The Power of Binding and Loosing

Then he put Peter because that’s the Greek equivalent of the word Cephas, the name Cephas. But anyway, he uses all of the names in verse 17, and then he says, Simon, which is his Hebrew name, now this is his given name, Bar-Jona, which means Son of Jonah. And then he says in verse number 18, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. I will give unto thee the keys of my kingdom, the keys of God’s kingdom, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be loosen and I will give unto thee the keys of my kingdom, The ourselves who renew theうん by God, and the things that we have made amint us.

So we think let us pray in the Bible, let us ask there now, where they should put down the sand, Oh, how we need you, Lord. Every day, every moment, Lord, we need your help. As we meet together, as we study your word, Lord, we’re ignorant. We really do need you to teach us. Lord, we need you to give us grace, not only to learn and to get knowledge, but also to act and live according to the knowledge you give us.

So Lord, we just entrust this time to you. We ask you to work in our hearts in Jesus’ name, amen. All right. What we want to do is look at verse number 18. And as I said, it says here, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now we saw this morning how the Lord uses a play on words. I don’t think it, and you’ll see in a minute, but I don’t think this, I don’t think at all that, and I’m going to mention Catholicism here several times because this is the primary go-to passage for basically, this is the foot in the door passage that swings the door open for every doctrine that has come to pass since the three or four hundreds until our day in Catholicism.

So I’m going to mention it several times, but this passage is sometimes, basically, sometimes interpreted to say this. Jesus says to Peter, Peter, your name means rock, and you’re the rock upon which I’m going to build my church. And then he goes on from there. But that’s not what he says. The Lord says, thou art Peter, and we saw this morning, scripturally speaking, that the name means stone.

We saw that in John chapter 1, verse 42. And then playing off of that name, which remember, that name was given to Simon by the Lord. In other words, the Lord surname him Peter. Peter was not a name given to him by his friends or family. It was given to him by Jesus, probably, my guess, for this purpose right here. Because he’s going to bring it up and use the name to tell a truth.

And that truth is this rock, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now notice, we saw some things about the church this morning, but there’s a couple more things I want to point out to you about the church. The first thing I want you to see, and these are just good practical reminders to remember about the Church of Christ.

And I don’t mean the denomination. I mean the Church of Jesus Christ. Number one, the church belongs to Christ. He calls it my church. My church. The Church of Christ is his possession alone. It’s not my church. It’s not your church. I know we call it that colloquially. We say my church. At my church we sing this. My church we do that. But in all truth, in the absolute sense, the church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, and anyone who touches it will give an account to him.

It is his special possession. And there is no pastor. There’s no spiritual leader that owns the Church of Christ. Right? The spiritual leaders are only overseers, are only guides, and serve only as examples. But the church itself belongs to Jesus Christ. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 1, listen to this verse. And you’re very familiar with this, I know. Peter is speaking to the elders, to the spiritual leaders of the church.

Here’s what he says. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. To the elders now he says, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Here’s the key.

Neither, neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being in samples to the flock. Neither as being lords over God’s heritage. A lord is an owner. That’s the one who holds the deed. And it says, neither being lords over God’s heritage, but in samples to the flock. A heritage is your property. Right? That’s what your heritage is, scripturally. I know that’s not how we necessarily use it.

But that’s what the word means. It’s a heritage. It’s the same word as lot, referring to a parcel of the land. So this is God’s heritage. The Church of God is God’s heritage. Now I just say that just to reiterate. Listen. Spiritual leaders in churches, and this includes myself, have limits on what they’re allowed to do. Right? We do not have a blank check. No spiritual leader, not a deacon, not a pastor, or any member for that matter.

I mean, no person in a church has a blank check to do with the church whatever that person wishes. There are limits to it. And those limits are imposed by the Lord Jesus himself. So we all must keep that in mind. In everything we do, it’s about we must ask the question, Lord, this is your church. What do you want? Right? This is your church. We are mere stewards of what the Lord has given us.

The second thing I want you to see is this. The building of the church, he said, I will build my church. The building of the church, and by this, I don’t mean this building made of brick and two by fours. I’m not talking about that. And I’m not even really talking about this particular local church, which again, we saw this morning, is a local, visible manifestation of the body of Christ.

