All Authority | Mark 1:21-34

All right, folks, we're living in interesting times.

What I'm seeing and actually what I'm feeling as well, not just as a spectator, but as someone

who is viscerally involved in what I'm about to say, I am witnessing, experiencing the

total collapse of trust in our rulers and in our institutions of power.

That's amazed me in the last couple years that I look out and I hear news and I see

what people are doing and world events and leaders and conspiracies and I'm like, I don't

know, I can't decipher it all, but I know this, I don't really trust anyone anymore.

That's where I'm at.

I'm like, that's a crazy place to be at.

I'm like, John, you just don't trust anyone, I'm like, Jesus, and I'm working on trusting

anyone else.

But I'm like, man, I even look at, I say that myself, I'm like, what kind of statement

is that?

I'm like, I don't know what I'm, it's one of just a little bit jaded.

I've seen so much corruption just having, you know, veils pull back and we can just see

it in plain view of like so much corruption, so much devastation.

I don't know what to trust anymore, but I'll tell you this in these interesting times,

where public trust for any type of authority is falling by the wayside, I really, really

love the word of God, which I can trust.

Of like, as the princes of this world and as our powerful corporations and governments

around the world can conspire and corrupt their own buts doing heinous, terrible and

speakable evils in the public square, I really can trust the word of God.

It is true yesterday, today, and forever.

I can trust God, I can trust the Lord.

And so that's what I glory in, but it's still worth pausing a moment and say, these

are really interesting times.

Think of the contempt we've had over the last five years for the police force.

There's people out there that have such outright contempt for police.

They're calling for large swaths and whole agencies to just be canceled and abolished

before of like, when I was growing up, if a policeman told you to do something, you're

like, yes, sir.

And you did it, you know, you pull over and now I see it on the news.

People are like shouting them down and stomping on their windows and, uh, Molotov cocktail

and cars and CVS pharmacies and like rage and, I mean, what is happening here, contempt

for the authority of police officers is as well.

Uh, I know that, um, women have been shouting for the last half century down with the

patriarchy as well.

They don't trust men down with the patriarchy.

What I'm seeing, whether it's police force rulers, corporations or an entire gender, men,

we don't want any type of authority.

No one can be trusted and no one gets to tell me what to do.

The heart of the feminist movement, kids rebelling against parents.

You see it?

It's, it's almost really nowadays if you find a well-disciplined kid that loves their

parents and follows them, particularly if they're a teenager, you'd look at that like

a freak like, wait, whoa, hold on, what's that happening?

Hold it, wait, stop.

No, quiet.

What?

Wait, that teenager listens to their parents?

What is happening here?

Have I entered the twilight zone?

That's still happened because the norm is as rebellious teenagers and kids.

They go off, die their hair pink and join a woke university and just completely jettison

the values of their parents.

I'm like, it's just rebel against every tradition over every authority.

We're in the days of non-accountability and no one tells me what to do, right?

This has a huge impact on our faith.

We can't expect that that sentiment, which it's really ubiquitous.

It's in the air, it's in the water, so to speak.

It's all around us that it would affect our politics and our business and our parental

relationships and how men and women react to each other, but my faith is fine.

Surely that's sequestered and in no way that affects my relationship with God.

If you believe that, I got a bridge to sell you.

That's aesonine thought.

Of course, this deeply, deeply affects our faith.

Today, we're picking up in Mark 1 verses 21 through 34, so it's 13 verses because of

math.

I'm going to read them and we're going to step into this subject of authority.

I'm going to challenge you to see Jesus a little bit different.

I was thinking in preparation for this.

This isn't in my notes or anything, but I think the most important thing about you is

how you see Jesus.

If it's not the most, then it's one of the most important because your picture of Jesus

in your mind, that kind of finish line, if I want to be like Jesus, what you believe

about Him, will set the course for everything you do.

So if the picture of Him is off, well, what you're replicating is off as well, right?

And so it is extremely important because it will inform every area of our life.

What is the picture you hold in your head of Jesus?

And I believe that this text today might challenge that some.

So let's jump in.

Mark chapter 1 verse 21.

And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he, that's Jesus, entered

the synagogue and was teaching, and they were astonished at his teaching.

Therefore he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out,

what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him, and the unclean spirit

convulsing him and crying out with the loud voice came out of him.

And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this?

A new teaching with authority?

He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.

And it wants his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with

James and John.

Now, Simon's mother lay ill with a fever and immediately they told him about her.

And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began

to serve them.

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons

and the whole city was gathered at their door.

That's a lot of people.

