Real Authority | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

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Good morning, church.

You thankful to be here today?

Anybody not thankful to be here today?

Go ahead, answer.

See what happens.

I'm thankful to be here today.

So glad that you're with us.

If you are in the building or if you are online, especially if you are new here, or maybe even today's your first time at church in general, I want to extend a special welcome to you.

My name is Nate, and I'm one of the pastors here.

So welcome home to all of you who call this place home.

It's always a great day to gather together and worship and to uh hear the reading and preaching of God's word.

Amen.

If you are online, uh we'd actually love to invite you to participate in one of our in-person services at the Orlando Museum of Art.

We're here almost every Sunday uh at 9 and 10.30 a.m.

But uh yeah, there's nothing like uh gathering with people.

Uh I say almost every Sunday because we got church at home next week, as uh Julian said, so I want to invite you to participate in that, perhaps with some folks here in the building or maybe even some who are not.

Uh anybody do their challenge last week?

Anyone do their challenge last week?

Okay, we got a couple faithful stewards.

Sean did his challenge last week.

Praise God.

His life is forever changed.

Amen.

I didn't do my challenge.

Ooh.

Uh so but uh the I still have today, right?

And I and I plan on getting that done.

But anyways, if you're not sure what we're talking about, we're talking about an installation that's out in our lobby, and we are hoping to activate our faith.

We've been in the Sermon on the Mount series, uh really looking at these teachings of Jesus, and we want this to go from head knowledge into action.

We want this to actually transform our lives, and we want the teachings of Jesus to transform the lives of those around us.

And so, on your way out today, uh there's instructions for you to read on a beautiful easel out there.

You can grab one of those, maybe grab two, one for this week and one for next, and then uh we'll see you back here uh on Palm Sunday where we celebrate the arrival of our King into Jerusalem, and we'll unpack the significance of that as well.

Uh throughout Holy Week, we've tried to do our best to equip you guys with a devotional uh for everyone in the family.

So for youth and adults, we have a devotional, who is this king?

And there may be one or two left, so you can grab those on your way out.

If not, we should have a shipment coming in that should be here by Palm Sunday, so you'll have those in time.

So if you didn't get it last week, do that.

And then also uh Easter blocks and a devotional for the family and the kids in the house as well, just so that we can really uh understand the significance of the week and commemorate and contemplate what it is we are celebrating.

Accompanying that will be some video devotionals on our social media channels where you get to hear some different perspectives of people uh in the church and people who were around Jesus at that time uh of uh leading up to his crucifixion, uh, which we will unpack and analyze and look at through an interactive experience on Good Friday.

Um so this is a registration only event.

There's limited space at the Art and History Museums of Maitland.

And so we want you to uh come together and register for a smaller groups for an interactive experience as we journey through the final hours of Jesus' life leading up to the crucifixion, okay?

And then we will come together on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of the risen Lord at 9, 10.30, and making a guest appearance at 12 p.m.

So uh if maybe you're uh maybe you're a regular here uh and you want to do us a solid and and move on up to the 12 p.m.

service, that would help those uh maybe perhaps who aren't as familiar with the landscape here and uh may want to come to one of the normal times that we have.

How does that sound?

Sound good.

Awesome.

Uh we are concluding our series on the Sermon on the Mount today.

Matthew chapter 7 is where we're gonna be.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

So if you have your digital Bible or your good old-fashioned paper Bible, you can pull that out and flip over to Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, we actually have one for you.

Uh, we'd love to give that to you on your way out to your car.

It's at the connect tent, and somebody with a smiling face would love to hand you that.

No strings attached.

Well, there is a string, it ties another book on top of it, but you know what I mean.

Matthew chapter 7, we're gonna be looking at verse number 24.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Here's the word of the Lord.

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise.

Like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish.

Like a person who builds a house on sand.

When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority.

Quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

If you're interested in such things, the title for today's message is real authority.

Real authority.

That you invite us to gather together under your name and to worship you.

We're humbled, God, that you have given us your word, your living word.

And that way we can build our lives on it.

We're so grateful for that.

And is not only in this room, but is in us and is leading us into all truth.

Lord, I pray that you would speak through me.

Lord, I need you right now.

Um we we all need you right now.

We we don't even recognize how much we need you, God, and so I ask that you would just be so evident and so clear with us today.

It's in Jesus' name and everybody said.

Amen.

Um as we as we said, we're concluding 11 weeks of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7.

