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Matthew 16, John 17. We are a
little bit short on time. I'm going to try not to keep
you longer, so we'll see what we can get through today. Some of you who are part of the
membership class will recognize this sermon because you probably
heard it about 12 weeks ago in that membership class. By the
way, we have one more class left for membership and then we have
some individuals that will be looking to join the church. So
if you're a member, look out for an email or emails that have
some salvation testimonies for you to review. Jesus said, I
will build my church. He said, I'll build my church
and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And with those words,
he encapsulated the whole purpose of his incarnation. He walked
the earth so he could build his church. He perfectly kept the
law so he could build his church. He fulfilled the prophets so
that he could build his church. He suffered at the hands of godless
men and died so that he could build his church. He bore the
wrath of God so that he could build his church. He ascended
to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit so that he could build
his church. He presently sits at the right
hand of the Father and continues the act of work of building his
church. It's not an overstatement to
say that the church is the centerpiece of Jesus' redemptive work. The
ushering in of the new covenant was for the purpose of producing
the people of God, who would gather together as the church.
The church is the crown jewel of Christ's accomplishments.
When he spilt his innocent blood and ratified the new covenant,
it was for this purpose, to purchase and to produce the church. Far
be it from those who claim to be Christ's to downplay the value
or the importance of the gathered church. Jesus' church-building
work even continues today. If you want to see Jesus at work,
where do you look? Well, you ought to be able to
look to the church. But the church is not only the
focus of Christ's work on earth, the church is actually the object
of Christ's affection on earth as well. Biblically, the church
is presented as Jesus' bride. It's presented as Jesus' body.
The church is presented as the branches to Jesus' vine. It's
presented as the household over which Jesus Christ presides.
The church is presented as the sheep of Jesus' flock. The church
is presented as the brothers and sisters in Jesus' family.
The citizens in Jesus' kingdom. Through these analogies, we learn
that the church is owned by Jesus, and loved by Jesus, and cherished
by Jesus, and sustained by Jesus, and ruled, and led, and protected
by Jesus. As we gather this morning, we
are gathering together as this church. Get the sense that the
church is important? You get the feeling that if we
love Jesus, we should also love what he loves, which is the church?
I hope you get that sense. That's the whole premise of what
we're gonna look at this morning. We're going to look at Jesus' promise
to build His church. All of this, in all honesty, is a build-up
to next week's members meeting. I want you to understand, if
you're a member of Calvary Baptist Church, the importance for you to take
up your authority and your responsibility as members of Jesus' church.
That's our goal. So by the end of this sermon
and maybe next week, we ought to be able to gain an understanding
of both the identity and authority of Jesus Church. So what this
does is it flies right in the face of anybody who might say,
well, I'm a Christian, but I just want to worship God at home.
I just want to live up my faith as an individual. The Bible doesn't
know anything like that. The Bible doesn't know anything
of a soul, lone wolf Christian just forging his own way and
living his own life apart from the community of the church.
But look at Matthew 16, verse 15 through 20. We'll get to John
17 in a moment. Jesus says to his disciples,
but who do you say that I am? Peter responds, you are the Christ. You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed
are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this
to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you
are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven," remember that, the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he
strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the
Christ. So the answer to the question,
but who do you say that I am? Peter responds, you are the Christ,
the son of the living God. That's an essential confession
for anyone who would be a Christian. Peter's confession there was
a seminal moment in Christ's earthly ministry. As we're going
to see, all of Christ's work with his disciples. daily walking
with them, having his interpersonal relationship with them, teaching
them, and correcting them, and modeling for them, and praying
for them. All of this was for the purpose
of eliciting that exact confession from them, that they would get
to the point to realize that he's the sent son of God, and
they would confess that as personal conviction. We know this because
look in John 17, starting at verse 1, This is Jesus' prayer
to the Father. This is towards the end of his
earthly ministry. And he goes to the Father, and
he prays, and he prays, Father, I have accomplished all that
you gave me to do. The mission that I came to accomplish,
I've accomplished it. What's incredible about this
is that Jesus says this prior to the cross. So he came to die. Yes, he did. Absolutely. He came
to give his life as a ransom for many. But in this prayer
he's saying, Father, I've accomplished all that you've given me to do
prior to the cross. So it tells me that we need to
pay some attention to what it is that he accomplished and understand
that this really encompasses the thrust of the purpose of
his earthly ministry. So he prays. Father, the hour
has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son
may glorify you, since you have given him authority, that matters,
given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to
all whom you have given him, and this is eternal life. If
you're here this morning and you don't know much about the
faith, you don't know much about salvation, it's a pretty important word
right here from Jesus. This is eternal life, that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I
glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you
gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in
your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the
world existed. And this is the work that he accomplished. This
is the work that he accomplished. Verse six, I have manifested
your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
Yours they were, you gave them to me and they have kept your
word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from
you. For I've given them the words that you gave me and they
have received them and I've come to know in truth that I came
from you and they have believed that you sent me. There it is.
