The Keys To The Kingdom(From Our 10-27-24 Worship)

West Side Church of Christ - Elkton Ky

Watch the Video Version Here: https://youtu.be/HcyOJAdfH5Y

Transcript: The destructive power of one of these is almost unimaginable. They could take off from any point on earth and travel to any other point on earth. And that fact is displayed in the name that has been given to them intercontinental ballistic missile. It can go between continents and any one of those has enough power with it, not only to destroy a city or a region, but the fallout from it would probably be enough to send the entire world into chaos.

And you think about how much power that has and and we and Russia and several other countries have thousands of them, thousands of them. But now all of that All of that power, all of that destruction, it's controlled by something. It's controlled by a set of keys. Now, America's keys look kind of pretty normal, but Russia's keys, they, they look a little more unique.

This is a model of one. I blowed it up four times as big so you could actually see it. Um, It was kind of, it's kind of weird, you know? Um, but it doesn't take just one key to launch a missile. You gotta have to, you gotta have to launch officers separated on each end of a room to insert those keys and turn them at the same time to launch one of those missiles.

Now,

There's all kind of examples where missiles almost got launched. It happened to America, it happened to Russia, but one specifically that kind of struck home with me was September the 26th of 1983. I was roughly two and a half months old, probably home sucking my thumb that day, didn't know, didn't have a clue what was going on.

But there was a man named Stanislav Pavlov, I believe, if my Russian's correct. Who was on duty that day at the Oklahoma early warning station. His job basically as a Russian military commander was to watch the screen and watch for missile launches. And on that day in September 26, 1983, his screen lit up like a Christmas tree.

He detected a launch and another launch and another launch and another launch and one more finally. Five in total. Now, Russian military protocol today said that if he detected anything, he was supposed to immediately push the button, send the alarm, and start the process to turn every one of these keys to launch a counterstrike.

But Mr. Pavlov sat there, looking at that screen, the world hanging in the balance, and he made a judgment call. He asked himself a question. Why would the United States only launched five missiles? They've got hundreds. I've got thousands. Why launch five? And he decided against military protocol. This could have got in court martial to worse, but he decided not to ring the alarm.

And as it turns out, he was right. The new warning system they had put in Actually, what happened was it detected the sun coming up on the other side of the world and sent five false alarms that almost destroyed the whole entire world. You think about the power bound up in those keys. I mean, what an awesome responsibility.

What an awesome weight to carry. But you know, as much as much power as those keys have behind them, those are not the most powerful keys. in the world. In your Bible, we read about a set of keys that are even more powerful than this. And this morning we want to study those keys because they're keys that whether we realize or not, we all have access to and their keys that, uh, can help us not only live a godly life for us and for our families, but for all those around us.

So we're gonna start out this morning. We'll ask a question. What are the keys? What are we talking about? When we go to Matthew 16 here, Jesus and his disciples have been traveling. And as we start out here in verse 13, Jesus gonna ask them a question. Now, when Jesus came in the district of sensory of Philippi, he asked his disciples.

Who? Who do people say that the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, you are the son of the living God. What a great confession that was.

And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Amen. And I tell you, you are a Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. You see, Jesus here revealing to them his great and wonderful plans to, to have a church, a kingdom here on this earth. Told Peter Peter of all people loudmouth Peter told him I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom of God You think about that?

What those keys look like They look like big goofy Keys like this or maybe they're shiny metal bits That we carry around in our pockets Uh, I got so many keys, I had to get this little thing to put them on so that they don't stab me in my leg once I go down the road. You know, what do the keys to the kingdom of God look like?

Well, they're not bits of metal with chunks cut out of them. They're something else. They're something else, and I want you to see this and understand what the keys to the kingdom really are. To understand this, Jesus told Peter, I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose, okay?

We need to look at Peter using those keys in action. And the first place we see him using those keys is found in Acts chapter 2. We're going to be again in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as the fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them.

That had to be a sight, right? And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven, And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak.

Get this in there in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How do they know all these languages? They're just dumb fishermen. How do they? How do they know those things? And how is it that we cheer in our own native language? Corinthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judah, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pampylia, Egypt and parts of Libya, according belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Christians and Arabians who hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? You see here on this day, Peter is going to stand up. and he's going to preach the first gospel sermon. He's going to preach to them what the mighty works of God. And I'm here to tell you today, those are the keys of the kingdom. ...