And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons and he

would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

What I see is a Jesus in authority.

And I see is Jesus commanding demons.

He's commanding people.

He's just walking into a synagogue which had its own leadership structure.

And when Jesus walks in, he just assumes command.

He just starts of like, hey, I know y'all called a party, but I'm the teacher now.

He just walks in and starts teaching and everyone's just shocked.

It's kind of like, what is happening?

In Jesus was the first interruption and then a demon possessed man comes in for a greater

interruption.

It's like, nope, you're not interrupting me.

I have the floor, be gone in my name.

I don't know if Jesus cast out people in his own name.

I think he just says be gone, right?

Be gone in Jesus in my name.

In my name.

There you go.

That's how that works.

But Jesus shows up and is immediately in charge.

When I first read this as a young believer, I'm like, Jesus spoke as one who had authority.

And I read that.

My voice is in charge, booming, you know, like I'm like supreme power, you know, like

I pictured like a booming, but how does it, how is he an authority?

What does that mean?

So I want to cover how he was in authority.

When he stepped in an authority, he was speaking as an expert, the top teacher of the land.

In their tradition, rabbis would stand up in a synagogue and they would teach.

And as they taught, they're always doing work cited notes as they go along.

So they'll say something in rabbinic tradition, they would speak, but then they would say according

to this rabbi, you know, and that they would cite other teachers throughout the ages,

right?

So that they're always validating their own testimony.

And according to this scroll and according to Talmud or whatever they're quoting, they're

always standing on a different authority.

But Jesus shows up and he is citing no one, he's directly just saying, I say to you.

And so it was amazing, the nature of how we spoke and then he's bringing new teachings

as well.

And it's like who says who?

People are waiting of like, and what rabbi says that that's a new teaching.

Where is that in the scripture?

What rabbi has affirmed this?

What body of scholarly academic work are you referencing?

And Jesus had none of those citations.

He would just say it.

And the stuff he was saying was so wildly compelling.

So Topsy Turvy turned everything upside down on its face, had the ring of truth, but

people didn't really know what to do with that.

And so that was that was a piece of how he had authority.

I want to cover three areas where Jesus practiced authority.

Jesus has authority over one is over all people.

I want you to see this.

And I want to ask you right now before we even press in, do you see Jesus truly, experientially,

like you can see evidence of this in your life.

You see Jesus as the top authority over all people.

This means like the experts today, we live in a day of like, well, you know, they say

that you shouldn't eat blah, blah, blah, blah, like in whatever the food pyramid upside

down apparently has been for a century.

So again, I don't even trust food people, you know, been upside down this whole time.

Come on.

And you're like, are you sure?

No.

No, not sure of anything.

He's over all the people.

The experts tell us, isn't that funny?

We don't even name the experts.

My experts say or they say that and like, oh, they say that Jesus is over all the experts,

all of the pop psychologist, the entire medical community, all of the best intellectuals.

Jesus is in authority over the experts.

He's over the rulers.

We are one nation under God is how we were founded, meaning God gets to speak into politics and

he expects his messengers as well to speak into politics because the ballot box rests

underneath the pulpit and not over it.

So yeah, we'll speak about current events.

Why?

Because the Lord spoke about current events.

It was most of the prophets, major and minor.

A massive part of the entire Bible is the Lord judging nations and kings because of terrible

political and evil decisions.

So anyone who would try to take the God Almighty and put them in a little box and say, and

you may not talk about politics.

Like man, that's because politics is your God and you would not allow the God of the

Bible to challenge that or to speak into it.

You're upside down.

You think Jesus is under politics and may not speak into it.

No, no.

Jesus is exerting all authority over rulers and prophets, patriarchs, experts, impers.

Jesus is bowing to no one and receiving worship from everyone.

Jesus is over all people.

This was interesting about Jesus.

All of the rabbis, all teachers when they were speaking would say, thus say it the Lord,

all the prophets, thus say it the Lord, thus say it the Lord, said Isaiah and Jeremiah and

any rabbi that quoted them, thus say it the Lord.

What was amazing about Jesus is instead of doing that, he would say, but I say unto you.

So it stood out in this radical contrast.

I'm like, well, don't you mean the Lord of like, no, no, I'm saying this to you.

On my own authority, this is how the universe works and I'm commanding everyone to do this

action and to understand this teaching.

He would quote Bible and say, not thus say it the Lord, but I say unto you, why?

Same thing I made the little joke about a moment ago of like Jesus cast out a demon in

Jesus name, thus say it the Lord, he's like, he is the Lord.

