By What Authority?: Luke 19:45-20:26

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, and we do have extra copies.

If uh somebody would jump up and grab these.

If you need a copy today, would like one to follow along, just raise your hand up real high, and somebody would be glad to drop one off at your row, your aisle.

So glad you could be with us for our study today of uh Luke's gospel.

We'll take the what's left of chapter 19.

We're gonna take just a few verses back into chapter 19.

Some of you will remember that most of 19, that part of what we call the triumphal entry of Jesus, we actually studied from Luke's Gospel uh some time ago.

Uh on Palm Sunday, it made such good sense to do that then.

And um we today will sort of pick up after uh right after that where he goes in and cleanses the temple.

Also, I want to thank the folks who joined us online this past week.

Evidently, we had a lot of folks from Boston, Massachusetts uh join us.

I that's it says in parentheses, most views, uh my notes here anyway, from our team, letting me know that evidently there's a gaggle of people in Boston, Massachusetts.

So, hi Boston! Good to good to have you with us.

Uh we also had folks from Bengaluru, Karnataka, uh, India.

I hope I said that right.

Kazon City, Metro, Manila, Philippines.

Uh we had folks from Belmade, West Nashville, and some folks, fo some folks from Louisville, Kentucky.

So grateful to have those folks join us.

Um I'm gonna try to see if I can make this come back to life here on this screen.

Yes, it looks like I did.

This right, I'm so glad.

You can probably see up on the screen there the notes and quotes are available by using the QR code, which you see up there if you're here in the room.

Um, and perhaps even if you're online, I think that might even work there.

I don't know.

Um, but give it a try.

It might might work.

The world is full of voices trying to influence you.

You may or may not know that.

Some people go through their lives uh without an awareness of the fact that literally every time you leave your house, every time you turn on the television, every time you look online, somebody is trying to influence you in one way or another.

I think it's good for us to know that and understand that.

Sometimes our natural reaction is to want to break free from every single authority and all restraints.

I when I was a kid, used to listen to a guy named John Cougar Mellenkamp.

He used to sing a song that said, I fought authority and there's like four of you that are actually that's great, four of you that are actually my age.

I fight authority, authority always wins, is what he kept singing over and over again.

And John, kind of known as the sort of bad boy rebel kind of a singer-songwriter guy, gave voice to so many of us and in uh in so many different ways with so many of his songs.

But yeah, my natural tendency is if you say, Don't look over there, I look right over there, is what I do.

Um, I tend to want to resist that.

But isn't some, let me just argue today, that some authority is actually a good thing, especially when we have to live in a society of more than one.

Some of you needed some authority in your car today on the way to church.

Or as you scurried in the house to see who could get in the bathroom in the right order and that sort of thing.

We need some kind of authority in our lives to get along with others.

We don't quite naturally uh give and receive love, respect, show, show honor, fairness, sharing and caring, justice and mercy.

That doesn't come to us real naturally.

We need some authority other than self that helps us understand all of that.

But I'm gonna even go further and say we need more than that, and I think we'll see that in this passage today.

Um, the question then becomes, doesn't it?

Is there an authority that we can trust?

An ultimate authority of some kind?

And I think in this passage from Luke's gospel, Jesus will step into the temple, not as a visitor, but as the Lord of the house.

And he will clean the house.

It needs cleaning.

You'll see that in just a second as we read this passage.

He will confront the abuse of spiritual power, he will set politics in its place, in terms of how we should view that big subject, that big issue that so divides us in our own day and time as well.

And he will call everyone to the great adventure of trusting God as the ultimate authority.

So uh turn in your Bibles, if you will.

Uh we'll we'll look at uh Luke 19, verse 45, all the way on through to uh verse 26 and chapter 20.

Luke 19:45

Let me pray for some illumination.

We need the Holy Spirit to help us today.

Father, as uh we open our hearts and minds to your word, may your promises become our inexhaustible hope and proper confidence.

May your purposes become our meaning and our mission.

May your presence become our delight and joy.

Lord, we ask that you'd give us a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love for us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen.

Luke 19, 45, following all the way into chapter 20, verse 26.

He Jesus entered the temple and began to cast out those who were selling.

So we've already had the triumphal entry.

Since Luke chapter 9, Jesus has been winding his way to Jerusalem on purpose.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

And a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Mattleus read that one verse that said, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

And his heart on the triumphal entry, his heart, he's he's it feels like a gut punch to him.

