More Than Meets the Eye
Stephen Elliott · Tidal Church Moncton · August 27, 2023 · Twisted Scriptures series
Stephen Elliott digs into Matthew 28, where Jesus says all authority has been given to Him. He shows that this authority is real power, and that Jesus offers it to His people for mission as they walk closely with the Father.
More from Stephen Elliott · The Twisted Scriptures series
Topics: Holy Spirit, Mission & Outreach, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Have you ever looked at a person or a thing or a situation and you said, there's more to that person than meets the eye, or there's more to that situation, or there's more to that thing than meets the eye. You can see what's apparent, but you've got that sense within you that there's something that's just deeper or something more substantive that's behind it. For instance, most of us in the room are very familiar with a Super Soaker squirt gun. Super Soaker squirt gun was invented in 1989 by a man named Lonnie Johnson, and if you look at it, it's just a few pieces of PVC pipe. And yes, that is a, that's an empty Coke bottle on the top of it. And there was a little bit of tubing, and that was the, that's how the Super Soaker began. But behind the Super Soaker, there is a much more interesting story because Lonnie Johnson is not just some random guy. He's actually a NASA engineer, and he's got over 200 patents that he's developed, he has really done all kinds of amazing things.
[1:03] He's actually one of the inventors of lithium batteries. He's, one of the inventors of the stealth aircraft. He's, was one of the developers of the, propulsion system that took the missiles and the spaceships to, to Mercury and to Mars and to Jupiter. I mean, this, this is a really substantive story. And you look at how complex, look at how many components are actually now part of the Super Soaker. And so there's way more to a Super Soaker than just initially meets the eye. Or how about this? Is there anybody in the room that does not know who Mr. Bean is? Most of us in the room, we know who Mr. Bean is. He's kind of this goofy kind of character with Teddy, this little teddy bear. And I actually saw an interview one time and they were talking about Mr. Bean. And the guy said, he says, when I'm acting as Mr. Bean, he says, in my mind, he says, I'm pretending that I'm a very self-centered, mean-spirited seven-year-old boy.
[2:01] But behind Mr. Bean is Rowan Atkinson, and Rowan Atkinson, you may not know this, but the man is a genius. And I'm not just saying that, just be kind like an average IQ is 100, and like if you've got 120, 140, even up to 160, like that's considered genius level. Well, Rowan Atkinson has an IQ of 178. He's actually classified in the top 100th of the smartest people in the world, and he's got two master's degrees. He was working on his PhD, and he can see what his net worth is worth. And so there's way more to Mr. Bean than initially meets the eye. Or how about this? For some of you that are older, you would recognize the name Edith Bunker, Archie Bunker's wife. And she was kind of doubting, you know, squeaky voice, little old lady, but behind her is Jean Stapleton.
[2:53] And you may not know, Jean Stapleton was a recognized Broadway actress. She's a, she's a singer. I mean, she's been inducted into the Hall of Fame by both theater and movie, and she's a very savvy businesswoman. And so you, you look at Edith Bunker and you say, wait a sec, there's way more here than meets the eye. You say, okay, Steve, why are you telling us this? Because there's a verse in the Bible that I have looked at literally hundreds of times, and every time I see this verse, every time I hear somebody reference it or I see it on a screen or a preacher's preaching and they say this verse, there was something within me that just went, boy, there's more here to this verse than I'm seeing. And I know there is. And so just to give you the context, for about the four months or so, the only verse in the Bible I was studying was this verse.
[3:47] And I mean, I did a deep dive in it. I read as many commentaries and Bible dictionaries and systematic theology, and I looked at sermons and things that people had written and preached on this verse. And I'm looking to see, there's something in this verse that I am not seeing. I sense it's there, but I'm not seeing. You say, well, what's the verse? Well, it's one of the very last verses in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 28. And Jesus says to His disciples, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. And I look at this verse and I go, there's something here. Now, the context of Him sharing that verse is this, He's already been crucified. Jesus has already resurrected. He's been with His disciples for about 40 days.
