Understanding Jesus's Authority: Final Teachings and Great Commission

Join Don Hooton as he delves into the closing teachings and actions of Jesus, exploring their profound significance. In this sermon, Don explains how the events and lessons from Jesus's final days, including his instructions to his disciples and their subsequent commission, emphasize the completion of prophecy and the fulfillment of God's purpose. He highlights the importance of Jesus's declaration of having all authority and how it impacts discipleship, church practices, evangelism, and personal faith. Drawing connections from scripture, including the gospels and prophetic books, Don discusses Jesus's divine authority and its continued relevance for the church and individual believers today.

00:00 Introduction: Reflections on Jesus' Final Teachings
01:57 The Significance of Jesus' Resurrection and Final Days
04:01 Authority and Obedience: Lessons from Outback Steakhouse
06:56 Jesus' Authority: A Biblical Perspective
07:45 The Great Commission: Jesus' Final Instructions
12:11 Jesus' Authority in Action: Miracles and Teachings
15:12 The Role of Authority in the Church
19:22 The Gift of Jesus' Authority
30:36 Conclusion: Embracing Jesus' Authority

Transcript

Thank you everyone for being back this evening as we continue this series of thoughts and lessons from the first things that I see in the last things that Jesus said and did. When we look at his life and the connection about all those things, it's, it's easy to. Passover, the significance of these things happening at the end of his life.

I understand that many times when we look at that, what we're focusing upon is trying to connect prophecy perhaps to the way that it finds its fulfillment. And certainly the gospels emphasize that to bring our attention that this is what the prophet said would happen and this is the way it did happen.

While Jesus is fulfilling the purpose of God and accomplishing all those things, even as we talked about today,

he was God in the flesh and he was working with men of flesh by whom he was guaranteeing to them that you will be able to remember the things that I've told you. You will understand the new things that are going to come. The guarantee of that for those 12 was the guarantee that the Holy Spirit would bring all of that revelation to them so that those who would follow Jesus would be able to understand they were imperfect men.

And we even see that in their life, even as apostles, exampled, or illustrated by the apostle Peter. When surrounded by Gentiles withdrew from them when he saw Jewish brothers coming to where he was. So when we look at these events as they unfold before us starting at the upper room of Jesus, where we focus this morning, even after Jesus has died on the cross, and he's gonna be raised the third day.

The New Testament tells us that after his resurrection, he stayed with him for 40 days. Acts chapter one says, instructing them in the ways of the kingdom. So it's clear that as he's finishing up those last teachings with him in the last 40 days, it's a very interesting thing to me. I mean, I'm sorry I get off the path I, let me finish what I was gonna say.

For 40 days. Jesus showed them the ways of the kingdom. But I find it fascinating and interesting that those 40 days, none of the gospels tell us what that conversation was. There's a short overview of it in Acts chapter one for a couple of verses. Nothing about the specifics, the details, what? What is it that Jesus taught them and showed them the thing that's significant about communion?

He's already showed them in the upper room, the mark of discipleship, as we talked about this morning, loving one another. Those are the things that he showed was really important to, I want, I want you to love one another. He said that five times in that room and then in that room he shows them. I want you to remember me.

That when you take this bread, this is my body. When you take this fruit of the vine, this is my blood. I want you to remember me. But in those 40 days, there's a an interesting silence. But there are a few things that we're gonna talk about tonight to focus on this aspect of what I think Jesus wanted them to see Now.

Stink with me about now this is, this is gonna have to, you have to think about your television for a second. In 2013, Outback Steakhouse began advertising with a phrase that appeared in the eighties. First, maybe you know what it is. It still appears occasionally on some of their ads. No rules, just right.

May ever seen that. Okay. And I suspect that if you showed up and you didn't wait for the host, took a table of your own choice, ordered something that wasn't on the menu, and then walked in the kitchen and showed them how to cook it, there would be rules ha when there. They ran you outta the kitchen because you didn't get sterilized and you didn't get clean.

And we have a menu and we might cook the steak to your request, but you're not gonna be telling us how to cook everything in the kitchen. It is a funny thing that they say to advertise you, and I'm not trying to down talk Outback Steakhouse. There's a man named Peter Forsyth who said, the first duty of every soul is to find, not its freedom,

but to find its master. And that was what Jesus was for the 12. He was the teacher, but he was their master. He was their Lord. And for us, when we become Christians. Considering authority like this, we have to realize that though in, in a very real way, America is a country that is built around law and built around order from those laws.

