¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Matthew 18:18-20

As we saw last week, those who live as a disciple of Jesus in the midst of a fallen world will encounter opposition, just as He did. Jesus faced both spiritual and human antagonists during His life and ministry and his people must therefore expect to be opposed by these same forces. Because of this, we may be tempted to fear. Jesus, however, calls for His followers to take heart because He has delegated to them the authority that He Himself possesses. By exercising this authority, they can both live faithfully as His disciples and carry out the task of disciple-making with which they have been entrusted (Matt. 28:18-20). The task of making disciples begins with the authoritative proclamation of the Gospel, it continues with the exercise of Jesus’ authority in the church. Two key passages in Matthew’s gospel convey Jesus’ delegation of His authority to the church in order that they might continue His mission on earth following His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

In Matt. 16:19 and 18:18, Jesus states that he will give to His followers the authority to both ‘bind’ and ‘loose’ and that their decisions in these matters will have both earthly and heavenly significance. In the first instance (Matt. 16:19), the Lord is speaking to Peter, affirming both his leadership role in the church that will be established as well as the authority that the church will posses in terms of their doctrine and practice. In the second instance (Matt. 18:18), the Lord delegates this same authority to the rest of the apostles in order that discipline might be exercised in the church so that the people of God might live faithfully as His disciples. In both passages, this authority must be exercised in accordance with the Word of God because the church belongs to Jesus, not to its leaders. Because Jesus’ authority has both an earthly and a heavenly dimension, the church must be willing to exercise it in order that His people might be protected from sin in their midst as well the spiritual powers of wickedness who oppose them. Jesus builds His church through the exercise of His authority both by the Word and Spirit and, in doing so, the gates of hell cannot stand against it!

Join us this Sunday as we gather as His people to worship Him in spirit and in truth!

Soli Deo Gloria.

-Thomas