MAIN POINT: The Church’s FOUNDATION
The church is a CALLED OUT group with a shared interest, in our case being Christ-followers.
What Peter confesses here on behalf of the disciples is that Jesus is the God among all the false gods.
- The church is being built by GOD
True understanding of Christ as Messiah comes only from DIVINE revelation.
The thing that made Peter’s confession so powerful was the fact that it came against the of all the other ideas of who Jesus was and all of the false teachings about Jesus that existed in their day.
It is thru the confession of Christ as Lord that one gains ENTRANCE into the church.
All followers of Christ submit themselves to the AUTHORITY of God’s Word, rather than submitting the Word to our authority.
Because the Church is a part of or a form of the kingdom, nothing can PREVENT it from realizing its fully promised blessings when Christ returns.
- God’s AUTHORITY has been granted to the church
The keys authorize the disciples to REPRESENT God thru the offer of Kingdom entrance thru the sharing of the gospel.
The authority here is to PRONOUNCE on behalf of the King someone as saved or judged based upon their response to the gospel.
God alone has the authority to forgive sin and entrance in to the Kingdom, and we as His AMBASSADORS only have this authority so long as we act under His wishes and within the confines of the Word.
The proclamation of the gospel and right representation of our KING is the TASK of the church.
The passage is not concerned with Peter’s power or infallibility, but rather the role that the disciples of Jesus will play in the of the Church and the authority in which they go about it.
APPLICATION:
1. Jesus will build His church and it will prevail thru the of the Word.
2. Grasp the of the church.