And it's probably, as far as I can recall, the longest series that we've ever done here at Celebration Church Orlando.

Now, if you were to preach the Sermon on the Mount kind of verbatim, it's about 15 to 20 minutes worth of content.

And so we've done a really good job at stretching that out over 11 weeks.

But uh it's almost needed, right?

Because of the profundity of the teaching of Jesus and and how how powerful um it is.

Now, if you were to live your entire life and your life's work was to examine Matthew 5 through 7 and do your best to read and study and understand, and dare I say, master Jesus' teachings, you'd be doing alright.

You you'd have a life's work.

And so 11 weeks probably doesn't even do it justice, but much less studying and reading the entire Bible and trying to do your best to follow that.

But just Matthew 5 through 7 here is powerful.

Now, many people would refer to the the Sermon on the Mount as the greatest sermon ever preached, and I can get on board with that.

I can I can definitely get on board with that.

But I think what makes it the greatest sermon ever preached is not necessarily the content of it, although it is profound and powerful, but it's the person who's conveying that content that makes it such.

You see, what we have to understand is, yes, Jesus is a Middle Eastern man who's just like seems just like any other who's sitting on a hillside, like perhaps any other would be teaching his disciples and uh sharing what he believes to be truth.

But if we really know who Jesus is, we understand that Jesus is the second person of the Godhead.

He is the second in the Trinity, Father, Son, and then Holy Spirit.

And if we understand the significance of the Trinity, we realize that these are three distinct persons, one unique being.

Wrap your mind around that one for a little bit, right?

The Trinity, God working in three distinct ways, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but as one, all in unison, never disaligned, perfect alignment, all for one purpose, right?

This is God personified in human form, teaching people.

Standing in front of them, sitting maybe even in front of them on a hillside, teaching them.

And so when you think about that, what we're saying is okay, the lawmaker who actually handed the law to Moses on stone tablets, is standing right in front of these people.

And he's illuminating the law.

You've heard it said this, but I tell you this, right?

So people over centuries have done their best to interpret what it means to live these commands out.

And Jesus is saying, here's the heart of the issue.

You've heard it said, hey, don't murder, but I tell you the reason I said that was because there's anger that lives inside of you.

And if you have anger, that means you've already committed the act.

Okay?

So that adds a little bit more weight and a little bit more gravity to what we're talking about, doesn't it?

In Matthew 5 through 7.

He the mouthpiece of God, which was the prophet, which Jesus can also be categorized as, the mouthpiece of God for that were prophets in the Old Testament over the centuries, were trying to relay God's message to the people and they were understanding it.

And so God himself comes in person and says, Here's what I'm trying to tell you.

And through God's word, he is doing the same thing for us today.

The lawmaker illuminating the law.

This is illustrated in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

And for whatever reason, every time I preach, I'm always referring to John chapter 1, but I just think it really undergirds the entire gospel and the Bible for that matter.

John 1 · chapter mention

It says, In the beginning, the word already existed.

The word was with God, and the word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

The word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

That could be kind of puzzling for us on the surface, right?

Looking at the author of this gospel referring to someone as a word.

But I think that, I guess I'm speculating here a little bit, that the ancient listener and the ancient reader may have a little bit more appreciation for what John is trying to convey here.

And what I mean by that is the ancient listener may have not had the tendency that we do to compartmentalize our lives, right?

I got my church life, I got my work life, I got my family life, my fun life, my friend life.

Okay, we're we're really good at compartmentalizing our lives.

We can also compartmentalize our beings.

We can sort of disassociate ourselves and not look as ourselves as holistic, okay?

I've got mental, spiritual, emotional, physical, and we try to all pinpoint these things and address these things in segments as opposed to addressing the whole thing, okay?

I believe it's the same thing when it comes to word.

And I and here's why I say that.

Let's look at my notes, for example.

These are keystrokes and colors and highlights, uh you know, and they when they're read out loud, they're they're audible and you can hear.

But all of those things are representation of what's inside of me.

It's a representation of my being, of my essence almost.

Okay?

So this is the same thing when the scriptures refer to Jesus as the word of God.

It is it is his essence.

So when we're reading this scripture, we're reading almost like we're reading God.

Does that make sense?

And and it may be tough for us to kind of, oh, okay, I get what you're saying, but whenever I say I give you my word, I give you my word I'm gonna do this.

What am I saying there?

