SPIRITUAL KEYS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 16:15-19
OCTOBER 16, 1994
A few months ago, Barb and I went to the mountains and stayed at a friend’s condo. We were taking a walk one day and realized that we had forgotten the key to the condo. We had left it in the condo, and the condo was locked. That did not bother us a great deal because we knew the condo was in a building and the building had a manager. Surely, the manager had keys to all the units. When we got back to the building, the manager was not there so we waited. It was about noon, and we waited a couple of hours. The manager still was not there. We began to ask people when we might expect the manager to come back. They told us that sometimes the manager does not return during the day. In fact, he is not always present in the evenings, either.
Barbara and I realized we might not have a place to stay that night. The condo was on the third floor of the building. Around the back of the building there were some tall but narrow pine trees, one of which was fairly close to the balcony of that third floor condo. I knew the balcony door was open. I told Barb that I would climb the tree and began to do so. Barb stood there, wondering about my sanity. The tree was a normal pine tree. It had sap and prickly branches that cut you, but one thing this tree did not have was a thick trunk. In fact, as it neared the third floor, the trunk of the tree was only an inch thick.
The trunk was obviously too thin to bear my weight. It might have supported thirty or forty pounds, but I weigh a lot more than that. It became obvious to me as I was ascending the tree that I was not going to make it. I did make it back down, which felt like a major accomplishment. Barb and I were once again wondering how we would get into the condo. We tried a number of things and none of them worked. Finally, we called a locksmith.
This locksmith spent the first five minutes explaining to us that there was not a lock in the world he could not pick. We stood by the door and waited. About ten minutes went by, and the locksmith began to make statements like, “I wish I had one of these locks on my door.” It soon became evident that he was not going to be able to get in. He then asked if we had a credit card? He said, “If I had a credit card, sometimes I can use that to unlock these kinds of locks.” My wallet was in the glove compartment of our car. The car was locked, and my keys to the car were in the condo. Barb’s purse was in the condo, but she did have a credit card in one of her pockets. On our walk, she thought we might stop and get something to eat, so she gave the locksmith the credit card. Sure enough, in a few moments, he had managed to break the credit card in two. Then he said, “I don’t think I can get you into this place.” We said, “Thanks for everything.”
Before he left, I suggested that maybe he could get us into our car so I could get my wallet from the glove compartment. At least that way I would have our credit cards, and we could get something to eat and maybe a hotel room, if needed, for the night. Our car is a Pathfinder. We are leasing it, and it has an alarm system. The locksmith was able to unlock the car. Of course, the alarm system went off, and the only way to turn the alarm system off is with the car key, which is in the condo. The alarm system on this car is loud. I mean it feels like your ears have been violated. People begin to peer out their windows with angry looks. The alarm was blaring and the locksmith said, “See you later.” He was out of there. Barb and I looked at each other thinking how can this be happening all because we forgot a key.
By the grace of God, a woman was walking down that street. Hearing the commotion, she asked, “What’s the problem?” We explained to her what had happened, and she said, “This is amazing. I am not usually here on this day. But I clean these condos, and I have a key to your condo.” She let us in. It is certainly safe to say that in this physical world, keys can be very important.
God wants us to know that this is also true in the spiritual world. The Bible tells us there are spiritual keys. The Greek word for keys, literally and figuratively, is “kleis.” The Bible tells us two things about these keys. First of all, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ has all the big keys. He has all the spiritual keys that really count. We see this in Revelation 1 when Jesus Christ appears to John on the island of Patmos. Jesus Christ appears, resurrected, alive, and in glory. John falls down before him. He touches Jesus, and Jesus says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b-18).
What are the keys of death and hades? Some Christians believe that hades is synonymous with hell. That is not true. Hades is a Greek word synonymous with the Hebrew word sheol, which oftentimes simply refers to death and the grave. Hades is oftentimes used in the same way. Other times, hades is used in the sense of the keeping place of the dead, where they are kept until the final judgment. But always hades represented death. When Jesus said, “I have the keys of Death and Hades,” He was emphasizing the fact that He had power and authority over death itself. If you want to exit death, if you want to escape death, Jesus is the one who can enable you to do that. That is why Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26a). Jesus has the keys of death and hades. This makes Jesus Christ a good guy to get to know.
