LIVING IN AUTHORITY

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark we read that the people who listened to Jesus speak were amazed at His teaching because it had authority. Rabbis in Jesus’ day drew their understanding and application of Scripture from the interpretation of the Rabbis who had taught them or from the commentaries of more “learned” teachers of the Law and Prophets.

When Jesus Christ taught about the Kingdom of God, the rule of God as it is meant to be in the hearts and lives of God’s people, He did not reference what He was saying to anyone or anything other than the plain Word of God. Here was the Word made flesh confirming the true meaning of the Word written. Jesus would say, “You have heard it said that… BUT I say to you…”

Authority was and is intrinsic to who Jesus Christ is. What He declares is eternally true. As the Apostle John wrote in the first chapter of his Gospel, everything that has been made was made through the eternal Word of God. That very Word was made fully human, taking His humanity from the womb of a virgin named Mary, who bore within herself the very Son of God, who became a human being while still remaining fully God.

When Jesus Christ taught the Kingdom of God, spiritual darkness was exposed and with a Word, demons had to flee, sickness was banished, the blind saw again the deaf heard again, lepers were cleansed and the dead were raised. The works of sin, darkness and death began to be undone by the authority of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, St. Paul makes it perfectly clear that The Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus Christ has given to His disciples, His followers that same authority to live a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit and to carry on, extending the Jesus ministry onward in the same power of the Holy Spirit as had Jesus.

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the One who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so that you would not trust in human wisdom, but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Again in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 “For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true.” 

And again in 2 Corinthians 12:12 “When I was with you, I certainly gave you proof that I am an apostle. For I patiently did many signs and wonders and miracles among you.” How did he do these things? It was by the Holy Spirit’s anointing power in the authority of Jesus Christ.

That authority has been given to every born-again follower of Jesus Christ. Being empowered by the Holy Spirit, indelibly soaked, and saturated in the Holy Spirit, so to speak, we are called to carry on the work of the Kingdom of God, dismantling the works of spiritual darkness. Jesus stated that the works He did, the church would to carry onward. It wasn’t just apostles through whom the Holy Spirit did signs and wonders. It was ordinary people surrendered to the Holy Spirit through whom Jesus continues to validate the Word of God proclaimed by the Power of God confirming that Word preached.

This is NOT some “second blessing” for it is part and parcel of the inheritance given to the people of God to carry out the purpose and will of God into the world. The Life given to every Christian is the very Life of God that can only be lived in the power of God by the grace of God. We are utterly dependent upon Him from start to finish. We are free to follow Him in the Power and Grace He has provided. Jesus Christ is the Vine, and if you are one of His branches, then the life flowing into you, within you, bearing fruit through you is Jesus Christ, Himself, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. If He is life within you, I would expect Him to do in and through you what we see Him doing on the pages of the Gospel, church.