I'm saying that I'm putting my person behind what I'm saying.

I'm putting my entire being behind it, right?

So it's as much as part of me as as my hair or my face or my intellect or my emotions, my word is the same thing.

Okay?

So I say all that to say it can be dangerous to disassociate the teachings or the word of God or the teachings of Jesus from Jesus.

I love Jesus, I follow Jesus.

Nate, I'll even go as far to agree with you that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is the personification of God in human form, but his teachings are a little outdated, a little antiquated.

We are denying God when we are denying his word.

Because God is equal to his word.

Is that making sense to you?

So it's more than just syntax and grammar and phonetics.

God's word equals God.

It's the nature of God being expressed in human form and through word.

Let's look at verse number 24 so to kind of pinpoint why we're saying that.

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

What is the rock?

Jesus is the rock.

That's right.

In the first service, it was the teachings, but the teachings that we just learned are one and the same, right?

Because in the Old Testament, God is referred oftentimes to as the rock.

This immovable, impenetrable force that is not tossed to and fro.

He's something stable that we can place our lives on.

So when I'm place when I'm saying I'm placing my hope and my faith in Jesus, it's not this theoretical idea of Jesus.

It is no, I'm planting myself in his word and I'm following what he says.

You may say, well, you know, Nate, I'm I'm saved through grace by faith alone.

It's not of good works.

And I hear you and I agree with you 100%, because if it was of good works, we'd be in trouble, right?

But I don't want to conflate good works with God's word.

Good works can be a byproduct of what we are doing with God's word, right?

I was walking out of a building the other day.

Uh a guy uh opened the door, held the door for me, right?

And goes, gotta do that good deed for the day.

I'm like, Yeah.

I mean, we all open doors, hopefully, for one another, right?

You don't want it slamming in your face, but um but what was he doing there?

He was perhaps he was just trying to feel better about himself.

And perhaps he didn't even realize that he was just trying to feel better about himself.

You see, good works can pacify our conscience.

But the Bible says that God's word can save your life.

Verse number 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.

When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Doesn't this add so much more importance to what Jesus is conveying to people on a hillside 2,000 years ago and in turn by his word and his spirit today to us?

It just adds a little bit more weight and a little bit more importance to, okay, I need to take this seriously, not in a way of performance, but in a way of I want to build my life on a solid foundation.

At least I do.

I don't know about you.

If you don't want to, that's totally your prerogative, but I want to build my life on a solid foundation because this passage tells me a couple things about storms.

The first things it tells me is the inevitability of storms.

If you've ever heard anyone preach this passage before, you've probably heard them highlight that.

When storms come, Jesus doesn't sugarcoat anything, and that's what I love about him.

When storms come, because they're coming.

Storms are coming, folks, and if you have any life experience whatsoever, you already know that.

And perhaps you haven't gone through anything.

And when I say storms, I'm talking about storms.

I'm not talking about the minor the minor modern day inconveniences of life.

We're talking about storms, right?

When storms come, if your life is built on the rock, if your life is built on me, you will walk out unscathed.

You may have some minor repairs to do.

There may be a shutter or two that's blown off, but your house, your life is built on the rock.

So it tells me the inevitability of storms.

And the people that are sitting there, they're probably correlating the weather patterns to what he's saying, right?

They're thinking, okay, between month X and month Y, we know that there's really bad storms.

Okay, so what do I need to do then?

I need to prepare.

I need to batten down the hatches, but I have time to do so.

Jesus is giving this ahead of time, right?

He's giving us the opportunity to build our life on what he's saying.

In Central Florida, we know, we know that, you know, early to mid-summer to early fall, like we're gonna see storms.

Now, there may be a season in there where it's 10 minutes in the afternoon, but nevertheless, we will see storms, and some of them are number two, what I think Jesus is showing us, are gonna be severe.

This shows me the inevitability of storms, but it also shows me the severity of storms.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds on house, house on sand.

What does sand do?

When weather hits it, it shifts.

It's almost malleable.

It goes to and fro with the wind and the water.

When the rain comes and the flood comes and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse.

Having our feet in both camps in the world's teachings and Jesus' teachings is just as much as having our both feet in the world's teachings.

It will collapse.

I'm talking about storms.

I'm talking about when your spouse wakes up one morning and goes, you know, I don't I don't even know who you are anymore, and I don't even really think I want to do this.

We're not talking about minor inconveniences, we're talking about when someone gives you a phone call and says, Hey, um, she's passed.