He weeps over Jerusalem because he knows they're going to technically and officially reject him, his offer of salvation, the peace that he brings for all who would repent and believe.

He came to seek and save those who are lost.

Perhaps that's you today.

Perhaps that might be somebody online today.

I don't know.

But open your heart, open your mind to what we read here.

He goes into the temple, again, not as a visitor, but as Lord of the house in a very important way, and he begins to cast out those who were selling, saying to them, It is written, and this is from Isaiah 56, my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den.

They were praying, P-R-E-Y, I-N-G, on the poor and on the people.

They were known to have perfected their, you know, booths of Annas, A-N-A-S, as they were called, because he was one of the co-high priests at the time, Annas and Caiaphas, his son-in-law, sharing the role of high priest at the time.

But they had set it up so that when you traveled all the way from anywhere around the Mediterranean, and you wanted to come to Passover that weekend offer an animal for sacrifice, they had set it up that they had to approve the animal you brought, including the animal of the poor, which would be a dove or a pigeon.

And they had the right to say, no, your animal is unclean.

And now go down there to one of my booths where I'm selling animals at a high price, uh, inflated price.

And that is a pre-approved animal that you could then sacrifice.

So they're making it hard for people.

They're making it difficult for the poor.

And we said this before around here.

If you want to know what makes God angry, start taking advantage of the poor, the vulnerable, the weak.

That makes God angry.

And so Jesus literally, and here it's just described in two verses, he starts turning over tables.

He starts cracking a whip.

There are animals running everywhere, there are people scurrying to get out of the way.

They think this madman who's throwing everything around and everything, and their coins are rolling all over the floor.

They think this guy is insane and gone nuts, and they just want to get out of the place.

And he's cleansing the temple.

He's upset that they've turned what should have been a house of prayer into a house of praying upon the poor.

He was teaching daily, verse 47 says, in the temple.

So this is the Passion Week.

This is what's happening.

Luke is summarizing for us throughout that week.

He will be coming into the temple daily, and he will be teaching in the temple precincts.

And as you might imagine, after that dramatic cleansing of the temple, there are a group of leaders who are upset at that.

And the chief priests and the scribes, verse 47, and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy him.

Luke tells us what their motive is over and over and over again.

Here it's very clear.

The chief priests, that is, the religious quote, authority, the scribes, the moral authority, and the leading men, the civil or social authority, they had the titles, they had the sort of designation of being the authority, they had the credentials, but they're abusing it.

They're taking advantage of the poor.

And now they're gonna come up and they're going to try to destroy Jesus.

But they couldn't find any way that they might do it.

For all the people were hanging upon his words, hanging on every word, clinging to his every word.

Why?

Because his words were life, his words were grace, their entire motivation was greed and self-aggrandizement.

They were all about their titles, all about their privilege, all about their elitist attitudes.

Here comes humble Jesus with none of their titles, none of their earthly credentials.

And he's got not only all authority, but he also has all power.

What's the difference of power and authority?

A policeman standing out in the street here has authority to stop cars, but does not have the power to stop cars.

You see what the difference is there?

Jesus has all power and all authority.

And yet he comes in humbly to lay down his life.

And it's amazing this upside-down kingdom of God and Jesus, the King of that kingdom.

It came about, verse 1, chapter 20.

On one of the days, this is probably Tuesday.

I I we don't really know.

I can't, I can't say I can align it all exactly right.

Different commentators will say different things.

But this is Monday or Tuesday, is my guest.

And on one of those days, he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel.

I love the idea of hearing Jesus teach.

I love, I wish I could have had just one video.

I would like to have one video of him teaching on any subject whatsoever.

I'll take it, whatever it is.

I love the idea that he's preaching the gospel, and he's been doing that since the very beginning.

The good news that the kingdom of God has come.

That he, the king, has brought the kingdom, and that all who will repent and believe can turn to him and trust in him and enter into his kingdom.

And it's not based on their merit of having done something right or balanced out the moral scales.

No, it's based upon what Christ will do in this text and has done in our lives as we look back in space-time history.

So he goes in, he's in the temple precincts, he's preaching and teaching.

And who's there?

The chief priests and the scribes and the elders confronted him.

They spoke, saying to him, Tell us by what authority you are doing these things.

Or who is the one who gave you this authority?

They want to know about the nature of the authority.

By what authority?

What kind of authority do you have?

And they want to know about the source.

Who gave you this authority?

