In this message we look at the author of 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter. From Matthew 16 we discover the unique authority given to Peter and the Apostles to serve as the messengers of God's new covenant with humanity. They are given the "keys to the Kingdom", which is the message of salvation in Jesus; and they are given the authority of "binding and loosing", which is the authority to make moral judgements relating to how followers of Jesus should live. As Jesus explains in this passage and Scripture affirms elsewhere, their teaching would in fact not come from themselves but from God as He spoke through them. This is why Apostolic teaching preserved in Scripture remains the authoritative guide for Christian faith and practice today.
1 Peter 1:1a, Matthew 16:13-19
29/01/2012
Introduction - who are we listening to?
It’s an Olympic year - London is hosting.
Last Olympic Games were in China, where Lin Miaoke performed the rousing rendition of “Ode to the Motherland” as the Chinese flag was paraded into the stadium. What most people didn’t realise at the time was that they while they were watching Lin Miaoke, they were listening to the voice of Yang Peiyi, who was deemed to be not pretty enough to perform on the big occasion by Communist Party officials.
When we read the words of this letter, whose words are we reading - whose voice are we listening to?
It makes a difference!
If one of my children says to another “Don’t do that”, or “You have to…”, it doesn’t necessarily make any difference to the behaviour of the other child they are talking to.
If, on the other hand, they say “Dad said you’re not allowed to…”, or “Mom wants you to…”, then it usually does make a difference - even if it’s just to cause that child to come and verify those claims for themselves!
Keep that in mind as we begin our study in the book of 1 Peter by reading these words…
1 Peter 1:1a
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ…”
When we listen to the words of Peter, who is it that we are listening to? I think you’ll discover today that it’s worth finding out a little bit more about this man and his ministry so that we are ready to hear his message in this letter.
Matthew 16:13-19
When we read the words of this letter, we don’t read Peter’s own thoughts or ideas that he gleaned from anyone else, we are reading the very words of God. We are reading truths revealed to Peter by God Himself and transmitted faithfully to us.
Just as Peter’s words “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” were attested by Jesus as coming from God, so the Bible itself attests to the words of Peter’s letter as coming from God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. [1]
When we recognise that words come from God and not man, all of a sudden those words have tremendous authority. (Much greater authority than words spoken by a child on a parent’s behalf)!
That’s what Jesus goes on to talk about from verse 18 onward of Matthew 16.
A True Picture of Authority
Remember last week? Sometimes we get the meaning of Scripture wrong because we read our own assumptions and ideas into it instead of putting in the work to properly handle the word of truth, as Paul advised Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:15.
There’s a couple of key ideas here that are really important but sometimes people go off on the wrong tangent with them.
When Jesus talks about the gates of Hades (or Hell) here, He is using a common metaphor for death. The idea is simply that the gate serves as a marker passing from one realm to the next. He’s not talking about storming spiritual strongholds, He’s simply saying that death will not overcome – or prove to be stronger than – His Church.
Keep that idea in mind as it will soon become important!
Let’s move on though to the concept of binding and loosing. Peter’s told that what he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and what he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.
First, let’s clear up that misunderstanding – it’s not just Peter that Jesus is talking to here. The authority for binding and loosing is in fact being given to the disciples together.
Peter was the key leader among the disciples it is true. He was the one who first declared the reality of Jesus being the Messiah and the Son of God. This truth is the foundation on which the whole church is built. It was as the Apostles declared the truth of Jesus and was through that truth that Jesus built His Church. That message was then taught, passed on by others and recorded for us and it is still how Jesus is building His Church today.
What are the “keys to the kingdom of heaven”? Sometimes we have this cartoonish image of St Peter at the pearly gates, deciding who gets to go in and who does not. That’s not it!
Jesus may at this point be speaking to all the disciples, because we know that while Peter was certainly the most prominent disciple early on He was never recognised as having any authority that the others did not possess.
It may be that Jesus is speaking directly to Peter here, and will convey the same privilege to the rest of the disciples as they also come to the same point that Peter did of acknowledging the truth of who Jesus really is.