[4:32] He's just about to go back to heaven. This is one of the very last things He says to disciples before He gives them the Great Commission, which is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. He's just about to say that. But the verse before this verse says this, that some of the disciples are scared and they're doubting. They, they're not even sure of what's really Jesus. Did You really die? Are You really the Son of God? Like, are You really the Messiah? Like they're, they're having a struggle. There's fears and doubts within them, and it's within this context Jesus says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Now, those of us who are in the room that speak more than one language, you know that when you translate a phrase from one language into another, sometimes it loses something. So those of you who are French speaking, if I said the phrase mon petit chou, somebody tell me literally, if somebody actually translated mon petit chou literally word for word, what does that mean? Somebody give it to me, my little cabbage.
[5:39] Is that what that phrase really means? No, of course not. Mon petit chou is, it's a term of endearment. It's like your little girl, your precious loved one or something like that. But if you took a literal translation word for word, it means my little cabbage. Well, when Jesus said all authority is the Greek word that He's used there, Jesus did not speak English. He spoke either Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic. When Jesus said, all authority has been given to Me, we who are English speaking, we look at that word authority. And most of us think, well, the word authority means you've got the right to decide something or you've got the right to do something or you've got the right to make decisions. You have the authority to decide something.
[6:33] So think back to your very first job. Maybe you worked at McDonald's and you had a crew chief or something like that and they had the authority and they said to you, this is a shift that you're gonna work and you have to wear this uniform. And you have to say, do you want fries with that? And so they've got the authority, they've got, they have the power and the ability to get the authority to, tell you what shift, what to wear. They have, they've got that authority or the police officer has got the authority to make decisions. I'm gonna stop that car, but I'm not gonna stop that car, but I am gonna stop that car and I'm gonna give them a warning. But that car, I'm gonna give them not just a warning, I'm actually gonna give them a ticket and I'm a police officer and I've got the authority to stop this traffic and I've got the authority to tell these people to go and then to reverse it, I have the right to make these decisions. Or immigration.
[7:24] Canada has got authority to choose who comes into the country and where they're gonna live. At least initially, they've got the right to make these decisions. So when Jesus said, I have authority, is He just saying I've got the right to choose to make decisions? Or is there something deeper here that we're not seeing? So let's go back to the policeman analogy. The policeman has got the authority, but imagine with me now that you've got a five foot one police officer and he's got a big hat that doesn't fit right on his head and he's got a sloppy uniform and he's got a rusty revolver.
[8:11] Does he have authority with a warrant to go arrest the head of Hell's Angels in their clubhouse? Do they have the authority to do that? Yeah. Do they have the power to do that? So what happens if a five foot one scrawny police officer with a rusty revolver goes into Hell's Angels and I'm gonna arrest the leader of this guy, probably he's gonna get beat up or something worse. Now, change the scenario. The police officer is now six foot 3, 240 pounds, built like The Rock, the Dwayne Johnson, and he's got a shotgun and he's got a SWAT team with him. Does he have the authority and does he have the power to do what he wants to do and needs to do? Of course.
[9:04] So when Jesus said, I have exousia, that's the Greek word, I have the authority, is He just saying, I've got the right to make decisions, or is there something deeper here? So what I did in my four month study on this passage, I looked at every reference in the Bible where it talks about the authority or the power of Jesus. And here's my conclusion. When Jesus said He has got authority, He's not kidding. You look at the stories of Jesus and what do you see? You see things like this. Jesus is in a boat and there's this terrible storm that arises and the disciples are scared to death 'cause they think they're gonna drown and they wake up and they, Jesus, don't You care that we're about to drown? And Jesus wakes up, He rebukes the situation, He says, peace, be still. And immediately the storm ceases.
[9:57] And how did the disciples react to that? Huh? Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Or how about this? Jes Demons are real. Demons can possess people, demons can oppress people externally. Demons are real. And Jesus confronts this guy who has a legion of demons within him so strong, he breaks chains, he beats people up. The neighborhood is scared of this guy. Jesus confronts this guy, confronts the demons, commands the demons to come outta this guy. They go into a herd of pigs. And what does the Scripture say? The disciples said in response to that.