But the building of this church, which is the body of Christ, is the responsibility not of us, but is the responsibility of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I will build my church. So it is not our responsibility to build the church. Let me say that again. It is not our responsibility to build the church. Now someone might say, well, then why do we witness? You don’t witness to build the church.

That’s not why we witness. You know, if that was the reason we’re witnessing to build the church, we are miserably failing. Pretty much, let me just survey the crowd here. There’s not a person in this building right now that came to this church because of our evangelism. We’re failing, if that’s the purpose of we’re failing. Now there is one. This morning, there was one. Miss Tammy, Miss Tammy.

But, and that’s a blessing. That’s what we want, right? We want that. But that is sometimes a misunderstanding. People often criticize evangelism. And they say, well, does anybody come to your church because of your evangelism? Well, that’s not our primary purpose. Our primary purpose in evangelism is to give the gospel to people for their soul’s sake that they might be saved, whether they darken the doors of our church or not.

The Lord has a big work. It’s not just about our church. Although we definitely want to see people come in and grow and all that. We want to see people get saved and come into the church and grow. We want to see all of that. But really, that’s not about building the church because building the church is not our job, but Christ’s job. Our job is to, our responsibility is to obey the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve the Lord together, and to love one another.

That’s our job. And this is what he taught us. The building of the church, although we pray, do we not? We pray, Lord, will you please help us to grow? Will you help us strengthen us and help us to learn it? All of those things. And we pray, Lord, would you add to our number when you bring in families that want to serve the Lord and do God’s will?

And all of those things. We want to see Christ build it. But ultimately, it’s not our job. Now, the danger is that if we get the idea that it is our job, we might resort to pragmatism, sinful pragmatism to do that. In other words, do what is necessary to get the crowd. Number one, a crowd is not necessarily building the church. That’s the first thing. Secondly, it’s not our job.

Our job is to be laser focused on doing the will of the Lord as specified in Scripture. And not only that, but again, numerical growth, although we want to see that, is not necessarily a reliable measure of the success of a church. Sometimes churches, depending on the society in which they live, depending on the conditions around them, not just the spiritual conditions of the country. There’s all kinds of things that go into the kind of rise and fall, the expansion and contraction of a local church.

It’s not just, we could simplify and say, well, if we’re having people joining the church every week, then we’re languishing. Well, not necessarily. But on the other hand, you could have a period of shrinkage, especially during a period of persecution. Those are typical times of shrinkage, you know that? Because it pairs away people who aren’t that serious and aren’t willing to take the risk to be involved.

That’s why churches in China are small. Right? Does that mean there’s a problem with them? No. Does that mean Christ isn’t building it? Well, no. It’s in a different condition. And so, obviously, the Lord builds it in a different way.

Now, if you would look back at our text here, it says this, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Now, I wanna show you something about this rock, okay? Because again, this is often misunderstood to say that Peter is the rock.

Every single instance of this word in the New Testament, in every single instance of this word, it is either referring to an actual rock, imagine that, like a man builds his house upon the rock. That’s this word, right? It’s either referring to an actual rock, and even that though, even the man building his house upon the rock in a parable is also kind of referencing Christ anyway.

But beyond that, the other meaning of this word rock is it references Christ himself. Let’s look at a few verses to show you this. Look at Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine.

Romans nine. After that, we’re gonna go to 1 Corinthians and then 1 Peter. Romans chapter nine. Verse number 33. Romans nine, verse number 33. Says this, this is a quotation from the Old Testament. So this is an Old Testament truth that’s firmly anchored in the history and the historical theology of the Old Testament. The Lord comes and it’s applied to him as it is written. Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

This is a clear reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, not as the rock and the foundation of our salvation. Oh no, this is a reference to Jesus as the rock of offense, those who would stumble over him. Which is interesting because in Matthew 16, that’s kind of what we’re seeing. Jeremiah, Elijah, they’re stumbling over who he is, right? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians 10.

And verse number three. Talking about Israel and the wilderness. Verse three says, and Israel did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. There it is again, the rock, clearly referenced to Christ. Let’s go to 1 Peter chapter two. 1 Peter chapter two.