And he said, but I say to you, it's a fun, wink, wink way for him to say, thus say it

the Lord, thus I the Lord say to you.

Don't you see that every time he says, but I say to you, it's a standing for I am God

and flesh, the Lord commander telling you on my authority.

It's a super cool move, by the way, took us a couple thousand years to figure it out.

But once we did, I'm like, oh, Jesus is amazing.

That's spectacular.

Jesus in the gospel claims to be greater than Solomon.

That's saying something because the Bible says Solomon was the wisest dude that ever lived

and like the richest king in the world.

And so when Jesus claims by his own mouth to say something greater than Solomon is here,

that would have been outrageous for the people hearing him to say of like, he's saying,

I'm greater than Solomon.

Could you imagine someone standing up and saying that?

Like, where does this guy get off saying that?

What Jesus was claiming was astonishing.

It was shocking.

And what it reveals is Jesus is above the greatest king in their history.

He also says he's greater than Jonah, a prophet.

Then he says he's greater than the temple.

Can you imagine how that was received by those who worshipped at the temple who had

this long lineage?

And Jesus looks at this sacred, holy temple, the dwelling place of God Almighty.

And Jesus walks up to this temple and says, and I'm greater than the temple.

Come at me.

I added that.

That's John's message version.

Greater than the temple.

What are you talking about, Jesus?

He says I'm greater than Abraham in John 8.

Greater than the patriarch, the founder of the whole nation, the one who received a covenant

promised to God, Jesus claimed out loud to be greater than all of these things.

What is Jesus claiming?

I am greater than all people and all people are in authority under me.

That is quite an exalted view.

You can understand why people were astonished.

A lot of times it's hard for us in our brains to kind of go back in history to that time.

And here Jesus says he was speaking.

Now we have so many flowing hair pictures of Jesus, you know, and he's holding a lamb,

you know, and he's just super sweet and he's the hippie version.

You kind of grew up.

He doesn't ask a lot, but man, he is such a sweet example.

You have like, I should probably should be more like him.

I don't like the haircut, buddy, you know, he's great, you know,

but some of us can have this docile picture of Jesus.

And because we have that, we don't see this bold authoritative declaration of who he is.

Of like, look at what he was claiming here.

He just walks into the synagogue and takes it over.

Rebuke's demons claims to be better than this is all in just Matthew 12.

Greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, greater than the temple.

John 8, greater than Abraham, no wonder people, people were astonished.

And everyone wanted to either worship him or kill him.

Amazing.

It's because of what he claimed.

As a result, even in our day, nobody can think he's just a swell guy.

Because of what he claimed, you're forced to either believe he is greater than all

or he's just a crazy person.

He's just a crazy, you can't be kind of halfway.

You're all in for Jesus or all out.

He left it that way on purpose.

Because of what he claimed, you have to agree.

He's Lord or right him completely off is absolutely not.

You got to be all in one way or the other.

And the Lord meant to make it so.

In our day, right now in this room, you cannot see it, but there is a line in the sand

that the Lord will look down and say, you are with me or you are not.

And to be with me is to say, I am all in giving my life to Jesus.

Nothing is off limits.

All I have is his, my future, my past, my present.

All is for the king who's in charge of all people, which means me too,

which means I'm not in charge of my life.

It's not even my life.

I gave it to the Lord.

So that's Jesus' qualification to say whether you belong to him or not.

You're either all in or you're not in at all.

It's one of the two.

If you're not that, even if you're like, well, I've got a church.

I try to be a good person.

I read my Bible semi-annually.

You know, I'm thinking he's pretty impressed.

I think I'm good.

You know, I try to be a good person.

You know, I'm helping old ladies across the street and stuff.

There's an offer in play a couple years ago.

And I'm like, bam, I just dropped to five and I didn't even care.

You have like, yeah, hold on.

Alphanomega is not impressed.

Who calls you to total complete abandonment, nobedience.

That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And if you haven't made that declaration, the Bible would say you're an enemy of God.

That's how you'll be judged regardless of what beautiful, pretty thoughts you have

about your own spirituality.

You know, God's not about the spirituality of the new age movement.

It's like, no, forsaking all, follow me, take up your cross and suffer for Christ.

It's like, there it is.

Just like when he commands you to love your enemy.

It's not just the wishy, washy, good feelings.

It's like action.

Let me see by your life the evidence that you're following Jesus.

Believe in your heart and speak with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your strength,

which means action.

And then we'll know your his.

And if anything short there, you're an imposter.

You do not belong to the Lord and you will be judged as an unbeliever and as an enemy

and final judgment.