[10:43] They said, with authority and power, He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out. Woo. He's got authority over nature. He's got authority over demons. Jesus has got authority over angels. Jesus said, when I'm dying on the cross, I could have called 10,000 angels from heaven to come and set Me free, but I didn't. But He had the right to do that. Jesus has got authority over angels. Jesus has got authority over disease. He can look at a person that's got cancer or Bell's palsy, or He can look at people that are paralyzed. He can look at people that have terrible diseases. He can walk up and touch their blind eyes and now they see, or put His finger in their ears and they can begin to hear.
[11:34] He can look at people even from a distance and say, that person, you are gonna be well. And that person gets well. He's got authority over even disease. He's got authority even over injury. Remember this story when Jesus is being arrested and Peter picks up his sword and takes a swipe at the closest guy. And what's He do? He cuts off the servant's ear, his ear is severed from his head. And what does Jesus do? He walks over, He picks up the ear and puts it back on the guy's head. He's got authority over injuries. He's got authority over nature. He walks up to a fig tree and it doesn't have any figs on it and He's perturbed with it and He curses the fig tree.
[12:24] And the next day the fig tree is dead. Jesus has got authority even over what we would call science. You can't do that, that violates all the laws of science. And Jesus says, I can. I can do whatever I wanna do. If I wanna take water and turn it into wine, I can do that. If there's a poisonous snake that bites somebody, Jesus says, I can cancel the poison of that. He's got authority over science. He's got authority over all kinds of things. He's got authority over things like natural laws. If He wants to walk on top of water, He can walk on top of water. He has authority over death.
[13:16] He can look at a dead person and bring them back to life like He did with Lazarus, like He did with the widow's son. He's got authority over sin. He can forgive people for any sin. He's got authority over people to command, to rebuke, judge and direct and correct these people. So when Jesus said, I have all authority, He's not kidding, but the word authority isn't quite strong enough. It would be better if the translation into English says, I have the authoritative right and power to do anything. That's who Jesus is. So when Jesus speaks, what do the crowd say about Jesus? Man? What? When He speaks, He speaks like one who has authority.
[14:08] And when He's challenged, like, who gives You the right to drive out these money changers out of the temple? By My own authority, I have all authority. So that begs the question then, where does Jesus' authority come from? So I'm, by the way, I know this message is gonna be a little bit heavy on the instruction and a little bit less heavy on the inspiration. But if you'll hang with me, I hope that there's something here that would also kind of inspire a bit. So where does Jesus' authority come from? Well, when you read the commentaries, they tend to go in one of two tracks. It's either this track or it's this track. So where does Jesus' authority come from? And some people say, well, Jesus' authority, well, it's inherent in who He is.
[14:57] He is the Son of God, He's the second person of the Trinity. Omnipotence, all power, is part of the Godhead. And so this is the trait of who He is as the Son of God. Where does authority come from? It's inherent in who He is. But then other people said, hmm, that's true. Jesus absolutely was the Son of God. He always remained deity. But when you look in the book of Philippians, it also says that He emptied Himself when He came into this world, He humbled Himself and took the form of a little baby.
[15:44] And when you look at this baby, is this baby omnipotent? Is this baby everywhere present like God? Or does the Scripture say that Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge and favor with God and man? So when Jesus came into this world, He emptied Himself by His own choice of some of the attributes of God. And now He's a finite baby. So where does His authority come from? Well, He was and is Son of God, but He's also Son of Man.
[16:31] And so the power that we see in Jesus' life is actually, what does the Bible verse actually say? All authority. Somebody say it with me. All authority in heaven and earth has been given, given to Me. The authority that we see manifested in Jesus' life was conferred on Jesus by God the Father through the Holy Spirit as an example of what a human being can do when they're in the same relationship with the Father that Jesus was in with the Father. You see this amazing authority and power that we see in Jesus' life was what was given to Him because Jesus walked in total submission to the Father.
