Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 30 – The Common Thread from Church to Kingdom
Jesus entrusted the keys of the kingdom to the one true church – through the apostles.
Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
The apostles, as Jesus’ personal representatives, had authority over the church.
When there was a sinner in a church, here was the process used to decide who remained in and who was out. (In Matthew 18, Jesus is expanding to His disciples what He’d said to Peter in Matthew 16.)
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
Matthew 18:16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.
Matthew 18:17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Matthew 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
We saw an example of this process when we studied 1 Corinthians 5 in “Chapter 23 – Obstacles to the Progression of the One True Church.” Recall that Paul had to urge the church to distance themselves from a man sinning heinously by “loosing” him. Though Paul didn’t use that term, it describes what he was urging.
As for the keys of the kingdom, consider what Peter is saying here.
2 Peter 1:5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
2 Peter 1:6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
2 Peter 1:7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
2 Peter 1:8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
2 Peter 1:11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
What, pray tell, “abundantly supplies” the “entrance into the eternal kingdom? Keys! The keys of the kingdom of God. Peter was spelling out what the keys were.
The keys of the kingdom weren’t for Peter alone. They weren’t even for the apostles alone. They were for the apostles to pass on to the people so that everyone would have access to the kingdom of God when it came. Those keys were the elements of righteousness.
As righteousness prevailed in the 1st-century church, it forever prevails in the kingdom of God. Thus righteousness is the common thread between the church and the kingdom. What’s different, as you’ve seen, is their form.
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