Some of you are like, man, that's harsh.

I'm like, yeah, but that's the biblical text.

My job is a mailman.

That's what I am as your pastor of Grace City who is in charge of speaking of the word.

I read it, I process it and I hand it off to you.

And none of this is new.

Nothing I've said other than contextualizing it so it's easier to understand it.

This is all ancient stuff.

Using a different vernacular, pastors have been saying this same message for millennia.

I'm just the mailman delivering it.

And understand that the God man, Jesus, who drew that line in the sand, who was so radical

that he came out of heaven to die and be tortured for you also calls you to radically follow

him.

And if your fellowship is not radical, then it is not authentic.

You're fooling yourself.

None of that was in my notes.

I just went hardcore, full-send gospel because I actually care about your soul.

That's why.

The message is not great for our attendance.

Some will hear and never come back.

I don't like how he said that.

I'm like, you really not like Jesus, not the real Jesus, not the commander Jesus of all

authority who commands you to repent and follow him for saking all of you.

Yeah, you're not following him.

What I'm doing is removing the gray middle ground that never actually existed in the first

place.

It's not good for our online subscribers.

I could do Batman.

We could really beef up our numbers, you know, if I do a little song, I'll tell you

a story.

Got some jokes.

Nice little moral message over here.

Far be it from me to ever lose my backbone and remove the offense of the gospel.

I won't do it, guys.

I won't do it.

If it's Jesus was in authority over all people for all

time, we know this in Mark 2, when he forgave sins, that's an incredible, incredible statement

of authority.

Y'all have a beef with each other.

You've wronged her deeply and the Lord gets in the middle and Jesus would say, I forgive

you.

Like, well, I haven't forgiven him.

I'll make note, but the offense was ultimately against Christ who sets the moral law.

So when he jumps in to say, I forgive you of your sins, he is being God.

That's an incredible amount of authority that he's even in all of our relationships to

dull out forgiveness for your wrongs to each other and to himself.

That's an incredible statement of authority to say, I forgive you your sins.

No one can do that, but God, and that's why the Pharisees kept trying to kill him.

He would claim to forgive sins, and they're like, blasphemy.

Only God could do it, and they're right.

Only God could do that.

These were absolutely correct on that.

What they were incorrect on is God was with them.

They were looking at a manual, God with us.

Jesus fulfilled prophecy, buckle up.

This is so hardcore.

I want to just recognize how awesome this is of Jesus in a ward, infinite amounts of

style points, which I don't have the authority to convey, but I'm going to do my best anyway.

Let's look at Luke 4 here.

When Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he went

to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, Jesus' custom was to go church on the Sabbath day.

That's what he did.

And he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He enrolled, he enrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

You guys, are you all ready for this?

This is so fun.

So, so fun.

All right.

He reads Isaiah, and it says this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has

anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,

and to set liberty, those who were oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

All right.

Here it is.

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the

eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Up to this point in human history, there had never been such a mic drop moment as that coolest

thing ever.

If I was watching that, I'm like, oh, no, I don't know if it's true, but that's wild.

That's a crazy thing to say, unless it's true.

He was seeming to suggest, not seeming at all.

He was directly stating, Isaiah was talking about him in that day.

He goes further in John chapter 8.

Can you believe it?

He goes further than that.

The father who sent me has himself born witness about me.

This is Jesus speaking.

His voice you've never heard, his form you've never seen, and you do not have his word

abiding in you for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

Pause.

Verse 38.

He's looking at the most spiritual religious leaders of his day and saying, you do not have

his word living in you.

How prickly and spicy of like, did you know here, eyes on me, don't read ahead.

Did you know that Jesus was not leading a seeker friendly church?

Did you know that Jesus ministry was always marked by masses following him, they need say

hard truth and they would leave him.

So there was this revolving door of his ministry where people would come, masses would come,

some would get saved, others would be unrepentant and go away with hardened hearts.

So if the mark of your ministry is huge crowds and no one's ever leaving, you're a false

prophet.

That's what you are.

So understand that we're not trying to purposefully offend either.

We're going to give the gospel, but I'm like, hey, you with a stupid haircut, why don't

you get out of here, you know, that have to be me that, look at this, is that, is that

bad or what?

I've called it out before.

As soon as I said stupid haircut, I'm like, oh, no, it's me.

And I don't think anyone else prepared a sermon.

What do you think, should I be able to stay guys?

The guy with the dumb haircut, what do you think?

So we're not purposefully adding an offense, but hey, we're going to, we're going to say

some things that you'll find very offensive, but it's God Almighty who has issued a command

to a rebellious people.

