Dear Sister Kathi, I'll just post an excerpt from the study of Revelation given by by friend Gene Hawkins that I transcribed from CD's. I hope it gives a bit of help in understanding what Jesus was saying here.
Revelation 1:18. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." I am He that liveth is a reference to His resurrection because of Number four; "Was dead." That means He went down into death as the head of the first creation, and as the head of the Adamic Creation He assumed the place that Adam had in order to gain the supremacy of this entire human race, and so I was dead but He makes it very clear; "Was" is the past tense, and is not true anymore.
"I am alive for evermore" and it means that His worth is eternal and death will never have power over Him in any degree again. Death only had temporary power over Christ, but could not hold Him; He only tasted death for every man, and even that is not going to happen again. "I am alive forever more." Death cannot touch Him, and of course death cannot touch us either because we are in Him. And then we read that John says "AMEN."
I "Have the keys of hell." That means He has the authority over hell and He's the only one that does. There is no one that can walk up and say to anyone else, I'm going to send you to hell. Having the keys to hell, Jesus is the only one that can do that.
He has the key "Of death." And we're referring here especially to the second death. He alone has that power over the second death.