[17:22] He said, I don't say anything except what the Father tells Me to say. And I don't do anything except what the Father tells Me to do. And how often do we see in Scripture Him going alone into the mountains to pray, to hear from God as Son of Man? The power we see in His life was conferred on Him. He said, so it has been given to Me. So my conclusion as I'm reading through Scripture and I'm doing my study with this, I said, His authority is unchallenged. It's unalterable, it's not opposable, it's complete and it's absolute. Oh, Satan, by the way, tries to oppose the authority of Christ. But Jesus is in the process, Scripture says, of putting all authorities under His own feet. So what's all this mean?
[18:14] I mean, there's more that meets the eye than this little, these 11 verses in Scripture. He's talking to some scared, doubting disciples. He starts by saying, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. And then for those of you who are English nerds, He uses a conjunctive adverb. He says, therefore, connecting what He's just said with what He's about to say, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded. You go into the Jerusalems and the Samarias and the uttermost parts of the world, and I'm gonna be with you always. He says, so He connects His authority to the Great Commission that He gave to the disciples and that He gives to every Christian in this room.
[19:14] And I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, so what is the connection? Why does Jesus say this before He gives the Great Commission? And again, the commentaries go two completely different directions. There's one set of commentaries that says, this is what this means. And there's another set of commentaries that says this is what it means. The one set of commentary says, when Jesus says, I have all authority, what He's saying is, I have the right to tell you what to do. I am Jesus. I'm Messiah, second person of the Trinity. I have the right to tell you go and make disciples. And every Christian I know goes, duh. Of course Jesus has the authority to tell us what to do.
[20:00] But is there something else here? Like we're talking about the twisting of Scripture. And so many people say, well, it just means that He has the right to tell 'em what to do. But there's a whole different train of thought that says this. It says, when Jesus says all authority in heaven, earth has been given to Me, the implications of that is this. He says, the authority I have, you can have to go and make disciples of all nations. And we go, now Steve, does it actually say that in this passage? And I go, no, but it's there. And you start looking at the parallel passages, other places in Scripture.
[20:51] And what happened when Jesus sent His disciples out, Jesus called His disciples to Him on many occasions. And what does it say? It says, He gave them authority over what? Demons and disease. You've got authority to cast out demons, people that are demon oppressed, to set them free. You've got authority to heal people. The authority that I have, you can have too. Now here's the truth of the matter. There's not one person in this room, including me, there's not one person on the planet that has all of the authority of Jesus. But we do collectively, because God gives gifts to the members of the family of God, and to one person, He gives a gift of prophecy, the ability to accurately predict the future under the direction of God.
[21:51] And to this person over here, He gives this person words of knowledge, that they know things now that they shouldn't be able to know. And to this person over here, He gives the ability to cast demons out. And to this person, He gives gifts, plural gifts of healing. And many people believe that what that means is that to one person, you've got an ability to pray for people's spines or pray for people's hearing or pray for people's eyes, gifts of healing. To some people in this room, He's given gifts of discernment, that you sense things, you sense the presence of evil. You present, you know when something is right or wrong. To some people, He gives gifts of visions and dreams and interpretation and speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. See, collectively we have the authority of Jesus to carry out the mission of the church. But there's a problem.
[22:49] The first problem with this, most people don't pursue the gifts that God has given them, and they don't use them. The second problem is this. Sometimes we get big egos. We think we're all that in a bag of chips. Well, look what I can do. And the disciples had that problem. Oh, Jesus, when You come into Your kingdom, you know, I want to sit at Your right hand. Boy, what arrogance. You think you're that in a bag of chips. And then sometimes people use the gifts that God gives inappropriately. And you remember what happened with the disciples one time? They were out and they were preaching and the people wouldn't hear what they had to say, and they turned to Jesus and said, Jesus, You want us to call down fire from heaven and burn up this town? And Jesus goes, oh, you guys, come on.
