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It is interesting to note that Heb. 2: 12 quotes the Septuagint version of Psa. 22: 22:
"I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will
praise Thee" (Psa. 22: 22).
The quotation in Hebrews read:
". . . . . I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing
praise unto Thee" (2: 12).
In the Scriptural sense there is more than one assembly of God's people in the Bible,
though there is only One Body, and that is the company ministered to by the apostle Paul
(Col. 1: 23-25).
Coming back to Matt. 16:, we may ask what Peter and the eleven would understand
by the word "church"? As we have seen, it was well-known to them and they could have
understood it only in the way used in the O.T. If Christ was referring to the church as
revealed to Paul later on (Eph. 3: 1-11) then Peter and the disciples would have needed
the same revelation that Paul was given, to receive and understand it (cp. Eph. 3: 1-7 and
note verse 3), for at this time it was still a secret (mystery) hid in God (Col. 1: 23-28).
There is no indication whatsoever that Peter and the other disciples had such a
revelation. Moreover, if Peter's epistles are studied, he never refers to the Body of Christ
or uses the word "mystery" or "secret" so intimately joined to it in Paul's ministry.
We should remember at the time covered by Matt. 16:, that the leaders of Israel had
already rejected Christ in His capacity of Prophet, Priest and King (Matt. 11: & 12:), and
in chapter 13: Christ quotes the solemn verses from Isa. 6: and rejects them. The old
nation was coming to its spiritual end, but God's plan was not wrecked, for He had
commenced building a new nation based upon the faithful remnant that still existed.
There had always been a faithful remnant right throughout the nation's history, which the
Scriptures make perfectly clear.
The Lord was building and would continue to build a new nation of Israel and this is
the argument of Rom. 11:, "Hath God cast away His people", the Apostle asks, and the
answer is decidedly `No', "God hath not cast away His people" (Israel, verse 2). Paul's
conclusion is "Even so this present time also (that of the Roman epistle) there is a
remnant according to the election of grace" (verse 5).
This company was predominantly from Israel, but, during the Acts period the Lord's
purpose widened to include Gentile believers; and it was certainly a church in the
Biblical sense. Those who had responded under the ministry of John the Baptist and of
the Lord Jesus, together with the faithful saints of previous centuries, belonged to this
company and we believe they formed the church that Christ declared to Peter He would
go on building. This does not conflict with any other Scripture and fits into the purpose
of God as far as it had been revealed at that time. Dr. A. Plummer states in his
Introduction, page 32: