Keys to the Kingdom (Week 1)
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Today, I am excited to be starting a new series titled Keys to the Kingdom.
PRAY
There are few things you will hear me talk more about than the Kingdom. It is what Jesus taught most about and is the best paradigm for us to understand what God is doing not only now but for eternity. He will be establishing His Kingdom. He seeks to reign and rule in our hearts, lives, and throughout all of creation.
ESV: 126 times in the Gospel
34 times in the rest of the NT
Kingdom of God vs. Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew)
It is imperative, however, that we have a kingdom perspective to our lives.
TRANSITION:
What is the Kingdom of God?
Why does it get so much focus from Jesus but not as much focus in the rest of the NT?
The basic meaning of the word ‘kingdom’ is about His reign, not a realm or its people.
19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
The basic meaning of kingdom is reign not realm. His realm doesn’t rule over his realm, but his reign rules over his realm, over all things, including its subjects (people). God’s kingdom is defined by his reign and rule.
So, we add that since His plan is to redeem and bring restoration to His creation that is far off from relationship, He comes in such a way to establish His saving rule (defeat sin, death, and the devil).
Christ begins reigning in our lives by reigning in our hearts through the way which He has made through salvation and redemption. The mystery of the kingdom is here.
There is a dimension of the kingdom that has come, that is actively coming now, and will ultimately come in its fullness and finality.
20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
How can the kingdom not yet be present but also in our midst?
The kingdom of God is His reign to redeem and deliver a people and then at a future time renew and reign in all of His creation completely.
But why less talk about it in the NT books outside of the Gospels?
Jesus walked a tight rope line of demonstrating the kingdom and proclaiming the kingdom that established and supported both the testimony God was giving for who Christ was and why He came.
2-3 witnesses giving credence to the claims He made
The shift after a risen King … Jesus is Lord is almost synonymous with the King has come. It is an establishment and recognition of His reign and rule.
The apostolic teaching was flavored with the rich idea of Jesus’ lordship more than anything else.
TRANSITION:
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
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.”
20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Jesus starts with a question. Who do they say I am?
vs. 13-14
It is possibly that the locations has prompted some of the imagery that Jesus will use in his conversation with His disciples, imagery of gates, building, upon this rock, the church, etc.
Jesus turns to His disciples and finally the questions that they have all been waiting to talk about, what are others saying about His identity. The Gospel writers, especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke, build to a climax with this dialogue and revelation.
Who do they say I am?
John the Baptist.
Elijah.
Jeremiah (first of the latter prophets in the Hebrew canon) or one of the prophets.
vs. 15
Jesus has asked an important question, but not nearly as important as the one He is about to ask next. Let’s make that questions personal and get an answer. Who do YOU say I am?
The you is emphatic for the question that is spoken to the group of disciples for which Peter gives their response that undoubtedly had been discussed on numerous occasions. Peter as their spokesperson says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Their answer is categorical different form those offered by the people. He is not simply one of the figures involved in the coming of the end times, but as the coming one, who will bring the messianic age and the transformation of the present order.
Before we get to Jesus’ response, it is crucial to understand that His response is based upon an understanding of who Christ is.
vs. 17-19
Jesus say...
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
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.”
Jesus replies to Peter, spokesperson for the group of disciples.
Blessed are you who have this understanding because it is not something that you can understand with the natural, fleshly mind. What you are saying has to be revealed by God Himself. What you are saying are not words that you can just come to a conclusion on your own but instead have to be a revelation from Heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter, which means stone or little rock (petra) and upon this rock (petros), literally massive stone, bedrock or massive rock formation, I will build my church.
This wasn’t a word that Jesus used often (2 times). 117 in the NT.
His reply implies that He will bring together those who have this Heavenly, revelation: Jesus is the Messiah, Son of the Living God.
STORY:
What I have been called to: unreached peoples, gaps (in the NPO world), prophetic in the Pentecostal/Charismatic world.
Notice what you are drawn to and things you are prone to repeat because of your gifting and passions. It will help you stay in your lane.
Let me give you some examples of how I have identified my gifting throughout the years. I think it will help you in identifying yours.
Early on: in church and in personality see what is missing, lacking, needs tweaking or correcting.
NPO: gaps in our programming, services in our city, see through the lens of my temperament and wiring (grids, lines, etc.) but God uses all of this.
TRANSITION:
It is upon this revelation that I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.
The OT language that Jesus uses signifies that the gate, the power, of Hades, death, hell and the grave, will not be able to overpower the force behind the community of people propelled by a true revelation of Jesus Christ.
“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.”
The idea of binding and loosing has taken on various meaning and nuances throughout the generations of theological developments and formation.
Binding and loosing is originally a Jewish Mishnaic phrase also mentioned in the New Testament, as well as in the Targum. In usage, to bind and to loose simply means to forbid by an indisputable authority and to permit by an indisputable authority.
The terms seem to have spiritual implications, but there isn’t clarity in the passage context to assume it is only related to spiritual warfare or spiritual keys.
What seems likely with the wording within the passage (gates of Hades, key of the kingdom, bind…loose on earth) is that the ability for believers to permit and forbid based upon upon the revelation of Jesus. We have the ability to open doors and close doors in a variety of key areas:
Salvation for the lost
Restore injustice (Isaiah uses bind/loose)
An eternal perspective (death/hell/grave-removed from our purview)
The Lord’s Prayer (teaching us How to Pray)
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done
Now, don’t tell anyone that I am the Messiah. I want to make sure my identity is revealed to you, but I am not yet ready for it to be revealed to the crowds. It will give testimony of what you have seen and heard for the church to be built.
Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom (miracles, signs and wonders, raising the dead). People loved the excitement of the DEMONSTRATION of the Kingdom. It was revival. It was renewal.
But there was something that was of greater value and necessary and that is the ESTABLISHMENT of the Kingdom.
Not all who see the demonstration give preeminence in their heart to His reign and rule in their lives.
You will begin to spread a message of Good News, built upon the revelation of who Jesus is throughout your community and the known world.
Broken lives will be made whole. The poor will be made rich, and rich will have found their home. The lost will be found, and all will say, “Jesus is Lord.”
As we seek to not only demonstrate but also establish God’s Kingdom, we will see 3 things begin to take place.
TRANSITION:
PIANO
Dwelling:
This is essentially summarizing the Kingdom of God, or what I think is the most Biblical framework and mindset we are left with in Scripture. The first ‘D’ we are looking at this morning for the Kingdom of God is dwelling. Defining this simply it is ‘God with us’.
This is the Scripture from the very beginning: the Garden of Eden is God with us. What is the tabernacle but God with us? What is Jesus Christ coming but God with us?
We recognize that sin has fractured this dwelling and the relationship we were intended to have all along with Him. Then God with us is on a mission to seek and to restore that which has been lost, God with us.
He does this through the cross (saved by grace through faith), making a way for redemption in all areas of our life, to bring us into the dominion of His Beloved Son.
Dominion:
This was God’s plan for us all along. We not only dwell with God, but we are able to operate under His dominion, extending His dominion in the earth through our own lives.
You are going tabernacle and operate as my people, utterly separate, a holy people, bringing order out of Chaos,
At the very end, Jesus dies, rises again, and teaches us to take the teachings of the Kingdom into all the world and make disciples. We seek to see His dominion spread through all the earth by seeing people move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Dear Son, His kingdom of light.
Dynasty:
We have been invited to work alongside Christ, our elder brother, as join-heirs in the eternal promises of God to see God’s Kingdom come in its full. We seek establishing His dynasty, his dwelling and dominion established for all eternity, beginning now but revealed for all the ages in that final day.
PRAY
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