Authority
Notes
Transcript
One of the greatest problems we have in our world today is authority.
Some People want to believe they are the Captain of their own ship, Master of there destiny or they are the final authority on faith on life and faith.
To some degree they are right they have some authority.
Some concepts of authority are - Keys, Thrones, commands, bearer of the sword, words, scripture, light , author, hand, instrument, also the beginning and phrases like rise up, Apostolic Authority
Where is the dividing line of authority?
Who has it?
Who thinks they have it but do not?
Who does not have it?
Does a 6 year old have the authority to walk into a school and say he or she wants to altar there gender and the adults in the room or lack of there of cater to the 6 year old and without parental consent.
Who has the authority?
A police officers very life is threatened he shoots a criminal in the act of a crime , the criminal ends up a hero, the officer might go to jail.
Who has the authority?
Do activists have more authority than supreme court justices. ( Or they think they do)
Do Drug pushers, Renegades and terrorists have more authority than our southern border guards.
Authority comes by the one with the most power.
Today that is a 6 year old, preteen or a teen, immoral and the unjust. Today it is social media companies and Hollywood.
Today, Actors take on Supreme court justices.
LGTBQ Community has more authority than the president. For a president to get elected today he or she will have to cater to special interest groups and other communities.
The homeless community in Portland, San Francisco, and other cities have the authority or the power to make it so difficult for businesses to operate in certain areas that I heard the other day, Whole foods is shutting its doors because the community is now not safe enough to have its store open.
W.H.O becomes the world dictator and marketing arm of pharmaceuticals
Woke companies like Nike and Disney who by sheer market share believe they have power over you. and push an agenda that is insane.
Why, because they can.
RUSSIA'S Putin is no different than Germany's Hitler. Both thinking they have the authority to invade, kill, rape and pillage and destroy neighboring countries.
China is now getting to the point where they see their authority rise to the surface, this will embolden them to terrorize and other people.
Where does it stop and do we recognize we have a problem.
Where does the buck stop.
Where is the authority in the family, or do all members equally share it.
A break down of authority means chaos
Pilate when standing next to Jesus said, (Im paraphrasing John ch 19) -Don’t you know I have authority to release you or crucify you? Jesus said to him, You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you.
Basically saying Pilate you think you have power but you don’t - You cannot even control this mob. I am allowing this to happen, because at a single word I could thousands upon thousands of my servants who would fight for me. With a word Jesus could annihilate his enemies.
It is very interesting to me that two themes of great significance come from a meeting with Pilate and that is truth and authority. Pilate had neither.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
A non-conservative says in his heart - prove it by philosophical reasoning and personal experience. - one must get to the point in this passage that it is what it is because the word says it is. Jesus never had to prove His authority because he was the authority. He proved it for your benefit not his.
Authority
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament A. Ordinary Greek Usage.
“ability to perform an action” to the extent that there are no hindrances in the way,
This is no new topic in Scripture. This question of authority goes back to the beginning
It has many implications.
In Genesis 3 the serpent questions Gods authority with Eve.
Then Adam and Eve ignored Gods authority and sin entered the world. Now we have a sin problem that can only be dealt with by a supreme authority.
We have to start with the ultimate authority. God is the ultimate authority.
Not the God of the Greeks, Not the millions of gods of the Hindus, Polytheism is self defeating, You cannot have three Gods. The authority belongs to the one with a power over all things and the creator of all things.
This is why we are trinitarian - 1 God in three persons. (obviously that is mind blowing) and it should be.
The father, Son and Holy Spirit have the authority. Today we look at Jesus
Jesus has the authority.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
This establishes His authority. - He does not have to explain himself. He is I am
There is no other authority
Lets look at some ways we can see His authority.
1. Jesus has Judicial Authority
Jesus has all authority to judge in legal matters. We have a judgement on the horizon and Jesus will be on the throne .
41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
28 And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
30 “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
If our supreme court is modeled after Jesus authority.We would have greater success. If it opened in prayer for guidance and it sifted everything through the word then we would have greater justice. When we destroy justice we do not destroy the one with the final judgement.
The world feels it can move God to the side and still have the final say. It will never happen. The world does not need smarter lawyers, it needs to come back to the truth. The Supreme court justices actually sit under a divine court justice that is always right in his decision.
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
This is a vivid picture of that great and solemn truth that we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and that before Him there is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed. Then shall every human life appear in its true light, stripped of all the deceptive adornments which have given a fictitious respectability to ingenious fraud, and a fatal popularity to wickedness and vice. Then shall men be judged, not by rank, or success, or worldly achievement, but according to their works in Christ.
though one might get a favorable judgement from a supreme court justice, Jesus will give a true judgement - one that will never be overturned, never based on societal feelings or social pressures.
So if Jesus is the judicial authority we have only two possible responses
1. Peace
2. Fear
2. Jesus has Divine Authority
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
Jesus authority was questioned by the Pharisees
Cleansing the temple - They ask by what authority can he do this- His response is this is his fathers house and it is a house of prayer not commerce.
3. Jesus has the authority to cast out demons.
27 They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Jesus sent out 35 groups of 2 and when they came back they said.
17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
4. Jesus has the authority to raise the dead
11 Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd.
12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”
14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”
15 The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”
17 This report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.
The widow weeps for the loss of her only child. She is now all alone in a hostile world; no family to care for her. Recognizing her intense pain, Jesus approaches the corpse on the plank. He touches the coffin an act that would render him ceremonially unclean, but that pictures his compassion . He tells the corpse to rise up. If there were no authority behind his words, the action would be blackly humorous or tragically misguided. But Jesus reveals the extent of his authority by confronting death. His words are successful: the dead man sat up. This was no longer a deceased mass of decaying flesh.
This miracle is reminiscent of the Old Testament resuscitations performed by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24)
5. Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and heal.
1 Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city.
2 And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
3 And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.”
4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?
5 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’?
6 “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”
7 And he got up and went home.
8 But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
it is with this authority we are then able to accomplish the great commission.
Conclusion
Is this important? YES
Because if anyone else has this authority we end up with a clash of Titans.
What about Islam? It is the rather explicit teaching of the Quran that Muhammad performed no supernatural, verifiable miracles.
What about Buddhism. It is said buddha had psychic ability, traverse parallel universes and talk to animals. It is all about inner peace not a supreme being who can forgive sins. No divine authority.
To a Hindu it is freedom from the soul and people do not need redemption