“Accepting Christ’s Authority”

Scripture: John 5:19-30

What images does the word “authority” conjure up in your mind? I suppose that it depends on the position that you are in as to how it may affect us. Are you a parent? An employee in business? A student? A person driving a car who just noticed flashing red lights in the rear view mirror? A police officer? A lawyer? A Judge? A defendant?

In secular terms, it depends on whether we are in a position to exercise it, or submit to it. But as a Christian, what does the word “authority” mean for your life? How might it be different than authority in the world’s view? Today, as we continue to consider the various aspects of living a life in Jesus Christ, we will examine how Christ’s authority influences our life.

Robert Fulghum, an author who wrote All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, says that he placed alongside the mirror in his bathroom a picture of a woman who is not his wife. Every morning as he stood there shaving, he looked at the picture of that woman.
She is a small humped-over woman wearing sandals and a blue eastern robe and head- dress (sari). She is surrounded by important-looking people in tuxedos, evening gowns and the regalia of royalty. It is the picture of Mother Teresa, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Fulghum said he keeps that picture there to remind him that, more than a resident of any nation, more than any pope, more than any chief executive officer of a major corporation, that woman has authority because she is a servant.
- Homiletics Online

As a Christian, we follow the example and authority of Jesus, who is, first and foremost, a servant, and as the ultimate servant, became the Ultimate Authority.

Read John 5:19-23

In the previous passage (John 5:1-18), Jesus had healed a lame man on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were livid! And in the last few verses of that passage, Jesus refers to God as his “Father”, which sets the learned men of Israel off even further! We are told that because of this, the persecution would now begin in earnest, and the price on Jesus’ head had just gone up!
That is one of the problems with Divine authority – if the Lord uses it within his principles, people complain that he didn’t use it to suit their purpose, and if he doesn’t use it at all, the same folks will grumble that he didn’t because he couldn’t!

So, in our text for today, Jesus offers a primer on the how’s and why’s of Divine Authority.
First, he compounds the Father-Son issue even further by saying that the Son can only so what the Father does. He is affirming and clarifying the relationship that exists between him and Father God. It isn’t a relationship that he has established, or even accepted on his own – it is one that has been since before time began.

And he knows what the Father does, and desires him to do, because of an incredible love that exists between them. What can that love accomplish? It means that the dead can be raised to new life; it means that the sick and infirm can be made well; it means that the truth of God can, and will, be given to all who listen; it means that judgment is no longer based on what we do, but on what our faith believes that Jesus did! And what does this bring? It brings honor to the Son, as well as to the Father, if there is faith involved. And what if there is no faith? There can be no honor to either one.

It seems that the authority of God isn’t one of Judgment – it is simply one of an infinite love that exists within a relationship defined by the Father. And that is the problem that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day had, and it is one that continues to plague the world through the concepts advanced by both the legalists and the progressives of today – they want to define this relationship and its authority by their own terms, and desire little more than to leave God completely out of the arrangement.

The Son and the Father not only do the same work, they will never have the ability to do it differently! And today, we can also claim that the Holy Spirit is also included in that loving and intimate relationship, and is also incapable of doing or saying or counseling in any contradictory way.

The human aspect of Jesus became a servant, so that the love inherent in the Divine could be freed to do the work of the Father – more specifically, that of salvation. And what can that relationship do for those who profess faith in the Son? It means that we also must become a servant, so that the Divine can be freed to work within our lives! And if we don’t?

“He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
And that is not a good condition to find yourself in!

Read John 5:24-27

And Jesus cuts right to the chase – if we believe the word that He speaks, and accept the truth that the Father offers, condemnation will be overturned. The unspoken concept here is usually missed – that we already stand condemned by the very lives that we live. No matter how good, no matter how justly, no matter how lovingly we offer our selves to the people of earth, it isn’t anywhere near to being sufficient to reverse the sentence of death. For without the words that Jesus spoke, and without the truth of God in our lives, we are lost.

Life is created by Almighty God, and rebirth into new life is also exclusively his to grant. Jesus calls each of us to surrender our limited understanding, our worldly desires, our plans, our “goodness”, our life, and to accept the life that He holds out for each of us. Nicodemus had trouble with this one, too, (John 3:1-21) but eventually, he would discover the point that Jesus was making – that by our means and purpose, this life is all that we will ever have. But that by renouncing the honors and glory and ways that we seek here, and by accepting the life that he wants us to live, a new and eternal life can come to us, simply by faith and trust in Him.

Read John 5:28-30

Hear, and accept, and receive life, or turn away, and refuse, and remain condemned. Those are the only two options – there is no other! And the issue of judgment comes up once more.
We typically base our understanding of judgment on our own court system. Both sides of an issue are presented to either a judge or a jury, and they, using their intellect and, unfortunately, their own prejudices and agendas, decide which side wins, based on the information presented. If we really think about it, the possibility for error in this form of judgment is phenomenal! A decision is made based strictly on what was said and allowed to be heard during the trial. Then human reasoning and assessment take over – the most imperfect way to reach a life and death decision that I have ever heard of. And yet, it is most likely the fairest one that we have at our human disposal!
But in the Final Judgment, there is only one side to be presented – and that is the Truth. In Zechariah 3:1-5 (NKJV), we discover that God’s judgment presents no defense (there is, obviously, no defense for defying the will of God!) and even the prosecution (Satan) is silenced, for what could Satan say, truthfully or deceitfully, that God doesn’t already know! The judgment is based solely on what the Judge knows about the person standing before him, the one that is referred to as “the brand plucked from the fire”.

Nothing will be hidden, nothing will be excused, nothing will have anything to say – not good nor bad, for us or against us, except whether we hear and believe the words that came from the Son, and whether we have accepted the absolute truth of the Father.

Whether we live in Christ or in the world is completely up to us – it is our decision to make. Will we follow the example of Christ that exists in servanthood to the Father’s will? Will we allow the will of God to prevail in our lives? Will we allow divine mercy to free us by faith and trust in Jesus?
Or will we decide to do it all on our own? The authority of Christ hangs in the balance – will it be allowed to work within and through us, or will we surrender to the completely ineffective and false authority that we find in the world?

The Lord has left that choice up to each and every person who will ever live on earth. May we all choose wisely.