I Will Build My Church Part 3
Matthew 16:18-20
Over the past few weeks, we have been studying together from what I believe is one of the most important passages in the Gospel of Matthew. And we have been focusing on the key phrase in this passage where Jesus states, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). We have already looked at …
1. The Church’s Foundation
Jesus tells Peter that He would build His church on “this rock”. Peter had just confessed the truth about Jesus—the truth that God the Father had revealed to him—saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16). Jesus Christ Himself is the church’s foundation. The apostle Paul affirmed, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11). As the representative of the apostles, Peter was foundational in the sense that God revealed His truth to the apostles, and they believed, confessed, proclaimed, and recorded that gospel truth about Jesus Christ. So Paul would write to the Ephesians of the church “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). To be a member of Christ’s true church, like Peter, you must believe and confess Jesus Christ.
Then we saw …
2. The Church’s Builder
Jesus said, “I will build My church.” Jesus is the builder and the owner of His church. Like Peter and the rest of the apostles, we have the privilege of being used by Christ in the building of His church. There is no more important work than this.
Then we saw …
3. The Church’s Victory
Jesus says that He will build His church, “…and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Even death cannot prevent Christ’s work of building His church. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against His church. Speaking about Christ’s victory over death, the apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:57-58).
Finally, today we see …
4. The Church’s Authority
Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Why does Jesus give to Peter the keys of the kingdom? Think about keys. What are they for? Keys are used to lock or unlock, to open what is closed or close what is open.
In the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, for example, God promises to remove an evil high priest named Shebna from service to the Jewish temple and to replace him with a good, godly, faithful priest named Eliakim. God speaks to that wicked high priest concerning his replacement—and of the authority and responsibility God would entrust to him—when He says,
“I will clothe him with your robe
And strengthen him with your belt;
I will commit your responsibility into his hand.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah.
The key of the house of David
I will lay on his shoulder;
So he shall open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open” (Isaiah 22:21-22).
This is what Jesus is saying to Peter. Keys indicate the authority and responsibility to open and close, to bind and loose.
Notice three things about this authority. First…
A. The Source of the Church’s Authority
Jesus says, “And I will give …” (Matt. 16:19). Jesus is the source of the church’s authority. In the book of Revelation, Jesus, our great High Priest of the new covenant, states that He has the authority of the kingdom of heaven in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. Jesus wrote to the church at Philadelphia, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”” (Rev. 3:7). When Jesus says He has the key of David, He claims all authority in the kingdom of God. After His resurrection Jesus commissioned His disciples saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).
Christ builds His church with kingdom authority. And Jesus delegates that authority to Peter, and thus to the church. The keys are His to give. He is the source of the church’s authority.
Second notice …
B. The Nature of the Church’s Authority
If you have been entrusted with the “keys” to something, you have been given the authority over the locks and the doors. You can open or close, lock and unlock. In Matthew 16:18, the keys that Jesus gives are the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord tells Peter, who is the church’s representative ‘confessor’ and ‘testifier’ of Christ, that He entrusts to him the keys. Jesus gives to His church the keys, the authority of opening and closing the kingdom of heaven.
This is the opposite of what the scribes and Pharisees had done. In Luke 11:52, Jesus denounces the teachers of the law saying, “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” By their faulty approach to scripture, they took away the key of knowledge. They had not only failed to enter the kingdom of heaven, they hindered others from doing so. They did not believe God’s revelation of Jesus Christ and they actively deterred others from believing (Matt. 23:13). In contrast, Peter, by confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, had received God’s revelation, so he was given the keys.
What has the power to open the kingdom of heaven? The gospel message about Jesus Christ. Paul writes in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” What is the gospel of Christ? It is the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins on the cross, been raised from the dead, and imputes forgiveness of sins, Christ’s righteousness, and eternal life to all who believe in Him. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul also writes this to the Corinthian church,
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:18-24).
The gospel is the power of God. It is the authority of God, the keys that grant entry into the kingdom of heaven. This is why Jesus immediately begins to teach His disciples about His death and resurrection in Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the core of the gospel message.
So the source of the church’s authority is Jesus, the nature of the church’s authority is the gospel message. Third, we see …
C. The Use of the Church’s Authority
How do we use the keys of the kingdom? By proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead, the Holy Spirit of God works through the word of God to bring new life to a dead sinner. When we believe in Christ, we are born again as children of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26) and become citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 2:19; Phl. 3:20). So, faithful gospel proclamation is the key to the kingdom.
