This divine authority is ascribed to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. He is the ruler over the kings of this world (Revelation 1:5; Psalms 2:10-12). The symbol of His authority to open and shut takes the form of a key. The Apostle John described it as “the key of David.”
This revelation speaks to Christ’s ultimate authority to permit or prohibit happenings in the universe He created. History is His-story. Jesus granted similar authority to church leaders when it came to the crucial matter of church discipline.
In Matthew 18, Jesus revealed the process of dealing with known unrepentant sin that threatens the integrity of His church. If the church does not take steps to deal with it properly, it can lead to a little leaven. This will eventually leaven the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Corruption can set in and apostasy take place.
To circumvent that from happening, the first step is for an individual Christian that is aware of a bad situation to go to the guilty party. If the person makes it right, the disciplinary process ends right there. If the person refuses, however, a party of two or t ...