Who do you think you are is my summation of what they just said.

We have the titles.

We have the credentials.

We are leaders of the institution.

Who do you think you are?

You can almost understand what's happening to them.

Who is that guy who just overturned the table?

Who is that guy that just ran everybody out?

Who is that guy that seems to be causing such a stir?

And yet at the same time, we know their motive is to destroy him.

They're seeking to do that.

And even in doing this, they're confronting him, verse one says, and asking their questions.

Verse 3, he answered and said to them, I shall also ask you a question, and you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

And I love the way Jesus responds to questions throughout the Gospels.

We see them, these people, the detractors, those who are out to destroy him, they come with these questions and they think they've got him.

This question, this is gonna do it.

And every single time, he bests them.

And often, when they ask a question, he doesn't just answer the question directly.

Like in this case, he could have said, um, let's see, by what authority you're doing?

Well, I'm the Son of God, I'm the Messiah.

He doesn't do that right here.

Who gave you this authority?

Well, the Father from heaven sent me, the Holy Spirit is with me, and how's that?

He doesn't do that.

He answers their question with a counter question.

And it pushes the onus, the burden back on them.

And here's what he says to them.

Tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?

Remember, John the Baptist, who by the way, you know, sorry for those of you that are Baptist denomination background people, was not a Baptist.

He he he he wasn't.

Um, his greatest fear was not that you would dance.

This guy was scruffy.

You probably wouldn't want him to date your daughter.

I mean, this guy was out in the middle of the wilderness yelling and screaming and hollering like a prophet from of days gone way by 400 years, there hadn't been a voice of a prophet, and here's John the Baptist, and he's calling people to repent and to believe.

And the other thing he's doing is he's pointing to Jesus and saying, I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes.

He's the Messiah.

And if they had acknowledged, these religious leaders, that John was his message was from heaven, they would have in as much as been agreeing that Jesus was Messiah.

Not just endorsing John the Baptist, but his message as well.

And that's really fantastic that Jesus would do that.

Because their question to him, by what authority are you doing this?

And where'd you get this authority?

Would have been answered if they had said, John indeed was from heaven as well.

They reasoned among themselves.

I love the huddle in verse 5.

Can you see them huddling up?

These keystone cops?

They're huddling up, and they're little, you know, they're they're baffled.

They one more time they think, this is a trick question.

And they huddle up in a little circle and they say to themselves, if we say from heaven, he will say, Why didn't you believe him?

But if we say from men, all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

So they had the fear of the people, and that never makes for a good leader, by the way.

They're afraid, they're so into the approval and validation of others that they're just bound up in fear.

And all of the hate and rage that they feel toward Jesus is actually frustrated by the fact that these people are hanging on Jesus every word.

And so they're afraid of that.

And so they answered that they, verse 7, did not know where it came from, where the authority of or where John the Baptist's message came from.

They did not know.

And how expedient is agnosticism?

We don't know.

So I guess we don't have to respond.

And same kind of thing goes on in our own world today, too.

It's very expedient, it's very convenient.

It's sort of a in their case, this is a coward's way to respond to the questions of Jesus.

And so Jesus says to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I'm doing these things.

Verse 9, the parable of the vine growers, or the wicked tenants, some of your translations may say.

He began to tell the people this parable.

And he's now going to illustrate in story form what they have done wrong, all the way from verse 45 of chapter 19, where they abused power, all the way through where they confronted Jesus and his authority.

Now he's going to tell a story that is unmistakably about this scenario.

Man planted a vineyard, he rented it out to vine growers.

He went on a journey for a long time.

Verse 10 At the harvest time, he sent a servant to the vine growers in order that they might give him some of the produce of the vineyard.

But the vine growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

Very common in that day and time for a landlord who owned some land and had a vineyard in it to rent it out to others who might come in and work.

And part of the pay or the rent would be some of the produce paid to the landlord.

Very common.

Very common.

This guy's not asking for much at all.

And yet they beat the servant that he sent.

And as a matter of fact, verse 11, he proceeded to send another servant.

And they beat him also and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

And he proceeded to send a third.

And this one also they wounded and cast down.

Now, if you're like me, and you're probably, hopefully not always like me, but if you're like me, after number two, I'm not sending another servant.

I'm sending a posse.

I'm sending a motorcycle gang or something.

I don't know what I'm sending, but I'm not sending another servant.

This is a landlord who is quite patient and long-suffering.