That's the goal. Take those whom the father has
given you, those disciples, Teach them, preach to them, be an example
to them, do miracles before them so that they will understand
that you are sent by me, says the Father to Christ. And Christ
says, I've done all that, and they now believe. They believe
that you sent me. So then he says, I'm praying
for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom
you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and
yours are mine, and I'm glorified in them. And I'm no longer in
the world, but they are in the world. And I'm coming to you,
Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me,
that they may be one, even as we are one. He's praying for
the spiritual unity of those who belong to him. While I was
with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.
I've guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except
the Son of Destruction, that's Judas, that the Scriptures might
be fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you, and these things I speak
in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
I've given them your word, and the world has hated them because
they are not of the world, just as I'm not of the world. I do
not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep
them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as
I'm not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth, Your word
is truth. As you sent me into the world,
so I've sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate
myself, that they also may be sanctified in the truth." Now
listen, because now Jesus is going to pray for you and me
right here. I do not ask for these only, but also for those
who will believe in me through their word. All of us this morning
have come to faith in Jesus as a product of the preaching, the
writing of the apostles. And here Jesus is praying for
us. but also for those who believe
in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as
you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in
us, so that the world may believe that you've sent me. The glory
that you've given me I've given to them, that they may be one,
even as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may
become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent
me, and love them even as you love me. Father, I desire that
they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am,
to see my glory, that you have given me, because you loved me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even
though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know
that you have sent me. I made known to them your name,
and I will continue to make it known that the love with which
you love me may be in them, and I in them. So Jesus prays, mission
accomplished. Mission accomplished. All that
you've given me to do, Father, I have done. And what was that
work? Manifest the name of the Father
to his disciples. So they would come to the place
to confess that Jesus Christ is the one sent by the Father.
To honor the Father, we must honor Christ, and we see it.
As Paul would say, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. What was the consequence of Jesus manifesting the name
of the Father to the people whom the Father had given them? It
says in verse 6, They've kept your word. They've kept your
word. And what did Jesus do for those people who kept his word?
Verse 8, I've given them the words that you gave me. Jesus
is communicating to his disciples all that the Father wants them
to know, and how do they respond? Verse 8, they receive the truth.
And I've come to know in truth, he says, that I came from you,
and they believe that you sent me. And so from this passage,
we see the primary purposes of Christ's coming. to receive the
people whom the Father gave Him, to teach them, to perform miracles
before them, to reveal the nature of the Father to them, to guard
them so that they would not be lost. And we learn what the measure
of success was of Jesus' earthly ministry, that those whom the
Father had given Him would confess that He's come from the Father.
and that he received all of his power and authority from the
Father. That's exactly the confession that Peter makes in Matthew 16.
That's exactly the confession that Peter makes in Matthew 16.
