THE AUTHORITY WORTH FOLLOWING

Matthew eight, verses twenty three through chapter nine, verse eight s where we'll

be in about twenty minutes or so or so, we're going to have some

people come up here and they are going to testify that they are followers of

Jesus. I know, I know, start getting excited. They're going to

testify that they are followers of Jesus. They're going to do that through a

personal testimony that they've prepared. They're going to do that through answering from some

confessional questions about the Christian faith. And they're going to do that by being

immersed into water, symbolizing that they have died in Christ's death to sin and

self rule, and that they have been raised in newness of life with Christ.

They are followers of Jesus. They're declaring his authority over their lives.

They're declaring his authority over their sin. Praise God. In fact, they're

declaring his authority over everything. The question is do they have good reason?

What do the scriptures say? On Matthew chapter eight, the gospel writer gives

us three accounts back to back, all in regards to Christ's authority. First,

Christ's authority over a storm. Second, Christ's authority over them. And

then third, You've expected to be Christ's authority over disease, and then he

switches it up on you. And it turns out Christ is using his authority

over disease to demonstrate something way more important than that his authority over sin to

forgive it. But I want you to notice what Matthew does with these three

accounts is he frames them on either side with the issue of following Jesus.

Before he gets into the first story, he interacts. Matthew conveys how Christ

interacts with two different people about following him, And when he gets done with

the third story, then he finishes it up right the bread on the sandwich.

There is another discourse on following Jesus. In fact, it's Matthew's own

story of being called by Jesus. Jesus just says, follow me. In

other words, what Matthew was doing with these three stories of Jesus's authority is

he's answering the question, why is this man worth following? If it's all

about following Jesus? And we meet confident that Jesus has the kind of authority

that we need to see in order to follow him. Let's read it Matthew

aid, I'm going to start in verse twenty three. And when he got

into the boat, his disciples follow him, and behold, there arose a

great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the

waves. But he was asleep, and they went and woke him, saying,

save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them,

why are you afraid, oh, you of little faith? Then he

rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm,

and the men marveled, saying, what sort of man is this that

even winds and sea obey him? And then he came to the other side,

to the country of the Gatherines. Two demon possessed men met him,

coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us,

o, son of God? Have you come here to torment us before

the time? Now I heard of many pigs was feeding at some distance from

them, and the demons begged him, saying, if you can't asked us

out, send us away into the herd of pigs. And he said to

them go, So they went. They came out, and they went into

the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into

the sea and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into

the city, they told everything, especially when had happened to the demon possessed

men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, And

when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. And getting

into a boat, he crossed over and came to his own city. And

behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And

when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart,

my son, your sins are forgiven. Behold, some of the scribes said

to themselves, this man is blaspheming. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts,

said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier

to say your sins are forgiven, or to say rise and walk, But

that you may know that the son of Man has authority on earth to forgive

sins. He then said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed,

and go home. Then he rose and went home. When the crowd

saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God who had given such

authority to men. This is God's word. My aim this morning is very

much like Matthews. It is that the Spirit of God would use the word

of God to reveal to your heart the authority of the Living Christ, and

that you would follow him, that you would follow him more faithfully, that

you would follow him more fearlessly, that you would follow him, maybe this

morning for the first time ever, that you would celebrate and worship the Living

God who has brought such people as to follow him in believers baptism, and

testify that they are followers of Christ. That's my aim. And so let's

look at the word of God. What's the first story. Well, the

first story. The point that Matthew is making is that Jesus has authority over

trouble. He has authority over trouble, he has authority over the storm.

There's nothing that the earth can throw at you that Jesus doesn't have authority over

him, and for that reason we should follow him. Right. What happens

right, Christ gets into a boat, the disciples follow him into the boat,

and a storm comes. In the midst of the storm, Christ is

sleeping and the disciples are freaking out. This is probably the moment I most

identify with anyone in the whole Bible. A disciple freaking out and they come

to Jesus and they say, what my heart says to Jesus on a regular

basis, don't you see what's going on? We're going down, man,

We're taking on water. And he says, why are you afraid, oh,

you of little faith? And he gets up and he rebukes the wind,

and he rebukes the sea and the wind that had been howling, and

the way that had been crashing over the boat and filling the boat with water.

