Holding the Keys To the Kingdom - Living out our Calling as the Church

Mar 5, 2023 • Andrey Bulanov

Main idea: Being the church means we accept the authority and responsibility to live as God's people protecting and communicating the message of Jesus to the world.

Outline:

1. We are created as priest-kings in God's world

2. Jesus gives his church the keys to the kingdom

3. Living as God's people today

◦ We protect the beauty and truth of the gospel in our holy living

◦ Membership in the church is one of the most important responsibilities in our life.

◦ We gather, we worship and we part take in baptism and the Lord's Supper as our identity markers as a spiritual family.

◦ We both submit to AND hold our leaders accountable.

◦ We feel a sense of responsibility over the lives of the people around us.

◦ We protect and cultivate the teaching of the church.

◦ Attend members meetings and serve in the church

◦ Speak and live the gospel in the world around you.

Scripture Passages:

• Genesis 1:26-28

• Genesis 2:7;15

• Jeremiah 31:33-34

• Ezekiel 36:27;35

• Matt 16:13-19

• Matt. 18:15-20

• Matt 28:18-20

Application questions:

• What is your vision of an important or significant life? Is it rooted in God's calling for you as his image bearer, or in your own personal dreams?

• What is the church to you? What do you expect from the church?

• Have you ever thought about the seriousness and the beauty of what it means to be God's people?

• Do you feel a sense of responsibility over the lives and the teaching of your church?

Discussion questions:

• What does it mean that Jesus gives us the keys to the kingdom? What does it mean that the church binds and looses heavenly realities in the world today?

• What is the relationship between the authority of the congregation and the authority of the leaders?

• How has your view of church membership changed over time? How do these passages change, challenge or deepen your understanding?

• What are some of the biggest barriers you think prevent people from living in a healthy understanding of church membership?

• What is the church? What does it exist for?

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All of us are here today, including those who are watching this one a screen. And we are here for a reason in our head. We are here with some kind of perspective about what the church is for and what we get out of it.

60-70 years ago, many cultural elites believed that religion was dead and that religious participation would continue to die out over time.

The total opposite has proven true.

Religions of various kinds continue to have a massive presence in modern life - and that includes christian churches.

However if i ask WHY people attend church or WHAT they believe the church to be, i would get a variety of answers.

The reason why this is important is because your expectation will determine WHAT you will get out of it. You can attend a very good church, but if you have an incorrect mindset about WHY you are here, you will still largely miss what is really going on.

For many today, church is mostly for me and my spiritual benefit. Church is a spectator event. You come, you sit, you observe, you get out of it something for yourself and you leave.

But if we listen carefully to Jesus' intentions for the church, we see something very different. Jesus shows us that the gathered people of God is a very special and unique place. It is the specific context where God is working to bring his healing and restoring presence to the world.

To be part of this gathering, is much more than just getting something for yourself.

As we think about this question for the next few minutes, I hope to show that being the church means we accept the authority and responsibility to live as God's people protecting and communicating the message of Jesus to the world.

Heads up - todays message is a bit of a bible study where we will look to a variety of passages under this one question.

To get a proper view of how we were created and why.

Anyone want to take a wild guess where we need to go in the Bible?

- Genesisssss

1. We are created as priest-kings in God's world

Genesis 1:26-28

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Genesis 2:7;15

"7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it."

This is something we talk about a lot. And its something that has to seep deep down in how we view ourselves and every person around us.

Who are you? What are you?

One way to describe our title is the title of priest-king

Priest - Protects and communicates God's truth and God's presence.

King - Exercises authority and expands the rule of God in the world.

Leeman - "...the priest-king mediates God’s rule and works to protect what’s holy."

God gave his authority to humanity, so that, as they know and love him - they then go out and live on his behalf in the world.

He gave them the keys to the world.

He wanted them to fill the world with his glory - spreading more image bearers who also do the work of caring for creation and guarding/communicating God's truth.

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God they cut themselves off from a relationship with God who is the source of their power and life - and left to try to build their own little kingdoms with their own strength.

Our sinful nature always tends us to seek joy by destroying our own God given identity - instead of submitting to his Kingship over us and live for his ways, we want to be our own independent little kings. We want to live our own lives. We fight the idea of submitting to God.

And instead of being priests who guard and protect what is holy, we trample all over God's ways by desiring that which is dirty and perverse.

This is on full display in the world today.

Why is there so much sadness, so much pain and so much frustration and anger in the world?

The question goes back to WHO ARE YOU?

What kind of purpose and direction is your life aligned with?

Do you understand what you were created to be?

Throughout the whole OT, God is working to recover this original design - to redeem us out of our lost state back to life with HIM and his calling for us in the world.

Think about it.

Noah was given essentially the same command to be multiply and have dominion over the world.

Abraham was called to follow God and trust him so that through his life blessing and life may flow to all the nations of the earth.

Moses calls the people of Israel to be a kingdom of priests to the world. They were saved from Egypt so that they could live out God's laws and God's ways and as a nation - be a witness to the world about the one true God.

David is given this essential promise in more specific terms - God promised that through David he will build an everlasting kingdom in the world through which God's truth and presence will shine forever and bring renewal to the world.

Throughout the whole Bible, God in his great mercy and grace, is working to restore our life in HIM and give us back our calling as priest-kings in the world.

The problem of course is that God's people kept failing and were always unfaithful.

For many of us LW folks, hopefully this story is becoming more and more of a review. and yet every time we go through it i want to highlight slightly different details.

In this case we want to notice that as God responds to the problem of our unfaithfulness, God is constantly pointing to a future where those who are called the people of God will be very very different from before.

Jer. 31:33-34

33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”

Ezekiel 36:27;35

27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances...35 They will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden."

