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Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Some people use this day, the first of April, to play practical jokes on their friends. Has that ever happened to you? Today, let’s focus not on jokes but on truth, God’s life-changing truth!
Yesterday, I left you standing in Caesarea Philippi with Jesus and His disciples as they wrestled with a fundamental question: ‘Who was this man they were following named Jesus?‘ What explanation was viable for the miracles He was doing? Why did He often claim that Almighty God was His Father, and that God had sent Him to earth on a mission?
Simon Peter had just proclaimed “You are the Christ (Messiah) the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16) Jesus had confirmed it to be true and declared the only way Peter would know this profound truth is if God Almighty had made it clear to Peter, and that is the miracle of divine revelation!
Then Jesus had declared that His church (‘ekklesia’) of people, delivered out from the sin darkness of our world, would be built on that powerful truth which Simon Peter had stated, for Jesus is the Only One who can save people from their sin! (Matt. 1:21; John 14:6; Eph. 2:8,9) Then Jesus made this statement: ‘…the gates of Hades will not prevail.” (Matt. 16:18) For the disciples standing there, they knew exactly what Jesus was claiming about His power. “Hades” is the place the souls/spirits of people go after they die if they have NOT trusted Jesus to be their Savior while they were alive. From there these millions of people will go to face their justice at the Judgment of the Great White Throne, according to Revelation 20:11-15.
Jesus Himself will be the judge, and from there those who are found to have not been saved from their sin by Jesus will go to an eternity separated from God in a place called Hell.
We are all familiar with Gates, and we understand that gates have one of two primary purposes. Either gates keep people or animals INSIDE a secure place, or gates keep people or animals OUTSIDE from a place where they are not welcome. Every person is born with a sin nature (Ps. 51:5) and from childhood people begin doing sinful behavior which is the natural outworking of their sin nature. (Rom. 3:23) Our sin nature holds us captive and destined for Hades unless we confess our sin and then Jesus rescues us and cleanses us from our sin, for the power of resurrected Jesus cannot be defeated by the gates of Hades or the strength of our sin nature!! (1 John 1:9; Romans 8:1)
Jesus was declaring here that once a person has been delivered from their sin bondage by Jesus Christ, they are no longer destined for Hades when they die, rather they are destined to spend eternity with God in heaven!
The ‘Church’, which Jesus promised to build, is the global group of people who have been rescued by Jesus from their sin bondage, and they are each united with Jesus Christ in His resurrection victory! (Col. 2:6-15) The gates of their sin bondage and sin condemnation cannot hold them if Jesus is delivering them! For the risen Jesus is far more powerful than our sin nature, or our sin bondage, or the dark kingdom or even Satan himself. (John 8:12, 32)
Have you been set free yet my friends, by the Truth, the Person, the Power and the atonement death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ? (John 5:24; Eph. 1:13-23)
If all that wasn’t enough, Jesus said one more very powerful thing to His disciples that day in Caesarea Philippi. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt. 16:19) Now what did Jesus mean by that? I know there are many opinions, but I strongly believe these keys are the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the doctrinal truths about our complex salvation which God accomplishes in us when we repent of our sin and trust God to save us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
May I give you a small sampling of these Keys of the Kingdom?
* The key of “Redemption”. (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 1:18) The word “redeem” or “redemption” means rescued or delivered. Jesus Christ’s death paid the ‘redemption sin’ price so as God the Father accepts Jesus’ atonement death, God’s justice is served, and God can declare our sin penalty paid and declare our sin pardoned!
We are therefore redeemed from our sin bondage and our sin condemnation, and we can live our lives FREE from condemnation to Hades! Do you understand that key my friends, have you experienced it, and can you explain it to someone else?
* The key of “Reconciliation”. (2 Cor. 5:17-19; Col. 1:21,22) Our sin nature and sin behavior separate us, alienates us from relationship with Holy God, our Creator!
But Jesus’ death and resurrection, and God’s forgiveness of our sin, as He Redeems us from our sin bondage, work to RECONCILE us back into relationship with God! No longer will our sin separate us for Jesus brings us back to God the Father with our sin paid for by His death!!
Oh, there are so many more Jesus Truth Keys to the Kingdom of heaven, my friends. May I name some here and do you know what they mean, have you experienced them, and can you explain them to other people? Do you see how significant it was that Jesus promised His disciples that they would be entrusted with knowing and sharing with others these powerful Kingdom Truths? Here are three more.
* Keys to Adoption into God’s Family. (John 1:9; Romans 8:14-17; Gal. 4:1-7)
* Keys to Regeneration by the Holy Spirit, giving us a new, holy, spiritual nature. (John 3:3-7)
* Keys to Justification by God Almighty, declaring us legally pardoned by God of our sin. (Romans 5)
Now can you imagine, my friends, how stunned the disciples were as they began to understand that even though they were not theological scholars nor Pharisees nor Rabbi’s God would give them sufficient understanding of these spiritual experiences that they would be able to share this wonderful, “good news”, the Gospel with other people.
That my friends, is our privilege also which is why I produce “Walking with Jesus” every day, seeking to help you know Jesus and His truth so you can share the ‘keys to the kingdom’ with others. Let’s celebrate that Truth today with this worship song and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow, my friends…
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 16:16-19.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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