Now who wrote the book of 1 Peter? The very man, the stone himself, right? So if there’s any ambiguity as to who the Lord was referring to when he said to the stone, that’s to Peter, that’s what his name means, right? If there’s any ambiguity as to who the Lord was referring to when he said, upon this rock I will build my church, Peter would be the guy who would know.

And at no point in scripture does Peter ever indicate that he is the rock. Rather to the contrary, look at 1 Peter chapter two, and verse number seven. Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone, now that’s a different word than the word rock, okay? The stone which the builders disallowed, the same as made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.

Here our brother Peter is using the word, the very word Jesus used to say upon this rock, he refers to that, to call the Lord Jesus Christ the rock. I think that pretty firmly and clearly tells us that the rock is not Peter, okay? The church is not built upon Peter, okay? So what is the rock then? Here’s what I think it is, okay? We’ve seen that the rock does refer to Jesus Christ.

Go back to Matthew 16, and I’ll show you why I think it, for my guess, what it is, what I think it refers to. He says, verse number 18, I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, okay? So it seems a little odd to me that the Lord would say, thou art Peter, and upon this rock. He would have to be almost be pointing to himself, right, for Peter to get the message, and maybe that’s what happened.

Maybe that’s what happened. But in the context here, what just happened is Peter’s great confession, his confession in verse number 16, where he says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I think it’s a blend of both. I think the rock refers to that the church of Christ is built upon the confession of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God, at the same time as being built upon Christ the Son of God.

Does that make sense? So it is the confession of the person who is the foundation, so it’s one and the same. That’s what I think it’s referring to. And upon that rock, in other words, any church or any Christian religion that starts out with a wrong understanding of who Jesus is is not part of the church of Christ at all. Just mark it off, their anathema, their reprobate concerning the faith.

They are not the people of God. That’s the foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now look what he says in verse number 18. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now the common way to look at this, there’s basically two ways to look at this, and there is, you might be surprised, there is not a whole lot of agreement on exactly what this means.

Of course I’m gonna give you my opinion, and I’m gonna show you some verses why I think it’s the case, but this is commonly, in our culture, you know, you talk about, you might use the term hell to refer, like you say, the demons of hell, right? Or that’s a lie or a doctrine out of the pit of hell. You know, you might use it in dramatic language like that, but really what you’re talking about is something that’s demonic, something that’s devilish, related to Satan, right?

But when I started looking at the references to hell, I could not find one reference anywhere in the Bible that connected hell with the devil. Not one. So it got me thinking, all right, well, is that exactly, now I admit the forces of darkness are never going to prevail against the church of Christ. Now everybody agree on that? Even if that is not, even if that’s not the meaning, it’s still true, right?

The forces of darkness are never gonna prevail against the church of Christ, which is what verse 18 says. But I think it’s, my best understanding of this is actually referring to something else. Let’s look at four verses in the Old Testament, and I’m gonna show you what I think it refers to. Job 38, let’s start in Job 38.

Job 38. And then we’re gonna be in the Psalms after that. Job 38, verse number 17. This is the Lord answering Job, so this is God speaking to him. He asks Job in verse 17, have the gates of death been opened unto thee?

Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? That’s an interesting way to put that. Look at Psalm number nine, Psalm number nine. Psalm number nine, verse number 13.

Psalm nine, 13 says this. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death. Now you might say, well, in Matthew 16, it doesn’t say gates of death, it says gates of hell. Well, let’s keep reading, but notice the deliverance from the gates of death. The idea is a man is close to death, or he fears he might die, and so he’s headed toward that, and the gates are opening to consume him.

Opening for him, he goes in, and they shut behind him. He’s dead. That’s the picture here. It’s kind of a dark illustration. Look at Psalm 107, Psalm 107. And just so you know, there are many, many times in the Old Testament that the word hell is used in connection with death. That is, hell in that case referring to the place where people go when they die, right?

There’s many, many times where even David the Psalmist talks about how God delivered him from hell. He’s not afraid of going to the lake of fire. The Lord is delivering him from dying and going to the place of the dead.

Chapter 107, Psalm 107, verse number 18. I’m in the wrong one, there we go. Verse number 18 says this. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. They draw near unto the gates of death. See that again? Let’s look at Isaiah 38 for the last one. Isaiah 38.

Verse 10. This is Hezekiah when he’s sick and he recovered. Verse nine says this. The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness. I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. The gates of the grave. I am deprived of the residue of my years. All right, go back to Matthew if you would.

