"The Keys of the Kingdom" - Matthew 16.19
The Keys of the Kingdom “ 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, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven ”” (Matthew 16.18-19). As I prepare for this Sunday morning’s sermon, I struggled with how to explain what Jesus is promising he will give to Peter and the Church the “keys of the Kingdom” (Matthew 16.19). In the present situation in the church in North America, we don’t often talk about the keys of the Kingdom, either because the subject is no longer important to a voluntarist country with voluntarist churches, or because we don’t understand the subject very well, or because it sounds too Roman Catholic, or a combination of all three. So what are the keys of the Kingdom? First off keys are about opening doors, and locking them shut; making things accessible and...