Bible Study: Matthew 16:13-19 - The keys of the kingdom of heaven

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in >heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:13-19 NIV)

On first glance, Jesus is praising Peter for his insight to see the truth that He is the Son of God. The knowledge about this truth was not his own, but given to him by God and therefore the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit to reveal this knowledge to Peter was only possible if he truly believed in Jesus and accepted it without a doubt. Even if this argument sounds circular, we can assume that it started with honest heart of Peter who really loved Jesus. For this insight, Jesus declared that Peter is a rock on which He will build His church and that Peter will have the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

But let's stand a bit back and look at this situation. Jesus put one person in charge through whom He will work to the church? Is this correct? This contradicts the whole principle that Jesus came to empower the believers that they can pray directly to Father without a priest to talk on their behalf. The only intermediary now is Jesus who became the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. The first glance interpretation of what happened does not fit.

What if Jesus did not talk about Peter's insight, but Peter's faith as the faith every believer should have? Through the belief that Jesus is the Son of God Peter open a doorway between him as human and the unseen world which is called heaven. Due to this doorway, a new connection or relationship is established between God and human to replace the one which was broken with the sin of Adam. On this believe Jesus can build His church and He informed Peter about the doorway which was opened by explaining to him that he received the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

In my opinion the rock on which Jesus wants to build His church is not Peter, it is all the believers who shared Peter's believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And therefore all believers have the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The faith of the believers empowers them to bind and unbind things in the unseen word.

If this is true it explains why believers must pray. On a first glance, prayer does not make sense as Father already know what we need (Matt 6: 8). By understanding the concept of the keys to heaven, we can now see that through our prayers, we use the keys to make changes in the unseen world by binding and unbinding things.

These keys were not given to the angles (or Satan and his demons), but to humans. This makes the prayers of humans very powerful, but unfortunately, we don't understand this power and therefore we don't claim it. In Malachi 3:10 the prophet explains something about treasures in heaven when God said: "....and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." As Christians we should live on prayers and use the keys to the kingdom of heaven to strengthen the work of Father on earth.