************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 83-84 ************
Doctrine: The Keys of the Kingdom
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on August 26, 2001
Q & 83-84
Matthew 18:15-20
"The Keys of the Kingdom"
Introduction
Earlier this Summer I heard something I hoped I would not hear for a long time from my third and youngest son, Joshua. He got his driver's license and said, "Dad, can I have the keys?" It's a great day when a teenager can say that for the first time. There is something wonderful about a set of keys. They signify power, give status, and mean freedom. The teenager with keys can go where he wants, when he wants, and isn't at the mercy of a parent, or an older brother.
The keys to the car are only one of the many keys that we have. I have here a bag filled with keys to our church building (HOLD UP KEYS). There are 17 different keys to doors, cabinets, and closets – and we never did discover what 4 of the keys are for. All of these keys to open or close, to lock or unlock.
More than once the Bible uses the image of the key. For instance, in appointing a new leader in Israel, God said,
(Is 22:22) I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
The apostle John on the Island of Patmos is comforted and assured by the ascended and glorified Christ with these words:
(Rev 1:17-18) "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. (18) I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."
In our Scripture passage, as well as in other places throughout the Bible, the image of the key is used to symbolize the opening or the closing, the locking or the unlocking, of the doors of heaven. Do you remember what Jesus says to the church of Philadelphia?
(Rev 3:7-8) These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. (8) I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.
Here Jesus claims for Himself absolute authority over entrance to or exclusion from the Kingdom of God. When Christ opens the doors of heaven to someone, no one and no thing is able to drag him or her out. And, when Christ closes the doors of heaven to someone, no one and no thing is able to bring him or her in. To use the language of the Catechism, we would have to say that Jesus has THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM.
I The Keys Entrusted to the Church
A The Catechism reminds us today that Jesus has given or entrusted THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM to the church. The words THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM come from Matthew 16:19,
(Mt 16:19) "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
This authority, then, which belongs exclusively to Jesus Christ, He has entrusted to others. To borrow a theme from a number of Jesus' parables, just as a master of a house leaves the key with his steward while he goes on a long journey, so has Jesus entrusted THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM to the church.
As many of you are undoubtedly aware, the Roman Catholic Church maintains that the power of the keys was given by the Lord only to Peter, and from him to his successors, the Popes. It is true that in the Matthew 16 passage just quoted, the Lord was talking to Peter – but as a representative of all the apostles (cf Jn 20:23). And, in Matthew 18:18 Christ speaks to the church when He says,
I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The Gospels teach us, then, that the power of THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM has been given to the church and not just to Peter and the popes.
B THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM. The church's possession of these keys means that she controls entry to the Kingdom of heaven: she opens and closes the doors, she locks and unlocks the bolts, she permits and denies entrance.
The Bible passages I quoted speak of binding and loosing. The expression about binding and loosing means that Jesus gives the church the authority to make statements on earth that hold true in heaven. The power of the keys means that the church can make authoritative statements on earth that hold true in the judgment halls of heaven.
C Many people don't like to hear this teaching. Their image of the church is a gentle, kind, powerless fellowship; a religious club that welcomes all, rejects none, and judges nothing. This image, of course, is false. We should rather think of the church as a castle. This castle is surrounded by a deep water-filled moat and thick, high walls with protruding cannons. At the same time, though, the gates of this castle are wide open and the drawbridge is down. The way is narrow but all are invited to come in. Some, however, are refused entrance: for them, the drawbridge is up and the gates are closed.
THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM: what power the Lord has given to the church. I can't blame some for not like this teaching. I say this because the power of THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM have been abused so often throughout the history of the church. We all know of a time when the church used the power of the keys to promise entrance into heaven to those who went on a crusade, or traveled on a pilgrimage, or gave a gift of money or land to the church. There are times when the church uses the power of the keys to give a false sense of assurance to the dying and their families: promising salvation to or about those who lived outside of faith and apart from grace. On the other hand, the church has also tried to use the power of the keys to deny entrance into heaven for those who have been critical of her: we think here of Martin Luther, John Huss, and other God-fearing, Christ-believing people, all of whom were excommunicated by the church and declared to be outside of the Kingdom.
Of course, such uses or abuses of THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM are null and void in God's heavenly courtroom. He overturns these false judgments and someday will call to account those in the church responsible for them.
D As I already mentioned, Scripture tells us that power of the keys really belongs to Christ. Through His Holy Spirit, Christ has entrusted this power to His church on earth while He is in heaven. In using the keys, then, the church represents Jesus Christ. And, this power must be exercised properly and carefully, in accordance with the provisions of the Word of God.
The Gospels tells us that the power of the keys can be exercised properly only by a faithful church that is led by the Spirit, engaged in prayer, and involved in Christ's mission to the lost.
First, the power of the keys must be exercised within the context of faith and belief. We think here of how Jesus gives the keys to Peter, as the spokesman of the apostles, only after Peter has made the beautiful confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16).
Second, the church must be infused, filled, and led by the Spirit of Christ. We notice in John 20 that Jesus passes on the power of the keys only after He has said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22b).