So then, when Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God, what's happening there is it becomes evidence
that Christ's mission is approaching completion. His mission is approaching
completion. As we learn in the Gospel of
John, it's that very confession which Jesus worked to elicit
from those whom the Father had given Him. What's happening here
is that Jesus Christ is beginning to forge a foundation for the
church that He's going to build. And that's why when he responds
to Peter, he can say, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh
and blood is not revealed to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
And he says to him that upon you I will build my church. The
foundation of the confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of
God is the foundation upon which the church is built, and the
apostles were the first to make that confession. Now, verse 18
of Matthew 16. In response to Peter's confession,
Jesus says, I'm going to build my church upon this rock, and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now in verse 19,
he says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This is an essential
passage for us to understand as we think about our identity
as the people of God and as the church. He says to Peter, because
you've confessed me as the Christ, the Son of God, I'm going to
build my church upon that confession, and part of that church-building
work is going to necessitate that you take the keys of the
kingdom that I will give you. This is authority, and with that
authority, you will be able to bind and you'll be able to loose,
and we'll explain that a little bit later. Because Jesus' disciples
came to believe that He was the Christ, the Son of God, as direct
eyewitnesses of His earthly ministry, and later His crucifixion and
His resurrection, thus fulfilling the purpose for which Jesus came,
they would become foundational to Jesus' church. These are the
first witnesses. Therefore he entrusts them with
the keys of the kingdom. The keys of the kingdom, listen,
are the essential authority needed to build Jesus' hell-defying
church. The essential authority needed
to build Jesus' hell-defying church. And Jesus hands those
keys over to the apostles. It will become relevant in just
a minute to you and I. If you're going to build a building,
you need a foundation. And you need a solid foundation.
It doesn't matter how wonderful the rest of the building is,
if the foundation is weak. What Jesus is doing here is He's
building a strong foundation upon the apostles, upon which
He's going to build His church. Ephesians 2.19 says, You are
no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God. Take that personally. built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows
into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." That's
an amazing picture of the church, the household of God. So he continues
this analogy of household. And what foundation does he say
is built upon? The apostles. According to Ephesians 21 and
22, that building work is continuing. He says, in whom you also are
being built together. So listen, this morning we have
an incredible privilege as the church of Jesus Christ. Maybe
in a few weeks, God willing, we're going to see some other
people join Calvary Baptist Church. We get to witness people receiving
Christ as Savior and Lord, being baptized in His name, being added
to the church. What is this? It's evidence that Christ is
still working. He's still building the church. Believers collectively,
then, are the household of God, built on the foundation of the
apostles, Jesus being the chief cornerstone. And as this structure
is being built, we take a step back, and what Paul says is,
when you look at the structure, you know what it looks like?
A holy temple to the Lord, the dwelling place of God, the center
of worship, the repository of divine truth. This is talking
about the church. Not the building, the covenant
community. When we gather together collectively
as the household of God, as we are doing this morning, this
is why we fight so much against consumerism. Why do we leave
the Lord's table in the middle of a service? What are visitors
going to think when they come in and walk in the back door
and music is playing and everybody's got their head bowed, nice clothes?
What are unbelievers going to think? I don't want to say who cares
because it sounds callous, but what is Sunday morning? This
is the gathering of Christ's people, the covenant community
coming together as the church. And we love for anybody to come
with us and to join with us. But you know what they're observing?
They're going to observe Christian worship. We have come to worship
Christ, who is Lord of all things to the church. We are a holy
temple to the Lord, the dwelling place of God. And this amazing
church is built upon the foundation of the apostles. So when Jesus
chose to build his church, he prepared the right foundation.
His apostles performed miracles before them, set an example before
them, as we have already said. When they finally came to the
firm conviction that He was the Christ, the Son of the living
God, He handed them over the authority. so that the church
can be built upon them. The fickle and fearful men who
first came to Jesus would become bold proclaimers of the gospel,
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only source of salvation
for the sinful world. So with that solid foundation
laid, the only thing left for Jesus to do for His church then
was to start building. Peter, here's the keys, authority,
I'm gonna build my church upon you. So what happened? Well,
Christ went to the cross. He gave himself as a substitutionary
sacrifice, bore the wrath of God, which we deserved because
of our sin. He died as our substitute, was
buried, rose three days later, ascended to the Father, and what
did he do? He gave the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then indwelt
his people, and that church-building work began to flourish. We see this in Acts chapter two.
How's our time doing? Not bad. So let's look at Acts
2. You can just glance at it. I'm
not going to read the text, but I'm going to explain the text.
So if you go to Acts chapter 2, starting in about verse 22 when
Peter begins to preach, This is Peter. He's been given the
keys of the kingdom, remember. That authority to bind and to
loose, that authority necessary to build the church. And that
Peter, who had betrayed Jesus not too long before, is now filled
with the Holy Spirit and he begins to boldly preach the gospel.
