Jesus and His apostles come into the area of Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13). Jesus asks them, who do men say that I am? Various answers came from the apostles, all of which pointed to men of the past who had been good men. Jesus then asks, but who do you say that I am (verse 15)? At this point we are shown the difference between what a man knows and what a man gets directly from God. Peter answers, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (verse 16). Jesus tells Peter that he did not come to that conclusion by observing the times and events around them. Rather this knowledge came directly from God (verse 17). Here is the direct knowledge from God the Father about Who Jesus is.
Jesus then states He will build His church on that confession. If one argues that Jesus would build His church on Peter the man instead of the confession that Peter made, we are confronted with some serious problems. The Catholic Church has maintained that Peter was the first Pope of the Catholic Church. The Pope that recently retired came out recently and said God told him to retire. I have a man then that is telling people he has a direct communication with God. If I am not mistaken that is what Mohammed and later Joseph Smith affirmed. They got a direct secret message from God. Should I then trust what the Pope says since he is getting messages direct from God?
Why not go back to the beginning, say with Peter. Peter had a wife and mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14). Peter declares that he was also an elder (I Peter 5:1). A man who desires to be an elder in the church must have children (I Timothy 3:4). This man, likewise, refused to have a Gentile worship him (Acts 10:26). It would be safe today, based on Catholic doctrine, that Peter could not be a Pope today with all this background. Jesus did not build His church on man who can sin and fall away from God. He built the church on the confession that Peter made that Jesus was the Christ. Paul writes that the church rest on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). What is meant, therefore, about this foundation on which the church rests?
Coming back to the statement in Matthew 16, Jesus told the apostles that He would give them the keys of the kingdom (Matthew 16:19). Does it not strike you as odd that Jesus would give them keys that would not be useable until over 2000 years after their death? I mean if the kingdom has not been established as of yet, the apostles are long dead and gone. The meaning of verse 19 is that whatever the apostles bound or loosed was already bound and loosed in heaven. The source of authority was not the apostles as men but the authority that they received from God (Acts 2:42). Jesus declared that all authority or power was given to Him. Where was the realm of that authority? Jesus said in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18).
John has Jesus teaching the apostles that whoever sins they remit, they are remitted and whoever sins they retain, they are retained (John 20:23). Who can forgive sins except God? Jesus knew that when the apostles taught what He told them to teach, that some men would obey and have their sins remitted (Acts 2:38). Others would die in their sins and, hence, their sins would be retained (John 8:24). It was not men who had the power to forgive sins but rather the truth they taught and was obeyed that would cause God to forgive them of their sins. Paul, an apostle, would teach do not elevate men about that which is written (I Corinthians 4:6). We do not seek the truth from some man in Rome or some council of men. We consult the truth of God revealed in Scripture.
That truth shows that Jesus loved the church so much that He gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25). All men must enter that church and be an active part of the body of Christ in order to be saved. One does not “join” the church but rather is added to it (Acts 2:47). One cannot place a sinner in the body of Christ. Christ presents the church to Himself, not having wrinkle, spot or blemish. Sinful man must be changed. He is changed by contacting the blood of Christ in the waters of baptism (Acts 22:16). When his sins have been washed away in the blood of Christ, he arises from the watery grave a new creature in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17).
Did Jesus build His church? If He said it, yes, because He is God. The church and the kingdom are the same thing purchased by the blood of Christ. Have you been washed in that blood (Rev. 1:5)?