I have only to go to Africa to be reminded about that. When I get in a car and I drive on those roads and I watch trucks and eight, and it's, it's just frightening sometimes to be on the road. And you may feel like that way when you come down to Houston, but you know that there's rules and you know people are supposed to follow them.

But as a culture, I'm not trying to get all preachy though. We love our independence. We've grown more and more as a cut culture, that disdains authority, and I think it plays out in the way people look at God. So I want you tonight to recognize that on this occasion, that would've fallen in those 40 days.

Matthew tells us something. Jesus said, look in Matthew chapter 28. In Matthew chapter 28. It says, the 11 disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. And Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Now, once again, those are familiar. Passages and familiar wording perhaps that we, we hear that all authority has been given to me in heaven on Earth. And, and probably that was a memory verse for you when you were young and it's probably something you could recount, maybe even find it directly in scripture without even worrying.

But I want you to see that when Jesus is saying that to the 12 about to commission them to go into the world, to preach the gospel, he wants them to understand who truly is still Lord. In commissioning of them to go into the world and preach the gospel and he says, Hey guys, go do and just do the best you can.

He's going to say to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and you go teach them what I taught you. He gives a rightful place and a right cla uh, clarity to the relationship that those 12 should have had to Jesus who was Lord. It is not the rhetoric that we need to get right in our thinking that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is Christ, that Jesus is king.

We can articulate whatever word we choose, but what truly manifest whether we are yielding ourselves to his authority is going to be manifest in the way that we act.

Because whether we act right or whether we act wrong. Jesus still has all authority. Whether there is a church on this planet who yields itself to his authority, Jesus will continue to be king. He will continue to be head and he will continue to have all authority. He does not depend on us to have authority, and he did not depend on the 12 to have his authority.

The authority that was given to him was given to him by God. We'll talk about that in a second. Another thing that's interesting about Matthew's Gospel is that Matthew's quite intent on reminding us about this authority that Jesus has, that when he gets to the end of the book, he reminds us about what Jesus said.

All authority is mine. All authority is mine. Another thing that's kind of interesting about it to me is that Matthew loves talking about mountains.

He's tempted, he preaches a sermon on a mountain. He heals people, and then here he goes to a mountain and tells the disciples, all authority is mine. And there's one last thing that's interesting to me. I don't think it's terribly important, but I've never thought about it until recently and actually preparing these lessons is why did Jesus take them to Galilee?

Wasn't the kingdom supposed to be announced from Jerusalem? That's what Micah for Isaiah two says. Yes, he promises them later in Acts chapter one, that you're gonna go to Jerusalem and you're gonna go to Jerusalem and you're going to wait till the Spirit comes and you will be given all understanding because of what the Holy Spirit will bring you.

But Jesus takes them to Galilee.

Maybe if he's going back to Galilee, simply because you know, that's my home. Maybe he takes them back to Galilee for something more significant. And in my mind, this is what Matthew is trying to get us to see in the gospel, is that from the very outset, the gospel was set by God to be something for every nation.

Galilee was not populated by a bunch of Jews. It was populated by Jews and Gentiles. And imagine Jesus standing up on this mountain in Galilee and at the foothills or or in the valleys of all surrounding the mountainside and all of the villages where these galileans, you can understand why one of the disciples said, can anything good come out of, see?

Jesus says The authority is mine 'cause I'm gonna send you to all of them. And we will talk about evangelism on Tuesday and how that plays out in that connection. But look what Matthew says in Matthew chapter seven, when Jesus' finishes a sermon on the Mount in verse 28, when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

In Matthew chapter eight in verse nine, when the man comes to Jesus to bring healing, he says, I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. And while these are not the words of Jesus, this man relates his relationship as a, a commander with authority. That you have authority, Jesus, and you can heal.

Matthew chapter nine and verse six. Occasion, another occasion of healing, but so that you may know, Jesus says that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he told the paralytic, get up, take your stretcher, and go home. So I want to impress you right in, out right, right in. Now that's a new dawn Hootin word y'all can write in.

Now, Jesus had the authority before he died.

Jesus had the authority before he was raised and Jesus had the authority in practical terms before he ascended on high to take the right hand of God. I'm not saying that the kingdom begins before then. I'm not trying to articulate anything out of the ordinary from scripture. What Jesus is simply saying is, you need to know the son of man has authority.

