What Are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven?

00:00:00.000 | Jesus told us to bind and loose, but is this practice relevant for the church today?

00:00:10.760 | Pastor John joins us over Skype to address this question from a listener named Joe.

00:00:15.240 | Hello, Pastor John.

00:00:16.640 | Jesus told the disciples that whatever they bind or loose on earth would be so in heaven.

00:00:21.280 | The church has the keys to the kingdom of heaven, meaning whatever you bind on earth

00:00:25.240 | shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

00:00:29.760 | Matthew 16, verse 19.

00:00:31.640 | So what can a local church bind and loose and what could me and a Christian friend bind

00:00:36.440 | and loose?

00:00:37.440 | Does this text have any relevant application to the church today?

00:00:42.080 | Yes.

00:00:43.080 | The answer is yes, it's relevant.

00:00:45.080 | It is relevant for today.

00:00:47.680 | It's always been relevant in every age of the church.

00:00:51.480 | It's relevant.

00:00:52.480 | But yes, Joe, if you are a true follower of Jesus, you and your friend is a true follower

00:01:01.400 | of Jesus can bind and loose in the way that Jesus means it here.

00:01:08.400 | So let's read it, make sure we get the whole context, and then I'll try to explain what

00:01:14.600 | I think it means and how it's relevant.

00:01:17.760 | Jesus said to his disciples, I'm reading Matthew 16, verses 16 to 19.

00:01:25.960 | Jesus said to his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"

00:01:31.440 | Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

00:01:36.480 | And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not

00:01:41.680 | revealed that to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

00:01:46.000 | And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates

00:01:52.720 | of hell shall not prevail against it.

00:01:55.840 | I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall

00:02:00.920 | be bound in heaven.

00:02:03.120 | Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

00:02:07.240 | So Jesus asked the disciples who they believe he is.

00:02:12.600 | He's getting at the core issue of discipleship, the identity of Jesus Christ.

00:02:20.960 | Whatever else Jesus teaches, if they don't get this right, they don't get anything right.

00:02:27.600 | It will all be distorted if it's not built on this central bedrock of Jesus teaching

00:02:36.120 | who he is.

00:02:38.040 | So Peter answers correctly.

00:02:39.800 | You are the Christ, the Messiah.

00:02:41.920 | The Son of the living God.

00:02:44.640 | You're the Messiah.

00:02:45.640 | Not just any ordinary human Messiah, but the unique, divine Son of God.

00:02:53.560 | And then Jesus makes clear that Peter did not come up with this on his own.

00:03:00.640 | Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

00:03:04.680 | In other words, this central bedrock core of Jesus teaching, namely his true reality,

00:03:14.600 | is a work of God in the mind of Peter, not a work of man, and therefore he calls Peter

00:03:20.560 | blessed.

00:03:21.560 | You're blessed because God has given you this insight.

00:03:26.960 | Then Jesus makes a play on words because Peter's name, Petras, means rock or stone.

00:03:36.720 | So Jesus says, "You are Petras, and on this rock, Petra, this bedrock," they're not the

00:03:43.720 | same words, I'll come back to that.

00:03:45.920 | They're almost the same.

00:03:46.920 | There's a word play, not another word identity.

00:03:49.920 | You are Petras, and on this Petra, you are a rock, and on this bedrock, I'll build my

00:03:56.840 | church and the gates of hell so not prevail against it.

00:03:59.800 | I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

00:04:02.400 | Now before we jump to the conclusion that Peter alone here is made the foundation of

00:04:09.080 | the church, notice three things.

00:04:11.360 | Number one, Jesus did not say, "On you I will build my church," which he very easily could

00:04:19.400 | have said.

00:04:20.400 | He said instead, "On this bedrock, Petra, I will build my church."

00:04:26.000 | Second, even though Jesus says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,

00:04:34.160 | whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will

00:04:37.240 | be loosed in heaven," that very same thing Jesus says to Christians in general with the

00:04:43.240 | very same words in Matthew 18, two chapters later.

00:04:48.160 | Verse 18, "Truly I say to you," plural, not you, Peter, you plural, "you who are gathered

00:04:53.400 | in my name, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, whatever you loose

00:04:59.480 | on earth shall have been loosed in heaven," Matthew 18, 18.

00:05:03.640 | That's the second observation.

00:05:04.640 | Here's the third.

00:05:06.160 | Jesus does not say, "You are Petras, and on this Petras, I will build my church."

00:05:12.720 | He says, "You are Petras, and on this Petra, I will build my church."