They just stop instantly, and there's a great calm. And the disciples

they keep freaking out, but now they're freaking out in a very different way.

They're just like, what was that? What kind of man is this?

And Matthew is conveying to his readers that Christ has authority over the world.

There is no trouble that this world can throw at you that Jesus doesn't

have power over. At any moment, he can say to any storm of

any kind, in hole or in part enough, that's his prerogative, and

it is our prerogative to follow that man. And Matthew makes a point of

including the responses to Christ authority. In each of these stories, of course,

the disciples responses. They marvel and they ask what kind of man is

this? And Matthew is in fact answering that question. He's saying, this

kind of man is the kind of man worth following. Whatever trouble will come

from following Jesus, he already has power over it, and we should expect

trouble when we follow him. He's told us to, but we shouldn't fear

it. He has authority over it, and that shouldn't move us to presumption.

What it should move us to is to reject fear, and reject anxiety,

and reject worry, and reject trying to pursue a risk free life or

a risk free pursuit of the Lord Jesus Christ, because when he calls you

forward, he doesn't call you forward in a risk free way. In many

ways, you follow him into a boat, and no matter the storm that

he finds you in, and no matter the storm he led you into,

Jesus has authority over it. Like the old hymn says, be still my

soul, the waves and winds still know his voice. God's word does not

promise a trouble free life. God's word promises that there is no trouble in

your life, in your family, in your ministry, in your future,

that he can't choose to rebuke in whole or in part, and just say

right there enough and we follow him. The second story. Matthew's point somewhat

similar is that Jesus has authority over darkness. We follow Jesus because he has

authority over darkness. This is in verses twenty eight through thirty four. What

happens when Christ goes over to the country of the Gatherines. It's a gentile

area, and he's greeted. He's greeted by two screaming, demon possessed men

who come out of their graveyard encampment, and they're screaming, what do you

have to do with us, o, Son of God? By The disciples

are like, what kind of man is this? The demons know, and

they are begging him, please, please, if you send us out,

send us into those pigs. Matthew does not explain this. Evidently, it

is not Matthew's point to explain why going into these pigs would be important to

these demons. He just leaves that kind of without comment. But what he

does comment on is that just like Jesus said to the storm, enough,

he says, to the demons go, and they go. And I probably

can't even imagine what it's like to see a herd of pigs suddenly possessed by

demons and squeal their faces off until they rush over a cliff into the water,

and the last squeal dies down as those waves calm down, and the

herdsmen are like, what was that? And what Matthew was saying is that

there is nothing so dark, and there is nothing so dirty pigs, gentile

country, demons, tombs, you name it. There's nothing so dark or

dirty that Christ doesn't have authority over that too. And again Matthew brings the

response into the light. The townspeople come and they approach Jesus and they beg

him to leave. I think Matthew is identifying the townspeople in their begging with

the demons, and they're begging. In other words, Matthew is saying,

this is not the right response. You do not want your response to Christ

to be the same as the demons. But we tend to be terrified of

spiritual powers we can't see and don't understand. I will just go out on

a limb and just bet that most of us here have not been accosted by

verified, screaming demoniacs. I'll say, as a pastor, there have been

situations where I have been confronted by palpable spiritual evil. Other pastors that I