This is about 50 days after the crucifixion, the Jewish Feast
of Pentecost. 120 disciples are gathered together
there in the upper room. They're waiting for the Spirit
to descend, just as Jesus had promised. And suddenly the house
where they were gathered was filled, the Bible says, with
the sound of a mighty rushing wind. All the disciples were
filled with the Spirit, and then God grants them a miraculous
sign. They speak in languages they had never learned. So all
these men coming from other nations could hear the mighty works of
God spoken in languages that the speakers had never learned.
An amazing, miraculous gift, a product of the Holy Spirit.
In verse 14, Peter demands the attention of the crowd, which
in and of itself was amazing. Like, Peter, where did you suddenly
get this authority from? Not too long ago, you were cowering
under the penetrating eyes of a little servant girl around
a fire who's accusing you of being a follower of Jesus, and
you denied it. And now he stands up and he demands the attention
of a crowd of thousands of people and says, give ear to my words. Listen to me, he says. He claims
that the miracle the crowds were witnessing was the fulfillment
of prophecy from the book of Joel. And then he begins to preach.
Verse 22. Jesus of Nazareth, he begins.
The idea that Christ would come from Nazareth was a joke to the
Jews. It was one of the reasons they claimed to reject Him. This
Jesus, he says, was attested to you by God with mighty works
and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst.
God gave you clear evidence that Jesus Christ was the sent Son
through the miracles, through the signs that He did. It all
happened right in your midst. God bore witness to everyone
that Jesus was the Christ. No one could legitimately deny
this, Peter says. And so he says, as you yourselves
know, you know this, you know he did miracles, yet you rejected
him. He continues preaching with uncharacteristic boldness. He says in verse 23, this Jesus
delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge
of God, you crucified and killed by the hand of lawless men. Peter
makes it clear that although the death of Jesus Christ was
in God's plan from the beginning, still those men who were guilty
for crucifying him were culpable. They were still guilty, even
though this was according to God's ultimate plan. At this
point, the seriousness of the crime of the Jews is beginning
to settle on them. They realize, some of them, that
conviction is beginning to well up inside of them, where it's
beginning to become clarified in their minds that Jesus who
we rejected was actually the Messiah. Peter continues with relentless
authority. He moves on to speak about the
resurrection. This Jesus, whom you killed, he says, is alive.
God raised him up from the dead, and he's now seated on the throne
of David. They mocked him as a king of
the Jews, but now he is actually enthroned as the king of all
creation. Peter then says something which
must have struck like lightning, verse 34. He says, this Jesus
whom you have crucified really sits in divine authority upon
the throne of David until what? His enemies are made his footstool.
Now that's a devastating statement if you have made yourself the
enemy of Jesus. If you made yourself the enemy
of Jesus and crucified him, and now Peter is preaching and said
he's sitting on a throne like a king, and he's gonna sit and
he's gonna rule and reign until all of his enemies are his footstool,
and you're one of those enemies, you can understand the conviction
beginning to develop in his audience. Thousands of Jews stood guilty
and exposed. They made them enemies of the meek Messiah, subjecting
him to mockery and abuse, and now they find themselves really
standing naked and exposed before Jesus, not as the meek Messiah,
but as the enthroned king. Does Peter have any evidence
of this, that Jesus Christ is risen? Does he have any evidence
that the Christ whom they crucified is actually alive? Yeah, he says,
"...being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He
has poured out this, that you yourselves are seeing and hearing."
The miracle you're seeing right now is evidence that Jesus is
alive. The miracles that He performed continue. You ought to be able
to recognize that the miraculous power which He wielded is now
being wielded by whom? by his followers, by the church.