Now I'm gonna heal this man and I'm gonna heal him and make him walk.

Matthew chapter 10 and verse one, summoning the 12 disciples. Jesus gave them now authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. So now this authority is being emphasized where Jesus is now sharing this authority over, in this case, unclean spirits, the power to work a miracle.

And so as this scene unfolds to us from the very beginning of the, that we began with, and the book of Matthew chapter 28, the gospel is being sent out into the world with the reminder. You're going to teach them what I taught you because all authority is mine.

And so when Jesus says that,

I don't know why we don't emphasize that.

Because then you, when you study the history of churches from Pentecost onward and all of the things that humans have done to pervert and contort churches to, to mass structures that they find in, in human history, Roman Catholics is a ultimately mimicking the power structure that was within the Roman Empire.

Ultimately you begin to look at the development of things like the Church of England or other denominational churches like that, and they're structuring themselves after a pattern that that is not anywhere found in scripture. And sometimes even our brothers in Christ, they, they begin effort with great effort to, to take the world by storm with the gospel, while all at the same time borrowing a model that no is nowhere found in scripture.

Isn't it interesting that when Jesus sends those 12 out into what will be the great commission as we call it, Jesus says, the authority's mine,

you're not gonna do anything that I haven't taught.

So when people start thinking about religion and they start thinking about following Jesus. That so many times we've, we've come to believe because we've been told this over and over again, and in the outside culture, God just wants you to be happy. God just, God just wants you to express your feelings about how you love him, just any way you can.

Well, I'm gonna tell you, God wants you to express how you feel about him,

but it isn't No rules, just right.

It's a Jesus saying, all authority is mine.

And he said in that context, I have it all. All authority in heaven and on Earth belongs to me, not an organizational structure that men have created. When churches try to make decisions about how they worship or they, they talk about the, the, the issues of our day that are related to women in ministry and other things like that.

Why do we not start with what Jesus told the 12 to start with? The authority's mine

Notice John says in John chapter three. For the one whom God sent speaks God's word, since he gives the spirit without measure and the Father loves the son and has given all things into his hand, whether this is a, a present tense reality or whether John is forecasting the reality described in the inauguration of Jesus being placed at the right hand of God.

The point is, is that the authority that Jesus had, the father had given him. That's why this passage becomes important to us. In Ephesians chapter one, verse 20, that God exercised this power in Jesus Christ by raising him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, and he subjected everything.

Under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all

everything. And when I come to this text, it's, it's such a, it, it's a significant text. We're gonna develop it a little bit more in a little bit, but I just want you to notice this. The placement of Jesus's authority is far above anything that man has. I will always serve King Jesus no matter which country I belong to.

He is placed far above every ruler, every authority, every power and dominion, and every title given. And the only way that truth will ever manifest itself is not what I say on a Sunday morning when I say my prayers. The only way that that truth will ever manifest itself is if it manifests itself in the way that I address everything in the world about Jesus, and particularly the way Jesus wants me to live.

So in one Peter chapter three, Peter says this, Jesus c Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and has powers subject to him, Matthew's Gospel says in Matthew chapter eight and verse 23, what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him. It's because all authority is his.

So turn to the book of Daniel if you'd like to. The screen will show you the text, but you, when Jesus says, all authority has been given to me, where does he get that? Now I realize he's the son of man. I realize that he's the son of God. I realize that he knows what God is doing, but God has already told the world through a prophet what Jesus said has happened, and it happened centuries before Jesus ever arrived.

In a vision that the prophet Daniel received. In Daniel chapter seven, in verse 13, Daniel says, I saw and suddenly one, like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven, and he approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him and he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that those of every people, nation and language should serve him.

And his dominion is an everlasting dominion. That will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. Jesus of Nazareth declared to be the glorious son of man, the divine son of God by the resurrection from the dead. Romans chapter one, verse four says, is indicative of the truth of what Daniel said was going to happen.

And so when Jesus says All authority has been given to me, he doesn't have to say God gave it.

He just simply has to say the authority's mine, the son of man coming before the ancient of days, given from the father, the power and dominion, that is his forever lasting ages. Notice in Matthew chapter nine and verse six, but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth. Jesus knows what he's doing.

Matthew Chapter 26 in verse 53, particularly when Peter trying to thwart Jesus from being arrested and slicing off Malka ear. Jesus turns to Peter and says, do you think that I cannot call on my father and he will provide me here and now with more than 12 legions of angels, Jesus knew the authority and power that he had.

