The Authority of the Church
Ekklesia • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 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. 19 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.”
Today we will be dealing with the topic of authority.
Specifically we want to deal with the questions:
What authority does the church have?
Where does it get this authority?
The first thing we have to realize about the authority of the church is that it is not our own authority.
Any authority that we have is a derived authority, it is not natural to us but has been entrusted to us.
We see this in v.18 when Jesus says
“I will build my church.”
The church doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Christ!
We don’t have authority to make the church what we want it to be.
The question we should always be asking is, is the church what Christ wants it to be?
Are we doing what He wants us to do, living how He wants us to live?
When we make the church all about us we miss the whole point of what the church was created for.
The only church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against, is the one that Christ builds.
If we build it, it will fail.
If He builds it, it will endure.
But what does He mean, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” ?
What are the gates of hell?
Gates are for two things, they keep people out and they keep people in.
The greek word is hades, which was understood to be the place where all the dead went.
So what Jesus is literally saying is that death has no power over His church.
The church of Jesus Christ will never die!
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
History has proven this to be all so true, in that the church has prevailed against some of the most violent attacks in the most desperate situations.
How can you account for that? When so many have made it their goal to destroy the church?
Because the words of Jesus are true!
These words had to be fresh on Peters mind when he preached this sermon on the day of Pentecost.
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are so important because what happened to Him, happened to us.
His story is our story.
We can be confident that because death could not hold Him, death can not hold us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus gives His church authority over death.
But it is not just physical death that Jesus gives His Church victory over, it is also spiritual death.
In contrast to the gates of death, Jesus gives us keys to the Kingdom of heaven (eternal life)
Keys are for opening doors.
Why would anyone want to open the gates of hell?
To free those who are still held captive there!
We have many references in Scripture to doors being opened.
5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples.
Keys signify power, authority, and responsibility.
This is representative of the authority that Jesus has entrusted to us for opening the door of faith to those who are lost and dieing.
17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus has not just opened the door of faith for us, He has given us the Keys to the Kingdom, so that we might open the door of faith for others.
How could we walk around day after day with the keys to the Kingdom in our pocket and never open the door for those that have no eternal home!?
Illustration:
The keys that Jesus has given to us say:
Unlimited Duplicates!
What are you doing with the keys that you have been entrusted with?
You are not responsible for those who choose not to go through the gate when you open it for them, but you are responsible if you never even care enough to open it.
God only holds you accountable for what you can control.
Outcomes are always up to Him!
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
I believe that Christians today have not even begun to understand the authority that has been given to them!