Not only is Peter my favourite apostle, but he was also an important figure during both the ministry of Jesus and the early days of the church. There are many interesting things that can be written about Peter, but this time I want to talk about that time he received the keys of the kingdom of heaven and what he did with them subsequently.

To set the context (Matthew 16:13-14), Jesus and his disciples had arrived in Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asked them who the people thought that he was. We are not given any reason behind the asking of this question. I believe that Jesus knew exactly what the people were thinking about him. This was likely one of those questions that Jesus would ask to cause people to think carefully on a matter. The disciples started sharing answers that they had heard while helping with crowd management at any of the events where Jesus ministered.

Having gotten their minds focused on the matter of the identity of Jesus, he drew them into the next level of consideration and asked (Matthew 16:15) who they thought he was. I don't know how close any of the other disciples were to answering this question, but it seems that Peter answered first. Peter's advantage of having no filter on what he would say, worked in his favour this time and he immediately declared (Matthew 16:16) that Jesus was the Christ, the New Testament term for the Messiah.

Jesus was impressed with Peter's perception (Matthew 16:17) and commended him on his spiritual understanding. Peter received two rewards for this. The first (Matthew 16:18) was that Jesus would call him by his other name of Peter (which means rock) to identify him with the rock (i.e. foundational truth) that it was the revelation that Jesus was the Christ, that the church would be built upon. The second reward (Matthew 16:19) was that Peter would receive the keys to the kingdom.

The words 'key' and 'keys' do not appear often in the scriptures, so we can examine their contexts fairly easily. Three times, the word 'key' indicates a key that is used to open a lock. The remaining three uses of 'key' and both uses of 'keys' indicate the bestowing of authority. It is in this context that Peter received the keys to the kingdom, that Jesus had granted Peter authority over a matter. The balance of Matthew 16:19 then gives us an understanding of the matter over which that authority was given. The keys of the kingdom of heaven confer upon the recipient very specific powers. Much as I love the King James Version translation of the bible, for this verse, perhaps the Amplified Bible comes the closest to conveying what just happened:

¹⁹ "I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven."

Matthew 16:19 (Amplified Bible)

Jesus told Peter that his newly granted authority would be completely backed up by heaven. Whatever Peter declared to be the right thing to do would be the right thing to do in the eyes of the powers of heaven and likewise, whatever he denounced as improper would be similarly viewed as wrong by heaven. This is quite an impressive amount of authority we see bestowed on Peter. Essentially, at his word, the full authority of heaven was promised to align behind him and fully endorse whatever he said. Wow! Let that sink in for a moment.

We see no signs of Peter using this authority for the entire rest of the gospels. Perhaps he didn't fully understand what he had been given? Maybe the authority didn't activate until after the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Either way, we need to jump in our time machine and roll forward from this point to the day of Pentecost for the first time that Peter exercised this authority.

Peter uses his new authority, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, on the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, was quite a busy day for all involved. It started with the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 disciples gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem. This ignited a spontaneous praise break that eventually spilled out onto the street. Here, the disciples were observed by other Jews visiting the city for the festival of Shavuot (also known as the Festival of Weeks) and they were captivated by the speaking in different languages that they heard. Many of the languages they heard were from diverse countries that the disciples, being locals from Galilee, would have been extremely unlikely to know. Then some of the observers started claiming that the disciples were drunk and this caused Peter to stand up and deny any drunkenness. What started as an rebuke quickly morphed into a sermon (Acts 2:14-36). Peter gave a rousing explanation of what had happened and how that this outpouring of the Spirit of God was for all men and that the Jews especially needed it as they had killed their Messiah.

Peter's message brought conviction upon the listening Jews and caused them to ask what they could do (Acts 2:37). The whole point of being a Jew over the centuries had pretty much become being the ones who were waiting for their Messiah, so the realisation that they had killed him was quite devastating to them. This is where Peter came through for them and used the keys of the kingdom of heaven for the first time. Peter answered their sincere question with a powerful explanation of how they could yet be saved (Acts 2:38). Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Peter delivered the plan of salvation that was now to be the official path to salvation in this new Holy Spirit filled dispensation of Grace. And because of his authority, upon announcing this plan, the full power and authority of heaven backed it and from that moment forward it became the way to be saved for the whole world.

The second time that Peter used the keys of the kingdom of heaven was in the city of Samaria. After the killing of Stephen, Saul redoubled his efforts against the believers (they weren't called Christians yet) in Jerusalem and this caused many to leave and scatter in many different directions (Acts 8:3-4). One of these was Philip and he traveled to the city of Samaria and started preaching (Acts 8:5). Philip did a wonderful job and was very well received (Acts 8:6-8) with lots of miracles and casting out of demons. Word of this revival made it back to Jerusalem (Acts 8:14-16) and upon hearing that no one had received the Holy Spirit yet, they dispatched Peter and John to visit them. When Peter and John arrived they laid hands upon the Samaritan believers and at that point they received the Holy Spirit. The presence of Peter, with his authority, was a necessary requirement for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon the Samaritans.

As the holder of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Peter was required to be present for each of the ethnic groups to be able to enter heaven. We saw that he was present on the day of Pentecost for the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Jews. And that he got to declare the plan of salvation in his initial sermon. Then we see that the Samaritans were unable to receive the Holy Spirit until the arrival of Peter. While most people think that the two ethnic groups are Jews and Gentiles (i.e. everyone who isn't a Jew) there is actually a third group, the Samaritans. They are racially half Jewish heritage and half Gentile. On account of this combination, they were quite uniformly despised by almost everyone. The Jews hated them because of their Gentile heritage and the Gentiles hated them for being half Jewish. Fortunately, the Lord loved them and proved this by having Peter be present to allow them to enter into the church.

The third and final place that we see Peter use the keys of the kingdom of heaven is when the Lord called upon him to visit the household of a Roman Centurion named Cornelius (Acts 10:19-20). The Lord chose Cornelius to be the first Gentile family to receive the Holy Spirit and because Peter had the keys, he brought them together. After introductions, Peter started talking to Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:34-43). During his address, the Lord began to pour out the Holy Spirit upon the listeners (Acts 10:44) signifying that Gentiles were now eligible to access the plan of salvation (Acts 2:38) that Peter had declared at the end of his sermon on that day of Pentecost where the church was born.

These three occasions discussed, when considered together, completed the purpose of Peter receiving the keys of the kingdom of heaven. By his presence, access to salvation was conferred upon all three ethnic groups: the Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. And in his very first sermon, he declared the plan whereby all could seek out their salvation with the Lord.