Back to Matthew 16 and we’ll look at this again, verse 18. When we look at these verses, which are the only real verses that associate death and hell, although again, hell is not specifically mentioned, but in the context of the meaning of hell, because remember Abraham’s bosom and where the rich man went, both in the Old Testament, both are referred to as hell. Both of them, I know that to modern English, we only mean the place of the damned, and that’s legitimate.

But in the Old Testament, it’s a little unclear. Sometimes you hear righteous people saying they feared that they would go to hell, and it’s talking about when they’re gonna die and their fear of that. So when you go back to Matthew 16, verse 18, he says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I think this is a reference to death. Here’s why I think that.

Because in the context of this passage, the Lord is saying, as you go on a little bit later, he’s actually gonna talk about how he’s gonna go to the cross, and he’s gonna be killed, and verse number 21 says, and raised again the third day. And so he says, I’m gonna build my church, and in essence, nothing is going to stop that. Nothing is going to prevail against that fact.

In other words, he’s saying, I will enter into the belly of hell. That’s what Jonah said, right? Which is the picture of Christ. Into the belly of hell when I? Jonah was a righteous man. I don’t think Jonah was burning in the lake of fire. He’s referring to where he went when he died. But he says, in the belly of hell when I, and that’s a picture of Jesus Christ.

Well, Jesus went to that place, right? And he preached to the spirits in prison. I know I’m getting into the weeds now. Some of you are like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But hang with me, all right? And the gates of hell closed in on him. But they could not prevail. They could not prevail. Because on the third day, he burst those gates open and came out of the grave.

He was victorious over, the Bible says he has the keys of hell and of what? Death, right? He burst the gates asunder. He came out of the grave. So even though he’s going to build his church, yet when he came out of, not even death would stop him from doing that. But that’s not all. You know, you think of the Church of Christ as made up of many, many, many, many, many, individual members over a huge period of time.

And you think about core members in the church, right? You think about the apostles. Think about the Peters. Think about the priests. Think about the Peters and the Jameses and the Johns and the Pauls. You know where they’re all now? Well, they’re all with Christ, obviously. But they all died. But yet the Church of Christ prevails. The key leaders died. And death closed its gates on them.

And yet they prevail. But in all of us one day, if the Lord doesn’t return, all of us are going, the gates are gonna close in on us. That’s a very sad thought. I understand that in a way. But that’s not going to stop the Church of Christ and Christ building it. It will persist. It will prevail. And nothing will stop it. And in the ultimate sense, because our Lord Jesus Christ arose, one day all believers, if you wanna say it like this, the gates of hell will burst open for all believers.

And all believers will enjoy the victory that Christ secured when he rose from the dead because we will, like him, rise from the dead in our resurrection because he rose from the dead, because he lives, we shall live also. Once again, the Church of Christ always will prevail. Right? Not even death, which is the last enemy in 1 Corinthians 15, not even death can stop the Church of Christ.

It will always prevail. No Nero, no Caesar salad, no anything can stamp out the Church of Christ. It will always prevail. Even if you kill every person, it will prevail. It will never, never go out because Christ is building it. You see, this is what I think it’s referring to. Now, if I’m wrong and it’s referring to the devil and his strategies, well, I believe that too.

So, amen. All right, let’s go on to verse number 19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, let me ask you a question. To whom is the Lord Jesus speaking right now? In verse 19. He’s speaking to Peter. Notice, and this is one of the reasons we use the King James, right? One of the reasons we use the King James Bible.

He says, if you were reading any other Bible, literally any other Bible, any other modern version, it would say, I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And that would not be specific enough for you to understand what’s happening here. Jesus is speaking to Peter alone, singular. He says, I will give unto thee, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The binding and the loosing. This idea of tying something up, that’s what bind means, right? Simply tying, like you tie your shoes, you bind it up. And when you pull the string and you untie it, you loose it. The idea is, you’re tying it up, you’re binding it, you’re preventing it, and you’re freeing it, right?

That’s what he’s talking about, binding and loosing. Now, when you think about laws, when you think about rules, if we had, like for instance, back before I put in the water cooler, we had please no food or drink, right? We had that on there. That’s a binding, that would be like a binding rule. And then you take the rule down, you change the rule, you’ve now loosed the rule so that people can bring drinks or whatever, as an example of that.

