Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 35 – May 1976
The Power Of The Keys
Sermon by the Rev. A. I. de Graaf, B.D. on John 20:22-23
Scripture Readings: 1Kings 3:3-15; Proverbs 8:12-16;
Mat.16:16-19; Mat.18:15-20
Psalter Hymnal: 322; 66;1,7: 228: 5,7; 170:2,3, 251: 234:1,2,3; 234:4,5.
John 20:22,23
Jesus breathed on them and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit – If you forgive the sins of any THEY HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN THEM; if you retain the sins of any, THEY HAVE BEEN RETAINED.”
Brothers and Sisters, Boys and Girls, Young People, Congregation of our Lord Jesus!
Keys are powerful things, they MEAN power! When in olden days a King or Ruler had won a war and the City Council of the conquered capital came out of the gate to meet him, offering him the keys of the city, this meant that he was given the city itself.
It now was his to rule, either in grace (what was hoped of course) or in cruel retribution (what also happened often enough.).
When you get the keys of a car, or the keys of a house, after having bought that car or that house, that finally means that you can move in and take possession.
Keys mean power.
Even when you DO NOT POSSESS the house, like the young man or woman who turns 21 and gets the key, it means power. You may now come in whenever you like. If you wanted you COULD allow unwanted strangers in, or even quietly arrange for the removal of furniture when Dad & Mum would be out.
Power is in those keys!
It is the same thing when Dad gives his boy the keys of the car. Now he can take it and roar off, and it now is within his power to wrap it around a tree in a very nasty accident, or go and pick up the girl for a wild night out. Keys mean power.
That’s what the Roman Catholic Church saw when it gave the Pope of Rome that coat-of-arms with the 2 CROSSED KEYS IN IT: THAT POPE – they believed – HAD THE POWER AS PETER’S SUCCESSOR TO BIND ON EARTH WHAT WOULD BE BOUND IN HEAVEN AND TO LOOSEN ON EARTH WHAT WOULD BE LOOSENED IN HEAVEN.
Isn’t that what Jesus says to Peter in Matt.16?
Ah yes, but the same text occurs again in Mat.18 and there it is in the PLURAL: whatever YOU TOGETHER will bind shall be bound; whatever YOU TOGETHER will make loose shall be loosened.
And here in John 20, too, obviously a whole group is addressed and you cannot even say they’re only the 12 APOSTLES, because the two from Emmaus had come in, as we know from Luke, and Thomas and Paul weren’t even there!
Not just the Pope (and where does the Bible say that Peter’s successors were those Popes anyway? That Peter HAD such successors? Or even that Peter was to be leader among his brethren?)
Not just the Pope had this power of the keys, but clearly the whole CONGREGATION, – that’s the word used in Matthew, which literally means:
“The bunch that was called out…
called out of the world.”
I’d almost say: the bunch that was swept together by Jesus from the highways and the by-ways.
The bunch that learns to live by grace.
The Body of which He is the Head.
The whole of that body as well as that Body where it meets in a certain place to learn and do the Word of God. Now that is the Body, the bunch, the Congregation, that has this power, this awesome Power of the keys. But then – now – what IS that power? Now many people – including the men who translated the RSV – render our text:
If you forgive the sins of any, they ARE forgiven.-
So in Matthew 16 & 18:
Whatever you bind on earth SHALL BE BOUND in heaven.
That sounds awesome, does it not? Something like:
When we here turn the key in its lock, way up in heaven a door clicks shut forever.
Some elder says: OUT! …and then God must agree.
Some pope says: “INTO HELL” and then the LORD must say: Yes sir!-
Or some office bearer here (maybe even upon receipt of some cash), says: I forgive you, you may go into heaven. And then the door of heaven should open for him even if he were the most unbelieving and immoral scoundrel that ever walked the face of the earth?
That of course was Luther’s battle – the very issue over which he triggered off the Reformation, for exactly that! was done in his day. Indulgences – papers proclaiming the forgiveness of sins past, present and even future! – were promised to the bearer of these letters, and you could buy them – either for yourself or even on behalf of someone else be he dead or alive – for money.
