As One With Authority | All Authority | Rick Atchley

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to the Hills, my name is Rick. And I'm delighted you're with us if you're watching online. Or I hope you're in person, one of our five campuses in Weatherford and in West Fort Worth, in Keller, Dallas, and North Richland Hills. I'm in a wonderful mood because I love this time of year. I love fall, I love the temperatures getting a little milder. I love watching football, and I love what's happening in our church every fall. I cannot wait in four weeks for Harvest Sunday. We're gonna raise millions of dollars to take the name of Jesus around the world. And the next Sunday is baptism Sunday, and I love watching baptism Sunday. We're gonna see people on every campus surrender to Christ, give their lives to him and get baptized, and here's what's so cool. A lot of them don't know they're gonna do that yet. But it's so fun to watch what the spirit does every baptism Sunday. So we pray about that. And then I'm excited because today I'm starting the series. That the Lord put on my heart over a year ago. So I've had a lot of time to think about it and to pray about it. We're gonna talk about the authority of Jesus. So let me begin this way. You're one of my favorite stories. A DEA agent shows up unscheduled at a ranch in West Texas and says to the rancher, I'm here to see if there are any illegal drugs being grown on your property. And the rancher says, you can do whatever you want. You can go wherever you want, except that pasture on the other side of that fence. You can't go there. And the DEA agent verbally exploded. He reached to his pocket and pulled out a badge and said, do you see this badge?

The authority of the federal government behind this badge, and this badge says, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, am I clear? Do you see this badge? And the ranch said, okay. And he went on to do his chores. A few minutes later, he heard a blood curdling scream and he looks over in that pasture and that agent is being chased by a huge Seneca Trudus bull and he's losing the race. Rancher went over to the fence and yelled, show him your badge, show him your badge. See what we have here is a failure to understand the role of authority. And what I believe is the fail underneath so many major fails is an understanding of who has the final say. It is hard to achieve success when you get to second guess the person that is supposed to be in charge. Now, all of us in the Metroplex understand this principle because we have an organization that models it perfectly and it's called the Dallas Cowboys, okay? Over 30 years of ineptness, when I was young, it wasn't a question of will the Cowboys be good, but how far will they go in the playoffs? I have a 33-year-old son. He has never witnessed the Cowboys play a really significant playoff game. Two weeks ago, when they lost to Baltimore, threw a game away down in Brazil. Within minutes, my son texted me, raising me to be a Cowboys fan is the cruelest thing you ever did to me as a dad. And we all know why we've had three decades of ineptness. There's an authority problem. In a well-run football organization, the head coach has authority and the players know it but not for the Cowboys. Everybody knows there's a person that's supposed to be in charge and then there's a person who's really in charge. And you can't run an organization well when there is an authority breakdown. So in Jesus' day, when a rabbi walked up to a young man and said, "Follow me.

Come be my apprentice." That young man understood. There would be no debate about whose word was the final word. And this is how Jesus framed discipleship to him. But I want you to look at Matthew's commentary on that sermon at the end of chapter 7. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching because He taught as one who had authority. And what we're going to do for four weeks is not just explore the authority of Jesus, but we're going to declare that it's really good news that Jesus is in charge. So I want to introduce our series with a story from Matthew chapter 8. I want you to follow along with me. "When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him asking for help. Lord," He said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. And Jesus said to him, 'Shall I come and heal Him?'" The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just 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.'" When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. He said to those following Him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith than Jesus said to the centurion go, let it be done just as you believed it would and his servant was healed at that moment. Only two times in the gospels does someone's faith amaze Jesus, and both times were Gentiles." Now, if somebody amazes Jesus, you need to get to know that person. What was it about this soldier's faith that Jesus found so commendable? Well, one thing, He had compassion on someone beneath Him. In the Roman military industry in complex, having compassion on those beneath you was not considered a virtue. And this guy really does care about somebody he doesn't have to care about.

