Power and Authority

This week, Michael writes that the world looks for worldly credentials. Where did you go to college? What degrees do you have? Where do you work and what do you do for a living? However, when the people found out that Jesus was from Nazareth, the people asked themselves, can anything good come out of Nazareth? God calls the weak things of the world to confound the wise. The attitudes of the beatitudes are upside down from the attitudes of the world. The world says that you should be self-fulfilled and self-actualized. However, the beatitudes begin, blessed are they who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. When we recognize that in our own power we are powerless to approach our Lord, then the Lord will fill us with His Spirit. Blessed are we who mourn and sorrow over sins, of our having separated our hearts from God’s heart. Then, when we approach His throne of grace with meekness, humility, and a broken an a contrite spirit, our Heavenly Father will reconcile our hearts with His heart through our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Jesus said, having been shown God’s mercy, blessed are the merciful, for this is the nature of Jesus Christ. Therefore, recompense to no man evil for evil, but overcome evil with good. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart have been purified by God’s refining fire. Proverbs 17:3 says, the crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, but God refines and purifies the heart. As the late Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel church once said, God will deliver us by refining us in the fire, by the fire, and through the fire.  

Then when we’re persecuted for our righteousness in Christ, we can rejoice and be exceeding glad, knowing that great is our reward in Heaven. The reward is to be a witness of God’s glory and His righteousness. Therefore, Jesus said, don’t be surprised or downcast when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for even though it’s unpleasant in this world, great is your reward in Heaven. For this light affliction which is but for a fleeting moment is not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall follow at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, “I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Whoever says to others, ‘you have to obey the commandments and then your works will save you,’ if the person who says this breaks only one of the Old Testament commandments, then their own works will eventually condemn them.” If you are to approach God, you must come on His terms, according to His grace, mercy, and forgiveness, not according to our carnal works of so-called “righteousness.” Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law in our stead ... for He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

To serve others with a heart filled with the love of God, ask them, “Is there anything I’m not doing that I can do that would bless you?” If you’re honest then listen with a loving heart willing and ready to serve them and love them as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Jesus spoke not as the Scribes and Pharisees, but as one who had power and authority. He didn’t have the right worldly credentials. He hadn’t been to the right universities. He didn’t come from the right prestigious family and the right home town. However, when he spoke, the people were astonished because he demonstrated God’s power, not as the Scribes who spoke with flattering words of eloquence, but with the power of God’s authority.

Jesus established a new authority and power when He gave the “sermon on the mount”. Six times He quoted the Law of the Pharisees ... “You have heard it said ...”. Then He contrasted their Law with a new Law. You have heard it said that you shall not commit murder, but I say, if you have held anger against your brother, then you have already committed murder in your heart. You have heard that you shall not commit adultery, but if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, then you have already committed adultery.  

It is written in the Mosaic Law that if you divorced your spouse except for adultery and gave her a certificate of divorce, then you have lied and broken the vow you made to your spouse in the presence of God and men. Marriage is an institution instituted by God. Without loving God above all, we cannot love our spouses as Christ loved the church, for love covers a multitude of sins. To reconcile so-called irreconcilable differences with our spouses, we must first reconcile our hearts with God, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Then when we meet our spouses at the foot of the cross, in subjugating our hearts to Christ’s heart behind our hearts, we can be joined together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Jesus said, you have heard an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, if a man strikes you on one cheek, then turn the other cheek. In other words, do not return evil for evil. Instead, allow God to work in and through you to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is the result of “working out our own salvation,” our own healing wholeness according to God’s word and will, with respect, awe, and reverence to God. All of mankind struggle between the demands of passion and the control of reason. The passion is attracted to the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eyes. However true reason is according to God’s righteous standard. The standard is Jesus Christ himself ... he was the Word of God and the Truth of God made manifest.  

It’s easy to judge and question our own hearts ... to condemn ourselves for having fallen short of the glory of the Lord. Jesus said, there is none righteous, (in his own power) no not one. However, according to 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins (of having separated our hearts from God’s heart) He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” He is our power and our righteousness through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 says through the law of the spirit of life in Christ, I have died to the Old Testament law of sin and death. According to Galatians 2:20, For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Even though in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, we can live by the power of the love of God in the righteousness of the Spirit of Christ in us the hope of glory that empowered by God’s spiritual power and authority we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ, Michael