One began, the next completed, and when their work became damaged, the third came in to mend it.
Of the three great apostles—Peter, Paul, and John—in this chapter we will cover only the first one—Peter. We will cover Paul and John in the following chapter.
Peter began the building of the church. Many Christians take Peter as a good example for gospel preaching. They often quote Acts 4:12, where Peter says, “And there is salvation in no other, for neither is there another name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved.” It is not wrong to quote this verse for gospel preaching; on the contrary, it is wonderful. However, people nearly always neglect the first word in this verse, and. This word being at the beginning of the verse points to the foregoing verse, verse 11. Thus, when we quote Acts 4:12, we must not forget the word and, which refers us to verse 11. Acts 4:11 says, “This is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.” This verse does not speak of Christ as the Savior of God’s people but of Christ as the cornerstone of God’s building. Thus, the gospel concerns not only a Savior but also a stone.
Our Savior is a stone. This stone was considered as nothing by the builders. The Jewish builders were supposed to be building God’s house, but Christ, the living stone, was rejected by them (1 Pet. 2:4). They put Him aside, but He has become the head of the corner, the cornerstone of God’s building (Eph. 2:20). A cornerstone is placed at the corner of two walls. Wherever two walls meet, a strong stone is needed to join them together. The Gentile believers and the Jewish believers are two walls of God’s building that are joined by Christ as the cornerstone. Thus, Christ is not only the Savior but also the cornerstone for God’s building.
Preachers in Christianity frequently refer to Acts 4:12, but they rarely mention verse 11. Many who have been in Christianity for years have never heard a gospel message telling them that Christ is not only the Savior but also the stone. Christ is the Stone-Savior. If He were only the Savior, He could meet our needs, but He could never fulfill God’s purpose. God’s eternal purpose is not merely to save a group of fallen sinners but to build His eternal habitation with His saved ones. Therefore, in order to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, Christ needs to be both the Savior for the salvation of sinners and the stone for God’s building. Actually, His salvation is for God’s building.
The builders mentioned in verse 11 are the religious builders. It is not only the Jewish builders who put this stone aside; even the so-called builders in Christianity put this stone aside. Christianity preaches a poor salvation without God’s eternal purpose. It is not a rich salvation but a scarce salvation, one that delivers people out of hell but has nowhere to place them. Christianity tries to place people in a heavenly mansion, but there is no such thing in the Bible. God has no intention to place us in a heavenly mansion. Rather, God is building us into the New Jerusalem. Christianity misses the destination of salvation; they do not have the purpose of God in His salvation. The purpose of God, the destination of God’s salvation, is the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal building. Hence, God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, is not merely the Savior; He is the Stone-Savior.
Peter, the first great apostle, was used by God to begin the building of the church. Peter was an apostle to the Jewish people. Thus, Peter represents the Jewish wall. However, for God’s building to be complete, there was the need for another wall. Hence, there was the need of another apostle, the apostle to the Gentiles. Therefore, the Lord raised up Paul. Paul was raised up to build the Gentile wall to complete God’s house. This was the reason that God raised up Peter and then Paul (Gal. 2:7-8).
In Acts 15 the Jewish believers were dissenting toward Paul (vv. 1-2). It seems that they were saying, “Paul, you have been bringing in many unclean Gentiles without circumcising them. We accept you as a believer, but we cannot agree with your bringing in the Gentiles without circumcising them or charging them to keep the law. We cannot go along with you in this.” There was such a dissension. However, Peter, who was undoubtedly a man of God, charged the Jewish believers to receive the writings of Paul as they received the rest of the Scriptures. In 2 Peter 3:16 he says, referring to Paul, “As also in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” It seems that Peter was telling the Jewish believers not to dissent from the apostle Paul but to receive what he wrote as Scripture. Through the receiving of both Peter’s and Paul’s writings, the universal habitation of God, composed of the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, could be built up.
Not long after the building of the church began with Peter and Paul, the church became damaged. Hence, there was the need of John’s mending ministry. John’s ministry was neither Jewish nor Gentile but heavenly, because John brought everything back to the beginning. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In the beginning there were no Jews and no Gentiles, but there was the Word. In this Word, there were not teachings, doctrines, ordinances, and rituals, but there was life. To keep the Jewish rituals is to be in Leviticus, the third book of the Bible. John, however, brought us back to the first book, Genesis, where we see the tree of life (2:9). The Epistles of Paul reveal that Jewish religious teachings and Greek philosophy had crept in to damage the church. The church was greatly damaged by these two elements. Because of this, God raised up John to mend the holes and repair the damage. John mended not by fighting against Jewish teaching and Greek philosophy but by saying, “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...In Him was life...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality” (John 1:1, 4, 14). The Word was not full of doctrines and philosophies but full of grace and reality.