And he's convinced that Jesus could command disease, even though growing up he never saw anything like that. And he's also convinced that his faith can bring a blessing to someone else. Now, we don't know if the servant knew about Jesus or believed in Jesus, but the soldier says, "My faith will be enough to bless him," and he thought Jesus' commands could transcend distance. Even most of his disciples didn't understand that. When Lazarus died, Mary, and Martha said, "Lord, if you had been here to understand this, if you want Jesus to do something, it needs to be there." Not this guy. He says, "You don't have to go to my house. You can just say it here, and it'll happen there." He didn't approach Jesus pompously or pushing his status on Jesus. He didn't come expecting entitlement. He came seeking grace. There's so much about this man to command, but I think the thing that impressed Jesus the most was a centurion's recognition that Jesus operated with divine authority. He said, "You command disease. Like I command the soldiers in my platoon, because you are authorized by God." Now, I don't know how long he'd been in Palestine or if he had heard the Jewish story of the origin of the world, but he said, "Jesus, basically you've got Genesis chapter one authority. You just have to speak it, and it will happen." And it was this recognition that made his faith stand out to Jesus, and I think that kind of faith still stands out, and it points to what is underneath much of the bankruptcy in discipleship today. Discipleship fails because so many admit Jesus' identity, but they don't submit to his authority. They say the right words. They say Jesus is Lord. It's not that they deny Jesus, it's that they dethrone Jesus. His identity is declared, but his authority is ignored.

Today, you can call yourself a Christian. You got your ticket, you get to go to heaven and you can live your life exactly like you want to live in. You don't have to listen to Jesus. Today Jesus is Lord, means almost nothing in the first century, saying that could cost you your life. If a Roman soldier or a fisherman came up to you and said, "Do you believe that Caesar is Lord?" That full allegiance goes to Caesar and if you said, "No, I can't say that, I say Jesus is Lord." You said something incredibly subversive. What you said was treasonous and potentially dangerous. And the interesting thing is people that don't follow Jesus get this about him better than some of us that follow Jesus do. Drew Dick has this book about why some young people raised in church walked away from Christianity. And he was interviewing this young man named Mornin Hawke Apollo. He had changed his name when he had converted to the Wiccan religion. And he said, "Ultimately why I left is that the Christian God demands that you submit to his will." In Wicca, it's just the other way around. Your will is paramount. We believe in gods and goddesses but the deities we choose to serve are based on our wills. And there's a bankrupt version of discipleship out there that says, "You get to say the right things about Jesus but he doesn't get to tell you what to do." The soldiers' faith amazed Jesus because that soldier knew his place. I'm not even worthy to have you under my roof and he knew Jesus' place. You are in charge. And the gospel authors included this story and many others to make the case for Jesus' place, that he is one with authority. And I want to unpack that with you a little bit about how Jesus is presented in the gospels.

For one thing, his authority is incomparable. There's no record of the Old Testament of anybody getting healed of a disease from a distance. Jesus has absolutely no doubt he could do such a thing. In fact, in the gospels, everything Jesus says and everything Jesus does is in complete alignment with his conviction that he is in charge of all things, both visible and invisible. This is why Jesus never quoted a higher authority when he preached. That's not what most rabbis did, they would say, "Now rabbi so-and-so says this and rabbi so-and-so says that." Jesus never quoted another authority. He was the final authority and when Jesus did a miracle, he never said in the name of because there was no name that was higher than his name. And so when he preached and when he taught, he did it in alignment with his conviction that he was over all things. He did not present himself as a first among equals. He said, "I'm first." And there are no equals. When I was a young preacher, one of my favorite mentors was an African-American pastor in California named E.V. Hill. Back in the 1990s, there was a movement called Promise Keepers and tens of thousands of men would gather in giant football stadiums and have a rally for Jesus. And he was going to go to Mile High Stadium in Denver and speak and a reporter interviewed him before. What are 70,000 men going to do for two days at Mile High Stadium? He said, "We're going to talk about Jesus." And the reporter said, "Is that all?" And later telling that story, E.V. Hill chuckled and said, "He just doesn't know how much that is." And I think that's something we all need to be aware of, is that a lot of people want to use his name, but they don't realize how much he is. Jesus is not an accessory, and he's not a mascot, and he's not a life coach, and he's

not a therapist. Wherever Jesus goes, he is in charge. Listen to Paul. Now he, Jesus, is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else. Not only in this world, but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority. Did you notice that? His incomparable authority is for our good, for example, back to the first century. If you didn't say Caesar is Lord, it could get really bad for you, and it did get bad for many Christians, thrown in prison, tortured, martyred, churches getting beat up, and John, the apostle gets a revelation. He saw Jesus, white hair, face shining like the sun, eyes like fire, feet like burners bronze. He's got a sword coming out of his mouth, and he says, "I'm the first and the last, and I hold the keys of death and Hades." And John wrote a book and sent it to all these beat up churches. This is how much Jesus is. The church is always needing a fresh revelation of how much Jesus is, and then, when the authorities pressure us and say, "You will think like this, and you will act like this to get along with us," we do not capitulate, but we say, "Nah, not going to do it." You see, we live with confidence, and peace, and boldness, and courage, and hope. This is our reality when Jesus is our authority. Now, the authors of the Gospels, though, that's a big claim, that Jesus is over everything, and so they back it up with evidence. They insist his authority is not just incomparable, but it's observable. And so we're going to write and tell you what we saw him do to back up the claim that he's over everything, and we'll give you an example. Three years ago, I had the privilege of being in Israel, and I got to take a boat right across the Sea of Galilee. Now, it's not really a sea, but it is a big lake.