That's pretty remarkable.

And he even goes further.

Watch this.

Verse 13, because they've now, you know, cast out and wounded three different servants.

The owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do?

I will send my beloved son.

Does that sound familiar?

Perhaps they will respect him.

And the the story is to illustrate the fact that they do not.

But when the vine growers saw him, they reasoned with one another another little huddle, and they said, This is the heir.

Let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

What therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

And Jesus is asking this question in such a beautiful rhetorical way because he knows that anyone with common sense would come to the same conclusion.

That's where we draw the line.

Enough is enough.

The long-suffering impatience has run out.

And the day of mercy, the day of extending opportunity, is gonna be done.

And that's what he's illustrating right here.

Any commonsensical person would think that because the son has just been killed.

And these people are completely depraved in their wickedness, right?

And he answers his own question, verse 16 uh the owner of the vineyard will come and destroy these vine growers, and then will give the vineyard to others.

And when they heard it, these religious leaders, this unholy alliance of chief priests and scribes and elders or leading men of the city, when they heard this, they said, May it never be.

Because they knew exactly, I mean, very common all throughout the Old Testament that Israel is compared to a vineyard.

Prophet after prophet after prophet would do the exact same thing.

And here they are, and they're going like this, oh no, no, because the story just rings right into their hearts and convicts them, and they don't want that to be the case.

He looked at them though, and he said, from Psalm 118, What then is this that is written?

The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone.

In other words, the legit authority that held the weight of Of the entire building is rejected by some, but it is the imprimatur of the the chief builder, the one who wants to put all of the weight on that cornerstone because it's the only stone that can handle the weight.

Everyone who falls on that stone, that cornerstone will be broken to pieces, but on him whoever it falls, they will be scattered like dust.

In other words, the cornerstone will have the final word.

The cornerstone will have the last bit of authority all the way to the end.

Verse 19.

The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay their hands on him that very hour, and they feared the people, for they understood that he spoke this parable against them.

Luke is telling us right there, they actually get it.

These religious leaders, these wicked religious leaders, these abusers of authority.

They actually get it.

They know he's speaking about them in the parable, which makes their culpable, they're they're culpable.

I mean, it's unmistakable.

They are culpable for this.

They watched him and then they sent spies.

I like that the word spies is even in the Bible.

They watched him and they sent spies who pretended to be righteous.

And they were pretty good at pretending to be righteous.

Please don't do that.

Lord, don't let me do that.

Let's be righteous.

Let's walk in the light of his word.

Let's stand in the light of his word.

Let's be his people, not just pretend to be his people.

Well, they watched him and they sent spies who pretended to be righteous in order that they might catch him.

Here's the motive in some statement, so as to deliver him up to the rule of the authority of the governor.

In other words, they wanted to kill him, they wanted to put him to death, they wanted to execute him, but the Jews did not have the right to capital punishment.

They had to come up with some political or social reason why the Romans would be upset and want to kill Jesus.

And this is exactly, as those of you that know the rest of the story, this is what happens.

They drag Jesus in front of Pilate and also Herod.

And he ends up getting before some political authorities and on trial after having been on trial by the religious authorities, and they sort of come up with these false accusations of insurrection, political insurrection and sedition, that Jesus is causing a stir, that he's causing unrest, that he's against Rome.

And that's how they sort of drag him before the authorities and get the right to uh have him be crucified.

Well, they wanted to do all of that.

Verse 21, they questioned him, saying, these spies do.

Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and you are not partial to any, but you teach the way of God in truth.

Does that just listen for the hissing of the serpent behind all this?

This is false flattery.

Something we use in our own day and time when we're buttering someone up because we want to manipulate them in some way.

This is false flattery because they are spies pretending to be righteous who want to catch him in something.

And in this particular case, they want to catch him in something they can accuse him politically before the Romans, or they can get the Jews to turn against him.

So they ask this very clever, very clever question.

They question him, teacher, we know that you speak correctly.

We're not you're not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Well, think about that.

If he says, yes, it's lawful, the Jews won't like it.

If he says, no, it's not lawful, he could be accused of sedition and insurrection because he's trying to get the people to rebel against Rome.

Well, he detected their trickery.

I love verse 23.

He detected their trickery.

I like that.

He knows what's going on in their hearts and in their minds.

And he said to them, Show me a denarius.

That's a coin that would have been a single day's wage.

Um, and then he asks the question, whose head and inscription does it have on it?