And at the head of these letters there was the papal coat of arms, the two keys: keys of heaven but wielded here on earth.
What must these believers think?
Especially when they knew that there had been times that there was more than one Pope!
One in Rome, Italy,
and one in Avignon, France
Moreover these two competing Peters were damning each other and each other’s followers to everlasting hell.
Using keys which – they said – would do in heaven what they wanted them to do on earth.
At one short stage there were even THREE such Popes at the same time.
Well: how powerful are those keys? Can people do such a tremendous thing just simply by being pope, or elder, or big-shot-key-holder anyway? Is that what this means?
You forgive someone here and God must THEN follow suit, and forgive him too?
No, for – you see – that’s not what the Greek says.
That’s not a proper translation.
Literally what the text says, is the way the New American Standard Bible has it:
IF YOU FORGIVE THE SINS OF ANY,
THEIR SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN THEM,
IF YOU RETAIN THE SINS OF ANY,
THEY HAVE BEEN RETAINED.
And in Matthew 16 & 18 the same verb tense is used:
whatever you bind on earth SHALL HAVE BEEN bound in heaven and
whatever you loosen on earth, SHALL HAVE BEEN loosened in heaven!
Now here is what some people call a DISADVANTAGE of this NASB translation: it is too literal, it does not make always for nice polished English:
“Whatever you forgive here SHALL HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN” or
“Whatever you bind here SHALL HAVE BEEN BOUND there…!”
But don’t you see the enormous difference?
All of a sudden we see why it is that this follows immediately after Jesus’ words, RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Spirit that gives light.
The Spirit that teaches us all things.
The Spirit that gives us the mind of Christ,
that instructs us in all things.
What Jesus did was give to His Body on earth,
His congregation,
the way to know how things really are with Him.
In Luke 24 we read about this same meeting Jesus had with His followers that Easter Sunday evening,
| how He OPENED UNTO THEM THE SCRIPTURES.
Here it says that He tells them: RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
From these two: WORD and SPIRIT Jesus’ Church on earth gets insight in the way things are done with God, the way things are done in heaven.
We then see what is sin and what causes forgiveness,
what is to be bound and what is to be loosed,
and from that insight flows – as Peter Schouls has shown us in a tremendous little book of his ――
from that insight flows authority, and from that authority flows power.
Because of that insight the Church expresses more than just another human opinion in the chorus of other human opinions.
Word and Spirit tell Jesus’ Body on earth how God on high is looking at things, and so she can speak after Him, she can proclaim with confidence what God has clearly made her know.
That will, then, not change someday because the fashion among human opinions has changed. Where Word and Spirit have spoken, there the Church
– in so far as she has insight in God’s Word on the matter
and therefore insight in the matter because of God’s Word – there the church can speak with confidence, telling what is good AND warning on what is evil.
Upon hearing someone’s true penitence she can proclaim forgiveness because Word and Spirit say that Jesus’ Blood make the foulest clean.
But also: when God’s Word has called something sin,
like homosexual acts – whether in public or in private,
or adultery – whether one’s own marriage had been good or bad
or theft – whether one was neglected and poor or just bored,
then we will have to continue calling it sin.
We will need to keep calling the sinner in great love to repent and fight that sin, rather than just going along with public opinion which says that now we should change our views in the light of modern behavioural science.
Now, this power has not just been given to one man, and even well- meaning and orthodox scholars and elders and ministers in Reformed Churches can be wrong about such matters about what God should or should not forgive. Here too – we must note that – as Ephesians 3:18 says, a lot of insight, a lot of knowledge, comes not just to one saint, but to all saints together, who compare, discuss, and pray together, to seek God’s revealed will on the matter as the Spirit gives them light.
Yes, keys mean power. But power comes with authority, also among God’s children. And not everyone is an authority on everything. That – in turn comes with insight. The elders in Church have an office. So does the minister. But they are office bearers by virtue of the leading of God’s Word and Spirit. If they just act off their own bat, they not only are making themselves untrustworthy, but they also make their holy office a laughing-stock in the world. The same goes for the office even of fathers and mothers. Sure, God calls your children to honour and obey you. But your power really comes with authority and that authority rests on insight in God’s rules for life.
