Keys of Kingdom of Heaven...

...Sufferings, rejections, death and resurrection
I, as an individual and the Church as a whole can not fulfill what God have purposed through me and the Church if the work of Cross was not allowed in my life.
God was speaking through the passage in Mat 16: 17-23.
Matt 16:17-25
17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon 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 shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
20 Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You."
23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
NASU

Jesus was telling Peter that He is going to build His Church through him. It must have been a great honor for Peter to cherish those words from the Lord. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He said that He would give Peter a set of keys (vs. 19) with which he and the Church can bind and loose anything on the earth. Then He began showing not only to Peter but to all His disciples that what those keys are all about in vs. 21. This same verse is quoted clearly in Mark 8: 31.
Mark 8:31
31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
NASU
\tHe was telling them the set of keys with which one can bind and loose things on the earth contain 1) suffering, 2) rejection, 3) being killed and 4) resurrection.
\tHe was telling them these are the set of keys I have been using and wished that the disciples and the Church must use for establishing the Kingdom of heaven on earth. Jesus said emphatically that if you don’t use these set of keys you will be powerless and His church cannot be built. In fact Jesus was telling them that they would be a stumbling block in His efforts to build His Church.
\tPeter rejected those keys and even dared to persuade Jesus not to use those set of keys, which of course invoked a strong rebuke from the Lord. He turned to Peter and said, “You are a stumbling block”.
\tThe question immediately came to my heart was, “Am I a stumbling block in all of the Lord’s effort to build the Church?” What I realized is that surely I too would be if I don’t take up the cross everyday – the life of suffering, rejection, death and resurrection.
\tIn spite of the fact that Peter had such a great revelation of Jesus Christ – directly from the Father God – he was a stumbling block. That’s warning to me that with all the vaunted glory of knowing and understanding all the truth or with more knowledge of Jesus, if I do not take up the cross and go through the way of suffering, rejection, death and the consequent resurrection, I am a stumbling block to Jesus in His efforts to build His Church. And I make the power of the Church ineffectual in binding and loosing the works of the enemy on the earth. So, I and because of me the Church will ultimately fail in the purpose which God has called me and the church for.

) suffering, 2) rejection, 3) being killed and 4) resurrection.

It didn't matter what Peter wanted or any of the early christians wanted or bound or loosed the above was a given nothing could stop these.

In spite of the fact that Peter had such a great revelation of Jesus Christ – directly from the Father God – he was a stumbling block.

Peter was a stumbling block?? I think I must be misunderstanding you here. You remind me of a friend who came out of the Roman Catholic church, his theology was a mixed up hodgepodge of error in his understanding of scripture, it took him years to come completely out and understand what sound(healthy) doctrine was.

BTW -- the keys were just a symbol of authority. In Matt 18 it was the authority within the true church for discipline, Paul exercised that authority in the church at Corinth.

I would like to clarify my brother:

18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

In vs 18 Lord said to Peter that through him He will build the Church. But when Peter rejected the way of cross (vs 22) our Lord rebuked him for that and said he is a stumbling block to Him (vs 23).
“Peter a stumbling block?” – Surely at that time when he was not willing to deny himself and take up his cross. You and I know now how the Lord built the church after Pentecost through him as he lived a life of self denial, taking up his cross everyday.
You see the context where the Lord laid the conditions of discipleship (vs 24).

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

Jesus was telling that authority over the powers of darkness – to bind and loose- is given to those who are denying themselves and carrying their cross everyday.

But the Lord’s disciples didn’t believe these words. That these disciples didn’t have even a little bit of faith in Lord’s above condition was very much evident in the incident mentioned in the next chapter.

Matt 17:14-23
14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,

15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.

16 "I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him."

17 And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me."

18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"

20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

21["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."]

22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men;

23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day." And they were deeply grieved.
NASU

Though Lord’s disciples had already been given authority by the Lord to cast out demons, they could not cast this demon. They lacked complete authority over all the power of the enemy. The reason being “littleness of their faith” – Jesus told them that.
Faith in what?
Littleness of faith on the Lord’s power over the enemy?
I don’t think so.
Littleness of faith on what Jesus told a week ago (Mat 17.1 and Mat 16:19, 21 and 24) about carrying the cross – suffering, rejection and death which the cross brings always.
Jesus was telling them if you have this faith nothing will be impossible to you (Mat 17.20).
Unfortunately early translators had introduced a verse, which I believe, Jesus had not spoken. See vs21 in chap 17.
21["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."]
NASB translators say that this verse is not found in the early manuscripts of this Gospel. Subtly, the enemy has removed the cross and substituted with prayer and fasting.
You see the present day Christendom. Rarely do one finds the life of cross in a Christian’s life. But there is lot of prayer and fasting going on – of course without much fruits. For the amount of prayer and fasting that has been done in Christianity this world should have been made up side down. Whatever revival that has taken place is because of the prayers and fasting of the cross bearing servants of God who went through sufferings, rejections and death. That’s what Paul did; early apostles did; Finney, Brainard, …. did;
Will you be surprised if I tell you that Jesus never commanded us to read the word every day or to pray everyday. You won’t find such a commandment in all the four gospels. But we all do that. I am for one who support praying and reading the word everyday. I do that.
But one thing He asked us to do everyday – to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Him. Most of us do not bother to obey this commandment. We don’t have faith in that like those disciples who didn’t believe the words of their Master at that time. It grieved Peter (Mat 16:22) to the point of rebuking His Master. It grieved all the disciples when Jesus mentioned about death on the cross (Mat 17.23) and it grieves the whole Christianity when you mention the need of Cross.