And if you're in the middle of that lake, in a little tiny boat like they fished in, and a huge storm came up and waves started coming over the boat, you'd be scared, because if you get tossed in that water, you're not going to make it. And that's what happened in Mark 4. They're in the middle of that lake at night, and the storm is coming, and the wind is blowing, and the waves are crashing. And these experienced fishermen are scared. And you know what Jesus is doing? He's taking an app. They awake him up, master. Don't you care we're about to drown? Now, I'm on paraphrase, but Jesus kind of stood up and looked around and said, "Storm, knock it off. Don't try to sleep!" And everything just got still and quiet. And then he turned to a disciples and said, "Bar, were you afraid?" And that's when they got more afraid. It says they were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him?" With their own eyes, they saw an unmanageable storm submit to the unmatchable authority of Jesus. Now, I'm afraid we've read civil rights like that so many times that we missed this point and we spiritualize the story, and we don't see the big idea the author's trying us to get. Mark Gally is a pastor of a church in Sacramento, California, and there's a lot of lay ocean refugees in his city, and so he holds this Bible study for a big bunch of these lay ocean refugees, most of whom are not believers of Jesus and have never heard these stories. So they read the story I just told you about, Jesus calming the storm, and he did what so many of us do. He spiritualized it.

So what storms in our lives do we want Jesus to calm? And there's silence, and finally someone says, "Do you mean that Jesus actually made the waves and the wind obey him?" And Mark is thinking, "Oh no, they're going to question the plausibility of miracles, and I don't want to have that debate." So Mark says, "Yeah, that's what it says happened, but what storms in our lives can Jesus calm?" And again, there's quiet. And finally someone says, "Well, if Jesus can make the waves and the wind obey him, he must be really powerful." And certainly the room erupted in chatter, and they were all getting excited and wonder-filled the room, and it dawned on Mark, "They get the story better than I do, that Jesus is over the winds and the waves. He must be really powerful." And so in the Gospels we have these stories, and Jesus walks on the sea like a subridge. And blind eyes open, and bread multiplies, and water turns into non-alcoholic wine. And all these things happen. I'm just checking if you're listening, okay? All these things happen because Jesus has authority. Creation recognizes its master. When they tell you stories about Jesus casting out demons, it's not so you'll have some debate in the community group about the origin of evil. It's so that you will know that when hell comes up against Jesus, hell does what it's told because they don't have authority like he does. [Applause] This really is for our benefit to understand this. And it keeps our hope and our courage tanks full. There's no circumstance and there's no threat that can supersede

the authority of Jesus, not even death. If he doesn't come back soon, I am going to die. And I'm not afraid. My spirit will immediately go to be with Jesus. And when he returns, he will speak one word, and the grave will open, and my glorious resurrected body will rise up to meet him in the air, because when he speaks, death does what it's told Jesus has authority. [Applause] And this authority isn't just good news for that day. It's good news for today. Because this incomparable authority, this observable authority, is available authority. It's for the benefit of the church. You see, every rabbi's go, when he called apprentices to train with him, was that they would be with him, and then they would become like him, and they would do what he did. Everyone understood this. The rabbi is going to teach me how to do what he does. So it says in Mark 3, he appointed 12 that they might be with him, and then he might send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive our demons. I'm going to teach you how to do what I do. This is what discipleship training should always include, how to properly steward and use the authority of Jesus. And that's what happened. Mark 6, three chapters later, called in 12 to him and began to send him out two by two,

and gave them authority over impure spirits. They began to exercise the authority of Jesus and do what he did. You see, a disciples authority is their capacity to exercise the privileges that come with union with Christ. By the way, this is one reason why I preach baptism so fervently. Because I don't believe baptism was just a symbol. Romans 6, when you're baptized, you are united with the death of Jesus. Colossians 2, when you're baptized, you are raised up with Christ who seated where? By the right hand of God, and if you're seated in Christ, by the right hand of God, you're over everything. So if you haven't been baptized, you need to tap your phone, you need to sign up, you need to get some questions answered. It's a big deal to be united with Christ, because that means that nothing Jesus asked you to do is impossible. If you have access to the authority of Jesus, there is no sin that has to boss you around anymore. There is no bondage that you have to stay in, and there's no kingdom work that he's asked you to do that you can accomplish. That's why at Harvest Sunday, we're gonna raise all that money, and we are gonna plant churches in some of the most unreached cities in America, and we're gonna send missionaries to some of the most unreached countries in the world. And why do we believe this is possible? Listen to Jesus, all authority.