It rests in the Scriptural patterns that govern the family too, the Spirit’s paths for people together, even now in 1976.
What if you have trouble in getting your teenager along, say to church, or into what you think are decent patterns of life?
What if they rebel against you, and against God?
For sure, that comes not only from your lack of expertise: they ― like you ― have sinful hearts that must be overcome by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, as He woos and wins us for Jesus Christ, the only Saviour. Yet: if you get all your values from television, if you never have time to really STUDY God’s way and if you already say, “Trowel and Sword”, is too difficult and you don’t even TRY to read it and other Bible-directed literature, why then are you amazed that when your kids come home with the wonky values of the world you have no power, no clout, when you try to stop them from going those shady ways?
How can you say about certain writers, certain singers, certain film-makers they want to see, or hear:
“THAT IS SINFUL, GOD WILL HOLD THEM GUILTY.”
if you do not have the insight given by WORD AND SPIRIT?
How can you USE a key, if you have not learned to find the key-hole, and which one must be chosen?
You see, this power of the keys is not only relevant to church discipline by elders and classis meetings and synods. Synods can make mistakes when they lack the proper prayerful insight, and then like some popes they can depose office bearers or allow other office bearers to preach on while they should have known better.
How much must people pray humbly for such insight,
that their words may be with authority and power,
and the keys may be wielded according to WHAT IS,
WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED ALREADY― in heaven.
You are in God’s way when you give power to those who have insight, otherwise the power falls down one day.
That means also that even a parliament and a government, which wields power without having the proper insight, will bring a country to ruin. And what insight is there ― properly ― but that which agrees with the Word God has spoken?
The body of Jesus not only sits in church on Sunday.
She also moves out into the world to bind there what has been bound in heaven – or to loosen – to forgive – to call valid and honourable – what has been so forgiven and loosened — in heaven.
Then she shows God’s way with power and fears nobody even if such a way is on collision course with the ways of the world.
That is what our school movement has seen: how can an atheist have power over our children, how can he really have power over any children, if he lacks the Spirit-illumined insight into what makes human life tick?
How can he wield true authority in his school?
Man, you can see all around you what happens then: God’s Word surely proves true again even in the breakdown of our age-old systems; when there is no insight – well then there is no more power either: the keys do not fit, the door remains shut.
But Jesus stood in the midst of His followers and breathed on them and said: receive the Holy Spirit.
Here are the keys:
If you forgive, THEN it has been forgiven already
You are on God’s wavelength and what man shall correct you?
But if you retain – and declare a certain sinner
or a certain way of life…
sinful before God – making the person guilty before the LORD,
then they shall have been guilty.
God’s Word does not lie, and Word and Spirit will guide you in these ways.
You may go out into the world making nations my disciples, says Jesus, and – when you speak according to this Word of Mine – this prophetic Word that is very sure, you will speak with power and authority.
So we must dare to speak as Session when we see someone in this church going the way of death. We must use the power of these keys and not try to be nicer and more gentlemanly than God Himself. For the Lord at times used hard means to get His people out of death and into life.
If we have – and we CAN have! – insight into what things are like in the will of God, then speak we shall – with authority and power.
So parents in their homes! When God has spoken you speak and your speaking is to be the end of all contradiction. But do you study to be approved yourselves, then, knowing and digesting and rightly dividing the Word of truth?
Christ hands to His body on earth the keys. Go and drive he says, you have your licence haven’t you?
What a responsibility – when people can be killed on the roads! Well may I know what I am doing and study and pray for the insight I need – WE need, together!
Christ hands to His body on earth the keys.
Go and open the gates of righteousness He says that poor sinners may go through and live, hearing of forgiveness while they WERE lost in sin!
Go and open gates of righteousness — He says — that lost children of men sick and tired of the conflicting opinions of psychologists, sociologists, scientists and other -ists (including theologists) may hear of a Way — a royal Way of freedom even now.
For Jesus is risen and the Way is open.
They that go it shall live. Wisdom can be had – the Spirit has come.
Blessed are those who like Solomon pray for it. They get it.
Surely, still in our confused age, they get the keys.
Amen.