The Catholic church as well as many people mistakenly believe the rock that Jesus spoke of was Peter, and that Peter was given the keys to the kingdom.
A surface reading of Matthew 16 will give that impression. To understand the correct meaning of what Jesus meant requires more than an understanding of history, it requires a revelation from the Holy Spirit.

If we go back to Matthew 16:19 and what Christ is saying just before that also helps. “Simon Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’, and Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father which is in heaven’.

And He says, ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church”. Now here He’s talking about the declaration of Peter (You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God) is the Rock upon which Jesus is going to build the church.

‘And I will give you the keys of the kingdom’—now He’s not talking to Peter, He’s talking to all the disciples who are there. And He says, ‘I’m giving you the keys to the kingdom; meaning, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. They had the freedom, in delivering the gospel to people, to make an eternal difference. What they did on earth would be seen in heaven. People who are…. Evil spirits and habits that were bound on earth would be bound for the world to come and it was saying that those who were loosed from those things would be loosed in the world to come.

What they did on earth would last for eternity is all that Jesus is saying. Of course the Catholic church believes that Peter was given the keys to the kingdom and there is a statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican. And in the hand of Saint Peter’s statue are these keys. The statue of St. Peter’s hand came up missing. The hand was attached (it had been repaired once before so it was attached with a metal rod), and they discovered one day that someone had stolen Peter’s hand and so you could say the Vatican lost the keys to the kingdom.

God does not deliver the power of salvation to any one mortal. Of course, the rock upon which the church is built is not the apostle, but rather Jesus Christ. Peter didn’t see himself as the foundation of the church; rather, he says in Acts 4:11 that Jesus Himself is the chief cornerstone.

That’s why the church, empowered by the living Christ, is able to break down the gates of hell. Filled with God’s Spirit, Christ’s church is to conduct aggressive spiritual warfare, rescuing lost souls from the enemy.