The Bible tells us that Jesus has another key, and it is equally important. In Revelation 3:7, Jesus has a message for the church at Philadelphia. It says, “The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.” What is the key of David? In the Old Testament era in Israel, the king of Judah had the key of David. The key of David was the key to the royal palace, or perhaps the treasury in the royal palace in the city of David, which was the city of Jerusalem. Sometimes the king kept the key, and sometimes he gave the key to the secretary of state. If you read Isaiah 22:22, you read how Shebna, the unfaithful household steward, was cast down, and Eliakim became secretary of State. King Hezekiah gave the key of David to Eliakim. That was the key to the treasury and the royal palace in the city of David. Here is Jesus saying, “I have the key of David.”
We need to understand that in the Old Testament, the city of David represented the earthly city of Jerusalem. In apocalyptic literature, as in the book of Revelation, the city of David represents not the earthly Jerusalem but the heavenly one. The city of David represents what the Bible calls the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. Jesus has the key to the treasures of the heavenly city. He has the key to heaven itself and the key to all the treasures of heaven. This is an amazing power, an amazing authority. He not only has the key that gives Him power over death, but also he has the key that gives Him access to heaven in all of its blessings. This is why this church preaches Jesus Christ. This is why in the front of your bulletin it says, “Our primary purpose is to exalt Christ.” This is why as a church we invite people and want to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ because we believe He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by him (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. He can give you victory over death. He can give you entrance into heaven. He has all the big keys.
The Bible tells us something else regarding spiritual keys. The Bible tells us that God has entrusted some keys, particularly two keys, to those of us who believe. He has given a couple of keys to each of you who believe in Jesus Christ, and He wants you to use them. In Matthew 16:19, Jesus makes this statement to Simon Peter, “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.”
Roman Catholic theologians have used this passage to proclaim Peter as the ecclesiastical head of the church of Christ. They claim that is what Jesus was doing. He was giving authority to Peter over the church of Christ and that Christ was giving to Peter the power of binding and loosing. That power enabled Peter to add or delete doctrine from the church, enabled him to forgive or retain sins, and enabled him to excommunicate. Obviously, Roman Catholic theologians do not view this authority, this power, this key as having ceased with Peter. They view this authority and power as having been passed to the successors of Peter, which the Roman Catholic Church views as the papacy. And Roman Catholic theologians view this key, this authority, this power as vested not only in the papacy now but also to some extent vested in the college of cardinals and the priesthood.
It is important, biblically, to take a look at this power of binding and loosing and to whom it was given. In Matthew 16, it was given to Peter. Two chapters later, in Matthew 18, these keys, this power of binding and loosing, was given to all the apostles. “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Then in John 20, it appears that this key, this power, this authority of binding and loosing was given through the impartation of the Holy Spirit. That is why Martin Luther and John Calvin both believe that these keys, which they called the power of the keys, were given not simply to Peter, not simply to the apostles, but to all who now have the Holy Spirit, to all who have received the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Pentecostal churches today believe this, which is why you see so much binding and loosing in the Pentecostal churches—binding the powers of Satan and loosing the powers of God.
But we need to be careful. We need to be careful that we interpret scripture fairly and correctly. We need to understand that there was some special sense in which these keys, this power, this authority, was vested in Peter and the apostles. There may be a general sense in which it is given to all of us, but we need to understand what the power is. We need to understand what the authority is. If you go back and look at this statement, “What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, the second half of that equation is a future periphrastic perfect in the Greek. This means it should be rendered, “What you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.” There is a big difference.
This means that the ultimate authority was not given to Peter or to the apostles or to the church. The ultimate authority remained in heaven. You could not bind on earth and expect God to just rubber stamp it in heaven. You could only bind on earth what God had already bound in heaven. You shall bind on earth what already has been bound in heaven. The authority that was given to Peter, the authority that was given to the apostles, and in some sense, the authority, the keys that have been given to us, enable us to bind on earth what God has decreed, what God has already declared, what God has established in heaven. We have been given this authority on earth.
