Authority

Matt 16: 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

In our opening passage (verse 19) we will notice that “the keys to the kingdom” are mentioned . . .

19 And I will give unto thee (not unto Peter who was just a man {the small stone} but unto the church which the gates of hell shall not prevail upon . . . To Her

will Jesus give) the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou (the church) shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.

First of all we must go back to the foundation of “the church” as Jesus has just mentioned . . . So I want to address a common misconception

regarding verse #19 . . . The keys of the kingdom DOES NOT refer to the ability or to the authority to keep certain people OUT OF HEAVEN.

To bind on the earth – and to be bound in heaven DOES NOT refer to confining the soul in some type of spiritual prison (purgatory) to prevent 

that soul from appearing in the presence of God until the one with the keys of the kingdom “releases it”.

The keys to the kingdom does not represent the authority to “shut” certain ones out of heaven . . . salvation IS NOT in the church.

John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This verse clearly teaches that salvation is through faith – no mention of “the church” or any type of worship is mentioned in this entire passage as a condition for eternal life.

Ro 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

This verse is clearly a black and white reference to salvation . . . again worship and the church are not indicated as a condition of eternal life.

Eph 2: 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Again these scriptures teach us that salvation is through faith – but this time (in this passage) worship IS mentioned – but not as a condition for 

salvation – but specifically that the “good works” which certainly consists of worship - are specifically excluded from being a condition of eternal life.

Misconception #1 – is that salvation is somehow bound to the church or to some form of worship – it should be clear to us however – that according

to these verses (John 3:16 – Romans 10:13 and Eph 2:8-9 . . . that such a belief is simply not supported by the scriptures . . .

Next we will consider the false notion that after death “an authority exists to place a man’s soul into a type of spiritual prison that falls short of the

torments of hell – but that also falls short of the glories of heaven . . . II Cor 5: 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

The "earnest" of the Spirit refers to what amounts to a down payment – When we are saved God “deposits” The Holy Spirit within us . . . The 

Spirit of God within each one of us serves as a reminder that we have been saved – and that God’s presence in heaven awaits us after death . . .

6 Therefore (because of how we are aware of this Spirit within us) we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body (alive) we are absent from the Lord (or not yet in His

presence) . . . 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 (because of this faith) We are confident (also) I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body (dead) and to be present with the Lord.

When we die – our soul either wakes up in heaven – or it wakes up in hell . . . there is no place found in the Bible that is somewhere in between these two locations.

Misconception #2 is that to be bound on earth and in heaven - DOES NOT refer to a prison of the soul that is located somewhere between heaven and hell . . . because according the Bible - Heaven is a place of comfort in the presence of God . . . while HELL is a place of torment in the absence of God.

Hell is truly a place of torment – but one of the things that makes Hell so terrible – is that Hell is the only place in existence where God is NOT present.

If we could picture God as standing outside of a house – Heaven would be “outside” where God was standing . . . but HELL would be inside the

house because God was not there . . . we could define Hell a number of different ways – but the basic definition of Hell is the absence of God . . .

If you can find a place where God is not present – then the place you have found IS HELL . . . and all of the horrible things that we associate with 

Hell – all of the sufferings that we fear – these are the results of a place “where GOD is not present” . . . the existence of God - in fact the 

“presence” of God is the only power that confines HELL to the center of the earth – otherwise HELL would grow and expand until it had consumed every man that had ever been born . . . 

without the presence of God these terrors are all that would exist for all men – throughout all eternity . . . a scared child knows safety in his mothers arms . . . the soul of man only knows safety - in the presence of God.

If to die “saved” is to be present with the Lord – or to be where God is . . . then to die “lost” is to awaken in that place where God is not present (what we refer to as HELL).

So the keys of the kingdom DOES NOT refer to the authority to “lock” the door of heaven to keep someone from entering . . .

To bind on earth and heaven – DOES NOT refer to taking a soul prisoner and after a man’s death to keep that soul from being in God’s presence . . 

Next we will look at Luke 16 – and we will discuss Lazarus “in paradise” (Abraham’s bosom) and the rich man “in hell” . . .

A key does represent the authority to unlock or to set free . . . and "to bind or to loose" also represents a similar type of authority . . .

Instead of the authority to lock someone out of heaven - I want you to think about the authority "to understand" – think about "the ability" to properly 

interpret The Bible . . . think about loosing the ability to understand – if we cannot understand The Bible – if we cannot interpret it’s meaning . . . can 

we not say that we have lost “the keys” or that we have lost the authority to understand "the mysteries of God’s spiritual kingdom on earth . . . can we 

not say that our lack of understanding “binds our lives” such that we are unable to “loosen” ourselves from the blindness of unbelief . . .