Your best friend has passed.

We're talking about storms in the church.

Talking about a place where we don't think that those things can happen.

Our Christian bubbles where we think that we're protected by storms.

If you've gone through anything like that in your walk with Jesus in a Christian setting, you've probably, after the storm has passed, you've walked outside and looked around the neighborhood and gone, man, it's a little less inhabited than it was before.

Why is that?

Well, it's perhaps there's a danger in building your life on a religious routine or a religious rhythm, or perhaps even building your life on a personality instead of the person of Jesus Christ and his word.

And I share that with you because it's so easy to do.

We can just get caught up in the motions and what we're building our lives on is superficial.

It's the cheap stuff.

Because storms reveal poor craftsmanship, don't they?

So if we're building our lives on the solid word of God, we're in turn building our lives on Jesus, which is in turn showing us that we can last through any storm.

Can I get an amen to that?

Isn't that good news to have?

Okay, so how can I be so sure about this?

What gives you this assurance, Nate, to be able to say that?

Well, I think the assurance comes from the authority of Jesus.

This assurance comes from his authority.

What does the last verse say?

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teachings.

For he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

We can spot a phony a mile away, can't we?

Can't we?

We know someone who's who's a fake from a mile away, at least most of us are, with the discernment that the Holy Spirit has given us, right?

And so I think that the people realize, oh man, something's different.

He looks like me, talks like me, he eats the same things I eat.

I mean, what's different?

He's got real authority.

How does one come by authority?

Well, I've identified a few ways about 10 minutes ago that I I'm just kidding.

Uh I've identified a few ways that I think that one comes by authority.

Uh, the first way that someone would come by authority is uh being endowed with it or being bestowed or granted authority, okay?

So as my son's father, God has granted me the authorization to be the authority figure in his life.

My wife and I, we are the authority figures, and my son doesn't really have a say in that, okay?

Now it's my job to steward that properly and to help guide him in a way that is best for him and for those around him.

But I have been granted by God through a the supernatural process and also just the natural process of having offspring.

Okay, it's my responsibility to have authority and jurisdiction over his life for a time period in order to grow him to be a mature adult, right?

So we have that first endowment of authority.

The next we have experience.

Authority can come through experience.

We may be familiar with the term similar to she is the leading authority in mathematics, let's just say.

And why you would want to be the leading authority in mathematics, God only knows.

But she is the leading authority in mathematics.

Why?

She's got the credentials, she's got the, as they would say, the receipts to show that she is the leading authority in mathematics, right?

Her body of work.

Uh there has there has been a consensus that has formed among people to go, okay, we need to look to her because she knows how to do math, right?

So you can be endowed or granted authority, you can come by authority through experience, but you can also seize it.

You can seize authority.

And perhaps we would we would kind of turn away from that or cringe at that idea of authority as a tyrannical way to have authority.

And I would I would agree with you that that's in most scenarios not the proper way to wield it.

I think Jesus embodies all three of these, and um, I think the scriptures point to that.

The first, Jesus endowed with authority.

1 Corinthians chapter 15 says, For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

For the scriptures say God has put all things under his authority.

Of course, when it says all things are under his authority, that does not include God Himself who gave Christ his authority.

Thank you, Paul.

Then when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God's authority, so that God, who gave his son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Again, we see the Trinity working beautifully here where God entrusts the Son with authority, the Son then at the end of the age returning that authority back to God, so God reigns supreme over everything here.

Okay, so Jesus, we see is, and what the people are experiencing is they're experiencing that granting of authority by God the Father to his son.

Also, experience.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and just say that uh Jesus is the leading authority in how to live life.

Right?

Wouldn't you agree that Jesus is the leading authority in how to live this life uh in the kingdom of God for God's glory, even as one of the persons of God?

Okay.

Uh Hebrews chapter 4 says, so then, since we have a high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

Let's hold firmly to that word.

This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

He's got the receipts of authority here because he's gone through the life that you and I go through.

He's experienced the pain, even maybe perhaps exponentially more.

He he's gone through the trials, he's gone through the testings, the temptations, and he's done it without fault.

So when you're uh experiencing the word of God and it's hitting you, as I think the author of this is conveying that the person saying this, which is Jesus, knows what he's talking about.

We can take it to the bank that he knows what he's talking about.

If you'll allow me, I would like to suggest that Jesus also has authority because he seized it.

Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

I think the scripture is telling us that evil had its day, it had its fun, if you will, post-Garden of Eden.

But through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, he says, I'll take that back.

All authority now is mine.

And the only jurisdiction that evil has is the one that we give it.

Jesus has seized authority back from evil.

That's good news.

Because we look outside and we go, it doesn't really look like that.

It's because we're handing it back over.

We're just handing it back over.

But whatever minuscule and minor amount of power that evil had no longer exists because of the finished work of Christ.

That, my friends, is really good news.

Can I tell you something else?

You have authority too.

You have authority too.

If you have accepted the free gift of salvation only by grace, if you have repented of your sins and you've turned and looked to Jesus as your Savior, and you are walking with him as your disciple, as his disciple, you have authority as well.

Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, what?

Go and make disciples.

Don't try, do it.

Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this.

I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, you possess the authority to overcome any evil in your life, and then to help others do the same thing.

What does the Spirit do?

The Spirit leads us into all truth.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

I'm with you always through my spirit.

Again, this beautiful work of distinguished persons working in total unity to become one unique person and helping us to follow Him and to help others do the same thing as well.

You know, I can believe God for a lot.

I can believe God for uh repair of what I think could be irreparable relationships.

Uh I could believe God to open doors that I don't think can be opened.

I can believe God even for healing.

But for whatever reason, when it comes to my failures, when it comes to my faults, when it comes to my sin, I start to pit verses against verses in the Bible.

Nothing separates me from the love of God.

You know?

Nothing separates me from the love of God.

Uh, you know, God's grace is enough, it's sufficient.

Hear me, church.

Yes.

Absolutely it is.

Nothing will separate you from the love of God.

God's grace is sufficient for you as well.

But you have authority over all of those things.

All of those things that you think you'll never change or will never change by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can overcome it.

You know you can live a life like Jesus.

That's what the Bible promises.

And that's what he's saying in his teaching.

Hey, build your life on me, on my word, because those inevitable storms that are terrible are going to come.

And when they come through your neighborhood, your house is going to be standing.

Because you've built your life on the rock, on me, on my word.

Folks, we have we have authority, not by anything that we've done.

We we have the authority to forgive.

We have the authority to turn the other cheek.

We have the authority to walk the narrow path, to go through the narrow gate, to pray for our enemies.

Other people don't have that authority, but by the power of the Spirit, we do.

And you know the beautiful thing about it is when Jesus said directly to those people standing, those disciples standing in front of it, he's saying it indirectly through his word to us and through his spirit.

Go and make disciples.

Go tell your neighbor, hey, that thing that you think controls your life, it actually doesn't.

You can have authority over that by surrendering and accepting the free gift of salvation.

You know how you're scared about death, and you know how you think that that's the end?

It's actually not because Jesus defeated the grave.

And if you place your hope and your trust in him, one day you're gonna rise with him as well.

This is the good news that we have to share.

People ask us all the time, and when I say us, I mean staff, how can I serve the church?

What's the one thing that you guys really need, and and and what's the biggest uh thing that I can do right now?

And we need all hands on deck.

This isn't built around a couple of people, and we need people to serve in tangible ways.

But the biggest way that we can all serve and grow the church of Jesus Christ is to build our life on his word.

Because when we do that, other people recognize it.

For whatever reason, God has commissioned us to move the kingdom.

And I don't really understand why, because I know me better than you know me, and I'm not worthy of that.

But because of the blood, we've been washed clean and we've been given the grace to do it.

The church, and I don't just mean celebration church Orlando, I mean the global church will grow and expand when disciples are making disciples.

We can bring people in the doors and we can share the good news, and we should be doing that, absolutely, but we can also pray for our enemy.

We can also love our neighbor as ourselves, we can also do unto others as we would want them to do unto us.

And we can share that they can have the authority over sin, and one day they will have authority through Jesus Christ over death through the resurrection.

Amen.

Will you bow your heads and pray with me?

Lord, we're grateful, we're humbled, we don't even know what we need, and yet you supplied it for us.

And that's the sacrifice of your son.

And so, Lord, with open arms, we accept that.

We believe it.

Lord, we don't even we don't know how to walk this thing out.

We don't we don't know how to build our life on our teachings, but you do because you did it.

So teach us how to do it.

Empower us to do it by your grace.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Hey, before we rush out, let's go ahead and stand to our feet and let's worship God for what He's done for us.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.