Keys of the Kingdom

1986

In Mathew 16, there is a passage that is obviously a parallel to that. Mathew 16:19, “Jesus said to Peter, ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’” Now that’s pretty heavy, too. The keys of the kingdom of heaven are given to Peter; and whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven. Now we can run right over that or we can try to understand it. In Mathew 18, lest we misunderstand that as being for Peter only, in chapter 18:18, “Speaking to all of the disciples, He said, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’” This is plural. He is speaking to all of the disciples here, and he is saying that they also have the keys of the kingdom of heaven—that it’s not just for Peter alone.

Now, I want you to understand something. That is the difference between keys *to* the kingdom of heaven and the keys *of* the kingdom of heaven. Maybe you can automatically plug into that one a little bit. When Mark and I were coaching Wanuski’s track team last spring, we had keys *to* the high school, but we didn’t have the keys *of* the high school. It's kind a limited access thing. We could get in one door which led to another door and led to another door. And we could plug those in, but we didn’t have keys to all of the offices. We didn’t have access to the whole building—to the lounge and keys to the coke machine. We didn’t have any of that stuff. We had the keys *to* the building, but we didn’t have the keys *of* the building.

Notice what Jesus said. He said, “I’m giving you the keys *of* the kingdom,” not just the keys *to* the kingdom. We’re not given the keys *to* the kingdom of God, just simple access to it. It doesn’t mean “this is how you get into heaven—we give you the keys to the kingdom.” It’s the keys *of* the kingdom which means those different passages and doors and compartments of heaven—we have access to all of those things in heaven. We have access to all of the kingdom of heaven. Again, that’s a little bit hard to understand, and I have to admit that’s beyond my comprehension. I don’t understand how we’re involved in the remitting of sins and if we don’t remit them, they’re not remitted. I can understand if we remit them, they are because that just means we teach them the gospel, and they respond or they don’t respond. But He says, “If you don’t remit them, then they won’t be remitted. And whatever things you bind will have been bound. What things you loose will have been loosed in heaven.” But there’s a part that they play in all of that. I certainly don’t understand all of it, but I do understand how easy it is to underestimate the part we play in the kingdom of God. It’s incredibly easy to far underestimate what it means to be a partner with God, to be sent as Jesus was sent. “Greater things than these you will do than what I have done,” Jesus said. And it’s easy to far underestimate what spiritual weaponry is and just forget all of that and neglect that.

Psalm 149:4, “God takes delight in his people; He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths (that is the saints) and a double-edged sword in their hands (in the hands of the saints) to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind the kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all the saints.” To bind up kings, to alter the course of history—this is the glory of all the saints to be able to change the course of history, to bind up the kings and their nobles with fetters. An incredible idea that, even in Old Testament times, the glory of the saints was to be able to influence history.

In Matthew 9:37-38, “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” Jesus taught his disciples to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest field. In other words, to send laborers into the church where you are, into the assembly where you are. Now assuming that we really want God to send laborers, why can’t God do it without us? Why is He asking us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers? Why doesn’t God just send them? Is it not His will that He send laborers? Of course, it is. Is He not capable of sending laborers? Of course, he is. So why doesn’t He do it? And the answer to that question is because we’re His deputies. We are partakers with Him. We’re partners with Him, and He’s not going to act apart from our prayer. He has asked us to pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers, even though He’s perfectly capable of doing that by Himself.

When Kathy and I lived in Nashville, I had a lockbox in a vault at First American Bank. That was my little secret place where I kept my baseball card collection and my roller-skate key and my youth bubble gum and all my special treasures. How many of you ever had a lockbox? You know what I’m talking about? Some of you have done that. How many of you saved your bubblegum? Collect baseball cards? I think that there is something about a lockbox that makes it a little different than just a vault at home. Can you get into a lockbox by yourself? You can’t do it, can you? It takes two keys, right? The bank official has a key, and you have a key. And only when they are put in there simultaneously can you open and find the treasure. You can’t do it apart from that. She can’t get into it by herself. I can’t get into by myself. But, in fact, both keys have to be put in simultaneously. Really, that’s exactly what’s happening in prayer.

As you look through the things we've just looked at, can God heal our marriage apart from prayer? Certainly He's capable of that, but He’s not going to. Because we’re His partners and we're the ones that participate with Him in binding the strong man and tying up the strong man. Can God heal relationships? He can, but He’s not going to apart from prayer. He’s given us the keys. He’s allowed us to be partners with Him, to plug in with Him in order to change things. Can God solve all those horrendous problems that you have in your life, emotionally or financially or spiritually or relationship-wise? Can God solve all those problems? Yes, He can. He created you. He can work all those things out so all the problems will just disappear. They're bringing dishonor to His name anyway, right? Your financial problems, your other problems, they're dishonoring His name. It’s got to be His will that He remove those things, but will He do it apart from your prayers? And the answer is, “I don’t think so.” You cannot take satan’s property without tying up the strong man and that takes supernatural weapons. Can God free you from the bondage of sin and impart a new life and a new faith in your heart? Can He do that? You know that He can. He’s capable, but He isn’t going to do it apart from you. He isn’t going to do it apart from enforcing His will by resisting the devil. You see, He’s the legislative committee; He’s made the laws. We’re the judicial and the executive; we enforce those things. That’s what He’s called us to do is to be the enforcer, to be a participant with Him.

Can God cause great conviction of sin in the life of somebody that you love? Can He open their eyes to the holiness and the compassion, the forgiveness and the freedom in Jesus? Can He open their eyes to that? Certainly, He can. "No man comes to me, except the Father draws him to me.” It’s impossible to come to God apart from the drawing of God, and yet here is the point: He is not going to bring someone to Christ apart from your fervent, persistent prayer—apart from binding up the strong man in order to take his possession using supernatural weapons. Some of you know what I’m talking about. You already are working in some of these areas. One of those that strikes me as being so important, in Revelations 22:17 where it says, “The Spirit AND the Bride say, ‘Come!’” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” You see it takes both keys in the lockbox in order to draw someone to the living water. The spirit and the bride say, “Come."

One time Napoleon was discussing his military tactics. He walked over to a world map, and he put his finger on China. He said, “There lies a slumbering giant. Don’t awake her. If she awakes, she will shake the world.” And that’s exactly what satan is saying to those who have an ear this morning. “Don’t awake the slumbering giant. (The church is the slumbering giant.) Don’t wake her. If she awakes, she will shake the city of Burlington; she will shake the United States; she will shake the world.” Satan is trying desperately to make us forget everything that’s happened this morning that we talked about, that we studied. Back in Mathew chapter 12:29, “For again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can rob his house.” What I want you to do this morning is totally awake. I want you to realize that you can demolish satan’s strongholds, that you can bind up the strong man, that you can use supernatural weapons in order to bind up the strong man, in order to steal his possessions. He stole them anyway, right? Amen? They’re not even his possessions. He stole them. We need to bind him up in order to take those things back. You and I are not weak and helpless and at satan’s mercy, but we have supernatural weapons. And when we awake to that, we'll shake the world.