Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our
Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen
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. 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. I will give you the keys…
In the Name of Jesus
Imagine
yourself walking through the grocery store one day minding your own business
when a stranger walks up to you and asks to borrow your car keys. What is the look you give? Are you the type who will hand over your car
leys to anyone who needs a ride?
How
about this. You are sitting in your
favorite chair in the living room, half way between watching the baseball game
and sleeping, and your 16 year old child comes to you and says mom/dad, can I
have the keys to the truck? I would bet
we could debate the two scenarios and there might even be some of you here who
would be more inclined to give the keys to the car to a stranger over your 16
year old child.
What
would you need to know? If someone wants
to borrow your car, what do you need to know?
Where are you going? Who is going
with you? What time will you be
returning? Do you plan on filling it up
with gas at the end of the night?
Believe
it or not, Jesus had keys he wanted to hand over. They weren’t keys to his Ford truck, they
weren’t keys to his tractor, they weren’t even keys to his parent’s
donkey. Jesus had for the disciples the
keys to the church. And he needed to
hand them off. Because, whether the
disciples liked it or not, soon the time would come when Jesus wouldn’t be with
them. Rapidly approaching was the time
of his death and in turn the time of his ascension.
But
Jesus couldn’t just had them over to anyone off the road. He had a question for the disciples. He wanted to know what they had learned from
him so far. Now when Jesus came into the
district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do
people say that the Son of Man is?” Fair enough. It gets right to the point. Jesus as the head of the church, wanted to
see what the disciples would answer. And
they said, “Some say John the
Baptist, others say Elijah, and
others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
The
right answer. This is what the Old
Testament church, the believers, were looking for. With his teaching, they thought that he was
John the Baptist. They would have
sounded a lot alike in their teachings.
But Jesus asks this question to call to mind the great debate and divide
over who he was. Not many looked at him
as the promised Messiah. Some thought he
was the second coming of the prophet Elijah for which they were eagerly
waiting. Some thought he was nothing
more than just another prophet, a great teacher and healer. Now it was time for the real question, the
real test. He said to them, “But who do you say
that I am?”
Before
we get to the disciples answer, let’s take a moment to answer this question
ourselves. Who is Jesus? We could look at the disciples answer and
think, oh, it’s so nice that we don’t need to worry about any division like
that today. There is such unity on who
Jesus was and what his role for coming to earth was.
But
we would be blind to the truth. Because
the truth is there is even more confusion now that before. Even among those who know Jesus came to earth
to be our Savior, there is confusion over how he would have acted towards
other. Society, Christian society, wants
to peg Jesus as a loving and accepting man who welcomed everyone for who they
were. Yet fail to remember how he called
out the woman at the well’s sin. Fail to
remember that for those who turned the temple into a market place he over threw
the tables.
Of
the disciples, Peter is first to answer.
Which typically means he is about to open his mouth and insert his
foot. But not this time. Peter, very astutely, answers You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And immediately Peter gets rewarded for
such a strong confession of his savior. 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. 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.
Peter
gave the confession upon which the church would be built. And after affirming Peter’s confession our
Lord gives him, all the disciples really, a gift. He says I will give you the keys.. Keys! Keys?
To what? They keys to the donkey
out back? These were no ordinary keys. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What are these keys for then?
Sometimes we call them the keys of the church.
So first I think we must understand what the
church is for. What is the church
for? Some people think that the church
is here to entertain them. They want to
come to church and have an eye pleasing experience. Some people think that the church is here to
make them feel good. They don’t want to
be told that they are sinners deserving wrath and punishment. Some people refuse to come to church because
it is crawling with hypocritical sinners and they think that those type of
people do not belong here.
But these are not the reasons why the church is
here, why the church exists. The church
is not entertainment, it is not a place for perfect people only. If that were true our pews would be empty and
you wouldn’t have a pastor. But we could
argue that second one. The church is
here to make you feel good. But with it
the church is also here to make you feel bad.
For the church is here to teach you about the
love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, which happened because we had fallen into
sin. But here is where the keys to the
kingdom of heaven come in. Our Lord says
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.
Our Lord is giving the disciples, the church, the
keys to unlock the kingdom of heaven through the forgiveness of sins. This is what we hear more in detail after
Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel of John.
He comes to them in the locked room for the first time and says Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Through forgiveness, only after we are shown
the absolute horridness of our sin, we are made perfect, we are given the peace
of mind which only Christ can give. For
we are reminded of what Christ has already done for us.
And the promise keeps getting better, because it
is for you. The Keys which Christ gave
the disciples gave his church, are for you.
For it was for your sins that Christ went to the cross and forged the
key by his suffering and death. Because
he died for your sins, because of your baptism, because of your life of
confession, the kingdom of heaven has been opened for you.
It is for this reason that we have the Office of
the Keys and Confession always tied together.
Because what is confession if there is no absolution to release you from
the weight of your sins and what is forgiveness if you have nothing to repent
of? Office of the Keys. The Keys of the kingdom of heaven. Luther says this concerning them, The Office of the Keys is that special
authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of
repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as
they do not repent.
Not only are these keys for YOU, they are also,
as you just heard FOR you. Meaning, they
are given to you, the church. When our Lord said these words, and handed over
the keys to the kingdom, he was preparing for what would soon happen, meaning
his death, resurrection, and most importantly, his ascension into heaven. He was preparing them for live after him.
They were to be his voice, his presence in the
midst of the people. We still have that
today. While the keys are given to the
church, the church then properly calls men and places them into the office of
Holy Ministry. (LSB 326) The Catechism
says concerning this I believe that when
the called ministers of Christ deal with us according to this divine command,
in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian
congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better,
this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our Lord dealt
with us himself. You have called me
to be this for you. To be the one who
administers the keys properly and effectively within Grace Lutheran Church and
within the community.
This morning we got to see it again. To see the office of the Keys open up the
kingdom of heaven to another young soul.
Brynlea, you have been added to the multitude of believers. You have had your name added to the book of
life by your washing this morning. You
are now a part of a church that is full of sinners who know they are sinners. But who long for hearing the words which you
heard this morning In the stead and by the
command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The giving of the keys. A milestone for any 16 year old. Wanting to feel the power of the car beneath them
for the first time. But even more, the
giving of the spiritual keys. The keys
that unlock eternal life. Given first to
Peter who gave the great confession and has continued in the church built on
The Rock, built on the confession of Jesus Christ.
By the grace of God may the Office of the Keys be
used responsibly here at Grace and throughout the world so that we many
continually praise and ever confess our Lord and Savior as the Christ, the Son
of the Living God.
Amen
+SDG+
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