In heaven and the earth's been given to me, and therefore go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have to command you, and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. Jesus says, anywhere you go, I'm already there. And either where I am, I'm in charge. You can go into all the world and make sense. So, why do so many churches and so many Christians have so many testimonies of defeat and retreat? Let's let that Roman soldier answer that question. "For I myself am a man under authority." He understood that the reason he could exercise authority and the reason his troops did what they were told was that he was under the authority of the Roman Empire that was behind him. It was that authority that he was permitted to exercise. He identified the issue that bankrupts so much discipleship. You cannot access Jesus' authority when you have not accepted his authority. In Acts 19, Paul is in a town called Ephesus, full of darkness and demonic practices and Paul starts pushing the darkness back and some Jewish boys notice and they get impressed. They say, "Let's go try that." So, they go to a house of a man with demons and they say, "In the name of Jesus that Paul preaches, you come out." And that demon looks at them and says, "What? You're bossing me around?" So, I know Jesus and I know Paul and I don't know you and he's jumps on them. Now, I don't know what you call a bad weapon, but when you leave a house buddy and naked, that's a bad weapon because they tried to access an authority they had not surrendered to. Jesus doesn't place his authority in the hands of those who have put him at the wrong place. And this is where a lot of us are. Oh, we say Jesus is Lord. We've got the identity down. It's the authority question we haven't answered. Our hearts are divided. It's like in our hearts there's this committee room and a round table and we invite different parts of ourselves to come to the committee room. We invite our private self on our social self. We invite our work self and our recreational self. We invite our political self and our sexual self. We have invited our religious self and now we'll get

around the table and they fight because they can't agree on anything. And then somebody says, "Listen, invite Jesus to come to the table. We'll even get him a vote." And so we go ask Jesus and Jesus says, "I will only come if I'm the CEO and my first act of business is to fire the committee." My word goes. Nobody makes Jesus Lord. He already owns that title. And acknowledging that is for our benefit. And so let's get real personal. What does this mean for us? It means we've got to ask a hard question. What's that illegitimate master that's run in my life and why? For some of you, it's your drug of choice. And for some of you, it's alcohol. And you don't want to admit that. You have too much pride. But the truth of the matter is you don't tell alcohol what to do. It tells you what to do. It's the master. And for some of you, men and women, it's pornography. And you tell yourself, "Hey, only when I want to know pornography bosses you around." It's the master. For some of you, it's your anger. It really is in charge. Some of you, it's your bitterness. For some it might be your anxiety. A lot of us know how to say Jesus is Lord. But Jesus is not in charge of our lives. Something else is. And here's the point. You must come under before you can live over. You must come under the authority of Jesus before you can live over anything else trying to run your life. Freedom from oppression begins with full submission to Jesus. One of the most famous depictions of Christ is this statue that's in a church in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was sculpted over 200 years ago. Bernal Berthelfor Waltson worked years on the statue, and he worked so hard to get the face of Jesus just like he wanted. And he thinks he's finished it, and the face is looking up to heaven. And he leaves the studio and the windows are open and the fog comes in and the moist air, and when he comes back the next day, that face has tilted down. And his first thought is, "My masterpiece is ruined." But later he decided, "No, it is perfected, that if you want to see the face of Jesus, you have to get on your knees." The Scripture says in Romans 14, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, 'Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.'" When Jesus returns, and he will, there will be no debate about who was in charge.

Every ruler and every rebel and every defect and every grave will acknowledge that all authority belongs to Jesus, but it's for your benefit to acknowledge that now. So I'd like you to bow your head on a prayer over you at a moment, but first I want you to be honest before the Lord. Is there something running your life that should it be? Why don't you ask Jesus to come into your life and fire that imposter boss? Be honest. For some of you, this is the first time you've ever really done this, but say, "Lord, in this part of my life, you haven't been in charge, that changes today." Holy Spirit, I know you're working right now. You're convicting some hearts in a beautiful, loving, but strong way that Lord means surrender. And there's parts of our lives that need to come under the lordship of Jesus. And we ask this, God, not only because we want to walk in freedom, but because we want to be a witness to the world of what it's like to not be in bondage to imposter and cruel tyrants. And so we ask that we can bring glory to the name of Jesus because we have submitted to the name above all names. And we pray in that name, amen.