[23:48] You're completely missing the point of why this power is available to you. The power of God that we see manifested in Jesus' life that was conferred on Him is available to every person in this room, some gift to be able to advance the kingdom of God. So why does God give the power gifts? First of all, to expand the kingdom of God. That God would work through you in supernatural manifestations that would break the apathy and indifference in people around you that don't even care if there is a God or care. If there's church, and they don't give a rip about Bible or prayer, but when they see God doing something supernatural, they see somebody that they know being delivered or somebody that's healed, they go, wait a sec, maybe there is a God that I'm ultimately unaccountable to.
[24:44] The gifts are given to advance the kingdom of God. Second of all, they're given to advance the glory of God, and by the glory of God, the word glory means to make somebody the center of positive attention. This is your moment of glory. What's that mean? What it means, all eyes are on you in a positive way. And when God is working through you with the power that we see manifested in Jesus' life, it's not that we get big egos or think that we're this, that or the other thing. It's so that people would think well about God. And the third reason that God gives these gifts, it's to beat back the works of the devil.
[25:30] If you haven't noticed, you must be living under a rock. Satan is having a heyday these days. The amount of pain and addiction and problems and stresses, the things that Satan is doing to destroy families, hurt people, destroy cultures. And God gives these power gifts to beat back the work of Satan. So what does all this mean? What this means is that Jesus' authority is available to those who will be like Him, who will walk in close intimacy with the Father.
[26:18] They hear what God says, they do what God says. And in those kind of situations, God makes His power available to those individuals. Jesus had such an intimate, close relationship with the Father that He heard perfectly every prompt, every direction, every word from the Father. What He wanted Him to say or do is what Jesus did. He did no more and He did no less. And if we wanna access power, it's the only way to get it, is by that intimacy with the Father. But there's one last component to this verse. 'Cause Jesus ends by saying, and surely I'm with you always, to the very end of the age. This is authoritative. Power is not only available in us as we walk in intimacy with the Father, but Jesus says, I'm also going to be with you always.
[27:15] I'm there to protect you. I'm there to guide you. I'm there to be with you. I'm there to help you. Your power is available in Me. Your presence is promised to be with Me. Surely I'm with you always, right through to the end of the age, this power and presence. On one occasion, the apostle Paul was in a place, and he was involved in a healing ministry, and somebody got well, and the crowd said, whoa, the gods have come down amongst us? This is a really unusual, special person. Let's make a celebrity outta this person. And Paul was mortified.
[28:01] He said in response to them wanting to make him into a celebrity, he says, I'm only a human. Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we made him well and made him walk? Jesus said this power is with you always. My presence is with you always. In English, the word always sometimes means a whole bunch. You always serve me Kraft Dinner. You're always late. Well, yeah, a lot of the time maybe. But the Greek word here actually means every minute of every day, 24/7, every day of the year.
[28:52] Surely I am with you always, right through to the end of the age. We look at the great revivals of the past, great revivals like the Welsh revivals, the Wesley revivals, Azusa Street. We look at the Great Awakening that came up the east coast of North America. We hear about great revivals that took place in the prairies, and there's been spots of revivals that have taken place in Ontario and different places like down in Texas. And we go, wow, these are amazing. These are moments when God's manifest presence is there. But that's not what Jesus said. He said, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
[29:40] That means that the power of God that can bring about revival in a community can happen today in Moncton. 'Cause He's with us. This all-powerful God. Surely I'm with you always, to the very end of the age. Now I'm gonna end with a little bit of a story, and you're gonna say, Steve, this sounds like you're talking about something entirely different. If you hang with me, I promise you I'm talking about the same thing. But it's gonna sound like I'm going off on a tangent, but I'm not. If you talk to my wife, she would tell you that I dream every night, and my dreams are so much fun. Honestly, every night when I go to bed, my dreams are like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Every night they're action-packed.
[30:27] I flail around, I'm saying things out loud. My wife is trying to settle me down. Like, my dreams are very vivid. They're action-packed. I love going to sleep. Earlier this year, a friend of mine in Ontario called me. He says, Steve, yep, I've got a word from God for you. Said, okay. He says, the word from God for you is this. Pay attention to the dream God's gonna give you. Okay? About two nights later, I had a dream, unlike any dream I've ever had.