In Matthew 16:19, Jesus specifically addresses Peter, so it is significant that, in the book of Acts, we see God using Peter to “open the doors” to three different groups of people so they can enter the Kingdom. In Acts 2, Peter preaches to the Jews in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and about three thousand believe that day. When Peter preached Jesus Christ, he “unlocked the door” of heaven for the Jews. Later, in Acts 8, the Samaritans believed the gospel and receive the Holy Spirit. Peter confirmed that God had “unlocked the door” for the Samaritans to enter the Kingdom. Then, in Acts 10, Peter brings the gospel to a Roman centurion’s household, and they, too, believe and receive the Holy Spirit. Peter told them that Jesus Christ is Lord of all Who is ordained by God to be the Judge of all (Acts 10:36, 42). And then he proceeded to tell them that “whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43; cf. 15:7,14). Peter’s preaching of the gospel “unlocked the door” for the Gentiles. The “keys” that Jesus gave him worked in each case.[1]
Of course, keys can be used to lock doors as well as open them. Without faith in Christ, the door to heaven is shut and barred. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” As the apostles preached the gospel, those who responded in faith and repentance were granted access to the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet those who continued to harden their hearts and reject the gospel of God’s saving grace were shut out of the Kingdom (Acts 8:23).
Jesus further explains how this works by saying, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). A more literal rendering of what Jesus said is, “Whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”[2] It’s not that the apostles were given the privilege of changing God’s mind, as if whatever they decided on earth would be duplicated in heaven. Rather, they were encouraged that, as they moved forward in preaching the gospel, they would be fulfilling God’s plan in heaven. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Jesus did not say that God would obey what they did on earth, but that they should do on earth whatever God had already willed. The church does not get man’s will done in heaven; it obeys God’s will on earth.”[3]
Jesus said the same thing in other words in John 20:23 after symbolically commanding them to receive the Holy Spirit, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Again, what Jesus is saying is that when the church proclaims forgiveness through the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, it does so based on what God has already declared. Only God can forgive sins. We merely declare the forgiveness that God has provided in the death and resurrection of Christ. On the basis of God’s revealed word, we recognize and proclaim what God has already determined to be forgiven or unforgiven.
How does that work? Like this: If a person rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, we can say with the absolute authority of God’s word that that person is bound in sin and condemned to hell. Their sins are not forgiven. If on the other hand, a person truly believes on Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we can say with authority that their sins are forgiven, they are loosed—set free from the bondage of sin—and they will enter the kingdom of heaven. When believers are in agreement with God’s word, God is in agreement with them.[4] This is what Jesus meant when He said, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
Here Jesus said it in the context of salvation, of those who enter the kingdom or are kept out of the kingdom. In Matthew 18 Jesus says the same thing to all the apostles in the context of church discipline. We will look at that in more detail when we get to Matthew 18. But this is the authority of the church to bind and loose what has been bound and loosed in heaven. The authority and responsibility of the church is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus has given us the keys. He has given the authority to liberate souls from sin and hell. The gospel of Jesus Christ unlocks the chains of sin that keep people imprisoned in the fear of death. The gospel of Jesus Christ opens the doors of heaven to everyone who believes.
Therefore, what is the mission of the church? To use the keys. To proclaim the gospel that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third day. To invite sinners to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. To open the kingdom of heaven to them. That is the authority of the church. It is our calling, our mission. Adrian Rogers preached, “The church must evangelize or fossilize,” and “If we don’t go out in evangelism, we will go out of existence.”[5] The church of Jesus Christ has the one thing that the world needs most: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only the church has the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Nobody else is going to preach the gospel.
There are a lot of good causes to which Christians and churches have given themselves: feeding the poor, caring for the sick, seeking justice for the oppressed, speaking up for the unborn against abortion, fighting godless ideologies, strengthening Christian marriages and families, educating children from a biblical world view, and many more good things. But if we neglect doing the one thing that sets people free from sin and opens the kingdom of heaven, then we have failed.
Listen, when we use the keys of the kingdom, when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, we cannot fail. The gates of hades will not prevail against His church. Every time you proclaim Christ Jesus to a lost sinner, you are using the keys of the kingdom. If you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re going to want others to believe too. The key that unlocks the door to heaven also fits the ignition switch of your life. The gospel not only sets you free, but it also turns you on. It empowers you with all the authority of heaven to proclaim forgiveness and freedom for all who believe. Christ’s word will not fail to bring His chosen bride to Himself. Jesus will save sinners. He will build His church.
This is the church of Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual assembly, chosen of God, built on Christ and by Christ, redeemed by His blood, victorious over death forever, and endowed with the authority to rescue others from the bonds of sin and death.
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[1] Keys of the Kingdom, article on https://www.gotquestions.org/keys-of-the-kingdom.html
[2] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 373. The verbs “will be bound” and “will be loosed” are periphrastic future perfects indicating a future perfectly completed past action.
[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 59.
[4] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Matthew, Moody Publishers , Chicago 1988. p. 34.
[5] Adrian Rogers, The Church of Jesus Christ, Love Worthy Finding Ministries Inc. https://www.Lwf.org.
