Keys

 May 15, 2023

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”” —Matthew 16:19 

Jesus makes an extraordinary statement here; the authority he gives us is almost beyond belief. There is an underlying presupposition we must understand before this makes any sense: There are things going on behind the scenes; powerful things that control people’s lives, but things over which we are given control. Keys open places that have imprisoned people, and they hold in confinement people and beings destructive to individuals and society.

Some years ago, I had breakfast on Tuesday mornings with Willie. Willie was a probation officer, and he said to me one morning, “I am glad we have prisons. There are some people who shouldn’t be out in society.” Prisons only function with keys. 

Some people are bound by their own sins; some are held captive by addiction, by negativity, Many are controlled by powerful people and systems, by their beliefs. Try as they might, they are no more able to break free than escaping from a maximum security prison. 

Jesus says here that we have the keys, ie. the power to set people free. It begins with what Peter had said about Jesus just prior to Jesus’ words about keys. Only if I believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; only if I live out the implications of such belief, does Jesus give these keys to me. One of those keys is Truth. Jesus told us that “the Truth will set you free.” People are bound by the lies they believe. We have the key they need. Another key is prayer. Prayer has the power to break through resistance that is impenetrable to logic and reason. It is through prayer that we bind, or lock up the demonic powers that hold people in those lies. I’ve seen people who wanted to change, but were unable to break free until the powers that held them captive were themselves bound by prayer.

Tonight in our men’s Bible study, pastor Roy said that often he himself was the one who needed the keys to unlock himself from his hesitation to share the Gospel with others. Jesus gives them to us, but we must choose to use them. We will never use them if we don’t believe we have them and that they really work.

One of the reasons the Church appears so weak today is our failure to really believe we possess what Jesus says he has given us. He told Peter that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against the Church. When he said this, there were only twelve disciples. When he said this, they were in foreign territory, surrounded by pagan gods. Can you imagine the audacity of his saying that this little ragtag group of men were going to be on the offensive, successfully assaulting the powers of this world? What if we truly believed we are on the winning side? 

You have the keys. Start looking for locks and keep trying those keys till you hear the sound of the tumblers dropping into place and the doors to people’s hearts opening to the Gospel and freedom.