Authority: Who’s In Charge Around Here Anyway?

AUTHORITY: Who’s In Charge Around Here Anyway? 03-31-2013

TEXT: Luke 12:5-9

I. SLAVERY ISN’T PRETTY

A. Jesus continues on His way to Jerusalem to fulfill His purpose on this Earth.

1. The word says Luke 12:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” 6 The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you!

2. If you’re not careful to follow rules of context, you’ll miss the meaning in the little parable Jesus tells about this servant just in from the field. Luke 12:7-10 7 “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 8 No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ 9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. 10 In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

3. I’m in charge here? (gruffly). 90% of us already have the mental image of the wicked, gluttonous Massa with dried food on his chin still from lunch and the over-worked, underfed slave, just in from the field, fingers dripping with blood from cutting them on the cotton bowls, back aching from dragging the sack down the rows, bare feet scuffed up cuz this child of God didn’t have no shoes. Now this slave is being commanded to get off his lazy back-side and get Massa sumthin to eat cuz heza starvin.

--Now I’m certain this very picture did indeed exist on way too many occasions in the history of this nation in both North and South.

--Slavery is a dark blot on our nation’s history to be sure.

--I cannot understand the mentality of the guy who could take away another’s man’s freewill, dominate that man, buy and sell that man like a commodity, no matter how well the slave may have been treated.

--The part the Colonies and later the United States played in the Slave Trade is not defendable, only by God’s grace is it forgivable.

4. However, we must willfully set this mental image, burned into the mind of so many, aside, if we want to get down to the important Kingdom facts Jesus is trying to relay to you and me.

5. Because I think Jesus is trying to tell us, we need to standup! Show a little spizerinktom! And...Stop being afraid to assume the position of authority God intended for us to command!

6. Because the truth is, somehow or another, these days, the one who is supposed to be master, is the one saying, “Yessa, yessa, yessa.”

6. I believe there are 2 important issues in this passage which are major themes throughout Jesus life and ministry here on Earth: 1) Authority; 2) Freedom For the Oppressed.

II. AUTHORITY: WHO’S IN CHARGE AROUND HERE?

A. Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign (KJV says “let them have dominion” which, you know, sounds more anointed and everything) over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign (comand, not a suggestion) over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

1. Who’s in charge around here? You were meant to be by default of being created in God’s Image. You were supposed to be His representative. You and I were tasked to manage God’s whole creation.

2. And when we look around, where do we start to count the number of things which are beyond our control? Natural disasters, disease...all the stuff to which devil points when he taps us on the shoulder, and says, “God is love huh, what a bunch of huughy!”

B. So when God becomes flesh, comes back to His creation to set things right, it is said of Him, Matthew 7:28-29 ...the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law. (A little self-indicting and challenging: When was the last time anything I said, or any preacher said filled with so much authority you were amazed?)