"they will all know me"

"I will place my Spirit within them..."

I will permanently fix them, and they will be true representatives of me in the world, and the world itself around them will change - like Eden.

2. Jesus gives his church the keys to the kingdom

Matt 16:13-19

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.”

This is one of the most important moments in all the gospels - it is the moment when Jesus asks his disciples who they consider him to be.

Its not just a theology quiz. Its not just a moment of ideas.

Its a moment when their perspective, their inner world is undergoing transformation.

When Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, he is demonstrating that in his heart, something has taken place.

the Messiah, the promised one has come to create these NEW PEOPLE who will KNOW GOD form the inside - and he is asking his disciples who they consider him to be - he is bringing to light the reality that even now in this moment, God is present to transform their hearts and open their eyes to the truth - this truth starts with seeing and confessing who Jesus really is.

And Jesus says, "On this ROCK I will build my church"

Not just the confession, not just a person - but on this KIND of person, on these men, who know me, who confess me, who have the message about WHO I AM in them.

"I will put my truth in their hearts and they will know me..."

"I will give you the keys to 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..."

Notice what is happening - Jesus is giving his disciples the authority to do his work in the world, and that work has to do with declaring and protecting Jesus and his message and his kingdom work in the world.

Bind / loose - your words and actions have power to accomplish heavenly realities on earth.

He is giving them the role of priest-kings over his work.

So who all gets this authority??

Matt. 18:15-20

15 “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 17 If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

Notice the similarity in the themes these passages.

But here we have the opposite - here we have a person who SAYS they know Jesus, but they are walking and behaving in a way that is opposite.

Here he says, "In the case of a person a person is persistently in sin, ignoring the truth - you have the authority and power to put him out - and by YOU he doesn't mean just apostles - he says, "the church".

And then he says the same thing he did earlier, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven..."

Its not just the apostles that carry this authority, its every member of the community that Jesus calls "the gathering" "ekklesia" - the church.

Here he shows us more clearly WHAT it is that we are binding and loosing - authority to pronounce who is a real confessor and who is not.

The keys to the kingdom include two foundational tasks:

• WHAT do we believe - Who is Jesus? What is his message?

• WHO is a real confessor? Who is part of this community and who is not?

From the very beginning, we are created as those who are priest-kings - as those who know and love God, who gaurd his truth and spread his glory to the world.

The plan of salvation in all the Bible includes God working against the grain of our sin and rebellion to bring us back to himself and to our calling.

In Jesus, he brings that plan to fruition.

Why only through Jesus?

Because Jesus is the only perfect man, the only perfect Adam who was able to live a life of perfect obedience, to break the continual curse of our sinful family tree.

The only reason Jesus was the perfect man was because Jesus was God himself in the flesh come to do what we could not do.

And to take our sin on himself and pay our debt.

This is why he is the only one who has the power to call into being a NEW HUMANITY - patterned after HIM.

Matt 28:18-20

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What does this mountain top sending event recall??

• Genesis 1

Jesus sends a new humanity out to the world to do the renewing and saving work of God in all the world. Priest-kings spreading God's message and God's work in the world.

19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

3. Living as God's people today

All of this is meant to shine a powerful spotlight on one central issue - WHO ARE YOU?

Do you know the who Jesus is and what he has done to save you? Have you experienced the transforming work he comes to being in your heart?

Today the door is open to all the nations - young and old.

What does it mean to be a christian?

To know and follow Jesus the King is to be taken from one social status to another. A RADICAL transformation. It is to be joined to the New Covenant people of God, who have the law of God written on their hearts and the Spirit of God dwelling within them.

It is to carry the authority of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

But we don't carry it as individuals - we carry it as the CHURCH.

The authority of the church is rooted in the PEOPLE, not just the leaders.

What about the pastors, what are they for?

Paul says in Ephesians 4 that the pastors and leaders are given to the church to "equip the saints for the work of ministry"

This is why every time in the NT when the church makes a mistake - the apostle Paul addresses the CHURCH - not the leaders.

in 1 Corinthians 5 Paul charges the CHURCH to put the man living in sin OUT of the church.

In Galatians - Paul confronts the whole church about the error they fall in to.

In 1 Peter 2, Peter speaks to the whole church saying,

"9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

In the OT system, the people needed a priest to stand between them and God. Now, because of JEsus, we all have the opportunity to know God and live as his people.

Theres many ways poeple can describe WHAT is God doing in the world today? but the central answer is - he is building his church through the honest commitment of healthy local churches.

This is the epicenter of God's work in the world.

At its core, this includes TWO MAIN THINGS:

• WHAT is the truth? Who is Jesus? What is his message to the world?

• WHO are the people of Jesus? What do they look like?

What does that include?

• We protect the beauty and truth of the gospel in our holy living

• Membership in the church is one of the most important responsibilities in our life.

Churches that don't practice formal membership have NO WAY of maintaining the calling of the church.

• We gather, we worship and we part take in baptism and the Lord's Supper as our identity markers as a spiritual family.

• We both submit to AND hold our leaders accountable.

Elder led congregationalism - not just leaders, not just church - both working together. All are together gathered by the power of the Spirit under the authority of the Word of God.

• We feel a sense of responsibility over the lives of the people around us.

• We protect and cultivate the teaching of the church.

"Oh yeah, i follow Jesus" - "which Jesus??"

It is by faith in the gospel that people are saved. Therefore, as christians we must cherish and preserve our beliefs well. We want to be telling the truth to the world. We want to be living out the right version of the message!

• Attend members meetings and serve in the church

Jesus is building his church. What are you up to?

the voice of teh church is very important in the life of the church.

• Speak and live the gospel in the world around you.