The same spirit which was empowering Peter's powerful sermon was the
spirit with which Christ did miracles and preached authoritatively. Peter had the crowd in his authoritative
grip and he continued to squeeze Just in case the crowd had not
connected all the dots, Peter concludes, let all the house
of Israel know. Let all the house of Israel therefore
know, verse 36, for certain that God has made him both Lord and
Christ. He's ruling authority. He's the
Christ. He's the Messiah. He is the Savior. And he says,
know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus, whom you crucified. The Jews were guilty of killing
their own Messiah. The undeniable evidence and continual
confirmation from the Father that Jesus was who He claimed
to be was before all of them, yet they despised and rejected
Jesus. But now they stood accused, exposed,
guilty. They were laid bare before the
power and authority of the exalted Christ whom they crucified. And
then verse 37, it says, and they were cut to the heart. They were
cut to the heart. Holy Spirit conviction. There's
only one appropriate response to all of this. Some of them
convicted, cry out, brothers, what shall we do? We see it now,
what should we do? The answer is what? Verse 37,
repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. If you're here this
morning and you're not yet a Christian, that's a right response from
you to the gospel as well. Jesus Christ is the perfect Son
of God who walked this earth, lived a perfect life, gave himself
as a substitutionary sacrifice, bore the wrath of God for our
sins, was buried, overcame death because He is the sinless Son
of God, is exalted at the right hand of the Father, and now offers
salvation to all who would believe in Him. And so the right response
to those realities is what? Repent and be baptized. Repent
and be baptized. In that moment, Peter and the
other disciples were standing at the door of the kingdom of
heaven. Remember in our talk about legalism? What did we say
about the Pharisees? What did Jesus say about them?
They stood at the door of the kingdom of heaven and they slammed
it in the faces of any who would enter in. And they weren't even
getting in. What's happening here is now Peter and the other
disciples seem to be standing at the door of the kingdom of
heaven saying, if you want to get in, repent and be baptized. If you want to get in, you must
come through Jesus Christ. It seems as if there is an authority
shift taking place. Whereas the Jews once stood at
that door and frankly slammed it in the face of others, the
apostles have come with authority given to them by Jesus and swung
the door wide open and said, all can come through Jesus Christ. This is a shift happening in
the administration of the kingdom of God on earth. Now it's the
church, built upon the foundation of the apostles, who stand at
the door of the kingdom of heaven, declaring with authority how
individuals can enter in through Christ and Christ alone. can't
rely upon ethnicity, religious identity, even personal righteousness,
good works. Everyone who would come would
have to enter through Christ. Christ is the door. And so Peter
proclaims, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus. Well, what
happens? Thousands respond. Thousands
respond to Peter's sermon. Thousands respond. What did that
response look like? Repentance and baptism. We believe that
Christ is the Son of God, and He's exalted as Lord, and what? We're going to become His disciples.
And so they're baptized in His name. Those new believers recognize
what Peter recognized. They made the same confession
that Peter made. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God. These new believers recognize
that Peter and the other apostles did indeed speak for the resurrected
Christ. They accepted that they really did have authority. They
believed that they had the message of salvation and that they really
were standing at the gate of the kingdom of heaven. In that
moment, as I said, an incredible shift happened in God's administration
of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It's now the disciples, the apostles
who held the power and authority over the kingdom of heaven on
her. It was they who would have the
authority to declare the means of salvation. It was they who
had the authority to declare who had and who had not made
a confession necessary to enter in. These disciples who were
the first to confess Christ as the Son of the living God had
become the foundation upon which Jesus would build his church.
The thousands whom Jesus added to the church on that day would
go on to devote themselves to, Acts 2.42 says what? The apostles'
teaching. The apostles' teaching. The church
is being built upon the foundation of the apostle. So Jesus' church-building
project was well underway and continues till today. The strong
foundation that Jesus built upon the apostles has been able to
bear thousands of years of addition. And here we are today in 2024
in Canada, and the church is still being built, and it's still
being built upon what? The apostolic doctrine upon the
apostles. So let's define the church. This is our definition of a church.
A church is a group of baptized believers. who regularly gather
together in organized assemblies, with a commitment to live out
their discipleship together in the context of loving relationships,
continuing together in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship and prayer
and the practice of the ordinances under the oversight of appointed
leadership. There's a universal church. Every believer, you could
say, is part of the universal church. But the universal church
is designed by God to gather together in local assemblies.
