Question 17: What does Matthew 18:18-20 mean?

what does matthew 18 verses 18 through 20 mean i'll say that again what does matthew 18 18 through 20 mean so let's turn to matthew chapter 18 matthew chapter 18 and we'll read verses 18 through 20. verily i say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them so the first thing we need to do in trying to understand what those verses are talking about is we need to identify the relevant cross references what we just read is in matthew 18 verses 18 through 20 you'll see something very similar in matthew 16 verse 19. so if you would turn with me to matthew 16 verse 19. and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shalt be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven well matthew 16 verse 19 sounds an awful lot like matthew 18 verse 18. so in order to understand matthew 18 what we should do is try to understand matthew 16. so we're in matthew 16 verse 19. let's just go up a single verse to matthew 16 verse 18 matthew 16 verse 18 and i say also unto thee thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it now let's pause there and remind ourselves of how the second person pronouns work in the king james bible today we use the word you y-o-u and we use the word you for things that are singular and things that are plural and we use the word you as both a subject and an object so if you think about that there's really four different situations an object that is singular an object that is plural a subject that is singular and a subject that is plural in modern english we use the word y-o-u for all four of those situations but that's not what the king james bible does the king james bible uses thou thee ye and you what that does is that enables you just by looking at the word itself to immediately tell whether the the word is singular or plural whether it's used as a subject or an object so with that background now look at matthew 16 verse 19 again and i say also unto thee thee is singular and the is when u is used as an object so here's what that tells us the promise that is made in that verse was made to a singular person it was made unto thee and it was made unto peter so we understand who that applies to now look with me then at verse 19 the very next verse and i will give unto thee well who's the v in verse 19 obviously it's the same person that was the the in verse 18. so verse 19 is obviously a promise intended for peter now just knowing that right there tells you that these verses do not apply during the dispensation of grace if you think of galatians two verse seven and two verse seven two verse eight two verse nine that entire passage it's very clear that peter and paul have different ministries they have different gospels they go to different audiences and so what we're reading about in matthew 16 and matthew 18 where there is a promise given specifically to peter it would be wrong for us to try to claim that as something that is operating for us today because that was obviously given specifically to peter now we're in matthew 16 as i mentioned earlier it's always good to look at the context look at verse 23. what some people do is they look at matthew 16 and matthew 18 and they say well look peter was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven but let's be very very careful in thinking about that look with me at verse 23 this is only four verses after verse 19. matthew 16 23 but he turned and said unto peter get thee behind me satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savorist not the things that be of god but those that be of men now consider how shocking that is in verse 19 the lord talks about the keys to the kingdom of heaven they're to be given unto peter and just four verses later peter is in such error that what the lord has to do is he has to rebuke him and say get thee behind me satan think about this did the lord just give the keys to the kingdom of heaven to someone who was unfit to drive right after the keys are mentioned in verse 19 four verses later the lord says to the very same person get thee behind me satan think about it this way is it a smart thing to give your keys to the car to a drunk driver it's a terrible thing because that person is in a position where they don't have the judgment to drive properly so you would never want to give them the keys bad consequences would follow well what happened here in matthew 16 did the lord make an incredible mistake did he give the keys to peter and then peter was so confused that the lord had to rebuke him only four verses later well we know the lord would never make a mistake so what's the explanation look with me at matthew 16 verse 19 and and this is a an example of how we need to read things very very carefully matthew 16 verse 19 and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven the lord didn't give the keys to peter in matthew 16 verse 19. he said that he will give them to him in the future he didn't give them to him at that point in other words let's just be super clear on this if you say i will give you this what you're doing is you're stating something that you will do in the future but it is not the actual delivery of those keys at that moment in time get with me mark 16. mark chapter 16. now in mark chapter 16 we are post the crucifixion and we are post the resurrection the lord jesus christ has risen from the dead at this point look with me at mark 16 verse 14. afterward he appeared unto the eleven this is the resurrected lord jesus christ he appeared unto the eleven well you know who the eleven is it's the twelve minus one the one being judas so the eleven would include peter and james and john and so on afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart so were the eleven operating in faith apparently they weren't the lord had to upbraid them because of their unbelief and their hardness of heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen so let me suggest this to you it would have been a bad decision it would have been wrong for the lord to give the keys to the kingdom of heaven to peter when peter was himself confused when peter himself was acting in unbelief when peter himself was suffering from what the lord calls hardness of heart so what's going on here get with me one more verse get john chapter 20. john chapter 20 and we're going to look at verse 23 whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained in john 20 verse 23 the lord grants authority to the apostles that's very similar to what he said in matthew 16 and in matthew 18 it's described here in john 20 as the authority to remit and retain sins now ponder that for a minute did did the lord just give a sinful man the authority to decide whose sins would be forgiven and whose sins wouldn't be wouldn't that be just a crazy thing to do well notice something with me if you would in john chapter 20 verse 23 if you look at the preceding verse it doesn't end in a period does it so for us to understand verse 23 we have to read verse 22. john 20 verse 22 and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the holy ghost he says that before he gives them the authority to remit sins now why is that significant here's why get john 14 john chapter 14 verse 26 but the comforter which is the holy ghost whom the father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever i have said unto you when the lord jesus christ gave the holy ghost to the twelve what he was doing is he was giving to them the comforter that was going to teach them all things so now if you think through the chronology hopefully you'll see how it makes sense in matthew 16 what the lord does is he says to peter i will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven he doesn't say i'm giving them to you right now and peter was in no position at that time to exercise the authority of the keys to the kingdom of heaven because he himself was confused he didn't understand the cross he didn't understand the resurrection even as late as mark 16 14 peter was upbraided for his unbelief but what the lord jesus christ did in john chapter 20 is he breathed on them and he said receive ye the holy ghost and what the holy ghost was going to do is it was going to teach them all things if the holy ghost taught them all things so that they knew what god the father wanted them to know then then peter could safely exercise the keys to the kingdom of heaven and let me show you for example how extraordinary the work of the holy ghost is so look at me at john chapter 2. so we were in john 20 when the lord breathed on the 12 and said receive ye the holy ghost i want you to notice what happens just a couple chapters later in acts chapter 2 and we'll look at these verses and i'll just put it this way what the holy ghost does in acts 2 as extraordinary acts 2 verse 1 and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place now you may think i'm being silly about this but that's the work of the holy spirit if you get a group of believers together and they're all in one accord that's a miraculous thing that doesn't happen naturally because we all have a flesh nature and you know that so for a group of believers to all be in one accord is nothing less than the working of the holy ghost verse 4 and they were all filled with the holy ghost you can see that verse 17 and it shall come to pass in the last days saith god i will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh verse 46 and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and notice this and singleness of heart their hearts were all aligned together so hopefully you can see what's going on the verses that are described in in matthew 18 18-20 the verses in matthew 16 18 and 19 the verse in john 20 23 where the lord grants broad authority to peter and the apostles that has nothing to do with paul that has nothing to do with the body of christ during the dispensation of grace that has to do with the fact that what the lord was going to do is after his resurrection he was going to give the holy ghost to the twelve and that was going to empower them to know what they needed to know so that peter could exercise the keys to the kingdom properly

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

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Keywords: grace, dispensation, dispensational, dispensationalism, rightdivide, rightlydivide, biblestudy, kingjames, kingjamesbible, apostlepaul, bible, rightdivision, midacts, paulinetruth, mid-acts, pauline, mystery, rightly divide, bible study, king james, king james bible, apostle paul, pauline truth

Id: -6uYDLWhhRI

Length: 14min 50sec (890 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021