And didn't you know that rebellious people are not going to want to submit to goodness?

Our visceral response will be, I don't like that.

Yeah, that's because we're rebels and we need saving.

Of course, you don't like it.

If you liked it, it because it, it's because it's sort of something that rebels would

like, right?

All right.

Very good.

Back in verse 39, he says, you search the scriptures because you think that in them,

you have eternal life.

And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may

have life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within

you.

Guys, look at this lion.

Jesus is looking at the top religious authorities.

They weren't just the most spiritual religious people.

They were in a culture where the religious leaders also had ruling authority.

They could arrest you.

They commanded the guards.

They could petition to, they, they could have you executed.

They could beat you.

It was all legal.

The religious leaders were in charge legally.

You got it?

Jesus is looking at them and saying all this stuff of like, that is so wildly bold.

And in a day where we want a self-sensor and tiptoe around and we don't want to bring

any hard truth and we don't want to offend, look to Jesus who had no problem telling them

hard truth that they would hate him for.

Do you think they hated him?

It's like every few chapters you see that the religious leaders are hatching a plan

to murder him.

They finally pulled it off.

Once you see why, understand that all authority is under Jesus Christ.

So let's go back to our list that we're growing.

Jesus has authority over all people.

That's a big deal.

Second thing, Jesus has authority over the spiritual world.

He commands demons like we just saw on Mark 1.

We're about to see more and we're going to go into some demonology.

We're going to understand spiritual warfare later in Mark.

And as a little side note, as we're going through Mark, you may see me cover certain

topics and you're like, well, it said this, but he totally ignored that.

Why do you ignore that?

He should have said that.

I'm like, well, that's because I'm holding out to cover that subject when it's covered

in a bigger section later in Mark.

So I'm never dodging anything.

But if it looks like I am, I'm like, no, I'm actually saving it.

Because later in Mark, it hits that subject better.

Y'all get it?

So give me the benefit of the doubt there.

But I'll just go ahead and tell you right here, Jesus is commanding the demons.

And so demons saw what we people didn't.

They knew exactly who Jesus was.

That's the commander of the Lord's army.

That's the head general over the angelic coast.

That is the second member of the Trinity.

That's God Almighty.

And so they would scream at Jesus and plead for mercy.

Don't destroy us and don't torture us.

Powerful demons ruling the roost, Jesus walks in and they're freaked out.

This is because Jesus is the alpha and omega.

He's in authority over the spiritual world.

It's not just demons in Matt 26, 47.

Jesus has just been betrayed and is about to be led away to his execution the next day.

The betrayer, that's Jesus, had given the Pharisees a sign saying, the one I will kiss is

the man.

Seize him.

It was a peck on the cheek, just so you know, verse 49.

He came up to Jesus.

It wants and said greetings, Rabbi.

And he kissed him and Jesus said to him, friend, oh, friend, do what you came to do.

Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him and behold one of those who were

with Jesus stretched out his hand drew his sword, which meant he was EDC and which I thought

it was pretty cool and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

And Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will

perish by the sword.

Well, you live by violence, you're going to die by violence, you know, so do you think

that I cannot appeal to my father?

And he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels.

That's somewhere like 70,000 to 100,000 angels we think.

But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled?

That it must be so.

So Jesus lets himself be taken away, but he's showing of like, no, I'm, I'm commander

of the heavenly host of like, I can summon a, I don't need you to protect me, Peter.

I've got this.

Well, you're not holding the Messiah up with your little sword here of like, I'm, you

have no idea the amount of air support that I wield that I've got on comms right now.

Angelic coast fire mission ever, Roger fire for effect, copy everything.

Yes, everyone, drop ordinance, tango down, you know, like, nope, that's that Jesus allowed

himself to be taken.

How many of y'all really appreciated that?

You just really loved that.

The men are like, this is the greatest sermon I've ever heard.

You're like, whoa, hold on, write that down.

You're furiously copying fire control notes.

That's good.

I was thrown in buzzwords.

That's not actually the right way to do it, but it's the more fun.

If I was making a Hollywood movie, that'd be the script.

Jesus's commander over demons, he commands demons, he commands angels, Philippians 2 says

this, God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and heaven and on earth and under the

earth, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ

is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This includes every false God, every Buddha, every Harry Krishna, every Allah, every all,

all principalities, demons setting themselves up as gods, people all bow to the name of Jesus,

that Jesus stands above everything else.

Every religion, every false God, every principality, Jesus is king and all will bow to the name

of Jesus, all means all.