So the binding and loosing is the allowing or disallowing of some things, okay? The allowing or disallowing of some things. And he mentions, I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the keys. A key is something that unlocks a door. Look, if you would, very quick at Revelation chapter one and chapter three. You wanna go to Revelation, that’s where we’re going. Chapter one, chapter three.

Somebody was asking me about needing to study Revelation, so we’re gonna study at least two verses. Revelation one, verse number 18. Jesus speaks here and he says, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. He has the keys. In other words, he unlocks the door. Look at chapter three, verse seven.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, and here it is, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. So a key obviously is the power to open and to shut. Open and to shut, this power. Okay, so this is what we’re talking about in verse number 19.

We’re talking about the power of freeing and tying up and the power of allowing and disallowing, the power of binding and loosening to open and to shut. Now what’s interesting is in verse number 19, he says, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So the binding or loosing, is it done on earth first or is it done in heaven first?

On earth. Okay, so follow me now. So in this case, Peter, when Peter makes a decision and exercises an authority to allow or disallow or open or close, as the case may be, the Lord then responds in heaven by honoring that man’s decision. That’s just like, okay, hold on. Lord, are you sure you know what you’re doing here? But obviously the Lord Jesus knows what he’s doing.

He’s giving remarkable power to Peter here. And we’re gonna see that Peter exercises this power, right? To bind and to loose, to make judgments, to open and to shut doors. He is going to exercise this power that the Lord Jesus gave to him. And it gave only to him in this verse, not to anybody else, but only to Peter. And actually in the book of Acts, we see this power exercised and played out.

And it’s not given to the other apostles, it’s specifically to Peter. Look if you would at Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight. Another way you might illustrate this is by saying this, the binding and loosing. In other words, the Lord says to Peter, Peter, whatever you do, I’m gonna hold them to it in heaven. Whatever you do on earth, the judgments, decisions, and the things you do on earth, I’m gonna hold men to it in heaven too.

All right? Acts chapter eight. And this is where it’s probably best illustrated. In Acts chapter eight, Philip goes and preaches the gospel to the Samaritans. The Samaritans are not Jews. They are intermixed. They have Jewish blood and Gentile blood mixed together. They are not looked favorably upon by the Jewish people. Okay? But they receive the gospel. If you look at verse number six, and the people, the Samaritans, with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

So up to this point, they’ve only preached to the Jews. Only the Jews have believed in Christ. And now people have, it almost seems like without permission, have gone and have started to preach to the Samaritans who are not Jews.

What is going to be the result? Is that gonna be allowed or not? Is that gonna be bound or loosed? Is that door gonna be opened or shut? Right? And so all these Samaritans apparently believed in Christ, but there was one difference.

These Samaritans had believed in Christ, but they had not received the Spirit of God. You think, well, that’s weird. Well, I agree, but remember the book of Acts transitions a lot of these things. By the time you get to the end, it’s normative like we understand it now. But from the beginning to the end, it changes over a period of time. We’ll have to look at that another day, but we don’t have time to look at it right now.

And so verse 14, now when the apostles which are at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So these guys had believed, had been saved and baptized, but had not yet received the Spirit of God.

Verse 17, then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. That’s Peter and John. Now notice this, Peter is opening a door. He goes down there and examines what has happened. And by his decision to lay his hands upon them and pray for them, he is essentially approving of what is happening to the Samaritans. And God responds.

Peter makes a decision and loses something on earth. And what does God do in response? What does he do? Did I lose you? Look at verse number 17. Peter lays his hands on them. A man on earth lays his hands on them and heaven responds by giving them the Spirit of God. This is exactly what the Lord said, the power he would give to Peter. Heaven honored Peter’s judgment.

That just blows my mind. Now later, well we’ll get to that in a minute. Look at Acts chapter 10, verse 44. Acts chapter 10, verse number 44. Somebody get the hiccups.

Acts 10, verse 44. This is a different set of circumstances. This is Peter speaking to Cornelius and the group of Gentiles. Now Cornelius is not a Samaritan. Cornelius is a Gentile. He has no Jewish blood. So this is, in the Jewish mind, in the mind of the early Christians, this is another layer kind of outside the box. It’s one thing if the Samaritans have believed, okay, well they got Jewish blood.