When Jesus tells them all authority has been given to me, go therefore, make disciples of all nations, izing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

They were being trained to do what he commanded. They were being promised the Spirit who would help them remember what he commanded, and Jesus will remind them again and again and again. If you love me, you will keep my wishes. I know your Bible didn't say that. If you love me, you will keep your conscience.

The Bible doesn't say that, but to the 12, Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. He has every authority. So when he commands the 12 to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. What Jesus is saying is something that God has always said to every leader who leads his people.

For instance, look in Exodus chapter seven and verse two, God says, you must say whatever I command you. Then Aaron, your brother, must declare it to Pharaoh so that he will let the Israelites go from his land. What did God tell Moses? Moses, I chose you because you're a wise man and I know you. I know you can figure it out.

That's not what God told Moses. The only way Moses could be authorized by God with power rightly given to him, is to do what it is that God wanted him to do. That's the only way authority works. Look in Joshua chapter one and verse seven. Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction.

My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you will have success wherever you go. That hallmark statement that we often put on graduation cards, good to put it there,

Joshua instructs with this statement. You have to observe everything that Moses told you, and when I look at these passages. We have this conversation sometimes about justification. How do I become right with God? I'm gonna tell you that the Bible has taught us, in my understanding of the book of Romans, that we're all justified by God in the exact same way by faith.

Abraham was justified by faith, and he was not under the law of Moses. David was justified by faith. Paul Tso said in Romans chapter four, even though he was under the law of Moses. Today, ladies and gentlemen, if you are a Christian, you will likewise be justified by faith even though you earned law to Christ.

But none of us will ever be justified by any law because none of us can keep the law like we say, we think we can.

So what does all of this mean? There is nothing we can know. About God. If God doesn't tell us what he wants us to know, look at what David told to Solomon. You will succeed if you carefully follow the statutes and ordinances. The Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or discouraged.

Jeremiah is told by God everywhere I send you, you shall go and all that I command you. You will speak.

I've told this story and I think I've even told it here before, that's a tough thing about being a preacher when you visit people that you haven't seen in a long time. You may have heard this story before, so I'm gonna apologize in advance if you have, but I went to college with a young man here at SFA and he had a funny thing about him that he, he, um, okay, let, let's all be honest.

That sometimes we do like to pick fun at preachers. Raise your hand. Okay. Okay. We, we know that that happens. Okay. Especially wise, wise, uh, preachers. No, just kidding. Uh, and so he kind of picked at his preacher and even when he knew I wasn't wanting to preach and he described to the preacher, I didn't know, the man never met him.

So I won't, I'm not calling his name anyway. But he said that every time he preached that he would wrap up with an invitation to obey the gospel, and that would take about 1.5 seconds. This is his exaggerating way to describe it, and me in exaggerating it more. And then he would say, and then he would talk about for the next 10 or 15 minutes how Christians need to know their Bible now.

Would you agree? Amen. That's a good exhortation. Yeah. I mean, yeah. What the man said is, we need more. And you're gonna know what part of the country he's from. As soon as I say it, we need more Bible tote and scripture quote and Christians. And he said that his preacher, every gospel, every meeting, every time they offered an invitation.

Um, y'all need to Amen. Harold or anyone, whoever uses this as an invitation, but, and he was mocking him. I wish I'd been smarter and wiser when I was younger.

That's what Jesus is telling the apostles. Every authority is mine and you need to teach them what I taught you. And ladies and gentlemen, we cannot tell anyone what Jesus taught if we don't read his book. We can't tell anyone. Well, I think, I don't, God never asked you about to talk about, I think what's right with God.

God has already told us what's right with God, hasn't he? God has already revealed in scripture everything pertaining to life and godliness. So I need to wrap my brains around what it is that God who has all authority and now has given to his son every authority and I wear the name Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.

Everything that He has taught, I need to know if I'm going to tell anyone anything. I'm not suggesting you have to know the whole Bible. 'cause I can guarantee you. When I was with you in the summer of 87, I said the Bible. Harold would probably amen that 'cause that was true. And even today at the age of 61, I'm still learning, I hope.

But Paul says in Philippians chapter two, for this reason, God highly exalted Jesus and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess. That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That is not a beautiful statement to simply be recited. It is the inscription upon the heart of a truly devoted disciple that I'm going to give Jesus Christ, who is the Lord, all the glory and what I do, because only he has all authority.