A church is a group of baptized believers who regularly gather
together in organized assemblies with a commitment to live out
their discipleship together in the context of loving relationships,
continuing together in the Apostles' Doctrine, Fellowship, Prayer,
and the practice of the ordinances under the oversight of appointed
leadership. This morning, we can say this gathering here is
a church. built upon the foundation of
the apostles. As you consider this morning your role, your
identity, if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, his
design for you is to be part of a local church. His design
for you is to understand the authority and responsibilities
that he has given you as an individual, as part of the community of believers,
and to take seriously that authority and responsibility, as we're
going to see. When you join together with a body of believers, you
join an outpost of Jesus' kingdom, which has been built upon the
foundation of the apostles, still possessing their apostolic authority.
So, although the apostles have all died, We're going to see
next, and we're going to end with this thought. We see next,
though the apostles have died, the authority of the apostles
continue. The authority of the apostles
continues. We're not talking about apostolic succession here,
as far as ordaining successive generations of apostles. What
we're saying is the authority of the apostles continues. In
what way? The authority of the apostles
continue because Jesus had passed the keys of the kingdom to Peter
and the other apostles. And as we're going to see, the
apostles then went on to teach and to train the church on how
to exercise the authority of those keys. So remember Matthew
16? Jesus says to Peter, upon your
confession, I'm granting you or giving you the keys of the
kingdom in order to accomplish the work of building the church.
With those keys, remember, use those phrases, you'll be able
to bind and you'll be able to loose. They'd be able to speak with
heavenly authority and to make declarative statements about
who was in the kingdom and who was out with heavenly affirmation.
The church does not make believers. The church does not create believers.
But what the church does is declare with authority what is a proper
confession so that I can say to an individual, let me hear
your understanding of the gospel. What do you believe about Jesus?
And on the basis of your profession, I can say, I believe you are
a believer. So I don't think the church has
that authority. What do you think we do every time we baptize?
Every time we baptize, we baptize on the basis of a profession
of faith. That is the church, saying, we
accept your confession of faith as a genuine confession of faith,
and we affirm that by baptism. You know that we also do that
every time we partake in the Lord's table? This morning when we partake
together, you know what we're saying? We're saying we affirm
one another as continuing in the faith. You know what we do
when somebody who claims once to be a believer, but they're
no longer living as a believer, and they're removed from the
church? We no longer affirm that profession of faith by excluding
them from the Lord's table. This is the authority of the
church. These are the keys of the kingdom being exercised to
bind and to loose. So at Pentecost, when Peter stood
and preached, The reason why it appeared as if he was standing
at the gate of heaven and declaring who could get in and who could
not is because that's exactly what he was doing. When Jesus
said to his apostles prior to his ascension in Matthew 28,
all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And
he said, what? Go therefore. Go therefore. And
what? Preach. Preach to all nations,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded.
What he's saying is, I have all authority, so you go in my authority
and you make disciples. The church wields the authority
of Christ. by virtue of the exercise of the keys of the kingdom, by
making disciples, and authoritatively declaring who is and who is not
a disciple. The apostles who became foundational
to the church which Jesus would build. The apostles became foundational
to the church which Jesus would build. The church was built upon
them, and that church was imbued with the same apostolic authority
which he had granted the apostles through the keys of the kingdom.
How do we know this? Well, we're going to look at
one more passage, and I think this is our last passage. Matthew
18. Matthew 18. We don't want to get into the
weeds here when it comes to church discipline, but this passage
does deal with church discipline. That is, someone who claims to
be a believer but who begins to live a life where it's not
indicative of genuine faith. The church has authority, basically,
to remove an affirmation of that individual's faith and to say,
we no longer recognize you as a genuine believer. The church
has that authority in Matthew 18, but I want you to listen
to the language here. Jesus says, if your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. That's
just really good advice. If you're offended by a brother,
don't go tell others first. Don't try to gather up your gang and
your team to feel self-justified and all of that. Don't do that.
Just go tell him alone that you've been offended by them. If he
listens to you, you've gained your brother. Mission accomplished.
You've gained your brother. But if he does not listen to
you, take one or two others along with you. What Jesus is saying,
I'm not going to tolerate broken relationships in my church. This
is Christ. So he says, take one or two others
along with you. This has to escalate. that every charge may be established
by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen
to them, what does he say? Tell it to whom? The church.