That’s probably what’s happening there. But now, this is pure Gentile. Will they believe and receive the gospel? And notice the man who is there doing it. It is Peter. The Lord chose Peter to give the gospel to Cornelius, to the first Gentiles. While, verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles would pour out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

So here, the Lord doesn’t wait for Peter to put his hands on them. These guys are just hearing the word in their heart. They believe the gospel, and at that moment, God gives them the spirit of God. And how do we know? Because they spoke with unknown language, unknown tongues. Verse 46, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, here’s Peter. He’s making a judgment now.

Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then prayed they him to tarry certain days. You see how this order in Acts switched? It reversed from the Samaritans, you see that? They believed, received the spirit of God, and then were baptized in water.

And the Samaritans, they believed, were baptized in water, and then received the spirit of God. This is why the book of Acts is a transitional book, right? Right here is the norm. This is the norm from now on. But here’s what I want you to see. Peter, once again, examines what’s happening, and makes a judgment. And he says, I can’t argue against this. God has apparently opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

I am opening that door. And so he commands them to be baptized, formally approving their faith, right? Now, if you would go to Acts 15, verse seven. Acts 15, verse seven. There’s a question that comes up at this point about whether the Gentiles who have believed, we’ve passed that, have to keep the Old Testament law or not. And there was a big issue with this. So they held a council together in Jerusalem, verse seven.

Acts 15, verse seven. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith, that’s Peter’s judgment.

Now therefore, why tempt ye, God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. This is another judgment of Peter, which is to say, these Gentiles do not need to try and follow the Old Testament law. We can’t even keep it.

And besides that, they got saved without keeping it. Cornelius, right? He didn’t know the law, he didn’t keep the law, and yet he got saved by believing in Christ. Peter’s judgment. You know what? This judgment is the standard moving forward. Even to our very day, Peter opened that door, and the Lord has honored that all these years.

These are three extremely significant events and course altering events for the church. They all occurred with Peter. Now, if you will go back to Matthew 16, as we finish up, we just have one more thing to look at.

Now, the Catholic church says that Peter received this power, and then he then, and this is where they, okay, so we acknowledge that Peter received a certain power, authority, to bind and loose on earth, and it would be honored in heaven. You got that part, right? Okay? But then they take it a step further, which is not supported by scripture, and they say, all right, Peter, the first pope, was given this power and was then able to pass this power and authority in the church on to his successors.

And so every pope, successive pope unto our day in this unbroken line of papal authority has the power to make decisions for the church, which are binding that God has basically bound himself to do, but you know what that has done? First of all, if you read the passage, there is not a word about anybody else besides Peter receiving this authority. Nobody else, no successor, and there’s also nothing spoken about how it was to be given to another person.

This is to Peter alone, to Peter alone. Because that idea is the foundation, this idea of papal authority is based in Matthew 16. That idea is the foundation for using tradition to usurp the text of scripture, church tradition. And every form of sordid, idolatrous wickedness and false doctrine that has been brought into the world by means of Roman Catholicism has come on the basis of tradition, which is founded here, right?

Mariolatry, iconography, idolatry, prayers to saints, burning of incense, purgatory, papal infallibility, transubstantiation, some of you know what these things are, some of you know some of the, that’s okay, but it just goes on and on and on, purgatory. All of these doctrines, they act like they’ve been there since the 300s when the Catholic Church started. They haven’t been, most of them are relatively in the past five or 600 years.

But anyway, that is all based upon tradition. That’s why that they can hold the doctrines although scripture has nothing to say about it whatsoever. In fact, these days, here’s the going line among Catholic apologists these days is that when Jesus left the world, he didn’t leave you a Bible, he left you a church. And the reason you have a Bible is because of the Catholic Church, that’s the line now.

Which is to say that the church, the church’s decisions trumps the scripture. No, no. This authority was given to Peter. When Peter died, it died. You understand? But it’s not that simple. Because there’s one other place this language is found as well. Let’s look at it, Matthew 18.

Matthew 18. Look if you would at verse 15. Matthew 18, 15. “’Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, “’go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. “’If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. “’But if he will not hear thee, “’then take with thee one or two more “’that in the mouth of two or three witnesses “’every word may be established. “’And if he shall neglect to hear them, “’tell it unto the church.