But complete power over the enemy is with those who deny themselves and take their cross – who go through suffering, rejections and death like their Master. It’s only a cross bearing disciple that the Devil fears the most.

I don’t know if I made it clear.

I know where you're going but for a jew in Jesus' day to not prayer fast and dailey read the Word, Law and the prophets, was basically not done. In that reguard they were a very disciplined people, so when the apostle to the gentiles came along his job was to teach gentile christians ethics. Pray without ceasing, study to show yourself approved unto God etc..., so than what is the cross? Since all people from different cultures have different different levels of personal discipline and tolerence levels and comfort levels, the cross is that obedience to the voice of God that causes one to deny or die to the self will, it may not entail suffering at all(or at least not outward suffering), it may be an act of love toward the unlovely or as is the case in most, a life lived outside our comfort zone doing the very things we normally wouldn't do, all the while we are hearing the voice of God, in prayer, in His Word, and doing what his voice beckons us to do. That's called walking in the Spirit to btw. God didn't call everyone in the first century church to suffering unto death, He did call everyone to sepration from the world,sin (which in and of it self is self denial), and obedience to His voice and teachings as heard from Jesus' own lips. Looking unto Jesus the Author AND Finisher of our faith. As to loosing and binding? I could teach alot on this but it'll go into things like faith and conscience and prayer etc....

Anyway we went from keys to the cross, just like a couple of preachers :-) ?????

I agree that the suffering, rejection and death need not be physical i.e in the body though I wouldn't exclude that but it is primarily in the flesh. I think we are all aware of the difference between the flesh and body.
1 Peter 4:1
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
NASU
Christ carried the cross all through His life and suffered in the flesh though through the physical cross He suffered in the body too.
This is what the cross do - put my flesh- my self will to death.
I clarify that what I meant is suffering and death to the flesh primarily.

I was always impressed that Jesus' discourse was to all of his disciples,(the word "ye" referring to "all of you"), because all became apostles with the exception of Judas. Also, just for thoughtful consideration, keys are normally meant to be used to gain access to something ordinarily shut or locked up. Keys create ease of access and not the opposite. Subsequently, Jesus taught on Love, Faith, Persistence, Prayer, Authority, Faithfulness (as in Stewardship), etc. All of these are keys, along with many others.
Agreed, we are to pick up our cross (daily) and follow after Christ, but trust in his finished on the cross. Then our work becomes keeping his commandments.

Jesudoss,

This is what I have came to believe about this Scripture.
Mt.16:17-25,...When Jesus is saying to Peter,that flesh and blood had not revealed that to Peter,
The Spirit had revealed this to Peter,..
* The Lord wants us to have Spiritual eyes to see,... He says in Jn.' the Words that I speak unto you,they are Spirit,.and........( then they must be Spiritually decerned....and Peter was Spiritually decerning what He said.)
And The Lord wants us to be Spiritually-minded,...and when Peter began
being earthly / fleshly minded,...thinking about how much he was loving
this life of Jesus being with them,...Jesus rebuked him .

And Peter was not the stone that was to build the church,....IT WAS THE REVEALED,(Spiritually decerned Word, that was going to build the church.

As for the keys to the kingdom of heaven,...through the revealed Word,..
and the preaching of it,..he would be able to open the door, into the kingdom of God, for many to go in.

As for suffering, ...to deny one's self,..is a dieing, and yes I do believe
if we truly live for the Lord,...we don't have look far,...it will come,...
But with this suffering,there is something that is trying to be worked in us,
for God' glory, and our good.

hope this has been helpful,
To God be all glory,...it is His.
elizabeth

This is a very good discussion. Very thought provoking. In this passage in Matthew Peter had told Jesus who he thought who He is. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the key here because Jesus reply was “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." I had always believed that Peter was the "Rock" that Jesus was going to build from, however, it really is this revelation that Peter got from the Father (“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”) this revelation that Peter received, he could not have said this unless he got this revelation from the Father. Jesus said so. Later on in the passage we see that Jesus foretold of His suffering and His death and resurrection. Peter in his earthly mind rebuked him because he did not understand spiritual things. Remember the desciples did not receive the Holy Spirit yet since Jesus had not died and risen, so their minds have not been renewed. We cannot receive dying to ourselves unless our minds have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. This goes back to the very same scripture that we are talking about. "Flesh and blood" did not reveal this to you. Jesus was excited because His Father had revealed this to one of His desciples about who He was. I will end by saying that Peter was a desciple who loved Jesus but still had an unrenewed mind. In the garden on the night when Jesus was to be betrayed, he along with his other desciples had decided to give up his life for the Lord. He had in his mind a glorious death whereby he would battle to fight for his Saviour Jesus. When in that moment he pulled his sword and cut off the ear of the servant to the high priest, Jesus halted it right away. I can almost hear Jesus's thought saying to Peter, Oh yes Peter, you will surely die for me one day,, but not like this....One more thing in dying to ones self as a key to the kingdom,

29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”