So what does that mean? All authority has been given to me.

He has authority over the darkness that threatens us. And when you realize that the reason that he came into the world was to set us free from sin and to bring us life eternal. The redemptive act of his atoning sacrifice that we talked about this morning is the aim of history. God bringing the law to teach the Israelites that they needed redemption.

They would sacrifice animals again and again and again to recognize that their sin, though being forgiven in that act was never fully forgiven until, as a writer of Hebrew says, as we talked about this morning, when the body was assigned to the sun and came to be the atoning sacrifice, God would take away sin.

Jesus has the authority over the darkness that threatens us. And I think Jesus illustrated this truth before his crucifixion, like in Matthew chapter eight, verse 28. Not gonna read all of the texts, but I want you to notice when he heals a man of demon possession, suddenly. The demons shout, what do you have?

What do we have to do with you? What do you have to do with us? Son of God, have you come here to torment us. Before the time, a long way off from there, a large herd of pigs was feeding, and if you drive us out, the demons begged. Send us into the herd of pigs. Jesus told them, go. So when they came out, they entered the pigs and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water.

You know, when I was a kid, that was one of my favorite stories. You know why? Because I loved drawing the picture of all the pigs running over the edge as an adult.

All Jesus said was, go

and all the demons surrendered.

So when you start thinking about your life and you're struggling with sin and the one who is the king of glory, the lamb of God who gave his life so that you could be redeemed and you pray to him for redemption, you pray for him to forgive you, and you pray for him for courage to be more holy, he can say, go.

He has the authority over the darkness that continues to threaten us. I realize that when we, when we're raised to walk in newness of life and the power of sin is done away, the power of sin is the law. And the law is done away, but the devil is still out to get us. And when I remember that all authority is his, I need to remember that he has the authority over the darkness that threatens us.

Matthew chapter nine. He has the authority over the sins that causes sickness. Just then. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a stretcher. Don't misunderstand, I'm not suggesting the paralytic was a sinner, but I'm gonna make this application. Listen, seeing their faith. Jesus told the paralytic, have courage.

Son, your sins are forgiven. Then he says, but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he told the paralytic, get up, take your stretcher, and go home. And he got up and he went home. And when the crowd saw this, they were awestruck and gave God glory who had given such authority to men.

They witnessed what Jesus has come to do. Not only in that private moment with a man who had the demon possession, where he has authority over the darkness to that threatens us. He here, he has authority over the thing that has sickened our world. I'm not suggesting at all that the man who was a paralytic had committed sin, but the whole reason that any of us are sick in this world is because we live in a sinful world.

Full stop. It isn't probably because of your personal sin at all. Why did Jesus Christ die on the cross? Because he lives in a sinful world. Why was Peter allegedly crucified upside down? Because we live in a sinful world. Why was Paul killed? Why was disciple after disciple apostle? After apostle murdered?

We live in a sinful world. Jesus has the authority over the sins that have sickened us. And then the last point is he has authority over the church to bless us. Remember I told you about that passage in Ephesians chapter one, the matching passage in Colossians one, verse 18. He is also the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. So they knew might come to have first place and everything, but when he writes to Ephesians to the church at Ephesus or this circular letter that would included Ephesus, he exercised his power and then the passage that we've emphasized and he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him his head over all things for the church, which is his body.

I want you to recognize that the translation that I'm have in front of you, like I will have all week long, is from the Christian standard and it says, and he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him. I think the language, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I think that the language of a point hides the significance of what Paul was really saying because the idea of appointment.

It has a ality about it. It has a, a formality about it that Jesus was appointed to be head over all things to the church, and I'm not denying that that's the case. I think that would be true from what Paul wrote in Colossians one, but in a different letter, the wording is different. And if you'll notice that in the King James and the English standard version, it says that.

He subjected everything under his feet and gave him

and gave him to be head over all things to the church.

Don, what are you making a big fuss about? What is that? Even a man in his translation in 1898, it's not necessarily the most reliable translation. It's a one man translation by the man name of young. But he translates it and God did give him headship over the church.

Even then, as he's making the point that I'm trying to make to you.

If I asked any of you wanted to be president for a day, all of you might say, yeah, that's great, but what if I said, you want to be president for the next 17 years?

