The Authority Of Jesus Christ Series

When I was in college one of my courses included outdoor repelling down a sheer cliff. This is not what you normally do in college. We were not reading about repelling and answering questions, we were out on rocks.

The first lesson to repelling is check the ropes. Do not take for granted that the ropes are going to hold you up. You check the ropes before you go over the cliff. Check them like your life depends on it.

Our whole case of Christianity rests upon Jesus Christ. We trust Christ to save us from our sins and we trust him for our eternal hope to spend eternity with God in heaven. If Christ cannot be trusted we don’t go over the cliff spiritually with our whole weight. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Jesus Christ is central in our faith. The Old Testament looks forward to Jesus Christ. It has an attitude of anticipation. In the New Testament the really big claim is for the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.

Christianity is Christ. It is not a philosophy. It is the good news that God has come us and redeemed us, his people. We could never reach up to God, he had to come down to us. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, that is the first and the last. He is the one authority.

The Deity of Christ.

We see Jesus the deity of Jesus in scriptures, that is we see Jesus is God. “We have seen his glory.” (John 1:14) There is the threefold Lord, liar, or lunatic proposal by C. S. Lewis to those who do not hold Jesus was fully God. He was 1. Crazy thinking and claiming to be God when he was not. 2. A liar knowing he was not God but making that claim. 3. He is God.

At the very start of the New Testament the deity of Christ is stated. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:23) The Deity of Christ is stated again in the announcement to Mary. “He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33) Jesus is the everlasting Lord.

The gospels were written with a definite and deliberate objective in vies. Not as a collection of facts, but to show Jesus as the final authority.

John the Baptist was baptizing, and the crowds were coming to him. The said of John surely this is the Christ. He was very clear that he was the forerunner in preparation for Jesus Christ. He was not even worthy to untie the sandal of Jesus.

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

Jesus Teaches with the authority of God.

Jesus spoke and taught with authority. The Old Testament prophets were able to say “thus says the Lord”. But Jesus adds I say to you. After teaching in the sermon on the mount Jesus said, “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.” (Mathew 7:24)

Jesus is not summarizing the great teachers, but uses his authority to say, these sayings of mine and I say to you. The people recognize the authority of Christ and were astonished. they said, When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. (Matthew 7:28-29)

The Chief Priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards out to seize Jesus. When they got back the Chief Priests and the Pharisees asked the guards why did you not bring him back. “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. (John 7:46)

The miracles of Jesus established his authority.

John constantly emphasized in his Gospel that the miracles Jesus established his authority. They were signs to assert and proclaim his authority. This was asserted by Peter in the Pentecost sermon.

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— (Acts 2:22)