A Prepared Bride 15 - Under Authority

I have had a running theme through many of these essays dealing with the New Jerusalem. If you would like to catch up, you may do so by checking the archives for any listing with the title of “A Prepared Bride”. The subject of this posting is discipleship which is the third of the four walls in the illustration that I am using.

In closing his account of the Gospel, Matthew records these words of Jesus,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matt 28:18-20 NIV

Before we can discuss discipleship itself, we must gain an understanding of authority, for it is by the authority of Jesus that we can fulfill His command.

At one point, as Jesus is entering the city of Capernaum, He has an encounter with a Roman centurion.

When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Luke 7:1-8 NIV

“As the name implies, hekatontarches or hekatontarchos, kenturion, Latin centurio, was the commander of a hundred men, more or less, in a Roman legion. Matthew and Luke use the Greek word while Mark prefers the Latin form, as he does in the case of other words, seeing that he wrote primarily for Roman readers. The number of centurions in a legion was 60, that being at all epochs the number of centuries, although the number varied in the cohort or speira. The ordinary duties of the centurion were to drill his men, inspect their arms, food and clothing, and to command them in the camp and in the field. Centurions were sometimes employed on detached service the conditions of which in the provinces are somewhat obscure. Men like Cornelius and Julius (Acts 10:1; 27:1) may have been separated from the legion to which they properly belonged for the discharge of special duties. They and other centurions mentioned in the Gospels and the Acts (Matt 8:5; Mark 15:39,44-45; Luke 23:47) are represented by the sacred writers in a favorable light.”*

Peter is sent by the Holy Spirit at a later time to the house of another centurion, Cornelius, who sovereignty receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This event forever shatters the separation between Jew and gentile.

Back to Jesus and the centurion. As Jesus was making His way to the centurion’s house to heal his servant, the centurion sent some friends with an amazing statement which is worth repeating here.

"Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Luke 7:7-8 NIV

“For I myself am a man under authority…”

The only true way to have authority is to be under authority. Those, in the world, who are not under authority but who usurp authority are despots and dictators – Saddam Hussein, KIM Jong Il, and Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI. These men have no one to whom they are accountable. Hussein will now be held accountable but the others continue in their megalomania. So it is with every person who does not bow the knee and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are little dictators, little anarchist who want to do want we ant to do when we want to do it. We don’t want anyone telling us what we can and cannot do. After all, one reason for anger is that we did not get our way – watch any five year old!

Jesus lived under the authority of His Father. Paul describes to us in his letter to the Philippians how Jesus emptied Himself of His right to act as God and became a man so that we might follow His example. For a more in depth study of that passage in Philippians 2, read “Loving Yourself 1”.

Here are a few verses were Jesus speaks of His relationship with the Father.

"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. John 5:19-20 NIV

Jesus was in such close relationship with the Father that He could see what the Father was doing then He would simply do it.

"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."

John 8:28-30 NIV

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. John 14:10-12 NIV

Even the words He spoke were not His own, but by virtue of His relationship with the Father, He spoke what He heard the Father saying. That is functioning under authority. Jesus did not do these miracles because He was God. He was able to do these works because of His relationship with the Father. He was under authority, therefore He had authority. Unbelievably, so can we!

Continuing a quote from Jesus from the above passage, He goes on to say,

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:11-14 NIV

The Lord says here, “Believe my words that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me or if you won’t believe my words by themselves then believe them because my words were demonstrated with actions, actions that you call miracles!”

What is even more amazing is that Jesus states that those who have faith in Him will do the same things that He is doing. Not just the same things but greater things because He is going to the Father.

It is a chain of command. Jesus is submitted to the Father from whom He received all authority, power and honor. Read Matt 11:27; John 3:35, 13:3, 17:1-2 for proof of this statement. We, in turn must submit ourselves to God. Isn’t that what the whole “Lord and Savior” thing is all about? Jesus not only saves us from our sins but establishes His rule and reign in our lives. He is King. He is Lord. In fact, every human who has lived, is living or will yet live shall one day proclaim Jesus as Lord. It is just a matter of when.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:9-11 NIV

Every dictator, every beggar, every noble, every peasant, every Christian, every idolater will one day acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The only difference is that if we take Him as Lord now, He is also our savior. If we wait until that final day, after death and before the throne, we will recognize Him as the one and only true Lord but because we refused to serve Him here, we will receive only judgment.

To be a maker of disciples, we must first be a disciple. If we want to have authority, we must first be under authority. Jesus stated,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”

The word translated “authority” is exousia which denotes "freedom of action, right to act"; used of God, it is absolute, unrestricted.* Jesus received the authority, the right to act from the Father and in doing so, He gave a command. This command carried with it the right and the ability to be carried out.

Therefore, when Jesus commanded, “Go and make disciples”, He not only had full authority with which to issue that command but He gave full authority to those who believe to carry out that command. We have received a royal edict, a divine directive to go, first of all, which is the opposite of sit. Secondly, we have received the right, ability and power to make disciples, the import of which will be laid out in greater detail in postings to follow.

For today, I leave you with this, if we will submit ourselves to God as James directs us, (James 4:7) then as a people under authority, we have the authority to say what the Father is saying and do what the Father is doing in the same way that Jesus did and we can expect “divine intervention” that which we call miracles, as we fulfill what has come to be know as the Great Commission.

*(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)