Do Not Misplace These Keys!
For Father’s Day, my wife and the kids gifted me with a little gadget called a “Tile.” It is a little key tag that you can attach to your keys and with the app on your phone you can locate your keys if you misplace them. If you misplace your phone you can click the tag and find your phone also. It is pretty neat.. I can think about all the times I have been delayed, frustrated, and upset because I did not have my keys. As the church we need to remember the significance of the keys which are in the Lord’s hands.
“The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven”
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19
The authority to lay the terms and conditions of entrance into the kingdom of heaven are Christ’s alone. He gave His Apostles those keys to the kingdom which they subsequently preached in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost after Our Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:36-38;41). Our confidence in our faith rests on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This message is the key to our salvation for without we cannot know the one who holds the keys to the kingdom.
“The Key of David”
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth:” Revelation 3:7
Christ is the seed of the son of Jesse, the king that was promised to spiritual Israel. Christ was raised to reign on David’s throne. “Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne; he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:30-32). He has the key of authority in the Messianic kingdom. Our confidence in the kingdom to which we belong is rooted in the prophecies that came before (Daniel 2:44, Isaiah 2:2-4, Micah 5:2,).
“The Keys of Death and Hades”
“ and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:18
Because Christ's body was raised (1 Cor 15:20) and his spirit returned from the Hadean realm (Acts 2:27) he has won victory over our enemies. It is written, “But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting” (1 Cor 15:54–55). Our Lord reigns over death and the place of disembodied spirits.
In this life, we can trust Jesus with the keys to the kingdom. We can be assured of what He expects of His kingdom. We can know what we do as citizens of this kingdom, the church. We can understand that God has raised up the Messiah from the tribe of Judah born in Bethlehem. We can be assured that death is just a detail of our life and death has no power over the faithful. We look forward to and desire the coming day of the Lord (2 Pet 3:12). Yet, if the Lord tarries, we know that paradise awaits in the interim (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor 5:8). Keep the faith and never misplace these keys.
Grace and Peace,
R.D. Beavers
