Medicina

Exposing the Marks of Counterfeit Authority
Matthew 23:1-12 | March 02, 2008   |   Code: 90-353 |

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Well, over the last number of weeks, we have been talking about the necessity of authority in the church in a time when authority is not popular, and even authority from the pulpit is not popular. I can tell you from personal experience that I amthe subject of much blogging and have been for many, many years and perhaps it’s escalated in more recent years since I wrote the book The Truth War and I am accused, as I have in the past, of being far too authoritarian, far too dogmatic, far too narrow, far too absolute in the things that I say, that I somehow have become quote/unquote non-Christian in my advocacy of the Christian faith becauseI am not tolerant, I’m not accepting a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints.
I have no personal authority. We have pointed that out in this series. I have no ecclesiastical authority. We have addressed that. There is no human level on which I possess any authority. I have no authority from my education. I have no authority from my office as a pastor. I have no authority from my experienceyears as a Christian, years in ministry. The only authority that I have and the only time that I am to be heard as an authority is when I rightly proclaim to you the truth of the Word of God. For only the Word of God is the authority.
And so we have talked about how important it is to recognize that God speaks authoritatively. We began in our study to consider Titus 2:15 where we are reminded bythe Apostle Paul as preachers and as those who proclaim the gospel to speak, exhort and reprove with all authority. In fact, “Let no one disregard you, no one evade you,” the Greek means, no one try to get around you. We are to speak with an authority that is binding on everyone, that no one can allude or evade.
We then move to Paul’s instruction to Timothy...from Titus to Timothy and Paul toldTimothy to preach the Word and do it all the time, for the Word of God is the authority of God revealed. And so when we talk about ministry, we’re simply talking about human beings called by God and given the responsibility from God to proclaim His Word and His Word is authoritative by nature.
Now when we talk about authority, we could probably have a fairly broad understanding of the word. Thereare people all around us who have authority over us. People where we work have authority over us by title. There are people in our society such as teachers and policemen and government officials who have authority over us. They have been given by our civil society the right to demand certain things from us. They can demand our money. They can demand our conformity to civil law. They can command acertain kind of behavior, and if we don’t give that kind of behavior, they have every right to press in upon us and bring about some severe consequences. We understand that kind of authority, the authority given within civil government to create order in society.
That kind of authority does not exist in the church. When we talk about authority in the church, we’re not talking about some powerwielded by people because of official status or because of canon law, church law, the traditions of men, as Jesus referred to them. When we talk about authority in regard to the church, or authority with regard to Christian ministry, we’re talking about the truth, we’re talking about the truth. And in society we use the concept of authority in that way. In fact, you will often hear, for example, ifyou’re watching a documentary on any kind of subject, someone will say, “Let’s talk to Mr. So-and-so, he is an authority on this subject.” Or if you’re working in college on a certain project in a certain course and you have to write a paper, you go the library and you find the authorities on the subject that you are endeavoring to understand. We understand that.
It’s authority that comes not...