God’s Authority

If we took a poll of the next 10 people we encounter today and asked them if they have positive or negative feelings when they hear the word: “authority,” the poll would not lean toward positive feelings. For many, the phrase “abuse of authority” is familiar vocabulary. Leadership gurus will often go so far as to say that the weakest posture of leadership is leading by authority. 

It’s interesting then, as our church has been reading through the Gospel of Matthew, to see how often the word is used, and how it is not used negatively but instead positively. 

After His temptation, Jesus went about establishing His authority. The crowds began to gather, and Jesus went up the mountain and delivered “The Sermon on the Mount.” At the conclusion of His sermon, we encounter the first occurrence of “authority” in Matthew’s Gospel. 

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.” - Matthew 7:28-29

In the subsequent passages, Jesus will establish His authority over sickness and diseases (Matthew 8:1-17), authority to call followers (8:18-22), authority over nature (8:23-27), authority over the spiritual world (8:28-34), authority to forgive sin (9:1-8), and even authority over death itself (Matthew 9:18-26). 

It was of utmost importance for Jesus to establish His authority. He taught with an authority no other teacher had. He healed with an authority that was not of this world. He called his followers with the authority of a King. His authority over nature, the spiritual world, to forgive sins, over death…authority in over these things belonged to One alone: God. Jesus’ authority established Him as God to the world. 

This authority would be required for Him to lay down His life in a sacrificial death for the sins of the world. We can be in a relationship with the living God because Jesus established His authority as the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Lastly, it would also be His authority that would empower His followers on His mission after His death and resurrection. We see this first in Matthew 10:1 as he prepares to send out the disciples after their commissioning, but we see the culmination of his empowering authority in his final words to His disciples.  

“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth…” (Matthew 28:18)

Allow me to encourage you today. Authority shouldn’t be a bad word to you. It’s because of Jesus’ authority that we can know God.  And it is through Jesus’ authority that we can accomplish the mission He has given us.