00:05:18.400 | Petra has a different connotation than Petras.

00:05:22.200 | It's not a loose stone.

00:05:24.480 | It's bedrock stone.

00:05:26.360 | Here's what I mean.

00:05:27.360 | In Matthew 27, 60, where it says that Jesus' tomb was cut out of the Petra, the bedrock,

00:05:36.120 | that doesn't mean it was cut out of a loose stone.

00:05:38.360 | Like here's a stone.

00:05:39.360 | It's maybe weighs 10 pounds.

00:05:41.280 | It's found on the side of the road, and he cut a grave in that stone.

00:05:44.760 | Well, that doesn't work.

00:05:46.440 | What he means is the side of this mountain is stone.

00:05:50.280 | Like this is a massive bedrock where you'd build something, and so you carve into this

00:05:57.280 | bedrock a grave.

00:05:59.360 | That's the connotation of Petra.

00:06:02.280 | It's not a loose stone like Petras.

00:06:06.360 | Petra is bedrock.

00:06:08.880 | The same word is used in Matthew 7, 24.

00:06:13.440 | Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who

00:06:20.560 | built his house on this bedrock.

00:06:24.280 | Not a pile of stones, not gravel, but the bedrock ground in the side of the mountain

00:06:31.640 | that you dig down to until you got a good foundation.

00:06:34.400 | The bedrock is solid, permanent.

00:06:37.620 | It's the teachings of Jesus, which he says can never pass away.

00:06:42.280 | My understanding in view of those three observations is that the bedrock on which the church is

00:06:49.600 | built is the bedrock of Jesus' teachings with the rock-solid core of his identity.

00:07:00.340 | You are the Messiah.

00:07:01.960 | You are the Son of God at the center of those teachings.

00:07:06.520 | Since Peter is the one who made that confession in this case, he's treated as the representative

00:07:14.320 | of all those who would faithfully lift up the teachings of Jesus and the word of Jesus

00:07:20.100 | with the true reality of who he is at the center or as the bedrock of the church.

00:07:29.360 | So it's these teachings of Jesus that are the keys of the kingdom.

00:07:35.240 | He says, "I give you the key," or the keys of the kingdom, which means that when you

00:07:40.280 | speak, Peter, or according to Matthew 18, any faithful Christian who speaks the words

00:07:46.600 | with the bedrock of Jesus' identity at the center, when you speak those words faithfully,

00:07:54.340 | you are using the keys of the kingdom to open the kingdom in people's lives.

00:08:02.560 | There's a clue that I think confirms we're on the right track from Luke 11, 52.

00:08:07.720 | "Woe to you, lawyers," Jesus said, "for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

00:08:16.240 | You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering."

00:08:24.080 | This is the key of the kingdom, the key of knowledge, the key of the teachings of Jesus

00:08:31.000 | with the reality of Jesus himself at the center.

00:08:35.000 | That knowledge, that faithful proclamation of the word of Christ with Christ's identity

00:08:40.400 | at the center, truly taught, opens the kingdom to people's lives.

00:08:47.560 | That knowledge, withheld or distorted, closes the kingdom to people.

00:08:53.840 | When Jesus says, "Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven," which is

00:08:59.480 | the right, future-perfect translation of the verb tense, "Whatever you bind on earth shall

00:09:07.320 | have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven,"

00:09:13.120 | he means that in all of this human key-turning, turning of the keys of the knowledge of God,

00:09:21.140 | we are doing what God has decided should come to pass.

00:09:25.640 | Our teaching is essential; God's will is decisive.

00:09:31.120 | So Joe, you and your friend, and I would say all faithful Christians, can take your stand,

00:09:38.120 | and you should take your stand, on the bedrock of Jesus' word with Jesus himself, his reality

00:09:46.680 | at the center, and speak it.

00:09:49.960 | And in so doing, you will turn the key of heaven in people's lives and open the kingdom

00:09:57.400 | to them.

00:09:58.400 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:59.400 | And Joe, thank you for the question, and thanks for listening.

00:10:02.000 | If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your

00:10:06.080 | favorite podcast app in Spotify, or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel.

00:10:10.640 | And to find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us, do that online

00:10:13.960 | at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:19.400 | We have another important Bible question up next time.

00:10:22.200 | Does the coming of the Mosaic law into history actually empower our sin nature?

00:10:27.820 | Does it make our sin stronger?

00:10:30.760 | Seems like that's the case in the New Testament.

00:10:33.640 | And that is our next question up on Monday.

00:10:36.280 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:37.280 | We'll see you then.

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What Are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven?

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