(Text and Audio)
Title: Apostolic Authority
I’m going to begin this morning’s message with a rather peculiar statement:
This verse isn’t directed at you. Jesus’s instructions in verse 18 are not directed at anyone in this room. We are not the audience of verse 18.
Now, logically, if I begin a sermon with such a statement, there are a lot of red flags and follow up questions that are probably racing through your mind like:
Q: Okay, then why do we need to study this?
A: Because it’s part of scripture and it’s still very important to understand.
Q: Pastor Ben, are you saying this verse has nothing to do with us here today?
A: Absolutely not. It has a lot to do with us, but Jesus’s instruction is not aimed at us.
Q: Then why should we study it?
A: Stick with me for the next 25 minutes and I will answer that question.
(Read/Pray)
The best place to begin this morning, is to look at some terms and definitions.
Definitions:
Apostolic Authority: The tradition that most New Testament documents were written by Christ’s apostles and therefore share the special authority of Christ himself.
PB’s definition: The Apostles were given special authority at the dawn of the church age. After the ascension of Christ they had the authority to speak on the behalf of the church, make policy, and do healings and wonders in the name of our Lord. This is why one of the main criteria for whether a book was accepted as scripture was weather it was written by an apostle (Paul, Peter, John, etc.) or by an eyewitness to the apostles (Luke, Mark).
Consider John 20:22-23 (After the resurrection of Jesus he tells the apostles) “…He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
This is different from Apostolic Succession: The uninterrupted transmission of spiritual authority from the Apostles through successive popes and bishops, taught by the Roman Catholic Church but denied by most Protestants. (Also, the Apostolic Church holds to this as well.)
The point here is that Jesus is telling the apostles that they will be given special authority to make judgement in the name of Jesus. This is an idea that Jesus has already stressed to them earlier in Matthew’s Gospel.
If you recall, back in Chapter 16, right after the “Great Confession” of Peter, Jesus says:
“And also I say to you that you are Peter (petras) and on this rock (petra) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 6:18-19)
If you recall, one of the things I stressed about this passage was the difference between the Catholic and Protestant understanding of this passage. The Catholics believe that Jesus was talking about Peter the individual, that he was the first to receive Apostolic Succession and would become the first Pope (meaning “father”) of the early Church, and a line of holy successors would come after Peter, and that today’s pope, Pope Francis, is the 266th successor to the words of Jesus here.
The Protestant understanding, OUR understanding, is that Jesus is making this statement not about Peter the person, per se, but rather about Peter’s confession.
J.I. Packer:
This metaphor (“Keys to the kingdom”) specifies how the apostles are foundational to the church; they have been given binding and loosing powers, or “keys” which lock and unlock doors. The apostles open the kingdom to those who receive Peter’s confession and exclude those who will not receive their testimony to Christ.
Conclusion Points:
- Jesus was giving this authority directly to the apostles and their work, not to us.
- This authority lives on today in the writings of the apostles, the New Testament.
- Therefore, we still live and operate under Apostolic Authority in the sense that we still follow the teachings and writings of the apostles, because we believe they are ordained by God.