In heaven, in earth, under the earth, Jesus has authority over all people.

He has authority over the spiritual world and lastly, he has authority over the physical

world.

We see this all throughout the gospels where he is walking on the water.

It's like a man that, you know, typically you step on water, you go under.

I've like, the rules didn't seem to apply to Jesus because he exerted authority over

the physical world.

Water of like, yeah, it looks like a good sidewalk to me.

I'll do that.

And he does it.

Windstorm, stop, wind and the wind stops.

Seize a fig tree and seize a good chance to make a good metaphor about people who look

spiritual, but don't actually do good works.

Curses the fig tree and it dries up and dies at his word.

He sees someone struggling with disease or illness and he rebukes it and they're immediately

better.

He sees someone dead and commands them back to life.

Jesus has full authority over the entire physical world.

You have a need?

Hey, we, Jesus is my big brother, Savior, Lord.

I have a need.

Nothing's impossible for God.

Look, look, even the, the wind and seize obey him.

In Colossians 1, we get a wonderful picture of just how in charge Jesus is in case you

were selling him short, buckle up.

Look at this.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born.

That means like first ranking in all inheritance due to him.

Doesn't mean.

First born over all creation for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions or rulers or authorities.

Listen, all things were created through him and all things were created for him.

And he is before all things.

And in him, all things hold together.

I've always, I've paused.

I've always thought about what that means.

I've like, wait, so if Jesus just stops up holding that world, is you're like, you're

a, a, electrons just scatter, you're just, yeah, I think so.

I think so of, he is holding all things together.

And he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything, he might be preeminent,

first ranking for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him

to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the

blood of his cross.

How many of you know that Jesus is all powerful, creator God, holding all things together,

creator of everything and everything exists for him, whereas philosophers struggle for millennium

to figure out what is the meaning of life.

What is it?

Christians just kind of like, y'all are still, y'all are still wondering about that.

Yeah, you just, you know, everything was created for Jesus.

So you live for Jesus.

You got anything harder?

What else?

Have like, you, wait, you spent 80 grand on a philosophy degree?

I could have just given you a Colossians one saved you a lot of time.

All things were created by him and for him.

The whole point is to worship the Lord and enjoy him forever.

But how is this, how is this a doctoral question?

It's so easy.

So easy.

The mysteries are just handed.

I love the word of God.

I love the word of God.

I'm not adrift when I read it.

I know where my place is in the universe and it's under the authority of Christ.

I don't live for myself.

I don't die for myself.

It's all about Jesus.

It's so compelling about Jesus now and there's many things.

And Jesus then is people couldn't really figure out how to deal with Jesus.

The story's still true here because in some ways, he's, you know, you see him as a lamb,

the lamb that was slain.

So you see Jesus as humble and he's down playing with kids and he's loving and he's compassionate

and he's inviting these little ants us humans to call him friend.

By the way, the appropriate response when Jesus asks you to be friend is to do what the

disciples do.

They fall down and worship him.

And then Jesus gives you a crown and what's the proper response to cast it at the foot

of the cross.

So he's exalting us and we're putting ourselves down.

So that's the thing.

It's not like Jesus calls you, you're my friend and you're like, oh, thanks.

And you go into the throne room and you like kick up your feet, you know, being

bagged chair, seraphim worship, holy, holy, holy.

And you're like popcorn.

I'm like, hey, Jesus, you want some of this double butter?

Say, hey, hold on, hold on.

All powerful cosmic authority.

Let's show a little respect.

How about hitting the dirt, bro?

Facing the sand, worship, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who wasn't as it

is and is to come.

That's the stuff.

That's right.

Jesus sitting your buddy.

He's not your homeboy.

He's the Almighty God.

And when he exalts us and calls us friends, we say, we're not worthy.

And we hit the deck.

That's called the fear of the Lord and beware, beware.

If you've seen Jesus as perpetual lamb, so that you felt a little too cozy and you didn't

recognize that he is also perpetually the lion of the tribe of Judah.

In Revelation 5, you see an image where Jesus is presented as both.

Angel saw him.

All of the heavenly hosts saw him as the lion and the Apostle John visiting this spectacular

host in this vision saw a lamb.

They're like, they're saying, look at the lion and they saw a lion.

In him, the redeemed saw the lamb slain.

So perpetually, both for all eternity, Jesus is fully lamb, compassionate, loving, meek,

child, kind, a friend.

He is lamb, 100%.

He is also 100% a lion, which means exalted, holy, powerful, vengeful, king in authority,

right?

