SPECIAL DAYS: Grandparent's Day

September 12, 2004 - Lesson: Matthew 16.13-19

Sermon Title: All Tied Up!

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. I thought I had lost my keys.

Time for the morning walk and I needed a hat.

I stopped at the VW unlocked the door

Reaching in I reached for a hat from the back window ledge.

About that time the Walkman slipped off my belt.

I grabbed the Walkman put it back on my belt, put the hat on my head, closed the door and began the walk.

Dailey Street to Wood Street

Wood Street to Hoxie.

Hoxie Street to Winsted.

Winsted to Madison

Madison to Cincinnati, and to the Post Office to pick up the days mail.

I reached into my pocket for my keys, but the pocket was empty.

Where are the keys?

Did I drop them somewhere?

No, I had left them in the front door of the VW.

Without the mail I walked Lexington to Winsted.

Winsted to Dailey.

Dailey to my car looking intently to see if the keys were still there.

What if some ill-meaning person had taken them.

What if some well-meaning person had taken them.

With a sigh of instant relief, the keys were still there hanging from the door lock.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Keys are not only important for one's home, hotel, or office security,

    1. Keys are also the necessary tools of the follower of Jesus Christ.

    2. We are, obviously, not talking about physical keys.

  2. Jesus looked at Peter and said, " 19I 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."

    1. Peter and the rest of the disciples have the "keys to the kingdom."

      1. Peter used on the of the keys on the Day of Pentecost.

      2. In Acts 2, he preaches a sermon which emphasized the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

      3. He also provided insight into other keys.

        1. When asked what they, that is those who responded to his sermons, should do, Peter replied: Repent, be baptized in the name for Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

        2. Those who welcomed his message were baptized and 3,000 persons were added to the rolls.

      4. When Pentecost was passed these new converts devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching.

      5. In the Apostles teaching you will find the Keys to the Kingdom.

    2. You might ask what the Apostles taught them.

      1. They taught what they had been commanded to teach by Jesus Christ.

        1. It is important that we remember this.

        2. What is it that they are to teach.

        3. Teach, what you have learned and observed during the three years they had been with Jesus.

        4. We can know what they taught.

        5. It is right in front of our eyes.

        6. It is not difficult to understand.

        7. It is not impossible to comprehend.

      2. In the explanation of the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) Jesus is the sower and the seed is the word of the kingdom.

        1. We have not only the parable, but also the explanation.

        2. We call it the Gospel, the "good news."

        3. The "good news" is what Peter preached and the disciples taught.

      3. The Apostle John in 1 John 1:1-3 (NRSVA) states this specifically:
        1We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--2this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us--3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

      4. John becomes specific in 1 John 3:11-24 (NRSVA) when he writes:

11For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

18Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

23And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

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    1. This is his commandment that:

      1. We should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ

      2. And love one another, just as he commanded us.

      3. In John 13:34-35 (NRSVA) are the words of Jesus to which John is referring.

34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

    1. The greatest commandment is to love God and to love one another.

      1. By this all people will know that you are my disciples.

      2. There is no other way than this.

      3. The "good news" is that this love, at one level or another, can be achieved.

    2. Peter provides some insight into the acquiring of love in 2 Peter 1.5-9

5For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. 8For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.

  1. To further helps understand the "keys to the kingdom" we turn to Acts 15 and the first major controversy that developed in the "early church."

    1. Men came from Judea to Antioch.

      1. They were teaching the brothers that unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses they could not be saved.

      2. And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders

    2. When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church, the apostles and the elders.

    3. 5But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses."

    4. Peter spoke to the assembly about the charge that he had been given to open the door of the kingdom to the Gentiles.

7b"My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. 8And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

    1. James replied, "My brothers, listen to me. 14Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. 15This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written,

16 'After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;
from its ruins I will rebuild it,
and I will set it up,
17 so that all other peoples may seek the Lord--
even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called.
 Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things 18known
 from long ago.'

19Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, 20but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. 21For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues."

    1. So they wrote a letter to the believers an Antioch and sent it by the had of Paul, Barnabus and other godly men.

    2. We now know what are the "Keys of the Kingdom" and how they may be applied to us and to our congregation.

    3. As the Apostles had the keys of the kingdom, so now do we.

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  1. We can bind and we can loose.

    1. The meaning is this:

      1. The church on earth will require only what heaven requires

      2. The church on earth will prohibit only what heaven prohibits.

      3. This seems to be the clear teaching of the Scriptures Matthew 7:21-27 and Mark 7:6-13.

Matthew 7:21-27 (NRSVA)

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' 23Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'

24"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great was its fall!"

Mark 7:6-13 (NRSVA)

6He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
'This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.'
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

9Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' 11But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)--12then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."

    1. As the apostles went forth to proclaim the gospel, according to the commission entrusted to them (see Matt. 28:19, 20), they were to teach converts "to observe all things whatsoever" Christ had commanded--no more and no less.

CONCLUSION

  1. One church I served had locks on the main doors that were double cut.

    1. A letter on church stationary, signed by the appropriate authority, was required requesting a new key before one could be cut.

    2. The keys could not be cut by the usual sources.

    3. They had to be cut by a locksmith who had the necessary key saw.

  1. It is an awesome responsibility to hold the "keys to the kingdom" and to do the binding and loosing.

  2. We can accomplish the purposes of Jesus Christ only when we live under the Lordship of Christ, accept his assistance and live in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

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