know very well and trust very well have said that on rare occasion they have

been confronted by what has claimed to be a demonic presence, and I have

no reason to doubt them. But whatever the case may be, I'll just

bet you all of us have had glimpses of darkness and evil that make us

shudder. In fact, I think I see more and more glimpses of that

and out in the open all the time, and in conversation with even my

least spiritually minded friends, they find it very easy to agree that there is

an evil at work in this world that defies mere humanistic explanation, which can

make some people curious, but most respond like the townspeople, I don't want

anything to do with that. Just keep me and that far each other as

possible. And when we see real spiritual darkness, we tend to shy away

from this spiritual completely. But it makes more sense to be a follower of

the one who has complete authority over it. That's who Jesus is. You

may rarely, if ever, have a knowing encounter with a presence like this,

but one thing is for sure. You will not be able to avoid

the pervasiveness of evil in this world. You will not be able to ignore

how evil presses in on your kids or in your marriage. You won't be

able to look the other way as evil divides close relationships or darkens the room

of your own heart. So it just makes sense to follow the one who

has authority over all darkness. Don't shy away from the spiritual. Follow the

one who has authority over everything spiritual. That's Jesus. What about the third

story? The third story? Matthew's point is this, that Jesus has authority

over sin. That Jesus has authority over sin, We follow him because he

has authority over sin. Here's how it goes. Jesus shows up to his

own city. There's a crowd gathered, and they bring him a paralyzed man

on a stretcher, And you think it's going to be oh authority over the

storm, authority over the demon's authority over this sickness, this disease. But

Jesus throws in a twist. He looks at the paralyzed man, and he

says, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven, and then subscribes.

There some religious leaders they're like, this guy's blaspheming, like that's that

is God's business about forgiving sins. Jesus knows what they're thinking, and he

says, why do you say this, which is easier to say your sins

are forgiven, or to say take rise, take up your structure, and

go home. He says, so that you would know that the son of

Man has authority to forgive sins. Rise, pick up your structure, go

home. And so this guy, maybe for the first time ever, stands

up, he picks up his stretcher, and he goes home. In front

of the crowd and everything. Again they're like, what was that? And

again God's word is showing Jesus's authority not only over disease, which seems to

be this man's key problem, but over something way more important than that,

over sin. And everyone there would have known this is the real key problem

because of the Old Testament scriptures, because of the national history. They would

know sin is the problem. Sin is the problem that has separated man from

God. Sin is the problem that is at the root of man's injustice towards

man. And here is the one that was promised to come with the solution.

This is the guy. This is the guy that can say, to

the storm, enough to the demons, go to the paralyzed man, rise

to your sin forgiven. That's Jesus, that's the one worth following. How

do they respond? Verse eight says they were afraid God's on the move.

That always makes people nervous, and it says they glorified God. This is

a man who's been healed. This is sin that's been forgiven. This is

amazing, But it's still a bit ambiguous. Who among this crowd actually follows

Jesus. It doesn't say. In fact, at this point in Matthew's gospel,

he hasn't explained to his readers how they even go about following Jesus.

That gets unfolded in this way. Matthew gets towards the end of his gospel

account and this is what he tells us. Jesus is arrested and handed over

for execution because even though he's innocent. It describes like these grumbling guys right

here who are threatened by him. He's beaten, he's mocked, he's crucified,

he's buried, and all the while his opponents are mocking him, saying

where is all that authority? And then he shows it by rising from the

dead. And then he says this about following him. He says, very

last chapter of Matthew, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given

to me. Therefore, go make disciples, baptizing them, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I

am with you to the end of the age, baptizing them. When Matthew

brings up baptism, he's calling back to that forgiveness of sins thing like Peter

says, repentant and be baptized, every one of you, in the name

of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. In other

words, the good news is that the one who has all authority over your

sins died to pay for them and is alive to forgive them. The question

is, will you trust him and his authority to follow him in exactly that.

Will you entrust your sins to the only one who can forgive them?

Will you entrust your life to the only one who's worth following? Will you

observe all that he has commanded? Will you follow him? And if you're

following him, will you follow him more faithfully? Will you observe all that

he has commanded? And if you're following him, will you follow him more

fearlessly a wee of little faith? Or will you follow him for the first

time? Or will you follow him by declaring in public that you are a

follower of Jesus Christ, and you have died in his death to sin and

self rule, and that you live in him