Beware seeing Jesus as lamb and not lion.

You're not going to get it right.

You make a caricature of Jesus.

When you see him as buddy Jesus or your boyfriend, you see him all as lamb and no lion.

You also air huge when you see him as lion and not lamb.

This is the church militant, butchering people, deist vote in the name of the Lord.

You know, like this is Theodosius of the 4th century, an emperor who would march people

into the water at short point to baptize them.

Some people who are terrible theologians like to take that glimpse of Christian history

and make it large.

Like, no, that was a flash in the pan.

The gospel spread through the beauty of the gospel and conversion.

That's how it spread.

There were moments though, like that with Theodosius, where it was the church militant and

what happened.

They saw him as lamb and not lion.

I mean, they saw him as lion and they didn't see the lamb.

Jesus seems paradoxically to be both at the same time because he's both at the same time.

And if you're wondering what we should be doing as men, gentlemen, it's to be fully

lamb and fully lion at the same time.

That's it.

How do you see Jesus?

Do you see him as just his wise counselor?

It's like, oh, that's a good idea.

Oh, Jesus had a good old maxim.

I should add that to my life is a good example.

Or do you see him as in authority, a commander?

The question here is, is do you obey him?

Do you treat him as greater authority than if a police officer told you to do something?

Policeman tells you to do something.

You snap to him like, oh, yes, sir, I'll do that.

I won't get it.

I won't get rolled up.

You know, an IRS agent, you will give me 35% of everything you make.

You're like, I don't like it, but I'll do it.

And Jesus is like, hey, no requirement on you.

But 10% was a good starting point if you know, ties and offerings, you're like, nah, nah.

I believe in given to the church.

I don't really believe in following Jesus command and Matthew 6 to give.

Now, I'm not going to do that.

I'll pay my taxes because really what you're showing in your actions are as IRS is here

and Jesus is here.

That's why you give to the one and not to the other.

It's because the kings of the earth rule your heart and not Jesus.

What's wonderful and what's spectacular is where Jesus could and the new covenant command

something instead.

He's like, no, you're dead to the law.

I want you to give cheerfully from a grateful heart.

10% was the minimum standard in the Old Testament.

And the expectation of the New Testament would be to be more generous.

And here's the basement.

It's kind of like, I don't know what to give.

I'm like, start at 10%.

We need to at least outdo the old covenant.

Now that we have have Jesus given to us, the expectation is more joyful, more peaceful,

more loving, more giving, more hospitable, more.

We have the Holy Spirit and Jesus sacrificed for.

It's like they did 10%.

We're going to do two or none.

Now, no, the love of God is in you.

If you love Jesus, you would care about His mission and want to fund it.

It's just that simple.

No, in my heart, I've got that hill song, worship song, and I'm like, bam!

Then you give squat.

Jesus is not impressed.

Man, I've got lots of verses where Jesus is calling out that exact thing.

Where they're honoring him with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And he says, well, where is your heart?

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart is.

So if you're not giving, you just don't love the Lord.

That's hard.

I'm like, oh, somebody just looked at me like, oh, that's it.

And so this could be a wonderful moment where you look at all these ways that the Lord has told us what to do.

And you'd be like, oh, I should start there.

And I don't want to shame.

I'm not going to put an obligation on you that the Lord didn't.

Instead, it's an invitation of like, ah, this is what obedience to my authority would look like.

I'm going to start giving.

I can't afford a lot, but I'm going to just do something now.

And the Lord's going to grow it later because we are under grace.

And I want to extend that grace because even though he's commander, his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.

And I'm like, wow, now I'm really going to give.

Now I'm really going to give, get excited about business projects so I can figure out another way to fund our church.

That's true.

That's true.

We're making plans.

Do you obey the Lord?

Jesus said in Luke 6,

Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you?

Don't call him Lord if you're not doing what he tells you.

What does he tell you?

He told us all kinds of stuff in Matthew 5 and Matthew 6.

Jesus said, forgive as often as you're offended, forgive.

And some of us would hold onto our anger and the way you were wrong.

And I don't discount the fact that you were wronged.

You were wronged, maybe.

And you're holding onto that unforgiveness in your heart, in speech, in action.

And Jesus commands you to forgive them.

They don't deserve it.

It doesn't matter.

You didn't deserve it when Jesus forgave you and he asks you to forgive.

Will you forgive?

She wronged me.

She's prideful.

She said something.

He said something to me, I don't appreciate.

You know, he took advantage of me.

Doesn't matter.

Yeah, they mocked, defamed, tortured and murdered Jesus and he forgave them.

