"...the gates of hell shall not prevail against [the church]. 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." (Matthew 16:18-19)
"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." (Matthew 18:19)
It would be easy to dismiss these passages as being about the universal church and say that any couple of Christians contain this authority from Christ. What we see in Matthew 18 is that this authority rests in the local church as they make important decisions. This doesn't mean that the church has the right to make decisions that are unbiblical in nature but that is because a true church is defined by true biblical doctrine (Matthew 16:16-18).
When God’s church assembles it is through them that He speaks His will. The example Matthew 18 provides is that after the long process of calling a member of the church to repent of his sin the church finally has to pronounce that this person is not one of God’s people and they ought to then move to treating them as they would a lost person and pleading them to repent and believe the gospel.
This is one of the great truths found in the Bible. God is using the body of his people in this world to accomplish His purposes. I want to encourage you to love your church. If you aren't a member of a church stop missing out. If you are a member of a church but haven't given yourself to it like you should there is no better time than now.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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