“’But if he neglect to hear the church, “’let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.’” Verily, now what is this talking about? This is talking about church discipline. This is talking about church discipline. When a situation where there’s a person who’s sinning in the church, call them to repentance, they won’t repent, you fight step by step until it gets to the point that it must be made public, the matter is brought to the church.

Remember, this church is, this is a local setting, right? In other words, what I mean by that, what I mean is this kind of issue that we’re reading in Matthew 18 is not talking about the body of Christ. You know, it’s not like this, we’ll take it to the bishop. No, no, it’s not talking about that. What we’re talking about is a local church where this matter can be brought before people, right?

That’s what we’re looking at here. The church then, in verse 17, apparently makes a decision to exclude the man from fellowship, right? He’s treated as a heathen and a publican. In other words, as an unbeliever, he’s treated. And this is further developed later in 1 Corinthians, but he’s treated as an unbeliever. In other words, here’s what I want you to see. The word church, congregation, the church, that’s a group decision.

You follow me? It’s a group decision. The church together decides, in order to restore this man, we are going to exclude him from our fellowship, both personally and as a church. We’re gonna exclude this person. That’s a corporate decision. Peter’s not near this, okay? Peter’s, we’re not even looking at Peter right now, okay? But I want you to see, this is a decision the church has made.

You see this? Now read the next verse. Verily I say unto you, that’s plural, whatsoever ye, plural, shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

So Jesus used as the support for this method of putting someone out of the church, that the decisions that the church makes are binding in heaven. He’s using the same principle, but now he’s not talking about Peter. He’s not talking about an apostle. He is giving this authority of binding and loosing, opening and closing to the church, to a local assembly where this kind of matter can be dealt with.

Now this is very interesting. Here’s why that’s interesting. Because this is one of the few places in scripture that articulates this idea of the local church’s authority in decisions like this. Jesus has given local churches authority to make decisions like this. It has. And that, and not on, I certainly wouldn’t take this, I certainly wouldn’t take this authority lightly, but he says, the Lord says in that verse, that whatever you bind on earth, whatever decisions you bind or loose on earth as a church, now we’re not talking about preacher, we’re talking about church, I will honor that in heaven.

You know what that means? That means in this case, if a person is sinning and the church puts him out of the congregation, it doesn’t matter if he goes somewhere else or he goes, you know, whatever, the Lord’s gonna hold him to it. The church’s decision. The Lord’s gonna hold that guy to that. And that’s the power that the Lord has given, not to me, not to you, but to us as a body.

He has chosen to honor that decision. Now you say, well, then the church can just do whatever it wants. Oh no, no, it’s not like that. That’s kind of where Roman Catholicism went off the rails. No, that authority is bound by scripture. It’s not unlimited. It’s bound by scripture. But within the scriptural bounds, we make many decisions like that, right? Within those scriptural bounds, we have power to bind and loose as a body, as a church, and the Lord will honor that.

He has said he will. Now you say, well, why? I don’t understand that. I don’t get that. Because, you know, we’re liable to do stupid, right? But the Lord does want to indicate that when he says this is my church and the people of God in the church and the way the church functions, and he has given a certain level of authority to us as a body, right?

And he’s gonna honor that. And one day, when we stand before the Lord, and, you know, I mean, here’s a perfect example. What does the Bible say about spiritual leaders? When they stand before the Lord, they’re gonna give an account not just for themselves, but also for those over whom they had oversight. You know, that means, that means it’s not just about me, it’s also about the body, right?

The Lord’s gonna hold me to it as a spiritual leader, and he’s gonna hold all spiritual leaders to it as it relates to the body of Christ, because he has put his high value upon the church of God, of course, within the boundaries of scripture. So I hope that brings some understanding to you about these statements, both to Peter and then later to the church. And I hope especially that it helps us to understand that the preciousness and the uniqueness of the church of God, you know, our church sometimes we, you know, our church is small and, you know, in the big picture, you know, we’re insignificant, like we get it, but not in the sight of the Lord.

The Lord does honor even small congregations like ours, regardless of the number, he does honor that. And so we should do the same. All right, let’s pray together.