And the denarius of that time would have had the the bust of Tiberius Caesar on one side, on the other side, it would have said, Pontifex Maximus.

In other words, the highest, the greatest, highest potentate, you know.

And um and it's interesting too.

It doesn't say, Luke doesn't say, and Jesus reached in his own pocket and pulled out a coin.

Nah, why?

Because he probably didn't have one.

Didn't have a house, didn't have a place to lay his head.

Matter of fact, if anybody in the band of disciples had any money, who was it?

Judas.

Yeah, he's the one that kept the purse, the money purse.

Jesus says to these religious leaders, who, by the way, are supposed to remain unstained by sin and who were supposed to remain completely faithful to their own nation, he says to them, One of you, give me a denarius.

And guess what?

One of them had a denarius.

Meaning they were dealing with what they would consider to be the devil, Rome, in the currency of Rome.

Well, they, as they produced the denarius, and Jesus says, Whose head and inscription is on it, they said, Caesar's.

And this is so famous a line.

Jesus said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

And they were unable to catch him in a saying in the presence of the people, and marveling at his answer, I like it that they are even marveling at his answer themselves, marveling at his answer, they became silent.

That was one of those mic drop moments.

Just was.

Jesus, so superior of a teacher, and um so I think throughout the theme for me has been authority throughout this text.

And I think it's a good thing for us to be thinking about by what authority.

In the sections of the scripture that we just read, we see confrontation of abuse of authority in the temple that he cleanses.

We see confrontation about the source of authority in the first eight verses of chapter 20.

We hear the parable about failed authority.

These wicked tenants of the vineyard who were supposed to be taking care of the vineyard, who were supposed to give part of the produce to the landowner and be faithful in lots of different directions, and they simply were not.

And Jesus told that story to call them out.

And they felt the weight of it themselves.

They knew what it was about.

And then I think we see here too the freedom and security of living under God's authority, not Caesar's.

But I will say this: I think that as Jesus displays all through his life, to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is to be a actually ends up being a better citizen of the kingdom of this world as well.

It makes me love my neighbor.

It makes me pay my taxes, whether I think they're fair or not.

It makes me respond in such a way that I glorify God with every aspect of who I am, including my, you know, whether that's political views or social views, moral views, whatever it is, every category of my life comes beautifully and wonderfully under the authority of God.

My understanding of who I am, my identity, my work ethic, my thought about what's proper and right when it comes to human sexuality.

All of that comes under the authority of God and his word.

And it actually sets us free.

And it lifts our spirits.

It's a joyful place to be, to be walking in the light of God's word and under God's authority.

Sinclair Ferguson said, when Jesus stepped into the temple, he claimed it as his own.

It's not an act of a reformer from the outside, but the rightful king reclaiming his father's house.

Now we all know there has been all kinds of abuse of authority throughout the centuries in the church, of all streams and stripes of the church.

100% acknowledge that.

Some of you sitting in this room may have been abused in some way by some kind of spiritual authority.

And this is a sad stain on the history of the church.

But it doesn't mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Jesus loves his church.

Jesus wants to prepare his church to become his bride on that great day when he returns and sets all things right.

He wants us to be spotless and clean.

And so he is doing a good work in his church.

And we're so, so glad and honored that he would move among us and that we can see him doing that.

He is the rightful king.

He wants to come back into his house and he wants to begin to cleanse his house.

May that begin with me.

May that continue with us as we follow him.

We see these questions the leaders asked.

By what authority are you doing this?

Who gave you this authority?

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

They're very clever, aren't they?

They're well-educated people.

But their motives are insincere.

They're not actually wanting to know the answer to these questions.

They want to catch Jesus in something.

When you ask questions about God or the Lord or about salvation or the gospel, when you ask questions, please understand, he welcomes every single honest questioner.

He welcomes every single honest doubter.

We read that over and over again in the Gospels, don't we?

Lord, help my unbelief.

I believe, but help my unbelief too.

The guy was honest.

But here we have a group of people, these religious leaders, who are willful unbelievers seeking to destroy the one they are asking questions to.

Jesus counters with the four questions.

Was the baptism of John from heaven or men?

Big, big, uh amazing move on Jesus' part.

Very brilliant.

What will the owner of the vineyard do to the abusers?

Common sense says at the very least, he will take away the vineyard from them.

But in the in the understanding of eternity, we all know that God has appointed a day, one day, where he will draw the line and wrap up human history.