Forgive them.

They know not what I do.

What they do.

Jesus calls you to forgive.

Will you obey him?

Is he in charge?

Will you submit to that and say, oh, I don't want to?

But not my will, but yours be done.

Help me forgive them.

I'm going to start now.

That's what Christian forgiveness would be.

And by the way, if we can forgive each other, all the little squabbles and dramas

and the ways that we're hurting each other right now, we're invincible in unity.

The moment we withhold that forgiveness and we bear grudges and bitterness

and we nurse our wrongs, the moment we stop forgiving, Satan is invited into our church

to drive wedges between our groups and our marriages and our kids forgiveness.

In love is the unity that Satan can't touch.

But if you remove forgiveness, we're cooked.

We're cooked.

Our church will split a hundred ways from Sunday.

Why?

Because we get, we invited Satan into our relationships every time we withheld forgiveness.

Jesus asks you to forgive in Matthew 5.

Will you obey?

Jesus tells you that if you're offering a sacrifice at the altar, you're giving holy action.

We're in worship here.

And he's like, you remember that you and your brother or your sister have something wrong?

There's something in between you.

Stop your worship time.

Stop your offering, get up and go immediately to that person and say, hey, I've got a problem

with what you said or what you did and you're supposed to go to that person.

Instead, we do the opposite.

We immediately start the gossip chain of like they said this and like, oh, yeah, that's

not right.

Well, that's what I thought and it starts when none of that is appropriate, don't gossip

and said, you go straight to them and you have the courage to say, hey, this is awkward,

but you said this.

It really affected me.

I don't, maybe it should not, but it bothered me.

And I wanted to talk about it.

That is the only correct Christian response.

If somebody gossips to you of like, hey, they did this and I don't like that, then you

could be a good brother and sister and instead of re-engaging in the gossip of like, oh,

well, what did they say when you told them that?

Like, well, I haven't gone to them.

I'm like, would you like me to go with you?

Let's go to them now.

That's how you would handle that.

Stop the gossip, right?

This is Jesus command.

Pray.

How is your prayer life?

Right now, we're in a 40-day season of prayer and fasting.

Anybody hungry out there?

Yeah.

Anybody feel some weight loss?

Love you, love you.

Thank you for praying for our church, for our community and our nation.

More on that.

So much exciting stuff happening within our church and within our leadership team of like,

us as pastors get together, we kind of look at each other like, why didn't we do this

while ago?

Man, this is amazing.

Supercharging everything is incredible.

Jesus commands you to don't worry, yet we fret.

He commands us not to fear and we're glued to the news in fear.

You can watch the news, but fear not is Jesus command.

We divorce.

I remember a gal in preparing for this message.

You know, it was all about our small group and the church and Bible teaching right

up until she learned the word the Lord had on divorce because she wanted to divorce

her husband and marry someone else.

She didn't like that.

And so the moment she found out the command of Jesus, I'm like, nope, what the Lord has

brought together, let no man separate.

I hate divorce says God and Malachi.

Work it out and let's heal that.

Well, you don't know what I've been through.

You don't know we've counseled them like the Lord who can part red seas can absolutely

restore your marriage.

She didn't like it and she left our fellowship.

I've got examples of men as well who wanted to divorce their wife and marry someone else

was living with his mistress and decided when confronted with what Jesus wanted to do.

He popped smoke and left.

He didn't want to submit.

He didn't want to submit to the command of the Lord Jesus calls us to love our enemies.

Will you obey him?

Will you love even your enemies?

Will you love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength?

That's the Lord's command.

Will you make your whole life about the great commission commanding them to go and make

disciples of all nations baptizing them the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Does your life regardless of your vocation look like you're on mission for Jesus according

to the great commission?

This is what obedience looks like and our challenge today I'm closing right now.

Our challenge today is look at how we have disrespected the Lord God Almighty by taking

his authority and treating it cheap.

By making the throne room where seraphim shalt holy holy holy and treating it too casually,

this is the commander of the Lord's army who can command us and eviscerate us in a pile

of bones and yet his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance and he puts no obligation

and instead invites us in invitation.

I could live and die for that man.

I don't know about you, but as for me in my house, we will obey the Lord because we

love the Lord.

Are you with me, church?

Amen.

Let me pray for you, King Jesus because you are king.

Help us see you as you are as lion and lamb.

Help us see you high and lifted up, exalted, powerful on the throne that we will fear your

name and obey you out of love and affection for what you've done and who you are.

Help us spirit in your name, amen.

Amen.

Amen.