Operating in Ones Authority Gives Freedom

I want to talk to you this morning about Authority.

I hope that by the end of our time together today you will see how operating in our authority gives us freedom.

When we hear the word “authority” we might find ourselves thinking of a ....

Person (Parents)

Position (Boss)

Organization (EPA)

Politics (Power)

Definition of “Authority”

The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.

This would be an example of a parent. (Be a parent not a Pal)

A person or organization having power or control in a particular (political or administrative) sphere.

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts Between 1953-1957), he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.

As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.

“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”

“Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”

“But I’m starved,” the governor said.

“Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”

Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.

“Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”

“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”

This lady had the Authority/Power in this arena (Sphere).

This is what we will be dealing with this morning.

Let’s get into the word and check out this things called Authority.

Turn to your neighbor and say, “It’s about time.”

Matthew 21:23–27 (ESV)

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Give context

Triumphal Entry

Healing of the Lame and Blind

Cursed the fig tree

Cleared out the Temple of traders

This is the 2nd day of Holy Week

(23) Jesus and His disciples enter the Temple

Jesus is doing what he has been doing for the last three years (Teaching)

Not just the torah (the word) but (the spiritual) as well.

He has been doing what he shared with the disciples back in Matthew 10:8 (ESV)

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.

As you can imagine “the religious leaders” were upset (Tick)

Do you know how mad you have to be to want to KILL someone?????

Reasons they were upset could have been that they were ....

Threatened

made to look bad

lack of understanding

jealously

They approach Jesus .....

Interrupted his teaching

Ask 2 questions

First Question

“By what authority are you doing these things?”

I have come to understand something about “Authority.”

Whoever has authority .... (majority of the time)

want to keep it

there are people who will try take it

(Plenty of other dynamics to Authority)

What we can honestly say about Jesus is ...

He is not looking to capture authority from the Chief Priest/elders of the people.

He doesn’t need to ..... he has it!

Christ didn’t come to this earth to claim back HIS authority … He came to atone for our sins so that we may “Claim back OUR authority.”

He wasn’t threatened by their religious authority

But they were threatened of HIM.

How do we know this? By the questioning ....

They demanded, “By what authority”

This question is directed toward mans authority / Not Gods / Not Spiritual

Why? the question.

The Chief Priest trained / taught / permitted teachers

They gave out the credentials for ordination.

They are asking Jesus, “Who on earth has given you permission / Authority to preach/teach.

Please notice something very significant ..... the religious leaders are only concerned in the earthly realm (Sphere).

In order to be the church of Jesus Christ we must not be people who are concerned of the earthly realm but more concerned with the Spiritual realm.

I think this is where Churches get off track!

Looking at the rest of the question .... By what authority .... “are you doing these things?”

Referencing .....

tipping over the tables and driving out the traders

healing the lame and the blind

teaching the disciples and the people in the Temple

Their second question was basically the same as the first, “who gave you this authority?”

Let’s stop for a moment and catch out breaths .....

Recap so far ....

The religious leaders are the ones who are upset.

The ones who felt their authority was threatened.

Not the lost (who have been found),

broken (who are now healed),

lame (who are now whole),

blind (who are now can see),

or sick (who are now well).

These are the ones who had been given back their authority.

Moving on ....

Jesus responds .....

His response was in a Rabbinic Fashion.

(Answers a Question with a Question)

(25) “The baptism of John”

talking about his entire ministry

“from where did it come?

“From where” (Pothen) mean of origin / source

What Jesus is asking them is “when it came to John the baptist, WHO SOURCED HIM?’

Look at this .....

This question is focusing on the Spiritual authority opposed to the questions asked by the Chief Priest and Elders of the people which was focused on the religious (mans) authority.

Jesus’ question could read something like this .... “Who, in the spiritual, sourced the teaching of John the baptist?

Jesus then gives them 2 options:

Heaven (God) Sourced by the spirit

Man (Chief Priest) Sourced by the flesh

Meaning he wasn’t a prophet

You get a sense of the table being turned.

They go off to debate their answer.

What is interesting about John the Baptist, when it came to the Chief Priest, is that there was this realization by them that not dealing with John the Baptist at the very beginning ..... they in turn have given him permission/authority to do what he has been doing. (A perceptional things)

By not denouncing ..... they approved.

They can’t say “man” because the people viewed John as a prophet.

They would turn on the Chief Priest and the elders of the people.

They can’t say “heaven” because it would then be viewed as from God.

Then they would be asked “why are you not part of this then?”

Their reply ..... “We do not know.”

It was their duty to form an opinion and to pronounce a verdict on such claims; and yet they, the leaders and teachers of Israel, for fear of compromising themselves, evade the obligation, refuse to solve or even to entertain the question, and, like a modern agnostic, content themselves with a profession of ignorance.

They had two choices (Answers) and neither one was deemed correct for the position they were in.

Jesus says, “Neither will I tell you.”

This was not that Jesus didn’t know who was His source, who has given Him authority to do what He does.

He knows!

When we look at this story we see 2 questions:

The Chief Priest and the Elders of the people asking ..... for the concern of themselves.

Their religious sphere (worldly realm)

Jesus asking .... not so much for the concern of the Spiritual but pointing them toward the Spiritual. (Heavenly realm)

We find that throughout the scriptures the religious leadership (most of the time) was concerned with the religious realm. (Worldly realm)

Jesus was always concerned with the Spiritual realm.

Their question was to trap Jesus.

Jesus questions was to free them of their ways/thoughts/and actions.

Jesus was pointing them to the one who gave Him authority.

Jesus is pointing the religious leaders toward the one who can give them authority just like was given to the sick, lame, blind, the poor and the lost.

So that they may operate in this Authority that frees them from the religion they were trap by.

And Church, Jesus is pointing you and me too that same authority which free’s believers from (Sin and Death).

There are some here this morning who are operating in the authority that was given back to us by Jesus.

Go out and do what Jesus did .... Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.

Take authority over your families, your kids, your neighborhoods.

Kick the enemy out of the playground.

Continue to reclaim the territory that was lost.

But there are some of you here this morning who know about this authority but are not operating in it.

Why not? Is it because you have to see in order to believe this is possible?

We have seen people healed - Warren Shamblin .... Jeff Reed ..... Ty McCoy .... My Wife.

You might be believing we have not seen people raised from the dead. - What about people who have been baptized, saved.

I have heard of people who have been raised from the dead.

Cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

IF we start to believe , I believe we will start seeing these things take place.

And there are some here this morning who have been hearing about this authority this morning for the first time and you want freedom .....

Freedom from the enemy .... freedom from sin ..... freedom to walk a victorious life because of the authority and power that you will receive from the Holy Spirit living in you.

I believe it is time for some of us to start operating in the authority that was taken back for our sake by Jesus.

Because operating in ones authority gives us freedom.