“Why should anyone listen to you? What authority do you have?”
The questions hung over me and I had no answer, so I just sat there in silence. John Zimmerman, my preaching professor, sat across from me, waiting. Finally, I said, “I don’t know.”
”The only reason anyone should listen to your sermons is because you don’t speak by your own authority. You don’t speak your own words by your own power and for your own purposes. The only reason anyone should listen to you is because you speak from the Scriptures, not from yourself. That’s where your authority comes from.”
The preacher preaches under the Scriptures, by their authority, not because the preacher is an excellent wordsmith and orator. Yes, as John often said, “It’s got to happen to you if it’s going to happen through you,” meaning I can only preach from the heart if the Scriptures have moved my heart. But even then, I never step out from under their authority. My heart is no authority.
My authenticity gains me nothing if I’m not being authentic to the Scriptures.
Speaking from under that authority gives security to both the preacher and those listening to the preaching. When I preach, I know that the force behind the sermon isn’t something I have to manufacture, but comes from the God who has spoken the words being preached on. Similarly, when I listen to the sermons of others, I know that as long as the Scriptures have been read, I have received the Word of God, regardless of what the preacher has said about the passage. (And there have been times when I’ve been glad my audience at least had heard the text read along before I blundered through my sermon about it.)
Unlike me or any other preacher worth listening to then or now, Jesus spoke by his own authority.
READ
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law (Mark 1:21-22).
Like me, the teachers of the Law didn’t have authority in and of themselves. They spoke from derived authority. In their case, their authority derived from their own teachers. They were like technical journals, where everything is footnoted and the bibliography is extensive.
Jesus was different. He quoted no rabbis. And in the Sermon on the Mount, he gives his own stunning take on key and controversial passages from the Law of Moses (Matt. 5:17-48). Each time, he begins with, “You have heard it said ….” And once he has given a quote, either directly from or based on the Torah, he follows it up with, “But I say to you,” giving his own strong teaching. And when he gets to the end of the Sermon, he makes this bold statement, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). The conclusion of the Sermon (Matt. 7:28-29) is almost word for word the same as Mark 1:22 quoted above.
Jesus audaciously places his words on the same level as those of Moses and the prophets. For four long centuries, no one had dared to speak in the name of the Lord, as Isaiah and Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets had done. But Jesus goes beyond even them. He doesn’t say, “This is what Yahweh says.” No, he says, “This is what I say.” His words have the same force, the same power, the same authority as those of Yahweh himself.
ENGAGE
Some of the authorities in our lives should be such and some shouldn’t be. Who are the authorities in my life? Who speaks and I listen (doctors, teachers, celebrities, politicians, mentors, friends, etc.)? Where am I right to listen? When am I wrong to listen?
In what areas do I struggle against the authority of the Scriptures? Where do I push back against the authority of the Scriptures?
Authority calls for obedience. What area of your life has Jesus pointed out, calling you to obey him?
PRAY
Jesus, you are the one true authority in my life. All others are pretenders. Help me to deal appropriately with those who hold positions of authority, but help me also to filter their words and requirements through yours. Fill me with your words that my imagination be always filled with your voice, shaping my thinking and living. Amen.
LIVE
The end of the Gospel of Matthew includes these words:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you …” (Matt. 28:18-20).
All authority. Obey everything.
Authority leads to obedience. It does when I exert alpha authority over my dogs. It does when I hear the words of Jesus.
Too often, Christians claim to live according to the words of Jesus, but we have a bad habit of listening to our own voices more than his. We have another bad habit of picking and choosing which words of his we listen to, weeding out the words of Jesus we’re not so thrilled with. Some people love his words that deal with social justice issues. Others love his words that deal with personal devotion and morality. But it’s not up to us to pick or choose. If we follow Jesus, we listen to every word he speaks and obey them all.
So, in what area of your life is Jesus asking you to obey him right now?