Third, the church must be in prayer, and the members must agree with each other on what to ask. It is noteworthy that right after He has given the power of the keys to the church, Jesus says,
(Mt 18:19) Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
Fourth, the power of the keys can be exercised only when the Church shares in Christ's mission to save the lost. In fact, that is why Christ gave the keys to the church: so she could open or close the doors of heaven to the lost within and without the church. Again I think of Jesus' words in John 20: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (Jn 20:21).
E We have been speaking of THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM entrusted to the church. In Q & A 83 the Catechism asks, WHAT ARE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM? The Catechism's answer:
The preaching of the holy gospel
and Christian discipline toward repentance.
Both preaching and discipline
open the kingdom of heaven to believers
and close it to unbelievers.
The Catechism could have answered using only one term: the Gospel. After all, Christian discipline is nothing but the application of the Gospel to life.
II The Key of Preaching
A The first KEY OF THE KINGDOM is the preaching of the Gospel. According to the Catechism,
The kingdom of heaven is opened
by proclaiming and publicly declaring
to each and every believer that,
as often as he accepts the gospel promise in
true faith,
God, because of what Christ has done,
truly forgives all his sins.
The key here is the preaching. The Gospel must be preached. That Gospel, of course, is the Good News that God has sent His Son to the cross. This Gospel is folly to those who perish but power to those who believe (cf 1 Cor 1:18). It's not what the Jews wanted, and it's not what the Greeks desired (1 Cor 1:22), but the cross is the door, and the Gospel calls, invites, and demands that all people enter.
For the door of heaven to be open, then, people must be called to believe in Christ. Sinners are to be invited to come to Jesus. Woe to those churches and pastors that no longer preach Christ and the Gospel! In those churches the door to heaven is no longer being opened.
Topic: Preaching
Subtopic: Christ the Theme of
Index: 2089
Date: 8/2001.101
Title: We Don't Have a Message
One of the saddest stories to come out of World War II was told by a chaplain who served in the Pacific theater during that time. Appointed to an assault force that was assigned to recapture a strategic island occupied by the Japanese, he met with two other chaplains on board one of the ships. It was agreed that they should hold a service that evening since everyone knew that the island would be secured only with enormous loss of life. Who would lead the service?
Two of the chaplains were theological liberals, while the third was orthodox in his theology and witness. The two liberal chaplains said to their colleague, "We think you should take the service. To be honest, we just do not have a message for these men in circumstances like this."
What a testimony this is to the power of the Good News of the Gospel and what a sad commentary this is on those churches and pastors whose message says nothing about Jesus.
B Faithful preaching not only opens but also closes the doors of heaven. The Catechism says,
The kingdom of God is closed, however,
by proclaiming and publicly declaring
to unbelievers and hypocrites that,
as long as they do not repent,
the anger of God and eternal condemnation
rest on them.
Faithful churches and pastors are called to proclaim the full counsel, or will, of God. People in the Reformed tradition generally understand the full counsel of God to mean that the so-called deeper things like predestination, election, reprobation, free will, and so on, must also be preached. But that's not the Biblical understanding. To proclaim the full counsel of God actually means that the church must warn the wicked that unless they repent, they will pay the price when they perish.
Peter Cartwright, a nineteenth-century circuit-riding Methodist preacher, was an uncompromising man. One Sunday morning when he was to preach, he was told that President Andrew Jackson was in the congregation, and warned not to say anything out of line.
When Cartwright stood to preach, he said, "I understand that Andrew Jackson is here. I have been requested to be guarded in my remarks. Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent."
When the church does this, when she warns the unrepentant of God's anger and judgment, what she is doing is closing the kingdom of heaven.
The church has no choice in the matter. From Sunday to Sunday she must not only preach salvation but she also must pronounce judgment. She must warn people that they are to repent or else!
People do not always appreciate hearing this sort of message from the preacher; it can prick if the minister gets too close to the people's sin and their need for repentance and salvation. I vividly remember how angry many members of a previous congregation I served became when I used the Sunday morning sermon to address their inclination for gossip.
Did you know that if the church does not warn the wicked, God will hold her accountable for the blood of perishing sinners. That is the word we hear from God through Ezekiel:
(Ezek 3:18) When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. (cf Ezek 3:16-21)
The Apostle Paul had this teaching in mind when he said in his farewell speech to the Ephesian Elders:
(Acts 20:26-27) Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. (27) For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.
C I ask you, is Trinity Christian Reformed Church faithful in handling this key of the preaching of the Gospel? Does she both open and close the kingdom of God? How thankful I am that God's people here don't have the itching ears that Paul speaks about to Timothy:
(2Tim 4:3-4) For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (4) They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
How thankful I am that God's people here demand good, solid, biblical preaching on the full counsel or will of God. Within this church sinners are called to Jesus and the wicked are warned to repent.
How I pray that it will always stay this way, that in our preaching we will always be faithful in both opening and closing the kingdom of God. I say this because there are many churches which have strayed from the Gospel. At one time they were true and faithful. But now they rarely preach the cross of Christ and even more rarely do they preach sin and judgment. As they are no longer faithful their key has been taken from them.
D The church's goal in preaching the full counsel of God, in both opening and closing the door of heaven, is the response of the people. On being warned about God's anger and judgment people must repent of their sin and evil. On being told about the cross of Christ people must come to Him in faith and belief. For it is only by repenting of sin and coming to Jesus that any sinner can enter the door of heaven. And, if they don't, the door of heaven remains shut to them.