God has declared in heaven that he will build his church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. It is declared in heaven that His gospel will have power to save, and it will go forth to every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And what has been declared in heaven must be established on earth. To us, the keys have been given as they were first given to Peter. This really is a key to ministry. You have been given the privilege of ministry, the power, the authority. That is why Jesus said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18b-20a). This key, which is the call to ministry, the authority to minister, has been given to you in some sense as first it was given to Peter.
Do not just set the key on the shelf. As you come to this table this morning, God is asking you, “Have you entered into ministry? You are my sons and daughters.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, you have been called to be a light in the world, salt in the decay. Are you entering into ministry?
A second and final key that has been given to us is a key that the Bible calls the key of knowledge. In Luke 11, Jesus says that the key of knowledge had been given to the scribes. And He said to the scribes that they had abused the key of knowledge. “Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering” (Luke 11:52). What was this key of knowledge that had been given to the scribes? The scribes were the custodians of scriptures. The scribes were the copiers of scripture, the guardians of scripture, and even the interpreters of scripture. They had been given the key to knowledge, the scriptures. But they had not entered into knowledge. Even though they had the scriptures, they had not entered into knowledge nor had they allowed others to enter into knowledge. This was because they did not have teachable hearts. They were not clay in the hands of the potter.
As they read the scriptures, they majored in minors and minored in majors, leading the masses astray. God wants us to understand that there is yet a greater sense in which this key has been given to us who believe. In the Old Testament world, the scriptures were the scrolls. The scrolls of scripture were not in the possession of the masses. They were held by the religious leaders, by the Pharisees, by the scribes. The people did not have access to the scriptures except through scribes.
In the 15th century, Gutenberg invented the printing press, and the Bible began to be mass produced. Today, literally billions of copies of holy scripture cover the earth. Every one of you has a Bible. Some of you have multiple Bibles. The Bible you have is greater than the scriptures that the scribes had. You have not only the Old Testament, but also you have the New Testament revealed through Christ in His apostles. God has given this key, the key to knowledge, into your hands. Have you entered in? Are you entering into ministry? Are you entering into knowledge?
I spent a great deal of time in the scriptures these past twenty years. I have memorized much of scripture, but I confess that I sometimes go through days where I do not enter into knowledge. I go through periods in my life where I let my devotional life slip and slide. I might be studying the Bible for the sake of proclamation, but I am not really having devotions in scripture and drawing close to Christ. If it happens to me, surely, it must happen to you. The exhortation that Christ gives us today as His people is that we would be faithful every day to enter in. We have been given the key to enter in
I want to tell a little story to conclude this message this morning. It is a story relating to Alexander Duff, who for me, is one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. He was a man from Scotland, and he was extremely learned with an earned doctorate. He became a missionary to India. The year was 1830, and Alexander Duff boarded a ship called the Lady Holland, which set sail for the shore of India. The ship went down. It sank. Everyone on the ship survived and made it to shore. But everything on the ship sank. Alexander Duff had brought his whole library, 700 volumes—incredible in the year 1830. It all went into the sea. He stood on the shore watching the ship sink. As he watched, he prayed, “Lord, let something survive.” He saw wood drifting to the shore, a piece of driftwood from the ship, and something was on it. When that piece of wood came to shore, on that piece of wood was Alexander Duff’s Bible. He had brought 700 volumes and the Bible, somehow by the hand of God, survived and came to him on the shore. It really was miraculous.
To this day, no one understands how. Alexander Duff took it as a message from God that this book was all that really mattered. He was going to preach and teach this book. The very next day, he went under a banyan tree near Calcutta. Five children listened to him as he opened that Bible, as he opened the scriptures and began to impart knowledge. One week later, 300 kids were under the banyan tree as the key to knowledge was opened and used. They entered into knowledge so much so that a few years later, right by the banyan tree, a church was established. From that church, 1,000 Indigenous people to India went forth into mission and ministry. 1,000 people became missionaries.
That is what we want to see happen here. We want to see the key of knowledge, the scriptures used daily by you devotionally and every week by us through proclamation. We want to see the scriptures so used that we would enter into knowledge. And having entered into knowledge, we want to take this other key, this key of ministry of binding and loosing what God has declared in heaven, ministering on earth and use it to minister in His name, that our people would be a light in the darkness, salt in the decay, that we would administer the love of Christ to a world of hate and be faithful. Let us look to the Lord with a word of prayer.