In any case the keys to the kingdom of heaven is not the power to decide who gets in and who does not – that job is given to none but God alone.
Rather, it is the power to unlock the gates of heaven for all who would enter. It is to reveal the truth about the death and resurrection of Jesus by which we are delivered from sin and death and granted eternal life upon our repentance and faith.
Jesus is taking his disciples on a bit of a road-trip out of Jewish territory into Gentile territory. The Jewish leaders and many of the people keep demanding more signs and wonders from Jesus but they are not receptive to the truth of who He really is. So Jesus withdraws with the disciples to a region further north and spends some time preparing His disciples for a really important transition. He wants them to know what His mission really is and He wants to prepare them for their role in it.
Up until now the disciples would have recognised the religious authority of the Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious leaders of Israel.
These leaders had authority in Israel to “bind” and “loose”. This is an expression that means to forbid or to allow, to prohibit or permit. They made judgements about right and wrong.
However not all the religious leaders agreed with each others interpretations of the law and of their traditions. It was a common saying around this time that “the school of Shammai binds while the school of Hillel looses”. Shammai and his followers had very strict rules which they imposed on people, which Hillel and his followers did not agree with!
So how could the common person know which was right? That was one role of the Great Sanhedrin, where the 70 senior religious leaders came together to deliberate. Any difficult cases of law were decided by the Great Sanhedrin. This is the group that sent Jesus to Pilate to be condemned to death.
It was said that what the Great Sanhedrin decided on earth was a reflection of what had been decided in heaven. Together they were God’s voice and had authority to exercise judgement according to His will.
But Jesus says to His disciples in Matthew 16:5-12 to be on their guard against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He is saying that these people do not speak for God at all!
Suddenly, in the very next conversation that Matthew records, we find Peter and the disciples being given the authority that used to belong to the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Great Sanhedrin!
They are being appointed as God’s spokespeople on earth. They are being told that the decisions that they make together will be a reflection of God’s will and that God will place His blessing on the decisions they make together. (The sentence can be read either way).
They now know for sure that they are not just followers of a particular Rabbi, they are part of something brand new that will not fit into anything they have known up until now.
Watch what happens as Jesus explains this some more…
Matthew 16:20-28
Remember Jesus saying that “the gates of Hades will not overcome” the church that He is building? He’s just told them why that is so – He is going to personally defeat death by rising from the grave on the third day.
Peter doesn’t like all this talk of suffering and death, so he says “No way, we’re not going to let that happen”!
Suddenly he goes from being an instrument of God to being an instrument of Satan. He goes from uttering truths of God rather than human ideas to not having in mind the things of God, rather the things of man.
Jesus then goes on to talk about suffering in the light of eternity. Pay attention to what Jesus says here, because you will discover these same truths expressed in 1 Peter. It is clear that Peter took on board Jesus’ rebuke and his understanding of suffering and death were completely changed by the time the day of Pentecost rolled around.
Many of us are a bit like Peter in this story. We have embraced the truth of Jesus as our Saviour and Lord – with a greater understanding of what that means than what Peter had in Matthew 16. Yet like Peter we may need to be challenged about some of the ideas we hold to which are human ideas rather than godly ones.
There’s an authority issue here. Jesus had the authority to rebuke Peter. Jesus gave Peter and the other disciples authority to speak on His behalf and to make judgements on His behalf when He returned to Heaven, and these are the things we have recorded for us in the New Testament.
Will you acknowledge the role of binding and loosing that was given to the Apostles? Will you allow the words of Scripture to have authority in your life/ Will you do what Scripture allows and commands you to do and will you refrain from doing those things it forbids?
Some people treat Scripture a bit like a counsellor or therapist. They go to it hoping to find something that will make them feel better or help them to live better. Or perhaps they go to it simply looking for something to learn.
Friends as we study the book of 1 Peter together – or any part of Scripture – we need to recognise the authority it must have in our lives. It is the outcome of what Jesus did in Matthew 16 (and 18) in giving authority to the Apostles to speak for Him.
