The Keys of the Kingdom

Mt. 16: 13-19

Today’s text opens with a familiar scene: Jesus is walking with his disciples, and he asks them, “Who do men say that I am?” John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah -- Positive, but erroneous, or positively wrong! Jesus was pointing out that the culture was misinformed about who he was.

Then, Jesus changed the question. And this is important, look carefully at the question – Who do all of you say that I am? The question is addressed to all of them, but Peter, as the unofficial leader, answers. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Wow! Then Christ defines the church. This is the only place in Gospels where the church is defined. You are Peter, a stone, on this rock I will build my church.

Not on a stone (Petro –piece of rock), but upon the larger rock (Petra, a mass of rocks). The Greek distinguishes between these two. The word rock can also mean a collection of stones that have been cobbled together to form a larger rock as a foundation. (in 1Pe. 2:5 – we are called living stones, and in Eph 2:20 – the church is said to be built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles.) The Old Testament heroes and the 12 apostles were the foundation of the church, and you and I are the building blocks God uses to build his eternal Kingdom.

What does this mean today? First, the church can not be what God wants it to be unless we come together (cobbled together by God) to fulfill God’s purpose. It is that process of stones (petro) being turned into rocks (petra). Now notice what the rest of the text says, “Christ will build upon it, and the gates of Hell can not overcome it.” Gates of Hell . . . a gate was a symbol of authority or power. Look carefully this morning; Hell is trying to stop us, not the other way around. WE (the church) are SUPPOSED TO BE ON the OFFENSIVE! We waste far too much time in the church trying to react to Hell, when we are supposed to be building up the Kingdom. If we are building the Kingdom, then Hell’s kingdom will dwindle.

And we’re not talking about God verses the Devil. That battle has already been fought, and it didn’t last long. The battle today is between Satan and God’s Church, or to put it another way, between the Gates of hell and the Church. Eph. 6 tells us that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” Battle is between the fallen angels and man.

Angels are spiritual beings. Their primary task was to reflect back to God his nature. There were three Archangels. They were the only angels named in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer’s job was to lead all of the universe in praise to God, but Lucifer had an ego problem. He wanted the praise for himself. What he wanted was to become like God – not answering to anybody. So he created his own kingdom, leading a third of the angels in rebellion. Problem: how do you overthrow God? He was quickly caught and tried for treason. Judgment was passed, but then God shocked everyone and declared that the judgment would be delayed. You see, the rebellion created an opportunity for God to be glorified. How? (Ps. 8, Heb 2:6,7) He created man a little lower than the angels, that is, constitutionally inferior, and he gave us Lucifer’s job. We are told in Luke 10:18 Satan was cast down to earth, and the earth was flooded. He was no longer called Lucifer, but Satan, which means deceiver. God changes names to reflect character. Why did God do this? To show he could do more with less, and be glorified by our dependence upon him as we do even greater things (see John 14:12).

That’s why the Bible opens with a garbage dump. The earth is dark and lifeless, with the Holy Spirit hovering over the deep. Then, God begins the first extreme-home-makeover for man. He created a beautiful garden and placed man in it. And here’s the great part – there was only one rule – don’t mess with the tree in the middle. In that rule, Man was given God’s word. We all know what happened. Satan twisted, distorted, dismissed and diluted that word, because Satan is powerless against the word. He said, “"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman, "for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 1:4b-5) Satan, that deceiver, twisted the word. What he didn’t tell them was that all they got out of the fruit was evil. They already knew what was good.

So, how come Satan is loose? Well, God gave mankind the keys to the earth, the authority to manage it, and that included our enemy. He can’t overcome the word in us, but when we cross the word or allow it to be twisted, diluted, or distorted, Satan wins. When Adam sinned, he forfeited the keys, but when Christ died on the cross, he took back the keys and gave them to the church.

Here is the simple truth of the keys of the Kingdom: If we keep God’s word, we win. If we don’t keep God’s word, we’ll lose. Are we prevailing today? Is the Kingdom of God tearing down the kingdom of darkness in such a way that it is impacting the day to day life of those who have yet to realize what’s going on? The sad reality is, we are not. And we must ask ourselves what can stop hell from winning?

In verse 19, Christ says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom.” (This is in the future tense, because Christ had not yet died.) They are not the church’s keys. They’re heaven’s keys. Notice the keys are plural, and that’s because the gates of verse 18 are plural. You see the gates are the obstacles that Satan raises up against what God is trying to do through the church. The keys are God’s divine response to those gates, so we can lock the door. The problem is that we are not using the keys because we’ve misplaced the keys. Have you ever been in a hurry and can’t find your car keys? What do you do? Panic! Search frantically, and the reality is you’re going no where until they are found! We need to find the keys. We aren’t seeking God’s divine response to the problems that we are facing and as a result, we are powerless to stop the enemy. When is the last time in an council meeting that a problem was addressed with, “Let’s pray and see what God would have us do.”?

There is another problem -- the keys are God’s divine response, but often, we twist and dilute it. We mix our own brand of theology and religion, which cancels out the power of the key. When you mix the human with the divine, the divine is canceled. How do we apply the key? Pray. For “whatever you bind on earth – what ever you loose on earth.”

The church does not exist for itself. It exists for the sake of the Kingdom of God. The church is supposed to house the kingdom values so that they can be translated into the community and into the culture outside the church. I’ve read that the US Embassy, or any country’s embassy, is a little bit of that country a long way from home. Embassies operate under the values and laws of their own country Is our church like that? Are we a little piece of heaven a long way from home? Do our families operate on Kingdom principles or on the cultural norms of the society we find ourselves in?

Church, I want to go back to the scripture, as we close. Christ said, “upon this Rock I will build my church.” Are we willing to stand firm and prevail against the gates of hell? What obstacles have you been facing? Are we willing to pray for God’s divine response? In what ways can we begin to build the Kingdom this week?