Note: Devotional message taken from last Sunday afternoon's sermon on Matthew 16:16-19.
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye
shall bind on earth shall be found in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).
On Sunday afternoons in 2024 at CRBC
we have been working our way through the Heidelberg
Catechism (as supplemented by the Baptistic revision of it known as the
Orthodox Catechism). This Catechism provides 119 questions and answers divided
into the 52 Lord’s Days of the year.
Last Sunday, on Lord’s Day 31
(Questions 83-85), the teaching addressed the “keys of the kingdom.”
I don’t need to tell you that we live
in an anti-authoritarian age. Every authority it seems is under question in our
day. This includes the authority of the parents in the home, the elders in the
church, the magistrate in society. Many are even challenging the authority and
integrity of Holy Scripture itself.
On Lord’s Day 31, our instructors teach
us about a special authority that has been given to the Lord’s church and to
her officers for the spiritual good of all. This is symbolized by the image of
keys, the keys of the kingdom. With a key one opens a door or locks it.
This authority is traced first to
Christ’s instructions to Peter after he made “the good confession” that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the living God (see Matthew 16:16-19). Second, it is
traced to our Lord’s later instructions to the disciples in Matthew 18:15-20.
This second passage is necessary for understanding the first, because it makes
plain this authority, the keys, was given not only to Peter (as our Roman
Catholic friends like to suggest), but to all the apostles, upon whom the
church would be built, the Lord Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. After
the apostles it was given to the churches of Christ, as served by their
ordinary officers.
The catechism teaches that the “keys
of the kingdom” (authority in in the administration in the kingdom of Christ)
is twofold. It consists of preaching and Christian discipline.
The magisterial Reformers used to
speak of three marks of a true church: right preaching of the gospel, right
administration of the sacraments (ordinances), and right exercise of discipline
(discipleship). If a church lacks any of these three it is vulnerable to
disqualification as a church.
With respect to discipline, we
typically think of two kinds: formative and corrective. Formative discipline
takes place through ordinary interactions, encouragements, and exhortations.
Corrective discipline is more rarely used, as it is reserved for serious faults
that require an unrepentant person to be removed (excommunicated) from the
church and its ordinances until restoration might be achieved. A church will be
unhealthy if it never exercises this kind of discipline, but also if it
does so too often or, especially, unjustly.
The visible church is given real
authority on earth. This is truly a sober and grave authority, and so it is not
to be taken up lightly. Let us exercise this authority carefully and justly.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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