I mentioned last week that studying this book is going to be really helpful for us in overcoming our fears and being free from their control in our lives.
That’s true and it’s wonderful, but have you ever tried to get someone to do something that’s good for them if it’s a bit difficult, scary or unpleasant?
Think of it in these terms – how do you get a child to eat healthy food when they prefer sugar-saturated or fat-filled rubbish?
Do you explain the benefits of healthy eating? Of course!
Do you warn of the dangers of unhealthy eating? Definitely!
Do you then rely on your children to make enlightened choices? No way!
When our kids state their desire to skip veggies and go straight to desert we often need to say simply – “I know you don’t want to eat up your vegies, but I want you to”. That’s enough, because Carolyn and I have the authority to say that.
(OK, our kids aren’t perfect so there’s plenty of haggling attempted, but eventually we get there!)
That’s a bit like what God does for us with His word. He describes for us the benefits of doing what He says. He describes for us the dangers of not doing what He says. But in the end we must obey simply because He says.
I hope that I never fall into the trap of trying to sell obedience to you. I hope that it will be enough to simply say “This is what God’s Word says”, and then rejoice together as we learn by experience that God’s ways are always best.
You might think “well, I am already committed to the authority of God’s word and I do my best to obey it”. I would think that most of us here today would be like that.
What I’m asking you to do though is to raise the bar.
But what about when a crisis hits?
My kids are happy to obey me when I ask them to do things they enjoy. It’s when I ask them to do things they will not enjoy that we begin to have issues.
Those of you who are parents will have probably also seen that your child’s behaviour also can change if they are around other people that they are trying to impress or fit in with. I’ve also seen my kids behaviour change dramatically when they are tired.
We’re all like that! I want to challenge you today to not lower the standards you have when it comes to the authority of God’s Word or your obedience to it.
Times of crisis when its hardest to obey are usually the times that it’s most important to obey. It’s those times that our fears tend to bight, but it’s not just our fears, it’s our sinful desires that really leap up in crisis moments and try to wrest control over our lives.
It’s in those moments that our training in obedience kicks in. If we have trained ourselves to believe that the Bible always has authority beyond our own ideas or the advice and example of others, then that will stay true for us in the crises.
We need to train ourselves to obey despite difficulty - that’s a big emphasis of what Peter writes about in his letter.
Blessings follow obedience. But that’s not what will cause us to obey in the hard times. Only a rock solid commitment to the Lordship of Christ and the authority of God’s Word will see us through the tough decisions and tough circumstances.
It’s the first step toward overcoming our fears and the control they have in our lives.
Let’s close by looking at the last stage of this handing of authority to Peter and the disciples.
Jesus says at the end of chapter 16…
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
So Jesus has given authority to the Apostles, He’s talked about His own suffering for our sake and the fact that His followers will need to be prepared to also suffer for His sake. Then finally He promises eternal reward that will follow. But what’s this, some of the disciples will see Jesus coming in His kingdom? Well the disciples are all dead and Jesus has not returned in power as He promised – is this a mistake?
No! We simply need to read on.
Matthew 17:1-9
Peter, James and John got to see Jesus in the glory of His second coming – they got a sneak preview! They were permitted to see the glory of God’s Son that no-one else during His earthly ministry was permitted to see – in fact no-one else was even allowed to hear about it until after Jesus’ resurrection.
As we read from 1 Peter keep in mind that we are hearing from a person who has witnessed the sufferings of Jesus, who has suffered himself for Jesus, and who has also seen first-hand the glorification of Jesus. He knows that Jesus has won. He knows that Jesus has overcome the grave. He knows that Jesus will return as promised and He even has an image seared into his mind of the glory that will be revealed at that time (read 2 Peter 1:12-21).
So like Peter let’s live in joyful anticipation of Christ’s return. Let’s fix in our minds Jesus glorified, the rightful ruler of our lives and the One who holds us safely in His hand.