Until then, you and I, we all have the opportunity to turn to him in repentance and faith.

What would hold you back?

Why wouldn't you want to do that?

Don't wait until the day he draws the line.

Do it now.

Yeah.

What then is that which is written?

He's pointing to the scriptures.

Jesus does it over and over again.

Matthew's gospel alone quotes the Old Testament 99 times.

So the Old Testament and the New Testament work together to give us a picture of who God is.

And it all points and finds its fulfillment together in the person and work of Jesus.

Whose head and inscription does this coin have?

Great question.

Now, whose image do you bear?

Coins of our day and time.

Well, you bear the image of God.

You've been created in the image of God.

You have intrinsic value because you bear the image of God.

Some of us are doing a poor job of that, myself included, from time to time.

It's like a carnival mirror image of God.

You know?

But he has come to renew us, restore us, transform us, turn us into new creations in Christ Jesus.

Who wouldn't want that?

When Jesus came, he said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

And I'm going to suggest to you that when he makes that kind of a claim, it would have rocked the world.

Anybody that heard him say that kind of a thing.

This is the kind of thing that all of those people out there that say Jesus was kind of a nice little, you know, soft-sandal, soft-spoken peacekeep, wants to just give everybody a big hug and all that sort of thing.

This flies in the face of that.

This is such a bold claim.

All authority, not some, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

That is either the claim of a megalomaniac, a lunatic, who should be driven away, or if it's true, I should bow before him.

Love and adore him.

Give my all to him, every category of my life.

And that's the call of Jesus to when he calls us to follow him.

Just a few quotes and I'll wrap up here.

Characteristic of Jesus left the most lasting impression on his followers and caused the greatest offense to his opponents, which we just see here, is his exosusia.

His exosusia, sorry, is sovereign freedom and magisterial authority.

And again, he had not only authority, sort of derived authority, designated authority.

No, he had the power and the authority both together.

And only Jesus can actually handle that.

See, pastors and priests and popes, we can't handle all of the power and authority.

We've been designated a little bit of authority to speak the word of the Lord and preach the gospel, and that's a wonderful, beautiful privilege.

But we don't always get it right.

So look to Jesus.

Keep looking to Jesus, not to Caesar, not to any other form of Caesar.

The answer to bad authority is not no authority, but good authority.

We mustn't respond to abuse with abandonment.

Good authority, properly exercised, is a gift to God's people, our friend Trevan Wax.

And this from uh I don't quoted Jonathan a lot, but this from Jonathan Lehman, I think is so practical.

Good authority strengthens and grows, it authors and creates.

It's the teacher teaching, the coach coaching, the mother mothering.

It's the rules for a game, the lines on a road, a covenant for lovers, the lessons for a child, the chance to grow and expand and eventually take dominion ourselves.

One of history's greatest secrets is that God means his authority to grow and expand us, not to shrink and snuff us out.

You see that?

There's great freedom, great joy, great peace in knowing who your king is, in bowing before him, in trusting him, in trusting him with your your salvation for eternity, but also for the way your life is going right now, for every outcome, large or small, it all belongs to him, and you rest in him when he is your king and your authority.

Close with this stuff quote for behind every word that anybody utters stands the person who speaks it.

It is the speaker himself, his character, knowledge, and position who determines how people regard his words.

So God's word carries God's authority.

It's because of who he is that we should believe what he has said.

Friends, that's one of the reasons we study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, and we'll continue to do that.

No matter who's up here, no matter who the preacher is, that's what we do.

Not because we worship the word of God, we worship the God of the Word.

But he is a God who's spoken and continues to speak.

And he speaks with authority, and he speaks words of grace, mercy, kindness.

His patience for now continues.

He hasn't drawn the line yet.

What will you do?

How will you respond to him today?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for your word.

And thank you that it is powerful, transforming, that it's unique in its source, that it's broad in its scope and transforming in its power.

Help us, Lord, to listen to you, to hear you, to believe you, to trust in you, to obey you, to surrender all of who we are to you, and to receive from you the freedom and joy of living under the authority of your word.

Thank you for Jesus who gave himself for us.

Thank you for each and every person in this room or watching by way of internet.

Lord, speak to us in this moment.

Draw us to yourself, I pray.

Open our hearts.

Some of us need you to crack us open, Lord.

Some of us are hardened, some of us are running away.

Some of us need to hear you call our name.

Give us the courage to respond to you in this moment, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.