Tell it to the church. Is this the universal church
here? Obviously not. I've been offended by Jared.
I'm going to announce it to every believer I can find because they're
part of the church. Clearly, this is in the context
of the local church. If he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the
church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
You can no longer recognize them as a brother. They have been
obstinate. They've been rebellious. They're
refusing repentance. They're refusing the authority of the
church in their lives. So what? Treat them like an unbeliever.
Now, what does it mean to treat somebody like an unbeliever? What did
Jesus do for Gentiles? He opened up salvation for Gentiles.
What did he do for tax collectors? He called tax collectors to be
his disciples, like Matthew, right? How do you treat a Gentile
and a tax collector? You treat them as those who are
in need of salvation. You don't shun them, right? Christians
don't shun, they shouldn't. What this is, you can no longer
recognize them as a believer, so there's a call to repentance.
There's love, and there's a call to repentance, right? He says,
truly I say to you, now listen to the language, whatever you
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. It's almost like the Bible's
really consistent. Whatever you bind will be bound,
whatever you loose will be loosed. Where had we heard that language
before? Two chapters earlier in Matthew 16. Jesus says to
Peter, I'm giving you the keys of the kingdom. You use those
keys, that authority, to bind and to loose with heavenly authority
and heavenly affirmation. You can declare who is a believer
and who is not. Two chapters later, Jesus uses
the language of binding and loosing, but it's not the apostles who
are binding and loosing here. Who's doing the binding and loosing?
It's the church. It's the church. It's the gathered
local church. The authority that Jesus gave
the apostles through the keys of the kingdom is now exercised
by the local church. And there you see it two chapters
later. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will
be done for them by my Father in heaven. That's the idea of
bound on earth, bound in heaven, loosed on earth, loosed in heaven.
You're saying these things on earth, but you're exercising
my authority. You are doing this with my affirmation. So what? When you agree on these
things and you exercise my authority, understand that heaven is smiling
upon you and you are legitimately exercising divine authority. For where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I am among them. And just a little note,
that's not a blessing upon a prayer meeting here. Oh, two or three
are gathered together, whatever we ask God's going to give us.
The context here is church discipline, the authority of the church in
that. The exercise of church discipline in Matthew 18 clearly
requires a gathered local church that understands the authority
that it has been granted by Jesus Christ through the keys of the
kingdom. The exercise of church discipline in Matthew 18 really
needs to be carried out by what? A group of baptized believers
who regularly gather together in organized assemblies, We're
not exercising church discipline upon any and every believer out
there. This is within the context of
a gathered assembly who have a commitment to live out their
discipleship together in the context of loving relationships.
That's the only way in which something like Matthew 18 can
be carried out is in that context. continuing together in the Apostles'
doctrine, fellowship, prayer, and the practice of the ordinances
under the oversight of appointed leadership. That's what's required
in order to be obedient to the process that Jesus gives us in
Matthew 18. Any other arrangement that process
laid out in that passage really fails. Matthew 18 is really court-like
language there. Verse 16 makes no sense without
a gathered assembly to hear the evidence. Tell it to the church,
he says, in verse 17. It's ridiculous if it's not the
local church that's in view. The collective action of putting
an unrepentant individual out of the fellowship makes no sense,
unless in some way they can first be identified with the fellowship.
Lastly, verse 20 makes it explicit, for where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I am among them. This is the gathered church.
When a local church built upon the foundation of the apostles
gathers together, it possesses the authority and the responsibility
of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Why are you here today? We don't gather together simply
to download information. We don't gather together just
to sing some songs. We don't gather together as consumers.
When we come together as the church, we understand that we
are ambassadors of Christ. This church is an outpost of
Jesus' kingdom. This church is imbued with authority
from God in the form of the keys of the kingdom. And if you're
a member of the church, you have that authority. And we say if
you have that authority, you have responsibility. You could
even look at church membership as somewhat like a job description.
You have some stuff to do, right? You and I have some stuff to
do because we have authority granted to us from Jesus for
that purpose. The gathered church has the authority
to stand at the gate of the kingdom of heaven. We don't slam it shut
in the face of people, but we swing the door open and say,
come, come through Jesus. We have the authority to affirm
professions of faith. We do that through baptism. The
gathered church has the authority to continually affirm the genuineness
of professions of faith. We do that through the Lord's
Table. The church has the authority to refuse to continue to affirm
professions of faith. We do that through church discipline.