[31:14] And I know you're just gonna have to take this at my word. I have never, ever, ever said previously that God gave me a dream. But that night He did. And I'm gonna try and describe to you what I saw in the dream. In my dream, I'm in the backyard of the house that I grew up in. It's a huge, big brick house. The one half my grandparents lived in, Mom and Dad, my sister and I lived in the other half of the house. Huge, massive, big brick house. And I'm in the backyard. And as I'm walking across the backyard, all of a sudden the ground begins to give way. And there's this vast caverns that are opening up, massive caverns.
[32:01] Have you ever seen, like, the 3D chalk drawings that you see sometimes on YouTube and things like that where these, chalk drawings, and it looks like these gaping huge crevices there. And on these, as I'm walking across the backyard, there's this little pylons that I can step on. And so I'm carefully walking. There's a big brick house that my grandparents, Mom and Dad, and I'm walking, I'm stepping very carefully on these little pylons and I'm looking down. And if I fall into these caverns, it's like hundreds of feet deep, I'm gonna die. So I'm being very, very careful. And as I'm walking across these, these little pylons, I notice that these caverns that are down here extend underneath the house of my grandparents and my mom and dad.
[32:50] And I notice that the house is teetering. It's about to fall into, to cave in into this, these vast caverns. And just like that, I woke up. I thought, whew, never had a dream like that before. Oh yeah, God, is this the dream I'm supposed to pay attention to? Yes. What does it mean? It means the very foundations of all that has been built by previous generations, grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents and moms and dads, all that has been built is teetering and about to collapse.
[33:44] Why, Lord? Because of the present policies, the present behaviors of people, things that are being emphasized, and the things that are being promoted, like the very structures of society are being undermined by these policies and behaviors and attitudes of people today that if not corrected is gonna cause all that was built by your grandparents and previous generations to come tumbling down. Society is on the verge of collapse because it's being eroded underneath. And I said to the Lord, what do I do about it? And the first thing that came to my mind was to go get a dump truck full of sand and start pouring it into all the caverns. And then immediately I went, wait a sec. The Bible says something about not building on sand.
[34:41] Probably shouldn't do that. I said, Lord, what do we do about it? And He said, you can only rebuild the foundations with gold and silver and precious stone, meaning righteous, living-by-God's people. What would rebuild society that's on the verge of collapse? It's when the authority that we see manifested in Jesus' life is found within His church and His church is pure and passionate. And there's something within us that there's a power that convinces people that, yes, you can make all these policies in society and what's taught in the schools and everything else like this, but we can rebuild society.
[35:32] But what would convince people to change the direction that they've been going that's undermining all of society? What would change them to believe that this is the way that we ought to live? It's when God's people are manifesting the power of God in their lives, when they're walking in intimacy with the Father, hearing what the Father has to say, doing. There's a submissive spirit within us that says, God, only Your will for my life. God says, that's the kind of person I can empower to see demons cast outta people, to see people healed, to see prophecies come true, words of knowledge, dreams and visions, all kinds of manifestations that would convince the world there is a God and there is a right way of living. I don't know who this message is for.
[36:22] If you're part of the family of God, God has power available to you that we see manifested in the life of Jesus. But it is conditioned on walking in intimacy with the Father. It's the vine and the branches. You can't do anything apart from Him. We've gotta be in close connection. Father, I don't know who this message is for. There's somebody here that You're wanting to work through in powerful ways. We see the example of that power that was conferred on Jesus. All authority has been given to Me. And that same power is available to us today, but only if we're willing to walk in submission to Your very best will for our lives, not to fight You, to be courageous, to say, yes, Lord, I will do and say just like Jesus did and said, whatever the Father prompts us to do and say.
[37:21] All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me, therefore go and make disciples, baptizing them, teaching. Obey everything that I've taught you. And lo, I'm with you always, through to the very end of the age. And all God's people said, amen.