Day 6 Lent 2023
"The Holy Spirit" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends from Heaven with God pronouncing Him good in His sight, and he goes into the wilderness to pray and be tempted for forty days. When He comes out of the wilderness, He announces His public ministry, and they try to throw Him off a cliff, but He escapes and goes to another city.
29and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
30But passing through their midst, He went His way.
31And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath;
32and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority.
Luke 4:29–32 (NASB95)
“…and they were amazed at His teachings….” Why? Jesus wasn’t teaching them anything the rabbis of their synagogues weren’t saying. Why all of a sudden were these people “amazed” at what this Man was saying?
“Well, because it says, “…His message was with authority.” Okay, whose? The King James reads that verse a little differently. Let’s look at that one.
32And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
Luke 4:32 (KJV 1900)
The Greek word behind this sticks with power and authority but adds jurisdiction, liberty, right, and strength. All those things Jesus had in His words, the same words earthly men read countless times to the same people. This time it was different. Why?
Greek Strong’s Number: 1849
Greek Word: ἐξουσία
Transliteration: exousia
Phonetic Pronunciation: ex-oo-see’-ah
Root: from <G1832> (in the sense of ability)
Cross Reference: TDNT - 2:562,238
Part of Speech: n f
Vine’s Words: Authority, Jurisdiction, Liberty, Power, Right, Rightly
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
power 69
authority 29
right 2
liberty 1
jurisdiction 1
strength 1
[Total Count: 103]
from <G1832> (exesti) (in the sense of ability); privilege, i.e. (subject) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (object) mastery (concrete magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence:- authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.
James Strong, “Ἐξουσία,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
Jesus is God. When He spoke to these people, He knew what He said was both the truth and right. There was no question in His mind about whether or not He had it right. He knew He did. He didn’t care if the people had different opinions about what the scrolls said. He knew His interpretation was correct. The listeners could open their ears and learn from Him or not.
To say Jesus didn’t care is a misnomer. God cared then, and He cares now. But He isn’t going to force anyone to Love Him or come to His Son. Forced love, forced respect, and forced reverence are empty and not what glorifies God at all. Our willing heart turning to Him, adoring Him, and praising His righteous ways is what is worth having.
Jesus spoke with authority. Does anyone speak with authority today? We said yesterday we are not God. I am not God, and you are not God. We willingly acknowledge this. So, do our words carry any authority?
That depends. Depends on what? Depends on why we are speaking, the motivation in our heart for putting out the words, and the source of those words. Each of us must meet and deal directly with God to overcome self and dig into why He wants us involved in His plan. We don’t have to understand it fully or even know anything beyond one simple fact: His plan is not ours.
Once we let go of our designs and fully embrace His, things begin to change. One of my biggest challenges is not trying to take the reigns or plan too far into the future for what to do about that. I find when things aren’t going smoothly in my life; it is usually because I’ve wandered off into the weeds of my own ways and away from what He is trying to do. When I turn around, there He is, standing patiently on His path, waiting for His errant child to turn, see Him, and return to His ways. I think I’m getting better at this, but He’ll have to tell me when I see Him one day.
Jesus spoke with authority. Why? Do we speak with authority? Maybe. Why? What is our source? What was Jesus’ source? Better to say what should our source be. The answer is the same.
God.
Okay, that’s an easy answer. It is at once specific for everyone to agree on and ambiguous, offering absolutely zero accountability for any action to change. What is a better, more specific answer that is the same but gives us direction and purpose of action?
31“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’
32“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:31–34 (NASB95)
“That doesn’t seem like a very specific direction and purpose for action.” Read it again and focus on verse thirty-three this time. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
His kingdom is a spiritual one, a kingdom of the heart, not of social media, cars, and electronics. We seek this by asking Him to guide us through His Holy Spirit. We demonstrate our participation in His spiritual kingdom through obedience to His call on our lives. We enter that kingdom when we make what He puts on our heart central rather than secondary. God becomes something central in every aspect of our life rather than something that gets the leftovers of our week only on Sunday inside a specific building. That’s how we enter His kingdom.
We begin to seek after His righteousness when we accept His Word as authoritative. All of His Word, not just the pieces we like. God is the Creator of everything. We are not. He gets to decide what is right and wrong. He told us what He decided. Our approval or disapproval doesn’t change one thing about what He thinks about right and wrong. It is the height of arrogance to say that the Bible has “some good parts but is a book written by men to control a geopolitical and socioeconomic group of people.” That’s an excuse made by people who don’t want to admit there is a higher power who gets to declare what right and wrong is, and oh, by the way, some things we are doing He thinks are wrong. We don’t want to be told we are doing wrong things, but we are human and make mistakes, so some of what we do every day is wrong in God’s eyes. The humble thing to do is ask for His guidance and try to change those wrong things into right things. Only God can change a heart. I cannot. He who has ears, let him hear.
Jesus spoke with authority. Can we? Yes. How? By implementing verse thirty-three above in our lives. We do that first. Then we follow verse thirty-four because we’ve surrendered what comes next to God. Once we are on to verse thirty-four, we’ve entered into the peace that surpasses all understanding because we’re letting God make the decisions. We’re just executing the instructions given to us. That doesn’t remove our decision-making from the process. God is taking care of the leadership directional big-picture decisions. We must still execute our Christian discernment and manage what He has placed under our authority. That part grows larger and larger the more we demonstrate we are trustworthy to handle His way instead of our way. When we enter that part of verse thirty-four, we enter Jabez’s realm with our coasts beginning to expand.
If you think you’re in verse thirty-four but don’t see expansion, then you’ve missed something. Slow down, be patient, and pray for guidance. However, be ready to change because God is moving in the world right now. The people of God are getting ready for something. I don’t know what it is, but something is coming, and the Holy Spirit is making waves. We should want to be involved.
10And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
1 Chronicles 4:10 (KJV 1900)