Sometimes when you become a husband you think, man, I don't know if I can lead this become a dad. I don't know if I can lead this. And we talk about the demand of authority and responsibility in all of those settings, but now we expand it to include a city san it to include a state. And expand it to include a country.

Now expand it to include the world.

God gave us a gift in giving us someone who has all the authority. He gave us a gift in giving us this opportunity to know what it was that we should do. It was a gift. Yes, it is an authority that we must yield to. Yes, it is a power that we must surrender to. But the wording of Paul guided by the Spirit in telling the Church of Ephesus translated, as I said, at least through three of those translations, but more as a gift.

God gifted us because we mess up all the time.

So what about worship? Jesus says this, John chapter 4 23 An hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, yes, the Father wants such people to worship him, and God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth from the words of Jesus himself.

So if I want to ask the question about what is authorized and worshiped, that's our language. I need us to ask the question of what Jesus would say. What about the one who's in the one Who's in charge? His name is Jesus the King. What did he tell his disciples to do? And that ends the conversation. What about his teaching?

Fascinating thing. I'm gonna run out of time. I'm really sorry. But in Africa, ed and I were in a group which had a, a large mix of preachers from different backgrounds, some from Pentecostal backgrounds, and they all, not they all. There were several that started asking us a question about Adam's other wife, anybody ever heard about.

I know you, if you know anything about Jewish tradition, you know the answer. Adam's other wife, and we said. Where is it in the Bible? And they said, no, we're asking you. I said, well, I can read to you in my Bible. And the answer is, God created Eve. And that's when Adam said she's mine.

She was his first and only woman one. But where they had picked it up from was the teaching from other people. Probably people who read too much on the internet and depended on Jewish tradition that somehow that the first wife of Adam was an evil woman. 'cause you know, we men like to blame things that's on the women.

And so they, they created this story that he had this woman, and then God made a good woman named you. To me, that illustrates something that we miss all the time. We listen to the wrong thing. All the time.

Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God, the one who remains in that teaching. This one has both the father and the son. Whether John is really trying to say something as simple as the teaching about Christ that he was. Raised from the dead. Dead and that he's truly the son of God.

Whether he is trying to spotlight that. The whole point is, is that if you, even if you spotlight the teaching that Jesus Christ is the raised Lord, then you're talking about everything He taught the disciples to teach other disciples.

The only person who has that authority is him. And what about his church? I think we already read it, but I want you to look at two passages and I'll be done. This is why I've sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

I hope you'll highlight that in your Bible, that Paul tells the church at Corinth that I'm sending you Timothy, and I know Timothy is gonna teach you what I teach in every church. That must mean for the Apostle Paul that what all churches were supposed to teach was same thing.

And then he says in chapter four, verse six, earlier, brothers and sisters, I've applied these things to myself and Apollo for your benefits so that you may learn from us. Did you hear that? Who are we learning from the apo? You will learn from us the meaning of this saying nothing beyond what is written.

The only way I can ever know the authority of Jesus is if I go to the source of the information that his spirit guided the men to write, so that when Jesus would say to them, all authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth. The reason we need to be a church of Christ is not because it's the right name.

We need to be a church of Christ because only he has authority. Everything belongs to him. And so when we sing, we sing because everything belongs to him. When we partake of the Lord suffers because everything belongs to him. And when I teach I might tell you stories about my kids and I might tell you stories about everything else, but the only thing I'm supposed to bring to your mind and to your memory.

It's him,

because that's what preaching the gospel is. I hope the lesson's been encouraging to you. I tried to make a personal commitment that I was not gonna overstay my welcome, and I'm trying really hard, but I hope you've been encouraged. So let me finish with this last exhortation, this one who has all authority.

You can bring down 10,000 angels at his father's discretion is the same one who took upon himself from his father's command to die for the sinful world, to give his life a ransom for people who did not care for him, who did not esteem him, but yet he would bear their burden of sin. So that they could be right before God.

He agreed to do that because like his father, he loves you. So tonight, if you want to become a Christian, his message is he who believes and is baptized will be saved. He has all authority, number one. He's the one who brings you that salvation. So tonight we ask you to be baptized. Because it is our ordinance in our church.

It's because it's the command of our savior. And we hope you'll do that if you haven't. But if you're a Christian and you need the prayers of the saints that are here, I know they'd want to pray with you to help you to be stronger. That's why we gather. So if you're subject to heaven's call, we plead with you to come.

Let's together we stand and as we sin.

Who will follow Jesus?