Remember, when we say the church, we're not referring to elders.
We're not referring to some religious hierarchy. When we say the church,
we mean the congregation. that group of baptized believers
who regularly gather together and so on. When gathered collectively
as one assembly, as a church, we collectively have the authority
and the responsibility to exercise the keys of the kingdom. That
can be a shocking realization for some, especially in the face
of a Christian culture which has remade Christ's church from
his very kingdom representatives on earth to some sort of entertainment-laden
religious sideshow. As a church, we are ambassadors
of the King, administrators of the kingdom of heaven on earth,
entrusted with the authority and responsibility to administer
the kingdom here while we await the future coming of the King
himself. So, I said that we wanted to preach on these topics in
the run-up of our members meeting. I'm really laying it on thick
here, aren't I? What's going to happen at our members meeting?
We're going to offer a suggested addition to our statement of
faith. It's the congregation's role, possessing the apostolic
authority in the form of the keys of the kingdom, to determine
what is a genuine profession of faith and what is not. We
believe that that means that the congregation has authority
and responsibility to oversee our statement of faith. This
is not something where the elders impose upon the congregation
a statement of faith. We believe the congregation wields
this power and authority, and so what I'm suggesting to you
is take up that authority. Take up that authority. Take up your
identity as the church built upon the foundation of the apostles.
Learn how to exercise your authority as a member. Be obedient in fulfilling
your responsibilities as administrator of the kingdom of heaven on earth. Doesn't this give you a far better
vision for the church? This idea of just showing up
and consuming. Just showing up and being the observer of a show
that's put on on the stage to understand that Christ has actually
called you to exercise authority and responsibility on His behalf
and to be part of His church building work. That's your calling
this morning and my calling this morning. If you're here this
morning and you're not yet a Christian, Christ died for you so that you
would be part of the church. He died for you so that you could
be saved. So put your faith in Him as Savior. the only one who
can save you from the penalty of your sin, and submit to Him
as Lord, the only rightful authority in your life. And you know how
you show that faith that you put in Christ as Savior and Lord?
Baptism. Baptism. Publicly be baptized
in His name, taking His name upon yourself, declaring yourself
to be His disciple, and then continue in the faith in where? In the context of the church. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your Word. We thank you for the church, your wise design for the church,
your incredible design for the church. But we recognize that
Jesus is active, he's working, he's continuing to build the
church, even in a culture which is rebellious against you, even
in a culture that has completely lost the plot, which has just
become so foolish. In the rebellion against you,
they've just become confused, not understanding the purpose
for which they're made, and not understanding meaning, not understanding
human identity, what it means to be made in your image. And
even in the midst of a culture which has gone so wrong in so
many ways, your church is thriving. You are building your church.
Men and women are still coming to faith in Christ, still being
transformed by your grace, still being added to the church. And
we just thank you for the privilege of being part of your church
and being able to witness the growth of your church. We pray
you would help us to recognize our authority and responsibility
as church members. Help us have a biblical understanding
of what the church is. divest us of any misconceptions we might
have about church. Maybe we've come from a different
tradition. We've had other teaching when it comes to the church.
Maybe we've fallen prey to bad ideas of what the church is.
I pray that you would just help us to see through those things
and to see what your design is for us. Help us to encourage
one another to walk together as the church, exercising this
authority, understanding that this is authority that's wielded
collectively, that this is something that the body together exercises. So help us to build that community
and to continue in that community. And then, Lord, we just pray
for any of this morning who are not yet Christians. We pray that
they would see their need for Jesus, for salvation from sin. We pray that they would trust
Jesus for that salvation, that they would understand Christ
as Lord as well, rightful authority in their lives, and that they
would respond to the gospel by seeking baptism, declaring their
faith in Christ publicly, and their intention to live for Him.
We thank you for this, and we pray that you continue to build
your church here at Calvary. In Jesus' name that we pray.
Amen.
Keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 16, John 17)
Series Topical
| Sermon ID | 428241718215821 |
| Duration | 46:14 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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